Doctor Who: Space War (2 page)

The Doctor’s firm grip dispelled the hypnotic effect of the sound she had heard. As she watched, the Drashig turned back into exactly what the Doctor said—a man with a gun. The man, whoever he was, seemed terrified of the Doctor, even though he was armed and the Doctor was not.

Hardy demanded, ‘How many more of you have boarded us?’

‘There are just the two of us,’ smiled the Doctor. ‘May I ask why you’re behaving—’

‘Shut up! Come with me!’ Hardy gestured with his blaster gun.

The Doctor turned to Jo. ‘Ladies first.’

She pulled a face. ‘This lady’s going straight back to the TARDIS.’ She turned to go but the Doctor gently took her arm.

‘If we don’t want to get shot,’ he whispered, ‘we do what this gentleman says. After all, we are his guests.’

The Draconian battle cruiser now filled the monitor screen. Stewart tried to keep the terror from his voice as he spoke into the microphone.

‘This is Earth Cargo Ship C-982. Situation Red Alert. Draconians about to grapple. Does anyone hear me? I repeat, they are about to lock on now!’

A clang reverberated through the spaceship. The enemy ship had made direct contact. A strong voice came over the flight deck loudspeaker, speaking with the unmistakable accent of the Draconians.

‘This is the commander of the Draconian battle cruiser. We have locked on to your vessel and are about to board. If you offer any resistance you will be destroyed. Open the hatch of your air-lock.’

Stewart’s heart raced. He looked round desperately, wishing Hardy would come back. To his horror he saw two Draconion soldiers entering the flight deck. They were propelled forward at gun point by Hardy.

‘I found these two Dragons in the corridor,’ said Hardy.

Stewart couldn’t make sense of it. ‘But that’s impossible... The battle cruiser’s only just locked on. Didn’t you feel it?’

‘I don’t understand either,’ agreed Hardy. ‘But you can’t deny the evidence of your own eyes.’ He pointed the blaster gun menacingly at the Doctor and Jo.

Jo whispered to the Doctor, ‘Are they mad? Why are they calling us Dragons?’

‘Some kind of an illusion,’ replied the Doctor. ‘Just as you saw the older man as a Drashig for a few moments. Something very intriguing is going on.’

‘You two,’ Hardy shouted, ‘shut up! You’re our prisoners now.’

The strong voice spoke again over the loudspeaker. ‘If you resist we can destroy you with our neutronic weapons.’

Stewart, some confidence returned now they had two Draconian prisoners, shouted into the microphone: ‘If you destroy our ship you won’t get the cargo.’

‘So that’s what it’s all about,’ murmured the Doc-tor. ‘Piracy in Space.’

The voice spoke again, ‘Open the hatch of your air-lock.’

Stewart shouted back into the microphone. ‘We have captured two of your soldiers. If you try to enter by force they’ll be killed.’

Jo spoke up. ‘What do you mean—soldiers? This is the Doctor and I’m—’

‘Shut up!’ roared Hardy.

Again the strong voice over the loudspeaker. ‘We shall now enter your ship by force.’

Stewart turned to Hardy. ‘You’d better lock them in the hold.’

Hardy poked the muzzle of his blaster gun into Jo’s ribs. ‘Get moving, back the way you came.’

‘Do as he says,’ said the Doctor quietly. ‘The poor chap’s in a very irrational state.’

As Hardy took the two prisoners back down the ship’s corridor, Stewart re-tuned the transmitter to the Earth Control wavelength. ‘Earth Chargo Ship C-982,’ he spoke into the microphone. ‘Draconian battle cruiser has now locked on. They are about to force entry. We are alone in Space. We need immediate help...’

But he had the feeling no help would arrive in time, and this would be the last message he’d ever send.

Millions of miles from the threatened spaceship, the President of Earth was receiving the Draconian Ambassador in her spacious white office. She was an attractive woman in her forties, very feminine in her long pink robes, and her intelligent face suggested great inner strength. She was by no means the first female President of Earth. By her side was General Williams, a strikingly handsome man just a few years older than herself. He wore a single, metallic blue tunic with one simple star on his left breast to designate his rank. The Ambassador, dressed in black robes with high pointed shoulders, had the typical Draconian’s dragon face, green scaly skin and tapering cars. He was a Prince of Draconia by birth and had both the dignity and arrogance that went with his station in life. The planet Draconia, despite technical advance equal to Earth’s, had remained a monarchy with an Emperor, princes, and a Royal Court.

