From: doctor@infopls.chi.il.us (david lucas)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho
Subject: shada text part 4
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 92 17:41:00 CDT
Organization: INFOPLUS support, Wheeling, IL

Continued from previous post

 

   He begins to turn the pages faster.

         

   ---

         

   Shada.  Ancient prison of the Time Lords. The reception area is small, 
dark

   and dimly lit. Cobwebs hang from the walls. It is in an advanced state 


   of decay.

   The TARDIS materializes against a wall and the raiders emerge.

   "Shada!" Skagra breathes deeply.

   Romana cringes.  "It looks horrid."

   "Keep  her silent," Skagra commands and moves to the central console 
in the

   area and brushes the dust off.

   Checking through the files, he stabs a finger downwards.

   "Salyavin.   Mind  Crimes. Section 7/PY.  Sentence in perpetuity. 
Cabinet 9.

   Chamber T."

   He swings round and heads for the doors.

   "Two of you guard this machine.  You, bring the girl."

   They pass into the interior.

   "This  is  where your precious Time Lords used to put the criminals 
they

   simply wanted to forget about."

   Romana shifts uneasily.  "I've never even heard of it."

   "Obviously you forget very thoroughly on Gallifrey."

   Romana  feels a chill run up her spine.  They pass a branch in the 
tunnel.

   After they have gone, a door materializes in the wall...

         

   ---

         

   The Doctor and Chronotis emerge from the door and debate which way to 
go.

   "The TARDIS must be in this direction, I think."

   "But Skagra will have gone in this direction."  Chronotis points down 
the 

   tunnel.

   "How do you know?"

   "I ah...heard footsteps," he says.

   The  Doctor gives him a sharp glance.  "If we can get to the TARDIS 
first,

   we can stop Skagra getting it back.  He'll have no escape."

   "But it's imperative we find him before he finds Salyavin."

   "Yes, but let's just exercise a little strategy, shall we?"  

   The Doctor heads back towards the reception area.

         

   Skagra enters the main chamber.  Set into one wall is a large array of

   translucent doors through which can be seen vague forms.

   "Before  I find Salyavin, I shall release some of these others. They 

   can be the first to participate in the new Universal mind." 

   He goes to a console in the middle of the chamber and checks the 
records.

   Looking up, he recognizes some infamous inmates and passes over them.

   ...

   Making his decision, Skagra operates the mechanism.

   In several of the cells, gas swirls around and the prisoners begin to 
stir.

   ---

        

   Skagra looks on as a number of zombie-like prisoners stagger from 
their cells

   into the chamber.

   "Enough. Their consciousness will soon return and we must be ready for 
them."

         

   The  Doctor peeks around the reception area door and spies the Krargs. 
He 

   turns back to Chronotis.

   "Alright, we'll do it your way.  Come on."

   "By all the suns I hope we're not too late."

   As they move swiftly back down the corridor, Chronotis whispers to K9.

   "Be  alert. If Skagra tries to use the sphere on...on anyone, you  
must  

   destroy it!"

   Like ghosts they pass through the empty tunnels.

         

   Skagra has removed the last prisoner before Salyavin. As the humanoid 
is led

   from the chamber, another slides in behind it. As usual, there is a 
figure 

   inside.

   "Cabinet  9.  There he is.  The man I have spent my life finding. The 
man 

   whose mind will reshape the entire universe! Salyavin. Let us release 
him!!"

   Romana's eyes are fixed on the cubicle as Skagra's finger moves 
towards the

   button.

   "No, Skagra, stop!"  The Doctor bursts in followed by K9 and 
Chronotis.

   "Doctor!" Romana cries.

   "Keep  away from here!"  Skagra signals his Krargs to move.  

   "You are  too  late."  

   He presses the button.

   The gas swirls and the door opens, but no one steps out.

   Reaching into the cabinet, Skagra pulls out a roughly built dummy. His 
eyes 

   boggle. "Salyavin!  Where is Salyavin?!"

 

   "I escaped centuries ago."  Professor Chronotis bows his head."

     

    ---

         

   Skagra is agog.  "You!!"

   "You're Salyavin?"

   "Yes,  I am, Doctor.  That's why I wanted no one to come here. I 
wanted to

   live out my life in peace. To forget the stupidities of my past, 
forget 

   this hateful power. I have suppressed it for years, except where it 
was

   necessary to cover my tracks. Now, go, Skagra.  Leave me in peace; 
forget

   this insanity."

   "No, Salyavin.  I have you here.  I have everything I need."

   The  sphere makes a move for Chronotis but K9 blasts it to pieces.  
Each

   fragment immediately reforms into an individual smaller sphere, the 
nearest 

   of which settles on  Chronotis. He sinks to the floor.

   "Now, Doctor," Skagra is triumphant, "you shall see the beginning of 
the

   universal mind."

   The  spheres rise and come together in a huge discharge of power. The 
very

   ether seems charged.

   After  a few moments, they separate and each settles on a prisoner who

   appears to wake.

