DOCTOR WHO.

THE MIND ROBBER.

by Peter Ling.

1.

The Doctor Abhors a Vacuum.

It all began with a bang.

He could remember that much, at least. A long, echoing explosion, like a thunderclap, that seemed to roll around earth and sky. He remembered how he had caught his breath, and how his pulse had raced at the ominous sound... But after that what else remained in his memory?

Nothing. At least nothing that made any sense.

The Doctor sat quite still and tried to collect his thoughts.

What had happened? How had he come to be here?

And, most important of all, where was he?

He knew that he must have been asleep, or perhaps unconscious he had woken up with a splitting headache.

He had opened his eyes to find himself in total darkness, and, peer as he might, he could not see a glimmer of light in any direction.

He was sitting on a hard, stony floor, with his back against something that seemed to be a tree trunk.

Stretching out a hand, he could touch the k.n.o.bbly roots of a tree to one side, and a patch of something that felt like moss... But there was something wrong with it.

He shook his head, trying to throw off the cobwebs that seemed to be shrouding his brain. He must think... Try to concentrate try to pin down the elusive clue that was just out of reach. What was it that felt wrong with the situation in which he found himself? If he were lost in some impenetrably dark forest, in the middle of the night, he would just have to wait patiently for daybreak, and then - He snapped his fingers. At last he knew what was wrong!

The moss, the tree roots, the rough bark behind him all felt solid and real enough but they didn't smell like a forest. There was no scent of damp moss, of leaf mould, of living things wafted on the night air. This forest smelt of nothing at all.

He shivered a little, and shut his eyes.

There was nothing for it but to sit and wait... For whatever might happen next. And while he waited, he would try to piece his thoughts together, like fragments of a jigsaw puzzle. He would do his best to remember what had happened...

Certainly it all began with a big bang.

Fleetingly, he remembered that this was one accredited explanation for the beginning of the Universe the 'Big Bang' theory. He gave a tiny grunt of amus.e.m.e.nt: at least he hadn't lost his memory altogether that was some consolation!

But this particular explosion had been of a very special kind. It had been the start of a spectacular volcanic eruption.

The TARDIS had come to rest somewhere on the lower slopes of Mount Vesuvius, and the Doctor intended to take his travelling companions, Jamie and Zoe, on a short scientific exploration, to examine the natural wonders of that powerful phenomenon.

Jamie had been only mildly interested; he said he had done all the rock climbing he wanted, when he was a wee lad in the Scottish highlands and one mountainside was no doubt very like another.

Zoe, however, was far more enthusiastic. As a highly intelligent young scientist from the twenty-first century she was fascinated by anything and everything; s.p.a.ce and time travel was an endless adventure in an alien environment, and it appealed to her scientific mind. The Doctor found her quick, a.n.a.lytic intelligence very useful on occasion with her permanent expression of wide-eyed curiosity, she had about her the air of an Alice in Wonderland, dressed in a seamless, one-piece jumpsuit of glittering silver, but she was a brilliant mathematician, capable of dealing with any abstract formulae faster than the most advanced computer.

'There's probably nothing much to see anyhow,'

grumbled Jamie, as they were about to set out on their expedition. 'Didn't you tell me that Vesuvius hasn't blown up for donkeys' years?'

Zoe did some swift mental calculations and began to reel off the number of times in the past ten centuries that the volcano had erupted, and the odds against it doing so again at this particular moment - And that was exactly when it happened.

The deafening roar took them all by surprise: Zoe gave a squeak of alarm, and clutched Jamie's hand; even the Doctor felt his heart pounding, and he gasped for breath, pulling himself together.

'Quick!' he commanded. 'Close the outer doors, Jamie...

Be prepared to take evasive action!'

Jamie tugged a lever on the central control panel, and the double doors slid silently into place, cutting off the angry red glow that now flooded the sky. They turned and looked at the screen above their heads a permanent scanner that showed them what was going on outside the TARDIS.

It was an awesome spectacle. A dazzling column of fire shot straight upwards from the mouth of the volcano; white, orange and crimson clouds swirled in every direction, and huge boulders were flung high into the air in an incredible bombardment.

That would have been frightening enough but there was an even more immediate danger... For a sea of molten lava, that seethed and bubbled, was rolling at great speed down the steep mountainside, and getting closer by the second.

'It'll swallow us up!' exclaimed Zoe. 'Doctor what are you going to do?'

'As I said the time has come for evasive action. Jamie kindly engage the launch mechanism. There's no time to lose.'

Jamie threw a switch, and they felt the power-source throb into life. The Doctor braced himself, waiting for dematerialisation.

But nothing happened.

'Give it extra power, Jamie... Additional booster forces,'

said the Doctor, trying to control a feeling of rising panic.

'I'm doing the best I can,' Jamie panted. 'But it's not responding.'

The throbbing of the engines increased and at the same time, they all felt another and more powerful vibration, as the floor shuddered beneath their feet.

The TARDIS was caught fast in the flow of magma, while the mountainside bucked and heaved beneath them.

The sky was blackened with choking clouds of ash, and yet the view upon the screen was vividly detailed in an unearthly, incandescent glow: crags, boulders, trees and bushes everything that gave the landscape form and shape all these were swept away and submerged in a rising tide of broiling, spitting, molten rock.

