Doctor Who: Earthshock (7 page)

'It made my point,' Adric replied. 'And who knows - I might change my mind.

Again!'

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 portholes 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 console 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.'

Berger turned another page. 'Well, yours obviously is,' she laughed. 'But you're supposed to be an officer, Ringway. Try smiling to the crew occasionally.

Reassure them.'

The young Navigator spun round angrily, but before he could speak, a voice announced over the ship's intercom that the Captain had just come aboard.

First Officer Berger snapped her book shut and stood up. 'There. Mum's home again,' she scoffed. 'How's that for morale?'

One of the access doors zipped smartly aside and a short but fierce-looking woman with elegantly styled coppery hair and a pale sharp face walked wearily onto the bridge. She was about the same age as Berger, but her green eyes were piercingly alert. She was wearing a black jerkin with a high wide collar, grey trousers tucked into black boots and black gloves.

'Take that straight to my cabin,' she ordered in a brittle, haughty voice as two crewmen carrying a heavy metal trunk followed her in.

Ringway stood sharply to attention. 'Welcome aboard, Ma'am,' he said crisply.

'Don't call me Ma'am on the bridge,' the Captain snapped, thrusting a cassette transponder into Ringway's hands as she brushed past him, 'and get that plugged into the computer immediately. I want to get under way.' She glanced briefly at the console displays and then dropped heavily into her command seat and shut her eyes.

'Seven hours . . . seven hours they kept me hanging about. I'm exhausted,' she complained.

First Officer Berger glanced across at Ringway, but he appeared to be engrossed in installing the transponder. 'Problems with Security?' she asked casually.

'Not really. It's just that Earth's on red alert,' the Captain replied sarcastically.

'There's some Galactic Congress being held, so they're being a bit fussier than usual.

We won't have any more trouble. I've got a priority clearance straight through to Earth.' She opened her eyes and hauled herself to her feet. 'Our bonus is safe,' she said with a glacial smile.

'So there wasn't any mention of the missing crew members?' Ringway asked anxiously.

'Panicking again, were we, Mister Ringway?' the Captain laughed, swaggering across the bridge. 'Well, you can relax. Nothing was said.'

'I just happen to consider the unexplained disappearance of three crew members rather important, Captain,' Ringway muttered through clenched teeth.

'Oh so do I, Ringway, so do I...' the Captain retorted sharply. 'But it will be investigated after we've reached Earth and safely discharged our cargo. Understood?'

'Yes, Captain Briggs,' the Navigator replied submissively.

'If it will make you any happier, you can increase the patrols,' Briggs added contemptuously. 'But I don't want to hear any more about the business. You are beginning to bore me.'

A few minutes later, departure preparations had been completed and Captain Briggs took a final look round the bridge. 'I'm glad you're on first watch,' she said to Berger. 'Good luck. I'm off to freshen myself up.'

Ringway had crossed to a panel in the wall and was inserting his thumb into the identification lock. 'Just thought I ought to check the security patrols,' he explained in response to Briggs's enquiring stare, 'especially with so many of the surveillance cameras on the blink at the moment.'

'But I need you up here!' Berger protested, working busily at the main console.

Briggs frowned at the bank of small security monitors, only about half of which were functioning properly. 'Oh let him check the patrols, it'll be good for morale. Don't get lost!' she cried, marching out with a whooping laugh.

Ringway's small eyes watched Berger sitting with her back to him as she coolly and efficiently got the freighter under way. He opened the armoury compartment and took out a laser pistol. 'Why does Briggs always run me down?' he asked bitterly, clipping the pistol onto his belt.

'Perhaps you shouldn't sound quite so earnest all the time,' Berger replied without looking round.

Ringway stood frowning at the security monitors for a moment. Then he closed the armoury panel and went out through the access door leading to the main hold, a cynical smile creeping gradually over his pinched features.

The freighter's main hold was a vast echoing structure, hundreds of metres in length and width, and tens of metres high. A series of catwalks criss-crossed it, joining several tiers of walkways running around the walls and leading down at regular intervals to the vast floor via open metal stairways. Soft fluorescent lighting cast an eerie twilight from the lofty ceiling. The hold was filled with hundreds of tall silos, each shaped like a cluster of broad cylinders standing on end in a rectangular formation. The silos were arranged in rows, and the rows in groups, so that long narrow corridors ran at right angles between them down the length and breadth of the hold. These long deep corridors between the silos were full of gigantic shadows and dark corners. Occasionally, faint shudders reverberated through the huge space as if some species of monstrous animal were stirring quietly somewhere in the depths...

All at once a muffled grinding and scraping noise erupted down in a far corner of the after end of the hold. The TARDIS blinked uncertainly into tangible form and fell silent.

Inside, everyone was staring expectantly at the viewer.

'Well, here we are!' the Doctor announced reassuringly, smiling broadly at the dazed expressions on the faces of the Lieutenant, Professor Kyle and the troopers.

'Where's here?' Tegan demanded suspiciously.

