Doctor Who: The Visitation (8 page)

'Now,' they shouted as one voice. The scythe hovered above the Doctor's bare neck.

'Wait!' a voice boomed from the stable door. The villagers turned. The man who had spoken out was the headman and with him was the poacher.

'They must die. They bring plague to the village,' the man in the smock said.

'These men are wanted criminals.' The Headman's voice was firm and authoritative.

'There is a reward.'

'What's the use of money if you're dead?' The scythe still hovered in the air. 'Kill them both!'

Rapidly the poacher fitted an arrow to his bow and raised it to the firing position.

'I am your Headman. You will listen to me!'

The villagers started to mutter among themselves, their voices indistinct, but their nodding heads and general demeanour seemed to indicate agreement to what had been said.

The scythe was lowered and the Doctor and Mace were helped to their feet.

Both men were pale and a little unsteady after their experience.

'Thank you very much,' the Doctor said weakly. 'I can help you.'

But the Headman wasn't interested. Ignoring the Doctor he said, 'Lock them in the harness room.' He pointed to the shabby cupboard at the back of the stable. As he raised his arm, the Doctor noticed he was wearing a control bracelet.

It wasn't until she arrived back at the TARDIS that Nyssa realised the size of the task she had agreed to undertake. It wasn't that the sonic booster was heavy. In fact, it was very light. But it was large, and so was the frequency enhancer she had to fit.

Trying to assemble the unit in the console room could cause problems, Nyssa decided, especially if the Doctor were to return and needed to move the TARDIS quickly, so she opted for her room as a more suitable place to work.

Only after she had disconnected the booster from the base of the time rotor's pedestal and dragged it along the corridor did she realise she would also have to run a power cable to the room.

It took a little while before Nyssa was able to find a length of cable both long enough and of the correct rating to carry the heavy amperage the booster would require. Yet more valuable time was wasted as she fought to unwind its thick, python-like coils.

Nyssa groaned inwardly. Her arms ached, her fingers were sore and covered in small cuts. With more energy than was necessary, she thrust the cable into the power outlet at the base of the console's pedestal, and tightened the coupling clamp. But as she stood up, her anger turned to concern as she saw Adric on the scanner-screen running towards the TARDIS.

Quickly she operated the door-opening mechanism. A moment later a breathless Adric rushed in and collapsed in a heap.

Nyssa closed the doors and ran to help him.

'Adric! What's happened?'

But the boy didn't reply. He was very distressed.

Gently she said, 'Come and sit down.'

Adric didn't move, but continued to breathe heavily. At last he said, 'Where's the Doctor?', the words blurting out of his mouth.

'What's wrong?'

'I must talk to the Doctor.'

'He isn't here. He went to find the miller.'

'We've got to get back to the house. Tegan's still there.'

Nyssa placed her arm around his shoulder. 'What happened?'

'The android caught us escaping. And I had to leave her behind.'

'Was she hurt?'

'I don't know. We have to go back and find out.'

Nyssa was less certain. 'We should wait for the Doctor. We can't fight the android by ourselves,' she said.

Adric broke away from her comforting arm. 'Why isn't he here?' He slapped the console in anger. 'Why is he never around when you want him!

With the door shut, the only illumination in the harness room came from the gaps between the shrunken boards of the walls. As though to tantalise them, the sun hurled shafts of white light through the gaps, creating a light/shade zebra-crossing effect on the floor.

The Doctor peered through a gap in the harness-room door at the villagers gathered in the stable, muttering. Although he was unable to hear what they were saying, the tone of their conversation was hostile.

With his back supported against a wall, Richard Mace sat illuminated in a shaft of light, wishing he were somewhere else.

'I have faced some of the most hostile audiences in the world,' he said mournfully.

'Earlier today I met Death in a cel ar...' His mournfulness had now acquired a slightly dramatic tone. '...but I have never been so afraid as when I saw the man with the scythe.'

The Doctor wasn't listening, having heard the performance several times already.

Instead, through his spyhole, he watched the Headman gesticulating wildly, the control bracelet on his wrist pulsating. 'Did you notice what the Headman is wearing?'

Mace looked up, annoyed at being interrupted in full flow. 'Should I care?

He saved our lives.'

'For the Terileptils.'

'I thought you wanted to meet them.'

'Not as their prisoner.

Mace clambered to his feet. 'I tell you, sir, I have reached the end.' This time the tone of his voice was without histrionics. 'I feel my mind slipping into a bottomless pit of despair and gloom.'

'Then you'd better snatch it back quickly,' the Doctor said, turning briskly from the door.

'The Headman's coming. I want to get the bracelet off.'

Mace's heart sank. 'That sounds like a dangerous plan, sir.

'There's no alternative. Once he's free of it, we might be able to reason with him.'

The door of the harness room was thrown open and the Headman and the poacher entered, along with the sound of angry mutterings from the villagers in the stable. The poacher moved behind Mace.

'You are to be taken to the manor house,' said the Headman.

'Of course!' The Doctor was full of false enthusiasm. 'But first let me thank you for saving our lives.' The Headman didn't respond, although the Doctor extended his hand in friendship.

'To the manor with them!'

The poacher started to jostle the actor towards the door. Hoping Mace would back him, the Doctor grasped the Headman's hand. But instead of shaking it, he released the powerpack from the bracelet. The Headman screamed loudly, lashed out, then stumbled disorientatedly across the stable. By the time the Doctor had recovered from the attack, the harness-room door had been slammed and locked.

