The Doctor reached upwards, grabbing wildly...  First one hand and then the other caught the rungs of the connecting-ladder, and he hung over the abyss below, swinging like a pendulum.

Carter frowned.  His task was not yet complete.  He crawled closer to the Doctor and stared down at him through the ladder rungs.  'Eldrad must live,' he whispered, and began prising the Doctor's fingers from the ladder-rungs one by one.

'Carter, what do you think you're doing?' howled the Doctor.

'It is the law.  Eldrad must live.  There must be no interference with his design.  Eldrad must live!'

'So must I, I'm afraid,' said the Doctor determinedly.  Abandoning any attempt to get back up on the ladder quickly, he began swinging hand over hand along the rungs to the other side.

Carter saw the Doctor disappearing, and made a desperate attempt to pull him back.  But he was too late, the Doctor was already out of reach.  The force of his lunge cost Carter his own balance, and he swayed and fell screaming from the ladder...

The Doctor heard the scream, and twisted round.  He saw the sprawling figure becoming smaller, smaller as it plummeted down, and struck the ground far below with a distant thud.  The Doctor winced and turned away.  He was sorry about Carter's fate, but he had problems of his own.

The end of the cooling duct was a few feet below him in the side of the tower.  It was a large oval-shaped opening rather like the funnel on a ship.  It was surrounded by smooth polished metal - there would be nowhere to grip if he missed his jump.  The Doctor began swinging to and fro like an acrobat on the trapeze.  At the end of his final swing  he let go, shot feet first into the cooling duct and disappeared from sight.

The slope of the giant tube was very steep and the Doctor whizzed forwards as if on some mad helter skelter, gathering speed all the time.  The metal of the duct was hot to the touch, and he was shooting downwards through a blast of hot air.  It was like sliding down a chimney with the fire still going, and the Doctor's only hope was that he was moving too quickly to get badly burned...


Sarah heard the final click and knew that the door was now unlocked.  She reached for the handle and was about to pull it open when a metal grille above her head burst from off the wall and the Doctor shot out like the demon king in a pantomime.  The end of his scarf was smouldering, and his clothes were smoking with the heat.

As the Doctor landed, Sarah raised the ring.  Before she could blast him down the Doctor gasped, 'Eldrad must live!'