"Yeah, for a while,"
Martha answered, "but I decided that I could do some good on earth, the
Doctor can't be there all the time. Especially when he's here." She
laughed, "and there, and here and there."
--
Three smiled at Jo. "Yes,
she's right. I'm pretty sure I could open this up if I needed to, but I'd like
to find out what our good friend the Master had it set up for in the first
place."
He turned to the walls. "And as I'm reasonably sure you must be listening
in, what are you up to, anyway?"
Victoria and Zoe tiptoed around the edge of the barn.
"What is that?" Victoria whispered, gesturing at the large metal box
within the barn. "It's like a building inside a building... and
look..." She pointed to where they could now just see a darkly dressed
man. His back was to them as he twiddled controls on a panel.
"It's a communication system." Zoe said softly. "I think he's
listening in on the Doctor."
--
Benton shook his head. "I don't think the Doc is going to like all of him
trooping into his TARDIS that way," he commented to no one in particular.
He noticed two of the girls were taking off down the hallway, so he headed
after them. Better to not have too many of them just wandering about, even if
in this case neither of them was a Doctor.
"Miss?" he called. "Can I help you find something?"
Rose turned to Benton. "Looking for the canteen, or kitchen for that matter. The Doctors want tea."
"With this many of the Doctor around we may just need to get all the tea in the kitchen and bring it with us," said Martha.
Rose
laughed. "There's only..." She started counting. "...six."
She said.
Benton gave them a smile. "Tea, is it? I know he keeps some in that lab somewhere, but with this many people it would probably make more sense to just get a couple pots from the canteen. This way," he said helpfully. "This way you can pick up a sack of sugar too. Unless his tastes have changed, the Doc always did like his tea sweet."
"You're getting far to smart for me Doctor." The Master's voice came from somewhere in the room.--
"He's talking to the Doctor," Victoria whispered. "Do you think
there's controls for those cage doors there? We could open them up once he
leaves..."
--
"Ah, there you are," Three said. "Your hospitality leaves
something to be desired, I'm afraid, you really ought to do something about the
way you introduce yourself. Are you enjoying that little rock you picked up in
the quarry? Need some help with it, perhaps?"
---
Zoe looked at the machine. "I can't quite tell. I'll need a closer
look." She admitted.
"Here we are!" called
Seven's voice from inside the TARDIS.
"Come out with it." One said.
Seven came out holding something in his hands. "It's a small version of a
plasmatic temporal kronoizer."
"I see I finally picked up one of those. Very handy piece of
equipment." One said.
"Oh yes, that looks like just
the thing," Two said. "And while we have it open, I think I might see
if I can find where I misplaced my other recorder. I know I left it someplace,
so unless he's completely mucked up the inside, it might still be
there..."
"Doctor," Jamie said, tugging at his sleeve to hold him back from
going in the TARDIS. "What if something... I don't know....something
happens when they hook up those rocks to that thing?"
"Rocks! Oh my my, dear oh dear. I forgot, that's what we're here for
aren't we?" He dug in his pocket. "Now what did I do with that? Oh
wait! It was the First fellow who took up that big piece. His is the one we
should try - unless we want to just put them all in a pile?" They all looked at One.
One straightened his back and looked back at them. "I don't have it. That military fellow has it."
"The Brigadier?" Seven was surprised at this. "What on Earth
would he want it for?"
"Come on then. We'd better go get it from him." Ten said hurrying out
of the room.
--
Benton swung open one of a set of double doors. "Voila! There you are, Miss. This is the canteen. Plenty of tea here.
"Thanks." Rose said with a smile and walked inside. There were a few UNIT personnel at tables eating or just talking with one another.
"That's better," said Martha, looking around the canteen. "This shouldn't be so hard to navigate our way around. Now we just have to worry about how we're going to carry all that tea."
"We've teacarts," Benton suggested. "But seeing as there's stairs going down to the lab, maybe I could just round up a couple of men to help out."
"Teacarts would work better
and cause a lot less trouble." Rose said.
