Storm Warning (audio Drama) - Part 4

Part 4

Rathbone collapses, his mind broken by the Uncreator Prime's having used him as a tool. Weeks and his men open fire on the Uncreators, but for every one they shoot, another three take its place. But just as all appears lost, the enraged Tamworth drives off an Uncreator by shouting angrily at it -- and the Doctor realises that this generation has never seen another predator before. They're all instinct, including the instinct for self-preservation -- and thus, they fear creatures which appear more ferocious than they. The Doctor thus urges the humans to drop their weapons and approach the Uncreators, roaring and gesturing, making themselves appear as large and menacing as possible. He tells Frayling to think of all the times he's been put down and passed over, his advice ignored and his warnings scoffed at; he tells Charley to think of the Uncreators as smug, self-satisfied Singapore traders. But the Engineer Prime can't bring itself to join in; this may be necessary, but it's too barbaric for the Engineers to handle.

The Uncreators draw back, frightened off, but the furious Uncreator Prime has another trick up its sleeve. The triskelion on its breast is not just a symbol; it's been passed down through generations of Uncreators Prime, and the current encumbent unfolds it into an energy weapon with which it intends to kill the Doctor. Tamworth stands up to it, however, and declares his candidacy for the position of Lawgiver; if the Uncreator wishes to accept his challenge, he'll fight tooth and claw. Tamworth knows he hasn't a chance, but he's accepted his responsibility for what has happened, and he just wants to give the others the chance to escape. The Doctor urges Charley to take Rathbone and the others back to the R101; he has to remain, for he knows that the Engineers are too weak to resist the unchained Uncreators, and the new Triskele will spread cruelty and barbarity through the Universe if unchecked. But to everyone's surprise, Tamworth bests the Uncreator Prime; it fights by savage instinct, but Tamworth marries brute force to intelligence and gets the Uncreator Prime in a stranglehold. Desperate, the Uncreator Prime reaches out to Rathbone again and tries to force him to shoot Tamworth, just as he was influenced to shoot the Lawgiver. But Rathbone, struggling to resist the evil voice in his head, shoots the Uncreator Prime instead.

Tamworth has won. Now he has the finest spaceship in the galaxy at his disposal, along with a race of brilliant engineers and an army of thousands... but he knows better than to take them back to England, and deliver them into the hands of men like Rathbone. He will remain on the ship as it returns to space, not as the new Lawgiver, but as an advisor to help the Triskele restore their inviduality. The R101's engines have started; apparently the director of civil aviation has had enough and is preparing to leave. Tamworth asks only one thing of the Doctor before he goes... make sure the R101 gets down safely. The Doctor, clearly uncomfortable, promises to do his best, but as he and Charley return to the airship the Doctor tells her that she still has the chance to remain on the Triskele saucer. However, Charley has seen parachutes aboard the R101, and she urges the Doctor to board before it's too late. He does so, and the moment is lost; the R101 emerges from the Triskele saucer, which departs back into the depths of outer space, taking a very brave man with it.

As the R101 returns to a theoretically safer altitude, Weeks returns to the galley with some scraps of food for the vortisaur. It now appears quite tame, and Weeks is considering taking it home as a pet when this is all over. But there's something disturbing it -- and as tame as it might have appeared a moment ago, Weeks finds out the hard way that it's not a good idea to remain in a closed compartment with a very large, wild animal...

The Doctor and Charley return to the lounge, hoping to convince Frayling to evacuate the R101 before it's too late... but it already is. The Doctor taught Frayling to stand up for himself, and he's not returning to England empty-handed; for amongst the confusion, Rathbone retained the presence of mind to pick up the Uncreator Prime's energy weapon as it fell. The Doctor is furious; if they return to England with the triskelion they'll have energy weapons mounted on Spitfires in time for the Battle of Britain, and the empire which should be falling apart will continue on, changing the course of history beyond recognition. Although the Doctor abhors violence under normal circumstances, he has no choice but to sock Rathbone soundly and make off with the triskelion, intending to throw it out of the shattered window on the promenade. But as Charley follows they find the vortisaur blocking their way, and, pursued hotly by Rathbone, they're forced to detour into the very heart of the airship...

Rathbone corners the Doctor and Charley amongst the airship's great grey leather gasbags, which the Doctor warns him are leaking. The R101 is simply too large to fly -- and the vortisaur clawing at the hull hasn't helped its integrity. The gasbags can't cope with the buffeting of the storm winds, and soon, one will blow completely. The R101 will plummet from the sky, try and fail to right itself, and scrape alongside a French hillside, bursting into flames and killing everyone aboard. And since the airship is doomed anyway, the Doctor might as well fire the triskelion now, destroying it along with the R101 and preserving the web of Time. Charley believes that the Doctor is serious, but Rathbone calls his bluff and attacks the Doctor with an axe -- and misses, puncturing one of the gasbags. History is being made. As the airship begins to lose altitude, the Doctor throws the triskelion away, and Rathbone, trying to catch it, falls from the catwalk and plummets through a rent in the hull. It appears that the Doctor and Charley are about to go the same way -- until the vortisaur arrives, agitated by the disaster it can sense in the future, but still drawn by the scent of Time Lord blood. The Doctor used to ride vortisaurs bareback at the Academy, and with just a little manoeuvering he and Charley climb onto the vortisaur's back and ride to freedom.

They're the only ones. Frayling is in the lounge when the airship begins to fall from the sky. Desperate, he calls the flight lieutenant and orders him to increase elevation, but it's too late; the Doctor was right all along, and Frayling should have listened to him. Frayling opens one last bottle of champagne, and toasts the R101... and all the lost souls aboard. And the airship hits the ground, and explodes in flames.

The Doctor and Charley watch from a distance as the R101 takes its place in history. Now all the Doctor need do is take the vortisaur back to its natural habitat -- but for some reason it suddenly seems agitated, as if frightened of Charley. As Charley tries to calm it down, the Doctor comes to a very unpleasant conclusion. 54 people boarded the R101 in Britain, and 54 corpses will be found burned beyond recognition on the hillside. But as Tamworth wasn't aboard the ship when it crashed, the 54th corpse must have belonged to someone else -- someone who shouldn't have been aboard the R101 at all. Vortisaurs are sensitive to changes in Time, and as soon as the Doctor realises that he will have to return Charley to the R101 before its crash, to keep her fatal appointment with history, the vortisaur finally calms down. Charley senses that the Doctor is trying to avoid telling her something, and before he can say anything she enthusiastically accepts his presumed, unspoken invitation to let her travel with him in his time machine. She now believes everything he has told her, and wants to see the stars. The Doctor doesn't have the heart to tell her the truth; instead, he climbs onto the vortisaur -- which Charley has named Ramsay, after the Prime Minister -- and allows it to guide him and his new companion back to the TARDIS...