Doctor Who: Space War (13 page)

The Draconian guarding the Ogron prisoner also saw the reflection of the exploding missile. He turned to look at the port hole. For a few seconds the missile burnt like a tiny sun. Then, without warning, the floor gave way as the Doctor made the ship dive and swerve. The guard crashed heavily against the metal wall. He crumpled in a heap, unconscious. The Ogron, also thrown about by the sudden change of direction, slowly got to his feet. With the guard knocked out he had nothing more to fear. He took two bars of the cage in his great hands and wrenched them apart. Then he stepped through the opening to freedom and lumbered for’ard towards the flight deck.

Jo and the Prince were back on their feet, looking with the Doctor at the screen. The Ogrons’ spaceship, though still visible. was a considerable distance away.

‘I think we’re shaking them off,’ said the Doctor. ‘The Master’s not a very good pilot, you know. Now let’s see how fast we can go! ‘ He put his hand on the accelerator.

Jo screamed. ‘Doctor! Watch out!

The Doctor turned, saw the Ogron coming straight at him. ‘Keep out of the way, Jo! Go to the hold—you’ll be safe there.’

The Ogron hurled himself at the Doctor, trying to grasp him in a crushing bear hug. The Prince rushed forward, dug his claws into the Ogron’s neck, and tried to pull him away from the Doctor. As the three ‘men’—Time Lord, Draconian, Ogron—crashed to the floor, the Prince’s elbow accidentally touched the control. A two second burst of energy directed forward halved the ship’s speed.

The Master and his Ogron companions watched the Earth spaceship becoming larger on their screen.

‘They’re slowing,’ said the Master. ‘We must have hit them.’

The Ogron co-pilot asked, ‘I fire again? Make big fire all round them.’

‘No. Perhaps we can take the Doctor alive after all. Prepare a boarding party.’

Jo was kneeling by the unconscious Draconian guard. ‘Please try to wake up,’ she pleaded. ‘You could help fight the Ogron.’

The Draconian slowly opened his eyes. ‘Where am I?’

‘On a spaceship going to Earth, and you let the Ogron escape. Can you get to your feet?’

The Draconian guard remained dazed. ‘Big flash of light, then darkness.’

‘If you can’t move, tell me how to use your blaster gun. I’ll get it for you.’ She reached to where the gun lay on the floor.

The Draconian’s reaction was automatic, a reflex from military training never to allow someone else to touch his weapon. His claw shot forward, snatching up the blaster gun.

‘Then you go and use it,’ said Jo. ‘But please do something quickly to help the Doctor and your Prince.’

The Draconian focused his eyes on the bent bars of the cage. ‘Creature—escaped.’

‘That’s right.’ Jo realised she was going to get no help from him. ‘Can you stand up?’

‘I try.’ The Draconian slowly struggled to his feet.

‘Let me help you.’ Jo took one of the Draconian’s arms, but he shook her away.

‘Females do not help.’ As he spoke, he sank to the floor again, eyelids flickering.

At that moment Jo heard the now familiar clang of another spaceship locking on. Instinctively she looked up at the air-lock door. In panic she saw that it wasn’t locked on the inside. She scrambled to her feet to get to the door and bolt it. As her hand went forward to slide home the first bolt, the door opened and an Ogron loomed over her. Fear kept her rooted to where she stood. The Ogron lurched forward and grabbed her round the waist, dragging her into the air-lock. She was aware of the sight and smell of the other Ogrons coming through the air-lock, invading the spaceship.

On the flight deck the Doctor had finally managed to get a stupefying Venusian Karate hold on the Ogron’s thick neck. The Ogron slowly sank to his knees, unconscious, and the Doctor carefully lowered him to the floor.

‘We’ve been boarded,’ the Doctor shouted to the Prince. ‘Find weapons.’

The Prince didn’t have to be told. He was already opening lockers and cupboards in the hope of finding blaster guns. ‘Here,’ he said, having found what he was looking for, ‘take one of these.’ He handed over an oflicial Earth Interplanetary Police blaster gun just as the first boarding Ogron arrived at the doorway to the flight deck.

The Master waited impatiently in the safety of the Ogrons’ spaceship flight deck. ‘What’s happening? They should have overpowered everyone on board by now. Must I do
everything
myself!’

As he stood up to go and check how the boarding party was getting on, the Ogron co-pilot pointed to the monitor screen. ‘Master, something come.’

