If this statement was incomprehensible to Peri, the next did little to enlighten her.

'I must get those two into the TARDIS.'

TARDIS? Which TARDIS? Peri, who had been stranded in the bath house when the wardrobe dematerialised, felt her temper rising. Must he always talk in riddles!

'Any chance of an explanation?'

'Later.'

'Later! That's all I ever get! Later!'

The Doctor rattled a pit prop. Firm. He shook another.

The same result. The loose prop he had b.u.mped into must be further in... where the Master with his TCE lay in ambush.

An all too accurate prediction.

The Master squinted at a bend round which he expected his protagonist to appear. 'Now you see why I didn't kill the girl,' he said to the Rani.

Suddenly, the Doctor flitted across the tunnel, offering himself as a target. The Master fired. Missed. Hit a pit prop exactly as the Doctor had intended.

The prop glowed red... disintegrated.

A slight trickle of dust from the roof... A faint rumble...

Then, eerie silence... The Doctor wondered if the stratagem had failed.

An almost imperceptible grinding groan... increasing in volume to an ominous rumbling. Grabbing Peri, the Doctor scarpered for the exit.

The Rani and the Master fled further into the mine towards her TARDIS.

Another lull brought the false promise of respite.

Convinced the storm would still break, neither of them slowed.

They were not wrong.

A sibilant rustling preceded the onrush of fissures that crazed every surface. The cracks streaked ahead of them in a banshee discord of rupturing stone.

Groping, stung and scratched by slivers of rock, they stumbled blindly on through the mounting cataclysm.

Large chunks of debris pelted them as the roof cleaved apart. Then the inferno took on a new dimension; a torrent of sludge oozed in through the rift, swamping them.

Squelching in the rising goo, the quaking Rani thrust the key into the lock of the grey wardrobe.

Indifferent to the Master's plight, she squeezed in the door, not even wanting to offer him the asylum of her TARDIS.

But his instinct for survival was invincible. Before the door could shut, he sc.r.a.ped in.

Refusing to be denied, boulders bombarded the outer sh.e.l.l of the time-machine. Inside, with frenzied discipline, the Rani began the dematerialisation drill at the console.

'Quickly! Quickly! You'll destroy us both!' The Master's accusation enraged her.

' I I will! You blame will! You blame me me?' shrieked the Rani.

Panicking, he leant across the console to operate the controls himself.

Whack!

A mighty wallop sent him reeling!

Winded, he was unable to retaliate as, outside, an ear-splitting tremor released a crushing avalanche. This exterior cauldron of violence was matched by an interior cauldron of seething emotion: acerbic recrimination consumed the dissident pair.

The Rani completed the dematerialisation cedure. All they could do now was be patient.

'You wouldn't be told!' Her shrill voice lacerated him.

He alone was the reason they were in this predicament!

She would never have delayed for the Doctor's return! She would also have antic.i.p.ated his cunning and not been suicidally tricked into firing the TCE! When she'd said that the Doctor always outwitted the Master, she was not just goading, she meant it!

A sonic murmur provided respite. The dematerialisation commenced. Above the console panel the silver rings corkscrewed into their intricate intertwining.

Relief brought temporary amnesty.

'Set the co-ordinates for the mine owner's office,' urged the Master.

'Do what?'

'Don't you understand? Run away now and you'll never be free of the Doctor. But feed Lord Ravensworth one of your impregnated maggots, and we'll be able to take over!'

Intuition urged her to reject his advice... and yet...

'It's the last thing he'll be expecting,' he entreated.

'I'll probably regret this.' She adjusted the s.p.a.ce continuum.

'We'll be waiting for the Doctor when he gets there!'

19.

Birth Of A Carnivore 'Okay, so what's to stop them materialising somewhere else in Killingworth?'

This was the nub of the issue in Peri's practical mind.

She and the Doctor had made their escape. Behind them, huge clouds of dust spumed from the disused mine entrance. Naturally, she rejoiced in their deliverance, but could see no reason for complacency.