-
The Brigadier sat at his desk,
scribbling out a variety of papers that would be needed to help cover for the
hoard of Time Lords that had descended upon him. His tea had gone cold and his
biscuits were untouched, he'd been fretting too much about what all those
Doctors might be like if they had to stay, and what they might do if they all
started fighting. He was very much missing the familiarity of his 'own' Doctor,
whom he would have normally turned to for advice about this mess...if he hadn't
been a part of it.
"I'll just have to keep them all in that Lab," he muttered to
himself. "Lord knows what mischief they'll get into if they all go
wandering about."
He looked up in alarm as a thunder of footsteps came his way down the hall.
There was a confusion of voices and the door burst open, his hapless sentry
being pushed in on a tide of Doctors.
"Sorry, sir, but..." the sentry said with dismay as he disappeared
behind the crowd.
"Brigadier!" all the Doctors shouted in unison at him, followed by a
garbled babble of variations that all included the word "rock"!
"Rock?" asked the
Brigadier blankly. "What rock?"
This was answered with another burst from all of the Doctors at once, making
him hold up a hand in protest. "Stop! Will only one Doctor tell me what
the devil you're all talking about?"
All of the Doctors looked at the oldest one, the one with the walking stick.
"We need to see that piece of
the meteor you took, young man." One said to the Brigadier.
---
Bars dropped down on Jo and Ace creating another cage around them.
"NO!" Jo and Ace cried at once and tried to run out of the way but
were trapped.
"It is I who asks the questions Doctor." The Master said.
Three frowned at the new bars that
had dropped into place and looked around for a camera, assuming the Master
would want to be keeping an eye on them. There it was, up in the corner. He
addressed it directly. "Ask your questions of me then! But I tell you
there's no reason to be pinning down my assistants. Let them go, they've
nothing to do with this."
As the Master stood up, Zoe pulled
Victoria back with her into hiding. She waited until he passed and hurried over
to the controls. Sitting down, she
looked at everything that was before her and grumbled. "It needs a key to
be accessed. We can't do anything with the controls."
"Can't you..oh, what was it called? Hot-wire it?" Victoria whispered. "You know, stick the wires together to make it go without a key?"
"Hot-wire? It's a control system, not a car." Zoe said, surprised at this suggestion.
Victoria shrugged. "Oh well, it was an idea. How can we get the key?"
Zoe sighed. "I don't think we
can. The Master there has it."
--
"What? Oh, right!" the Brigadier said. "I'd forgotten about
that." He stood up and patted his pockets, pulling out the piece of
meteorite. He considered it a moment. "Er...who gets it?"
"I'll take that...!" all the Doctors chorused reaching forward.
"No, I will!" they all then said to one another.
"Ye better give it t' me," Jamie said, pushing to the fore. "I'm
not one o' them."
"I think it would be better in my hands." One said.
"Oh really?" Seven said, holding out a hand and waggling his fingers.
"I believe I should take it."
"It would be better just to let Jamie keep it." Ian affirmed.
---
"Doctor, you always were too pitiful toward humans." The Master said
walking up to the cages.
"Let us out of here!" Ace said coming right up to the walls of the
cage.
"I see you've picked up another assistant." The Master said.
"She's not my assistant. Well, I mean, she is, but... oh never mind." Three stuffed his hands in his pockets and considered his adversary. "So, what do you want, anyway? Having a little difficulty with that addition to your rock collection, perhaps? I'd be glad to help you with it. Now, why don't you be reasonable and let these girls go on their way, then you and I can have a little chat about meteorites." He glanced over at Jo and Ace. "By the way, don't look in his eyes! He had an annoying tendency to hypnotize people left, right and center given half a chance."
"Do you take me for a fool Doctor?" The Master said. "They will stay here to assure your assistance."
"Oh, very original,"
Three said sardonically. "I take it our mutual level of trust hasn't
improved since the last time I saw you? What is it you're wanting me to do this
time?"
--
Jamie accepted the rock from the Brigadier's hand.
"Now, don't drop it, Jamie..." Two fussed.
"Is that all you needed?" the Brigadier asked. "If so, would it
be too much to ask that you ALL get out of my office and back to your
lab?"
After a few choice words and
opinions stated on that matter, the Doctors all swarmed out into the hall and
down to the lab again.
"All right. Where is that plasmatic temporal kronoizer?" One asked.
