It had been a treacherous journey and one that had almost put them into contact with the ghosts again, but every time they came close the Doctor had dragged Caroline into a shop doorway or a passageway and they’d simply hoped they wouldn’t be spotted. So far it had worked.
Along the way they had seen the Apparites dragging people out of their homes and from flats above the shops and converting them, just like Mr Cope, into their own kind. Caroline and the Doctor had felt powerless to stop them. On a number of occasions Caroline had begged the Doctor to let them go and help, but the Doctor had simply told her that they wouldn’t have even had the first clue about how to go around stopping them let alone help to transform the people back. They had to progress with the mission and get to the TARDIS.
Finally they reached the passage behind House Of Fraser where the blue box stood, covered it heaps of snow.
“What have they done to you?” said the Doctor, as if he were talking to a pet dog.
“So that’s your…TARDIS, yeah? That‘s what Margot called it, wasn‘t it?” asked Caroline, still unsure of whether to move nearer towards it after her feelings from last time.
“Yes,” he said, brushing snow away from the lock in the door. “This is my TARDIS.” The Doctor stopped for a minute and then turned back to face Caroline. “Do you know something odd?”
“What?” she said, unable to think of anything that would stand out as being odd amongst the already-odd things that had happened this evening.
“I never told Margot what my machine was called.”
“You must have done,” said Caroline, her thoughts going back to the conversation in the tunnels.
“I didn’t.” He sighed. “She already knew the name TARDIS. She knew that this was a TARDIS.”
“So you think she’s definitely lying to us?”
“Definitely,” said the Doctor, “and when all this is over we’re going to get some real answers out of those two.”
Caroline had never felt comfortable with the two strangers and what the Doctor had said had just confirmed those fears. “So this is a spaceship, then?”
“Yes. Well actually it’s a time and space ship. Flies in space and time.”
“And you can go anywhere in it?” asked Caroline, her eyes all over the box.
“Yes. Well, within reason.” He patted the side of the TARDIS. “It stands for Time and Relative Dimension In Space.”
“That makes it all much more clearer,” she smiled. A thought occurred to her. “So why don’t you go back in time and stop these things from appearing?”
“It doesn’t work like that,” he smiled. He had told this story all to often before. “I can observe and gather information, but I can’t just go and change things. Some moments are fixed points in time. I’m involved in this and it spans too much time for me to just stop it happening. The whole of space and time would collapse down around us.”
“Then why don’t you go back and observe?” said Caroline. “Get some sort of clue as to what made these things in the first place?”
“I wouldn’t know where to start,” said the Doctor sadly. “Wherever and whenever these things came from…well, it’s being masked from TARDIS’s senses. We need to deal with it here and now.”
“Okay then,” said Caroline, straightening herself up, “let’s get on with this. Show me around.”
The Doctor nodded. “Try not to splutter too much on the console.” He grinned.
Caroline closed her eyes, composed herself and then followed the Doctor into the box.
The first thing she noticed was darkness and the smell of stone. There was no light or sound. Just darkness and silence.
“Give me a second,” said the Doctor, his voice echoing in what she could only assume was a large chamber.
She could hear him moving away from her. There were a few clicking’s of switches and buttons and a small, green light flickered into few in the darkness.
“I had to switch her on low power,” said the Doctor, his face now illuminated by the green glow coming from the side of him. “I didn’t fancy the idea of the ghosts getting on board the ship.”
Caroline watched as the green light grew brighter and brighter. It was now clear that the Doctor was standing next to a mushroom-shaped console with an array of dials, buttons, switches and a number of other unusual objects seemingly fixed onto it. The glow was coming from some green rods which were housed in a glass tube which extended from the top of the mushroom console and towards the ceiling.
She followed the glass tube upwards. The ceiling was high, but she was now able to see much more. Lights were slowly coming on and the roof was illuminated. It looked similar to the church roof where they had just come from. High, wooden beams spanned an old stone ceiling. Around the walls near the ceiling was a stone walkway with a balcony. The walkway contained small doors leading off to who knew where.
Her gaze was drawn down again. The walls were also stone and at regular intervals there were glowing green circles. Every now and again the pattern would be halted by stone pillars attached at various points along the wall. The room was a pretty big, hexagonal chamber, not the size of the church, but certainly bigger than what she was expecting. At the furthest end was a stone staircase which led up to the walkway near the ceiling and behind the staircase was another doorway which presumably led to yet more rooms.
She was standing on a stone floor and a walkway led from the central console to the door they had just come in. The walkway was mapped out with a few, very small trees in plant pots. And, bizarrely, the door they had just come through was the reverse side of the police box door.
