by Mike Tucker
He smiled at the orbs.
‘So, fellas, you have to ask yourself, who is the innocent party here? It’s not me, obviously. I was caught red-handed with a diamond in my pocket, and I’ve got a gun. Oh, yeah, I’m a bad boy! But Miss Potts here, she’s not been accused of anything yet, she’s not been found with incriminating evidence, she’s not been questioned as to how she came to be here, and she’s the one being threatened by a madman with a gun.’
The Doctor paused for a moment, the smile still playing around his lips.
‘But who is she really in danger from, eh? Looking at all the available evidence you’d have to deduce that we arrived together, so we obviously know each other. She’s made no attempt to escape from me, on the contrary, the first chance she had, she tried to make it make to my side, and so you’d have to conclude that we are friends. Now, do you think that if she’s my friend, I’m really going to shoot her? No, of course not! Well … I say of course not. I have actually shot a friend once. But there were extenuating circumstances. And it was on Gallifrey. And he got better. But what about them …?’
He pointed at Laura and her officers.
‘Just look at them. I mean, no offence, but one or two of them don’t exactly look the sharpest knives in the drawer. Dedicated to their duty, of course, but fallible. Emotional. Human. Now, what would be the most likely outcome if they tried to rush me, or tried to shoot me? The probability is that my finger would tighten on the trigger, my own gun would fire and there would be a casualty. An innocent casualty. So, using your cold deductive logic, who here is the most immediate danger to Miss Potts? Is it me?’
He shrugged.
‘Or is it them?’
The spheres hung motionless for a moment, processors clicking softly inside their gleaming metal shells then, with a blur of speed, they swept towards the startled security officers, whip-like probes cracking as they disabled each of their g-Tasers.
‘That’s better.’ The Doctor was grinning broadly now. ‘Now, shall we go and find someone in charge? From the shake we were given earlier, I think that this facility has rather more to worry about than me making off with one of your diamonds. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that you’re going to be very glad that I’m here.’
Herded by the security orbs, Laura followed her officers towards the service lift, the expression on Sillitoe’s face leaving no doubt as to what he felt about the situation. The Doctor brought up the rear, the g-Taser still pointed at the Bill’s head. As they approached the lift, Laura was pleased to see her kick the Doctor hard in the shins.
‘I really hate you sometimes,’ Bill whispered.
Delitsky paced around the hangar for what felt like the thousandth time, trying desperately to make sense of things in his head. What had just happened should not have been possible, and yet, there was the mining pod, defiantly, impossibly empty.
In the shadows around the walls of the hangar, clusters of technicians huddled together, talking in hushed, frightened tones. Delitsky knew that he had to keep some order amongst his team, but it was going to be a tricky task. How do you expect people to act rationally when what they have just witnessed is completely irrational?
Through the observation window above him he could see Nettleman and Rince shouting and screaming at anyone and everyone who came near them. He wasn’t sure what they were more upset about, the loss of the diamonds or the loss of the crewmember.
He shook his head. No. Sadly he knew exactly which of those two they were more upset about. The one blessing was that communications were being severely disrupted by the violence of the storm that still raged below them, so head office didn’t know about the accident for the moment.
Delitsky just wished he knew what he was going to tell them.
‘Delitsky …’ Teske emerged from the hatch of the mining bell. From her expression she was even more confused than he was. ‘I’ve run bio-scanners over every inch of the interior. If there had been a pressure breach, there would be some DNA evidence, and besides there would still be …’
‘The pressure armour, yeah, I know, I know.’ Delitsky already knew that asking for the scan was a waste of time. He just felt that he had to do something. He turned to his medical officer with a sigh. Having exhausted all the rational explanations, they had no other choice than to turn to the impossible ones. ‘So, that last communication from Baines …’
‘That there was something outside the pod? Jorgen, if you put that in your report, they’ll commit both of us.’
