Doctor Who: Time Flight by Peter Grimwade Read Free Book Online Page A

passengers?'
     
    'Slaves are required in my domain.'
     
    'You have the Plasmatons.'
     
    'They have other uses.'
     
    Just as the Doctor thought: the power that controlled those manifestations was limited.
     
    'You mean you need that psychotronic energy for something else!' The Doctor was thinking of Nyssa trapped in the bioplasmic shield.
     
    'The power must be used for the great work we shall do together.'
     
    'We?' The Doctor had no intention of co-operating with this inflated poseur.
     
    'Together we shall scourge the entirety of time and space!' proclaimed Kalid.
     
     
    The Doctor had heard it all so many times before. These vainglorious tyrants with their dreams of absolute power. 'You can exclude me from your wizardry,' he replied sharply.
     
    But Kalid was not offering the Doctor any choice. 'You cannot resist, Doctor. In this place all things obey Kalid. Come!' He led the Doctor to the crystal in the centre of the room, and began to chant. 'Vizaan, vizaan, zanoor minaz...'
     
    The crystal clouded. Out of the mists appeared the image of Tegan and Nyssa. 'You see your friends?' He called a second time: 'Vizaan! Vizaan!'
    The mists rolled back. When the crystal cleared again the Doctor could see the great hall and rotunda. 'Your Captain Stapley and his fellow mortals.' The Doctor was very impressed at such a display of clairvoyance. But such power could not come from a mere human being. The incantation was releasing energy from elsewhere.
     
    'You're not in control here,' the Doctor challenged Kalid. 'You're as mortal as anybody else!'
     

7
The Enemy Unmasked
     
    Captain Stapley and the Professor had no idea that the Doctor could see them — albeit fleetingly in the crystal ball.
     
    The Captain would have appreciated a sighting of the Doctor. He wished the man wouldn't just wander off like that.
     
    Hayter, his confidence boosted by the prolonged absence of the guards, was all for making contact with Bilton and Scobie and shepherding thepassengers back to the relative safety of the aircraft. 'Your crew are in front of you,' he urged Captain Stapley. 'Or do you have to ask the Doctor's permission first!'
     
    'Don't provoke me,' growled Stapley. But it did seem a little lacking in initiative not to try and rescue his two officers.
     
    Hayter and Stapley walked up to the group attacking the rotunda.
    Hayter selected the young stewardess Andrew Bilton had originally recognised in the party with the TARDIS. Stapley approached his First Officer.
     
    'Andrew!'
     
    'Hello, Skipper.' Andrew Bilton was very matter of fact, totally convinced that the man beside him was sitting in the left-hand seat on the flight deck, preparing to take off. 'I've got the Met. report. We'll clear those
     
    thunder storms by the time we get to the subsonic cruise.' He was absorbed in a waking dream in which he acted out the routine of ordinary life. 'Andrew!' Stapley tried to shake some sense into him.
     
    Angela Clifford, the stewardess, saw Professor Hayter as a particularly obstreperous passenger. But she was trained to deal with the likes of him. 'Will you please sit down, sir, and fasten your seat belt. We're about to take off.'
     
    'Listen to me!'
     
    'The bar will be open as soon as we're airborne,' she retorted in her most cut-glass accent.
     
     
    'Andrew!' said the Captain. 'We're not on Concorde. Remember the Doctor!'
     
    But nothing seemed to convince the first Officer he wasn't at Heathrow, about to leave for New York.
     
    'Oxygen checked. Flight control inverters on. Anti-stall system on ...' He launched into the pre-flight
     
    checks. To his horror, Captain Stapley felt himself being drawn into Andrew Bilton's fantasy.
     
    'Altimeters checked. Navigation radios set...'
     
    'Stop it, Andrew!'
     
    But the Captain could already hear the whine of engines, and the ghostly outline of the flight deck was taking shape around him. 'We must fight ...' he stammered, forcing his conscious mind to hold back