Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin [107]
Squatting at the back was an autosmelter roughly half the size of her tank. They’d somehow managed to distinguish the Control Tank from the others, which was meant to be impossible. These droids had blown her cover: if there really was an enemy presence in the Waystation, they’d know which tank to target first.
There seemed little reason to stay in the tank. Solim unplugged herself, pulling a transmitten on over her right hand. It would allow her remote control of the entire squadron if needed.
She jumped down, cursing herself for forgetting to reset her armours thermostat. While she corrected her mistake the foredroid trundled over. ‘They’ve gone.’
‘Are you in charge?’
‘Aye, lass.’
‘Who’s gone?’ Hopefully, it meant the enemy.
‘The Skybase, the Scientifica, even Nightingale. Wiped out.’
‘It’s just the storm.’ she scolded.
‘A storm doesn’t stop radio waves, duck.’
‘Not on Earth, but this is an alien planet. Do you know what’s in the atmosphere?’ Solim didn’t have a clue herself, but she knew that extremely low temperatures could affect conductivity.
‘Look, love, I’ve worked here all me life, and there’s been nowt like this before. The clouds are dust from a nuclear winter. The debris from the explosions sticks in t’upper atmosphere and blocks out the sun.’
She checked her wrist computer. ‘The radiation counter registers normal.’
‘We’re thousands of kilometres from the Strip, It’ll be days before the radiation clouds get up here.’ Strange how a standard speech synthesizer could be made to sound patronizing.
‘What about the ghosts?’
‘They’re still there. If you ask me, they don’t seem interested in interfering with us. I don’t see why me and my men can’t just get on with our work.’
‘You know where they are?’
‘Main Hall.’
‘Come and show me.’ All the robots edged forward. ‘Just the foredroid.’
He shrugged as the others clanked to a halt. Solim took in the Waystation, trying to get a sense of the lie of the land.
‘If you’re right and there’s been a nuclear attack, that won’t have affected the Skybase. Could you convert that transmat mast into a ground-to-space radio beacon?’
‘I’m a fully qualified engineer, love, not some bootleg piece of rubbish.’
‘Is that a yes?’
‘If I had an emergency works order, yes I could do it. It’s a ten-minute job.’
‘OK, I give you an emergency order –’
‘No, lass, I’ll need the form, I’m not authorized to do anything without a signed form with a Fault number, Date and Priority.’ Its chestprinter began whirring into life.
Solim sighed, and hoped she could find a pen in the Waystation building.
They turned the corner, their hands raised.
The two Adjudicators brought up their blasters, caught unawares by them. Tegan flinched, half-expecting to be shot there and then.
‘We surrender,’ Cwej announced. ‘We are unarmed but we know where the fusion bombs are.’
The Adjudicators kept their distance, wary that this was a trap.
‘The Scientifica is at risk, you must listen to us,’ Nyssa insisted.
The guards stepped forward.
A group of Adjudicators, Scientifica technicians and the Doctor and Patience walked steadily towards the Machine.
The Provost-General and Chief Scientist brought up the rear. Medford looked down at Juno. She had not spoken a word for over ten minutes, and he recognized that she was using every ounce of her self-control to suppress her emotions. He was having to do the same. If he had an opportunity afterwards – if there was an afterwards – then he’d apologize to her.
Ahead of them, the Machine rose up like a mountain.
Medford had seen it only half a dozen times before, always from the safety of the research dome. Seeing it up close only made it more disturbing. The twisted, almost organic, shapes defied gravity and logic. The architects of the Doctor’s race clearly had no aesthetic sense.
The doorway was a square of light set into the thick metal. The Doctor and Patience were the first