Doctor Who_ Cat's Cradle_ Times Crucible - Marc Platt [14]
Ace faltered for a moment. The door through which they had come was the door that led into the interior of the timeship. The double doors by which they usually entered stood opposite them, beyond the time rotor control panel, still firmly closed.
"I don't know," said the Doctor before she even had a chance to ask.
He seemed relieved. There was no apparent damage to the console room. No sign of an invader. The gentle hum of the TARDIS engines reassured him. Subdued golden light glowed behind the network of roundels that honeycombed the walls — the heart of his ship. Nothing was disturbed. Everything appeared as he had left it.
"Has it gone flow?" said Ace.
The Doctor flicked up the scanner control and watched as panels in the wall slid open on the screen.
Perivale was peaceful in the slanting evening sunlight. The clouds were tinged with rose above the regimented roofs of the semi-detacheds. An ambulance was parked beside the police car. Its crew stood with the two police constables. They were staring in towards the TARDIS. The policeman was shaking his head.
No miasma. No seething fireball.
"How much of all that did we imagine?" ventured Ace.
"None of it. It was imagined for us."
He began flicking switches on one panel of the hexagonal console deck. A small monitor began to scroll with figures and letters.
"Watch the fault locator," he said urgently.
"What for?"
"A BRC. I'm running a Basic Reality Check on the TARDIS systems."
"But all that stuff was outside, I thought it had gone."
"The TARDIS wanted us in here."
"I know that, Professor. But I don't want it feeding ideas into my head. Why didn't it let us in through the front door?"
His brow was furrowed in irritation. "Just watch for anything unusual."
He had slipped off his jacket and thrown it over a chair. He took off his hat and looked round with a frown. "Where's the hatstand?" he said.
"What hatstand?"
"There used to be a hatstand here. Oh, never mind." He put the hat back on his head and returned to the console.
Ace watched him as he ran his hands back and forth along the edge of the panelling, coaxing, almost caressing the machine. He stared intently at the racing numbers on the monitor. He hardly seemed aware of her at all.
The copy of Through the Looking Glass that she had been reading lay abandoned on a chair. A stack of items that the Doctor had been meaning to repair sat in a corner. The Jibert Cathcode Troisième timepiece he had recently unearthed from somewhere elegantly ticked the meaningless timeship seconds away on a slim Doric plinth. They were firmly attached to each other by a tiny gravity bolt to withstand the TARDIS's frequent lurches.
A selection of her clothes, much in need of laundering, loitered menacingly behind a threadbare antique chesterfield. The Doctor had given up complaining about them, since she would only point out that he had not changed his own clothes for weeks.
There was a bleep as the fault locator completed its search. The Doctor frowned. "All systems normal." He closed the scanner panels and shut out Perivale.
"Nothing to worry about then," said Ace. But she couldn't believe it.
"Unless there's a fault on the fault locator."
Ace walked towards the closed double doors and stared at them for a moment. "So what's all the fuss then?"
She turned towards the console. Something was missing. A gap amongst the nearest panel's multifarious gadgets and controls. It was a few seconds before she realized what had vanished.
"Doctor? Where's the door handle?"
She reached for the empty space.
"Ace, no!" He was around the console catching her hand before she touched the panel.
"But it's gone," she cried.
"No, not just gone. It's been deliberately removed." He walked slowly up to the doors and tentatively laid one ear to them. When he turned back, his eyes