Part 12 (1/2)

'It is Concorde!' protested Scobie.

Logic, however, was on the Doctor's side. He pointed to the second plane. 'That aircraft was damaged. Now it's in perfect condition.'

He was absolutely right.

'We must be hallucinating again,' groaned the Captain.

'I'm afraid not,' said the Doctor. 'That's the Master's TARDIS.'

Roger Scobie gulped. This was worse than a hundred people hitching a lift in a lump of marble. 'It's a plane!' He tried hard not to sound narrow-minded, but really!

For the Doctor and his companions the situation was horribly familiar.

'The Master has operated his chameleon circuit.'

'And materialised round the other aircraft.'

The Captain was desperately trying to follow the bizarre reasoning.

'Then Victor Foxtrot ...' he stammered.

'Is inside the Master's TARDIS,' the Doctor concluded sharply. 'I wish I had time to explain dimensional transcendentalism,' he added, already half-way to Captain Stapley's genuine Concorde. 'I'm going into my own TARDIS,' he shouted. 'You all stay here.'

'No, Doctor!' called Nyssa in alarm, trying to catch up with him. 'It's too dangerous!'

'There's no other way!'

'What are you going to do?' asked Stapley, trying to get a word in edgeways.

'The Doctor's going to materialise round the Master's TARDIS,' said Nyssa, horrified at the risk.

'You know what happened before!' Tegan had her own nightmare memories of those Chinese puzzles, from when she first stumbled into the TARDIS.

The Doctor would not be stopped. 'There's no time for anything else,'

he called from the cabin door.

But there was no time for anything at all.

'We're too late,' groaned Nyssa, as the dreaded clattering reached them from across the mudflat.

Then there was only one Concorde left parked on the frozen tundra.

The Master had gone.

'With the power of the Xeraphin, the Master will be invincible,'

declared Nyssa.

And we're stuck, thought the Doctor. 'Without the bits he stole from my TARDIS, we can only travel in this time zone,' he explained to the others.

'We're marooned?' asked Tegan in disbelief.

'I'm afraid so.'

Before anyone could think of anything to say, another whirring sound filled the air. They all looked up to see the shape of Golf Victor Foxtrot rematerialise a short way from their own aircraft.

The Doctor was not a man to take pleasure in the misfortunes of others, but a broad smile lit up his face. The Master was stuck as well.

The Master flung open the door of his Concorde TARDIS and glared at the Doctor. 'Devious to the last,' he hissed.

'Technical hitch?' b.u.t.ter wouldn't melt in the Doctor's mouth as he smiled innocently at his enraged enemy.

'Your subst.i.tution of the time lapse compressor, for the temporal limiter,' accused the Master.

'That's the way it goes,' the Doctor chided infuriatingly, 'if you will steal other people's property.' Leaving the Master on the point of apoplexy, he swung round to Nyssa. 'What's he talking about?' he whispered.

'Have you been tampering with my TARDIS?'

'Of course not.'

'Just imagine what would have happened if I had tried to go forward with the temporal limiter patched into the time lapse compression circuit...'

Captain Stapley felt like a schoolboy who had got his best friend into trouble. He coughed politely. 'Doctor, I think I can explain.'

'You, Captain?' said the Doctor, very surprised if he could.

'When we were in the TARDIS, I swapped some of the parts round.

Thought it might put a spanner in the works.'

The Doctor's eyes were already twinkling.

'Stupid really.' the Captain apologised.

Grinning from ear to ear, the Doctor grasped Stapley by the hand.

'Stupid?' he shouted. 'It was brilliant!'

The Master was straining to hear what was going on below. The Doctor smiled up at him. 'Your prospects seem rather limited, Master.'

Through the Master's mind raced a thousand and one exquisite tortures he would like to inflict on the Doctor. He restrained himself from telling the Doctor all about them. Unfortunately, the ball, just for the moment, was in the Doctor's court. 'I can still operate my TARDIS,'

he replied.

'Yes. But such a limited range.'

The Doctor had him there. 'Very well. What are your terms?'

'You free the pa.s.sengers,' demanded the Doctor, 'we have access to both aircraft, and you return all the components of my TARDIS that are no longer necessary for the normal functioning of your machine.'