By Kyron Mallett
Part One
The studio was a mess. Speakers, wires and assorted pieces of other electrical equipment made the small area a metaphor for its occupant’s mind.
He was a tall man, bespectacled, with an unruly mane of hair. He was wearing a white lab coat over a worn pair of blue jeans and a multi-coloured sweater. He placed a screwdriver back in the pocket of his coat after he finished replacing the back of a speaker and stood up. He was painfully thin and over above average height and he would have struggled to move freely in the confined basement studio even if it had been clear.
Placing the speaker on the top of the main mixing panel, the young man sat down on the only seat not covered by junk. He looked around with a frustrated look. It should work but it never did. He could visualise but not always realise. He was on his last legs with his employers and he knew it. This time it had to work.
Taking a reel, he placed the tape onto the machine and set it going. The voice of one of the “lads” ran through his mind: “Surround sound, ten speakers, it’s rubbish. You only need two speakers for stereo and that’s it.” The technician had set a number of speakers around the room of various sizes. The cords of all the speakers ran into a small box that sat before him on the mixing panel. The box had clearly been assembled from numerous other devices. It was in turn plugged into the mixing panel.
The tape began to play. However the sound that rang out from all the speakers was simply static. He covered his face with his hands. He was sunk. The anger welled and he pulled his hair. In a swift motion, one of his hands flew out and struck the “magic box”. It had obviously been bolted down, as it did not fly through the screens beyond. Instead and to his immense relief, the sound of an electric guitar solo began to ring out.
But something wasn’t quite right. The sound was distorted somehow… thicker than it should have been. The technician checked the settings of the mixing panel and made some small corrections. However the sound was gradually growing louder. It was then that he noticed the sounds emanating from each of the speakers was vastly different, almost alive and it was as though they were talking to each other.
Beginning to panic, the man pulled the connecting plug between the box and the panel but impossibly the sound continued. There was more… it wasn’t just reverberating around the room it was in his head… like a physical presence, moving around his head. He grabbed his head and then slapped it in an attempt to stop the pain. He the realised he was screaming but he couldn’t hear himself. As blood began to run from his ears, no-one could hear him call for help, at least no-one human…
“Well what do you think?”
“Oh Doctor… it’s so cold!” Peri complained, “You promised us London of the swinging sixties!”
The Doctor rolled his eyes: she was never satisfied. The Doctor was well insulated in his Victorian cricketing outfit, although his appearance did attract the odd side-ways look. The youthful looking time traveller simply beamed a disarming smile, perhaps not fully aware that it in London of 1969, it made him seem like even more of a nutter.
His companions were rather more assimilated in a sartorial sense. He had suggested that they fit themselves out with inconspicuous items from the TARDIS wardrobe, forgetting that in relation to fashion, the clothes of the time were anything but inconspicuous and also neglecting to mention that they had arrived mid-winter.
Peri, the Doctor’s American companion, was wearing a multicoloured striped pant-dress with knee high white boots. Her young Egyptian friend, Erimem, had chosen a slightly less sensible plaid shirt-waist dress, complete with a “Kitty Foyle bow” at the neckline and long sleeves ending in white cuffs.
“Doctor I’m going to have to go back to the TARDIS… I’m in danger of dying from exposure.”
The Doctor paused outside a boutique and looked in through the front window. “I think you’ll find what you need in there!”
“Dandy Fashions?”
“Oh, you’ll need this… that’s all I’ve got on me that’s acceptable in this time zone and planet so be sparing!”
Peri tried to look grateful but she had gone a strange shade of blue and could not speak. In reality it should have been Erimem who was more affected by the brisk climate, having hailed from a temperate one, but if she was experiencing discomfort she wasn’t letting it show.
Erimem quickly pushed her inside the front doors: “Thank you Doctor… we won’t be long!”
The Doctor flashed her a warm smile. The street was alive with activity: taxis darted in and out around the average traffic, people were dashing past with shopping bags picking up the post-Christmas bargains… which incidentally reminded the Doctor of a trip he’d been meaning to take…
Some brakes screeched very abruptly nearby and there was the sound of doors opening and heavy footsteps. At first the Doctor thought that there may have been an accident but when he turned around he could see two rather burly men bearing down on him.
“Can I help you at all?” The Doctor beamed, somehow knowing that it wasn’t going to help. He began to back-peddle but walked into another suited goon in dark glasses.
“Oh I do beg your pardon!” The Doctor declared as he nimbly weaved his way between them and took off down the street.
He would have made it too, however one of the men pulled a small, thin gun from one of his jacket pockets and fired a dart, which hit the Doctor in the back of the neck. The helpless Time Lord immediately crashed to the ground.
The four men collected up the eccentrically dressed stranger and placed him in the boot of their car. It was a black rolls with tinted windows and no plates. All four men climbed inside and the car sped away down Kings Road… the girls inside the boutique suspecting nothing.
The young technician woke up on the floor of the studio basement, the blood from his ears having congealed. The room was silent and for a moment he thought it had all been a nightmare but then he heard a deep mumble, not in the room but inside his head. The sound was warm and thick, sonorous, hypnotic and without any hesitation the young man walked out of the room, up a flight of stair and into the lobby of the Saville Row house.
The girl at the front desk looked up. She was wearing a Bolero suit with an enormous collar. She was an attractive blonde about thirty: “Max are you okay?”
Max ignored her and walked out through the front doors. The girl shrugged, perhaps thinking he was simply stoned?
Inside the boutique, the girls were having a whale of a time. No only was it normal room temperature there were a thousand items of clothing to choose from and Peri had found that the Doctor had either purposely or inadvertently given them the equivalent of a small fortune to spend.
“Oh I like it!” Peri exclaimed as Erimem emerged from a changing booth.
