Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin [122]
Unmanned probe droids were sent up from the spaceport to examine the wreckage. Every single fragment it examined was Terran, and virtually all of the organic matter was human, too. Some of the pieces were identified as the remains of the Skybase. Surviving flight recorders suggested that the entire Third Fleet had warped into orbit during the blackout before being wiped out by forces unknown.
The military strategy subprogram advised that the colony should surrender immediately. The intelligence-gatherers reported that there was no enemy to surrender to.
Both computers crashed.
‘The Scientifica report that the prisoner arrived safely,’ the Adjudicator at the transmat controls announced.
Nyssa and Chris hugged each other. Nyssa pulled back.
The way Dareau was looking at her made her feel cold.
‘They also report that the transmat and communication networks are coming back online. The only problem now is hardware: a lot of transmat platforms and communicators were overloaded. There is no contact with the Skybase as yet.’
The transmat platform lit up. Tegan materialized, three Adjudicators behind her. Without even acknowledging her friends, she fixed her sights on Dareau.
‘That’s the man,’ she announced calmly. ‘Dareau.’
‘Adjudicator-Lieutenant Dareau, you are under arrest for torturing a suspect.’ The officer in charge of the group read him his rights: ‘I am obliged to inform you that your words, gestures and postures are being recorded and may form part of any judicial action taken against you. You have the right to consult legalware.’
Tegan went over to Chris and Nyssa, who had their arms around one another again. ‘Thank you,’ she told Chris. ‘I consulted the legalware. It’s an encyclopedia of law, on a computer databank,’ she explained to Nyssa.
‘Like a robot lawyer.’
‘And you found Volume 12, Paragraph 9, Subsection 4
of the Adjudicator Code banning all forms of torture, physical force and mental cruelty when questioning a subject. It’s one of the Guild’s most sacred tenets, and a tradition that we are proud of. Dareau will get a mandatory ten years.’ Chris smiled, satisfied that justice had been done. Nyssa did the same.
‘Are you all right now, Tegan?’ she asked.
Tegan grinned, her eyes flashing. ‘Oh yeah. I’ve just saved the planet, broken the nose of the terrorist leader and sent down a bent copper. All in the space of five minutes.
Who needs the Doctor, anyway?’
The drone poured the fifth Doctor a cup of tea. The other was already sipping his through a curly straw he’d produced from his jacket. Roz was examining the contents of her own teacup with some suspicion. Bob had poured Adric’s tea first, and he had already finished it. The laser cannon outside had stopped firing. This ought to have been reassuring, but Forrester had the nagging feeling that it meant that the Adjudicators had thought of another way in.
‘Do you have biscuits?’ the little Doctor asked. ‘My favourite are chocolate Hob Nobs.’ Bob didn’t reply, interpreting the remark as a joke.
Roz wasn’t feeling so generous. ‘How much longer before the bombs explode?’
‘They arrive in Gallifreyan timespace in four minutes,’
the younger Doctor answered, without consulting his watch. ‘Don’t worry, we’ve not forgotten.’ Something about him irritated her, probably the realization that she was getting old: when the Doctor looks younger than you, then you’re past it.
‘Have I got this right?’ Adric asked, passing the drawing pad over to the other Doctor. In the absence of anything better to do, Forrester watched the pair of them. The Doctor was more relaxed around Adric than anyone else she’d ever seen. He watched him, was interested in what he was doing. Like a grandfather playing with his grandson.
But there was more to it than that. The Doctor’s eyes betrayed a sadness of some kind, some deep regret that he was leaving unvoiced. The younger Doctor had noticed it, too, Roz could tell.
Her Doctor examined the drawing carefully, then produced a pen of his own. ‘Just a little bit curlier with the crossbar... there.’
He held