The TARDIS door opened and the Doctor's face appeared. It carried a look of worry and bewilderment. He wasn't where he was supposed to be. Thankfully he hadn't told Peri where they were going so she wouldn't know any better. He would bluff it out and hope that there was something interesting to see. Peri called from inside the TARDIS.

"Are we on time Doctor? You said the Rondinax Institute closes at 6.30pm."

Damn, he cursed to himself. I could have sworn I didn't mention that.

"Er, not exactly. We, er, seem to be slightly off course. Looks fascinating though. Come and have a look".

Peri pushed past the Doctor and peered out into a dark, gloomy and damp cavern. Dripping water echoed in the distance and there was the noise of settling, rusty machinery.

"Gee, Doctor. Another wacky, fun-filled nowhere. You sure know how to give a girl a good time."

The Doctor bristled.

"You, my girl, should be grateful that I show you the wonders of the universe. We could just as well spend the rest of your life on Rondinax researching the life history of the Rondinaxian blood worm and its symbiotic relationship with the rulers of that illustrious planet. This is just a slight detour to see the, er, untapped social potential of, er... well, wherever this is". He trailed off sheepishly.

"Yes, Doctor. I'm thrilled. I can't wait to see what old ruins you have brought me to this time." Peri wandered off into the gloom, leaving the Doctor to close the TARDIS doors and follow.

"Ouch!"

The Doctor rushed over to find Peri sprawled on the floor. She had fallen over a large rusted pipe sticking out from a shattered concrete buttress.

"Be careful" snapped the Doctor. "There could be some very dangerous equipment here. Don't wander off." He clicked on a torch just in time to see Peri pull faces at him. The Doctor smiled, leered back at her and headed off towards a door at the far end of the room.

"Wait for me" Peri called.

The Doctor had stopped immediately through the door and was staring upwards.

"This is fascinating, Peri." He swung the torch beam in a wide arc from left to right. The light picked out the junked hulls of several large craft. Two were tall and pointed, standing upright like mechanical sentries. Another lower down was long and vaguely turtle shaped. Each carried faded numbers on their sides. Leading down to each machine was a series of tubes and lifts. The ceiling was lost in the darkness.

"Not nowhere, Peri. We're standing in the remains of some great spacefaring society. A long lost archaeological treasure. Just think. We could be the first people here in centuries."

Peri sneezed.

"Well the dust has certainly been here for centuries. Do you think there's anyone still here?" She looked about in the dark and shivered.

"Let's say we climb up and find out" replied the Doctor and he was off up a ladder before Peri could stop him.

As the time travellers climbed, they passed by one of the tall craft. Under the layered rust the hull was a blue metallic colour. It had two arm-like wings and a peeling red, pointed nose. Through a small window they could see the remains of a long disused control room. The ship temporarily disappeared from view as they passed through an open hatch.

The climb ended on a large metal platform. They were now overlooking the abandoned craft. A corridor led off into the rest of the building. Peri found a small broken metal pin. She walked to the edge and dropped it. On the count of twenty-five she heard it hit the ground.

"What was that?" jumped the Doctor.

"Sorry" squeaked Peri. "I was just seeing how far we'd climbed."

"A long way" was the stern reply but Peri wasn't listening.

"Doctor, look". She rubbed at some vague lettering on the wall near the door. "Have you got a cloth or something? There's something written here."

The Doctor took a yellow duster from his right coat pocket. He elbow-greased the thick grime from the wall but could only reveal a final set of disjointed letters. He handed the duster to Peri. With a grimace she shook it and stuffed it into the Doctor's left coat pocket.

"N, ER, AT, O, AL, E, C, E" he muttered to himself. Peri read them as one word.

"Neratoalece. Does that mean anything to you Doctor?"

"Hardly Peri! You can see the gaps in the words. No. We need to find a clearer version of the lettering. Then we'll know some more about this place."

"I know. Down the corridor."

The Doctor smiled. "After you, Miss Brown..."