“I really like this thing you call… shopping,” she commented, doing a twirl.
The fashions in the boutique leaned a little left of centre and the girls were certainly indulging. Erimem was wearing a fringed leather jacket over a tight seemingly tie-dyed rainbow coloured shirt, blue jeans with decorative patches, a chain belt and go-go boots. The whole outfit was finished off with a medallion peace symbol hung around the neck and a head-band with a yellow flower attached.
“Wow! I don’t know if it fits the Doctor’s rules about being inconspicuous but it sure as hell screams swinging London to me!”
“I feel quite comfortable in it all actually…”
A small, blond man with a neat side-part dressed in a black turtle neck sweater and black trousers came over to inspect the ensemble: “Oh sweetie, you’re to die for!”
Peri had not exactly changed outfits, she had instead opted for a giant thigh length fur jacket from within which she had recovered her normal colour.
“Do you girls want me to wrap them all up?”
“I think considering the weather, we’ll just give you the tags… here, you can keep the change!”
The small man smiled broadly and went to settle the account.
“Peri… I can’t see the Doctor outside?!” Erimem commented.
Peri looked out to confirm his absence. She wasn’t really surprised in the least.
“Are you looking for the young blonde gentleman in the antique suit?”
“You saw him leave?”
“Yes… with a number of other gentlemen and he didn’t look pleased.”
“Typical, Absolutely typical…” Peri muttered.
“I hope he’s alright,” Erimem commented quietly.
“Believe me, he’s probably having the time of his life.”
The retailer had left it to his shop assistant to wrap up Erimem’s original clothes. She was a slight, pretty young red head with a slight smearing of freckles across her nose: “I like it. You’d both fit in my crowd.”
“Thanks,” Peri returned.
“You’re brother is hot by the way, weird but hot!”
Realising that she was talking about the Doctor, Peri was about to correct her but then decided it wasn’t that important.
“Are you guys from overseas…?”
“The Doctor, Peri and I travel together,” Erimem explained using the official expiated version.
“Cool. I can’t place your accent though?”
“Erimem is from Egypt…” Peri interjected, realising that Erimem was less used to editing the truth.
“Wow! I’m Jill by the way. Look I’m about to knock off. A group of others and I spend our evenings waiting out Paul. My boss used to be in business with them.”
“Paul?” Erimem asked, mystified.
“One of the lads…”
“Lads?”
Peri whispered something in Erimem’s left ear.
“What’s a rock band?”
Peri decided to change the subject: “We’d love to but we can’t leave in case the Doctor comes back.”
“I actually think he’s gonna be held up for a while. It might do you just as well to lay low…” Jill replied, putting on her coat.
Peri was clearly tempted but the significance of the invitation had completely escaped Erimem, who seemed more genuinely concerned about the Doctor.
“I really think we ought to…”
“Look just leave a note and let him know you’ll be back in a few hours,” Jill proposed, “my boss’ll be here until late.”
“Well…,” Peri had long thought that she would like to actually enjoy her travels rather than just leaping from danger to danger, “… I can’t see anything wrong with that.”
“I don’t know about this Peri…”
“Relax… believe me the Doctor can take care of himself… if he isn’t here when we get back, then we can start to worry. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt about all this, it’s best just to roll along with it.”
The Doctor blinked as the roof of the boot was lifted. Technically he should have long since suffocated but oxygen had been pumped into the confined space. Therefore he had already deduced that he was dealing with a sophisticated organization, and well resourced.
The Doctor was pulled out by one of the goons who had collected him.
“Could you give me a moment to get the circulation back in my legs?” The Doctor took the opportunity to study his environment as he pretended to massage his legs. They were in some kind of basement car park. Only one goon had remained behind to escort him – which made the Doctor feel rather underestimated.
The Goon had waited long enough and waved him towards an elevator across the floor. The Doctor noticed a rather odd thing as he made his way over… although there were multiple parking spots there were no oil stains.
The Doctor stepped into the lift first as the doors promptly opened as he approached, which was just as well as there was no control pad. Before the goon could follow him inside the Doctor stopped and he bounced off his back. The Doctor then quickly operated the door mechanism: “Must dash, sorry!”
The lift doors opened and the Doctor stepped out into what looked like a war-room.
“Of course… UNIT.”
“Doctor! Hang on… where’s the Doctor? And more to the point where’s Dobbin?”
A rather angry looking Dobbin stepped into the room behind them. The Brig grinned: “So Doctor, it is you!”
“So it would seem Brigadier! I take it you require my assistance…”
The Brig tapped his side with his baton and studied a nearby map absently: “Hmm? Oh, yes Doctor. Depending on you. Our metropolitan hidden camera network detected the TARDIS and I sent a detachment into central London to retrieve a man in Victorian or Edwardian clothes… I’m aware at how variable your appearance can be.”
“Have you ever heard of asking quietly Alistair?”
“I’m sorry Doctor but we are in the middle of an emergency…”
“I’ve just left two young companions stranded in the middle of London,” the Doctor snapped.
The Brig realised the best defence was to get the Doctor interested in the current emergency: “Over the last day or so there have been some strange incidents around central London…”
“That strategy won’t work with me Alistair…”
“The most recent occurred at the local movie studios, where strange voices could be heard over the sound system for a full minute. No-one can account for it… and no, I don’t believe in ghosts either Doctor but if you’ve taught me anything it’s to keep an open mind.”
“Collect my companions and I will listen,” the Doctor relented with a heavy breath.
Jill or “Jill-Paul” as she preferred to be known had shared a taxi to the residence of the young star with the young travellers. The town house was bounded by high-gate and the group waited on the sidewalk outside waiting for any sign of their hero. They even had their own tea and cake facilities established on a small card table.
“So I suppose this makes me Peri-Paul!”
“Are they really that good?” Erimem asked innocently.
