From: doctor@infopls.chi.il.us (david lucas)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho
Subject: shada text continued
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 92 17:21:04 CDT
Organization: INFOPLUS support, Wheeling, IL

  Continued from previous post

    "What?"

    "This thing's written in code.  How am I doing?"

    "I believe you know the code."

    "Who, me?"

    "Yes."

    "Oh, no no.  I'm afraid I'm very stupid.  Very stupid."

    Skagra's  fist slams down on the console.  "Doctor!  I believe 

    you as a Time Lord know this code and you will give that knowledge to 
me!!"

    "There's no point in giving me orders; I'm very very stupid."

    "That is not an order."

    "No?" the Doctor replies.

    "It is a statement of fact."

    The Doctor swallows hard.  "Ah, how stupid of me."

    Skagra makes a gesture and the sphere rises and approaches the 

    Doctor.  " You will 

    give me that knowledge because you have no choice."

    "Ah, well, I don't know about that.  I don't know about 

    anything, in fact.  I'm an appallingly stupid person."

    Skagra smiles.  "That, Doctor, will soon be very true!"

    The sphere descends and attaches itself to the Doctor's 

    forehead. With a long,agonizing cry of pain he falls back into his 
seat.

         

    ---

         

         The  Doctor  lies slumped across the chair in the control 

     room--he appears to be dead! He is alone.

         

    ---

         

         Romana,  enveloped by the cube of light, materializes in the 

    corridor she had  vacated a few minutes before.

             Disorientated, she stumbles and spins around to find Skagra 

    standing before  her with the sphere.

    "Let me see the Doctor!"

    "You would not enjoy it. I have taken his mind."

    Grabbing Romana by the arm, Skagra forces her to leave the ship 

    with him.

         

    ---

         

        In Skagra's control room the Doctor lies as if dead.

       

    ---

 

 

             Skagra  pushes  Romana  roughly across the console room.  
With 

        one hand on the sphere, he operates the TARDIS controls with the 
other.

  

         

    ---

         

           With  a start, the Doctor comes to.  Groggily, he stares 
around 

    until the  control room  comes into focus around him. His face has a 

    vacant expression and he mumbles slowly.

    "Very stupid."

    Closing his eyes, he seems to be trying to catch some elusive 
thought. 

   "Very stupid!"

   Slowly, a broad grin spreads across his face and he jumps to his feet.

   "Skagra?"

   "My Lord has departed," the disembodied voice of the ship replies.

   "Who's that?"

   "The servant of Skagra. I am the ship. I do not understand why you are 


   moving."

   "What?" the Doctor retorts.

   "You are dead. You entire mind was to be seized into the sphere."

   "Ah, well, it wasn't, was it? The trick on these occasions is not to 
resist.

   I just let the thing believe I was very stupid and it then didn't pull 


   nearly hard enough. It got a copy but left me with the original 
intact. 

   Understand?"

   "No, I do not."

   The Doctor rubs his chin.  "No, nor do I.  Perhaps I >am< really 
stupid.

   No! -- I know -- I >am< dead!" a sudden brainwave hits the Doctor. 
"And if I

   am dead, then I'm an ex-enemy of Skagra's. Correct?"

   "Correct."

   "Then," he is treading carefully, "if I am dead, I cannot give orders 
that

   would be any kind of threat to Skagra.  Correct?"

   After a pause, the ship replies, "Correct."

   "Then will you release my companions?"

   "They will be released."

   "Excellent!  Thank you."

   The Doctor smiles ruefully, the notices a change in the 

   atmosphere.  "It's getting very stuffy in here."

   "You are dead?" this was a question.

   "Yes! I thought we'd sorted that out." The Doctor's voice holds  a  
note  of

   concern.

   "I  am programmed to conserve resources.  Since there are not 

   live beings in  this area, I have shut down the oxygen supply." 

   "What!!"

   Gasping for breath, the Doctor sinks to the floor.  The last 

   thing he hears is the emotionless voice of the ship.

   "DEAD MEN DO NOT REQUIRE OXYGEN!!!"

        

   ---   Episode 4

         

         They materialize back in the corridor.

   "Hey, we did it!"  Chris is delighted.

   "We must find the Doctor master.  He is in danger."

   K9's  obvious concern subdues Chris and they quickly find the 

   sealed control  room door.

   K9 gets ready to blast his way in, but before he can do so, 

   Chris finds the switch and, accompanies by a rush of air, the door 
slides

   open.

   "Most satisfactory," K9 comments glumly and withdraws his blaster.

   Together they rush through the door.

   When  they  reach  the  Doctor, he is lying unconscious on  the 

   floor;  Chris  is relieved to find a pulse.  Slowly the Time Lord 
comes to.

   "He's alright!"

   "No I'm not.  I'm dead."

   "What?"

   "I've been nearly too clever by three quarters."

   Chris grins.  "You never seem to do anything by halves."

   "I persuaded the ship I was dead and it cut off the oxygen supply."

   "The logic is peculiar but acceptable, master," K9 interjects.

   The Doctor glances around.  "Where's Romana?"

