Free Doctor Who: Time Flight by Peter Grimwade Page A

Stapley's gaze to the screen.
     
    They had a perfect bird's eye view of the Citadel.
     
    'If that's a view from this ship,' said Captain Stapley, 'then the TARDIS
    has turned into a helicopter.'
     
    'Easy does it,' cried Angela in a voice more used to giving instructions about seat belts.
     
    Another stone was lifted out and the hole was big enough to climb through to the Sanctum.
     
    The Doctor peered into the rough entrance. An unearthly light shone on his face. He was nervous now. 'You don't have to come if you don't want to,' he said, looking at the Professor.
     
    'I'll learn nothing waiting for you here.'
     
     
    The Doctor was more than grateful. 'Good man.' He turned to the passengers. 'The rest of you stay put.'
     
    The Professor and the Doctor hauled themselves up and disappeared through the opening.
     
    The Doctor looked round the Sanctum. He was immediately aware of the sarcophagus in the centre, but went straight to where Tegan and Nyssa lay on the ground. He knelt beside them.
     
    To his immense relief, Tegan began to stir. She groaned and opened her eyes. 'Doctor?'
     
    The Doctor smiled.
     
    'I've got such a headache.' She was stunned and disorientated and could remember nothing but a great explosion.
     
    'Rest a while,' said the Doctor gently.
     
    'They willed us to come here.' Nyssa was sitting up, fully recovered, her mind still mysteriously in tune with the alien intelligence.
     
    'Who are they?' asked Professor Hayter. He had hardly moved since climbing down from the hole, so humbled and awed was he by the seraphic calm of the Sanctum.
     
    'Look in the sarcophagus, Professor,' said the Doctor.
     
    Both men walked slowly towards the marble casket in the centre of the chamber. They peered fearfully over the edge.
     
     
    A thin stratum of vapour floated above the open repository. Below the mist a great cerebellum glowed and trembled.
     
    'It's alive!' gasped the Professor.
     
    They stood for a moment listening to the ethereal murmer, and watching the fibrilation of the huge viscera.
     
    Professor Hayter had never seen a living organism like it before. 'What is it?' he whispered.
     
    'An immeasurable intelligence,' whispered the Doctor, 'at the centre of a psychic vortex. All-seeing, all-knowing.'
     
    Tegan and Nyssa gathered round. They all stood silently, just a little afraid.
     
    'Why did it want me to destroy it?' asked Nyssa.
     
    The Doctor thought for a moment. 'It didn't,' he replied. 'That's why it deflected your attack.'
     
    He explained what must have happened at the moment of explosion. A massive burst of psychokinetic energy held back the rock thrown into the sarcophagus by Nyssa, hurled the two girls to the ground, and caused the beast summoned by Kalid to evaporate. So great was the power diverted to defend itself against Nyssa's physical assault, that every other manifestation of its energy was relinquished - even down to the plasmic body of Kalid. Now the force was expended.
     
    'But why work against itself?' asked the Professor.
     
     
    'Two aspects of the same personality?' suggested Nyssa.
     
    'Jekyll and Hyde,' the Doctor nodded. 'The good and the bad.'
     
    'The Professor was enthralled at such a perfect example of the co-existence of the Ego and the Id.
     
    Tegan's interest was more pragmatic. 'Why should half the creature want to attack us anyway?'
     
    The Doctor told her the worst. 'Its power is being used by the Master.'
     
    Tegan and Nyssa were horrified to learn that the Doctor's supreme enemy was up to his old tricks, and exploiting the strange energy. But at least one part of the mighty intelligence in the sarcophagus had offered itself as their champion.
     
    Nyssa tried to describe the force that drew them into the Sanctum and ultimately destroyed Kalid's monster, but no words of hers could convey that feeling of irresistible gravitation.
     
    'How did you get in?' asked Hayter.
     
    'The wall just opened.'
     
    'Part of the benign intelligence must