Doctor Who_ The Doomsday Weapon - Malcolm Hulke [1]
'Yes,' said the young Time Lord, now used to the old Keeper forgetting what he had already said. 'You mentioned the Doctor and the Master.'
'No, it wasn't the Master,' said the old Keeper in his confused way. 'The Master never does anything good for anyone. He's thoroughly evil. Now what was I saying?'
The Young Time Lord reminded him. 'Humans on a planet refighting the wars of Earth's history.'
'Oh, yes. Well, the Doctor had done the best he could to stop it all. But in the end we had to step in and get all those poor soldiers back to Earth, and to all the right times in Earth's history.'
'And is that when you travelled?'
'That's right,' said the old Keeper, his eyes bright now with the memory of his one and only trip away from the planet of the Time Lords. 'I and many others. When it landed, my TARDIS turned into a machine-gun post.'
'What's that?'
The old Keeper glanced at the young Time Lord. 'Oh, dear, you have a lot to learn.' He seemed to forget the question, and went on, 'Anyway, TARDISes are supposed to change colour and shape, but the one stolen by the Doctor stays all the time looking like a London police box.' Before the young Time Lord could speak, the old Keeper added quickly 'And don't ask me what that is because I have no idea, not what they are for. Where were we?'
The young Time Lord indicated the small box on the screen. 'The working-papers for the original TARDIS.'
'Then that's enough of that,' said the old Keeper, taking his finger from the 'hold' button. Instantly, the picture on the screen vanished. 'It's time we had a break now, don't you think? I don't want to overwork you.'
'We've only just started this session of tuition,' said the young Time Lord. 'But if you're tired...'
The old Keeper sat up straight. 'Not at all!' He thrust a slender white hand into a pocket of his robe, fumbled about and brought out a scrap of paper. On it were mathematical symbols. 'I made some notes here of things you ought to know about. Let me see...' The young Time Lord watched as the old Keeper screwed up his watery eyes to read the symbols. 'Ah, yes,' said the old Keeper, 'the Doomsday Weapon. You must know about the Doomsday Weapon.' He put the scrap of paper back into his pocket, then spread both hands across the warmth-buttons.
The young Time Lord asked, 'I take it we have this weapon in safe keeping?'
'No,' said the old Keeper. 'It's not necessary. It is hidden on a distant and remote planet, a hiding-place known only to us.' He poised his fingers over a new combination of warmth-buttons.
'Why is it called Doomsday?'
'Because,' said the old Keeper, 'that is its name. Anybody controlling that terrible weapon could bring instant doom to large sections of the Universe. It radiates anti-Matter at a million times the speed of light.' He nodded his head at a button in the top left-hand corner of theconsole. 'Could you put your finger over that button, please. It's a safety measure, so that no one person with only two hands can activate the combination to produce the file on the Doomsday Weapon.'
The young Time Lord poised an index finger over the button.
'Now lower your finger,' said the old Keeper, 'as I lower mine.'
The old Keeper lowered his fingers onto a pattern of buttons, and the young Time Lord brought his index finger down gently onto the one remote button. Then they looked up at the screen. Printing appeared and it read: 'TOP SECRET. EXACT WHEREABOUTS OF THE DOOMSDAY WEAPON, AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE.'
'That's just the title-page of the file,' said the old Keeper. 'Move your finger to the next button on the right'
The young Time Lord moved his index finger along to the adjacent button. Instantly, the printing disappeared and the screen went blank.
'All right,' said the old