The President, who wished her visitor would sit down instead of towering over her, smiled up to the Ambassador Prince. ‘I assure you, Your Highness, all these charges made against Earth are false. We are not attacking Draconian spaceships, nor have we ever done so.’

An Earth guard signalled to General Williams from the doorway, a circular opening in the brilliant white wall. Quietly the General crossed to the guard and took a folded note from him.

The Prince spoke in a clear, icy voice. ‘Madam President, our soldiers have seen the Earthmen attack our ships. Our cargoes have been stolen. We Draconians do not tell lies.’

The President replied, ‘The honour of your race is well known, Your Highness. We, the people of Earth, are indeed fortunate to share the galaxy of the Milky Way with such noble neighbours. That is why we cannot understand your actions.’ In the best traditions of diplomacy, the President flavoured her criticisms with compliments.

‘What actions?’

‘You attack our spaceships. You steal our cargoes. You ignore our protests and meet them only with these counter-charges.’

It was impossible for the President to tell if the Prince was angry. Draconian green faces were incapable of turning red. Yet by the Prince’s sudden movement, holding back his head so that the dragon snout protruded pugnaciously, he was clearly very annoyed. ‘Our charges are true, Madam. Yours are false. We do not attack your ships—’

By now General Williams had read the note. He crossed to the President’s desk, breaking all convention by cutting in when the Prince was speaking. ‘Madam President, you should see this immediately.’

She read the note, her face setting hard. Then she looked up to the Prince. ‘This is a transcript of a distress call from one of our ships, Your Highness. Allow me to read it to you. “From Earth Cargo Ship C-982. We are under attack by a Draconian battle cruiser, Galaxy class, equipped with neutronic missiles.”’

The Prince was quick to answer. The treaty between our two inter-stellar empires established a frontier in Space. We have never violated that frontier to attack your ships. But you have invaded our half of the galaxy many times.’

General Williams could no longer contain himself. ‘In pursuit of your ships when they had raided ours! ‘

‘General Williams!’ The President was angry. She needed the General, perhaps more than he realised, and accepted his abrupt manner as part of his personality. But when she was in conference with the official representative of the one great power in Space that could destroy Earth, she intended to keep the conversation cool and polite.

The General realised he had overstepped the mark. He turned to the Prince and inclined his head. ‘I apologise, Your Highness, for my momentary rudeness.’

The Prince neither spoke nor looked at the General.

The President, to relieve the tension, asked General Williams if a rescue attempt had been set in train.

‘Unfortunately,’ replied the General, ‘I cannot answer that, Madam President. This note has only just been handed to me.’

‘Then I suggest you look into that matter right away,’ she said.

The General realised he was being sent from the room. ‘As you wish, Madam President.’ He inclined his head again to the silent Draconian Prince and left the vast white room.

The Prince waited until General Williams was out of earshot. ‘Your General is insolent, Madam. We know the hatred he has always felt for our people. Long ago he caused a war. Now he wishes to do so again.’

The President felt freer to speak her real thoughts without the General being present. ‘He is a soldier, Your Highness, and he is angry. The people of Earth are angry.’

‘So are the nobles of my father’s Royal Court,’ countered the Prince. ‘Anger and indignation are not the exclusive prerogative of the Earthmen.’

She let that pass. ‘I want you to take my personal appeal to your father the Emperor. He must order an end to these attacks. If Draconia has some grievance against Earth, this is not the way to deal with it.’

Again the Prince threw back his head, his snout jutting forward. ‘Many of our noblemen felt it was a mistake to make a treaty with Earth! Perhaps they were right. You attack our ships. When we protest you try to trick us with lies and evasions. Madam, I give you a final warning. The path you are treading leads only to war. And in war Draconia will destroy you!’

Having issued his threat, the Prince bowed stiffly and mumbled the meaningless diplomatic farewell of the twenty-sixth century. ‘May you live a long life and may energy shine on you from a million suns.’

The President rose and started to reply. ‘And may water, oxygen and plutonium be found in abundance—’ But the Prince had already turned his back on her and was walking out of the great room.