   "I thought she was with you.  Whatever took us off came back for her."

   "Skagra!   He must have have her, as well as the book and a copy of my 
mind.

   He thinks I know the key to the book."

   Chris looks up.  "Well, what is the key?"

   "I don't know.  I deliberately didn't think about it in case he 

   did use the sphere on me."  The Doctor heads for the door.  

   "Come on, we can trace them from the TARDIS."

   "Negative, master.  The TARDIS has gone."

   "What!"  The Doctor is stunned into silence.

         

   Skagra  is at the controls of the TARDIS.  Romana stands helplessly  
by. 

  "Anyone can dematerialize a TARDIS, but you'd be a real safety hazard 
at the

  major  controls. That's why they're booby-trapped."

  Skagra seems to be consulting the sphere.  "Not true."

  "How do you know?"

  Skagra taps the sphere.

  "You know everything?"

  "It's all in there."

  "But why steal our TARDIS?"

  Skagra looks up for a moment.  "What the Time Lords have hidden I shall 
need 

  Time Lord  technology  to find.  Now be quiet; I must concentrate." He 
begins

  to set coordinates.

  ...

  The TARDIS materializes inside the huge vessel. One wall contains an 
enormous

  wide window which looks out across the galaxy.

  Skagra and Romana emerge; she is clearly impressed but tries 

  hard not to show it.

  "Where are we?"

  "On my command ship."

  "Command ship!  And what do you hope to command?"

  "More than you can possibly imagine."

  A deep grating voice coming from behind her startles Romana.

  "Welcome back to you ship, my Lord."

  Turning,  Romana  sees for the first time the huge humanoid creature 
Skagra

  had contacted from his ship. Her jaw drops.

         

  Chris and the Doctor are seated in Skagra's ship; they both look 
dejected. K9

  seems to have switched off.

  The Doctor takes a deep breath. "Let us work out what we know. We know 
that

  "Right."

  "We don't know where Skagra has taken Romana, we don't know why he 
wants the

  book, we don't know what he's going to do..."

  Despondent, Chris runs his hand through his hair.  "That's enough 
`don't

  knows' to  win an election!"

  "Hmmmpphh."

  "This ship must know where we has gone."

   Before  the  Doctor can say a word, the ship cuts him off.  "I 

   do  not  know  that information."

   "Don't know, don't know, don't know?!!!"  The Doctor jumps to 

   his feet and  begins to pace the room.

         

   Skagra has placed the sphere on a console similar to that in the Think 
Tank.

   Irritated by Romana's questioning, he takes her over to the window.

   " Tell me what you see."

   "Stars.  Billions of them."

   "What are they doing?"

   "Doing?  They're just there."

   "Exactly. Spinning uselessly through the void. And around them,  
trillions

   of people spinning uselessly through their lives."  Skagra is like a 
man

   possessed; a man with a mission.  He cups his hands together.

   "Look."

   Mystified, Romana looks inside.

 

   "What do you see?"

   "Nothing.  Air."

   "Billions of atoms spinning at random through space.  Expending 
energy.

   Entropy. But what stands against entropy; against random decay?"

   He holds out a hand to her.

   "Life! See how the atoms are arranged here. They have meaning; 
purpose. And 

   what more meaning and purpose than in here?" he taps his head.

   Romana is convinced he's insane.

   "Ahh, you do not understand me!"

   Pointing at the creature, she tries to change the subject. 

   "What are these?" 

   "My Krargs.  They will be the servants of the new generation."

   "What?  A new race?"

   "NO, A NEW PERSON."

   Skagra  clearly wishes to talk no more and leads Romana away to an 
annexe of

   the ship where he shows Romana a row of coffin-shaped vats full of a 
strange

   heavy gas. The Krarg pushes a button, and inside one of the vats, 
crystals 

   form and coalesce to become another Krarg.

   It pulls itself out of the vat.  "What is your command, my Lord?"

   Romana is horror-struck.

         

   On Earth, a feeling of despondency surrounds Chris, the Doctor and K9.

   "So," Chris muses, "back to square one."

   "That's  it!" the Doctor cries.  "We have got to go back to square one 
if we

   want to find out who Skagra is and what he's up to. Ship! I order you 
to

   take us to where your Lord Skagra last came from."

   "The order does not conflict with my programmed instructions. I will 
now

   activate launch procedures."

   The Doctor and Chris grin at each other.

   The computer's voice echoes round the ship --

   in the corridor

   ...

   in the cell

   ...

   and also in a small Krarg generation chamber hidden off the corridor.

   As if in response to the voice, a body begins to form in the vat.

         

   The  Doctor is very pleased with the way things are going until the  
ship

   informs him it will take three months to reach their destination.

   "Ship, can you alter your own circuitry?"

   "Yes.  I can do that."

   "Right, then, stop."

   "Repeat, please."

 

   "I said stop.  HALT."

   ...

   "I'm  going to introduce you to a few new concepts.  Now, ship, 

   listen very carefully. Reverse the polarity on your main warp feeds. 
Right?"

   "Accomplished."

   "Good, now this is the difficult bit........"


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