Doctor Who_ The Paradise of Death - Barry Letts [36]
‘Long enough for you to make a phone call,’ answered the Doctor, tweaking something deep inside the telemeter.
Interrupting his dinner, a fact which he was careful to make clear, Freeth was, of course, most concerned that Miss Smith – through her own foolish curiosity, as he felt bound to point out – was on her way to Parakon. He felt sure that Mr Tragan would extend to her the hospitality of the Corporation and do his best to entertain her during the trip. No, it wasn’t possible to get in touch – for technical reasons – as he was sure Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart would understand. And now, if the Brigadier would excuse him?
As an exercise in putting the wind up the Chairman, it could hardly be counted a success.
‘And of course,’ the Doctor commented, ‘if Tragan’s into hyper-space by now, or out the other side, it’s perfectly true that there’s no way of contacting him.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about half the time.
Well, actually, nearly all the time,’ said Jeremy, who was holding a selection of screwdrivers, pliers and more exotic looking tools. ‘Does that mean you can’t catch them after all? I mean, what about Sarah?’
‘Don’t worry,’ said the Doctor, switching on the circuit, which responded with a solid-sounding hum. ‘The TARDIS has a trick worth two of that up her sleeve. By doubling back in the Time Vortex, she can effectively start before Tragan. We can be on Parakon waiting for him to arrive!’
But surely that was impossible, thought the Brigadier.
Hadn’t the Doctor said that even the TARDIS couldn’t take you back to put something right if you got it wrong the first time round? ‘But what about the, er, the limitation thingummy you told me about?’ he said.
‘The Blinovitch Limitation Effect?’ said the Doctor, unplugging the psycho-telemeter, picking it up with eggshell care and carrying it with the power lead back to the TARDIS. ‘That only prevents her taking us back into our own past. Really Lethbridge-Stewart, I sometimes think you have a very shaky grasp on the Special Theory of Relativity!’
Sarah hadn’t expected to be tied up. After all, she certainly couldn’t escape, or even avoid compliance with Tragan’s demands – as she had quickly learnt a few minutes earlier when he had first produced the rope – and what seemed to be a length of clothes-line somehow didn’t fit the futuristic ambience of the saloon. In fact, when he was tying the knots which secured her to the upright chair by the control desk, he even apologized.
‘If I’d known I was going to have such a stroke of luck, I’d have come prepared,’ he said. ‘Do believe me when I say I have far more efficient means of restraint at my disposal at home. I should hate you to think that we don’t know how to enjoy ourselves properly on Parakon. Keep still! ’ he said, giving the rope a vicious tug as she shifted to ease the pain in her arm from the blow which had sent her flying across the room.
‘But why do you want to tie me up at all? I can’t do you any harm.’
‘Ah well, you see,’ he answered, ‘it’s all part of the game we’re going to play.’
‘What game?’ Sarah asked faintly.
‘It’s called: “How far do I have to go before she...” ’ He paused. ‘There,’ he said, with a final tug, ‘that’s it. Not too tight? It won’t be long now before we make the hyper-jump.’
Sarah just managed to speak. ‘Before she what?’
‘Well, that’s just it,’ he answered. ‘There are so many variations. “How far do I have to go before she begs me for a kiss? Starts screaming? Dies?” ’
His voice seemed to have become very distant, yet there was no possibility of mistaking his meaning.
Jeremy, if he had had any expectations at all, had been thinking that when the Doctor had finished his repairs he would take the circuit thingy outside somewhere and get in to some sort of space rocket with the Brigadier and he would be left standing on the ground; and then what? So when the Doctor called to him to bring the tools into the old police phone box standing in the corner he had no idea what was going on. And then the box turned out to be bigger on the inside than it was on the