The two companions emerged into what had once been an ultra modern kitchen and dining room. Now the faded and shattered furniture was partly hidden by the collapsed roof. The bottom half of a sink unit stuck out from under a mouldy cupboard. The far wall was completely blocked by a section of ceiling that swung down as if hinged. It was a dead end.

"No further this way, Peri." The Doctor picked up a piece of old floor tile.

"Hand made and fired. Expensive and probably unique. The people here certainly had good taste and style."

"Well it's all in ruins now. What do you think happened?"

"Don't know. An attack perhaps, or some sort of accident? I wish we could get further into the complex. I'm sure the answer's there."

As if in response, the collapsed roof shifted. Dust and debris floated down around them.

"It's not very safe Doctor. I think we've gone far enough."

"Nonsense, Peri. We're perfectly safe as long as we don't go crashing about. The integral structure of the building is quite secure. We'll have to double back and try another way."

The Doctor weighed the tile in his hand, lost interest in it and threw it into the trashed room. It landed with a thud, throwing clouds of dust into the air which sparkled like fireflies in the light from the open roof. Everything went deathly quiet. Then the far hinged wall dropped at one end and a deep rumbling started somewhere above them.

"Oops. I think we may have outstayed our welcome. Er, back to the TARDIS. Quick as you can". He ushered the protesting Peri back down the corridor and onto the ladder. "Down you go, Peri, quick. The situation is about to get on top of us."

Halfway down the ladder, the walls began to shake and the nearest upright craft began to sway slowly from side to side. One of the wing tips brushed past Peri. She froze, flattening herself into the brickwork.

"Keep moving, Peri" roared the Doctor.

The Doctor put his feet on the ladder sides and slid, propelling them both the final few metres. They reached the floor and ran towards the TARDIS as a rain of plaster, dust and bricks began from above. The Doctor suddenly side-stepped as a large, toothed cogwheel bounced across his path. He threw open the doors, leaped inside and set the controls with Peri literally hanging onto his coat tails.

"Made it!" he cried and raised his arm in the air with a flourish. As the TARDIS disappeared with its customary fanfare a large steel strut landed with a clang through its fading image. Devastation followed. Up in the office the whole floor gave way. Tons of concrete hurtled down onto the rusty craft dislodging them from their dusty tombs. They smashed to the floor and ignited. A fireball the size of Gallifrey ripped through the entire cavern, blowing the walls and roof outwards.

Inside the TARDIS the Doctor and Peri were brushing themselves down.

"Guess we'll never know where we were?"

The Doctor looked up disappointedly.

"No. Another unsolved mystery. If I try I might be able to get us back in the heyday of the civilisation."

"Then you could apologise for throwing that tile and destroying their long lost, archaeological treasure."

The Doctor glared back.

"That was an accident. You know I wanted to explore. There was more to that complex. Something secret, powerful.";

Peri sighed.

"Anyway, Doctor. I thought we were going to Rondinax, or had you forgotten?"

"Me, forget! Hmmmpphh! I never forget!"

Peri smiled to herself and went off to have a bath.

Back at the devastated cavern the fires still raged. There was little left of what the Doctor and Peri had seen. The machines were in pieces and all the lower levels cut off. Far above the chaos one room temporarily survived the blast. It had once been a living room with armchairs, a sofa and small desk. Two large, framed pictures lay upside down on the floor which was strewn with papers, clothes and dirty coffee cups. Smoke began to pour through the floor and the plaster on the walls cracked with the advancing heat.

If the Doctor had found the room he would have been intrigued by the five faded and ripped portraits on one wall. Five portraits of young men; three dark and two blond. He would also have found the answer to his questions about the cavern and long lost civilisation. Amongst the papers on the floor was a newspaper cutting. It had a grainy photograph of a recovered oil tanker. The article described the heroics of a brave group of men who had averted a major disaster and saved the tanker crew with no loss of life.

A tendril of flame licked upwards through the floor. The paper caught fire and slowly turned to black ash. The last thing to vanish was the headline. Large 36 point lettering in Gothic Bold script. It read

International Rescue Do It Again."