The Talking Stones of Tyron, scene 3

As she left the TARDIS with the synthesiser, Vicki's mind was whirring. Without Barbara fuelling the sense of urgency she had calmed down a little, feeling under less pressure; and she wanted to know why. After all, Ian was still in deadly peril, wasn't he?

She was surprised to find that she really couldn't believe it. She had been forcing herself to keep rushing, following Barbara's direction, while her subconscious rebelled. Okay; she would still move quickly in case her subconscious was wrong, but she would also get back to thinking about what was making her feel otherwise.

First thought: Ian didn't look sick. He'd said he was sick, and he couldn't get up; but there could be other reasons for that. Like mind control. She'd experienced that all too recently, with the Animus on Vortis. Just the memory of that horrible, horrible entity controlling her body like a puppet made her shudder.

Let's go with that thought for a while. Perhaps whatever creature lives on this planet - Tyron, the Doctor had called it - works differently. Perhaps it can control speech more easily than movement? So it could stop Ian from running away by paralysing his legs, but not make him walk? And it could have affected the Doctor too!

Now, that was worrying. She didn't want Ian to be dying, and she didn't want the Doctor to have been responsible for what he said. So, this might be just a wish fulfilment theory, something she'd made up so that she could believe everything was fundamentally fine. After all, an alien menace was something they could fight! Not like... well, not like death. And betrayal.

Of course. It all came back to Dido, didn't it? And before. She had lost one entire family, all her friends; why wouldn't she be desperate about the possibility of losing what she had in the TARDIS? That didn't mean her feeling was wrong, but she couldn't trust it. Vicki picked up the pace.

Strange; she had expected to see Barbara before now. Could she have made it all the way back to Ian already? It didn't seem very likely. "Barbara?" she called. "Are you there?"

After a few seconds, she heard an answering cry, not far distant. A minute or so later she found the teacher lying in the shade of a stone.

Hmm, she thought, lying in the shade of a stone. Like the others. And all at once my theory seems a lot less paranoid. Still, maybe it would be possible to test it out.

"Barbara, what are you doing? There's no time to waste!"

"I'm sorry, Vicki; I'm just so tired. I don't know what's wrong with me."

Okay, here goes. "Like that time when we were on our way to Rome, and you just had to stop for a rest?"

Barbara just looked at her with a puzzled expression. Drat! thought Vicki. I was hoping she'd say 'yes', and I'd have known she was lying, since she didn't come to Rome with me.

Still, there was something odd in her not saying anything. Vicki looked more closely; there was a tension around Barbara's mouth, as if she were forcing herself to keep it shut. "Is something the matter?"

"Nnnnng."

That settled it - there was definitely some sort of battle going on inside Barbara's head. Did it mean the theory was right about Ian, too? There was no way Vicki could get the bio-analyser to him on her own anyway; all she could do was hope she'd figured it out properly.

Trying to make the controlling monster believe she was fooled was probably a lost cause, now, but there was also no harm in trying. "I'd better go and see if there's anything I can do for Ian," she said. She picked up the medical kit - it supported her story, and might come in handy - and ran off towards him.

Now all she had to do was think of a way to get them all out of this mess...

Next Time:
The Talking Stones of Tyron, scene 4