A couple of the girls seemed to flash looks that suggested that she had committed blasphemy.
“She’s from Egypt,” Jill-Paul explained, and there were some understanding nods.
“So we just wait here. Why not knock on the door?” Erimem asked.
“Well the gate is locked and Paul tends to look after us better if we respect his privacy. One of the girls actually got inside and climbed through the bathroom window last year and there was a little trouble,” Jill-Paul explained.
“It’s that braless trollop that was more upset. If she had her own way, Paul would be in exile in the country somewhere!” One of the other girls chirped in.
As if on que, the front door opened and the man himself emerged. All the girls except Peri and Erimem ran to get the best vantage point possible.
Corporal Benton, complete with dark goon suit, stuck his face up against the window of the boutique on Kings Road where the girls had met Jill, and peered inside. The lights were still on, although the shop appeared to be closed. Benton looked down and saw the little blond man standing before him… he was in fact so short that he’d overlooked him at first. The little man smiled and unlocked the door.
“Can I help you in any way?”
“Err… I am actually looking for two young women…”
“Oh, what a tragedy. Yes, I think I know the two you mean. You’ll be wanting to read this then love,” he replied sadly, passing the note that had been left on the front counter.
Benton read the note, his eyebrows rising as the truth dawned on him.
“They shouldn’t be too hard to find then?” The little man called from inside a rack of psychedelic clothes.
Having been assured that his young companions would be found and collected, the Doctor had allowed himself to be transferred to the aforementioned studio with young Captain Turner, The Brig’s right hand man. A flash of some rather official looking papers at the gate seemed to convince the security guard at the gate that they should be allowed to enter.
“Aren’t you surprised?” The Doctor asked.
“About you no longer being a short middle-aged, dark haired man with a mop of black hair? The Brigadier explained a little about you Doctor… personally very little surprises me now.”
Their car, driven by one of the goons who had “requisitioned” the Doctor, pulled up outside the concert hall.
“Stay in the car Dobbin,” Turner ordered.
“And try not to shoot anyone,” the Doctor jibed.
As the Doctor and Captain Turner vanished inside, Dobbin glared after them.
Once inside the studio, the receptionist summoned the Manager who hurriedly arrived, betraying a rather frustrated air: “Really, this is becoming intolerable. I can’t understand what interest you military buffoons have in this studio!”
He was a rather dapper looking man, with black greying hair and a very neatly trimmed moustache.
“I’m sorry again for the inconvenience Sir but we’ve called in our expert on such matters from… outside London and we’re keen to get to the bottom of this business.”
“There is no business now, the group have packed up and have decided to finish their film on their own premises… something about it being too intrusive here… well they are making a bloody movie after all!”
The Doctor signalled for Captain Turner to keep the Manager busy, while he slipped further inside the building to investigate personally…
Max had been wandering the streets for sometime. He finally passed a phone box and with a blank expression and congealed blood on one of the lapels of his coat he stepped inside. In a mechanical fashion, he proceeded to make a phone call.
The receptionist at the studio answered the call. She was a prudish looking, middle-aged woman, not unattractive but certainly her appearance was not enriched by her sense of fashion or lack of it. The distraction had prevented her from noticing the disappearance of the Doctor. As soon as she answered, her appearance became as equally blank as that of Max: “They are no longer here but there are two investigators.”
Turner was still arguing politely with the Manager, when the receptionist interrupted them in order to pass her boss the phone.
“I understand,” the Manager noted quickly and replaced the phone. He then turned blankly to Captain Turner.
“Are you alright Sir?”
“Where is the other one?”
Outside the Cavendish Avenue town house, the resident idol was interacting with his devoted fans.
“It’s really him… for real!” Peri gasped and not for the first time.
“He looks rather pale and ordinary to me… in my country and time, masculine beauty is measured in different ways…” Erimem answered.
“He looks fine to me… and what about the Doctor then?”
“The Doctor is different… he’s a wise man, a little feminine I suppose…”
Peri snorted and it was at that moment that she noticed the dark Rolls Royce, which had pulled up behind them. A rather tall man stepped out and Peri suddenly had the distinct impression he was not only looking at them, but that he recognised them.
“Ladies I’m here to take you to the Doctor,” Benton explained.
“Take us to the Doctor or take us like the Doctor?” Peri asked, astutely.
“I’m afraid we don’t have time to debate the issue ladies…”
The girls, particularly Peri, seemed to be waiting for something and there was an awkward silence. At the same time, Paul’s own Rolls pulled up, complete with driver, who hopped out and opened the doors.
“Sorry girls… duty calls!”
There were some muted goodbyes and some assorted calls of eternal devotion and the young star moved to catch his ride. He had noticed the two newcomers to the group and had been wondering why they had remained on the periphery.
“Listen buddy… we’re not going with you. We can tell the Doctor didn’t send you.”
“Get lost creep…” Jill-Paul chimed in.
Benton was under strict orders to retrieve the Doctor’s companions and so before he attracted any more attention attempted to half-push Peri in through the open door, perhaps in the hope that the one girl would not abandon the other. Instead this seemed to precipitate a bit of a struggle. Jill-Paul jumped forward and pushed Benton back into the car.
“Quick girls in here!” Paul called, leaving the door to the back seat open.
Without hesitating, Peri, Erimem and Jill-Paul jumped into the rolls and it sped off.
“Studio,” Paul instructed and then turned to the girls, “so Jill, who are your new mates?”
“This is Peri. She’s American. And this Erimem and she’s Egyptian.”
“You’d both give Twiggy a run for her money.”
Erimem looked totally confused.
“Probs with the law?”
“My… brother may have been busted…”
“I know it’s a drag when they bust you for having a stash isn’t it. Look how would you girls fancy an all expenses paid, once in a life-time tour of Apple Headquarters and a chance to spend an afternoon and evening with the Beatles as they prepare for tomorrows live performance…”
“You mean on the roof…?” Peri started.
