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underneath.
Adric threatened to grow argumentative. ‘We could
surely spare a few hours, Doctor?’ he objected.
But the Doctor shook his head firmly and busied
himself with adjusting the navigational instruments.
‘There just isn’t time,’ he told them.
‘So. Where are we hurrying off to now?’ Nyssa
demanded with a challenging air, as if to catch the Doctor
out.
‘Sector Sixteen.’
‘Oh beaut! Sounds great fun!’ Tegan scoffed.
‘The Doctor is anxious to meet the creators of the
androids,’ Adric announced.
‘So you know who they are!’ Scott exclaimed in surprise.
The Doctor looked up sharply. ‘No. I only know where
their transmissions originated.’
The Lieutenant gestured to Professor Kyle and the
handful of surviving troopers. ‘Then you must take us with
you, Doctor.’
The Doctor shook his head emphatically and fussed
over the console.
‘Well, we can’t fight androids all by ourselves, Doctor,’
Nyssa pointed out acidly.
‘I hope that will not be necessary, Nyssa,’ the Doctor
retorted. He straightened up and turned to the Lieutenant.
‘I’m afraid I shall have to ask you and your friends to leave
now,’ he said politely.
Scott planted himself firmly in front of the Doctor and
folded his arms. ‘Look here, if our planet’s being
threatened we insist on doing everything we can to defend
it,’ he snapped.
The Doctor opened his mouth as if to deliver an
ultimatum and promptly shut it again. He glanced round
at the determined faces assembled before him. ‘All right,’
he said leaning across and flicking the exterior door lever,
‘but you’d better hold on tight. We’ll be away in no time at
all...’
The newcomers stared at each other with a mixture of
amusement and amazement as the TARDIS shuddered
violently and started to make a noise like a cross between
trumpeting elephants and tearing metal. The floor bucked
and reared like an unbroken steer, before steadying into a
gentle swinging motion.
‘Please make yourselves at home,’ the Doctor urged
reassuringly. ‘Nyssa and Tegan will show you where
everything is.’
As the strangers were being ushered out, the Doctor
buttonholed Adric. ‘Do you have a moment?’ he asked
with a smile.
‘Well, I am rather hungry,’ Adric mumbled, reluctantly
closing the internal door.
The Doctor cleared his throat awkwardly, thrust his
hands deep into his pockets and paced up and down
uncomfortably. ‘Adric, I’m... I’m very grateful for all your
help... with the bomb and with that android...’ he muttered
almost inaudibly.
‘That’s quite all right. All in a day’s work,’ Adric
shrugged.
The Doctor stopped in front of him. ‘Look... I’ve been
thinking about your wish to return home...’ he began.
‘And?’
‘And... well if we could work out a satisfactory course I
just might... I just might... well, give it a try.’
‘Oh I’ve already done that,’ Adric said off-handedly. ‘It’s
there on the pad.’
The Doctor looked very disconcerted. ‘Really?’ he
laughed, picking up the pad from the console and flicking
through it, his eyebrows rising higher and higher as he did
so.
‘As you’ll see I’ve managed to compute the position of
the CVE...’
‘Oh you’ve done remarkably well,’ the Doctor said
admiringly.
‘Thank you,’ Adric replied politely, opening the door.
The Doctor fluttered the pages of the notepad again.
‘Look Adric, I’m really sorry about our little disagreement
earlier on,’ he managed to mumble, blushing with
embarrassment.
‘I over-reacted,’ Adric said graciously.
‘Do you really want to go home?’
Adric grinned broadly. ‘No, of course not, Doctor.
There’s nothing for me there now,’ he admitted.
‘You mean you did all this work for nothing?’ the
Doctor cried incredulously, waving the notebook.
‘It made my point,’ Adric replied. ‘And who knows — I
might change my mind. Again!’
5
Stowaways
Not far beyond the orbit of the remotest planet in the solar
system a gigantic bulk freighter of the Galactic Services
Commission hung motionless in space. Its colossal hulk
dwarfed the small, elegant, wheel-shaped space-station
revolving slowly on its axis near by. The freighter
resembled an irregular cluster of vast steel buildings with
other smaller ones added on all over it as a kind of
afterthought. Its hundreds of exterior surfaces bristled with
antennae and revolving dishes and hatches of all shapes
and sizes. In stark contrast to the brilliantly illuminated
port-holes of the space-station, the freighter loomed dark
and unwelcoming. One tiny section, high up at one end,
displayed a few faint lights through the observation ports
of the navigation bridge.
Inside, the bridge was long, wide and low-ceilinged and
almost every available surface was crammed with displays,
instruments and controls. At one end was a long low con-
sole with banks of screens suspended above, and two large
heavily-padded seats with high backs positioned on a low
dais in front of it. At the other end of the bridge were two
sets of sliding doors leading into the main body of the ship,
and in between, set into the side of the bridge, was an
emergency airlock with ESCAPE POD stencilled in red.
Most of the floor space was occupied by cabinets
containing computers and navigational devices. The air
was warm and filled with low humming and electronic
chattering sounds.
In one of the command seats a lean hard woman of
about fifty with straight fair hair and a boney pear-shaped
face was sitting reading. She was wearing a faded greyish
uniform, quite plain except for First Officer flashes on the
shoulders. Near by, a tall sinewy young man with chiselled
features and very short dark hair was standing stiffly
upright, staring blankly at the image of the space-station
on one of the monitor screens. He wore a similar uniform
but with Navigator flashes. His thin hands were clasping
and unclasping nervously behind his back.
‘The Captain’s been gone for hours,’ he said in a thin
nasal voice.
The woman turned a page of her book. ‘Everything will
be all right, Ringway,’ she replied complacently after a
pause.
The young man gave a hollow laugh. ‘I wish I had your
confidence, Berger. Three crewmen disappear without
trace in the last two weeks: a word in the wrong place and
we could be stuck out here for weeks, pending an inquiry.’
‘No one’s going to breathe a word,’ Berger said
soothingly without raising her eyes. ‘They all know that
any delay now will cost them their bonuses.’
Ringway narrowed his eyes at the screen as if he were
trying to see into the interior of the space-station. ‘Don’t
be too sure,’ he snapped, ‘morale is very low.’ [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]