Part 7 (1/2)

'That thing is bonding itself into something far more dangerous than a Plasmaton!'

The writhing intumescence grew larger and larger. It bifurcated. At the end of each trunk a serpent's head appeared: a head with eyes, mouth, fangs and forked tongue. Each mouth hissed like a whole pit full of vipers.

'Well, Doctor?'

'The answer is still no, Kalid.'

'The TARDIS key, Doctor!'

The hissing expanded to a roar. Bilton, Scobie, Stapley and the Professor cowered in the corner as the beast lunged.

'Do you really want to see your friends die!' shouted Kalid, above the bellowing of the creature and the cries of the terrified men.

Only a gentle moaning disturbed the calm of the Sanctum. Tegan and Nyssa trod softly as if on holy ground. They looked round, awed and curious.

They had penetrated a small circular chamber, in the centre of which was a large open sarcophagus.

Nyssa knew what was required of her. Placed against the side of the room was an array of unearthly minerals. She prised off a huge chunk of the alien rock. 'Help me,' she called to Tegan, surprised at its unreasonable weight. 'We must act. The Doctor ...' She staggered towards the sarcophagus.

'What are you doing?' shouted Tegan.

With a vigour that belied her frail body, Nyssa swung back the rock and hurled it into the centre of the sarcophagus.

There was a ma.s.sive explosion which threw both Tegan and Nyssa senseless to the ground.

The monster twisted its torso upwards for the kill. But even as its fetid jaws parted, the reverberation reached them from the Sanctum.

A rus.h.i.+ng wind surged through the chamber. The beast gave an agonising roar. Kalid recoiled against the wall, screaming with pain and tearing at his body.

The creature that had terrorised them crumpled like a paper dragon.

Within seconds it was gone without trace.

'Look at Kalid!'

They turned to where the magician was lying in the corner, his flesh draining to liquefaction.

The Doctor was amazed. Kalid must have been a Plasmaton all the time.

'There's got to be a perfectly simple, orthodox explanation.' The Professor was tired of this masquerade. He delved into the pedestal beneath the crystal ball. 'Bioenergetic powers indeed ...' he muttered to himself. 'Intellectual garbage!'

'You won't find anything,' said the Doctor wearily.

'Won't I!' the Professor positively squawked with triumph.

As the others gathered round he pulled out modules and circuit boards.

'Psychotronics was it?' He turned maliciously to the Doctor. 'I call this electronicsV He dropped an armful of components on the floor.

'I don't understand.' The Doctor stared, nonplussed.

Across the room something stirred.

'No, Doctor. You never do understand.' A voice came from the shadows.

There was something alive inside Kalid's diaphanous robe. Like a pupating beetle it tore itself free from the cloth.

A dark and ominously familiar figure stood up. 'You never do!'

It was the Master.

8.

The Power in the Sanctum

'As gullible as ever, my dear Doctor.' The Master's eyes gleamed with exultation. The incursion into the Sanctum had been a setback which cost him his disguise, but he had humiliated his rival. Very shortly, using the Doctor's TARDIS, he would penetrate the power centre himself.

'So you did escape from Castrovalva.' The Doctor confronted his old enemy. 'I should have guessed.'

But there was never a moment when the Doctor suspected the prosthetic persona of Kalid concealed the evil Time Lord. Nor could he imagine how the Master had gained control of the unseen power that maintained his disguise in the same way as it controlled the Plasmatons. 'How you love the company of fools.' The Master was watching Hayter dismember the apparatus beneath the crystal ball. Neither the Professor nor the crew had any great interest in the meeting of the two arch adversaries. For a brief moment Professor Hayter held the stage.

'Magic, as in lantern,' he lectured. 'Sophisticated and terrifying, I do not dispute ...' 'Hang on a moment, Professor!' Flight Engineer Scobie, who knew a great deal more about electronics than Professor Hayter, had been examining the centrepiece of the chamber. He turned to the Professor like a recalcitrant student. 'This crystal,' he objected. 'There's no connection, no radio link ...'

The Doctor joined them. 'That crystal is just a point of focus. The communication is purely telepathic'

”Then what's all this equipment for?' snapped the indomitably sceptical old man.

'What indeed!' said the Doctor, examining with mounting excitement the bits and pieces Hayter had removed. He turned back to the Master.

'These components are from your TARDIS!'

The Master was looking less pleased with himself. The Doctor felt his self-confidence returning as he realised the Master's predicament.

'You're stranded here,' he went on. 'That time contour was a desperate lifeline to the future.'

The Master did not deny it. His eyes narrowed. He spoke softly; he was chillingly polite. 'I need your TARDIS to penetrate the Sanctum.'

Another piece of the jigsaw fell into place. The Master needed the power in the Sanctum as a new energy source for his own time machine. The Doctor wondered again what kind of power it could be.

Perhaps the Master would reveal the information. 'I think you might be too late,' he said provocatively. 'The power seems to have expended itself.'

The Master quickly put him right. ”The recuperation will be swift. Your companions have disturbed the neuronic nucleus ...' His face twisted with pleasure. 'But they will have paid for that incursion with their lives.'

There was consternation amongst the young crew members. The Doctor fought back a feeling of panic with the ruthless logic of his own observations.

'Tegan and Nyssa are as likely to have been protected as destroyed,' he a.s.sured the others. 'The power works against you as well as for you,' he reminded the Master.