‘Then where the hell did he go, Johanna? Where the hell did he—’
A sudden commotion in the control room above caught Delitsky’s eye. A large group of people had entered the mine-head, security officer Palmer amongst them. At the rear of the group he could see a tall man and a girl he didn’t recognise …
‘Who are those two?’ Teske had spotted the strangers too. Her eyes widened. ‘Jorgen, he’s got a gun!’
All the tension that had been building in Delitsky erupted into anger. The first accident in fifteen years, a man overboard and now this?
Ignoring Teske’s urging to slow down, he stormed across the hangar, bounding up the metal staircase taking the steps two at a time. At least this problem was real, tangible, something he could understand and confront.
‘Pirates?’ he growled. ‘Not on my rig!’
Laura watched in dismay as Rig Chief Delitsky burst into the control room with a face like thunder.
‘Will someone kindly explain to me what the devil is going on!’ he bellowed.
She approached Delitsky slowly, her hands raised in an effort to calm him. ‘Chief, we have a situation here …’
‘A situation?’ Delitsky hissed. ‘You’re telling me we have a situation. There are six of you, six highly trained security officers who I am told are best the Federation has to offer, plus those … ball bearings, and you get overpowered by a teenage girl and a pensioner?’
Palmer winced, this really was not how she’d wanted this tour of duty to start. ‘It’s not as straightforward as it looks, Chief …’
‘I’ll tell you exactly how it looks, Captain Palmer, it looks like incompetence, it looks like … Hey! You! Get away from those controls!’
Delitsky pushed past Palmer angrily. Whilst all eyes had been on the confrontation between the Rig Chief and his security officer, the Doctor had surreptitiously made his way to the main control bank and was studying the readouts intently.
‘Hmm?’ The Doctor looked up.
‘I said, get away from those controls!’
There was a sharp intake of breath around the room as Delitsky took another step forward. The Doctor raised his gun arm, and then stared in surprise at the weapon in his hand, almost as if he had forgotten he was holding it.
‘It’s just that I think that you might be missing something.’ He casually placed the g-Taser on top of the console and turned back to the screens. ‘If you look at—’
Delitsky might have been disappointed with his security team, but he couldn’t fault their responses now. Almost as soon as the weapon left the Doctor’s fingers, he vanished under a mountain of bodies. Moments later he was pinned against the wall with his hands firmly held behind his back.
Satisfied that she had things back under her control, Captain Palmer turned to Delitsky apologetically. ‘Chief, I can only—’
‘You can save it for the official inquiry, Captain Palmer.’
Palmer groaned inwardly as Nettleman pushed forward, Rince hovering at his shoulder as always. Typical of both of them. Cowering behind the rest of the crew when there was the faintest hint of danger, but keen to assert their authority as soon as that danger had passed.
‘Now, what is going on here, Captain?’ Nettleman glared at Palmer doing his best to look ferocious.
‘Yes,’ piped up Rince. ‘Who are these people? How did they get on board?’
Palmer did her best to disguise her contempt for them both, with only partial success. ‘The man calls
himself the Doctor, the girl’s name is Bill.’ Palmer deliberately paused for effect. ‘We found them in the vault.’
‘The vault?’
Palmer had to supress a smile as Nettleman’s voice went up a whole octave.
‘The diamonds …’ he squeaked.
‘Are perfectly safe.’ Palmer held out the stone that she had found in the Doctor’s pocket. ‘We recovered this one from the man.’
Nettleman snatched it from her in horrified indignation. ‘How did they breach security?’
‘We’ll need to review data.’
‘You’ll need to do more than that, Captain. This is an unacceptable—’
‘That’s enough!’ Delitsky’s voice cut Nettleman dead. ‘We can argue about who or what is at fault later. In the meantime, can I remind you that we have a slightly more immediate situation to deal with, so will everyone who isn’t directly needed please get the hell out of my control room!’
Yes, Chief.’ Palmer nodded, grateful for his intervention. She’d no doubt get the sharp end of his tongue later, but at least it wouldn’t be in front of the entire crew. She turned to the officers holding the Doctor and Bill. ‘You heard the Chief, get them out of here. Lock them both in the brig, I’ll question them later.’
