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Prologue02. Meetings at the Antioch Hotel
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Thinking on things, Ace had to admit it was all quite amazing really. As she continued down the long corridor, following behind the Doctor, Ace was pondering all that had happened to bring her to this situation. Only a few months ago she was living in Perivale, on boring Earth, in boring 1987, working as a boring waitress. That was until an experiment of hers had gone badly wrong. A thing called a time storm brewed up in her bedroom, and without further ado, Ace found herself on an alien planet. Being a resourceful girl (or so Ace liked to think), she soon adapted to her new home. It was the planet Svartos and Ace quickly found that she liked living on another planet. But then Ace was quite sure that the Earth was never meant to be her home anyway, so living on another planet seemed like a cool idea to her. As with any other place, though, Ace soon learned that she needed money to do any really neat things. Being from Earth in 1987, an under-developed planet by Svartos’ standards, there was not much that Ace could do. Except, that is, the one thing she had done back in boring Perivale. Work as a boring waitress. On the dark side of Svartos was the trading colony, Iceworld. It was a busy place, with all kinds of life coming and going. Working as a waitress in a busy refreshments bar did serve Ace well, though. She across a varied selection of aliens, making her feel like she was working in the cantina from Star Wars, and it only deepened Ace’s resolve that her home was never meant to be Earth, but out among the stars. After only a few months life started to become extremely mundane for Ace. Nothing ever seemed to happen, except for the odd icefall. Even the most feared man in Iceworld, its ruler, Kan, was quiet. But things started to become very exciting, very quickly. Ace found herself involved in a treasure hunt into the very depths of Svartos, looking for the Dragonfire, which was supposed to be guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. On this hunt she was accompanied by the intergalactic rogue, Sabalom Glitz, who owned the map (well, to say owned is a slight exaggerations, since he won the map playing cards). Also involved in the map were two others. They were an odd pair, the other two. One was a young woman called Melanie, also from Earth, but in 1989. Her companion was a strange little man, but a friendly one. He was called the Doctor. From the outset of the hunt, this Doctor seemed to take charge. Along the way Ace learned that the Doctor and Mel travelled in time as well as space. The four of them finally found the Dragonfire and it was guarded by a dragon. But it was not a fire-breathing one, it was a bio-mechanoid life form and the Dragonfire was hidden inside its head. Ace and her troop were not the only ones who sought the Dragonfire; it was also sought by Kane. Using Ace as a bargaining chip, Kane got the Dragonfire. As it turned out the whole of Iceworld was a spaceship and the Dragonfire was the power source. Kane intended to have vengeance on his people for imprisoning him on Svartos but, as the Doctor proved, Kane’s people no longer existed. Kane promptly committed suicide by exposing himself to unfiltered sunlight. From that point everything changed. Glitz took Iceworld as his own, in place of his ship that Kane had destroyed. Mel decided that is was time to stop travelling with the Doctor, electing to stay with Glitz instead. With a bit of prompting from Mel, the Doctor asked Ace to join him. Ace could not be stopped, she jumped at the chance. That was how Ace came to be walking down the long corridor, following the Doctor as he led her to what was to become her new room. Ace had to admit, the Doctor’s ship was well wicked. She had been introduced to the ship (the Doctor said it was a TARDIS) during the treasure hunt. On the outside it looked like something called a police box (something that used to be used back in the ‘60s. Ace would have to look that one up), but inside it was a dimensionally transcendental time machine (if time storms were real, then Ace could buy the idea of a time machine that was bigger inside than outside). At her first entry, Ace had only been introduced to the main control room. Since leaving Iceworld, half an hour ago, the Doctor had decided it would be a good idea for Ace to get settled in. To that end he had taken her beyond the control room on a guided tour. Not that it was much of a tour, the Doctor said very little. So they continued down the corridor, passing closed doors, to find Ace a bedroom. Ace watched yet another closed door as they walked passed it. She looked at the Doctor, who was swinging his umbrella, whistling in quite a joyful manner. ‘This is well wicked, Professor. This TARDIS of yours.’ Ace insisted on addressing the Doctor as “Professor”, much to his chagrin. After all, she was an individual. The truth was, of course, Ace was just a rebel. The Doctor stopped whistling and smiled, remembering many similar conversations with previous travelling companions. ‘Yes, I think that trans-dimensional engineering is most “wicked”. Any questions about it?’ He always loved to give lectures on temporal physics. There was no answer to his question, which surprised him since he expected to be inundated with questions from his young companion. The Doctor stopped and looked back. ‘Ace?’ Passing another closed door without seeing behind it had proved too much for Ace to bear. So the next door the Doctor passed Ace opened and peered inside. She never even heard his question. Ace stepped into the space beyond the doorway. ‘Wow,’ was the first thing that Ace thought, the second was, ‘this ain’t no room.’ Looking up she saw that she was right. There was a perfect blue sky with perfect white clouds. How could something like this exist inside a time machine? It should have been outside. Ace stepped through the doorway. Stone pillars were dotted around the area before her, ivy clinging to them. Ace could just make out stone walls beyond the pillars. It was old, but beautiful. And so peaceful. ‘Ah.’ Ace heard the Doctor behind her. Not taking her eyes off the place before her, Ace asked; ‘What kind of room is this, Professor?’ ‘It’s called the Cloister Room.’ They stepped further into the room. ‘I used to use it for deep thinking.’ The Doctor smiled at Ace, who walked over to a stone bench. She dumped her rucksack on the floor and sat down, taking the pose of the “the Thinker”. ‘Like this, you mean?’ The Doctor laughed and looked around the room. ‘You know, I had wondered where it had got to.’ Ace gave the Doctor a blank look. ‘Eh?’ ‘Well,’ the Doctor said, ‘I thought I’d lost it.’ Ace looked at him suspiciously. She was not sure if she could really trust him yet. He certainly seemed serious about losing the Cloister Room. Perhaps the Doctor had lost his marbles, too? ‘I ain’t never heard anything so stupid. You can’t lose a room!’ ‘In the TARDIS you can. Remember, Ace, as someone once said, “anything is possible for those who believe”. Anyway, the TARDIS had a habit of re-arranging her rooms. Thankfully I haven’t lost the console room yet.’ The Doctor winked at Ace. ‘Come on.’ Ace watched the Doctor leave the room. He was serious about it. Ace had met some strange characters in her sixteen and a half years, but the Doctor really took the biscuit. Was it wise to have accepted his offer of a trip around the twelve galaxies? Picking up her rucksack, Ace decided it was safer to follow him for now.