Slowly, thoughtfully, the President sat down. Though she had denied the Draconians’ allegations, it was hard to believe that such a proud people would have fabricated these claims that Earthmen were attacking their spaceships. She started to think about General Williams and wondered how much he really knew. The mass of the Earth’s people had elected her as President because she stood for peace and compromise. In the great political debate before the last presidential election, General Williams had made it known that he favoured an aggressive inter-stellar policy. After the election results were declared, the President was quick to invite General Williams to be her military aide, to heal political wounds and show there were no hard feelings. She also hoped that by having Williams working for her he would not set himself to work against her peace policy. Yet was he now secretly engineering these attacks on Draconian spaceships in order to bring Earth’s people to a war-like frame of mind?

She wished she knew the answer. Without thinking she opened the old-fashioned silver locket that hung from her simple necklace. The tiny photograph of General Williams, then a mere lieutenant and only twenty years old, looked up at her. She wondered if he, too, remembered back to when they were both young.

Hardy repeatedly prodded the Doctor in the back with the snout of his blaster gun as they went down the spaceship corridor.

‘You don’t have to keep doing that,’ complained the Doctor. ‘We’re going quietly.’

Hardy said, ‘I only have to squeeze this trigger and you’ll be a dead Dragon, so shut your snout.’

‘My snout!’ exclaimed the Doctor, aware that he was rather good looking. ‘I don’t have a snout—’

‘Stop here,’ Hardy ordered.

The trio stopped by a metal door. A grille with bars was set high in the door. ‘Pull that open,’ said Hardy. The Doctor gripped the grille and pulled the door towards him. It led into a very small compartment.

‘Now get in there.’

The Doctor stepped aside for Jo to go in first. Jo turned to him. ‘What is this?’

‘Sometimes we carry live cargo,’ said Hardy. ‘Animals.’

‘But we aren’t animals,’ Jo protested.

‘You’re Dragons,’ said Hardy. ‘What’s the difference? The sooner your lot are exterminated, the better.’ He slammed the door shut.

Immediately the Doctor began to rummage in a capacious pocket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, aiming it at where he expected the lock to be. There was no lock. From outside they heard Hardy slide two old-fashioned bolts across the door. The Doctor shrugged and put away the sonic screwdriver. Neither of them spoke until they had heard Hardy’s footsteps go back up the corridor.

‘Doctor, why do they keep calling us Dragons?’

‘Because that’s how they see us, Jo.’

‘But why Dragons?’

‘Some non-human life form, something they’re frightened of.’ The Doctor had a flash of-realisation. ‘Of course—
Draconians
!’

‘What?’

The Doctor was excited by his deduction. ‘If this is the period I think it is, there are two great empires spreading through the galaxy of the Milky Way—Earth and Draconia, both expanding, colonising one planet after another, and coming into head-on collision.’

‘The history lesson’s very interesting,’ Jo began, but the Doctor let her go no further.

‘Not history, Jo, at least not
your
history. For you, coming from Earth in its twentieth century, this is the future.’

‘Whatever it is,’ she said patiently, ‘why do they mistake us for these—what did you say?’

‘Draconians. Dragons is a rather unflattering nickname the Earth people use. You remember that sound you heard?’

‘Yes...’

‘And then we ran into that chap with the gun?’

Jo suddenly went white with fear and cowered away from the door. ‘No, I don’t want to remember! ‘

The Doctor gently touched her arm. ‘Think, Jo. Concentrate. What did you see?’

‘I saw... I saw...’ She covered her face with her hands. ‘I saw a Drashig! ‘

‘No you didn’t, Jo. You saw that man. But the sound made you see the thing you most fear.’

Jo slowly took her hands from her face. ‘How?’

‘Oh, it wouldn’t be too difficult. Probably ultrasonics geared to stimulate the fear centres in the brain.’

Jo thought about this. ‘It only lasted with me a short time, yet that man kept seeing us as Dragons—Draconians, that is.’

‘Maybe it affects different people in different ways,’ said the Doctor. ‘What interests me is why someone has gone to all this trouble to make people see things that aren’t really there.’

Jo nodded but she was busy looking at the small barred grille set in the door. ‘Doctor, we’ve got to get out of here.’ She stood on tiptoes and peeped out. ‘I can just see the TARDIS.’