Chapter One

The Doctor simply vanished.

He stepped outside of the TARDIS, grinning and full of energy, ready to begin another adventure, and then he simply disappeared. He didn't run off, or fade away; there was an electronic noise, a flash of light, and then he was gone.

Sarah Jane Smith stood for a few moments dumbfounded as she stared at the vacant space he had so recently occupied. "A trick of his?" she thought hopefully, as she walked around the TARDIS. But he wasn't there. Neither was he inside. She checked every room, calling out for him, but he didn't answer. She searched the surrounding area, running across the purple grass and green dirt of the alien planet on which they'd landed, calling out his name. She expected him to call out any moment, and then she'd find him behind a rock, analyzing a flower, or fiddling with the sonic screwdriver, or exploring a cave by the flashing yellow sea.

But he didn't call out.

She didn't know what to do; this had never happened before. She returned to the TARDIS and began tentatively operating controls. She didn't know how to fly the spacecraft, but the Doctor had showed her how to scan for bio signs. After lots of button-pushing and lever-pulling, she managed to calibrate the scanners for Gallifreyan. She scanned a ten kilometer radius with no luck. She widened the search to one hundred kilometers – still nothing. After more fiddling, she managed to set the parameters to the entire planet, but her Doctor simply was gone.

"What to do? What to do?" she worried. She couldn't just sit there. If he was in some kind of trouble, she had to help him. And she couldn't help him if she didn't even know where he was. She stepped back outside. "Oh, Doctor! Where are you?" she called out helplessly to the empty air.

As if on cue, there was another flash of light and the Doctor materialized right where he had vanished. Sarah Jane immediately noticed a drastic change: his scarf, hat, and overcoat had been replaced by some sort of white pajamas; he was barefoot; and he looked terrible. His face was pale, and there were dark circles under his eyes. Sarah ran up to him and caught him just as was about to collapse.

"Oh Sarah," he moaned. "I've been gone for days! I've only just managed to escape. Help me inside; I feel so weak."

She grabbed hold of the Doctor's waist and helped him back into the TARDIS. As if sensing his need, the sentient craft moved his bedroom door to the beginning of the hall. Sarah helped him inside and led him over to the bed, where he promptly collapsed and closed his eyes.

"Doctor, what happened?"

He took several deep breaths before answering. "I was snatched away by a space-time teleporter," he explained. "It's probably in orbit around this planet. This machine was calibrated to my physiology and was set to instantly transport any Time Lord directly to the power source. There are probably others orbiting other planets, set up in the hopes that I'd travel there one day. As soon as I stepped out of the TARDIS's protective shields, they got me. They got me and made me their prisoner."

"Who, Doctor?"

He looked at his companion with tired blue eyes and took a few weary breaths before answering.

"The Daleks."