But what? Their att.i.tude bothered him as he watched them for any tell-tale signs.

If his attention had not been so fixed, he might have seen Luke sauntering into peril. Instead, the Doctor mentally a.n.a.lysed the facts. He started with the black, frisbee-like objects. What had she said about them? They'd change his lifestyle? Then there was the message that had brought him.

'Is it down there? In the Dell? Where I was supposed to go?'

He glanced down... and saw Luke.

But his cry of warning was still-born.

Reaching for a clump of valerian, Luke trod on a disc.

Instantly, a fountain of bark-like flakes gushed into the air enshrouding him. Mushrooming upwards, they blocked out the sky, cavorting and dancing on the breeze before beginning to settle.

When they did, two arms were raised in supplication and a brown, corrugated torso was surmounted by swirls and knots that faintly resembled Luke's face.

Where the handsome, golden-haired apprentice had stood, there now stood a tree; a tall, lithe sapling, not adorned with autumn leaves but with the burgeoning buds of Spring. Time was out of joint...

16.

Life In The Balance Rage burned in the Doctor's hearts. He levelled the TCE at the Master and the Rani.

'No! No! An accident!' The Master, above all, could recognise murderous intent. 'It wasn't meant for him!'

'And you're so warped, so callous, you think that justifies what you have done!' Never in all their confrontations had the Doctor experienced such an irresistible surge of hatred. 'First you turn an innocent young man into your acolyte, betraying his friends! Then you defile him with this monstrous act!'

'Stop being sentimental.' The Rani felt no remorse.

'What's happened? Animal life has been metamorphosed into vegetable matter. So what?'

'You'll be telling me next he's better off!'

'In essence, he is. A tree has four times the life expectancy of a human being.'

Her Philistine rationalisation appalled the Doctor. He had always harboured a sneaking admiration for the Rani.

No more! 'They should never have exiled you! They should have locked you up in a padded cell! Move! Before I forget my abhorrence of violence and eliminate the pair of you!'

A scream.

'Peri!'

Innocent of what had overtaken Luke, Peri had strolled into the Dell. With a 'fool's luck', treading carefully in her unsuitable red shoes, she had managed to avoid the outer b.o.o.by traps.

Her collection of herbs was spa.r.s.e until she spied the generous clump beneath the tall sapling. Red heel poised above a disc, she began to stoop to gather the valerian a branch of the sapling suddenly swooped, entangling her head and shoulders, forcing her, struggling, back from the disc.

That was when she screamed.

'Stay still, Peri! Stay still!'

a.s.sailed by a tree then, from nowhere, the Doctor's voice, Peri wondered if she was hallucinating.

'The tree won't hurt you!'

She must be hallucinating!

Again the rea.s.surance rang out: 'The tree won't hurt you if you stay still!'

She gave up the fight.

Amazingly, the branch gently swayed aside, releasing her. Despite the personal nightmare the catalyst had plunged him into, the metamorphosed Luke still retained a vestige of his innate decency.

'Perhaps now you'll accept "there are more things in heaven and earth" than your barren philosophy allows!'

challenged the Doctor.

The Rani shrugged. 'And perhaps you'll accept you face a dilemma.'

The Master also detected an advantage. 'More of an impa.s.se.' He felt confident again; the moment of danger when the Doctor might have used the TCE had pa.s.sed.

'Wrong on both counts. There is no impa.s.se. And the dilemma, Rani, will be resolved by you.'

'Get to the point.'

'You put those evil contraptions in the Dell. So, you can lead Peri out!' The Rani shot him a glance of defiance.

'Refuse, and I shan't hesitate to use this!'

The look she gave the Doctor was venomous. But the logic of his ultimatum was irrefutable. Grudgingly, she descended from the ridge, then paused, deep in thought.

'She can't remember!' The Master's evaluation was pessimistic. 'She probably set them at random!'

'I doubt if the Rani's ever done anything at random.' He called to Peril 'Be patient.'

'But if she has? What then?'

'You're nominated as understudy. I should think you'd turn into a laburnum tree.'

'A laburnum? Why?'

'The pods are poisonous.'