"Here you are." Ten said handing it over.
One set the rock in the middle of the three little poles sticking up out of a
red base, then flipped a switch. The lights on the end of the poles blinked and
there were little electrical bolts between them. The machine hummed, then
hummed louder, and louder and faster. Ten suddenly flipped it off. "All
right. Was anyone timing that?"
There was no response. "All right. Let's do it again."
---
Another TARDIS sounded in the canteen as yet another police box appeared.
"As if there aren't enough of him." Rose said quietly to herself.
"Hullo!" said Benton as the now very familiar blue box wheezed into solidity in the canteen. "Did one of them move from the quarry, then? Or is this another one?"
"It could be- no I saw his
TARDIS in his lab. And all the other Doctors are here. I expect it's a new
one." Rose said.
--
The krononizer was flipped on and turned off again and all the Doctors reported
the time simultaneously. Thankfully, when it came to things like time, they had
no disagreement.
"Well, that didn't seem to have any effect," Two said. "I wonder
if it was recorded on any of our TARDIS sensors. Ours are in the quarry, of
course, but that doesn't stop us from taking a look in this one." Knowing
all the rest of him would have had the same idea, he moved very quickly and
barely managed to dart ahead of the rest into Three's TARDIS, triumphantly
reaching the sensor readout first.
"Aha! Yes, something most definitely happened."
"What?" Jamie asked curiously.
"I have no idea," he said clapping his hands together. He turned to
the rest of them. "Any theories?"
"I think we should wait a bit and see if anything happens." Seven said, leaning on the console.
"Well I should think there
would be something to do while we're waiting." said Five, "all of us
sitting here staring at a piece of meteorite doesn't really do anything."
--
The Brigadier breathed a sigh of
relief and dismissed his apologetic sentry. He was just grateful there hadn't
been any more of them showing up.
--
"Another one?" Benton said. "Maybe I should call the
Brigadier."
"One of us could go get him if
you wanted us to," Martha volunteered. "But why don't we wait until
he comes out. Maybe we can just bring him with us, seeing as it will probably
be the Doctor. Again."
--
Zoe sat down at the controls and looked at the machine. "I think I could
break into the system with a bit of work."
Victoria nodded at Zoe. "Well,
let's start, tell me what I can do to help. I just peeked back down the hall
and he's caught the others now too. It's just up to us!"
--
Three reached through his bars to Jo to give her arm a reassuring pat, then
leaning close he whispered "Where did the others go?"
Jo motioned toward the strange
building within the barn and sat down against the bars that were between her
and Three. "Well. Here we are again." she sighed.
Ace turned to them. "How are we going to get out?" She asked.
The lights flickered as Zoe fiddled
with the controls. Finally, after the lights went off for a moment, then
resumed their normal brightness, she got into the controls.
"I got it." Zoe said with delight.
--
The various Doctors puttered around the lab, poking into corners to pass the
time. "I wonder where those two girls have gotten to? It can't be that
hard to find tea." Seven observed.
"They're probably trying to find a way to carry all that tea," said Five reassuringly.
--
"Wait." Rose said. She thought she heard voices from inside the new TARDIS.
"Okay," said Martha slowly, "how long are we going to wait though?"
Rose motioned for Martha and Benton
to be quiet and went up to put her ear to the door of the TARDIS.
"I can't make it out." She said quietly, backing away from the door.
"But there's voices."
The door cracked open.
"But Doctor," a somewhat high-pitched woman's voice was saying.
"I don't understand!"
"I told you, Peri," a man's voice replied. "The TARDIS came here
itself. That must mean there's a good reason for it. Something or someone wants
me here and I suggest we go find out what it is."
"But..." she began again, then fell silent as the doors opened the
rest of the way and a large, colorful man stepped out so quickly he nearly
stepped on Rose's feet.
"Ah, a welcoming committee! Wait! I think I know where we are! Peri, this
is UNIT! And that man there is Sergeant Benton!"
The thin dark-haired girl with too few bits of clothing on peered out at them
from the doorway with a cautious, confused look on her face.
Benton nodded at the huge man with his blinding outfit and managed a befuddled
smile as he shook his hand. "Well, as I once said, nothing about you
surprises me anymore, though this is a stretch. If you don't mind telling me,
which...uh, version of you are you?"