She repeated her question.

'What indeed!' The Doctor was twirling a screwdriver nonchalantly. 'While I was in the Rani's TARDIS, I made an adjustment or two.' He chuckled, remembering the occasion. 'To the navigational aid and the velocity regulator.'

Provided it worked, thought Peri. Past experience of the Doctor's so-called modifications kept her in sceptical mood.

The Rani's TARDIS began to vibrate.

'What is it?' asked the Master.

The Rani manipulated the velocity regulator.

'What's wrong?'

'Our speed's increasing,' the Rani replied.

'Then reduce it!' He joined her at the auxiliary power panel.

'You asinine cretin! What do you imagine I'm trying to do!' She elbowed him aside and flicked the velocity regulator again.

No response.

Forsaking that section of the console, she jammed the navigational aid into an 'off position. Perhaps that would restrain the unfettered TARDIS.

It didn't.

Instead, in gathering momentum, the room started to rotate...

The impact of what was occurring rendered the articulate pair speechless. At this rate of increase, they would cross the frontier into the unknown. No-one had ever travelled at such speeds.

Rotation and acceleration built up to so great a degree that they were being propelled to the walls.

The Rani tried desperately to cling to the console.

It was as if she were submerged in a ferocious whirlpool, except the suction was reversed. Invisible tentacles embraced her. Like unseen leeches, they bled energy from every sinew and muscle, and dragged her outwards. Her clawing fingers lost their purchase. Remorselessly, she was forced away from the console; away from the position where she could influence events. Transfixed against the wall, she, who had reduced so many to the status of helpless victim, now got a bitter taste of her own medicine.

The vibration had set going a tintinnabulation of tinkling gla.s.s as dozens of bottles and tubes jigged and danced.

Glued to the wall, the Master's mesmerized attention was on the Tyrannosaurus Rex embryo jars as they strained their retaining clamps to breaking point...

'They're Time Lords, the Rani and the Master.' Peri's prosaic mind worried on. 'They'll repair the TARDIS.'

'Eventually. But not yet. Not before they're beyond the Milky Way!' Exuberance was in every stride the Doctor took as they made their way past the bath house. 'For that matter, beyond most galaxies.' He glanced up at the sky.

'I've heard conditions are rather primitive in the outer reaches of the Universe!'

Glancing skywards too, Peri could not appreciate, as the Doctor could, the real extent of the Rani's and the Master's plight.

'Hardly the setting for an harmonious relationship,'

mused the Doctor.

Quite true.

But even he could not foresee how dreadful his enemies'

situation would become.

By now the awesome centrifugal force had them plastered against the wall. The resulting 'G' factor was reflected in their agonised rictal grimaces.

Also reflected was terror.

One of the jars had crashed to the floor, ejecting an embryo.

The impact acted as a post-natal slap. The embryo began to squirm... it was alive...!

Worse... it seemed to be developing in size... 'It's growing!' The Master's horror was tinged with disbelief.

How could the obscenity grow that rapidly? It was an embryo, months away from being fully developed. And yet the limbs and torso were lengthening.

'Acceleration! Time spillage!' The Rani's vocal cords were hoa.r.s.e with despair. She had seen the Tyrannosaurus Rex in action when she had raided the Cretaceous Age to purloin the embryos. She knew this monster would need to mature very little before it could scrunch them savagely between bone-crushing jaws.

The Master seemed spellbound by the beast as the powerful, arched hind-quarters began to bulge and swell.

Its scaly legs grew visibly longer, its talons sharper and stronger. Time spillage was causing the dinosaur to achieve a year's growth in minutes.

Pinned to the wall, even the Rani, with all her brilliance, could think of no counter-measure. They were irretrievably trapped with a creature that would devour them without mercy.

Almost as though it could read their thoughts, the Tyrannosaurus Rex widened its cavernous jaws in a salivating, toothy grin...

20.