Shakedown Page 18

  ‘Very sensible too,’ said the Doctor. ‘There’s never much point in arguing with Sontarans.’

  ‘We did,’ said Roz.

  ‘I know,’ said Chris. ‘But we talk their language.’ He grinned reassuringly at the trembling technician. ‘No need to worry any more. They’re all dead.’

  ‘We’ve got to get this place working normally again,’ said the Doctor. ‘Who’s second in command?’

  ‘I am, I suppose.’ The technician looked down at himself, as if surprised to find himself still there. ‘My name’s Dobbs.’

  ‘Well, Mr Dobbs, now you’re in charge.’

  ‘Me?’ said Dobbs worriedly. ‘Forget it, I’m an administrator, not a leader. Ferns was the one with leadership qualities, and look where it got him. You take over, you seem to know what you’re doing.’

  ‘We’ve done our bit,’ said Roz. ‘We’ve seen off the Sontarans for you.’

  ‘And you helped,’ said Chris, giving the technician a slap on the back that made him stagger. ‘If you hadn’t been so handy with that chair, he might have got one of us.’

  ‘We haven’t the time or the training to run your space station for you,’ said the Doctor. ‘All you’ve got to do is get your staff together and get this place working normally again. Come along to the refectory and we’ll give them the good news.’

  ‘It’s old Dobbsy,’ shouted one of the technicians as they re-entered the refectory. ‘Where’s Ferris, Dobbsy?’

  ‘Dead,’ whispered Dobbs. ‘They killed him.’ He started shaking again.

  The Doctor raised his voice. ‘The Sontaran who killed Mr Ferris is dead – Mr Dobbs knocked him down with a chair and my friends finished him off.’

  There were cheers and someone shouted ‘Good old Dobbsy! Well done!’

  ‘Mr Dobbs will be taking over command of the station,’ said the Doctor. ‘Mr Dobbs?’

  For a moment Dobbs seemed unable to speak. Then he swallowed and said, ‘All communications staff back to the com-room. We’ve got to get a considerable number of warning messages out.’ His voice grew stronger. ‘Maintenance and technical staff get back to your station. I want damage reports right away.’

  A wealthy-looking passenger said, ‘What about us? It’s disgraceful the way we’ve been treated!’

  By now Dobbs was into his stride. ‘The management apologizes for any inconvenience which, I think you must admit, was caused by circumstances beyond our control.’

  There was some rueful laughter. Encouraged, Dobbs went on, ‘Our aim is to get this station back working normally again so we can get you on your way.’

  In fact it was going to be some considerable time before Space Station Alpha returned to anything like normality. There were wounded to be cared for, dead to be gathered up and decently bestowed, damage to be assessed.

  Messages had to be sent to Stations Beta, Gamma and Delta, to Valeria and the other planets in the system. Warning messages telling of the Sontaran attack, and others asking for reinforcements, for supplies and repair crews.

  And of course there were stranded passengers, demanding to know when their delayed connections would arrive.

  Much as they tried to avoid it, the Doctor, Roz and Chris were everyone’s heroes, praised, congratulated and thanked over and over again.

  The nervous Dobbs was still inclined to refer every decision to the Doctor, who tried hard to get him to take charge himself.

  It was quite a while before things were sufficiently sorted out for the Doctor, Roz and Chris to slip away. The Doctor led them in the direction of the storage area.

  ‘First thing to do is get back inside the TARDIS,’ he said briskly. ‘I can think there. We must try to track down that solar yacht, Tiger Moth, somehow – if it’s not too late. And there’s Bernice on Sentarion to be considered.’

  They reached the end of a corridor and found their way barred by sealed doors. A maintenance technician was putting up a sign.

  ‘DANGER – NO ADMITTANCE.’

  ‘Excuse me,’ said the Doctor firmly. ‘We have to get through here.’

  ‘I wouldn’t advise it, sir,’ said the technician cheerfully. ‘Not unless you fancy a space walk without a suit.’

  ‘I have to recover some extremely valuable property from your storage section,’ said the Doctor.

  ‘Sorry to hear that, sir,’ said the technician. But he didn’t sound sorry. He sounded like a man hugging a secret joke.

  The Doctor forced himself to be patient. ‘Surely that’s the way to the storage section?’

  ‘It was – when the storage section was still there.’

  ‘All right, that’s enough mystification,’ said the Doctor sharply. ‘You’ve had your fun, now explain – briefly and clearly, please!’

  ‘When those aliens attacked us they fired off a warning blast from their space cannon. It hit a junction point and sheared the storage section clean away. Automatic sealing system worked, so we didn’t lose pressure. But the entire storage section floated off into space.’

  It was the first time Roz had seen the Doctor totally at a loss. He stood staring helplessly at the technician, eyes and mouth wide open.

  ‘This storage section,’ said Chris. ‘Will they be able to get it back?’

  ‘Oh, they’ll get it back all right,’ said the technician. ‘I mean, it’s not going anywhere, is it? Just drifting.’

  The Doctor swallowed. ‘When?’ he asked. ‘When will they get it back?’

  ‘Soon as the repair ships arrive from Valeria. Soon as they locate it, tow it back and weld it on again.’

  ‘How long?’ asked Roz.

  ‘Could be days, could be weeks.’

  With a mighty effort, the Doctor recovered his poise. ‘Well, it’s extremely inconvenient, but I suppose it can’t be helped. Come along, you two!’

  He led them back along the corridor.

  ‘Now what?’ asked Roz.

  ‘Well,’ said the Doctor. ‘Here’s my plan!’

  17

  Flight

  ‘You made it all sound so bloody easy,’ said Lisa Deranne. Mockingly she mimicked his words. “When we get to Station Beta we’ll have a full refit, hire a professional crew and sail the socks off every other space yacht in the system!” You and your promises!’

  It was unfair to blame Kurt, she knew it was unfair, and she didn’t care. It had all gone wrong, and she was both angry and bitterly disappointed. ‘You know how many spacedock technicians they can spare to work on Tiger Moth? One!’

  ‘So we hit a few snags,’ said Kurt. ‘Why don’t you stop being a prima donna and we’ll try to work out some solutions?’

  She threw a punch at him that would have bloodied his nose. Kurt caught her hard fist in one big hand and held it. Lisa tried to break free and found she couldn’t move. She gave him the hard stare that had paralysed racing crew and officials all over the Tri-planetary System.

  ‘Don’t talk to me like that.’

  ‘Time someone did,’ said Kurt. He let go of her hand. ‘Now, do we go on providing free cabaret for the rest of the bar, or do we have some more champagne and talk about what to do?’

  Lisa looked round the bar and found everyone’s eyes on her. She returned the stares and everyone hurriedly looked away. She looked back at Kurt and grinned reluctantly. ‘All right, blast you! But what can we do?’

  It was all the fault of the Sontarans, she knew that really. Tiger Moth had limped into Space Station Beta to find the place in uproar. Rumours had been coming in of mysterious spaceship disappearances, of anguished Mayday calls followed by sinister silence. It had been followed by a report of a terrible accident on Station Alpha – then by further reports that the accident story had been a fake and the station had been taken over by Sontarans, but was now free again.

  The arrival of Tiger Moth with its story of Sontaran attack had only stirred things up even more.

  Kurt had insisted that they report straight to station security, but the story had soon leaked out. A
cargo of corpses is a difficult thing to conceal.

  As an inevitable result of all this, nothing was running normally. All available stores and spares had been dispatched to Station Alpha for emergency repairs, and most of the engineering technicians had gone with them. Refitting a solar yacht with damaged sails and a dodgy power drive came very low on the station workshop’s priority list.

  Meanwhile, the starting date for the Inter-Systems Solar Yacht Race was coming ever closer.

  To make matters worse, every able-bodied spaceman was at work on various rescue and repair missions. Wealthy amateurs, like her former crew, were keeping well away until the danger was past. At the moment, chances of finding a new crew were non-existent.

  Lisa shivered at the thought of Robar, Nikos, Mari and Zorelle, now occupying steel shelves in the station morgue – with a squad of dead Sontarans for company.

  She looked across the little table at Kurt, happily drinking champagne, and felt another surge of irritation.

  ‘Nothing really bothers you, does it?’

  ‘Listen,’ said Kurt seriously. ‘If I’ve learned one thing in a long and dodgy career, it’s that the universe operates according to Sod’s Law – what can go wrong, will! As the Great Buddha said, “Life is suffering.” Once you realize that, things don’t seem so bad!’ He sat back and grinned cheerfully at her.

  Lisa gave him a sceptical look. ‘I didn’t figure you for a religious philosopher.’

  ‘I once shared, er, accommodation with a fake fakir. He was a swindling old rogue but he taught me a lot.’

  Rather resentfully – she enjoyed a good sulk – Lisa found that she was feeling better – and that it was because of Kurt. With a sense of shock, Lisa realized she was no longer alone.

  But she’d always been alone. Alone, and in charge. That was the way she liked it.

  It was a situation that called for a lot more thought.

  Putting that particular problem aside, she returned to matters at hand. ‘So what do we do?’

  Kurt sighed. ‘You’re acting as if you’re the only one affected by the situation.’

  ‘So who else is?’

  ‘Everybody!’ said Kurt explosively. ‘The race organizers, other solar yacht racers...Do you really think they’re going to hold a yacht race in the middle of a potential war zone? If they do we’ll be the only entrants. At least we’d be sure of a win!’

  ‘You think they’ll cancel?’

  ‘Nope. It’s too important for that. But they’ll postpone.’

  ‘You can’t be sure of that.’

  ‘I can’t be sure that if I drink enough of this stuff I’ll fall off my chair – but it’s overwhelmingly likely all the same. All we can do is act according to instinct guided by experience.’

  ‘That’s enough philosophy,’ said Lisa, jumping up impatiently. ‘I’ll check with the com-office, see if they’ve heard anything.’

  An announcement came over the public address system.

  ‘The delayed shuttle from Space Station Alpha is about to dock in Bay Three.’ There was a general exodus from the bar.

  Kurt stood up. ‘Com-office will be busy with the docking for a while. Let’s go and see the shuttle arrive; maybe we can pick up some fresh information.’

  The first passengers were coming down the ramp as they arrived, and the landing area was crowded with people waiting to meet them and to hear their news.

  One particular group seemed to be the centre of attention. It consisted of a small man in a crumpled white suit and a battered old hat, flanked by a big fair-haired man and a smaller dark-skinned woman.

  ‘It’s the Doctor!’ said Kurt in astonishment. He grabbed Lisa’s arm and bustled her over to the group. ‘Doctor! I might have known you’d be mixed up in all this!’

  ‘I didn’t know you were,’ said the Doctor. ‘What are you doing here?’ He looked at Lisa, took off his hat and bowed. ‘Do forgive me, Kurt and I are old friends. I’m the Doctor, and these are my colleagues, Roslyn Forrester and Christopher Cwej.’

  Lisa nodded in acknowledgement. ‘I’m Lisa Deranne.’

  ‘Captain Lisa Deranne? Of the solar yacht Tiger Moth?’ Chris was staring at Lisa in admiration.

  ‘That’s right. Captain of a beat-up yacht without a crew.’

  ‘You won the Algolian cup just recently! I’ve always wanted to try solar racing.’

  ‘Autographs later, Chris,’ said the Doctor impatiently. He turned to Lisa. ‘Were you stopped by the Sontarans? Did they find what they were looking for? How did you manage to survive?’

  ‘We were and they did,’ said Kurt.

  ‘We survived, they didn’t,’ said Lisa. ‘Nor did what they were looking for.’

  The Doctor looked at Kurt. ‘You mean you were on board as well? What an amazing piece of serendipity, our meeting like this. We must talk, I think we’ve got a lot to tell each other.’

  The telling was done over more champagne at a large corner table in the bar. The Doctor and Kurt apart, it was an uneasy group.

  Roz and Lisa sized each other up, and declared a truce.

  Cop instincts aroused, Chris viewed Kurt with deep suspicion. He was already quite convinced the man wasn’t good enough for Lisa Deranne. She needed a different type altogether.

  Kurt and the Doctor were talking animatedly.

  ‘So how did things work out on Jekkar, Doctor?’ asked Kurt.

  ‘Surprisingly well. When the Sontarans pulled out, the Earth colonists pulled out too – just in case the Sontarans changed their minds and came back again!’

  ‘So the Jekkari are happily back up their trees?’

  ‘Oh yes. The forests are almost completely re-established. I’m not too sure about the jekkarta weed crop though.’

  ‘Shame on you, Doctor. Don’t you know that stuff’s illegal?’

  The Doctor turned to Lisa. ‘Do forgive us, nothing worse than other people’s reminiscences of places you’ve never been. It’s your adventures I really want to know about. Please tell me.’

  Lisa, although inclined to be suspicious of strangers on principle, found herself responding to the Doctor’s charm.

  Skilfully, he drew out of them the full story of the events on the Tiger Moth’s shakedown cruise.

  ‘You’re sure the Rutan was killed?’ asked the Doctor.

  Kurt shrugged. ‘It was in the assault craft.’

  ‘And so was the bomb,’ said Lisa. ‘I put it there.’

  ‘And we both saw the assault craft go up,’ concluded Kurt.

  ‘Rutans can survive almost anywhere,’ said the Doctor. ‘Even in space if they have to. But in a small craft in close proximity to a large bomb...’

  ‘There’d have been other explosives on the ship as well,’ said Kurt. ‘That ship went nova. Believe me, that Rutan got scattered all over deep space.’

  ‘It’s a pity,’ said the Doctor. ‘A very great pity.’

  ‘Come on, Doctor,’ protested Roz. ‘That thing was a killer. It left a trail of corpses over a dozen planets.’

  ‘It killed my engineer, Robar,’ said Lisa. ‘And most of my crew as well. How can you be sorry that it’s dead?’

  ‘I know,’ said the Doctor. ‘I know.’ He looked around the group. ‘Maybe it’s time I told you all what this is about.’

  ‘Don’t mind us, Doctor,’ said Roz sourly. ‘We’ll just go on dodging the blasters and collecting the corpses.’

  The Doctor winced. ‘I’m sorry, I know I’ve asked you to take a great deal on trust. It all begins with a Rutan spy, their greatest spy of all, operating behind Sontaran lines in Sontaran form. At that time he called himself Karne...’

  There was a moment of silence when the Doctor finished his long and complicated story.

  Then Kurt said, ‘Let me see if I’ve got this straight. The Sontarans have learned some great Rutan secret – a secret they could use to win the war. This Rutan spy, Karne, found that the Sontarans knew –’

  ‘That they were on the track of the secret
at least,’ corrected the Doctor. ‘But that’s near enough.’

  ‘The spy gets blown up in a battle with the Sontarans,’ continued Kurt. ‘But somehow he survives.’

  The Doctor nodded. ‘Weak, wounded, and possibly partly amnesiac as well. But the memories revived, and he became obsessed with one overriding mission. To get back to his people and warn them that the great secret is in danger.’

  ‘And where do you come into all this?’

  ‘I was involved in that battle myself,’ said the Doctor. ‘It was a long time ago – it almost seems like another life. But I didn’t really become concerned until some time later, when I picked up some partial information from a damaged Sontaran computer system on Jekkar. Then I got a report from – from my own people. They drop me little titbits of information from time to time – when it suits them. They know I can never resist sticking my nose in.’

  ‘You’ll lose it one day,’ said Roz.

  Lisa was staring hard at the Doctor. ‘Who are you?’ she asked. ‘What are you?’

  ‘Just a wandering scholar,’ said the Doctor hurriedly. ‘Anyway, my people informed me that Karne had survived, that he was on the move, and that the Sontarans were on his trail. So I thought I’d better get after him as well.’

  Lisa frowned. ‘I don’t understand. You wanted to stop him?’

  ‘Oh no,’ said the Doctor. ‘I wanted to make absolutely sure he survived to complete his mission.’

  ‘Why?’ said Lisa angrily. ‘What does it matter if the Sontarans wipe out the Rutans? I’d say it was good riddance.’

  The Doctor leaned forward, fixing her with his cool grey eyes. Lisa felt the full impact of his mind and his personality.

  ‘It’s hard to see past the death of a friend,’ he said. ‘Believe me, I know, I’ve lost too many friends myself. It always sounds cold and calculating to say look at the broad picture.’ The Doctor smiled ruefully. ‘But – look at the broad picture.’

  ‘What broad picture?’

  ‘You’ve seen something of the Sontarans and their methods by now. Did it ever occur to you to wonder why they’re not better known? Why they’ve always been distant bogeymen, somewhere on the far fringes of the galaxy?’