Doctor Who: Planet of Fire Read Online Free PDF Page A

‘You’re right, Karnelion’s in a bad way,’ he said, without taking his eyes off the slither of silicon in the boy’s hand. Moving to the console, he picked up the two pieces of outer casing from where Turlough had dropped them. ‘A beacon,’ he observed. ‘Sent across space like a shipwrecked sailor’s bottle...’ He extracted the core from between Turlough’s fingers. ‘With a message in it. Who from, I wonder? And where?’
    Turlough decided the time had come to confess his guilty secret. The Doctor must be stopped from contacting the Trion ship. He coughed nervously. ‘Doctor, there’s something I ought to tell you.’
    Peri was dreaming again; the same recurring nightmare.
    She was a little girl once more, sent to bed in disgrace.
    ‘Don’t put out the light!’ she pleaded with her stepfather.
    ‘Please, Howard. Don’t put out the light!’
    Suddenly, there was energy. Kamelion could feel the restorative power in his circuits. ‘Please, Howard... Please, Howard...’ An irresistible force began to transform his now dazzling metal carapace. ‘Howard! Howard!’ The shining silver skin transmuted to a suit of sober cloth.
    ‘Howard.,. Howard...’
    The robot’s burnished head transmogrified into the face of Howard Foster. The robot’s new alter ego got to his feet, pulled apart his black jacket and white shirt, and plugged himself into the cable trailing from the computer outlet.
    There was a flash and a puff of smoke.
    ‘Oh, dear,’ said the Doctor, who had been connecting the data core with the TARDIS computer system. ‘Now we’ll never know where the beacon came from.’
    Turlough smiled.
    ‘What was it you wanted to tell me by the way?’
    ‘Doesn’t matter,’ said Turlough. much relieved.
    The Doctor looked quizzically at his companion. The boy had been worrying about something all day. ‘Anything wrong, Turlough?’
    The interrogation got no further for the double doors abruptly, and quite spontaneously, slammed shut.
    ‘Did you do that?’ asked the Doctor.
    ‘Of course not,’ said Turlough, just as surprised.
    The column began to rise and fall.
    ‘The TARDIS has dematerialised,’ exclaimed the Doctor.
    ‘Kamelion!’
    ‘Impossible. He’s out for the count.’
     
    Any further speculation on the destination of their mystery trip was cut short by the arrival in the control room of a smiling American in a dark, well-cut suit.
    ‘Doctor, we meet again.’
    The Doctor turned to the newcomer in amazement.
    ‘Professor Foster!’
    The robot, perfectly disguised, continued to act out the role of the archaeologist. ‘This has to be the most amazing machine I’ve seen in my life.’ He gazed round the control room in assumed astonishment.
    ‘How did you get in here?’ protested Turlough.
    ‘I was following Peri,’ drawled the duplicate professor.
    `The girl!’ cried Turlough. ‘I forgot all about her.’
    ‘What girl?’
    ‘I was going to explain,’ said a rather shamefaced companion. But he had left it a bit too late as the Doctor was already staring, nonplussed, at the inner doorway where a young lady in blouse and shorts stood blinking, equally amazed, at the mysteries of the TARDIS control room. ‘ That girl, Doctor!’ hissed Turlough in a loud stage whisper.
     
    4

Crisis on Sarn
    The sky above Sarn had been dark for seven whole days.
    Black rain had fallen on the fields. The earth had began to tremble and shake. A pall of smoke hung over the Fire Mountain. The darkness and the quaking ground had not come to Sarn for nearly a whole generation, and only the old people could recall the last days of endurance. From every corner of the ancient settlement, the citizens were hurrying to hear the wisdom of the Elders and the judgement of their Chosen One.
    Timanov stared out past the crumbling columns of the elegant pagoda towards the smouldering mountain. Not for seventy years had he seen such a lowering prospect. At the last crisis he had been hardly more than a