‘I think that you’d actually be better off listening to what I have to say now, rather than later.’ The Doctor’s voice rang out across the control room.
Sillitoe cuffed him across the back of the head. ‘Quiet, you.’
‘Sillitoe,’ snapped Palmer in irritation. ‘That’s enough, rookie!’
The Doctor shot a look in her direction, a look that gave her the strangest feeling of approval. ‘As I was saying,’ he continued, ‘I can see that you’re very busy people, and you’ve probably got lots of important meetings to have and memos to write and official reprimands to dish out, but you might want to check the high-frequency end of your emergency communications channel. Right now …’
Delitsky gave a snort of contempt, his patience clearly at an end. ‘I don’t have time for this, just get him out of here!’
At a nod from Palmer, Sillitoe hauled the Doctor to his feet, pushing him towards the door.
‘It’s important,’ the Doctor called over his shoulder. ‘If you want to save a man’s life!’
Hunched over his controls, Delitsky wasn’t even listening to what he was saying any more.
On impulse, Palmer tapped the comms bud in her ear, scrolling through the frequencies to the emergency communication channel. Nothing. Except … There was something. Very faint. She boosted the volume.
And her jaw dropped.
‘Chief, you need to hear this.’
Ignoring the puzzled looks that her officers were giving her, Palmer hurried to the communications console, adjusting the controls and opening the monitor channel. A faint, desperate voice echoed from the speakers.
‘Control … please … help. Control …. Can you hear …? Control …’
Johanna Teske stared at Delitsky in disbelief.
‘That’s … That’s Baines …’
Chapter
6
Bill could only marvel at how the Doctor could take an impossible, hopeless, ridiculously one-sided situation and somehow turn it to his advantage. Despite the fact that he’d been caught red-handed nicking a diamond from a vault, despite the fact that he’d disarmed and embarrassed an entire squad of security officers, despite the fact that he’d pointed a loaded gun at her head (and she’d be having words with him about that!), he had somehow come out on top – not quite the hero of the hour, there was still too much distrust about who he was and where he had come from for that – but certainly with more respect than he had commanded a few scant minutes ago.
All around her the control room was a maelstrom of frantic activity as the crew slipped into what was obviously a well-rehearsed set of emergency procedures. Unsurprisingly the Doctor was right in the middle of it, sitting at the scanner controls with a young lady named Claire Robbins helping to pinpoint exactly where the lost crewmember was in the atmosphere below. Delitsky was watching every move he made like a hawk. The crew might be grateful to the Doctor for finding their missing shipmate, but that didn’t mean they totally trusted him. Out of the corner of her eye, Bill could see Officer Sillitoe watching him balefully from his post by the main door. There was someone who was definitely going to bear a grudge.
Suddenly feeling superfluous to proceedings, Bill slumped back in her chair, wincing at the pain from her elbow as she did so. She shrugged out of her denim jacket, rolling up her sleeve and grimacing at the livid bruise that was starting to form. She had thumped it harder than she had thought in the vault, and it was already starting to stiffen up.
‘Are you hurt?’
Bill looked up to see a middle-aged woman with shoulder-length brown hair looking down at her, a concerned frown creasing her brow. From her uniform she was a medic of some kind. Bill shrugged. ‘Just a bruise. Argument with a wall.’
‘Well, I’m a bit of a spare wheel here until they locate Baines. Let me see what I can do.’ The woman sat down, opening up a compact medical kit. ‘Bill, was it?’
Bill nodded. ‘That’s right.’
‘I’m Johanna.’ She extended a hand. ‘Call me Jo.’
Bill shook her hand, grateful for a friendly face, and for someone who could help her make sense of things. ‘Thanks.’
Taking hold of Bill’s arm, Johanna began gently probing the bruised flesh with experienced fingers. ‘Your friend the Doctor knows how to make an entrance.’
‘Yeah, he knows how to find trouble as well.’ Bill winced as the medic touched a particularly sore spot.
‘You’re not wrong there. Still, if Baines gets out of this in one piece then it’s going to go a long way to helping your case.’
‘Our case?’