“Yeah. Word gets around fast. We only talked Ringo into it yesterday. John of course wanted to play in an asylum but it just wasn’t going to be practical.”
“I just can’t believe this…” Peri muttered.
The Doctor hadn’t found it too difficult to find the sound stage where the “incident” had occurred. It was the only one locked. While he lacked his sonic screwdriver, it would have been useless anyway with such a crude mechanism, so he had to find another way inside.
The Doctor paused for a moment when he thought he heard voices inside. Gently he placed one ear to the door and listened.
“He’s here… he’s here…” It was a soft voice repeating the same words over and over. Then someone coughed behind him.
The Doctor turned to face The Manager glaring at him beside an uncomfortable Captain Turner.
“Ah, hello… I was um… looking for the bathroom,” the Doctor lied badly.
“I want you and this strange gentlemen off the premises, immediately,” the Manager explained.
“I can hear voices in there… the strange thing is that this room has been padlocked from the outside,” the Doctor commented.
“Leave. I will be making a complaint to your superiors, count on that.”
“We’d better go Doctor,” Turner commented.
The Doctor shrugged and led the way out.
“I’m sorry Doctor I tried to keep him busy but…”
“Never mind. There was another strange thing, did you notice?”
Turner shook his head as they headed out to the car.
“He wasn’t blinking. So we have disembodied voices and telepathic possession. Fascinating…”
“I’m not sure that’s going to satisfy the Brig Doctor!”
At a certain five-story Georgian mansion on Saville Row, there was some excited activity. Paul had arrived with his three young friends at the same time as some staffers were dragging Max in.
“What’s up with him then?”
“We found him collapsed outside a phone box two blocks from here,” the one with a beard replied as they placed him on the couch in the foyer.
“Girls this is Peter, Neil and Derek…”
“Hi.”
“A busy morning?” Derek enquired.
“These are the winners of the win a free morning with Paul competition,” the bearded star quipped.
“I wasn’t aware of that one,” Derek returned.
“Well, you had a lot on your plate and anyway there were only three entrants,” Paul continued as he lead the girls through into the building, “hope he’s alright!”
Peter looked Max up and down and shook his head: “Bloody John and his loonies!”
“You WHAT?”
The Brigadier was on the phone to Corporal Benton when the Doctor and Captain Turner returned.
“They’re with who? Repeat that again… I see. Well, that should make them easy to find… say they’re wanted for questioning, just get them back here!”
The Brigadier slammed down the phone.
“The girls?” The Doctor asked.
“Benton located them but they resisted and hitched a ride with… never mind.”
“Of course the code system we devised. I should have told you about that. They were probably waiting for a code word to make sure that it was safe to cooperate.”
“I see. Doctor I just had a rather unpleasant phone conversation with the irate Manager of the studios I sent you to investigate. You had permission for admittance and a meeting with the Manager, not to organise your own private tour!”
“Well, I want to speak to you about that Brigadier… I discovered something rather interesting…”
“I hope so, because it took all my energy to stop the gentleman from laying formal trespass charges against you!”
“I think we have a lot more to worry about than that Brigadier… a great deal more…”
“What do you mean?”
“I think something is trying to enter our dimension, something or things without corporeal form… something nasty… I get the feeling I’m overlooking something…”
“Well Doctor you can mull things over a while and Benton can drive you over to pick up the girls. That should put your mind at ease about over one issue anyway.”
“I think it would be a good idea if I could have access to that sound studio Brigadier…”
“That might be a tall order Doctor… but I’ll see what I can do.”
“Excellent.”
“Jimmy take the Doctor down to the car pool…”
“Yes, Sir.”
The two men left, leaving the Brigadier alone in his office. No-one had noticed that the receiver had been off and sitting facing downwards on his desk. He slowly picked it up and put it to his face: “They’re on their way. This Doctor is a danger to us. He must be dealt with”
The girls had been taken into a large room full of instruments, which was being used as a rehearsal area.
“Have you seen the state of the studio?” George asked as they walked in.
“Bad news lads, Magic Max is out of action,” Paul explained.
“Blimey,” John noted rolling his eyes as he strummed his guitar, “Everybody had a hard year…” A small oriental woman was sitting next to him, sewing with an enigmatic look on her face.
“I’m Ringo by the way…” the shortest one commented as he strode up to introduce himself to the girls.
“Wow, hi!”
“The air smells rather funny in here…” Erimem commented.
“Must be the tea,” George returned wryly.
A naked woman tapped Peri on the shoulder and offered her a cup. Erimem’s jaw dropped but then someone tapped her on the shoulder.
She turned to find it was a naked man, also holding a tray with cups on it. Erimem jumped.
“Don’t worry… it’s just the tea lady,” George reassured them.
“What about him?” Erimem asked.
“Well he’s the tea lady’s husband… there’s nothing odd about that is there?” Ringo joked.
“What you working on George?” Paul asked as he sat down at the vacant piano in the corner of the room.
“Dunno… something…”
Paul began to play a familiar melody giving Peri a cheeky wink. Jill-Paul and Peri gathered round, Peri taking the space in the seat next to him. Jill-Paul seemed too excited to say anything.
“Do you play anything?” George asked Erimem as he strummed his guitar absently.
“Only the Mizmar. My father made me learn at an early age, one of the slaves was a very good tutor…”
“Cool.”
“So what about the studio Paul?” John asked sharply.
“Big George tells me it’s not irreparable. We’ll be able to get a feed down there from the roof… I think Max has to go though…”
“Consider it done,” John returned with a dangerous edge.
