Doctor Who_ The Rescue Part 13

Barbara touched his arm reproachfully. 'What about Vicki?' she said after a pause. 'I wish we could take her with us.'

Ian turned to her in surprise.

'Well, we can't leave her here here, can we?' Barbara argued.

Ian grinned. 'I know: let's take Vicki and leave the Doctor behind!' he chuckled.

Outside in the dark dusty cavern, the Doctor was talking quietly to Vicki, his arm around her shoulder in a protective, almost fatherly gesture. The pale, drawn girl listened with lowered eyes as the Doctor revealed the appalling truth as gently as he could. When he had finished, she stood there, numbed and silent for a long time. Then she looked up.

'So Bennett murdered my father... and everybody...' she said in a tiny voice. The Doctor nodded and gave her a gentle, comforting squeeze.

'So I've got n.o.body. n.o.body at all. I'm quite alone.'

Vicki whispered.

The Doctor shook his head. 'Not quite alone,' he murmured.

Vicki smiled wanly. 'Oh, there's the rescue s.h.i.+p, of course,' she said in a voice devoid of hope or comfort.

'No, that wasn't what I meant,' said the Doctor, turning earnestly to her. He gazed into her large sad eyes for a while and then put his hands on her shoulders. 'I meant, you've got us,' he blurted out suddenly. 'My dear Vicki, would you like to come with us?'

Vicki turned her head to look at the shabby, dusty old police box standing in the gloom, 'In that... that old hut there?' she exclaimed.

Swallowing his pride, the Doctor put his head to one side and grinned mischievously. 'Appearances can be deceptive, my dear,' he warned. 'We can travel anywhere and anytime in that old hut thing, as you call it. We are not bounded by s.p.a.ce or by Time.'

Vicki's lips parted in wonder. 'Then... then it's true? It really is a time-machine?'

The Doctor nodded secretively. 'Oh, it's a great deal more than that, I a.s.sure you! If you seek adventure, I can promise you an abundance of it.' He leaned closer to her, and spoke confidentially. 'And you'd be among good friends who will take care of you,' he promised.

Vicki looked from the old man to the TARDIS and back again. Her eyes shone with temptation, but there was also a cloud of doubt in them.

The Doctor patted her arm.. 'I'll leave you alone here to think about it for a bit,' he said, wandering towards the door of the TARDIS. 'I shan't be long.' And with a little hopeful wave, he disappeared inside.

Barbara and Ian were very relieved to see that the Doctor looked much calmer when he wandered back into the TARDIS control room. They hurried forward to meet him.

'Doctor, we've been talking about Vicki...' Barbara began enthusiastically.

The Doctor held up his hands; his severe face suddenly turned to smiles. 'And I'm glad to see that you've reached exactly the same decision as I have myself!' he said cheerfully. 'So let's find out what she has decided, shall we?'

The Doctor turned round to the open door and called Vicki inside.

There was a few seconds' pause, and then Vicki walked tentatively across the TARDIS threshold. She stopped dead and stared around in astonishment. 'But it's... it's so huge in here!' she gasped. 'And the outside is just... just...'

'Just an old hut thing I think you called it!' the Doctor interrupted with mock severity.

Smiling broadly, Barbara and Ian moved forward to greet her. 'Vicki, are you going to come with us?' Barbara asked hopefully.

The Doctor walked over to the central control console and pretended to be engrossed in checking over the controls. In reality he was waiting with bated breath for Vicki's decision.

Vicki gaped at her bright, s.p.a.cious surroundings. It was cool and calm inside the weird machine. She hesitated for a while, still trying to conquer her amazement. Then she glanced at the Doctor. He was peeking round the control mechanism of the console, anxiously trying to predict her reaction.

Then she glanced at Barbara and Ian: their expressions told her that they, too, had once experienced the same sense of wonder and awe that she herself was now experiencing. Their nods and smiles rea.s.sured her and convinced her that she truly was among friends.

'If you'll have me...' she said huskily. She cleared her throat and smiled. 'Yes, yes, I'd like to. Thank you...'

A tear welled up in the corner of Vicki's eye and hung perilously poised on her lashes, so that she dared not blink for fear that it would roll down her face and give her away.

'I don't really think the Seeker Seeker will find the wreck anyway,' will find the wreck anyway,'

she confessed. 'There's too little power left to maintain the signal.'

The Doctor fussed over the console, secretly sighing with satisfaction. Ian grinned and nodded his approval.

Barbara reached out and touched Vicki's hand.

'Off we go then,' the Doctor said brightly, operating the door lock mechanism and setting the controls to prepare for dematerialisation.

Vicki looked up sharply as if startled at the suddenness of everything. She moved her mouth to say something about the rescue s.h.i.+p, but it was too late. The Doctor had initiated the dematerialisation sequence.

The central control column started its solemn rhythmic rise and fall and the TARDIS wobbled and shook, groaning and rumbling with its customary noise of protest and indignation.

Like some strange ghost the image of the TARDIS slowly vanished from the darkened cave. For a few moments the noise of its engines continued to echo eerily around the enclosed s.p.a.ce, and then that too was gone.

Within minutes it was as though the TARDIS had never been there.

15.

From the radio panel in the main compartment of the Astra Astra Nine Nine, Trainee Oliphant's disembodied voice was repeating a terse call: 'Seeker Mission Craft to Mission Craft to Astra Nine, Astra Nine, do you copy? do you copy?

Seeker Mission Craft to Mission Craft to Astra Nine, Astra Nine, please respond... Rescue please respond... Rescue Craft to Craft to Astra Nine...' Astra Nine...'

On the radio scanner the tuner arc was sweeping round and round its glowing centre and the echo signal of the TARDIS pulsed with a shrill bleep on each circuit.

Suddenly there was a m.u.f.fled movement outside. Then the two silver figures loomed in the open hatchway and bent their tall heads so they could squeeze themselves into the wreck.

They stood silently watching the radar pulse and listening to the radio transmission. They watched the echo pulse of the TARDIS slowly fade and then disappear altogether. They turned slightly to one another as if exchanging a telepathic dialogue.

The taller figure moved forward, reached towards the radio panel and pa.s.sed its hand in front of it. There was a dull bang, a small puff of black smoke and Oliphant's voice died away into a rush of static.

Then the taller figure turned to the panel containing the transmitter for the locator beam which Vicki had switched on before leaving the wreck with Ian and Barbara.

It pa.s.sed its hand again across the machine and there was another dull bang and another brief curl of black smoke. Again the two silver figures turned their heads briefly towards each other.

Then they turned round and strode out.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Trainee Oliphant walked into the dimly illuminated navigation capsule with its myriad flas.h.i.+ng displays and slumped into his seat. He touched a few keys on the communications panel and ran the playback on the response disc. It contained a number of routine messages from Earth and other colonial planetary settlements. But from Astra Nine Astra Nine there was nothing. there was nothing.

Frowning with irritation he checked the automatic transmitter disc. It appeared to be operating satisfactorily, sending out his recorded call every few seconds. Swinging his chair around, he checked the locator beacon receiver.

Nothing. There was not even a homing signal being transmitted from those d.a.m.n castaways.

With a shrug, Oliphant activated the hologram table. He was depressed to see how little of the cubic word puzzle he had completed. He stared at the clues and selected one which already had a few letters in place.

'Forceful cosmic umbrella arrangement? Four and four,'

he murmured.

The relevant positions were buried deep in the s.h.i.+mmering cube. ' T R A ,' he spelled out like a child learning to read.

He shrugged again and lost interest. He yawned and made an effort to check out the alternative radio frequencies that the Astra Nine Astra Nine castaways might use if their power reserves were really very low. But the different channels yielded nothing. All that could be heard was the endless static of deep s.p.a.ce. castaways might use if their power reserves were really very low. But the different channels yielded nothing. All that could be heard was the endless static of deep s.p.a.ce.

Suddenly the shutter swept open to admit Weinberger and Commander Smith. Before Oliphant had time to switch off the hologram table the American had leaned over his shoulder, chewing his inevitable wadge of gum.

'Star Wars,' Weinberger said, stabbing the trainee in the back. 'Simple.'

Oliphant stared at the puzzle. It fitted. Or at least the letters fitted. 'Could be,' he said non-commitally as Weinberger moved over and dropped into his seat. Smith reached down and switched off the hologram table. 'Your watch report please, Mr Oliphant,' he ordered coldly.

Oliphant gave his companions the brief and gloomy details.

Weinberger reached over and checked the locator beacon receiver. 'h.e.l.l, those G.o.ddam castaways couldn't even stir their a.s.ses to send Santa a letter,' he said.

Commander Smith calmly inquired about the rendezvous arrangements and Oliphant informed him that the Astra Nine Astra Nine beacon should have been transmitting by now. beacon should have been transmitting by now.

'Perhaps the power cells have failed, sir,' Oliphant suggested. 'Their last transmission was very weak and they reported an increasing loss of power.'

'We shall establish bipolar orbit as arranged. The planetary day is only thirteen hours, so we shall be able to scan the entire surface reasonably rapidly from a thousand kilometres out.' Smith stared at the maze of sophisticated instruments for a while in silence, his thin greyish hair glinting in the soft light. 'Let us hope we can soon send appropriate seasonal greetings back to Earth on behalf of those poor devils down there,' he murmured.

Weinberger grunted. 'I'm not sure I can face another microwaved frozen turkey so soon after Thanksgiving,' he growled, continuing his checks. 'Anyhow, we've still to rendezvous and establish orbit. So far there's no guarantee this heap of Reaganium is gonna get us there.'

As Commander Smith turned to Oliphant to ask how successful the course correction had been, the young trainee suddenly pointed at one of his displays. 'There it is again!' he exclaimed. 'Monopole field in the immediate field, increasing exponentially...'

Weinberger clicked abruptly into his automatic routine.

'Check run,' he ordered.

'Checked and confirmed A operational,' Oliphant rapped out, touching keys and glaring at screens. 'Field closing in.'

'Maximise inertia s.h.i.+eld.'

'Maximised but not holding, sir.'

Weinberger glanced at the Commander standing beside his seat. 'This is a carbon copy, Commander. Same routine as last time.'

Next moment the instruments and screens went haywire with a dazzling strobing display of random graphics and digital sequences. Alarm bells started sounding.

Smith's face went white under the brilliant reflections of multicoloured lights. 'The inertia s.h.i.+eld has just been totally revitalised,' he gasped. 'But that would require an enormous monopole field...

Then everything went blue.

They all stared dumbfounded as a filigree tracing of sapphire sparkles stretched across the capsule behind them like an electric net.

Suddenly Oliphant jumped out of his seat, as he received a shock like the lash of a steel whip.

Weinberger got out of his seat, his skin feeling dry and brittle. He pointed at something behind the set of sparks.

The sparks vanished abruptly to be replaced by a dazzling blue image.

'There it is!' screamed Oliphant, staring goggle-eyed at the s.h.i.+mmering shape.

Then with a series of violent turbulent spasms the thing vanished as though it had never been there. The bluish glow faded.

Smith, Weinberger and Oliphant stood in the pale green light of the navigation controls, staring at one another incredulously.

Then Weinberger pulled himself together. 'Cancel alarms. Check all circuits,' he said automatically, sitting back in his seat. 'Resume operations as soon as instruments are clear.'

Oliphant stood still, rooted to the spot. 'It was like a ghost... like some kind of mirage...' he croaked, staring at the empty s.p.a.ce before him.

Smith tallied his thoughts and turned to cast an eye over the systems as Weinberger quickly checked them out. It was as if they were pretending that everything was proceeding perfectly straightforwardly. 'I don't know,'

Smith replied hoa.r.s.ely. 'Why would it appear in here?'

Oliphant turned and sat at his console and resumed his check procedures as if in a dream.

'There was some similar interference reported by Astra Astra Nine, Nine, ' Commander Smith reminded them. 'Perhaps the survivors will be able to shed some light on our own experiences in this neighbourhood.' He put his hand on Oliphant's shoulder. 'Mr Oliphant, kindly log the galactic coordinates for those two emissions for future reference. ' Commander Smith reminded them. 'Perhaps the survivors will be able to shed some light on our own experiences in this neighbourhood.' He put his hand on Oliphant's shoulder. 'Mr Oliphant, kindly log the galactic coordinates for those two emissions for future reference.

We will need to be able to chart our positions very accurately and compare them with Astra Nine Astra Nine's experiences.'

Smith left the module and the shutter whispered shut behind him.

Oliphant tried to concentrate on the tasks allotted him but he could not banish the inexplicable events of the past few minutes from his mind.

'Chinese!' he suddenly blurted out, s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up his eyes as he tried to recapture the alien image that had hovered among them for a few seconds.