Doctor Who_ Attack of the Cybermen - Eric Saward [14]
‘Then where are the aliens?’
‘Not here,’ he said. ‘But if my calculations are correct, we should find them, or at least the source of their signal, in the next street.’
As the duo walked towards the gates, they heard a terrible grinding and crunching sound. Quickly they turned and saw the last stage of the TARDIS
metamorphosing into a pristine Victorian kitchen range.
‘Oh neat, Doctor!’ Peri laughed. ‘Very neat. That doesn’t look at all incongruous.’
The Time Lord felt sad. He had spent days working on the chameleon circuit and was certain he had repaired it.
‘At least it changed,’ he said, defensively.
‘Oh, sure. Now it draws even more attention to itself.’
With Peri still chuckling, they passed through the gates of the yard and into the street. Again the Doctor checked his direction finder and pointed the way they should go.
Further up the road, two uniformed policemen stood in the shadow of a large tree. Neither spoke, but then neither needed to, for they knew exactly what each other was thinking. If the Doctor had been less preoccupied, he would have recognised them from his last visit to Earth.
He might even have tuned into their telepathic communication. But he didn’t and instead walked blindly by. Once he was gone, the policemen, with the carefully measured tread of experienced bobbies, followed.
It had stopped raining and a watery sun was attempting to break through the thinning clouds. Puddles littered the pavements, and the odd passer-by, undecided about the weather, still held high his damp umbrella.
None of this interested the Doctor as he stood before a large boarded-up house, a loud whining from his tracking device announcing they had arrived at the source of the distress signal.
Followed by Peri, he climbed the steps to the front door and peered through the letter-box.
‘Can you see anything?’
Shaking his head, the Doctor stood up and again checked the tracking device. ‘The signal definitely emanates from here,’ he said, prodding the front door with an index finger. ‘Yet no one appears to live here.’
‘It doesn’t make sense. Why send out a distress call then not bother to hang around?’ Slowly Peri descended the steps, counting each one as she went, ‘ Unless they were forced to move on.’
Suddenly the Doctor’s face lit up. ‘Not quite, Peri,’ he beamed. ‘I don’t think they were ever here!’
‘But you said the signal came from the house.’
‘It does,’ he cried, waving the tracking device at her.
‘But there is more than one signal!’ Without waiting to explain further, the Doctor bounded down the steps and off along the street. ‘Come on,’ he shouted.
Dutifully, Peri followed, although her high heels were quite unsuited to running. ‘Hang on,’ she called. ‘Anyway, where are we going?’
‘Back to the TARDIS!’
Silently, the two policemen watched from a doorway as the pair sped off. Then they turned and began to walk in the opposite direction, knowing where the Doctor would soon arrive.
It had taken some minutes for them to locate the entrance to the newly formed TARDIS. But once inside the console room, the Doctor plugged the tracking device into the computer and switched on. Instantly lights began to flash, sending him into a frantic pas de deux with the controls.
Despondently Peri watched this slightly macabre dance until she became fed up. ‘Why is it I always have to ask what you’re doing?’ she declared glumly. ‘Why do you never tell me?’
The Time Lord looked up from his work. ‘Because I thought it was obvious,’ he said.
‘Well it isn’t! And neither have you told me what you discovered at the house.’
‘Deliberate confusion,’ he said, triumphantly, as he finished setting the navigational co-ordinates. ‘Our alien is being ultra-cautious. He’s bouncing his signal off several relay points. The house is simply a focal point to confuse the unwary. What’s more it would take current Earth technology days to find where the true signal was coming from.’
Peri was confused. ‘Why do that?’
‘To buy time, I should think, so that he can confirm