Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead Read Online Free PDF Page B

confidently.
    It was as well for Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart that he had moved to the woods on the east of the obelisk in his search for Turlough. Had he chosen the other side of the hill, it would have done his health no good at all to have seen a silver sphere materialise between two trees.
    The door of the capsule unsealed and the Doctor looked out. It was indeed Earth, and he and the boy appeared to be in one piece – which was a relief; as he observed to Turlough, a badly maintained transmat system could do very nasty things to organic structures.
    The small box in the Doctor’s hand began to whistle and squeak like an elderly wireless trying to find the Home Service. The Doctor looked pleased with himself; they must be very near the beam transmitter.
    As they walked from the trees towards the obelisk, the squawking of the detector grew more and more excited, until the Doctor stopped at the base of the monument. He ran his hands over the stonework and from a cavity withdrew a small canister. This was the device which had stranded the TARDIS on the red ship.
    Turlough handed the Doctor the tool-kit he had been carrying for him. The Doctor selected a small instrument and knelt over the transmitter.
    But the canister had no apparent opening, its casing being constructed entirely without welding or seam.
    ‘Brute force, I’m afraid,’ said the Doctor, extracting a more robust implement from the kit.
    So engrossed was he in his task that he did not hear Turlough’s sudden whimper. The boy had developed the most appalling headache. His view of the Doctor misted and blurred. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, yet he shivered with intense cold. Something was gnawing its way through his skull. The invading genius spoke within him.
    ‘Now boy! Do it now!’
    But still Turlough knew that his new-found friend, kneeling so vulnerably on the ground in front of him, was a good man.
    ‘In the name of all that is Evil, the Black Guardian orders you to destroy him now!’ The voice resonated inside his head and Turlough was one with the evil stranger.
    The boy picked up a boulder and raised it over the unsuspecting Doctor.
    The Doctor reeled back, choking from the acrid smoke.
    The short-circuiting of the energy in the canister had caused a small explosion.
    Turlough felt the pain ease, the grip on his mind relax.
    He stared in embarrassment at the huge rock he was holding, then let it fall to the ground.
    The Doctor looked up and grinned. ‘Sorry about that.’
    Tegan could not for the life of her understand why Nyssa had taken such a liking to that pale and shifty young man. The Doctor, obviously, didn’t trust Turlough out of his sight, or he wouldn’t have taken him to Earth in the capsule.
    Nyssa couldn’t agree; but their argument was cut short as the TARDIS column grunted and jerked, then began a reassuringly regular rise and fall.
    ‘Here we go!’
    They were on their way to join the Doctor on Earth —
    out of the warp ellipse and away from that depressing red ship.
    At least the explosion in the canister had cut out the beam that inhibited the TARDIS.
    The Doctor stood up and looked hopefully about the obelisk. Nothing yet. He couldn’t have made a mistake with the co-ordinates - or could he?
    Was the noise they could both suddenly hear the wind in the trees? There was a pale blue shadow to one side of the obelisk; indubitably the outline of a police box. The groaning protest that accompanied the materialisation was music to the Doctor’s ears as he stepped forward to welcome Tegan and Nyssa.
    But his hand went towards a door that was not there.
    Hardly had the time-machine materialised than all trace of it faded away again.
    The Doctor prowled round the empty space in total disbelief.
    ‘Could it have been affected by tangential deviation?’
    asked Turlough in a very matter-of-fact voice.
    The Doctor might have replied that this was an impossibly knowledgeable question for an English schoolboy. In fact, he