'We're stuck!' exclaimed Zoe.

The Doctor took charge at the control panel, saying, 'Not to worry I'll throw in the over-riders that should do the trick.'

But the moment he touched the over-rider b.u.t.ton, a cloud of dense, choking fog seeped from the central console, making them all cough and splutter.

'Mercury vapour... The fluid links can't take the load!'

The Doctor put a handkerchief to his mouth, and asked Zoe to stand by to give him the meter readings.

Zoe was very scared, but she knew she couldn't let them down now. With a quaver in her voice she read out the figures as they flashed up on the display-screen: 'Reading nine-eight-seven, point three... Point four... Five six it's jumped to nine-nine-one it's going up by numerals!'

'Oh, no... The controls seem to have jammed '

The Doctor wrestled helplessly with the switches, but they wouldn't budge. Zoe called out a warning: 'It's reached the thousand danger mark!'

There was nothing else to be done; the Doctor threw the power switch into reverse, and the stinging mercury vapour began to disperse.

He gave a sigh of relief: 'That's better.'

Zoe looked up hopefully: 'You mean we're on our way at last?'

'Well no. I'm afraid not. But at least we won't be suffocated by that vapour.'

Jamie glared at him accusingly: 'If you don't stop blethering and do something to get us out of here, we'll all be fried in molten lava!'

'Isn't there any way we can escape?' Zoe pleaded.

'Well... There is an emergency unit, but oh, no, I can't possibly risk that.' The Doctor shook his head. 'It's only for use as a last resort.'

'But this is is an emergency! And we need a last resort an emergency! And we need a last resort please, Doctor!'

They all looked up at the scanner screen again; and their hearts sank. The bubbling lava was slowly creeping up the exterior walls. Soon they would be totally engulfed.

The Doctor was torn by indecision.

'I don't know... It's extremely dangerous. You see, the emergency unit moves the TARDIS out of the s.p.a.ce-time continuum out of reality altogether!'

'Well, fine!' snorted Jamie. 'Reality's getting too hot for us anyway... What are you waiting for?'

The Doctor took a deep breath. They were quite right, of course. Desperate situations called for desperate remedies.

'Oh very well,' he said quietly. 'I just hope I'm doing the right thing... Well here goes.'

From a sliding panel in the console, he took out a small powerpack, not much larger than a household box of matches. It was black and insignificant in appearance, with a dull matt surface that reflected back no gleam of light: and at one end it had four pewter-coloured p.r.o.ngs.

The Doctor mentally crossed his fingers as he slipped the p.r.o.ngs into their appropriate socket, and hoped for the best. 'Emergency unit on,' he said.

For a moment they all thought that nothing had happened... And then they looked around and listened and waited and began to smile.

Because nothing was exactly what had happened.

There was no more throbbing dynamo, no unearthly vibrations beneath their feet, no threatening volcanic rumble... Just nothing.

They were safe.

Zoe flung her arms around the Doctor, and exclaimed: 'Thank goodness it worked!'

'So it seems,' retorted the Doctor. 'Check the meter readings, would you, my dear?'

She was happy to oblige: 'Yes, of course they're reading oh... That's funny... They're not registering anything at all.'

'You mean zero?'

'Not even that. There's nothing on the display.' She checked all the other meters: none of them were functioning.

They all had the same thought at the same instant, and looked up at the scanner overhead but the screen was now completely blank.

'Nothing inside and nothing outside either,' said Jamie slowly. 'What does it mean? Where are we? Are we in flight?'

'No, I don't think so.' The Doctor scratched his head, pondering the problem. 'I did warn you we're outside time and s.p.a.ce and reality... So that's where we are, you see nowhere.'

'But we can't be nowhere nowhere that's impossible ' protested Zoe. that's impossible ' protested Zoe.

'Then I think perhaps it's time we began to make an effort and started to believe in the impossible.' The Doctor gave a lop-sided grin, and began to walk away. 'We've reached nowhere... It's as simple as that.'

'Hey where are you going?' asked Jamie.

'To the Power Chambers to check our storage supply...

And to have a little time on my own... I need to think.'

With a wave of his hand, he disappeared down the access corridor. Jamie and Zoe turned to look at one another.

'Believe the impossible?' Zoe repeated blankly. 'But that that's ridiculous! It's unscientific!'

'If you ask me, he doesn't mean what he says half the time,' Jamie rea.s.sured her. 'I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.'

'I can't help worrying... There was something in the way he said it and he had a funny look in his eye... ' She turned away and paced up and down for a moment in silence, studying the patterns on the floor. Then she said: 'If I didn't know how brave he is I'd almost get the impression that he's well frightened... '

'Get away!' Jamie scoffed. 'What makes you say a daft thing like that? We're all safe now the danger's over...

What is there to be frightened of?'

'Nothing.'

'Exactly! There's nothing at all to be frightened of, so stop imagining things '

'No, don't you understand? "Nothing" is what's so frightening... The Doctor said we're nowhere and there's nothing on the meter, and nothing outside the TARDIS...

We''re in the middle of a great big Nothing... And that's what he's afraid of.'

Jamie smiled a superior smile that made Zoe want to shake him. 'You're just letting your fancy run away with you,' he said.