Doctor Who: The Visitation (4 page)

The Doctor increased his pace, but in spite of his heavy build Mace refused to be shaken off.

'Surely you are aware that there is a certain protocol involved when approaching the gentry?'

The Doctor didn't reply.

'Even if you are ignorant of that fact,' he continued to scream between loud rasping intakes of breath, 'you must realise that the nobility do not take kindly to being knocked up and questioned on the contents of their barn.'

'Then I will humour them.' the Doctor said over his shoulder.

'Sir, your humouring will earn all of us a horse-whipping. And I have a particularly sensitive skin!'

At last the actor's lungs gave out and he gently drifted to a halt in the middle of the drive.

'I thought highwaymen were bold and brave,' said Tegan.

'You forget, madam, I am also an actor. My bravado is as cracked as my wind.'

The Doctor continued on towards the house. As he approached the main door, a loaded wagon rounded the west corner at full gallop. Realising the danger, Tegan ushered Mace and the others off the driveway as the Doctor bolted for the porch of the house.

The wagon thundered along, its steel-rimmed wheels throwing up needle-sharp fragments of stone.

'Is the man blind?' screamed Nyssa, her hands raised to protect her head.

'He nearly killed us!'

As the wagon passed, Mace recognised the broad back and long grey hair of the man seated on the box. 'The Miller,' he said. 'A man of sour disposition.'

'Didn't he see us?' said Tegan.

'Who can...' But Mace didn't finish his sentence, the sound of fist upon wood interrupting his words. It was the Doctor beating on the main door of the house.

'No!' Mace shouted. 'You mustn't!' Invigorated by fear, Mace ran towards the house.

'Please don't,' he called. 'If you must knock, please let it be with more humility.'

The Doctor emerged from the porch and looked up at the red-brick facade and leaded windows. All was still. Even the chimney for the wood-burning stove in the kitchen was without smoke.

'Wel , Doctor?' said Nyssa. 'What next?'

'I'm going to look around.'

Tegan sat down on the porch step and removed a shoe. 'Do you want us to come with you?' she said, rubbing her sore foot.

'Just Nyssa. I want you and Adric to keep knocking. Mr Mace will show you how it should be done.'

A sarcastic grunt was heard from the shadows of the porch. 'And what, pray, do you propose we say if the door is opened?'

' "Hullo" is the usual greeting.'

Mace lurched from the porch, but the Doctor and Nyssa had gone. 'I know these people,' he shouted after the Doctor. 'I know what they can be like.' 'I don't,' said Tegan sharply, 'and I never will, unless you can get one of them to open that door.'

Mace scowled. He was not happy.

The Doctor and Nyssa made their way along the front of the house, pausing momentarily to peer in at the windows.

'Doctor? If there isn't anyone at home, then who was the miller visiting?'

They turned the west corner of the house.

'He could have been making a delivery.'

'Didn't you see his wagon? It was fully loaded.'

Pausing, the Doctor started to wipe the dust from a small leaded pane with the cuff of his jacket. 'Then he must have been collecting.'

'From whoever brought the polygrite to Earth?'

'Perhaps.'

The Doctor stared through the polished glass into the main hall of the house. Before the unlit fireplace stood Sir John's favourite chair. Nearby was the small table, playing cards spread across it as though hurriedly abandoned by the players. Lying next to the table, like dead sentries, were two stiff back chairs.

At the far end of the room was a long oak dining table on which stood a large wedge of stale cheese, dark and cracked with age. Next to it was a loaf of bread covered with mildew.

The Doctor was about to continue making his way round the house, when he noticed that the window he was looking through wasn't fastened properly.

'Doctor! What are you doing?'

With the window open, the Doctor pulled himself up, and climbed in. 'Come on, Nyssa,'

he said jumping down into the main hall. 'There isn't anyone here.' And before she could argue caution, he had gone.

Nyssa followed unenthusiastically. As she climbed through the window, she saw the Doctor moving methodically around the room.

'What precisely are we looking for?'

'Alien artefacts.'

'Why are you so worried about an alien landing? They might be friendly.'

Nyssa jumped down from the sill.

'If I'm right,' the Doctor said, opening a large wooden linen-chest, 'the comet that Mace saw was their ship burning up. They're probably stranded here, desperate. They could wreak havoc.' Finding the chest empty, the Doctor closed it and idly ran his fingers over the lid, leaving a snail-like trail in the dust. 'It looks as though there hasn't been anyone here in weeks.'

'Perhaps they're on holiday?'

'It's the first of September, Nyssa. Harvest time. The busiest period of the year.'

'That doesn't mean the aliens have been here. For all we know, they could have gone to the village.'

'I know. They could also have died of plague. It's all guesswork. But as we're here, let's look a little further.'

The Doctor opened the door leading to the back landing and disappeared. Nyssa followed and found him squatting before the open armoury cupboard examining spilled gunpowder. 'Someone has been careless.'

But Nyssa wasn't listening. 'Look, Doctor,' she said, pointing at a hexagonal scar burnt deep into the baluster. 'That's been made by a high energy beam.'

The Doctor slipped on his half-frames and studied the mark. After a moment he said,

'It's been fired from a weapon.'

'So much for my friendly aliens.'

'Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it was an accident...' But the Doctor's voice trailed off as his gaze wandered beyond the baluster and down the stairway. At the bottom was a brick wall.

He rose, quickly made his way down the stairs, and started to examine the wall. After a moment's thought, he said, 'You only build a staircase to lead somewhere... That being so, why should anyone build a wall here?' He tapped the wal as a professor might a specimen when emphasising a point to a student.