“Well?” asked the Doctor. “What do you think?”
Caroline didn’t say anything. She wobbled slightly and then slowly walked over to an old wooden chair near to the console and sat down.
“Are you okay, Miss Parker?” asked the Doctor. “I know it can knock people for six sometimes.”
“I’m fine,” she said, a little dazed. “I just…well, I wasn’t really expecting this.”
The Doctor frowned. “What did you expect? The star ship Enterprise?”
She gazed up at the ceiling again. “It’s just so big. And old.”
“Old?!” said the Doctor, sounding hurt.
“I mean…what I meant to say is that it doesn’t look how I expected.” She wasn’t really able to explain herself too well, but this was certainly not what she thought the inside of a time machine would look like.
“Well I’m sorry to disappoint you,” said the Doctor, gloomily flicking switches on the console.
“I’m not disappointed,” she said, looking at him. “I’m impressed. Really impressed.”
The Doctor turned to her, he looked hurt. “Really?”
“Really.” She smiled.
The Doctor’s face broke out into a grin and he started darting around the console, activating switches and pulling levers. A background hum had started to get a little louder as the machine grew in power.
“Why does it look like a police box?” asked Caroline, deciding to ask one of the many questions she had.
“The TARDIS used to be able to disguise herself a long, long time ago. I landed in the 1960’s and it got stuck in that shape.”
“Haven’t you ever tried to fix it?” she asked, getting out of the chair and looking around her.
“No. I like it like this.”
She moved over to the console and placed both hands on it. The lights pulsated with power.
“What was that?” she asked.
“The TARDIS. She’s just getting accustomed to you.” He looked at her and then quickly looked back down at the console again.
“Hmmm,” said Caroline. “I hope she likes me.”
“She does,” said the Doctor quietly.
“So what’s the next move?”
“We need to go and pick up Danny.”
“Won’t that draw our attention to the ghosts?”
“Possibly, but it shouldn’t be too bad. We’re just making a short hop across the town and back again. It’ll barely register with them.”
“You said you had to leave the TARDIS on low power.”
“No one notices one drip from the tap, but if you leave the tap on, no matter how slowly, it’ll get noticed.”
“Clever,” smiled Caroline. “You’ve always wanted to use that one haven’t you?”
“Always,” smiled the Doctor. He typed in a few numbers on a side panel and then put his hand on a large, red lever. “Ready?”
“I guess.” But she wasn’t exactly sure that she was.
The Doctor pulled the lever and there was a huge thud from somewhere deep within the bowls of the ship, and then, like a hidden, waking monster, there came a wheezing and groaning sound. The sound of the engines. They ground into life, getting faster and faster. The green rods in the glass tube had started to move up and down and the entire room was vibrating.
“Everything okay?” asked the Doctor, realising that Caroline was clinging tightly to the console.
She gave him the thumbs up, but her face looked a little unsure.
Then, almost as suddenly as it had started, there was another loud thud and everything was still.
“Was that it?” asked Caroline, slightly disappointed.
“Just a short hop,” said the Doctor as he made his way towards the doors.
The TARDIS had somehow landed itself perfectly in Caroline’s front room. It only just fitted in, however, and the light on the top had punctured the ceiling above it. Plaster had sprinkled down on the already-melting snow which had coated the box.
“Oh dear,” said the Doctor, emerging from the doors.
“Brilliant,” said Caroline as she spotted the ceiling. “I go on my first spaceship and it costs me in repairs!”
“I’ll sort it for you, don’t worry,” said the Doctor, looking around the room.
Caroline suddenly felt herself go light headed. The Doctor stepped over to her and helped her onto the sofa.
“What’s happening?”
“Travel in the TARDIS can affect you. You’ve got to remember that you’re stepping into a separate dimension and flying through space. It’s going to send you a bit funny.”
“Lovely. I can’t wait for my next trip,” she smiled wearily and lay back on the sofa.
“Plus the TARDIS is now psychically linked to you.”
“Huh?” Caroline was getting more and more confused.
“It gets in your head. Helps translate alien languages.”
“Terrific. A space/time machine disguised as a police box which you call a ‘she’ and it can get in your head and obliterate any need for a German translation book. Anything else?”
“Hmmm,” thought the Doctor, “nothing I can think of yet.”
There was a noise from the bedroom and Danny emerged from the doorway, looking confused and his hair a mess. He rubbed his eyes, looked at the Doctor, then Caroline and then at the huge blue box sat next to the armchair.
“What?” was all he could manage.
To be continued...
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