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'That's about it.' The Doctor was thinking hard. 'What we need is a distraction.'
'Like a squad of Cybermen?' suggested Tegan.
'Anything,' said the Doctor. 'Anything at all.'
***
In his secret vault, Ryoth was staring impatiently at the Doctor's tempograph. The short red line that
represented the Eighth Doctor's still-brief life span was now in close proximity to the line that represented the
Fifth. If they had not yet met, they very soon would.
But the red line was still blinking brightly. Ryoth frowned. Why hadn't the Raston Warrior Robot killed him
yet?
It didn't take Ryoth long to come up with a possible answer. The robot was reactive. Even if he was trapped,
the Doctor would live as long as he could keep still.
Such a situation couldn't go on forever. But pleasant as it was to think of the Doctor suffering a long, lingering
death from hunger and thirst, Ryoth just didn't have the patience for it. He needed some other, more
aggressively intelligent life-form. Something that would take
the initiative.
Turning to the box of scrolls, Ryoth began studying the long list of the Doctor's enemies.
***
A strange wheezing groaning sound filled the Eye of Orion. The distraction the Fifth Doctor so desperately
needed had arrived - in a form he could never have imagined.
The TARDIS blurred and for one awful moment the Doctor thought it was taking off without him. Then the door
opened and a tall young man stepped out, looking interestedly about him.
***
The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS surveying the picturesque scene around him. He had barely registered
the silver figure posed on its hillock when a young man in a cricket blazer jumped up from behind a wall and
shouted, 'Go back!'
Their eyes met and time froze.
The remaining memories of his fourth incarnation and the memories to date of his fifth flooded into the
Doctor's mind. The gaps were filling fast now - he was almost himself again. As always, the process was over
in moments. He then strode towards the Fifth Doctor, who was emerging from the base of a ruined tower and
running towards him.
'How nice to meet you at last!'
'You've chosen a very inconvenient moment - as usual,' said the Fifth Doctor. 'That thing up there is a Raston
Warrior Robot and it's got us trapped. As soon as this time bubble breaks you'll be trapped too. I'd advise you
to get back in yourTARDIS.'
'And leave you all in the lurch? Never!' said the Doctor.
Disregarding the Fifth Doctor's protests, he went over to the ruined tower, where Tegan andTurlough crouched
like statues behind the barricade.
'I don't suppose we could get them over to theTARDIS?'
'In a state of temporal stasis? Never!'
'Then I'd better join you.'
The air blurred and shimmered and both Doctors ducked behind the barricade as time resumed its normal
flow.
A javelin streaked above their heads, striking the tower wall. Everyone froze, and the robot resumed its
motionless vigil.
To Tegan and Turlough, it was as though the Doctor had simply appeared from nowhere. They looked at him
unbelievingly.
Forestalling the hail of questions the Fifth Doctor said hurriedly, 'Tegan, Turlough, this is an old - no, a very
new - friend of mine. He's called the Doctor too, as it happens and he's come to help us.'
'How?' asked Turlough bluntly.
'I'm sure we can think of something,' said the Doctor. 'After all, two heads are better than one.'
'Even when they're the same head?' said the Fifth Doctor sceptically.
Tegan and Turlough watched as the two Doctors sat staring intently at each other, their minds in telepathic
communion.
'Well, I suppose it might work,' said the Doctor dubiously.
'Let's try it then.'
'Buridan's Ass?' said the Doctor.
The Fifth Doctor nodded. 'Buridan's Ass!'
'Risky?'
'Undoubtedly. But it's our only chance.'
To the horror of their companions, the two Doctors rose and began to walk towards the Raston Warrior Robot.
'Equidistant now, mind,' called the Doctor warningty.
'Absolutely! Any divergence and it'll go for the nearer.'
Tegan realised that they were pacing themselves so that they stayed the same distance from each other, and
also from the robot. As they got nearer to the robot, they moved nearer to each other, their paths maintaining,
what was it called -
Tegan racked her brains to recall long-ago geometry lessons - maintaining the shape of a perfect isosceles
triangle.
Astonishingly, the robot did not attack either of them.
It swung from one to the other as if about to fire, but never did.
As the Doctors approached nearer and nearer, the robot froze into immobility. Then, clasping its hands to its [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]