"What a question! I am myself!" the large man said, "And I've
never been better, I think. I thought I'd reached the pinnacle back when I was
younger, you know, but cricket is so very passé..."
"Ah, you would be number Six then," Benton said. He looked over at
Rose and Martha. "These ladies are... they... well, I'll let someone else
sort things out for you. Pardon me, I think I need to make a call to the
Brigadier."
Rose looked at the new Doctor and his companion. After a long moment of silence she asked, "Want some chips?" trying to break the awkward quiet and then realized how stupid of a thing it was to say considering the circumstances.
"I'll take some chips
Rose," said Martha, "then why don't we bring our 'new friends' with
us as we go?"
--
Preoccupied with reports, the Brigadier
picked up his phone on the first ring. "Lethbridge-Stewart."
"Sir," Benton said. "We've had another one show up. In the
canteen."
"More? What, didn't they put down those mousetraps like I told them
to?"
"Not a mouse, sir. A Doctor."
"In the canteen?"
"Yessir. Box and all."
"Are you sure it isn't just one of the ones we already have?"
"Uh...very sure. You'll have to see this one to believe it."
He sat back in his chair. "Good heavens. He isn't number twenty or
something is he?"
"No, only six."
"Never thought I'd be glad to hear of such a thing as 'only' sixth for the
Doctor. Very well. Escort him and anyone with him to the lab with the others,
Benton. That will be all."
"Yes sir!"
--
"It's working?" Victoria asked hopefully. She experimentally pushed a
button, then when nothing obvious happened, pushed it again.
Three and Jo, who'd settled down leaning against their dividing bars were both
startled as the bars themselves suddenly shot upwards. Ace jumped back and Jo
fell over into the blank space where they had been.
"Jo! Watch out!" said Three, pulling her forward as the bars just as
suddenly shot back down again. She narrowly escaped being squashed by the
descending wall, but now she was in the same compartment as the Doctor. He
looked up at the ceiling. "Well, now that was interesting..."
--
Two looked around at the circle of people all staring at the meteorite.
"How about some music while we wait for nothing in particular to
happen?" he asked, pulling out his recorder.
He tooted a poor rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, then stopped and peered into the holes on his recorder as if it were the instrument's fault. "Any requests?"
Seven heard the voices of the two
girls in the hall. "Ah! Here they are! Finally!" he said. Rose and
Martha entered the room followed by a man in riot of bright rainbow clothes
with a rainbow umbrella and a shorter girl who looked... different.
"What on earth are you doing here?" Seven asked the new man.
"Here you go Doctors." Rose said pushing the tea cart into the middle
of them all. There were ten boxes of sugar, one for each.
"I just hope no more show up or we might run out of
tea," said Martha, pouring some tea into the many cups they had brought.
---
Zoe tried another switch but nothing obvious happened. There were footsteps
coming toward them.
Another set of bars came down for a moment, almost hitting Ace, and then lifted
again.
"Why is the Master fiddling around with us?" Jo sighed.
--
All of the Doctor's began scooping spoonful after spoonful of sugar into the cups. Rose looked a bit queasy at the goop that all of them were creating. Like sugar with a bit of tea thrown in.
"I'm amazed you made it through ten regenerations with that much sugar," Martha laughed.
Six, who was still getting used to
the concept that there were so many of himself all there together in one place
almost missed out on the tea but made up for it by stashing all of the leftover
sugar in his pockets for later.
Peri gawked at him. "Won't that make your pockets sticky?"
"Never," he said with assurance, trying to get his fingers back out
again. "I'm just glad we didn't miss tea-time, whatever else is going on
here."
Jamie looked at Peri, blushed and looked away. He edged through the crowd to
Two and nudged him. "Doctor, they must've had some misfortune, that lass
over there is missing half her clothes! Don't we have anything here that might
cover her up decent-like?"
Two looked over at Peri and his eyebrows shot up. "Oh dear. Yes. Well, l I
expect she may be dressed that way on purpose, but let's see what we can do,
shall we?"
Handing Jamie his tea-cup, he snagged one of Three's capes from the coat-rack
and took it over to her, settling it around her shoulders. "Here, my dear.
