Doctor Who: The Rescue Read Online Free PDF

slipped them onto the end of his nose and tried again. But it was no better. Clicking his tongue with irritation he snatched off the spectacles, picked up the magnifying glass again and held the notebook at arm’s length, screwing up his eyes into tiny points.
    Still unsuccessful, the Doctor stuck the spectacles back on his nose and peered through the magnifying glass as well, moving the notebook to and fro in a vain attempt to decode his own atrocious handwriting. Finally, with an exasperated sigh he flung the lot onto the control pedestal.
     
    ‘My handwriting gets worse and worse...’ he complained to the empty TARDIS, massaging his tired eyes behind the spectacles, his nostrils flaring with annoyance. He mooched around the pedestal several times, his head bowed, fiddling with the fob of his watch chain. Then he stopped and squared his shoulders resolutely.
    ‘I really must stop moping about Susan!’ he told himself sternly.
    He picked up the chunk of rock and studied it for a long time. At last he put it down carefully on the control panel, his mind made up. ‘Not a shred of doubt,’ he announced to the deserted chamber. ‘We have materialised on the planet Dido... Thirteenth planet in the rotating binary star system Proxima Gemini in the Galaxy Moore Eleven, Subcluster Tel... Remarkable! I’m so looking forward to meeting these friendly, civilised creatures again after so many years.’
    The Doctor stood staring up at the murky image on the monitor screen. Then he sighed ruefully. ‘I do not imagine there is any point in my telling Chesterton that I brought them here intentionally,’ he mused. ‘No, no, no, of course not. I was fast asleep, was I not? Pity.’ Brushing his dusty hands carelessly on his lapels, the Doctor took off his spectacles and slipped them into his pocket together with the notebook.
    He was just about to settle himself in the armchair for a peaceful nap when there was a sudden frantic hammering on the door. Glancing at the screen, the Doctor saw Ian’s pale and frightened face distorted into a bulbous mask.
    ‘Doctor... Doctor... For heaven’s sake open the door!’
    Ian yelled, his eyes huge with panic.
    ‘I wonder what he’s done with young Barbara...’ the Doctor muttered hurrying to the controls and operating the door switch.
    All at once the TARDIS shook violently and then rocked drunkenly from side to side. The Doctor winced as he heard the thump of falling rocks bouncing off the frail wooden structure. The image on the scanner screen was obliterated as a storm of sand and dust erupted in the cavern. Next moment the sound of a massive explosion flung open the door and sent a whirlwind of sand and splintered rock into the chamber. The Doctor clung to the control pedestal, more out of concern for his precious machine than for his own safety, until the police box finally settled back onto an even keel.
    Coughing and choking, he staggered to the door and tried to see through the swirling dust. ‘Chesterton? Where are you? Are you all right? I can’t see a thing!’ he spluttered, shaking his head to try and stop the awful ringing in his partially deafened ears.
    There was no reply: only the clatter of crumbling rock and the trickling rain of settling sand all around.
    The Doctor ran back inside, rummaged behind a panel in the wall and unearthed a powerful torch. He returned and, guided by its intense beam, he began to search the area around the police box, kicking in feeble desperation at the fallen rock scattered everywhere and calling Ian’s name over and over again. Eventually the torchbeam picked out Ian’s spreadeagled body lying among boulders against the far wall of the cavern.
    The Doctor scrambled over. ‘Chesterton! What happened? Are you all right?’ he gabbled anxiously, kneeling beside the motionless figure half-buried under the debris.
    Ian opened his eyes and then groggily struggled into a sitting position. ‘Barbara...’ he croaked weakly, cradling his