“Clang clang Maxwell’s Silver Hammer came down upon her head. Clang clang Maxwell’s silver hammer…”
“Made sure that she was dead,” Peri finished.
“Hey I like that…”
Erimem shot Peri a look as if to say, the Doctor was not going to like that.
“… I don’t know, they call themselves UNIT. I’ve sort of heard of them, kind of like a secret police force or something,” Neil was explaining to Peter.
“Did you take the call?”
“No it was one of the staffers.”
“This is all I need. I’ve always said this place is a loony asylum… bloody Paul and his girlfriends…”
“They’re here,” Neil noted as the door-man inspected Benton’s ID card and let them inside.
“Are you Peter Brown?” The Doctor asked.
“Yes…”
“And this must be Neil Aspinall…”
Both seemed bewildered that somebody knew their name as the Doctor beamed at them and looked around the place.
“I’m Corporal Benton. There’s no trouble but one of your… employers drove off with two of our associates,” Benton explained.
“They’re all in the guest lounge. We’ve got a concert today…”
“On the roof?” The Doctor cut in.
“Yes… word gets around fast doesn’t it? Let’s hope none of the businesses get wind of it before it starts otherwise it will be over before it begins…”
“The Beatles roof-top concert of January 1969… I wonder if this is all really such a good idea Mister Brown…”
Peter raised an eyebrow and shook his head: “It’s not up to me. It’s up to them.” Brown pointed his finger upstairs.
“I find it difficult to believe that this is just a coincidence,” the Doctor muttered as he lent over and inspected Magic Max.
“That’s Max. He’s been working a bit hard…” Neil explained.
“I think it’s a great deal more than that,” the Doctor countered, lifting the young man’s eyelids and checking his pupils, “I would say that this man has recently suffered a mental assault.”
“He’s more likely suffering from a trip,” Peter commented wryly.
“Where does this man work?” The Doctor asked.
“He had been attempting to install a state of the art recording studio in the basement which he claimed to have invented, instead he’s made a bloody hash of it.”
“Benton I need to examine his equipment.”
“I’m sure there are easier ways to get an autograph or two Doctor…”
“Seriously Benton.”
“Would you mind Sir? We’re in the middle of an important investigation at the moment with serious national security implications.”
“Well I can’t let anyone go down by themselves. Is George down there?”
“George Martin?”
Peter rolled his eyes and when Neil nodded, he waved the Doctor on his way.
“Stay here Benton… this could be dangerous.”
As the Doctor vanished down the stairwell, Benton looked around as if he was wondering what he was going to do.
“Tea?”
Benton looked around and almost fell over.
The Doctor found no-one in the basement studio. Some of the mess had been cleared away in the corner – it made it easier to identify the central oddity. The makeshift device that was screwed onto the main mixing panel immediately attracted the Doctor’s attention.
“Who are you?” The unearthly voice asked.
“Why do you interfere?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing! Now you haven’t harmed anyone permanently yet, so I’m satisfied just to give you a warning leave the Earth alone.”
There was a cold silence and then a deep laugh, followed by a chorus of laughter.
“Who are you? Show yourself!”
In the middle of the studio a small, distorted ball of light appeared.
“That’s a hole in space/time… if you don’t stop pressing through you’ll cause both dimensions to collapse!”
“There will be no catastrophe… this universe suits our purposes… we’ve been listening for so long…”
“You’re composed of sound… I see… you must exist in the vibrational barriers between dimensions… something must have been emitted in this room, something you could finally get a vibrational fix on…”
The whispers became louder and louder… they were not coherent… but they were definitely not friendly.
“What are you… stop it…”
“You are too dangerous to be allowed to survive…”
The sound became overpowering and the Doctor clutched his ears, the pain evident on his face.
“You will die Doctor… the Doctor will die!”
“No!”
Part Two
“Ah!” Max shouted as he sat up.
“Are you alright?” Benton asked, kneeling down. Benton had been having a fascinating conversation with the tea lady about the benefits of a nude lifestyle.
“They’re here… right now!”
“Who are here?”
“The voices in my head!”
Benton and the tea lady looked at each other sceptically.
Inside the studio the Doctor was doubled over with pain. Then, inexplicably the noise vanished and it took the Doctor a moment or two to get himself together.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
The Doctor looked up: “Sir George?”
“Look I’ve explained all this… I won’t have drugs in my studio, understood…”
“Didn’t you hear it?”
“Hear what?”
“Incredible… a mental assault so focused…”
The future Sir George helped the Doctor to his feet: “Would you mind leaving please… Geoff and I have a lot to do… before the performance today…”
The Doctor noticed that Sir George had a screwdriver: “What were you planning to do with that.”
“Well for a start I went to get it to help me get that piece of junk off the mixing panel…”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you…”
“Well you most certainly are not me, now go!”
Sir George went to remove the device.
“I don’t think they’ll allow you to do that,” the Doctor warned again.
Sir George unscrewed two long screws and pulled the box off.
“Perhaps their hold on this vibrational plane has stabilised… they no longer need any signal.”
Sir George pulled up the plug, which had not even been plugged into the mixing panel since Magic Max had pulled it out during the first assault.
The Doctor sighed heavily: “I’ll be going then…”
He then dashed up the stairs as Sir George tossed the box on the pile of junk that had been shifted into the corner.
“Sargent Benton!”
“Doctor? It’s Corporal Benton by the way…”
“Of course,” the Doctor replied, lifting his hat as he passed the naked tea lady.
“What is it Doctor?”
“I need to speak to the Brigadier… this building must be evacuated immediately and this roof-top concert called off,” the Doctor announced as he gently pushed Max back down on the couch and placed his hands on his temples, muttering something under his breath.
“Right you are Sir. Um, miss… is there a phone we could use?”
“Yes, of course… there’s one in the spare office around the corner…”
Benton and the Doctor moved to find it, leaving behind Max who appeared to have fallen into deep sleep.
