Doctor Who_ Curse of Peladon - Brian Hayles [3]
Puzzled, he watched as Grun knelt pathetically before him.
He saw the intense fear which haunted the warrior’s face. Grun pointed to the nearby cast-metal torch holder. It was formed in a hideous representation of the Royal Beast. Knowing that Grun, though mute, would only tell the truth to his king, Peladon turned anxiously to his High Priest.
‘Aggedor...’ said Hepesh, grimly.
He rose to his feet from beside Torbis body, and studied his young master with bitter dignity.
‘His spirit has risen’, he declaimed. ‘The ancient curse of Peladon is upon us. We are doomed...’
2
Into the Chasm
The fury of the storm was increasing. The ceaseless flow of lightning across the sky threw the rocks and crags of Mount Megeshra into savage relief against the wind-hounded shadows.
Into that maelstrom of noise was pitched another—grinding, mechanical, unnatural... and a shape unlike anything that had ever been seen on the planet Peladon. Suddenly, solidifying out of thin air, a chunky, dignified blue box fell victim to the winds claws. It lurched ominously, coming to rest on a rocky ledge poised over the chasm below. Heavy though it was, the strange box perceptibly moved, each time crushing against the brittle edge of the rock, and making its position yet more precarious at every moment. The wind, as though seeking to throw back this alien intruder, howled and screamed all the louder.
The interior of the blue box made nonsense of its drab outward appearance. Instead of what an Earthling of the 20th century would recognise as a police telephone box, its interior space was unlimited, and styled with an elegant futurism. At its centre stood a cylindrical complex of controls and monitoring equipment that would do justice to all but the most advanced spaceship; but the hands that operated the controls belonged to a tall, slightly theatrical figure, his exuberant shock of white hair topping a lean but humorous face, which smiled with boyish pleasure. He flipped one final switch, and the protesting mechanism groaned to a halt. His companion, her natural prettiness made even more beautiful by the evening dress she wore under her cloak, was less amused.
‘There you are, Jo,’ said the Doctor. ‘A perfect landing—
well... nearly, anyway...’
‘And about time, too.’ muttered Jo, impatiently.
The Doctor smiled benevolently, studying the controls with evident pride.
‘Its alright for you to grin.’ pointed out Jo with irritation.
‘Here am I all dolled up for an evening on the town with Mike Yates—’
‘And very pretty, too,’ complimented the Doctor, his eyes still checking the dials and gauges of the control panel.
‘You are infuriating, sometimes!’ exclaimed Jo. ‘Why I let you talk me into coming for a joy ride in this thing, I don’t know!’
The Doctor looked pained. ‘Not a joy ride, Jo... This is an occasion—the TARDIS’ first test flight since I got it working again!’
Jo couldn’t stay angry with the Doctor for long. Her face softened and she touched his arm as a sign of truce. ‘You and your toy,’ she smiled, shaking her head as though to a naughty child. ‘But it’s me that’s going to be late, you do realise that, don’t you!’
‘My dear Jo,’ comforted the Doctor, ‘we’ll have arrived back only seconds after we left—if not sooner. This is the TARDIS, you know—not a number 88 bus!’
Jo moved to the doors, obviously keen to be on her way to her evening date. She turned and smiled at the Doctor, expectantly. ‘That’s alright, then, she said brightly. ‘If you’ll just open the doors and let me out...’
But it wasn’t going to be as easy as that. Jo knew it as soon as she saw the Doctor hunched over the controls, his boyish face totally enthralled by the sheer enjoyment of putting the TARDIS
through its paces again.
‘Routine landing procedure first, Jo...’ murmured the Doctor, assimilating the variety of information offered to him by the telemetric displays. ‘Atmosphere... gravity... magnetic field...
yes, all normal. Now—lets see what the videoscanner tells us...’
At the door, Jo waited with growing impatience.