There was only darkness.
And the smell of smoke.
No light or sound or voices.
Just complete and utter darkness.
Lilly was afraid. In all the times she had been aboard the TARDIS she had never heard it so silent. The soft, humming, almost lifelike background noise had become a comfort to her. She couldn’t sleep without it.
But now there was nothing and it was cold. She could feel the pain in her side begin to itch again and tried to roll onto her other side. The floor was hard, but she managed it with surprising ease. She can’t have been that badly injured. She remembered looking at the readings of her scan and then the console exploding.
Then the darkness.
“Holly!” she called out. “Doctor!”
Nothing.
She got to her feet and immediately tripped over something. She fell forward and realised it was the Doctor. She only knew it was him because he had been standing next to her.
“Wake up,” she said, shaking him. She had no idea if he was dead or alive. “Doctor!”
She fumbled in her jean pockets for her mobile phone. If she could get the torchlight switched on she might be able to see around her.
And then she realised she hadn’t taken her phone with her when they arrived on Gandra.
She cursed herself and then sat down on the floor. She closed her eyes - not that it mattered - and tried to picture the layout of the console room. Holly had been sat on the sofa. So if she was still in front of the console she could probably work her way around it and reach Holly.
She was about to get up again when there came a clunk from behind her - the doors!
She got to her feet and turned to face them. Slowly a strip of light appeared - the doors were opening. She could feel her heart beating faster and faster as the doors creaked open. Beyond was the dark, star-filled expanse of space. Only a few metres away she could see a silver cylinder, about the height of the TARDIS, hanging in space.
Silhouetted against the stars beyond was a male figure. The figure lifted an object to it’s face and pressed a button. A light illuminated the figure from below and Lilly gasped.
“Craig!”
She could barely believe her eyes. Her childhood friend - in actual fact a robot created by her father, the Master, to spy on her - was alive and well….and walking in space.
“Hey, Lilly,” he said. He sounded older, but it was still the same old Craig. He smiled. “You need to come with me.”
“I need to help my friends,” she said. “What’s going on here? How are you alive?”
“I’m a robot, remember,” he said. “I don’t die.”
“But…I don’t understand.”
“Come with me and I’ll explain it all,” said Craig.
“But my friends…”
“We’ll help them,” said Craig. “But first you’ve got to come with me. We can‘t do much until we get the power back on in here”
Craig reached out his hand and Lilly, looking back into the darkness, took it. “We will come back, won’t we?”
“Of course we will,” said Craig. He guided her out of the doors until they were walking in thin air. Lilly panicked - still a little bit in shock from the explosion - and looked down. Where she stepped light patches of energy fizzled beneath her. They were walking on some invisible corridor linking the TARDIS to the silver cylinder.
As they made their way towards the cylinder Lilly began to clear her a head a little more. “What are you doing out here? You were with the Master.”
“Still am,” said Craig, “but don’t worry about him. He won’t hurt you.”
“No, I don’t want to see him.” Lilly tried to pull back but Craig held tight.
“You can’t struggle, Lilly.”
“Please, let me go.”
He turned to face her and crouched a little. He was much taller now and she felt reassured looking into his kind eyes. “Do you trust me?”
“You tricked me last time,” said Lilly.
“But you never gave me a chance to explain.”
“Because you died!” yelled Lilly.
“I am your friend. I always will be your friend,” said Craig. “Trust me that I won’t let you come to any harm. The Master will help you.”
She closed her eyes and then allowed herself to be led by Craig again. They reached the door to the cylinder and it opened with a gentle hiss. Lilly grabbed onto Craig’s hand tighter as they stepped inside.
The interior of the cylinder - which Lilly had already assumed was the Masters TARDIS - was much darker than the Doctors. The walls were a polished black colour with white roundels indented at varying points around the walls.
In the centre of the console room was the console unit. Standing at the console was the Time Lord known as the Master. He was wearing a dark suit and tie, white shirt and shiny black shoes. She recognised the face instantly - she had seen him in a number of incarnations - this was the one that had been following them throughout time. She’d almost forgotten about him actually. But now here he stood, his eyes unblinking, unmoving, his thin lips pursed together.
