The Lost Ones (short story)

The Doctor arrives on a strange world and begins to explore, only to be taken captive by the butterfly-like Menoptera.

Summary
The Doctor arrives on an unknown world and decides to investigate his surroundings. After momentarily losing control of his body, he is rescued by the Menoptera and then made their prisoner. They believe that the Doctor is a member of the race that is attacking them.

Quickly, the Menoptera move the Doctor to an underground lair for questioning. They explain that generations before, a Zarbi queen led the Zarbi to war against the Menoptera who then fled to the moons of Vortis. The Menoptera who had captured the Doctor are of an advance scouting party who were sent to spy on the Zarbi. The party had been attacked by creatures similar to the Doctor and the Menoptera wanted to know more about them.

The Menoptera moved the Doctor to an operating table and bound him, preparing for dissection. Realizing the bonds were fairly weak, the Doctor snapped them and made a break for the cavern's entrance. Before getting very far, a man appears on a ledge on the wall opposite to the cavern's mouth and, scrambling up the wall, the Doctor joins the man on the ledge. Upon examination the Doctor realizes that this is no normal man, but an 8 foot tall giant with bright red hair a pale white skin.

The man seems surprised to see one similar to him, if smaller, and leads the Doctor back to his ship. Once there the Doctor learns that the man's name is Axatil, and that his people call themselves the Sons of the Sun. The Captain soon arrives to scold Axatil for bringing "vermin" into their ship. After Axatil shows the captain and the other seven crew members that the Doctor is a man, there is much interest in how he came to that world. As the Doctor explains that he is a scientist, the Captain and crew mistakes him for a long traveling scientist from their own world and their attitudes toward him change.

The Captain explains that they were soldiers in Expedition Number 3398, and that their ship's instrumentation was damaged in battle. After being lost for 10 years they had crash landed on Vortis a little more than a year previous and although they could take off again, unless they find a way to repair their instruments they won't get very far. He asks for the Doctor's help in making the repairs so that they may journey home to make their report to the Supreme Council of the World-City of Atlantis.

The Doctor quickly works to remember all of the stories of Atlantis and begins to wonder not where he is, but when. During the six days it takes for him to decipher the ships systems and determine how to fix them the Doctor realizes that he must be very far back in the past and that the Atlanteans are extremely violent and must not be loosed upon the universe again.

The Doctor informs the captain that he must return to his ship for the parts necessary to make the repairs and the captain and his men escort the Doctor through underground tunnels to the location of the TARDIS. When the Doctor refers to the TARDIS as his ship, the Captain realizes that the Doctor must be an impostor and orders him shot, but in the vicinity of the TARDIS is a great battle between the Zarbi and the Menoptera. The Doctor dodges into the battle to avoid being shot and makes his way back to the TARDIS. From there he watches as the Atlanteans are cornered and killed by the natives of Vortis.

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Spends 6 days repairing Atlantean's ships.
 * Makes a rather harsh judgement concerning the Atlanteans, watching as they are killed.


 * Axatil
 * Atlantean Captain

Continuity

 * The story seems to occur before DW: The Web Planet, in that the Zarbi are already ruled by a warlike intelligence, the Menoptera have already fled, and the Doctor doesn't recognize either species when he first sees them.
 * This is the Doctor's first visit to Vortis. The First Doctor later visits Vortis in DW: The Web Planet and then DWA: The Lair of Zarbi Supremo. The Second Doctor returns to Vortis in MA: Twilight of the Gods. The Fifth Doctor also re-visits Vortis in BFA: Return to the Web Planet.