decided
to return to the ship at once by slowly edging along the rocky walls,
but as I turned to do so I was confronted by a third Dalek - a red one -
coming straight for me!
‘You-are-the-Doc-tor!’ it snapped, ‘You-will-be-ex-ter-min-ated! Ex-ter-min-ate! Ex-ter-min-ate!!’
‘Ex-ter-min-ate-the-Doc-tor!!!’ the other two chanted as they closed in on me.
I clenched my
fists and shut my eyes tightly, bracing myself for the inevitable
thunder-bolts of death from the Dalek guns as those horrid little
monsters screamed with insane hatred. In my mind I saw the ghosts of my
former lives, and realised that my earlier experience in the ship must
have been some kind of premonition. Here we go, Doctor, I thought -
there's no escaping this: this is you death! ‘Ex-ter-min-ate!!!’
All was black.
All was calm. All was quiet. Silence. And then a low murmur...of
voices...behind me. Did I hear K9 speaking? I opened my eyes and found
that I was alive.
The cavern was
dark and the Daleks were gone. Confused, i dashed blindly for the TARDIS
and slumped over the hexagonal pyramid that was the console, setting
the ship in flight; the time column resumed its steady rising and
falling action.
What could have
happened? Only the Time Lords could have intervened in such a way to
save my life. I mean, everything had just stopped! My head was too sore
to even think about it...I wasn't myself anymore. My identity was
slipping away, I needed a good rest. A century or two would do the
trick. But the awful realisation dawned on me that this nightmarish
experience was not yet over, for I still had this dreadful murmuring of
voices in my head.
‘K9?’ I mumbled,
raising myself from the console and then standing in wide-eyed
amazement at the astonishing scene before me. Humans! Earthlings! In my
TARDIS?! How...? Some cruel game concocted by the Master? Were they real
humans? Autons, perhaps?
‘What are you people doing in my ship?’ I demanded.
doctor...who? page 2