I'm sure you must be chilly in those summer clothes. I'm the Doctor, by the
way, that is, the second Doctor, you may call me Two if you like. Am I
correct that this rather blinding and obnoxious individual beside you is a
future version of myself, though I can't tell you how sincerely I hope
not?"
"He is a regeneration after me," said Five,
"so he's at least the Sixth."
--
Victoria pushed more buttons. "Let's try these."
"Watch out!" Three said, pulling Jo with him to the side as yet
another set of bars shot down and then back up. He could hear Ace give a squawk
of protest as her own began banging up and down like a chopping-machine without
ever quite staying up enough for her to get out.
Zoe suddenly grabbed Victoria's arm
and pulled her down behind some boxes and crates. "Someone's coming."
She whispered.
The footsteps neared and then passed. Zoe peaked over to see the Master sitting
down at the controls. He looked suspiciously at them. And then turned all of
the controls off.
Ace was wide eyed and quite upset about the bars flying up and down and was
glad when they finally stopped. "Well they could have stopped up!"
She shouted to... well not exactly anyone.
"Now we're all in one cage together. The middle one is up." Jo said,
motioning to where the bars between Ace and the Doctor and herself had been.
Ace hurried over to the other side of the cage, just incase they went down
again.
-----
"To the point, when did your TARDIS materialize here?" Seven asked.
Rose looked at her watch. "About 5 minutes ago." she answered.
"Then the meteor must be related to why we're all here." One said.
"Then this Master fellow is stuck here as well?" Ian asked.
"It's been seven
minutes," Six said imperiously to Rose. He turned to the rest of the room.
"You, you and you, I remember," he said sourly pointing out One, Two
and Five. He eyeballed Seven and Ten with distaste. "Am I to presume you
came after?"
"Which one are ye?" asked Jamie.
"Sixth. And best, if I may say so myself," he said, puffing out his
chest.
"Oh dear," said Two. "I was afraid you were. I didn't freely
choose that hideous outfit, did I? Well, no matter. You see, we've this bit of
a meteorite problem, it seems to be pulling all of us to this same juncture in
time. And yes," he added to Ian, "I expect it may be affecting your
Master-chap, as you say, if he's a Time Lord as well."
Six looked around. "If we're at UNIT, where am I then? I mean, the me who
was supposed to be here, that is? And how many Masters are there?"
"Doctor, I don't understand," whined Peri.
"We're not quite sure where he
is but knowing myself I'm mostly likely off doing my own investigating."
Ten said.
Seven sighed, remembering his oblivious American companion. He should have
stayed with people from Britain and left her with her old life. At least she
would be alive that way, and out of his way for that matter. But she was back
for the time being.
"You see my dear, we are all Timelords. The same Timelord to be precise
and all of me are here." One explained to Peri. "We have been pulled
here by some force that we believe to be coming from this meteor."
--
"Well actually, not all of us are here." Five
pointed out, "It would be a lot more crowded, what with companions as
well."
"Just think, we would have had to get more tea," Martha pointed out
to Rose.
Peri still looked confused, but
taking a cue from all of the Doctors who were old enough to remember her, Two
decided to leave her that way. He addressed himself instead.
"We don't really know about the Master, as far as I know my selves haven't
seen any more of him they recognize..." He got a collective nod of assent
on this point. "So there may be just the one. Though it does seem
unlikely, doesn't it?"
"He has a good point," Benton said, indicating Five. "If this
one is Six, and that gentleman there is Ten, where's numbers four, eight and
nine? Or are there more than that?"
Jamie grinned and rocked back on his heels. "We'll have an entire regiment
o' Doctors if this keeps up."
"Oh no. Oh no no no, I don't like the sound of that at all," muttered
Two.
"Not that I'm
complaining," said Five, "Seven of us is quite enough."
"If you're the Tenth then that means that there are still three more who
may show up at any time." Ian noted. He was still nursing his headache from the Master having beaned him with a rock earlier.
One was laughing to himself. "Ho, ten of me! Can you imagine? It would seem I've certainly gotten
around."
Six considered all of this for a moment and looked down at his empty tea cup.
