Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin [21]
The Doctor could hear the sound of energy weapons powering up. The Doctor’s eyes snapped open. Adric was kneeling in front of him, a gun to his head. The muzzle of another weapon was pressed to the Doctor’s temple A dozen Adjudicators surrounded them, their sidearms levelled.
Part Two
Scientifica
4
Take Me to Your Leader
A dozen Adjudicators surrounded them, their sidearms levelled.
A couple grabbed the Doctor’s shoulders from behind, and hoisted him to his feet. The Adjudicators weren’t speaking, but communicated via tiny hand gestures and movements of their heads. These physical signals seemed to constitute an elaborate language in itself, one the Doctor didn’t fully understand.
One of the armoured figures signalled that Adric should also be pulled up.
The Adjudicator that had given the order stepped forward. The gold trimming on his shoulderplates was more elaborate than his colleagues’. The Doctor couldn’t determine his precise rank, but he was very senior, far too important for field operations. Half the Adjudicators seemed to be his bodyguards. They were preoccupied with the surroundings, on the lookout for assassins.
Another Adjudicator searched them for weapons. They weren’t carrying any.
Satisfied, the senior officer reached up to his neck and, with a pneumatic hiss, removed his helmet, handing it to a subordinate. Underneath the armour he was a middle-aged man, with thick jowls and pale blue eyes. His brown hair was thinning and his face was heavily lined. He looked more like a bank manager or a stockbroker than a military man. He held out a gloved hand. ‘Adjudicator Provost-General Tertullian Medford.’ A Provost-General would be in command of several thousand men, equivalent to a planetary garrison, so Medford must be one of the two or three most powerful people on the colony.
The Doctor smiled. ‘I am the Doctor, and this is Adric.’
‘I must apologize for any distress you might have endured, and I’m afraid that you will have to remain here for a little while and answer some questions. Are you hurt?’
The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but Medford had already moved on. Before the Doctor could protest, the Provost had motioned for a medic to come forward. The Provost-General left them behind in order to survey the scene. Drones were circling the skitrain station, setting up a tape barrier – ‘Do not cross’. Within the cordon, a dozen Adjudicators had set to work. Memory droids waddled around recording images of the scene, forensics experts dusted up samples. A couple of engineers were resetting the signalputer. Adjudicator Provost Medford moved among them.
‘Are you all right now, Doctor?’ Adric asked.
‘Yes,’ the Doctor said distractedly. The medic held a portable medical scanner just above his head.
‘You collapsed,’ Adric reminded him.
The Doctor hadn’t forgotten. ‘It had something to do with the time disturbance.’
‘You could feel it?’ Adric winced as the medical officer took a blood sample from his forearm with a tubular instrument.
‘I’m sensitive to the subtlest distortions of the temporal field. That was more like being caught in a hurricane.’ The medic took a tissue sample from the back of the Doctor’s neck.
‘And it was that distortion that knocked the TARDIS
off-course?’
‘We’re jolly lucky it didn’t dash us against the planet like a sailing ship against the rocks,’ the Doctor said rubbing the back of his neck. ‘But before you ask, no, I haven’t a clue what caused it. There are very few forces in the universe that can deflect the course of a TARDIS. Very few.’
The train was beginning to edge forward. It gradually began picking up speed,