“Don’t touch that phone Corporal… that’s how they are transmitting themselves!”
Benton backed away from it: “Do you think it’s wise then that you use it?”
“I have more formidable mental defences Benton… hello, yes, this is the Doctor, yes if you could, straight away…”
“Is it always like this around here?”
The tea lady nodded at Benton.
“Alistair! I’ve made contact with the aliens… no I… oh, you’re coming here to take charge? Excellent. I’ll explain the rest when you get here and oh, Alistair… stay away from the phones… I don’t know- use carrier pigeons, just stay off them… I’ll explain when you get here.”
The Doctor hung up: “Strange I was expecting more of an argument… anyway, he’s on his way with a squad… we’ll soon see to this invasion.”
“I don’t understand Doctor,” Benton admitted.
“We’re up against sound creatures Benton… that concert simply mustn’t take place. That is just the kind of final energy boost they need to make their presence permanent and transfer into hundreds, maybe thousands of minds… we’d never be rid of them.”
“Well what do we do in the meantime?”
“We need to speak with Mister Brown…”
“That is so great!” Peri claimed in a giggly way.
Paul had just finished outlining his current ideas for songs, snatched of melodies and chord combinations. Peri was enthralled. Erimem just looked bored.
“I’m still worried about the Doctor,” she admitted.
“Is he a tall blonde man in old fashioned clothes and a cricket jumper?”
“Yeah that’s him,” Peri answered Peter as he entered the room.
“He’s waiting downstairs for you…”
“Looks like you girls are needed elsewhere!”
“Thanks, it’s been great,” Peri told him giving him a peck on the cheek.
Jill-Paul, still stunned just waved as they left, followed by a relieved Erimem.
“About time… can we get on with it now?” John asked impatiently.
“I think he really likes you,” Jill-Paul mentioned.
“I’m sure he’s just being nice…”
“I think they’re all scruffy and mad,” Erimem commented as they made their way down the stairwell.
Peter was the first one in the foyer.
“Ah, Mister Brown. Look I really must advise you to cancel this concert today…”
“As I explained to you Doctor… it isn’t up to me. Now you have your friends and I would appreciate it if you and your military colleague here would go. We really are very busy today!”
“If you would only listen to me… why will no-one ever listen to me?”
“In that outfit, I’m not really surprised,” Peter quipped.
There was the sound of brakes screeching outside, doors slamming and multiple footsteps.
“Oh, God! What now!”
“It’s Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and he’s about to help me explain to you why this building must be evacuated,” the Doctor informed him. Perhaps due to an instinctual fear of authority figures, Jill-Paul retreated back into the stairwell before the soldiers entered the building.
The Brigadier strode in, looking the place up and down with a disapproving look: “Well Doctor… I’m here!”
“Excellent Brigadier…”
The Brigadier noticed that Benton looked at ease with the naked tea lady. The Brig glared at him.
“Sorry Sir,” he told him, suddenly becoming very rigid.
“At ease Corporal… I can see you’re busy. Now Doctor..?”
“Yes, Brigadier, we have a dimensional instability in the studio in the basement…”
“What’s that sound?” The Brigadier asked suddenly changing the topic.
“That is the sound of a dozen toilets flushing following your arrival,” Peter explained.
“I see, Doctor? This had better be good.”
“As I was saying Brigadier, we’re dealing with creatures composed only of sound… they normally exist in the vibrational buffer zones between dimensions but somehow they have managed to get a vibrational frequency lock on this dimension and they are forcing their way through…”
The Doctor’s voice trailed off as he could see the Brigadier’s disinterested expression growing darker.
“… oh, dear, you’re one of them aren’t you?”
“Corporal Benton I want you to escort the Doctor and his two companions back to the lorry, they are going to be transferred back to UNIT HQ at the earliest opportunity.”
“But Sir, I really think that you ought to listen to the Doctor, he’s…”
“CORPORAL BENTON! I gave you an order!”
“Yes, Sir. Come on Doctor…”
The Doctor gave the Brigadier a sad look: “I told you not to answer the phone…”
Peter had been listening to the whole conversation with some renewed interest: “Thank you Sir!”
“Don’t mention it. We’ll keep him away. In fact we had some intelligence that some fanatical fans were gong to attempt to infiltrate your establishment today. If you like I can leave a few men here for added security.”
“Well… actually that would be great… we’re expecting a lot of attention later on today…”
“Excellent! Hawkins, Jones! You are to remain here and follow Mister Brown’s instructions. If the Doctor or his companions show their faces in this building again… I want them caught and detained. Do I make myself clear?”
Both soldiers saluted and the Brigadier let himself out.
Brown was left with the two soldiers standing to attention in the foyer, simply looking at him.
“Well… chaps, make yourselves at home. Have a cup of tea. If we need you, just let us know. If the doorman lets anyone through that looks suspicious, if you could nab them that would be great!”
The two soldiers saluted him and remained standing.
“Excellent… you should come and work for me… we could do with a bit of discipline around here…”
As Peter returned to the stairwell and dashed upwards towards his office, Jill-Paul narrowly avoided discovery by jumping inside a storage closet full of cleaning equipment. However she almost screamed when she realised she wasn’t alone. It was Magic Max. He raised a finger to his lips and removed it only when the footsteps died away.
“I really am sorry about this Doctor but I have my orders…”
“I’m afraid that will be cold comfort when these creatures take over this world in a matter of hours Benton.”
“Hours?” Erimem asked.
“As fast as sound takes to travel. Even with the moderate level of technology that exists on this planet… they will have taken over all key individuals in a matter of minutes thanks to the communication networks… if we were in the age of the internet it would probably take a few seconds… everybody in earshot of a modem would be…”
The Doctor sighed in a defeatist way as he was waved up into the lorry.