MONDAY 9th DECEMBER 1996, 20:30 As he turned down the country lane in his black Volks Wagen Beetle, Terrance Saville was glad to hear his car sounding healthy. It seemed that the rest of the day might go well, which was more than could be said for the start of the day. To begin with his alarm did not go off at the correct time. Now normally that would not have been a problem but he did have a lot to do that day. Despite being three hours behind schedule, Terrance was adamant that he start the day off his usual way. So after his shower he had his still time before God, reading the Bible and praying. After that was finished, he was ready for the beginning of his Christmas holiday. Some beginning it was too. Because of his being behind schedule he lost the first assignment that he was to have undertaken in the new year, and being one of the top journalists at the magazine publishers where he worked Terrance found that quite a hard blow. But even then he refused to allow his holiday to be dampened. After some last minute packing Terrance got as far as his car when he remembered his dog. So he had to rush back inside and leave a note for his joint house-and-dog sitter. Finally at around 02:00 Terrance was on the road, heading for Maiden’s Port and his much needed holiday. He did not get far, however. Barely had he reached the outskirts of London when the car started playing up. After another twenty minutes waiting for the car to be put right, Terrance was back on the road. As the black VW Beetle continued down the country lane Terrance reflected that in light of the day so far he was still looking forward to being back in his home town with his sister and his best mate. With these pleasing thoughts in mind Terrance turned on the cassette player. It clicked on and began to play his favourite country singer, Susan Ashton.
The Doctor swung the door open and ushered Ace in. He followed her into the room. With her back to the Doctor, Ace never saw the look that passed across his face. The Doctor’s gaze drifted quickly across the room like someone seeing it for the first time. Ace turned to face him and the look left his face, it was replaced by a self-assured smile. He waved his arms around like a great showman. ‘Well, do you like it?’ the Doctor asked. Ace grinned, her eyes twinkling with delight. ‘Yeah, it’s ace!’ She turned back round to look at the room. It was the kind of room she had always wanted back in Perivale, not that her mum would let her. One half of the room was like a chemistry lab, with a bench stacked with test tubes, a Bunsen burner and other equipment useful for making her home-made explosives, nitro-9. On the wall behind the bench was the periodic table. The other half of the room was equally as impressive. A four-poster bed, a music system that would put any other to shame. Back in Perivale Ace had only a naff tape deck; it was always Midge and his mates who had the best systems. But even they had nothing compared to this one. Ace walked over to the rack next to the music system to take a look at the tapes and CDs. She slung her rucksack on the bed and selected a CD. It was a classical jazz collection. It was her favourite music of all time. Ace looked around the room again. Everything in the room was on her all time faves list. It was like all her dream things becoming hers for real. But how? Ace threw the Doctor a suspicious look. He was still smiling. She stood up and held out the CD. ‘Jazz? How did you know?’ Ace gestured around the room. ‘I mean, everything in this room?’ She walked towards him. ‘What gives, Professor?’ The Doctor shrugged as if it were obvious. ‘The TARDIS knew that you would be joining me, from the moment you first entered the console room, the TARDIS knew. She was always good at preparing for this sort of thing.’ The suspicious look did not leave Ace’s face. The Doctor felt that now was a good time to retreat. ‘Ace, while you get settled in here I’ll find out where our first port of call is.’ With that he was gone. Ace turned away from the closed door. She had to admit this room did beat Perivale. Was that enough, though? How much could she trust the Doctor? He was a little weird. Calling the TARDIS “she” was akin to when people called their cars “she”, but some of the things he had said about the TARDIS… There was something strange about the Doctor and the TARDIS, Ace felt sure. She would have to keep a close eye on him. Meanwhile Ace decided she might as well make herself at home. For now…