'Does it matter?' said Nyssa, descending the stairs.

The Doctor looked at her, surprised his deductions were being so calmly dismissed.

'This is a very important staircase. It connects the kitchen to the main hall.'

'Perhaps there's another way.'

The Doctor sat down on the bottom step. 'There's something wrong. I can feel it.'

And he was right. If he had looked up at that moment, he would have caught a brief glimpse of a shadow on the landing. Instead he turned to Nyssa and said, 'You'd better let the others in.

'Shouldn't we get back to the TARDIS?'

'Soon. But first I want to consider this wall for a little while.'

At the front door, Mace, realising there wasn't anyone at home, had rediscovered his courage. Banging on the door, he demanded to know where the Doctor had got to and how much longer he would be. But such was his manner and attitude neither Adric nor Tegan felt inclined to find out for him.

But the swaggering rapidly ceased as the bolts were heard being drawn back. The colour drained from Mace's face. He almost seemed to shrink in stature.

It was far more than a change of mood, it was much more a complete metamorphosis.

Tegan was stunned by his reaction.

As the door creaked open, Mace doffed his cap and gave a low, humble bow. This he held for a full fifteen seconds as he mentally went through his complete repertoire of totally cowed apologetic expressions. Selecting what he considered to be his most suitable, he straightened up and saw Nyssa smiling in the doorway.

'How did you get in?' said Tegan brightly.

'We found an open window.'

Mace's face collapsed into fresh grimaces of horror.

'You broke in?!' he spluttered.

'It's perfectly safe. There isn't anyone here. Come and look.'

With much coaxing and physical pushing from Adric and Tegan, Mace eventually followed Nyssa into the main hall.

'Where's the Doctor?' said Adric.

Nyssa led them across to the landing door. 'He's downstairs. He's found a wal that seems to fascinate him.'

'Any sign of survivors?'

Nyssa shook her head.

'Survivors?' Mace croaked. 'What is this talk of survivors?'

'The Doctor will explain,' said Nyssa, as she stepped out onto the landing. But she was mistaken. He had gone - disappeared. Anxiously, Nyssa looked around and then ran down the stairs calling for the Doctor.

'Where did you leave him?' said Tegan.

'Here on the bottom step. Staring at that wall.'

Tegan descended the stairs. 'Wel , he can't be far.' In turn their voices sang out, calling for him. Even Mace joined in. But as they continued to call, their voices grew more edgy, more concerned. At last too distraught to go on, Nyssa said distractedly, 'I shouldn't have left him alone.'

'And why not?' said the Doctor, as he appeared to pop out of a solid wall. Concern instantly turned to amazement.

'That isn't possible,' said Tegan. 'No one can walk through a solid brick wall.'

'Quite right. So I used the door.'

Tegan was beginning to get annoyed. 'But there isn't a door. Your head is protruding from a solid brick wall!'

'The door's there. Only you can't see it.'

Nyssa approached the wal and ran her hands over it. 'It's an energy barrier.'

'Right.' The Doctor held up his sonic screwdriver. 'And I was able to part it with a sonic key.'

'Why can't we see through it?' said Adric.

'Camouflage. As you pass through it, it opens around you.'

Mace, who had been listening and watching said, 'Tell me this wall is a trick, an illusion.

As a man of the theatre I am familiar with such things.

But such a trick I've never seen before!'

'It's certainly here to deceive,' said the Doctor, hoping he wouldn't want details of how it worked.

'Incredible!' Mace felt the wall and then inserted his hand into the open part of the barrier. He turned to the Doctor, and beamed. 'With a trick like this, you could make a fortune around the fairs.'

'You could indeed,' the Doctor smiled. 'Come on,' he added, 'we must find the survivors.'

And he disappeared again.

Mace patted the wall before passing through the invisible opening. 'I must learn how it's done,' he muttered.

As the companions followed the actor through the wal , the shadow of an enormous man wrapped in a cloak fell across the landing. Slowly the shadow spread across the floor, until its owner reached the top of the staircase.

It was the android, beautiful and deadly, who had killed Sir John and his two children.

He paused for a moment, then clipped on a mask and raised the hood of his cloak.

Slowly he descended the stairs.

Cautiously, the Doctor and his party made their way along the passage, checking doors as they went, but with little success. They were all locked.

'What's that smell?' said Adric.

'Soliton gas.'

'I thought I recognised it,' said Nyssa.

Tegan coughed. 'Who'd want this sort of atmosphere? It's stifling.'

'Someone who needs it to breathe properly,' said the Doctor, trying the last door in the passage. The handle gave. 'This could be it.'

Carefully he inched the door open and purple light spilled into the passageway. The Doctor peered round the door and down into a cellar. No one was there. Slowly he allowed the door to swing open to its widest point.

Cautiously he entered, and descended the steps.

Tegan followed. 'It's spooky,' she said.

In the purple gloom, hundreds of tiny cages could be seen stacked along one of the walls. At the far end of the cellar was an enormous rack containing dozens of bottles of wine. The others fol owed and started to explore the cel ar.

'Doctor,' called Nyssa. She was standing in front of a green cylinder that was silently pulsating. 'It's the Soliton gas machine.'

With hand on pistol, Mace edged his way towards the wine rack. 'How is this place lit?'

'Vintaric crystals,' said the Doctor, joining Nyssa by the gas machine.

'It's quite a common form of lighting.'

'Really,' the actor grunted, unconvinced. The sight of so much wine was proving too difficult to resist. A bottle or two would help pull everything back into a more realistic perspective, he thought. With loving care, Mace withdrew a bottle from the rack.