Doctor Who_ The Twin Dilemma - Eric Saward [29]
Deciding that the Doctor would have to do the cooking, but then remembering how badly he did it, Peri left the kitchen feeling rather depressed.
The sight of the bedrooms, laboratories and greenhouse (the purpose of which was to provide the dome with fresh vegetables) lifted her spirits slightly. The library, considered the best this side of Magna Twenty-eight, lifted her spirits even more.
To die in the dome, she thought, wouldn't be a bad thing after all.
At least she wouldn't die ignorant.
And when she discovered the wine cellar, she also knew she wouldn't die sober.
Peri continued her tour of inspection, passing through the power plant, workshops and a compact cinema equipped to show film, video and many other visual mediums she had never seen before.
It wasn't until she entered the last corridor that her heart really sank. Before her was a door with a purple flashing light above it.
Written on the door was the legend: SELF-DESTRUCT
CHAMBER. NO UNAUTHORISED PERSONNEL ALLOWED
ENTRY.
Not stopping to consider whether she was authorised or not, Peri pushed open the unlocked door. Inside the room she was greeted by a massive console, which flashed and winked reminding her whimsically of the last high school prom she had attended.
After examining the console more closely, all humour evaporated from her spirit and she felt sick. The device had been set to explode.
At first the Doctor didn't recognise the sound of Peri calling, being too intent on solving the problem of the lock. But as the calling became more insistent, he abandoned his task and shuffled off.
On arriving at the self-destruct chamber, the Doctor soon confirmed that Peri's panic was fully justified and, if the timer was accurate, it was to explode in the next few minutes.
Quickly, the Time Lord set about trying to deactivate the device, but soon learnt why whoever had set it hadn't bothered to lock the door on leaving. The unit was sealed, safe from interfering fingers, including the Doctor's.
'What do we do now?' said Peri urgently.
'Find another way of getting out of here. And very soon!'
As they entered the main area, the Doctor crossed to the revitalising modulator and started to fiddle with its control unit.
'What are you doing?' demanded Peri.
'You must remain absolutely quiet,' snapped the Doctor. 'I need all my concentration.'
At least he sounded sane. Peri was concerned that the discovery of the self-destruct device might have proved too much and induced another change of personality. So far it hadn't. But how would fiddling with what looked like a glass box help them to escape?
The Doctor continued to work, rapdily reducing the control to a mass of wires and printed circuits. With increased speed, he set about removing several modular units from the main console.
After careful examination of the units, his face lit up. 'I can do it, Peri! I can do it!'
'Do what, though?'
'Get us out of here!'
Quickly he carried the units to the revitalisation chamber and started to connect them to the dismembered control panel, using wire Peri was ordered to steal from anywhere she could.
As he worked, the recurring question constantly came into his mind. Why had Azmael, at one time his greatest friend, set the self-destruct unit to explode?
The more he thought, the less sense it seemed to make.
Putting aside their friendship, Azmael must have known it would have taken weeks to break out of the dome. Whatever Azmael had planned, he would have had plenty of time to carry it out with little fear of the Doctor's interference.
The Time Lord worked on, his old energy and presence of mind having returned. He felt a new man. He only hoped that his fresh inner self would have time to mature and mellow. To be atomised on a barren, miserable planet, whose only claim to fame was that its atmosphere-created feelings of melancholia, was not the way he intended to say farewell to the universe.
When not cannibalising machinery for its wire, Peri constantly flitted back and forwards to the self-destruct chamber to check the