'And what's that?'
'The fact that turalium is an alien stone. It's usually only used for decoration though...' The Doctor paused. 'Jack the Ripper is an alien?' The thought hung in the air, joined only by the continual hum of the time machine.
'That might explain that signal the TARDIS picked up...' said Peri idly, taking another large bite of the apple.
The Doctor looked across to her. 'Peri, you're a genius!'
Locking the TARDIS door behind him, the Doctor took a small hand-sized monitor from his pocket and switched it on. A small hum grew and a display lit up his face, a small emitting signal pulsing in the night air.
'So what are we looking for?' Peri shivered in the darkness, looking around in every direction at the grimy city.
'Answers, as always,' said the Doctor and walked up and down the empty street, the signal remaining constant. A blip in the signal stopped him in his tracks. 'Aha!' Pointing down the road, he gestured for Peri to follow, and started off away from the houses and pubs.
( Elsewhere, the figure in black chuckled a low dark laugh. 'Ever efficient, Doctor,' he said, watching the Time Lord on a monitor screen. 'But be careful...it may be your undoing.' He laughed again, and punched several lit keys on the control panel before him. 'He's coming to find you,' he said into a pencil-thin microphone on the console. 'Be sure to have a friendly welcome for him.' )
The Doctor's device bleeped steadily louder in the gloom as he and Peri made their way out of the town into a large field on its outskirts. A large tent was in the distance, brightly lit and with an angry crowd dispersing from its periphery. 'I don't like this, Doctor.' whispered Peri, following as closely as she could.
'I'm not exactly keen on it either. I never feel good when I'm walking into a trap.'
Peri stopped dead. 'Oh great! Now you tell me!'
'Didn't I tell you?' he asked vacantly, walking on. Peri ran to catch up with him, her voice a whisper again.
'No you didn't! Thanks a bunch!'
The Doctor stopped and checked the figures scrolling on the monitor. 'There's a massive power source near by...we've virtually on top of it...' He looked up at the tent and the caravans. 'Oh dear...not very original, is it! You've tried this one before!' he shouted into the distance.
( 'And yet you still play right into my hands, Doctor...' )
'Who are you talking to?' asked Peri.
'The Master. I had an idea, but this confirmation. He's tried this circus one before...'
( Smiling, the Master's hands moved over the console in his black control room. Leaning towards the microphone again, he tapped a sequence out on a panel and said, 'Now! Take them now!' )
Stumbling in a half run, the figure detached itself from the night-time and ran towards the Doctor. Its face was only vaguely humanoid, the body seemingly working against itself as though an attempt to surgically enhance it had gone wildly wrong. It wore what looked like a prison outfit, but none that could have been possibly issued on his planet.
'Doctor!' screamed Peri as the figure neared, quicker than she thought possible, a large curved knife suddenly drawn and flashing in the moonlight.
'Get down!' he yelled to his young friend. The figure was closing, its mouth twisted into a psychotic grimace, a deep grunting getting louder with every pace it took forward.
The Doctor held the monitor straight out in front of him, pointing it at the advancing figure. 'It'll never fall for that, Doctor!' shouted Peri.
( The Master laughed. )
'Stop or I fire!' shouted the Doctor. The figure continued to near them, oblivious to any threat, no matter how false. 'I did warn you...' said the Doctor and hit a large cyan button. A large bright blue arc shot from the device and hit the figure in front of the head, hurtling it backwards and to the ground. The knife fell harmlessly from its hand, the red crystal butt glinting. Grunting, it stood up again, shaking its head and groping blindly for the blade. The Doctor edged carefully forward, keeping the tracker held on his attacker. 'Come on, old chap. The game's over. Don't make me use this again.'
In the blur, the figure was on its feet again, bellowing an unearthly cry, the long knife in its hand and weaving before it, searching for something to make contact with.
'Doctor!' screamed Peri, shutting her eyes.
The blue power arc shot from the device again, the figure went down with a ghastly scream, smoke licking around its forehead, the body twitching slightly before nothing but stillness.
( 'No! No!' )
Peri stood up slowly and walked over to where the Doctor knelt over the dead body. 'What did you do?'
The Doctor sighed and pocketed his machine. 'I short-circuited the mind-cap he had on his head. I guessed that he was under some kind of control - so typical of the Master, except on this occasion he just perverted the technology that was already there - this poor chap would have been mind-capped at whatever his prison he had been sent to.' The Doctor examined the uniform the body was wearing. 'Maximum security. No wonder. A particularly disturbed individual!'
'You're telling me.' Peri shuddered as her eye caught the knife. 'So the Master freed this guy and set up the signal and all this,' she said indicating the circus, 'just to trap us?'
'Oh, I'm sure this circus would have come anyway. The Master just used it as cover, no doubt using more mental persuasion to get what he wanted.' He stopped. The sound of a dematerialising TARDIS weaved its way through the darkness, and sure enough, one of the caravans began to fade from view.
Grabbing Peri by the shoulder, the Doctor shouted 'Run!' and pulled her away, stumbling towards the edge of the field. Throwing her down and covering her head with his body, the Doctor glanced up just as the dead body violently exploded, setting fire to the grass and burning brightly, acrid sickly smoke rose into the stratosphere. 'Even his back-ups were predictable,' said the Doctor.
Walking back, he picked up the twisted remains of the killer's knife, shook his head at the senseless and stupidity of the whole series of events, and left the field with Peri.
v) Coda
Peri sat down on to the easy chair the Doctor had brought into the console room. She arched her back and relaxed with a flop - her t-shirt and shorts had never felt so comfortable and she had never felt so thankful for the security of the TARDIS.
'Well,' said the Doctor, 'that's it. We were at the opening of the Crystal Palace Exhibition!'
Peri glanced up, only half-interested. 'Switch the scanner on then, if you're so confident.'
'I am and I will,' said the Doctor, scowling. The screens parted to show miles and miles of sea, and a man staring up at the object that had appeared out of nowhere in the middle of his son's sandcastle.
'Brighton beach close enough?' asked the Doctor, biting his lower lip, ducking at the last minute to avoid being hit on the head by a large cushion.
written by
ROBERT HAMMOND
copyright 2009
artwork by
COLIN JOHN
copyright 2009