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

the
     
    illusion.
     
    But the hypnotic rhythm of the calls only stimulated the hallucination.
     
    'Brakes.'
     
    'Checked,' responded the Captain, half-believing he really was in the pilot's seat.
     
    'Throttles.'
     
    'Idle.'
     
    'Throttle masters.'
     
    'On.'
     
    Stapley made another desperate attempt to hold back the images flooding up from his subconscious. 'We must fight...' But the dream was becoming its own reality. 'Speedbird Concorde 193 to tower.
    Permission to start engines ...' He made one more supreme effort. '
    Professor!'
     
    Hayter rushed to the Captain's help. 'Wake up, man!' The Professor pulled him away from Andrew Bilton. 'Concentrate! What about the Doctor, Captain Stapley!'
     
    The Doctor?' Stapley blinked. His perception reverted like a change of shot in a film. His mind was in control again. 'The Doctor! And my crew!' He was angry with himself for losing control. It wouldn't happen again. 'Bilton!' He turned back to his copilot with renewed determination. 'Mr Bilton, remember what happened at Heathrow!'
     
    'What's that, Skipper?'
     
    'Remember the Doctor. And Nyssa. And Tegan. Remember Tegan?'
     
    The mention of the pretty Australian stewardess seemed to have a positive, though unexpected effect. 'Rope,' he muttered.
     
     
    'Rope?' said Captain Stapley.
     
    But the Professor knew they were winning. 'You've triggered a rational association,' he cried to the
     
    Captain. To Andrew Bilton he spoke gently but persistently. 'That's it! Rope, rope, rope ...'
     
    'The Indian rope trick!' exclaimed Bilton. He blinked, and looked around in amazement at the bizarre activity in the great hall.
     
    'Together with your box, the power will be absolute,' shrieked Kalid.
    'We shall command the whole universe!' he climaxed in a manic falsetto.
     
    'I've always found domination such an unattractive prospect,' replied the Doctor, concealing his disgust in urbane understatement.
     
    'Shall I be forced to compel you, Doctor,' said Kalid quietly, with the reassuring charm of a rattlesnake.
     
    'There is no power that will give you control over the TARDIS!'
     
    Kalid's body stiffened.
     
    The Doctor thought the sorcerer was about to attack him. Then he realised the man was in some sort of pain.
     
    Kalid moved swiftly to the crystal. Of course. Part of his mind was on another plain. Like a wild animal, he felt danger.
     
     
    The Doctor looked over Kalid's shoulder. In the nebula he could see the great hall where Stapley, Andrew Bilton and the Professor, like a group of subversive pickets, were persuading the passengers to down tools. Kalid was angry. He chanted urgently. 'Shiraaz shiraaz kazaan ...' As if a door had opened, chilling the room, the Doctor felt the flux of energy.
     
    'Shiraa, shiraa, kazaan ...'
     
    The Doctor watched helplessly as Plasmaton shapes formed in the hall.
    The amorphous things soon engorged the rebels.
     
    'Iznamin ... Iznamin ...' The crisis over, Kalid's voice was soft and coaxing.
     
    But the danger had been great enough to impress his servitors; which meant, thought the Doctor, that Nyssa would now be free. At least the two girls would be safe in the plane.
     
    The suddenness with which the shield evaporated, voiding Nyssa on the ground, took Tegan by surprise.
     
    'Nyssa! Are you all right?' She knelt beside her fellow companion.
     
    'Of course.'
     
    'What happened!'
     
     
    Tegan's question was rhetorical, but Nyssa answered confidently. 'The power dissolved. It was needed elsewhere.'
     
    'What are you talking about?'
     
    'I don't know.' She was as surprised as Tegan at her sudden intuitions.
     
    'I promised the Doctor we would go back to Concorde.
     
    'No!' The same oracular voice.
     
    'But, Nyssa...'
     
    'We must go to the Citadel!' Some dreadful imperative urged her forward.
     
    'We'll only get caught.'
     
    Nyssa shivered. 'The Doctor's in danger!' she gasped - then gave a cry:
    'Kalid!'
     
    'Eevaneraagh!' cried out Kalid, as the Plasmaton