“Look we’re sorry about earlier…” Peri started.
“I’m sorry too Miss but I’m afraid I have to obey orders…”
They climbed inside with the Doctor and sat down next to him on the wooden railing seat that circumnavigated the inside of the cabin. Benton closed the flap.
“Doctor what is all this really about? We were just supposed to be here for the atmosphere and the shopping… why is it we always seem to find trouble?” Peri asked.
“I’m not sure why, perhaps it has something to do with the TARDIS but unless we do something and soon… this might be the end of the world.”
The Brigadier looked up to towards the roof of the Saville Row mansion and smiled. It had been all too easy. He reached inside the front side window of the first lorry and grabbed the radio transmitter: “Jimmy are you there?”
“I read you Sir.”
“I’m going to stay here in order to take charge of the situation. You are to remain in charge of the operation from that end… understood?”
“Understood, Turner out.”
Benton had lined the remaining men up along the sidewalk: “Benton place the rest of the men on the main lorry. I’m staying behind… to interview the Doctor personally. I’ll transfer him back to HQ myself.”
“You want all of us to squeeze into this lorry Sir?”
The Brigadier flashed him a look and he obeyed instantly, waving the men back into the front lorry.
The Brigadier checked that his side arm was loaded as they carried out their instructions and drove away.
Inside the second lorry the Doctor lifted up the flap and noticed there was no guard posted.
“Bless you Benton. He followed his orders to the letter but no more,” the Doctor exclaimed.
“He was told to escort us to this lorry… he didn’t assign anyone to watch us… come on let’s go before…”
The Brigadier stepped around the end of the lorry with his gun drawn: “Planning on going somewhere Doctor?”
Inside the cleaning closet, Jill-Paul was discussing the situation with Magic Max: “You say something took you over, down there in the basement?”
“I can still feel it in my mind… the Doctor seemed to close the door but there’s a kind of footprint. The Doctor! They hate the Doctor! He’s in danger.”
“We’ll have to warn him!”
“No! Not me! I won’t let them find me!”
“Well you stay here then…” she snorted and opened the closet door. Seeing there was no-one about she moved outside.
The Brigadier had climbed inside the cabin.
“You can’t fire that in central London… police will come from every corner…”
“Shut up! You must be dealt with. You are too dangerous to be allowed to survive.”
“Your name is Brigadier-General Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and you would not harm an unarmed man…”
The Brigadier’s gun had begun to shake in his hand: “You… must be destroyed.”
“The Yeti, remember Alistair… and the Cybermen, remember the Cybermen… we faced them together Brigadier…”
“Doctor I can’t fight it… it’s too strong…”
“You must Brigadier… you must do your duty…”
It was at that moment that the canopy was lifted and Jill-Paul came into view.
“What?”
The Doctor took advantage of the distraction, knocking the gun from his hand and delivering a nerve pinch that caused him to collapse.
“I thought I heard raised voices?”
“We need to tie him up,” the Doctor decided.
“Is he going to be alight?” Peri asked.
“I don’t know. He’s mentally very strong but he’s only human and I’m not sure if a human mind can be totally restored after being taken over in that way.”
Erimem pulled a length of rope from the canopy and passed it to the Doctor.
“How did you get past the soldiers?”
“Well they all seem to be gone, except for those two soldiers in the front of the building,” Jill-Paul explained.
“But how did you get past them?”
“Up to the roof, over to the next one, through the attic window, down and out.”
“As easy as that?” Erimem queried.
“Well one fellow in the next building took me for the office girl and got me to post his mail for him.”
“And did you?” The Doctor asked, having finished binding the Brigadier.
“Of course not… I binned them.”
“Excellent,” the Doctor returned, standing up and clearly getting into organisational mode, “I need to get past those sentries.”
“And that’s where we come in?”
“Jill isn’t it? Jill thanks for your help but this is far too dangerous for you to get involved in, I suggest you go home and try to forget all of this.”
“And what about these creatures? What if they win and take over the world?”
“You won’t know anything about it if it does happen,” the Doctor assured her.
“Look, we can’t explain how but we know it doesn’t happen that way…” Peri chimed in, trying to cheer her up.
“Isn’t that right Doctor?” Erimem asked.
“Well… yes, of course…” the Doctor lied.
“I’m not buying that. I want to help. This is my planet too!” Jill-Paul insisted.
“Fine… I feel I’m the only one in any initial danger anyway,” the Doctor relented.
“Do you think the two soldiers are possessed as well Doctor?”
“I doubt it Peri… they’ve only had the opportunity to slip through one by one so far… I think there’s only one or two of them here as of yet… we need to close that hole in space/time, as soon as possible.”
“You need a distraction then?” Peri suggested.
“Precisely.”
Dobbin and Jones were enjoying their tea when they heard the knock on the front window. The doorman promptly told them to cut it out.
“Hang on! They’re the Doctor’s girls!” Dobbin shouted.
The two of them grabbed their rifles and rushed out onto the street to see the girls running down Saville Row.
“Go after them, I’ll check the lorry,” Dobbin called.
As Jones tore off down the street, Dobbin rounded the lorry to inspect the back. As he did so, the Doctor slipped quietly around the front of the vehicle and also deftly avoided the doorman, who was now standing a little further down the street, scratching his head.
Inside, the building seemed unnaturally and deceptively quiet. The Doctor crossed the foyer and dashed down the stairwell, towards the basement studio. On the way down he paused at the cleaning cupboard and opened the door.
“Magic Max I presume.”
Max was sitting cross-legged inside. He put his left index finger up to his lips.
“I’m afraid you’ve opened a door Max… now you must help me close it!”
Dobbin had found the Brigadier in the back of the lorry. Had brought him round and untied him. The Brig appeared more than a little disorientated.
