The unearthing of an alien device enabling instantaneous space travel creates a headache for U.N.I.T. when Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and an exploration team go through the portal...and don't come back. Meanwhile, decades later, U...
A wonderful piece conducted by the brilliant Franz Schubert was the perfect soothing music for the Doctor to work in peace with. His TARDIS was where it had always been since the beginning of his exile – in the U.N.I.T. HQ laboratory where he did most of his research, his experiments, and his repairs on the TARDIS.
It was exceptionally serene there in the HQ that day, as Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and a research team were hard at work on a discovery made in Giza, Egypt: the unearthing of an ancient, ring-shaped alien device that they housed in the base's hangar bay when they returned.
The Doctor knew his expertise would've been helpful in deciphering the origins of the machine, but the Brigadier had promised him some time off after that business with the Master and the Autons, a week ago. All U.N.I.T. personnel were ordered not to have disturbed him for four whole days – that included his latest assistant, Josephine "Jo" Grant.
And still the lab phone rang in the midst of his work in the TARDIS.
He almost didn't hear it over the record playing Ave Maria. Disgruntled, he switched off the record and answered the phone call. "Who is it?" It wasn't exactly the friendliest greeting, but he really didn't want to be disturbed.
"Doctor?" The voice on the other end was soft, delicate, and a bit mousey – it was undoubtedly Jo. "I'm sorry to have bothered you on your time-off. I know the Brigadier told us not to..."
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"It's quite alright, Jo," the Doctor comforted, his ire receding. "What was it that you needed from me?"
"Well..." Jo hesitated to explain. "It's an emergency."
Slightly alarmed, the Doctor gave his full attention. "Nothing's happened to the Brigadier, I hope."
"I'm afraid something has...or we think something has," Jo contradicted herself. "We made an incredible breakthrough on the alien machine: it has the power to create a wormhole – a gateway into another world."
"Let me guess," the Doctor cynically said, "the Brigadier gathered an expedition team and they went through the wormhole together."
"Yes," Jo confirmed. "And they haven't returned in hours!"
"I see," the Doctor acknowledged. "Sit tight, Jo. I'm on my way there."
He snagged his inverness cape and tied it on, heading out of the lab and hopping into Bessie, his main mode of transport during his exile on Earth. A canary-yellow Edwardian roadster, Bessie was a key part of the Doctor's compensation package from UNIT and the only specific demand he made of the Brigadier when he agreed to be the scientific advisor of U.N.I.T.
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