Thank you,' said the Cavalier. 'For saving me.'
'That's quite all right,' replied Titus. 'Thank you for putting some clothes on.'
The Cavalier nodded. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he noticed
something. There was something amiss in this tent. Something wrong. He
could feel it in his bones. His Time Lord senses were tingling, but he
couldn't quite place what it was. He rubbed his eyes and looked around.
And then he saw it. In the corner of the tent. A machine. An actual
piece of working machinery in Ancient Rome. Something out of time...
'Now, stranger, we have lots to discuss-'
'What is that?' asked the Cavalier, pointing in the direction of the anomaly.
General Titus rose up out of his seat and crossed
the room, reached the machine before the Cavalier. He threw a large
piece of fabric over the machine, concealing it from the Cavalier's
view.
'It's a distraction, clearly,' said Titus. 'Please, sit down, stranger.
Tell me how you came to be wandering the Alps, and how you happened
to... not die.'
The Cavalier noticed a determined look in General Titus' eyes. The Roman
clearly wasn't going to rest until he knew the truth. As much as the
Cavalier wanted to find out about the strange machine, he did as he was
told and sat down. The Cavalier took a deep breath, filling his brand
new lungs with the cold mountain air, and began to speak.
'I was being followed by someone,' said the Cavalier, 'through the Time
Vortex. Their ship had a trans-dimensional warp drive that meant they
could follow me right across the dimensions, through supernovas and
black holes and loops in the causality nexus that I thought might cancel
out the tracking signal on my TARDIS. But I couldn't shake them.
'So I materialised here,' he went on, without stopping for breath,
'close to my intended destination, somewhere in the Alps. And as the
chameleon circuit was doing its job, my TARDIS suffered a direct hit
from their anti-matter cannon. My ship--my home--was completely
obliterated. I narrowly escaped the same fate. I was weak; I was hurt.
So I ran, luckily found your camp, and managed to regenerate. Completely
rewrote my biology and managed to live. Understand?'
'Not completely,' said General Titus. 'Not much, in fact. Your enemy...
Is he the same as ours? Are you facing the wrath of Hannibal of
Carthage?'
'Nah,' said the Cavalier. 'Could be anyone after me. In my travels, I
tend to upset a lot of people...' But then he realised that something
was amiss. Something else... 'Hang on,' he said, 'how do you know that
Hannibal is coming for you?'
The Cavalier had intended to come to Ancient Rome at this time to
witness the famous point in history where Hannibal, enemy of Rome, lead
his forces across the Alps to launch a dangerous surprise attack against
the Roman Empire. So, he wondered, how could they possibly know that
the attacker was on his way?
'We have the greatest minds in the known world working for us, sir. They
have created wondrous technology that gives us the gift of foresight,
amongst many others things.'
Could that be what the strange machine was for? 'Show me now!' the Cavalier demanded.
General Titus unveiled the machine in the corner of the tent. The
Cavalier found himself trembling as he approached it, because he knew
what it was, and therefore he knew what it meant. 'What have you done?'
he asked, noticing terror in his own voice. 'And, you know, how?'
The Cavalier found himself looking at what was unmistakably a computer
screen, upon which a map of the surrounding area was displayed. It was
covered with tiny dots, each representing one of the forty thousand men
that were under the command of Hannibal--along with their accompanying
party of elephants--who were coming to attack the Roman Empire.
'Is there a problem?' wondered Titus.
'This is a radar,' said the Cavalier. 'And this is very, very wrong...'
~~~
'Come on, K-9,' said the Doctor, stepping out of the TARDIS.
Romana
followed, too, as K-9 led the way. His sensors had detected a faint
trace of teleport energy around the gallery, and so they followed the
perpetrators to this location. Romana looked around to see where
exactly they had ended up. She couldn't help but be a little
disappointed.
The
grey walls and lifeless corridors were frankly a little boring
compared to the intellectually stimulating environment of the
gallery. Not to mention the heat--it was ridiculously hot in this
place. Romana whipped off her jacket and carried it under her arm as
she followed the Doctor. Either he didn't notice the heat or simply
didn't care, as he continued to wear his scarf and heavy coat and
seemed as carefree as usual.
'Where
are we, Doctor?' Romana asked eventually.
'Still
on Earth,' the Doctor replied. 'Not sure exactly where. Looks like a
factory of some kind. Now where is that painting? It must be
close...'
Romana
couldn't keep up with the Doctor's huge strides as they wandered
through the corridors. This building--whatever its purpose--seemed to
grow hotter and hotter the deeper into it they went. A bead of sweat
tumbled from Romana's forehead and hit the floor with a hiss.
There
was not a single other sound as the trio made their ways through
empty corridors and hallways in search of the painting. However,
despite the Doctor's assertions, there was no sign of it.
Romana
went to put her arm through the Doctor's, but he seemed more
concerned with searching out a bag of jelly babies from his pockets.
That brought a smile to his face, as he greedily and noisily ate his
way through the whole lot. Romana sighed: the last thing she needed
was for the Doctor to become even more hyper
than usual...
Disappointed
to find that he had finished the bag rather sooner than he had
expected to, the Doctor casually dropped the paper bag on the floor.
Immediately,
sirens rang out. The Doctor, Romana and K-9 all froze, looking around
to see what was wrong and covering their ears from the blaring,
deafening sound.
'An
alarm has been triggered, Master.'
'Thank
you, K-9. How would we ever know that without you?' His voice was
dripping sarcasm, but K-9 didn't seem to notice as he wagged his
metal tail happily.