"You don't happen to have any biscuits, do you?"
"Biscuits, I knew we forgot something when we got the tea," said
Martha.
"The canteen is back the way we came." Rose said, motioning toward the door.
"I'll go back and get some
biscuits," Martha volunteered again. "Anyone want to help me this time?"
"I'll go with you," said Nyssa, feeling like she hadn't been able to
do much.
--
"This is ridiculous," Three muttered. He raised his voice. "Look, wherever you are, I'll help you out with your little geology experiment. You're wasting time, and for all you know it may be affecting you just as much as me!"
"Well Doctor." The Master
said through the communicator. "It would seem we have ourselves and
agreement. But one slip and Miss Grant and the other girl will die."
Zoe's eyes went wide as she turned quietly to Victoria. 'We have to do
something.' she mouthed.
"How continually melodramatic of
you," Three said. "No need for threats, I'm right here."
The far side of the enclosure slid upward, revealing a darkly enclosed hallway.
Three gave Jo a reassuring pat on the arm and walked through, the wall closing
behind him so quickly it nearly caught his heels.
Patting his pocket to be sure he had his screwdriver, he cautiously made his
way along towards a door at the other end. He tested the handle. It was
unlocked. Taking a breath, he pulled it open and went in.
--
"Doctor," said Jamie to Two. "Don't you think those girls and
that, you, the one w' the grand cape. They should've been back by now?"
"True," Two agreed, meeting Seven's worried eyes. "Or they
should've at least radioed in. Corporal...I mean, Sergeant Benton. Has anyone
heard from our missing car yet?"
"No," said Benton from where he was trying to not notice Peri.
"Not a word. Do you think we should send someone out after them?"
"Ace, why'd you have to
go?" Seven said quietly to himself.
"That would be a good idea. If they went after the Master than they could
be in any kind of danger!" One said.
---
The Master stood and walked out of the small building within the barn and made
his way over to the cage. He passed it at a distance, seeing the hostility in
Ace's eyes. Entering a small door he walked down a corridor into the same room
as the Doctor.
As soon as the Master had left Zoe leapt up to her feet and went over to the
controls, starting them up again. She watched the camera screen to make sure
the Master was well out of the way and then turned on the communicator.
"Jo? Ace? Is this working?" She said.
Jo jumped to her feet. "Zoe? Where are you?" She asked.
The voice came from the wall again. "In the controls. The small building
within the barn. Victoria is with me."
"That was you!" Ace said. "With the cage bars!"
"We didn't have the cameras working." Zoe said, slightly offended.
--
Five gave in to the fact that they were apparently going to
have to split up again but asked just in case, "is there any possibility
you could just send some of your men from here to find them Benton? Rather than
more of us getting lost along the way I mean."
"All right let's go," said Martha quietly to Nyssa. "They can
handle this. I hope you feel like carrying a lot of biscuits."
"I don't think we'll need that many," Nyssa argued, "The doctors
are all so busy that not too many of them will even notice when we come
back."
--
ooc: The reference here to
Omega's black hole is regarding 'The Three Doctors' in which One, Two and Three
are involved in solving a time-travel issue with a former Time Lord named
Omega. I thought a time-distorting bit of rock had to come from somewhere and
it might as well be from a place that's had something of the sort before. Hope
this is okay.
"Did you say something about biscuits?" Six asked. "Pardon me...
I think I hear a biscuit calling my name..." He slipped out of the lab and
followed Martha and Nyssa towards the canteen.
"Where are you going?" Peri asked. "I don't understand!"
"Er, he said something about a biscuits, Miss. I would assume he's off to
get some." Benton said politely, seeing as everyone else was now ignoring
her.
--
Three raised his brows at the oddly home-made appearing tracking devices,
little tubes and levers. Closer examination showed they were quite fine-tuned,
even if they did look bolted together. There were charts showing some quadrants
of space, one of which he recognized at being the location of the black hole
that Omega had pulled him into before.
On the table sat the chunk of meteorite, now mounted within metal bands and
locked beneath a clear dome all dotted with sensors.
A door opened and the Master came in.
"Nice little science project," Three commented. "Does it make
coffee, or are you starting a chia-meteorite terrarium?"
