Doctor Who: Shada Read Online Free PDF

ushered Romana through the vestibule and into the room. Romana was pleased to be back. There was a time when she’d have squirmed at the muddle and mess, all the books strewn around the place, but now she found the odour of decaying aldehydes and tea leaves strangely reassuring.
    The room was empty – or rather it was full, but empty of the Professor. The Doctor nodded towards the kitchen and whispered to her, ‘He’ll ask us if we want tea.’
    ‘Tea?’ called the scratchy voice from the kitchen.
    ‘Yes please,’ called the Doctor. ‘Two cups!’
    ‘Milk?’ called the voice.
    ‘Yes please,’ called the Doctor.
    ‘One lump or two?’
    ‘Two please,’ called the Doctor, winking at Romana. ‘And two sugars.’
    Romana wasn’t sure what to make of that remark, but it caused the Professor to hurry out from the kitchen, a tray with three teacups in his hands, and a broad smile across his face. He seemed like such a nice old man. Immediately she liked him.
    The Professor set down his tray and came forward to shake the Doctor enthusiastically by the hand, his eyes alight with welcome for his old, old friend. ‘Ah, Doctor! How splendid to see you again!’
    ‘And you, Professor!’ said the Doctor. ‘This is Romana.’
    The Professor beamed and shook her warmly by the hand. ‘Ah, delighted, delighted. I’ve heard so much about you, young lady.’
    The Doctor looked surprised. ‘Have you?’
    ‘Well not yet but I’m sure I will have done.’ He looked momentarily confused and put a hand to his forehead. ‘Do excuse me. When Time Lords get to my age they tend to get their tenses muddled up.’ He hustled them to a sofa that could just about be distinguished under heaps of books and, after clearing a few away to create a little space, they sat down.
    The Professor placed their cups of tea on the wonky table and then a thought seemed to strike him. ‘Oh, would you have liked some biscuits too?’
    ‘Well, I wouldn’t have said no,’ said the Doctor.
    The Professor headed back to the kitchen. ‘Crackers?’
    The Doctor grinned broadly. ‘Oh, sometimes, sometimes.’
    As the Professor fussed around in the kitchen and the Doctor flicked idly through the nearest stack of books, Romana reflected on the incongruity of her surroundings. Until the distress signal had been picked up by the TARDIS, causing the Doctor to drop everything – literally – bypass the Randomiser and head for Earth at what passed for top speed, she had never heard of Professor Chronotis. The Doctor had explained how Chronotis, as was the custom for very elderly Time Lords of great service, in the declining centuries following their twelfth and final regeneration, had been offered the opportunity to retire somewhere out in the wide universe by the High Council of Gallifrey. It was a custom that dated back millions of years into the Time Lords’ own history, and very few had ever accepted the offer. But Chronotis had jumped at the chance, packed his bags for Earth and set himself up as a professor at Cambridge.
    ‘Three hundred years,’ Romana marvelled as the Professor handed her a refill.
    ‘Yes, my dear,’ said Chronotis a little proudly.
    ‘In the same set of rooms?’
    Chronotis nodded. ‘Ever since I retired from Gallifrey.’
    Romana was puzzled. The life expectancy of a human was far shorter than that of a Time Lord, even a very elderly one. ‘Didn’t anybody notice?’
    ‘Oh yes, of course they did,’ said the Professor airily. ‘But that’s one of the delights of the older Cambridge colleges. Everyone is so very… discreet .’
    He lowered himself onto a stack of atlases, stood up again, swept the books noisily to the floor with surprising strength, and plonked himself down into the armchair they had been occupying. He leant over and turned up the dial on a battered electric fire. The October afternoon was beginning to lose its warmth.
    As part of her studies at the Academy, Romana had visited the chambers of the