Compartmentalising her emotions, keeping them from impairing her decision making, was a discipline sacrosanct to the Rani. The great leveller, fear, shattered that credo. In ch.o.r.eographed terror, she embarked on a complicated pattern of moves.

Peri's disorientation grew as she recognised the woman in chic leather gear coming towards her. What was the Rani doing here?

Nearing the sapling, another problem loomed for the Rani. There was only a light breeze, yet its leaves were furiously quivering and rustling. What had the Doctor said? 'There were "more things in heaven and earth"...' She was going no closer!

'Come to me,' she ordered Peri. 'Keep an absolutely straight line.'

'Tread exactly where she does!' The Doctor meant to sound encouraging, but Peri was confused.

'I don't understand.'

'Stop bleating and do it!' said the Rani. She began to retrace her route, but went too fast, causing Peri to overbalance. She clutched the Rani for support, almost pulling them onto a disc.

The Rani's composure snapped. 'Incompetent dolt!

You're worthless!'

'Not to me she isn't! You'd do well to remember that!'

The harshness of the Doctor's tone had the desired effect.

With absolute concentration, the Rani continued weaving a tortuous route among the discs, always making sure Peri was in attendance.

Exploiting the Doctor's absorption in his companion's fate, the Master began surrept.i.tiously to sidle away.

'The next step could be the last...' The Doctor's voice was barely audible; his gaze remained steadfastly on the dell. But the Master, who had not heard of peripheral vision, stopped. He did not doubt the threat.

The Rani, also, had halted. 'Can you jump without falling on you face?' she asked Peri.

'Sure.'

'Copy me and you're out of danger.' She leapt, and so did Peri.

'What was that all about?' she yelled as she scrambled up the slope.

'You wandered into a minefield of the Rani's making,'

explained the Doctor.

She looked back at the peaceful dell. 'A minefield? In there?' A sudden, chilling thought. 'Luke! What about Luke? Where is he?'

'He just saved your life.'

'You mean Luke...? The tree...?' The questions were rhetorical as the horror of comprehension benumbed her.

Brusquely, the Doctor waved the TCE. 'Get going. I want you two off this planet before you commit any more atrocities!'

Crocodile-fashion, the four began to file from the ridge.

Strident, ill-tempered laughter emanated from below. A mob of aggressors, some brandishing knives, were trampling through the woods. A dead sheep's carcase was slung from a pole wedged on their shoulders. Obviously it was destined to be skinned and roasted.

'Hurry! Behind here!' The Doctor indicated a laurel bush.

The Rani had a simpler solution. 'They're easily disposed of.' She extracted the mini-computer from her pouch.

'Give me that!' The Doctor wrested the mini-computer from her.

'If they see you, they'll have no mercy!' The Rani's comment was justified. The aggressors would certainly slaughter the Doctor given the opportunity.

'Maybe not.' He threw the mini-computer to the ground and stamped on it.

'Doctor, they're heading for the Dell!'

Peri's consternation was not echoed by the Master.

'Redfern Dell's about to become populated with new trees... '

Another dilemma, one of morality,' scoffed the Rani.

'And we all know the Doctor's dedication to morality.'

The Master could see the pendulum was swinging in their favour.

Untypically, the Doctor prevaricated; risk six lives, or risk genocide? An eternal problem and split seconds to resolve it.

'You have to stop them!' Peri took the TCE. 'Don't worry, I won't have any qualms about using this!' No idle boast. In the past she had demonstrated that she was an expert marksman. 'Get going, Doctor!'

'All right. Take these two to the old mine working.

Along this path. Wait for me there.'

'You've got it. Now hurry!'

Pausing only to whisper something to Peri then, seemingly in his haste, colliding with the Master, the Doctor raced off.

'Okay,' ordered Peri. 'You heard him. March!'

With surly reluctance, the Rani led the way. Bringing up the rear, Pcri's arm was completely steady. 'And don't try anything! Either of you!'

Peri, to use her colloquialism, was in the driving seat.

The same, however, could not be said of the Doctor.

As he sped down from the ridge, he saw that the leading aggressor, Tim Ba.s.s, was about to barge into the clearing.