Doctor Who_ The Twin Dilemma - Eric Saward [19]
The more the Doctor wondered, the more he realised how confused and muddled his mind was. He would have to do something about it.
But what?
6
AN UNSAFE SAFE HOUSE
Titan Three has always been accused of being the bleakest, most miserable planet in the universe. Scenically, it is no bleaker than any other small planet devoid of vegetation. The real problem with Titan is that its thin atmosphere contains a very rare gas nicknamed Titan Melancholia. It isn't at all poisonous, but prolonged inhalation can cause depression in humanoid life forms.
Azmael had discovered Titan Three while searching for somewhere to live after his self-imposed exile from Gallifrey. At that time he very much wanted to be alone and Titan seemed to offer him precisely that.
He had been surprised when he had discovered buildings on the planet. And even more surprised when he had learnt they had been built by people from a nearby solar system that no longer existed.
It wasn't until he discovered a still functioning computer that he learnt of their sad fate.
Originally the buildings had been erected to house a research unit and monitoring base for the solar system, Maston Viva. Before building the centre, all the usual checks and tests had been made, including a close examination of the atmosphere. Although a gas unknown to the Mastons (Titan Melancholia) had been detected, exhaustive research seemed to indicate it was inert and safe to breathe. So the centre was built.
It wasn't until some time later that it was noticed that people who spent more than six months on the planet became strangely depressed. At first this was dismissed as nothing more than an over-reaction to Titan's bleak environment, so the tour of duty was shortened to three months.
This did little to help.
Scientist, technician and labourer alike started to abandon their work in favour of writing long, introverted, painfully self-critical novels and essays. When summoned home, they refused to go, preferring to stay on Titan to complete their self-imposed tasks.
Such was the all pervading gloom of the place that Mein Kampf and the works of Strindberg were read as light comic relief.
It was during one of these intense periods of introspection that an enormous burst of radiation wiped out the population of Maston Viva. The scientists, whose function it was to warn of such impending disasters, were mortified. On checking their computers, they found that the radiation cloud had been visible for days, and if they had been more attentive to their duties, the danger could have been neutralised.
Suddenly, the pain of life had overtaken the agony of art. There was little left for the scientists to do. After each of them had completed a long, soul-searching autobiography, they committed mass suicide.
They were the first and last victims of Titan Melancholia. Shortly afterwards, it was discovered that a daily glass of Voxnic acted as the perfect antidote to the side effect of the gas. But such were the terrible events that had taken place on the planet that nobody wanted to live there.
Originally Azmael had earmarked the planet as a bolt-hole in case the High Council of Gallifrey had changed its mind and again sent a squad of Seedle Warriors to kill him.
But that was a long time ago.
Nowadays, Seedle Warriors seemed relatively harmless compared with the paranoid ambition displayed by Mestor.
Yet here he was again, this time watching two immature boys struggle with chalk and blackboard to complete equations that had been set for them.
The twins weren't happy, being unused to such primitive implements. Their fingers were sore from holding the chalk and their arms ached from the effort of scratching their calculations on the squeaky blackboard. Although they had complained bitterly, Azmael had shown little sympathy. 'You've brought this on yourself. If you hadn't rigged that silly distress beacon aboard my ship, I would have let you use the computer... Now I can't trust you.'
The twins worked on, but they were running out of patience. The drug which controlled their