Doctor Who and the Empire of Glass | Page 4

right in front of us..." He
hesitated, and rubbed a hand across his face. He was tired. Tired and scared, Vicki
realized. He'd been alone for so long that he found the prospect of taking responsibility
terrifying. 'It was like the Doc had been kidnapped.'

"But we haven't explored the TARDIS completely yet," she said, trying to inject a note of
calmness into her voice. Getting angry with Steven didn't work - he just grew more
stubborn and defensive. "The Doctor could still be here."
"Where?" Steven challenged, hand still on the switch. The door control switch, Vicki
reminded herself. She didn't know what would happen if he pulled it while the TARDIS
was in flight, but she suspected the results wouldn't be pleasant. "We've checked the
bedrooms, the food machine alcove, the lounge -"
"What about the locked doors?" she interrupted. "The Doctor won't tell us what's behind
them. There might be more rooms, rooms that the Doctor didn't want us to see."
Steven slammed his fist against the console. "Look, we have to do something! And I still
think that if we can just materialize somewhere, we can find a trail, or a clue,"
"And what are you young people doing to my TARDIS?" a peremptory voice demanded
from the other side of the console. Steven and Vicki whirled around and gaped at the
blurred, fractured bubble of darkness that had appeared - apparently inside the wall - and
at the elderly figure within it. "Doctor!" they cried together.
He appeared to be sitting in a triangular framework, and he was frowning at them.
Standing, not without some effort, he walked forward. Behind him, both the frame and
the dark bubble were pulled apart into a coruscating web of lines which retreated into the
far distance until they were lost from sight, leaving only the solid walls of the TARDIS
behind the old man's figure.
"Doctor, we were -" Vicki began.
"Where have you been?" Steven demanded.
The Doctor fixed the space pilot with an imperious gaze. "Never mind where I've been,"
he snapped, "you were about to meddle with the ship's controls, weren't you?"
"No!" Steven protested. "I... I was just trying to -"
"Steven was trying to help," Vicki said calmingly. "You vanished without telling us
where you were going. We were worried about you: we thought... Oh, I don't know what
we thought. What happened?"
The Doctor's stern expression softened, as she had known it would. The one thing he
couldn't resist was wide-eyed concern. "My dear child," he said, "of course you were
worried, and I have no right to scold you, hmm? If you must know, I've been... " He
frowned. "Well, that's most extraordinary. I can't rememberwhere I've been. The memory
has gone. All I can remember is a dandy and a clown. A dandy and a clown." Ignoring
the puzzled looks that Vicki and Steven exchanged, he raised a hand to caress his lapel,
and appeared surprised to find that he was holding a small white envelope. "Hmm.
Perhaps this will tell us something."

As Vicki and Steven watched, he opened the envelope and took out a slip of cardboard.
He peered at it for a few moments, then took his pince-nez out of his waistcoat pocket
and slipped them on. "Most extraordinary," he repeated, and proffered the card to Steven,
who took it warily. Vicki had to pull his arm down to see.
The card was small and white. On it, in very small letters, were the words:
INVITATION
Formal dress required.
R.S.V.P.
"An invitation to what?" Steven asked.
"An invitation to a mystery," the Doctor replied, frowning and looking away.
Vicki took the card from Steven. "Who gave it to you?" she asked the Doctor.
"I don't... I don't remember," the old man admitted.
"It's a trap," Steven said firmly. Vicki watched with some amusement as he narrowed his
eyes, squared his shoulders and generally tried to look heroic.
"Don't be stupid, Steven," she said, and placed the card carefully upon the top of the
translucent cylinder in the centre of the control console. "How can it be a trap if it doesn't
even tell us where to go?"
With a low hum, the collection of fragile objects in the centre of the translucent column,
the things that had always reminded Vicki of a cross between a child's mobile and a
butterfly collection, began to revolve around their central axis. The column itself began to
rise and fall rhythmically, whilst lights flashed on the console and the deep vibration of
the TARDIS in flight slowly spiralled down towards the grinding, clashing noise of
landing.
"Well," the Doctor said, "it would appear thatsomeone knows where we are going."
There was a rat on the stairs again.
Carlo Zeno came face to face