Johanna gave her a stern look. ‘You were caught red-handed stealing diamonds from the vault, remember?’
‘Oh.’ Bill looked sheepish. ‘Yeah, that.’ She changed the subject. ‘So, this crewman you’ve lost overboard …’
‘Baines.’
‘Yeah, Baines. How is it that he’s still alive? I mean that’s Saturn out there. I’m no scientist, but shouldn’t he have been crushed, or fallen towards the centre of the planet or something?’
‘You can thank Jenloz and his team for that.’ Johanna nodded at the short man in the boiler suit hunched over one of the consoles in the centre of the control room. ‘They’re responsible for all the anti-gravity engineering on this rig. Without them, we wouldn’t even be here. Baines is wearing anti-gravity pressure armour, sort of like a survival suit, and as long as that’s working …’
Bill frowned, peering through the control room window at the squat spherical shape of the mining pod. ‘But shouldn’t he have been in that thing? It doesn’t look like something you could fall out of easily …’
Johanna said nothing, concentrating instead on applying a clear gel of some kind to Bill’s arm. You didn’t have to be a genius to realise that something unusual had happened, something that the medic was not in the mood to discuss. She screwed the lid back onto the tube of gel, dropping it back into her medical kit. ‘That should help with the swelling. You’ll be sore for a couple of hours, but there’s no serious harm done.’
‘Thanks.’ Bill rubbed her arm. Amazingly the bruise was already started to fade. ‘You know, if there’s some kind of trouble here, I mean trouble other than the fact that you’ve lost a man overboard, then the Doctor can probably help.’
Johanna regarded her carefully for a moment, then took a deep breath, obviously wanting to say something. Before she could do so, angry voices erupted from the far side of the control room. One of those voices was all too familiar.
The Doctor.
Bill rolled her eyes, ‘Just hold that thought for a moment.’
Snatching up her jacket, Bill hurried over to where the Doctor and Delitsky were glowering at each other angrily. The Rig Ch
ief was practically purple with rage and, given the supercilious expression on the Doctor’s face, it didn’t need much imagination on her part to work out what had gone on. The Doctor really did have an uncanny knack of rubbing people up the wrong way.
‘Making friends, are we?’ asked Bill, raising an eyebrow at him pointedly.
The Doctor turned and glared at her. ‘Will you please tell this pudding brain to stop arguing with me and let me do what I do best!’
‘And what is that, exactly? Apart from telling everyone how much cleverer than them you are?’
‘That’s exactly my point!’ yelled the Doctor. Pushing past Delitsky he strode across to a console, swiping at the controls and bringing up a display on a monitor screen. ‘That –’ he pointed a bony finger at a faintly pulsing red blob on the centre of the screen – ‘is your missing crewman. He’s suspended in a gravity null point a kilometre below this station. The generators in his armour are working at maximum capacity, which gives him another nineteen and a half minutes before the batteries are exhausted and he’s dragged into the centre of the planet. That’s nineteen and a half minutes when we need to stop discussing things in committee and do something!’
‘And I’m telling you that there is nothing we can do!’ bellowed Delitsky. ‘He is too far into the planet’s atmosphere for us to mount any kind of meaningful rescue attempt and I’m not prepared to risk the lives of any more of my crew—’
‘You don’t have to risk anyone!’ the Doctor interrupted. ‘I can rescue him on my own. Me!’ He turned to Bill in frustration. ‘Tell him! Just tell him!’
‘Tell him?’ Bill frowned. ‘Tell him what?’
‘About the TARDIS!’
‘Oh!’
That came as something of a surprise. She had assumed that the Doctor would want to keep the TARDIS a secret. The fact that he didn’t … Bill suddenly realised just how urgent the situation was becoming.
‘Right, the TARDIS … Well …’ She paused for a moment, unsure of exactly how best to describe it. ‘It’s kind of a spacecraft, only it’s not. It’s a box, quite a tatty-looking box, but that’s just a disguise, inside it’s all “ooooh” and “aaaaah”, like a super-swanky kitchen …’
