Doctor Who: War Games (7 page)

‘It was good seeing you again.’

Chainikof nodded farewell and strode towards the sidrat materialisation area.

Smythe called to a technician. ‘When is the War Chief due back?’

‘Now,’ the technician replied. ‘He’s just returned from our planet.’

At the far end of the room double doors opened. All the technicians turned to bow as the War Chief entered with his personal armed bodyguard.. He was a tall man, resplendent in his uniform of black with gold and red piping. He acknowledged the silent greeting, noticed General Smythe and walked towards him.

‘I hear you lost your three civilian prisoners. How was that?’

‘They have been recaptured, sir,’ said the general, ‘in the German sector. They will be shot immediately.’ He tried to make light of his mistake. ‘They keep telling a ridiculous story that they are time travellers!’

The War Chief did not share the general’s amusement.

‘Time travellers? And you ordered them to be killed?’

‘Whatever they are,’ the general blustered, ‘they are no use to our plans—’

‘Think,’ said the War Chief, cutting in. ‘If we did not bring them here, how have they arrived? I want them brought to me for interrogation.’

‘I shall arrange that immediately,’ said General Smythe.

He hurried to the telecommunications central control. To his surprise, a technician was beckoning to him and von Weich’s face was on one of the many screens.

‘Those prisoners,’ said von Weich, ‘they tricked my human subordinate. They are probably on their way back to your lines.’

The War Chief had joined General Smythe at the video screen. ‘Issue a general alert to all time zones,’ he announced. ‘I want these people captured alive. Officers are to describe this ambulance to their human troops as a hostile vehicle that must be stopped.’

General Smythe stood to attention. ‘I shall issue the alert personally, sir. Excuse me.’ He pushed a technician out of the way to get to one of the telecommunication video units.

The War Chief wandered back to the centre of the room and stood staring down at the war map. ‘Time travellers?’

he murmured to himself. ‘I wonder...’

‘That’s interesting,’ said Lady Jennifer. ‘I hardly felt that mist at all.’

The ambulance was going along a rough road in lush green countryside, Jennifer driving again and Carstairs beside her. To their left the grass on a gentle hill looked almost blue. Grazing deer scuttled out of the way at the sound of the motor.

‘Stop a moment,’ said Carstairs. ‘I had better tell the Doctor.’

As Jennifer slowed and stopped, Carstairs jumped down and ran round to the back of the ambulance. ‘We’ve just been through another of those mists, Doctor.’

The Doctor looked at the map they had acquired from General Smythe’s safe. ‘I calculate we are here,’ he said, pointing. ‘America in 1862.’

‘What was happening then?’ Zoe asked.

‘The American Civil War,’ replied the Doctor. ‘Or some called it the War Between the States.’

‘Anyway, it’s another war,’ said Jamie.

The Doctor pointed to the map again. ‘If we are still on the right road, this is leading us direct to the blank area in the middle of the map—’

A shot rang out. Carstairs saw a soldier in light grey uniform pop behind a tree. He drew Leutnant Liücke’s Luger, which he had thrust under his belt.

‘Let’s just keep going,’ the Doctor said. ‘These people used muzzle-loaded guns. It’ll be another twenty seconds before that sniper can fire again.’

‘I think you’re right.’ Lieutenant Carstairs ran back to the driving cabin. As he mounted the running board Jennifer let in the clutch. They were under way again.

Behind the tree, Private Cornelius Lanier of the 2nd Virginia Battalion hurried to re-load his rifle. He had put the powder in the breech and now dropped down the long muzzle the little metal ball that was a bullet. He looked around the tree to fire again. To his annoyance the Yankee covered wagon was already too far down the road for him to hit it. Resigned, he decided to wait with his loaded gun for any more Northerners that might come by.

The winding road narrowed between high trees and turned a bend. Lady Jennifer had slowed the ambulance to a few kilometres per hour. As she turned the bend the fallen tree came into sight. There was no room to turn back. She braked hard. Lieutenant Carstairs ran forward to inspect the tree. It had been freshly sawn through at the base.

‘Jamie,’ he shouted. ‘We have to move this.’ He looked around nervously, almost expecting an ambush.

Jamie came running from the back of the ambulance.

‘That should give the two of us no trouble,’ he said cheerfully. He took a second look at the size of the tree.

‘Well, not if we all help. Doctor! Zoe!’