"You seem to have figured out what the meteor is doing, Doctor." The Master said, attempting to ignore the Doctor's sarcastic comments.
--
"Can you get it open
again?" Jo asked.
"I think so." Zoe replied, trying different levers. Jo jumped back as
the bars began flying up and down again. They stopped.
"Sorry. I need some extra code or key or something of the sort for that.
He's set it up so it won't open with the normal levers." Zoe sighed.
"I guess we're stuck here."
"You aren't." Jo reminded her.
"You could get over to Bessie and radio the others." Ace added.
Victoria nodded. "Zoe seems to
know quite a lot more about these machines that I do, but I can call the
others. Our Doctor and Jamie are probably worried for me...I mean, us."
There being no sign of the Master, who was apparently occupied with Three, she
slipped out of the barn and ran across to the waiting yellow car. Hunting
around the lower dash she located the radio and gave it a try.
"Um...is anybody there? This is Victoria Waterfield. I'm at the Doctor's
yellow car. Hello? I think we need some help."
A voice crackled over the radio. "This is UNIT command. Just a moment,
Miss, the Brigadier would like to speak with you. Sir...! It's...." there
was a moment of static and another voice came over the speaker.
"Miss Waterfield!" the Brigadier said. "Where are you? Is anyone
hurt?"
"We're...well, I'm not sure where we are. We pulled off onto a country
lane from the main road we were all taking from the quarry. I'm outside a barn.
Everyone's all right so far, but the Master's caught Jo and Ace in a sort of
cage, Zoe's trying to get it open and I don't know how the Doctor, the third
one that is, is doing. He and the Master are somewhere in there. It has
something to do with that meteorite again."
"A barn? A cage?" the Brigadier said with consternation. "We'll find you. Would the
car be visible from the air?"
Victoria looked up at the trees. "Oh yes! There's a clearing around the
barn."
"Stay where you are. We'll send help. UNIT out."
--
Six happily came along with Nyssa
and Martha, his long legs rapidly closing the distance. "Pleased to meet
you," he said amiably. He nodded at Martha. "I would introduce myself
but it appears you must know at least one of me already, and Nyssa I remember
well! So nice to see you again, dear. Oh, my, smell that coffee! And what is
that? Chicken baking? Fresh buns? Ah! I remember the UNIT canteen now, oh
lovely, lovely things. Don't think I had a full appreciation for it then, I'll
certainly have to make up for that now."
The lab phone rang and Two, who happened to be standing by it, picked it up.
"Hello? This is the Doctor. I mean, the second one. Oh hello, Brigadier.
You've heard from them? Victoria? Oh, I see. By all means!"
He put it down and looked back at the gathered room who were all staring at him
waiting to see what it was about. He clapped his hands. "Victoria's made
radio contact. It seems this Master fellow has our third self in his company
and the girls are rather in need of assistance. The Brigadier wants to go after
them immediately. Anyone up for a helicopter ride?"
Seven jumped to his feet.
"Most certainly." He said walking over to his earlier self.
"Jamie?"
"Do you think that we could go back to the quarry to check on Susan?"
Ian asked, referring to himself, One, and Barbara.
"I'm sure it's very nice to
see you Doctor," said Nyssa. "But I suppose since I'm traveling with
one of you it's not exactly again."
Martha looked around the canteen for biscuits, "I don't suppose you
remember where to look for the biscuits?" she asked the sixth doctor.
"If someone has to stay I
will," said Five, "but I'd be quite happy to go along as well."
"Perhaps we should check on her," said Barbara, "what do you
think Doctor... I mean, our doctor."
"I dinna care for
helicopters," Jamie said trepiditiously. "Can't we take that truck
again?"
"I don't understand," said Peri.
--
As Victoria hung up the phone in the car the very familiar sound of a TARDIS
materializing met her. It had barely finished appearing when the door opened
and she had to assume that the man who came out was yet another Doctor. He
looked around and seemed a bit confused, "Rose?"
Victoria considered this rather
odd-looking man. She'd wondered if he really was a Doctor until he'd asked for
Rose seeing as he was the only one so far who didn't have a good head of hair.