The woman stepped out from among the trees into the clearing. A faint noise, like a mechanical wheezing and groaning, faded into the distance. She was quite a tall woman with long blonde hair. The woman stood by the edge of the road in her long trench coat, her green eyes scouting the area. As the cliché would have it, she was a stranger in a strange land. The woman did want it that way; she wanted to be back home, in Russia. But she knew it was not longer an option for her. All options had been erased with the opening of the crystalline box in that house. Her course was very clearly laid out before her. She had little over four months to prepare before the Vrach was due in Adisham, Kent. And when he did arrive, the woman would be ready. That was she felt inside, but something was telling her that it was all wrong. She should still be living in Russia with her father, but was he not dead? Again the mission came to mind. The woman needed a base of operations. How to find such a place was a question that she had no answer to. A soft rumbling noise appeared in the distance, and steadily became clearer. The woman turned her head to the right. A small black car was coming along the road. Although she had no specific destination in mind, the woman knew that she would need transport to get there. She held her hand out. The car continued a little way passed her, then stopped. The woman smiled to herself, now the mission could really begin. She walked over to the car as the passenger door opened. The woman leant in, and a man smiled. Part of the woman could not help but notice how attractive the man was, with his ponytail hair and goatee beard. But the other part of the woman just saw him as a tool to be used to help achieve the goal. ‘Where are you heading?’ asked the man. ‘I’m not sure,’ the woman’s accent was thick Russian, but the English was fluent. ‘Wherever I end up.’ She smiled, people usually found that reassuring. It worked, because the man returned the smiled and offered her a lift. The car pulled away. The woman spoke very little; she had much to think about. The man was not content to sit in silence, though. ‘Sorry, I’m forgetting my manners. I’m Terrance.’ He offered his hand but the woman chose not to accept it. Terrance shrugged and returned his attention to his driving. The woman watched him out of the corner of her eye. It was good that he took the hint; it would save more drastic measures. The other side of the woman was telling her that she ought to be polite. ‘Pleased to meet you,’ she found herself saying. More curiously she realised she meant it too. ‘I’m Rusalka.’
The interior door opened and Ace stepped into the console room, rucksack hanging over her shoulder. She found the Doctor standing by the six-sided control console, which stood in the centre of the room. At first Ace thought he was looking at her, but then she realised that he was looking a little to her right. She closed the door and walked further into the room, turning round to see what the Doctor was looking at. On the viewer was an image of a grey planet. It looked like no planet from Earth’s solar system, which just as well since the Doctor had promised Ace a trip around the twelve galaxies. Earth and its solar system were not included, as far as Ace was concerned. She turned back to the Doctor who was looking at her with the same welcoming smile that had drawn Ace to him on Svartos. ‘Are we all settled in?’ he asked. ‘Yeah.’ Ace pointed at the viewer. ‘Where’s that then?’ ‘The planet Garmmatta, which has the direct opposite galactic coordinates to Earth.’ The Doctor grinned. ‘I’ve heard that it is rather foggy, friendly though.’ ‘What’s the year?’ Since the TARDIS was a time machine Ace did not want to be stuck in one time zone. ‘Yach zvenz ckrugh. According to the Grammattians.’ Seeing the blank look on Ace’s face the doctor just shrugged. ‘This is where the trip begins. All set?’ Ace shifted her rucksack to a more nonchalant position. ‘Yep.’ ‘Good, let us begin then.’ The Doctor flicked a switch and the time rotor began to rise and fall. ‘You had better find another brolly, it is likely to be wet when we arrive.’ Ace turned to do as she was told, and the lights went out. The whole room was in pitch darkness. ‘Ace?’ The Doctor’s voice echoed around the room. Ace span round. She was fairly sure that she was facing the console, but could see nothing. ‘Professor, what’s going on?’ ‘We’re being pulled off course. Hold tight!’ Funny, Ace though. Hold tight on to what? She could not see anything. And even if she could, Ace knew that she was not near enough to either the console or the wall. Without warning the floor seemed to move from under her feet, and Ace was sent flying. At least that was how it felt to her. Ace’s head whacked into something, which stopped her momentum dead. As she felt unconsciousness grip her Ace thought; so I was near the wall. The light returned to the room and the Doctor looked at the time rotor. It had stopped moving. ‘We’ve arrived. Somewhere.’ It was then that he noticed his companion on the floor. ‘Oh, Ace.’ He walked over to her and knelt down. ‘This is no time to sleep.’
Phyllis Fisher liked to think that was the guardian of Maiden’s Port, although ask anybody else and they would call her a busy body. Always in the thick of the latest gossip mill, always the first to know what was going on.
One particular winter evening, Phyllis found herself in her favourite spot, next to the window with the phone beside her. The view from the window gave her a perfect vantage point of all who came in and went out of Maiden’s Port. As she watched a black VW Beetle drove passed with two occupants. One Phyllis knew, the other she did not. But Phyllis intended to find out just who it was. She reached out for the phone.
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