He stopped to look. An Earth battle cruiser was fast approaching the two locked-on spaceships. ‘Well, I’ll be...’ He started issuing orders. ‘Recall the boarding party. We’ll unlock as soon as they’re back on board.’

On the Earth spaceship, the Doctor and the Prince with their blaster guns had proved more than a match for the Ogrons. Growling in anger at the burn wounds inflicted on them, the Ogrons retreated down the corridor to the air-lock, dragging with them the Ogron put unconscious by the Doctor’s karate hold. They jostled each other to get through the air-lock door, tumbled into their own ship, closed its door, and immediately unlocked from, the Earth ship.

In a howling wind, all the air inside the Earth ship escaped through the open air-lock. Both the Doctor and the Prince, gasping for breath, were sucked bodily into the hold in time to see the semi-conscious Draconian guard sliding along the floor towards the gaping air-lock door. The Prince threw himself to the floor, hooked a leg through the bars of the cage, and grabbed the guard’s leg. Meanwhile the Doctor worked his way from one secure hand-hold to another until he had reached the door. For a second he found himself looking into the emptiness of Space. Then he slammed shut the door and sank to the floor, his lungs bursting. With the air-lock door closed once again, the ship’s air pressure sensor automatically started to pump in air from the high-pressure tanks.

‘We’ll be all right in a minute or two,’ said the Doctor, at last able to breathe. Then he realised what had happened. ‘ Jo! They’ve taken Jo!’

A giant Ogron pushed Jo up the corridor of the Ogrons’ spaceship and into the flight deck, twisting her arms behind her back.

‘We get girl, Master.’

The Master, preoccupied with piloting the ship away from the approaching Earth battle cruiser, remained some moments looking at the control dials. Then he turned to face Jo. ‘Well, I suppose you’ll have to do, Miss Grant, though I did rather want the Doctor.’ He looked up at the towering Ogron. ‘You blundering oafs, why didn’t you get him?’

‘He shoot with gun.’

‘Obviously he didn’t shoot with a blow pipe—’ He stopped mid-sentence as a burst of static came over the loudspeaker. ‘Everyone shut up. I want to listen to this.’ He increased the volume.

A voice said, ‘This is Earth battle cruiser X-29. Identify yourself.’

The Doctor’s voice replied. ‘This is Earth police spaceship 2390. We are on a special mission to the President.’

‘Identify the ship that has just unlocked from you. They do not answer my signals.’

The Master chuckled. ‘Of course not, you twit!’

The Doctor’s voice came again over the loudspeaker. ‘You must pursue and capture that ship immediately. It is of vital importance—’

But the other voice spoke over the Doctor’s. ‘You are in possession of a stolen police spaceship. You are under arrest, whoever you are. Stand by to be boarded. Do not offer any resistance.’

The Master looked up at Jo, his eyes twinkling. ‘This is the best radio show I’ve listened to in years. Aren’t you enjoying it?’

‘I repeat.’ said the voice from the Earth battle cruiser, ‘you are under arrest. Stand by to be boarded.’

‘Very well,’ came the Doctor’s voice. ‘We are standing by.’

The Master switched off the loudspeaker. ‘Poor Doctor, enmeshed in the toils of bureaucracy. It’ll take him some time to talk his way out of
that
.’

‘But he’ll get to the President,’ said Jo. ‘He’ll tell her everything.’

‘You think she’ll believe a word of it?’

‘She will when she sees the Ogron prisoner,’ Jo replied pertly. ‘He’s our evidence.’

‘What a shame,’ said the Master. ‘Your so-called evidence is standing behind you.’

Jo turned as best she could. She was surrounded by Ogrons. ‘I don’t believe you.’

‘I know they all look alike, Miss Grant, so you’ll have to take my word for it.’

Jo had another idea. ‘The Draconian Prince knows the truth and he’s still with the Doctor!’

The Master stroked his beard. ‘My clear Miss Grant, in the climate of opinion and tension which I have created do you think that anyone on Earth will believe the word of a Draconian? Unfortunately for you, everything is now going my way.’

‘Surely we cannot be expected to believe this preposterous story!’ General Williams spoke emphatically.

The others in the President’s office stared at him—the Doctor. the Draconian Prince and the President. Even though diplomatic relations between Earth and Draconia had been severed and the two empires were on the brink of armed conflict, the presence of the Emperor’s son called for a certain politeness.