Meanwhile Richard Mace, prompted as much by a startled reflex response to the Doctor's sudden movements as by the rediscovery of his courage, had delivered a hard thrust of his elbow into the poacher's stomach. Whatever the stimulus, the effect had been startling: the man col apsed stunned.

Mace watched dejectedly as the Doctor disconnected the powerpack from the poacher's bracelet. 'That didn't get us very far,' he said.

'It was worth a try,' said the Doctor as he wandered back to his spyhole in the door.

'So what do we do now, sir?' He looked down at the body at his feet.

'Ransom the poacher? Exchange his life for our freedom?'

'I don't think they would be interested.'

'You are right, sir! The next time that door is opened, we are dead!'

The Doctor didn't need to answer. He knew what the actor said was true. The villagers were angry and scared. They needed but the smallest excuse to give vent to their frustration.

Through his spyhole the Doctor could see the man in the smock, playing on the villagers' fear.

'You must remember!' he shouted harshly at the Headman. 'What is it you want with this Doctor?'

'I don't know...I was working... Repairing a plough.'

Frantically the Headman searched for a way to unlock his memories.

'Then what?' the man in the smock urged.

'I was heating the forge.' He paused. In his mind's eye he could see the white-hot hearth. 'I was pumping the bellows...' He paused again. 'Then I heard...' he said very slowly, '...a voice.'

The man in the smock fell on the statement. 'A voice?'

The Headman was distraught. "'Find the Doctor," it said. "Find the Doctor and bring him to me."' He was now shaking uncontrollably. 'Then I saw a picture inside my head.'

'A vision?' The villagers grew even more unsettled.

The Headman placed his hands over his face. 'It was horrible. I couldn't control my mind. I could only do what this voice said.'

'You were possessed!' screamed the man in the smock, turning to the other villagers.

'There is evil at work here. The plague-carriers are warlocks as well!'

The Doctor, who was still at his spyhole, had seen and heard everything. So had Mace.

'Our jailers sound decidedly against us,' the actor said, bending down to examine the poacher.

The Doctor began to move quickly around the room. 'There must be a way out of here.'

Mace pulled a dagger from the top of the poacher's boot. Holding it up he said, 'I could test the strength of this blade against the planking of the wall.'

At the manor house, two lights pulsed on the control-bracelet panel, indicating the disconnected powerpacks of the Headman and the poacher.

The Terileptil Leader watched. Under normal circumstances he would have taken delight in coping with the Doctor's interference. But there was still too much to do, and time was of the essence. The Doctor would have to be stopped before his activities became more than merely aggravating. He also needed the TARDIS.

The Leader turned to the android. 'Go,' he said. 'Fetch the Doctor and his friend.'

Without hesitation, the android glided out of the laboratory, across the cellar and past Tegan, who was seated at a rough, wooden table, a control bracelet fitted to her wrist.

Carefully, with very precise movements, she packed small blue ampoules into reinforced carrying boxes.

Before climbing the cellar steps, the android wrapped his cloak around his shoulders and fitted his death's-head mask. Again he was every inch the Great Reaper.

When the android had gone, the Leader spoke into his communicator, informing his comrades, who were already at their town base, that his work was nearly complete and that he would be joining them as soon as it grew dark and was safe to travel. But it was the news that he had discovered the Doctor and his time machine that drew an enormous hiss of pleasure and satisfaction from his fellow Terileptils.

Adric sat on Tegan's bed and watched Nyssa attach the frequency enhancer to the sonic booster. Although outwardly he was much calmer, he was still concerned about Tegan.

With the enhancer in place, Nyssa used a magnetic clamp to secure it. The machine looked very clumsy and top heavy.

'It looks very vulnerable,' said Adric.

Nyssa nodded. 'It really needs an energy barrier to protect it.'

'Can't you fit one?'

'I don't have the components.' Nyssa looked worried. 'I wish the Doctor would hurry up.

He knows far more about these things than I do.'

Adric slid from the bed and crossed to the door. 'Didn't you say he'd gone to the mill? I'll go and look for him.'

'No! If you miss each other we'd have to send out a search party for you.'

Adric paused at the door. 'I lack the skill to help you with the booster,' he said. 'I want to do something.'

Nyssa smiled weakly; she knew how he felt. 'Look,' she said, gently, 'the sooner the booster is finished, the sooner we can get back to the house for Tegan.'

Adric nodded. But it didn't help his feeling of helplessness.

'And cheer up,' she said. 'Being sad isn't going to help Tegan.'

Dust flew everywhere as bales of straw were thrown down from the loft in the stable.

Eager hands grappled with them as they were dragged outside to build a bonfire. The man in the smock, his face red with excitement, urged the villagers on.

'Come on, lads! Quick as you can! Let's have them burnt before they can work any more of their magic!'

In the harness room, the two alleged warlocks worked away at the planking.

'I fear the man who built this wall knew his trade too well,' said Mace.

'We must keep trying.'

Mace worked at the timber with the knife. 'If only we possessed the skills of which we are accused. A small spell would work wonders.'

'Keep trying.' But the words were no sooner out of the Doctor's mouth than Mace was sent stumbling across the room, as the planking he was working on was punched inwards. Stunned, Mace watched in horror as other planks were splintered and wrenched from their place. The pounding continued until the hole was large enough to admit the android, cloak billowing, his death's-head almost seeming to glow.

Mace crouched in the corner where he had fallen.

'It's all right,' said the Doctor, helping the terrified actor to his feet.