The Doctor and Zoe came forward. Carstairs had both his guns drawn.

‘I suspect there may be snipers in the trees,’ he whispered. ‘You three do what you can with the tree while I cover you.’

Without a word they struggled to lift one end of the tree and wheel it round parallel with the road. Two shots rang out from hidden snipers and the trio immediately flattened onto the road. Carstairs crouched and fired at where he thought the shots came from.

‘Quickly,’ said the Doctor. ‘Remember, they have to re-load.’

Fear gave them extra strength. Pulling and pushing one end of the tree they moved it enough to give the ambulance clearance. At once Lady Jennifer began to move forward.

‘Jump on the running-boards!’ she shouted as the ambulance lumbered towards them.

A volley of shots came from the trees, more than two this time. While the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe scrambled onto the moving ambulance, Carstairs stood his ground giving return fire.

‘Lieutenant,’ the Doctor called, ‘climb on board!’

The cab passed Carstairs as he continued to fire into the trees. The Doctor reached out to help him onto the running-board but Carstairs ignored the helping hand.

‘For goodness’ sake,’ the Doctor shouted, ‘scramble into the back!’

The Doctor leaned out from the running-board to look to the rear. Having emptied both guns, Carstairs was running to get into the back of the ambulance as Confederate horsemen bore down on him from either side of the road, cutting him off from the ambulance. One struck a blow with his fist and Carstairs sprawled across the little narrow road.

‘What shall I do?’ asked Lady Jennifer, who had seen Carstairs fall in her rear mirror.

‘Accelerate,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s the only thing we can do.’

Ashen-faced, Lady Jennifer put her foot down on the accelerator. The ambulance careened forward, swaying wildly on the unmade road.

Jamie was now looking behind. ‘They’ve got him and they’re coming after us!’

A bullet whizzed by the cab. They heard the shot a moment afterwards.

‘Can this outpace a horse?’ asked the Doctor.

‘On a proper road it will,’ said Lady Jennifer, working the steering wheel to save them crashing into the trees.

‘Not on a track like this.’ She saw another bend in the road.

‘This might help us...’

She swung round the bend. Temporarily, the pursuing horsemen were lost from view in her rear mirror.

Just after the bend an even, narrow road branched off to the right. Making rapid gear changes, braking hard, she swung the ambulance right into the smaller road.

It was full of gaping pot holes.

‘You’ve tricked them!’ Jamie yelled. ‘They’ve kept going.’ He looked with delight at the Confederate horsemen galloping along the road they had just left.

‘You’ve fooled them—’

The ambulance lurched to a stop with a thunderous crack. The rear end sagged dangerously to one side.

Lady Jennifer quietly turned off the motor.

‘I’d say that’s the back axle gone, wouldn’t you, Doctor?’

The Doctor stepped down, looked under the ambulance, then straightened up. ‘We’ll have to press on by foot.’

‘What about Lieutenant Carstairs?’ asked Zoe.

‘He did what was expected of an officer and a gentleman,’ said Lady Jennifer, allowing herself no outward signs of emotion. ‘Shall we continue the journey?’

Without waiting for their reply she turned and walked ahead.

‘Has she no human feelings?’ said Jamie, obviously astounded by Lady Jennifer’s behaviour.

‘She’s an English aristocrat,’ the Doctor explained quietly. ‘When it come to being brave, you can’t beat them.

I suggest we follow.’

The Doctor returned to the back of the ambulance to collect his maps. Then he trudged after Lady Jennifer, and Jamie and Zoe trailed behind.

The great house, built all of wood in the American style, was completely gutted by fire, its once proud veranda pillars were now charred stubbs. But the near-by barn was intact, deserted, and very inviting to the four weary travellers. Jamie-looked inside at the bales of straw.

‘This’ll do for the night, Doctor. I’m whacked!’

Jamie went forward and sprawled onto a bed of hay. The others followed inside and looked around.

‘Are we still headed in the direction you wanted?’ Lady Jennifer sat down on a bale of straw. She looked totally exhausted but was too well-bred to lie full out like Jamie.

‘Yes,’ the Doctor assured her. ‘I’ve kept my eye on the map. We’re on an almost straight line towards that blank centre in the middle. Lady Jennifer?’

But Her Ladyship had keeled over and was fast asleep.

The Doctor and Zoe sat down.