The
sirens continued wailing for a while longer, before a voice filled
the air, taking its place: 'A crime has been committed. Remain where
you are. You will be apprehended shortly. Justice will be swift.'
Romana
realised that the words seemed to be coming from a security camera
that was mounted on the ceiling. It seemed to be identical to the one
she had glimpsed in the park earlier. Before she could raise the
point, the Doctor exploded with laughter.
'Silence!
You will be
apprehended!' the voice repeated.
'Oh,
big words from a little camera,' said the Doctor, still chuckling.
'Who's coming to get me? The police?'
'Camera
4-6-5 will make the arrest.'
'Is
that you?'
asked the Doctor. 'You're going
to arrest me? How do you plan on doing that, then? By growing little
legs and jumping off the wall?'
The
Doctor was, unintentionally, absolutely right; that was exactly what
the security camera did. From the side of its bulky body, where the
camera itself stared out, two thin mechanical legs unfurled
themselves, and the machine detached itself from the ceiling. It
landed on the floor, a short distance away from the Doctor, and
looked up at him with its one large lens that acted as an all-seeing
mechanical eye.
That's ridiculous!' cried Romana, stifling a laugh. 'Totally and utterly ridiculous!'
'Oh, good idea,' the Doctor replied sarcastically. 'Make it more cross!'
The trio began to back away slowly, and the walking, talking security
camera's little legs struggled to keep up with them. 'Halt! You are
under arrest! Justice will be swift!'
'He only dropped some litter. Can't you be a little lenient?' pleaded Romana. 'It's hardly the crime of the century, is it?'
The camera's eye began to glow, as it scanned the Doctor. 'Incorrect,'
it said. 'You are the Doctor. Previous offences include seventeen counts
of planetary destruction, four counts of kidnap, and three-hundred and
ninety-one counts of illegal parking.'
'I've got a permit!'
'Resistance will not be tolerated!'
The camera began to spark with electricity, and what looked like bolts
of lightning burst out of its lens. They struck a flickering light bulb
on the ceiling, and glass shattered at Romana's feet. As absurd as these
little cameras were, she thought, they packed a hell of a punch.
'Hang on,' said Romana. 'I'm sure we can be civil and resolve this without shooting-'
Romana ducked as a second bolt was hurled at her. She had avoided it,
just about. But K-9 was not so lucky. The third bolt struck him on his
side, and electricity crackled around its whole body before the robot
dog froze completely still. Defunct. Broken.
'Hey! That's my dog!' the Doctor cried out.
'Collateral damage is permitted in pursuit of a felon, but surrender is preferable.'
'Never!'
'Doctor, we should run,' Romana whispered.
The Doctor nodded. 'Hey, look!' he said, pointing behind the camera. 'It's Mussolini! And Hitler! Robbing a sweet shop!'
As the camera twisted around, the Doctor picked up K-9, and he and
Romana ran as fast as possible in the opposite direction. They sped down
the long, twisting corridors, which all the while seemed to be growing
hotter. But Romana was more concerned with the camera.
'I
think so,' replied the Doctor.
They
stopped to get their breath back, and as they did, Romana spotted
something through a hatch in a nearby door. Calling the Doctor over,
they saw the Laughing
Cavalier,
discarded on the floor of an empty room.
'Why
would the thief just leave it here?' Romana wondered aloud.
Keen
to find out, she and the Doctor heaved the door open and stepped
through. The Doctor studied the broken K-9 while Romana examined the
painting. It looked in fine condition, as far as she could tell, but
she still couldn't understand its abandonment, nor could she find
clues to identify the thief.
Romana
also found the heat in this room to be almost suffocating. It
couldn't just be her, she reasoned. The Doctor must have noticed it,
too.
'Are
you really not feeling the heat?' she asked him.
The
Doctor seemed to think for a moment. 'Yes, now that you mention it.
Mind you, that's probably because of what this room is for.'
'What
do you mean?'
'Haven't
you seen the signs? This is an incinerator.'
Romana
felt her jaw almost hit the floor, and the Doctor only seemed to
realise the impact of the word as it left his mouth.
'Incinerator?'
Romana asked, hoping that perhaps she had misheard. 'Yeah,' the
Doctor replied nervously.
Romana
instinctively looked to the door to make a run for it--but it swung
shut before she could reach it. She heard a familiar scuttling sound
outside.
'It's
that little camera. He's shut us in!' She tried to the door, but it
wouldn't budge. 'It's locked. Well, of course it is.'
'Easy,'
said the Doctor, as he reached for the sonic screwdriver. He tried
the device on the locked door, but nothing happened.
'Problem?'
'Not
so easy.' The Doctor tucked the sonic screwdriver away. 'Deadlocked.'
Romana
looked at the Doctor, but he simply shrugged. Neither of them had any
ideas, it seemed. They were trapped in a room that was getting hotter
by the second. Romana thought hard, but could come up with nothing.
'Oh,
I know!' cried the Doctor excitedly.
'What
is it? A plan?' Romana couldn't hide the joy in her voice.
'I've
just realised what this place is. It's a disposal plant!' When Romana
glared at him, he added, 'I bet you want to hit me, don't you?'
Her
clenched fists must have given it away, she decided.
'Affirmative!
Affirmative! Affirmative!' cried K-9 frantically, as the robot dog
regained his mechanical senses.
'Ah,
back with us, K-9?' asked the Doctor warmly, patting the dog on its
head. 'Good. Just in time to die...'
written by
SAMUEL MARKS
copyright 2013
artwork by
COLIN JOHN
copyright 2013