“What about the Doctor Sir?”
“The Doctor? Oh, yes, the Doctor must be… apprehended… see to it Dobbin.”
“But I’ve no idea where he’s gone Sir!”
“I know exactly where he is… come with me!”
The girls had split up in order to give Jones an even harder task. Jones was a slightly portly fellow and by this time had started to pant rather heavily.
“Are you alright Mister?” It was a small, freckled boy, standing outside a shop entrance probably waiting for one of his parents to return.
“I… well of course I am!” He managed to phrase coherently between deep gasps.
“I think the girl you’re after went in here!”
Grinning broadly, Jones patted the child on the head and entered the shop. His uniform attracted some stares, but thankfully he’d had the foresight to leave his rifle behind before embarking on his pursuit.
It was a clothes shop and there were a number of racks. Methodically he inspected each one, pulling the clothes apart. At the very last one he discovered Peri hiding.
“I was never good at this game,” she quipped.
“Time to head back,” he informed her.
“If you touch me, I’ll scream.”
“Fine,” he countered, pulling her up.
The retail assistant glared at him on the way out.
The Doctor and Max entered the studio to find Sir George and his assistant Geoff preparing for the recordings, which were going to be fed down from the roof.
“What do you two want?”
“We’ll try not to get in the way Sir George but… we’re trying to save the world,” the Doctor replied.
Sir George and Geoff had been running a sort of sound test and there was suddenly a lot of feedback coming through the speakers hooked up to the mixing panel.
“Try to find out what’s causing that will you…”
Preoccupied by that mystery, the Doctor and Max appeared to be forgotten about. “We need to cut the hole off from any sound source. It will just wither and close without sound energy…” the Doctor thought aloud.
“I’d been trying to build an invisible sound booth out of sound waves but… it didn’t work…”
The Doctor was looking through the pile of junk with fascination: “Umm… well what does work the first time you try it? Or the hundredth time come to think of it… I think I can see what you were trying to do here… as well as build a surround sound system a few decades ahead of your time… but with a few modifications… I think this might work… take all these speakers and place them in a square pattern around the exact centre of the studio… I need a screwdriver…”
The Brigadier marched into the building with Dobbin.
“Clearly Jones is still chasing those girls. I want you to stay here Dobbin…”
“But Sir!”
“That’s an order Dobbin… I don’t want the Doctor slipping out again… make sure he doesn’t go up the stairs either. I’m going to deal with him once and for all.”
And the Brig swished his baton against the side of his right leg and marched forward.
“I don’t understand…”
“You’re a conceptual genius Max… all you lack is a little know-how… that will come with time. I think you ought to put your name forward to any number of corporations… they are always on the look out for people like yourself, with a flare for technical creativity… there I’ve almost…”
“Step away from that machine Doctor,” the Brigadier ordered.
“I think you find I emptied your side arm Brigadier… you can never be too careful you know!”
“I don’t need a gun to deal with you!” He cried as he leapt across the room and grabbed the Doctor.
The two men went sprawling across the floor. Not being a very physical person, Max hung back from the struggle.
The Doctor seemed to be able to hold his own and judo threw the Brigadier over his head and into the empty drummer’s sound booth.
“Close the door Max, shut it!”
Max complied, but there was no lock and the Brigadier was recovering from the shock of the throw rather quickly. The Doctor leapt up and pushed a table up against it. Their prisoner began to slam on the door.
“He doesn’t seem to like it in there…”
“I’m not surprised. He can’t hear us, or anything outside the room. In a sense we’ve cut him off from his food supply.”
The Brigadier seemed to tire very quickly and as the creature inside him began to fail it seemed to become easier to fight back. The Brig seemed to signal for the Doctor to get on with it.
“Right… let’s get ready Max. Plug this in and…”
The hole became visible once more, only it seemed larger now…
“You will not succeed Doctor… the concert is about to begin…”
“Not for you it isn’t… now Max!”
While it was not possible to see the field that had been generated… it was possible to watch the hole grow smaller and smaller, until it became a tiny pin prick and vanished entirely.
“Is it closed?”
“Yes, I think so… best to leave it running for a few minutes…” the Doctor replied and then suddenly remembered the Brigadier.
He rushed over and opened the booth. The Brig was lying dazed on the floor.
“How do you feel Brigadier?”
“I’ve got a monster of a headache Doctor, what do you expect!”
“I think when the hole closed, the entity that entered you was figuratively speaking cut in half and could not survive…”
“I’m sure that’s very comforting Doctor,” the Brigadier acknowledged as he rose to his feet and brushed himself down.
Sir George and his assistant had noted the commotion but had mainly ignored it, being too preoccupied with the preparations for the concert. They were beginning to receive sound from the roof.
“Time to let history take its course I think…”
When they returned upstairs, The Doctor had found Peri waiting in the foyer with Dobbin and a very exhausted Jones. Having seen Peri captured, the other girls had returned and were watching from across the street. The Doctor signalled the all clear. Having said goodbye to the Brigadier, Max and Jill-Paul, the three travellers returned to the TARDIS on Kings Road.
“As far as adventures go… that one was sort of nice. It’s not everyday you get to meet people as famous as that…” Peri half-joked.
“And help them finish a song…” Erimem dobbed.
“What?!”
“I couldn’t help it…”
They all turned back for a moment. They could hear the rooftop concert starting.
“It’s a pity we couldn’t stay for it,” Peri commented.
“Well, I thought the sooner we were away the better… too many questions to answer, forms to fill in, the Brigadier likes that sort of thing,” the Doctor claimed as he unlocked the TARDIS.
Erimem ducked inside first.
“Where to next then?”
“Well if you want to really see them play… how about Candlestick Park?”
Posted on the 6th & 13th of January 2007
Story set between Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani