Professor Bernice 'Benny' Summerfield scraped happily at the dirt floor of the building with her trowel. This was the life, she thought. While teaching archaeology had it's own satisfactions, actually getting out and getting your hands on the artefacts of ancient cultures was what it was all about. She was never happier than when on a field trip and this was a particularly good one.
Thanks to the patronage of the Sultan of Tashwari, St. Oscar's University, where Benny held the Edward Watkinson chair of Archaeology, was able to afford a number of field trips per term to each department in rotation. The Religious Education Department had recently been to Earth, visiting the ancient sites of Humanities various religions. Now it was Benny's turn.
The dig on Arkelli was something she had been promising herself since settling on Dellah just over a year ago. Now she had a band of enthusiastic students together, it was time to explore the relics of the ancient Arkellians.
She had been on digs on dozens of planets with very different levels of culture, but suddenly her mind was drifting back to another world, another dig, a lifetime ago.
The planet was called Heaven, largely because it was used as a burial area for the dead of the Earth / Draconia war. There had been another culture there, long before, the main evidence of this being a huge metal arch that nobody could explain. Except maybe the mysterious little man in the blue box.
Benny smiled, realising she hadn't thought of the Doctor for a long time, either in his more familiar incarnation or the new, handsome version she had met on Earth in 1997, before he dropped her off on Dellah, presumably on his way to save the universe. She remembered particularly his unique gift for bringing trouble in his wake.
A shadow fell across the area of floor she was working on. She looked up but the figure standing at the edge of the pit was just a black silhouette, back lit by one of the twin suns.
"Hello, Benny," said the at once familiar and unfamiliar voice. Benny felt a thrill of apprehension travel up and down her spine. Oh hell, she thought, everything's about to go pear shaped.
What she said was, "Hello, Doctor. Is it time for tea already?"
***
The Doctor was helping the female archaeologist out of the trench she had been working in and Fitz got a good look at her for the first time. She was a little taller than him, and a little older if he was any judge. She had a trim figure and dark hair cut into a bob, which looked like it was permanently untidy. Her features were attractive and Fitz got the feeling just by looking at her that she liked a laugh.
She was laughing now, patting the Doctor on the back and making some wisecrack about digging up the past. Then she looked over towards him and smiled.
"These are my current travelling companions, Fitz Kreiner and Sheri Whitehead," the Doctor introduced. "This is my old friend Professor Bernice Summerfield."
"Hey, not so much of the 'old'. You're no spring chicken, remember!" Benny shook hands, first with Fitz, then with Sheri. "Please, call me Benny. All my friends do." She turned back to the Time Lord. "So, what trouble have you brought with you this time, Doctor?"
"None, I hope," the Doctor replied with a smile. "Sheri has just joined us and I thought she should see some of the wonders of the ancient universe. I've heard about the Great Temple of Arkelli, but never seen it for myself, so I thought this would make a good first stop."
"The Temple is breathtaking," Benny told them. "It's not far from here, just over a mile. I'll take you in a land car, if you like."
"That would be most kind," the Doctor replied and they set off towards a nearby vehicle.
***
"Wow! You weren't kidding!" exclaimed Sheri, staring up at the giant pyramid.
"The golden stonework, as far as we can determine, is totally natural. It's mined some twenty miles from here."
Fitz was looking the other way, away from the Temple. "I don't think they are natural," he said, pointing.
Swooping low over the sands, slim fighter type spacecraft were firing on anybody they could see. The students were scattering, looking desperately for cover.
"I recognise the configuration," the Doctor admitted, his face as dark as thunder.
"I'll never forget it," Benny said, tears forming in her eyes at the memory.
They turned and looked at each other, speaking the word in unison. "Daleks!"
Immediately, the Doctor took charge. "We need to get everyone undercover. Any suggestions?"
Benny nodded. "You're standing in front of it. The Temple is the only building with a hope of standing up to the Daleks. Unless the TARDIS is closer?"
The Doctor frowned. "It's a mile beyond where we met you. Too far. Well, the Temple it is then."
"You do realise," Benny said, "that it hasn't been opened since the last Arkellian priest died. People have tried but nothing works."
The Doctor smiled his dazzling smile. "Well, I always liked a challenge." Suddenly, he grew more serious. "Benny, you and Fitz round up the archaeologists. Sheri, you help me work on these doors."
Benny and Fitz disappeared without a word. Sheri turned to the Doctor.
"What do you need me to do?" she asked, peering over his shoulder.
"You could give me some elbow room," he said gently, not turning.
Sheri backed off a couple of steps. "What else can I do?"
The Doctor was examining the carved double doors. "Can you keep watch, warn me if you see anything nasty coming?"
Sheri sighed. "I could have been helping Fitz and Benny round up people," she told him.
The Doctor turned to look at her, an expression of concern in his deep blue eyes. "You could have, but you've only just started travelling in the TARDIS. Fitz and Benny are both more experienced than you, plus Benny's been here a while already. You could easily get lost out there and put everybody's life in danger. I don't think you want that responsibility quite yet."
Sheri nodded her understanding and the Doctor went back to work.
***
Benny and Fitz had decided to split up. Fitz was busy shepherding a group of students towards the pyramid when he noticed that the attack craft seemed to be leaving.
He looked up and soon realised why. A circular mothership was descending towards the pyramid.
Fitz urged the students on, hoping the Doctor had found the key to unlock those doors.
***
The Doctor sighed in frustration. "I hate logic puzzles. Why does it always have to be a logic puzzle?" He slid his fingers along a pair of horizontal lines imbedded in the stonework and the double doors to the pyramid swung open without a sound.
"Great timing," Fitz wheezed, arriving just ahead of the students, who started piling inside.
"Where's Benny?" the Doctor asked.
Fitz shrugged. "We split up to cover the camp quicker. I thought she would have been back by now."
The Doctor let out another sigh. "I'll go and find her. You two stay here. Shut the doors if you see the Daleks approaching." With that, he disappeared off into the sand.
"What does a Dalek look like?" Sheri asked a little nervously.
"Search me, I only know them by reputation."
"What's their reputation like?"
"You don't want to know," replied Fitz.
***
The Doctor found Benny standing in the centre of the camp. Her eyes were fixed on the sand, where a child's doll lay, obviously from where one of the students had dropped it in their haste to get away from the Daleks. It brought the memories flooding back.
She was back on Vandor Prime, noise, heat, people all around. Her mother, Claire, was carrying young Bernice in her arms, running towards the shelters with the rest of the crowd. Bernice was crying, the noise was hurting her ears and the smoke was irritating her throat. Then she lost Rebecca.
They had made it to the shelter, away from the fire of the Dalek ships. Now Bernice was crying her eyes out and there was no stopping her. When Claire Summerfield asked her seven year old what was wrong, all she could do was point back through the doors and yell "Rebecca!"
The doll had been a favourite ever since she and Isaac had given it to their daughter. She knew there would be no peace from Bernice until it was recovered, so leaving her little girl in the care of a friend, Claire headed out into the street to retrieve the toy.
Claire Summerfield died, clutching Rebecca in her hand, before the eyes of her horrified daughter. She had seen it happen so often in her nightmares that Bernice thought all the emotion of that moment had been drained out of her years ago. But seeing the doll on the ground of the camp and knowing the Daleks were once more in the skies overhead had brought it all back to her.
The Doctor put a comforting arm around her shoulders and dried her eyes with a large red and white spotted handkerchief. He spoke slowly and calmly to his old friend.
"Benny, we've got to get out of here. I've got the pyramid open, the students are safely inside. We just need you now. Are you up to it?"
Benny looked at him through red-rimmed eyes. For a moment she wasn't sure who he was, who she was or where they were. Then memory returned. She bent down, picked up the doll, and then nodded to him.
"Ready when you are. Last one there buys the drinks."
The Doctor grinned at her and they set off running towards the pyramid.
***
Fitz was pacing about the entrance like a caged lion. Finally, the Doctor and Benny sprinted into view as a number of what looked like flat circular pads with large pepperpots on them emerged from the mothership, which had landed nearby.
The Doctor, not even out of breath, followed Fitz's pointing finger. "Dalek hoverbouts," he announced. "Single Dalek gun platforms. We need to get these doors closed."
"How?" asked Sheri. "We've looked inside, there isn't anything like the thing you used to open them."
"There should be," the Doctor said, checking behind the door for himself. He rubbed his chin.
"Doctor!" Fitz urged, watching the hoverbouts get closer.
The Time Lord's face suddenly brightened. "I know! You have to reset them from the outside panel. Why didn't I think of that before?"
He stepped back out through the doors. He found the lines he had used before and ran his fingers along them once more.
"There, should have just enough time to slip back inside." So saying he turned to dodge back through the closing doors, and walked straight into Sheri, who had been peering over his shoulder once again. They went down in a heap of arms and legs.
By the time they had disentangled themselves, the doors were firmly shut again.
"Sorry," said Sheri, looking sheepish.
The Doctor smiled at her. "No need to worry. We just need to open them again."
He was reaching back towards the lines imbedded in the rock, when the ground at his feet exploded in a shower of rock and stone.
Spinning round, the Doctor and Sheri found themselves looking straight down the barrel of a Dalek gun.
The Doctor looked the Dalek up and down. "Ah, Imperial model. You can tell by the white and gold livery," he told Sheri. Then he grasped the lapels of his green velvet frock coat and drew himself up to his full height. "Right, you have my attention. What can I do for you?"
"BE SILENT," grated the Dalek. It was probably the most alien creature Sheri had ever seen. While she was still new to time travelling, her first landing had been in Iceland, where the Doctor and Fitz had rescued an injured alien, which they then took to an intergalactic hospital. Then here. While Benny and most of her students were Human, not all of them were. However, the Dalek was in a class of it's own.
The Doctor was looking straight at the part that stuck out from the domed top, which seemed to have an iris so was presumably an eye.
"What will you do if we're not silent?" he goaded the creature. As if to demonstrate, he launched into a rousing chorus of Louis Armstrong's "We Have All The Time In The World".
"BE SILENT," the Dalek repeated.
"Why not just exterminate us?" the Doctor asked it.
Sheri didn't like the sound of that. "Why are you annoying it, Doctor? Wouldn't being nice to it work better?"
The Doctor shook his head. "You can't be nice to a Dalek, they don't understand the concept. Bit of a shame really, they're missing out on so much. But to return to the point, this Dalek can't do anything because it has been ordered not to harm us. Haven't you, Fred?" He rapped his knuckles against the domed head of the Dalek.
The Dalek replied by taking careful aim and shooting the Doctor. The Time Lord fell heavily to the dusty ground.
Sheri was beside him in an instant. "Are you alright?" she asked, just glad to see he was still alive.
"Yes," the Doctor gasped. "I forgot about the paralysis setting on their weaponry. Now, if you could just carry me back to the TARDIS..."
***
Fitz and Benny were trying, without success, to open the doors from the inside. They could find no mechanism like the one on the outside, nor was there anything handy nearby, like a console of still active machinery with a conveniently labelled door release. Never one around when you need one, thought Benny.
Frustrated, Fitz had pulled a packet from his pocket and lit one of the cigarettes from inside it. He was now wreathed in grey smoke.
Benny coughed. "Good grief, Fitz. I've seen and smelled some very strange ciggies in my time, but that's foul. What is it?"
Fitz blew smoke at the ceiling and looked at the slim cylinder in his hand. "Menthol," he replied. "The Doctor's trying to get me off nicotine."
Benny grinned. "He tried that with me and the booze, but he gave up eventually."
The archaeology students had been drifting further into the pyramid. Now one of them came back at a run.
"What's wrong, Nita?" Benny asked as the girl tried to get her breath back.
"We've found an artefact, Professor, in a room just down the corridor."
Benny looked at Fitz. "Well, we're doing no good here, might as well take a look."
Fitz nodded. "I'm with you, Prof."
The two of them followed Nita down the corridor and into the room where the students had gathered around a statue, standing about twelve feet high.
Benny gasped as she looked upon the statue of a humanoid male, dressed a little eccentrically. Finally, she tore her eyes from the image and looked at Fitz.
"Did you hear the Doctor say he had never been here before?" she asked him.
Fitz thought for a moment. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure he said that. Said it would make a nice change for us all to see something new."
"Well, either he's lost his memory or he's a lying git!"
"How come?" Fitz wanted to know.
"Because," said Benny, indicating the statue before them, "when I first met the Doctor, he looked just like that!"
***
"Hmmm. The Daleks never did have much taste in decor, especially in their cells."
"How are your legs?" asked Sheri.
The Doctor rubbed the offending limbs. "They're getting better, slowly. The effects don't last long."
"So, what happens now?" Sheri inquired.
The Doctor thought for a moment. "Well, there are two options. They keep us waiting for a while longer, then exterminate us, or they question us, then exterminate us. They're very big on extermination."
Sheri frowned. "I was hoping there was an escape option."
The Doctor grinned. "There's always an escape option. As soon as my legs are working again, that is."
"Why are they so...nasty?" Sheri asked him.
"Well, it all began on their home planet of Skaro. Once, they were just like us. The Kaled people were locked into a seemingly never-ending war with the Thals. A Kaled scientist, Davros, was employed to discover how their race would mutate and to design a machine for them to move around in safely. That machine became the Dalek."
"So, what do they look like, inside I mean?"
"Not very appealing. An amorphous grey blob with withered limbs and a bad attitude." The Doctor rubbed his neck. "The early Daleks turned the war, but as with all wars, nobody really won. The Kaled race mutated to become the Daleks, while the Thals almost died out, before evolving into beautiful, peaceful people totally opposed to war. Sometimes good things do come out of conflict."
"So why are they here?"
"They probably want something from Arkelli. The people of this world were reputed to be great inventors, working in many areas including science and medicine. They were also said to be weapon-smiths of great renown. I assume this is what the Daleks are after."
Light dawned quickly in Sheri's eyes. "The Temple!" she gasped.
The Doctor nodded. "We sent everybody to the one place the Daleks will head straight for. I may have condemned them all!"
***
Fitz gazed up at the statue. Despite the size, he got the impression of a small man, in the act of raising his hat to the sculptor. He was wearing a jacket and waistcoat and his other hand was grasping an umbrella with a question mark handle.
"Are you sure that's him?" he asked the Professor.
"Oh yes. He regenerated from him," she pointed to the statue, "into him." She pointed towards the doors, in the general direction the Doctor probably was.
Fitz frowned. "So, he has been here before," he concluded.
"No kidding, Sherlock. I just wonder what he was up to, to get a statue erected in his honour."
Fitz was examining the figure. He stepped to one side to walk around it, nudging the umbrella as he did.
In the centre of the room a light started to flicker. The students began to mutter as the figure of a man materialized out of thin air. It was the same man as the statue.
Fitz moved over to stand next to Benny. They watched as the man raised his hat and smiled at them. The man opened his mouth to speak.
"Hello, I'm the Doctor."
The figure of the Doctor was obviously a hologram, Benny thought. You could see the slight flickering at the edges. Also, it wasn't looking directly at anybody, just in their general direction.
"I'm sorry to have brought you here under false pretences," the familiar, slightly Scottish voice droned, "but there is nothing here for you to find or exploit. No great wisdom, no fabulous knowledge. No advanced weapons systems." The last statement came out with a harder edge.
Benny had heard all the legends of Arkelli, of what the Arkellians had achieved, at least by reputation. Fantastic art, great wisdom and fearful weaponry. But she wasn't interested in any of that. All she wanted to know was how they lived and died.
The holographic Doctor was speaking again. "You see, this has all been a trap, the legends, the ruins, all of it. Designed by me to bring the truly greedy races of the Universe here and trap them."
A mutter broke out among the students. They had never considered that they might be trapped here.
"Why would he do that?" Fitz asked her. "It doesn't seem to be the Doctor's style."
Benny smiled grimly. "It might not be your Doctor's, but I'm afraid it was his style when he looked like that."
"Now," said the holographic Time Lord, "I understand, of course, that this place might attract the just curious among the races of the galaxy. If you are such a race, I'm sorry."
"He can't just leave us here!" Nita exclaimed, her comment meeting with a cheer of approval. Benny shushed them, as the Doctor was continuing.
"For those of you here by accident, however, there is a way out. A few tests of logic and humanity, if any alien races among you will pardon the term. If you progress deeper into this room, you'll find the first one. Good luck." The holographic image raised his hat and winked out of existence.
"Now what?" asked Fitz, summing up the feelings of them all.
Benny frowned. "I think it's time we tested our logic and humanity. Come on." She started to lead them deeper into the room.
***
"Ah, you must be the organ grinder," the Doctor said, clasping his lapels and staring at the Dalek that seemed to be in charge on the bridge of the mothership.
"YOUR MEANING IS UNCLEAR. KEEP SILENT UNLESS ANSWERING A DIRECT QUESTION."
"Hmmm, a chatty Dalek. Quite a novelty."
The Dalek Supreme waved its gun stick menacingly and the Doctor bit back his next comment.
"CAN YOU OPEN THE STRUCTURE WHERE YOU WERE FOUND?"
"It's not so much a case of whether I could, more whether I should," the Doctor replied evasively.
"ANSWER THE QUESTION OR THE FEMALE DIES!"
A look of terror crossed Sheri's face, but she said nothing, not wanting to put pressure on the Doctor to save her at the cost of everybody else.
She didn't need to worry. The Doctor, shoulders slumped, nodded his head. "Yes, I can open the pyramid."
"THEN YOU WILL DO SO FOR US, OR YOU WILL BOTH BE EXTERMINATED."
"Not much of a choice, is it? Don't I at least get 50/50?"
"SILENCE! SEND THE SERVICE TEAM TO THE MAIN HATCH. WE DEPART FOR THE STRUCTURE IN 5 RELS."
"I hope you know what you're doing, Doctor," Sheri whispered.
"So do I," he whispered back.
***
"How come you solved that one so easily?" Fitz asked Benny as they and the students passed through a doorway after passing the first of the logic tests.
Benny smiled at him. "Who do you think taught it to the Doctor in the first place?"
"I hope they're all ones you taught him," Fitz said hopefully.
Now Benny frowned. "I only gave him the one. That one."
"We're stuffed then," Fitz groaned.
***
The Doctor and Sheri stood before the doors of the Temple once more. Only this time they had a squad of Daleks at their backs.
"OPEN THE DOORS, DOCTOR."
Sheri glanced at the Doctor. "Don't suppose there's any chance of running for it?"
The Doctor shook his head sadly. "We would be cut to pieces in no time flat. Don't worry, I'll think of something."
Sheri sighed. "Fitz said that should be when I was most worried!"
The Doctor just smiled at her and reached for the opening mechanism.
***
Fitz stared at the chessboard in the centre of the next room. Beside him was the holographic Doctor.
"One move will win the game. Find the move to progress to the next test." He raised his hat and blinked out of existence.
"I always hated chess," Fitz groaned. "There was a kid at school who was quite good. Always got bullied. Fisher. Can't remember his first name."
Benny was studying hard. "I think I know this one. The black and white pawns unite to defeat a common enemy."
"What? That's ridiculous!"
"Not at all. Ace taught me this one. The Doctor used it once before." She moved a black pawn to checkmate the black king.
The Doctor fizzled back into existence. He was grinning. "Congratulations! You may proceed to the next room."
As the students started to file forward, Nita tugged on Benny's arm.
"Are we going to get out of this, Professor Summerfield?"
Benny smiled at her. "Of course we are." The girl turned away, satisfied. She didn't see Benny mouth "I hope" at Fitz, who nodded vigorously.
***
The doors opened soundlessly and the Doctor stepped inside.
He gasped, looking around him. Memories came flooding back. Memories he didn't even realise he had.
Seeing a large statue of himself being heaved into place. Chris holding a primitive holographic video camera while he spoke rehearsed lines into it. Placing various devices in various rooms, like a chess set. Setting traps.
He groaned. Sheri looked worried. The Daleks swarmed past him, into the large reception chamber.
"I have been such a fool!" the Doctor exclaimed. "And I was such a devious little Doctor, once."
"What are you talking about, Doctor?" Sheri asked.
"All this," the Doctor whispered, as the Daleks continued to trundle past them. "It's all one big trap. I devised it in a previous life and then forgot about it. And now..."
"Now what?"
The Doctor turned to her. "I really have no idea," he admitted.
***
"This is the last challenge," the holographic Doctor told them. "A simple test of humanity. You're on a sinking ship, aboard the final lifeboat, with just one seat left, when two people arrive. One is a young woman, with her life in front of her, the other an old man, his life all behind him. Which do you save?" The Doctor raised his hat once more. "Good luck."
Fitz smiled. "Easy. The young woman. The man will soon be dead anyway." He grinned, happy with his logic.
Benny was shaking her head. "No, that's not it. That's not how the Doctor would think." She thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers. "Got it!" She looked at the ceiling. "The solution is, you get out of the lifeboat and let them both be saved."
There was a slight whirring sound and the room about them started to fade.
"What's happening?" screamed Nita.
Benny found herself unable to answer, as the room about them disappeared.
***
The squad of Daleks had spread out around the inside of the pyramid. The Doctor and Sheri stood near the doors, with the Dalek Supreme.
The Doctor glanced back out of the doors and saw a group of humanoids start to materialize outside the doors. He turned to Sheri with a grin.
"Did you enjoy the meal the Daleks provided?" he asked her.
"That gunk? I couldn't eat it. Hardly gourmet cuisine."
"But I did tell you how we put it to very good use once, didn't I?"
A smile spread across her face. "Yes, you did!"
He smiled back, passing her a ball of what looked like putty out of sight of the Dalek.
"You know," he said, addressing the Dalek Supreme, "Your, erm, men could need you."
"NEGATIVE. YOU CANNOT BE TRUSTED. I WILL WATCH YOU UNTIL WE HAVE FOUND WHAT WE NEED. THEN YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"
Sheri had crept round the other side of the Dalek. At a nod from the Doctor, she slapped the food onto the eyestalk.
The Dalek began to panic. It swung around wildly.
"MY VISION IS IMPAIRED, I CANNOT SEE. MY VISION IS IMPAIRED, I CANNOT SEE!" It started to fire at random.
The Doctor dragged Sheri behind the Dalek as it started to fire blind. The three of them were standing on the threshold of the Temple.
The Doctor looked at Sheri. "On the count of three, push! One, two, three..." Together they heaved the Dalek Supreme through the doorway. It continued to fire and screech it's warning.
Scrambling backwards and pulling his companion with him, the Doctor quickly activated the closing mechanism for the doors. Then, when they swung shut, he and Sheri slumped to the ground, exhausted.
"Is life around you always like this?" she asked, wiping her brow.
"No," the Doctor answered, grinning. "Sometimes it's quite hectic!"
By this time Benny, Fitz and the students from the dig had arrived. Benny held out a hand to help the Doctor to his feet. He accepted it gratefully.
"Thank you, Benny," he said, but anything else was cut off as she slapped him across the face.
"You two faced sod!" she exploded. "You could have warned us that place was a trap before locking us in there!"
"Ah," the Doctor said, rubbing the side of his face. He took the still furious Benny's arm and steered her to one side.
"You see, I only remembered I had been here before when the Daleks forced me to open the Temple and I got a good look inside. I had completely forgotten about setting the trap here."
Benny looked doubtful. "How could you forget something like that?"
He smiled sadly. "Post regenerative amnesia. Every time we regenerate, we lose some memories. There are a lot of things I've lost over the aeons. I can't remember Polly's last name; the colour of Jo's eyes; Peri's birthday. Arkelli must have been one of those things. I'm sorry."
Benny's face broke into a slow smile. "Just so long as you don't forget my birthday!"
"Well, I didn't like to say, but...ouch!" The second comment was a result of the punch on the arm she gave him.
***
An hour later they were all crouched in the radio tent, having returned to camp the long way round, to avoid the Dalek mothership. The Doctor had the microphone in his hand.
"Dalek mothership, this is the Doctor speaking from inside the Temple. Your squad has been captured and terminated. Leave now before this fate befalls you too. Under no circumstances attack the Temple, or you will be destroyed." He put the microphone down, switching off the power.
"Now what?" asked Fitz.
"Now, we wait," came the reply.
They didn't have to wait long. Three Special Weapons Daleks, dark lubricants staining their white and gold casings, trundled down the ramp and headed for the pyramid. Once they were clear, the mothership took off.
The Daleks arranged themselves before the doors of the Temple and began to fire. Above them, the mothership hovered.
It took a couple of minutes, but eventually the concentrated fire seemed to have an effect. The doors appeared to buckle inwards. Then, suddenly, they gave way completely. The Dalek trio seemed to rush inside.
Above, the mothership began to list, dipping towards the Temple. They could all hear the strain of the engines as they tried to compensate, but the effort was in vain. The mothership smashed into the pyramid and burst into a spectacular fireball.
The Temple sank beneath the sands, seeming to fold in on itself. "What happened?" asked Nita.
"I remember setting a gravity bomb. Any attempt to access the Temple be sustained force would trigger it, dragging the Temple and anything in the local area into a localised gravity well."
"So, that's the last we'll see of the Daleks?" Sheri inquired.
The Doctor frowned slightly. "I doubt any of us shall ever see the last of the Daleks, but for now, they are nothing to worry about. Now, who's cooking supper?"
EPILOGUE
They spent the evening sitting round the campfire, toasting crumpets and singing campfire songs. The Doctor was in particularly fine voice, though Sheri and Benny were almost a match for him. Fitz muttered something about having a sore throat and not having his guitar.
As the embers of the fire died, Benny found Nita staring up at the stars.
"I think you dropped this earlier," said Professor to student.
Nita looked at the doll in Benny's hands and her face broke into a grin of delight.
"Where did you find her?" she asked, taking the doll back carefully.
Benny shrugged. "She was lying in the sand in the middle of the camp."
"How did you know she was mine?" the girl asked guardedly.
"That was easy. I saw her legs poking out of your rucksack when you arrived."
Nita smiled shyly. "Her name is Sophie. I've had her since I was two. I always took her everywhere. She became a sort of good luck charm, so I brought her along when I came to University. Then on the dig as well. When I realised she was lost somewhere, I really thought we were never getting out of that pyramid alive."
Benny returned the smile. "Glad I was able to help." She turned to go.
"Do you have a good luck charm, Professor?"
Benny looked over to the campfire, where the Doctor was leading an impromptu choir in a chorus of "When I'm 64". Her smile became a grin.
