Free Doctor Who: Timelash by Glen McCoy Page B

against a damp wall. She had already shouted for help without any response, and needed to recuperate before trying another line of action. One thing was certain, she could not give up.
    The Timelash entrance was the first step into the unknown. The Doctor had never been inside a corridor like this before without the TARDIS to protect him. He squinted below, spying a mass of projecting lithoids. On the end of each he knew would be a Kontron crystal, and two were needed for his purposes. Calling to the others to release more slack on the line, the Doctor began to stretch for the crystal nearest to him.
    He could sense the powerful attraction force taking effect as he pushed his way on to one stem. Gingerly, he manoeuvred himself towards the fist-shaped sparkling nugget. There were now only inches to go, but the line prevented him from going any further.
    ‘Let me have more slack!’ he shouted, and again he was able to move forward. The Doctor’s fingers brushed its target, eventually coming to rest around the crystal itself.
    He gently manipulated its position, looking back to see his precarious situation. Concentric rings of the vortex swirled endlessly into the depths of the bottomless pit. Finally a multi-crystalline-like structure was firmly in the Time Lord’s grasp. ‘One down,’ he sighed. ’One to go.’
    Tekker ordered an android detachment to set up the time-acceleration web outside the Inner Sanctum. The beam was set to disintegrate the doors, and a squad of crack guardoliers stood ready as a mini-attack force. Tekker was becoming edgy. He began to recall the Borad’s threat of what would happen to him if he failed. Kendron, who had also fled from the chamber, stood by his side. Tekker mused for a moment. Perhaps he would survive, successful or not.
    The vortex attraction forces were rapidly taking effect on the foreign body that fought the flow of the corridor’s power and was now about to seize a second crystal.
     
    Unfortunately for the Doctor, the second Kontron crystal was proving too elusive and difficult to uncouple from the pentagonal lithoid stretching out to oblivion.
    ‘Can’t I come down and help?’ cried Herbert from the opening of the Timelash above.
    ‘You stay where you are! I’ve nearly got the second one.’
    An alarming tornado motion then swirled all the projectiles. The Doctor clung on as best he could, finally chancing his arm and grabbing the other prism-like structure. Whipping it into his large coat pocket, the only thing left on his mind was escape, and quickly. An unnatural source of turbulent energy impacted the area taking the weight off the Time Lord’s body and suspending him in mid-air. It was merely Mykros’s knot around his middle that prevented him from being cast through the eye of the corridor with a one-way ticket.
    Sezon and Katz and the others sweated as Herbert watched the events below. He knew something had to be done - and fast. As the Doctor tried his best to regain control on the lashing, Herbert swiftly moved into the corridor and grabbed the line tightly. Then, foolhardy in action, he began making his way down to the Doctor, who shouted at his rescuer’s impetuous act of bravery.
    ‘Get back, Herbert! You’ll be swept away!’
    Mykros then also climbed inside, mainly to keep a hold on Herbert, and a body chain was established. After several close encounters with failure, Herbert eventually grabbed the Doctor’s sweating hands and began pulling him up to safety. The group above tugged madly to pull the entire chain out of the Timelash, and after a few anxious moments from Vena’s standpoint, Mykros, Herbert and eventually the Doctor, emerged, quite shaken by their experience, but thankfully all in one piece.
    A joyous reunion was cut short by an impatient Time Lord. The Doctor reminded them of the many tasks they had yet to accomplish. This was underlined when Katz spotted an invasion force on the planet’s tracker screens.
    Mykros eyed the armada