‘What’s this war about?’ Zoe asked.

‘It started in 1861 and went on for three terrible years,’

said the Doctor. ‘The Southern states had Negro slaves. In the Northern states, owning slaves was outlawed. The North wanted the South to free its slaves, so the Southern states tried to leave the Union...’

He looked at Zoe. She too had fallen asleep. Coming from the distant future, she hadn’t even heard of the United States.

The Doctor settled back to rest after the long walk. He was about to doze when he noticed three or four horse saddles hanging from pegs along one wall. The burnt out house had suggested the entire place was deserted. But would such costly objects as saddles still be there if no one ever used the barn now?

It was as this thought crossed his mind that he heard the noise, a wheezing sound like trumpeting elephants. In seconds it increased in volume. Jamie sprang up.

‘What’s that?’ He looked puzzled. ‘It’s... it’s the sound of the TARDIS, Doctor!’

The Doctor shook Zoe and Lady Jennifer. ‘Quickly, we must hide,’ he shouted above the sound. ‘Behind these bales.’

The barn was filled with the noise by the time the group had concealed themselves. Lady Jennifer, who had never heard such a sound before, shouted out to ask what it was, but Jamie put his hand over her mouth to silence her.

The sidrat materialised in the centre of the barn, a tall black box similar in shape and size to the TARDIS. Once it was fully visible the sound ceased. Slowly a door opened.

To everyone’s amazement fresh-faced young soldiers of the Union Army, smart in their new dark blue uniforms, began to march out. First two, then four, then six, until a continual column of recruits led from the sidrat to the open double doors of the barn and beyond, all singing
John
Brown’s Body
, the marching song of the Northern soldiers.

‘But that is impossible,’ Lady Jennifer whispered. ‘All those men were inside that box?’

‘Shhh! ‘ The Doctor put his finger to his lips. ‘I’m counting.’

At least a hundred soldiers marched from the sidrat. No one spoke again until their singing had receded into the distance.

Zoe said, ‘That thing must be bigger inside than outside, just like the TARDIS.’

‘I know.’ The Doctor approached the sidrat cautiously.

‘Jamie, you keep an eye out.’

Zoe joined the Doctor at the sidrat’s open door. As they both stepped inside, Jamie called, ‘Zoe—Doctor, be careful!’

‘This is some terrible trick,’ said Lady Jennifer. ‘That thing appeared from nowhere.’

‘It takes a bit of understanding,’ Jamie admitted. He tensed. ‘What’s that coming?’

Somewhere beyond the barn shots were fired. Jamie rushed to the gaping door of the sidrat, calling inside.

‘Doctor! Someone’s coming, I think.’

The door closed by itself. The barn was once more filled with the strange sound as the sidrat dematerialised before Jamie’s eyes.

The Doctor and Zoe were in a long gloomily-lit corridor.

Pale globes of light set in the wall stretched as far as Zoe could see.

‘Doctor, it is like the TARDIS—bigger inside than out.

Who else has space-time machines like yours?’

The Doctor looked uneasy. ‘There is an explanation, but I hope...’ He stopped.

‘What is it, Doctor?’

He had turned and was hurrying back down the corridor to the corner they had just rounded. Zoe followed, in time to look over his shoulder as the door closed. All at once she felt the floor shuddering.

‘We’ve taken off!’ she yelled.

‘Perhaps this will take us where we want to go,’ the Doctor answered calmly.

‘Where
you
want to go.’ The floor had stopped shuddering now. She guessed the sidrat had dematerialised and was now moving through space, time or both.

‘What’s down here?’ The Doctor had found another long corridor. Set in the wall at regular intervals were circular viewing windows. He looked in the first one.

‘Indeed, very much what I expected, Zoe.’

She looked. In a large partly-lit room stood a line of German soldiers. They stood to attention, eyes open and looking straight ahead. ‘They’ve all been hypnotised,’ she said.

The Doctor had already moved to the next circular window. Zoe raced after him. In an identical room was a column of Roman legionaries, also standing to attention like toy soldiers in a box, eyes glazed.

‘What are they all here for?’

‘They’re going to fight, Zoe. That’s what soldiers are for.’

The floor started to shudder again. ‘Do you think we’re materialising again, Doctor?’

‘Yes, Zoe. Perhaps now we shall get the answers to some of our questions...’