She stood up in Bessie and gave an uncertain little curtsey. "You must be
the Doctor? I'm Victoria...or maybe you already know that. I remember Rose, but
I'm afraid she's not here, she's probably back at that UNIT place by now with
the others. You might want to stay out here, the Brigadier says he's sending
some help, and there's a man called the Master in there, with you, I mean with
another one of you. A third you. The one who has this car." She hoped that
made some kind of sense.
Number Nine couldn't help but stare
at Victoria, somewhat confused for a few seconds before it dawned on him.
"Another one of me? Oh so there's more than one of me. Of course I
remember you Victoria. Now, Could you tell me what's going here? something
about the Master I gather and the Brigadier too."
--
"Hello!" Six said to the somewhat baffled looking men who were
cooking in the kitchens. "I'm the Doctor."
"No you aren't," said one of them.
"Now, no need to be difficult. We'd like two - no, better make it four -
trays of biscuits, there's a good chap. Six roast chickens, two or three
tureens of that soup there, a good pound of butter, three trays of cheese, some
pots of jam, one of creamed honey, five pots of clotted cream, some of that
lemon curd if you have any, a bit of fresh fruit, melons, twelve pounds of
sliced ham and roast beef, horseradish, a chafing dish of peas and carrots, two
jugs of gravy...no, make that four jugs, eight loaves of bread, a good supply
of tea and milk, six boxes of sugar-cubes and a half-dozen chocolate
cakes."
He turned to the girls. "Did I forget anything?"
"The kitchen sink?"
Martha suggested.
"You forgot to explain," Nyssa turned to the kitchen staff again,
"he's one of the Doctors, there are quite a few running about here."
One of the UNIT cooks turned to the
other. "Is there a medical staff meeting going on? I missed the memos this
morning."
The other shrugged. "Beats me. Probably. Cute nurses." He began
loading up the food order onto a handful of tea-carts. "You want the
coleslaw or the potatoes with that?"
"Both," said Six. He reached over to a nearby rack and helped himself
to a handful of sticky-buns, stuffing one in his mouth. "Oh, I just love
the canteen," he mumbled happily. "I could stay here all day."
"Ah, we're going to need quite
a few carts to get all of this up there." Nyssa looked around at the
kitchen staff, "Do you guys feel like helping us get this back to the rest
of the Doctors?"
"Hopefully before this one eats it," said Martha, watching the sixth Doctor.
Six smiled at them. "Oh, go on," he waved his sticky fingers at a pair of loaded tea-trolleys. "I'll stay here and supervise the cooking." He picked up a plate and began loading it up with mashed potatoes. He looked at the cooks expectantly. "You don't happen to have any gravy? If not, a bit of butter will do. Where's the pepper-grinder?"
Martha rolled her eyes and grabbed
one of the tea trolleys, "Let's get going then."
"Come on," said Nyssa to the kitchen staff.
Six perched on a stool by the kitchens
and happily stuffed himself, hardly even noticing the girls had gone.
--
Victoria nodded. "The Master, he's a man all dressed in black and he took
a piece of meteorite from the quarry. All sorts of you were showing up there,
there were simply TARDIS's all over the place. All of us and our Doctors were
heading back to this UNIT place when our group, that is Zoe, Ace, Jo and I with
number Three, saw the Master and followed him here." She paused to look
back towards the road. "The Brigadier, he's the one they had me call, he
says he'll send help. I expect it might be more of you. It's all a bit odd.
So... which Doctor are you? We were still missing a few. And do you think you
can help?"
--
Peri walked over to Jamie. "Why are you wearing a skirt?"
Jamie managed not to smack her. "It's not a skirt, it's a kilt."
"It looks just like a skirt. I don't understand."
Two sidled up to Seven. "Is that, er, rather buxom girl really as dim as
she seems?"
"Doctors!" The Brigadier called from the doorway. Several heads
turned his way. "Have you made any progress with that rock of yours? It
would be best if at least one of you could stay here as a reference point. Any
volunteers?" There was another long pause as they all looked at one
another.
"I volunteer myself," Two said cheerfully. "But not myself
myself, I mean myself number Six, as he's gone off to the canteen."
"Aye," Jamie said. "He should know better than to leave the room
when there's decisions bein' made."