Nyssa checked the console. 'The atmosphere is breathable,' she reported.

The Doctor shrugged. 'It looks like the interior of some kind of cargo vessel,'

he said, nodding at the unfriendly shadows on the screen. 'But appearances can be deceptive, of course.'

Pulling himself together, Scott turned to his squad. 'We should move in before anyone realises we're here,' he said.

The Doctor stared disapprovingly at the Lieutenant's laser tube. 'That way innocent people might get hurt,' he scolded.

Scott laughed. 'Doesn't worry me, Doctor. These people tried to destroy my planet,' he retorted.

The Doctor smiled patiently. 'We don't know that for certain.'

'But this is where the beam controlling the bomb originated?' Kyle interrupted.

The Doctor raised his hands in a calming gesture. 'My experience through several hundred years has taught me not to jump to hasty conclusions,' he said quietly.

The Lieutenant suddenly looked extremely travel-sick. The full realisation of what had just happened to him and to his squad inside the Doctor's museum piece seemed to overwhelm him. He nodded meekly. 'Of course, Doctor ... whatever you think best ... several hundred years...' he mumbled queasily, trying unsuccessfully to hide his confusion.

'Good. Then we'll start with a small recce,' the Doctor announced, opening the exterior door and putting on his hat.

Adric sprang forward. 'I'm coming with you.'

The Doctor paused. For a split second it seemed that he was going to refuse and Adric prepared for battle. 'Certainly Adric,' the Doctor cried and he peered cautiously round the door.

'Which way?' Adric whispered.

The Doctor stepped outside and glanced around. 'I don't think it very much matters,' he cried, thrusting his hands into his pockets and setting briskly off into the shadows.

Scott watched them on the viewer. 'I should have gone with them,' he muttered, appalled by the Doctor's jaunty air as he strode swiftly out of vision.

Just then a throaty klaxon noise sounded from the console.

'What's that?' Scott demanded jumpily.

Nyssa frowned and fiddled with some buttons. 'That
is
interesting...' she exclaimed in surprise. 'This freighter or whatever it is has just accelerated into warp drive!'

On the holovisor disc the TARDIS was materialising all over again deep among the silos. The Cyberleader watched intently the image glowing beneath the projector tubes as the door opened and the figures of the Doctor and Adric came out.

'Excellent... Excellent...' he hissed, leaning forward,

'It seems that your revenge will come sooner than expected, Leader,' rasped the Deputy, adjusting the projectors.

'Indeed,' boomed the Leader. 'Our contingency plan can now proceed. The destruction of Earth is assured.'

A harsh bleeping tone sounded from the module. The Leader stabbed a button on the communications panel. 'Report.'

'The freighter has received full security clearance for Earth, Leader,' said a thin nasal voice distorted in the speaker.

'Excellent.'

'But there is a problem. The disappearance of the three crewmembers is causing unrest...'

The Cyberleader's blank eye-pods were riveted on the ghostly image of the Doctor and Adric walking away from the TARDIS. 'Instruct your minions to search the hold,' he ordered. 'You will find a scapegoat there.'

There was a buzzing pause. 'Leader?' the voice queried hesitantly.

'You have intruders,' the Cyberleader boomed, and he jabbed the communicator off, signing to the Deputy to replay the materialisation of the TARDIS

yet again.

Two young crewmen - Vance and Buchanan - were patrolling slowly along the first-level walkway above the main hold, their laser tubes slung over their shoulders, grumbling about their duties and about life on the freighter in general.

'I don't fancy walking round that lot,' Vance muttered, glancing down at the endless rows of silos stretching like a miniature town below them. 'Ringway should do his own patrols.'

'You could hide an army down there and never find it,' joked Buchanan as they reached a metal stairway and started to descend.

Half-way down, Vance suddenly stopped. 'What's that?' he whispered, whipping his laser off his shoulder.

'Where?'

'I saw something move. By silo 529.'

'Nothing there now,' Buchanan shrugged. 'Anyway it's pitch dark.'

'Better look, though,' Vance insisted.

'I suppose so,' Buchanan agreed grudgingly. 'You and your carrot juice!'

Reluctantly they crept down to the main floor and began edging along the dark narrow corridor between two rows of towering silos.

Up on the walkway, at the bridge end of the hold, Navigating Officer Ringway stood in the shadows carefully retuning the frequency on his communicator. 'Ringway to Vance. Report position, please,' he murmured into it in his nasal whine.

'Vance here, sir. Just passing silo 519 at floor level. We've spotted someone.'

A thin smile just cracked the corners of Ringway's emaciated face. 'Then apprehend him. I'll be right down,' he snapped, unclipping his pistol and hurrying towards a nearby stairway.

Vance and his mate had pressed themselves into the shallow niche formed by the curving sides of silo 529 and were watching a large obscure shadow moving from niche to niche further along the row of silos. Suddenly it disappeared completely.

'This way. We'll head him off,' Vance muttered excitedly. He darted across the junction where two corridors crossed at right angles. 'I think we've got him now.'