   Skagra smiles.  They all smile.

   Skagra turns to face the Doctor.  They all turn to face the Doctor.

   Horror struck, the Doctor backs off, lost for words.

   Turning  a corner, Chris sees the threat and rushes forward 

   before Clare can  stop 

   him.  "No!"

   Skagra and the prisoners all glace at him as if one.

   "Sphere!" shouts Skagra.

   Before  Chris  can do a thing, a sphere sails over and absorbs 

   him;  his  mind  is 

   taken in seconds.

   The prisoners--including Chris--advance on the Doctor.

   "NOW, DOCTOR, WE WILL DEAL WITH YOU!"

         

   ---   Episode 6

        

   Backing  away  from  the advancing prisoners, the Doctor looks 

   for  help.   "K9!"    

   Unseen so far, K9 moves into view and fires, stunning one of 

   the prisoners.

   The Krarg guarding Romana lumbers in front of K9 and he turns 

   to face it.

   "No, K9, don't fire at it!"  The Doctor makes a move for the door.  

   Unable  to fire, K9 is picked up by the Krarg and hurled past 

   the Doctor into  the corridor, landing with a crash.

   Seeing  her chance, Romana breaks free and rushes after the Doctor.

   Grabbing  K9, they head back to the Professor's TARDIS.

   With a thought, Skagra sends his Krarg after them.

   

   Picking  up a bemused Clare in the corridor, the Doctor, Romana 

   and K9  reach the Professor's TARDIS just before being cornered by 
Krargs

   coming from the reception area and the one in pursuit.

         

   ---

         

   Skagra  leads his enslaved group back to the Doctor's TARDIS.  

   Meeting his Krargs grouped around the door to the Professor's TARDIS, 
Skagra

   smiles when told that the Doctor had escaped.

   "The  Doctor. A poor little man.  A pinprick on an 

   irrelevancy. Let him amuse himself with his tricks. 

   They are merely the tiny antics of an insect threatened with 
inevitable

   extinction.  We will go."

   He  heads off, with his Krargs and a dozen sick puppet-like 

   parodies falling into step behind.

   Passing back through the reception area, Skagra enters the TARDIS with 
his

   new recruits.

   The TARDIS dematerializes, and a deathly silence takes hold.  

   Shada returns again to its state of perpetual slumber.

         

   At the TARDIS controls, Skagra talks to a captive audience.

   "We will return to the carrier ship. From there, a fleet of small 
craft will

   take each of us to selected centers of population, and the great mind

   revolution  will begin!!"

         

   ---

   ---

        

   The TARDIS is in flight with Skagra at the controls.

       

   ---

         

   One of the controls on the TARDIS has a minor explosion which 

   startles Skagra out of his dreams.

   "Something's  wrong."  He tries a few tests.  

   "Something's interfering with these controls. They're jammed!"

   Moving around to a different panel, he opens the screen doors.

   "There  must  be  something out there in the Space Time Vortex 

   with  us....   The Doctor!  In that absurd machine!"

         

   ---

         

   The Professor's ship has enveloped the TARDIS with a force field.

   "A foolish attempt, Doctor. The force field is weakening already. In 
two

   minutes, it will break and you will have achieved nothing."

         

   ---

         

   The Doctor appears in the Vortex.  He spins wildly, silently screaming 
with

   pain. Slowly he orientates himself and faces towards the TARDIS. He 
half 

   crawls, half swims  up the tunnel--perhaps even runs.  Who can tell in 
an

   unreal world?

         

  "The field is fading fast."  Skagra is calmly working over the 
controls.

  "This is a futile exercise, Doctor."

         

  ---

         

  The Doctor, racked with pain, strives to reach a shimmering line in the

  distance:  his TARDIS!

  With a final superhuman effort, he manages to get part of his arm 
through it.

         

  ---

         

  The Doctor seems unable to sustain his effort and get any further. In 
fact,

  he begins to slide backwards.

         

  ---

         

  The Doctor spins wildly away into the Vortex, apparently lost in 
infinity.

  Skagra fights to regain control of the TARDIS.  Five of the prisoners 
man the

  console with him.  They act as a team working together to bring it 
under 

  control.

   ...

  "Good. We make an excellent team.  A concert of the mind."

   The  TARDIS comes under control. Skagra smiles in triumph. All the 
prisoners

   do in unison.

   "Now that the Doctor has finished wasting our times with his foolish 
tricks,

   we can continue.  We will shortly materialize in the carrier ship."

         

   ---

 

 

   The Doctor comes to.  In the TARDIS!

   Standing up, he finds himself in an equipment room.  Shelves line 
every wall

   crammed with devices with unknown uses.

   "Good!"

   He begins to rummage.

         

   The TARDIS materializes back on the carrier ship.

   The prisoners and the Krargs troop out followed by Skagra. He stands 
and

   watches them with satisfaction.  He then turns to the wide panoramic 
window 

   to the stars.
continued next post
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