Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead Read Online Free PDF

the Doctor out of their sight.
     
    Had they spared a look behind, they might have seen a thin, pale youth slip out of the shadows and into the TARDIS.
    ‘The transmat beam has been operated. The signal is interfering with the TARDIS.’ As soon as they entered the control centre the Doctor made straight for the main systems panel.
    ‘Look!’ shouted Nyssa, who had seen the silver sphere in the previously empty recess. ‘The capsule has returned.’
    Tegan looked nervously round the room and out to the gloomy corridor that led to the rest of the ship. ‘If that thing is back there could be somebody on board.’
    But no one was listening. Nyssa had joined the Doctor, who was pulling the systems panel apart. ‘The transmat signal is supposed to cut out when the capsule completes its journey,’ he explained.
    ‘Can you switch it off?’
    ‘I hope so.’
    ‘I hope so too,’ added Tegan, peering over Nyssa’s shoulder. ‘I don’t fancy a non-stop mystery tour of the galaxy.’
    ‘Ah!’ said the Doctor, with the enthusiasm of a householder who has just discovered extensive dry rot.
    ‘You’ve found the fault?’
    ‘In a manner of speaking.’ He stood up and smiled, rather sheepishly, at the two girls. ‘It’s on Earth.’
    Tegan’s face fell.
    ‘Come on,’ cried the Doctor. ‘Back to the TARDIS.’
    Once more they trooped along the ornate walkways of the red ship. Neither Tegan nor Nyssa could see the point of returning to the time-machine since it was trapped by the transmat beam, which could only be switched off by going to Earth... in the TARDIS! They dared not ask the answer to the riddle. Neither could bear to think of being trapped forever on the ship.
    Turlough was enthralled by the TARDIS control room. As he had suspected, the machine could travel in the fourth dimension.
    A desperate idea came into his head. If he could travel in the TARDIS with the Doctor he could voyage back to a time before the dreadful pact with the man in black. He could break free of his bond with the evil stranger, yet still be liberated from Earth.
    His head ached suddenly and violently. Perhaps the stranger knew his every thought? The very concept of disobedience must be erased from his mind.
    Turlough laboured hard to unthink what had been thought. So great was his concentration that he did not hear the Doctor return.
    The Doctor stood in the door of the control room, looking at the pale, frightened intruder. ‘Who are you?’ he said.
     
    3

An Old Friend
    Tegan never knew why the Doctor had swallowed Turlough’s unlikely story of how he came to be in the TARDIS. Could it have been intuition? A fatalistic acceptance of the mesh of coincidence that was forming around him? Or was it remorse at the loss of Adric – this sympathy for the strange young man who had broken into his time-machine?
    Tegan didn’t trust Turlough an inch. As if anyone from Earth would just walk into a transmat capsule! Though Nyssa was quick to point out that that was exactly what she had done when she walked into the Doctor’s police box on the Barnet By-pass.
    Perhaps, after all, the Doctor was just obsessed with escaping from the confines of the ship. ‘All set. Earth 1983.’ He finished setting the co-ordinates and moved to the doors.
    ‘Where are you going?’ asked Nyssa.
    ‘Earth – via the transmat capsule.’
    ‘Is it safe?’
    ‘It worked one way.’ The Doctor smiled at Turlough, then turned back to the girls. ‘Once I’ve disconnected the beam, the TARDIS, with you three on board, should follow me through to Earth.’
    ‘Can I come with you?’
    Tegan looked at Nyssa. Why was the boy so keen to stick with the Doctor?
    The Doctor turned to Turlough, thought for a moment, then, to the surprise of the two companions, agreed to take the young man with him.
    ‘Good luck!’ shouted Nyssa, as the Doctor and Turlough left the TARDIS to go back to the capsule in the control centre.
     
    ‘See you on Earth,’ replied the Doctor