Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin [23]
‘We have state-of-the-art laboratories back at the Scientifica. We’ll continue our investigation there.’
Medford indicated an armoured hovercopter resting by the side of the transmat pagoda. They began making their way towards it, over the rubble. The Doctor looked back at the station now a shattered metal framework and piles of concrete chunks.
‘I wonder what Tegan and Nyssa are getting up to,’ he said aloud as he rolled up his hat.
>>GUESTS APPROACHING: IDENTlFY<
>GREET< ‘Hello Miss Jovanka, Miss Nyssa.’
>AWAIT RESPONSE
< ‘Er, hello. That man who’s just been sitting over there.’
>ROTATE 45 DEGREES<
>IDENTIFY
< ‘Is he a guest at the hotel?’
>CROSS-REFER: CURRENT REGISTER<
>SPEAK< ‘Yes, miss.’
>AWAIT RESPONSE
< ‘Could you possibly tell me his name?’
>SPEAK< ‘His name is Bruce Jovanka, miss.’
>AWAIT RESPONSE
<‘I beg your pardon?’
>REPEAT LAST< ‘His name is Bruce Jovanka, miss.’
>AWAIT RESPONSE
<(pause) ‘That does it. Which room is he in?’
>CROSS-REFER: PRIVACY PROTOCOL<
>SPEAK< ‘I can not give out that information miss.’
>AWAIT RESPONSE
<‘Can’t you, indeed?’
>SPEAK< ‘Personal information may only be given to close relatives, miss’.
>AWAIT RESPONSE
< ‘I’m his (pause) wife.’
>ASSESS VERACITY: 95% PROBABILITY TRUTHFUL
STATEMENT, BASED ON SURNAME AND VOCAL PATTERNS<
>ACCESS GRANTED<
>UPDATE CURRENT REGISTER<
>SPEAK< ‘Your husband is in room 74, Mrs. Jovanka.’
>AWAIT RESPONSE< May I have a key for that room, please?’
>ISSUE KEY<
>AWAIT RESPONSE
< ‘Thank you.’ ‘Tegan, come back.’
>AWAIT RESPONSE<
>NO RESPONSE<
>TIME OUT<
>STAND-BY<
The hovercopter hurtled over the city. They were about two hundred metres up, roughly following the route of the skitrain track. This high, it was clear how narrow the Strip was, only about a dozen blocks wide. The city was a mish-mash of architectural styles, centuries-old concrete buildings jostling with more elegant stone and brick structures. Adric was surprised how many of the buildings had fallen into ruin. A number of window panes had been boarded over, and it seemed that every other building had some scaffolding erected around it. In this climate, the people here must be constantly renovating buildings against frost-damage.
The Doctor was sitting beside him, looking through the windscreen. The Provost-General and his aide were seated opposite, discussing a report. Adric could only catch snatches of their conversation over the roar of the hovercopter’s engines.
‘– ansmat network shut dow–’
‘– dea how they –’
‘– kov Waystation –’
‘– traced the call back to a publi–’
Adric gazed out of the window. At the moment they were flying above a sluggish brown layer. Adric could see black barges, their prows heavy triangular icebreakers, working their way along the waterway, loaded up with something underneath thick green tarpaulins. The river was half-frozen: Adric imagined that the pollutants that turned the water brown had also lowered its melting point.
Either that, or the river had been thawed out by warm water discharged from factories or power stations.
There was a burst of conversation from the cockpit. The pilot was talking to air traffic control, broadcasting their security codes. Ahead of them, Adric could see the reason why – they were entering the airspace of a vast spaceport. It was a flat expanse of tarmac filling a circular area that spilled out over the edges of the Strip. In all it must have been about five miles in diameter. Hangars and docking pits ringed the perimeter, runways and launch pads criss-crossed the rest of the area. Among an armada of service craft, shuttles, workpods and tugs there was, a handful of larger ships. Adric didn’t recognize the designs, of course, but he appreciated their beauty. One of them in particular resembled a massive dragonfly, the winter sun glancing off the fluorescent metallic greens and blues of the hull and the translucent solar sails. Another ship was a long white tube, with green lettering up the side and a red docking clamp at the top.
‘A Wondark