The General realised his bluntness may have gone too far. ‘I’m a military man, not a politician. I speak my mind. What the Doctor says about this man called the Master and about Ogrons is very difficult to believe.’

The Prince held back his head, snout protruding pugnaciously. ‘I confirm everything the Doctor has told you. My word should be enough.’

‘Indeed, yes,’ said the President. tactfully. ‘But to convince my people I shall need concrete evidence. Earth is a democracy. I cannot tell my people what to think.’

‘There’s only one thing for it,’ said the Doctor. ‘We must mount an expedition to find the planet of the Ogrons. The proof you need is there.’

‘Let us be sensible,’ said the General. ‘With Earth almost at war, how can we divert our forces into such a pointless expedition? Suppose this is yet another Draconian trick, to divide our strength?’

The Prince started to hiss with anger, but before he could say anything the Doctor spoke. ‘I’m not asking for a battle fleet, General Williams. One small space ship is all I need.’

‘Then your request is granted,’ said the President.

‘On the contrary,’ cut in General Williams. ‘Your request is denied.’ He turned to the President. ‘In military matters, Madam President, your authority is limited. Such an expedition needs
my
consent.

The Prince hissed again with mounting rage. ‘How can we expect help from a man such as this General? Many years ago he deliberately caused war between our peoples.’

‘That is untrue,’ the General retorted.

‘You destroyed a Draconian ship that came on a mission of peace.’

‘A ship that was about to open fire on us, when we were damaged and helpless! ‘

The Doctor tried to intervene. ‘Gentlemen, please, let us talk of the future, not the past.’

The President raised a hand to silence the Doctor. ‘No, I want these things to be said. It’s time everything was discussed openly. Well, General Williams, what made you think the Draconian ship was about to open fire on you?’

‘They didn’t answer my signals, that’s why!’

‘The communications equipment of the Draconian ship,’ said the Prince, ‘had been destroyed by the same neutron storm that damaged your ship. I have read records of my father’s Court. What I say is the truth.’

There was a moment’s silence while General Williams digested this shattering news.

‘I was not to know that,’ he said at last. ‘But tell me, why did you send a battle cruiser to meet a peace mission? The agreement was that both ships should be unarmed.’

‘Naturally we sent a battle cruiser,’ replied the Prince. ‘How else should a Draconian nobleman travel? But it’s missile banks were empty. The ship was unarmed.’

The General’s face paled. ‘If this is true, then I am solely responsible for starting a war that killed millions of people, Earthmen and Draconians.’

The Doctor felt he must now intervene. ‘May I suggest, sir, that fear and suspicion was the cause of your war? And that the whole terrible bloodshed is going to happen again unless we do something about it pretty quickly!’

The General turned to face the Draconian Prince. ‘Your Highness, please accept my deepest regrets for the wrong I have done your people.’

The Prince bowed his head in acknowledgment.

‘We must all try to forget the past, General Williams.’

The General now turned back to the President.

‘Madam President, as your military adviser may I recommend that we adopt the Doctor’s plan to seek and find the planet of the Ogrons?’

The President smiled and nodded approval. ‘Agreed, General Williams.’

‘Furthermore,’ he continued, ‘if I may be temporarily relieved of my immediate duties, I wish to lead this expedition myself.’

‘Certainly,’ said the President. ‘I know that if this planet exists, you will find it.’

‘And you will accompany me?’ the General asked the Doctor.

‘Gladly,’ said the Doctor. He hesitated. ‘There is one request I wish to make to you, Madam President.’

‘Yes?’

‘As a visitor to your great empire, internal politics are not my concern. But on the Moon you have thousands of prisoners, many of them good people whose only crime was that they believed in peace. If war is averted will you release them?’

The President considered. ‘Doctor, if we can eliminate the threat of war we can also live in peace among ourselves. In a secure peace I imagine my Government would rather have those people here on Earth. contributing their skills to our society, than exiled to the Moon.’

‘Thank you, Madam President. Well, General Williams, shall we begin?’

The Ogrons’ spaceship made a hard, bumpy landing in a devil’s playground of rocks and boulders. Jo, one wrist held in an Ogron’s vice-like grip, was yanked down the main corridor to the exit. She looked out on to the forbidding landscape of black rocks and grey sand.

‘There’s no place like home,’ she said wryly.

The Ogron grunted and led her away from the spaceship. The Master and a group of Ogrons were ahead of them, making for a cave in the side of a cliff.