When Craig finally got her through the doors the Master nodded to him and then smiled at her.
“Hello, Illithia.” His voice was silky and smooth, but there was no warmth there.
“Hello, father,” was all she could say.
“Shit!” was all Richard could say.
He had been heading down the interior corridor when the TARDIS had shaken and the lights had gone out. He’d hit his head on the wall and a large cut was now pouring with blood.
He felt along the walls and made his way back to the console room, all the time feeling his forehead throb. He finally reached the door and pushed his way inside.
The console room was as dark as the rest of the corridors and he couldn’t see a single thing. He moved away from the door, his arms outstretched, praying he wouldn’t trip over anything.
He jumped when he spotted the doors of the TARDIS were open. He could see Lilly and another person walking through space towards a silver cylinder. He was about to shout when he walked into the back of what he assumed was the sofa. He looked down. Thankfully the silver light of the stars managed to illuminate one or two objects. Laying on the floor next to the sofa was Holly.
“Holly,” he said, clambering around the sofa and dropping to his knees. She groaned as he turned her over onto her back.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Damned if I know,” he said, trying to sit her up. “But the doors are open. Won’t we get sucked out or something?!”
Holly looked towards the doors. “Oh, bugger it,” she said. “What the hell is that?”
“I don’t know,” said Holly, “but I saw Lilly and some other guy heading towards it.”
“Lilly’s out there?!”
“That’s what I just said,” said Richard.
“Where’s the hell is the Doctor?” said Holly, frantically looking around herself for any sign of him.
As if to answer her question they heard a groan from towards the console. Holly crawled over to him and helped him to sit up. He put a hand to his head and screwed his eyes tightly shut.
“My face. My face,” said the Doctor, feeling around. “Is it still the same?”
“Yes,” said Holly, nodding quickly. “Still the same. Well, as far as I can tell in this light.”
“Thank goodness for that,” said the Doctor. He shook his head and then looked back. “Oh, no!”
“Lilly’s gone out there, Richard says,” said Holly. “What is that thing?”
“It’s a TARDIS,” said the Doctor. He clambered to his feet and then allowed himself to rest beside the console. “It’s the raw form of a TARDIS. It’s what mine would look like if it wasn’t stuck as a police box.”
“Is it his? Is it the Masters?”
“It’d be a miracle if it wasn’t,” said the Doctor.
“Who’s the Master?” asked Richard, who was finding himself more and more lost. “And how the hell was she walking in space without a spacesuit.”
“A connecting corridor from his TARDIS to mine.” A look of horror spread across his face.
Holly looked to the outside and slowly the Master’s TARDIS began to dematerialise.
“The connecting corridor is going to collapse!” yelled the Doctor. “We need to shut the doors!”
As the Master’s TARDIS disappeared the ship lurched forward and the Doctor, Holly and Richard found themselves being sucked towards the doors.
“Grab hold of something!” yelled the Doctor.
Holly and Richard lurched for the console and managed to grab hold of it, but the Doctor fell towards the open doors.
“Doctor!” yelled Holly.
The Doctor hit one of the doors and grabbed it with both hands. The force of impact caused him to pull the door closed, but now he was dangling outside the opening, holding on tightly.
“Don’t let go!” he yelled back to his friends.
He kicked himself up as the TARDIS began to twist and turn. It was then that he noticed a piece of paper stuck on the outside of the door. He grabbed it, swung himself back inside the TARDIS and slammed the other door shut. The TARDIS began to level out and the Doctor slumped to the floor clutching the paper.
“Are you okay?” asked Holly, now realising they were back in darkness again.
“There was a note,” he said, unfolding it.
Holly and Richard stumbled over to him. Holly got her phone out and switched on the torchlight. It illuminated the piece of white, lined paper.
“What does it say?” asked Richard as the Doctor unfolded it.
The Doctor looked at the note and then sighed. He held it out to Holly and Richard. Richard looked confused. Holly intrigued. The note simply read:
“COME TO JACARTHIA”
Holly shone the light towards the Doctor. “I think it’s time you told us everything about Jacarthia.”
To be continued...
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