Doctor Who_ Attack of the Cybermen - Eric Saward [12]
‘Does it have a name?’
The Doctor grinned. ‘That’s the surprise!’
With the co-ordinates set, he drove his thumb into the master control, but instead of launching the TARDIS
safely on its journey, the ship went into a wild spin, the centrifugal force hurling Peri across the room and pinning her to a wall.
‘What’s happening?’ she screamed.
‘Stabilisers,’ he gasped, desperately trying to maintain his grip on the console. ‘I forgot to reset them.’
While Peri, wracked with pain, wondered what else he had forgotten, the superstructure of the TARDIS began to creak and groan. If I am to die, she prayed involuntarily, let me be crushed rather than exploded in the vacuum of space.
Pressure increased as the room continued to turn.
Gradually, and with enormous effort, the Doctor managed to kick open a small hatch covering the manual override for the stabilisers at the base of the console’s pedestal.
Watched by Peri, her face now distorted by the G-force, he slowly and painfully worked his way down to the opening.
With leaden fingers he pulled at the stabiliser’s controls, but nothing happened. Summoning all his strength he tugged again, but still it refused to move. Realising he must generate more leverage, the Doctor knew he would have to exploit the additional force generated by the spinning room. This meant releasing the hold his entwined legs had around the pedestal and allowing his body to swing out like a gondola on a swirling merry-go-round. Yet if his grip failed, it would mean certain death: like Peri, he would be helplessly pinned against the console-room wall.
Aware that there was no other choice, the Doctor carefully locked his fingers around the controls. Satisfied that his grip was the strongest possible, he released his legs.
Pain tore through his arms and shoulders as his body snapped ridged under the G-force, but his grip held. Then slowly, very slowly, the controls began to move, and the stabilisers took effect.
It was a full hour after the room had ceased spinning that the Doctor summoned up both the strength and inclination to move. Slowly he picked himself up, massaged the strained muscles in his shoulders, then crossed to Peri. Dazed, but unharmed, she lay in an undignified heap at the base of the wall against which she had been pinioned. Gently he untangled her but, instead of finding gratitude, he faced a Peri who was spitting with rage and demanding answers about what had happened.
Unable to deny his carelessness, the Doctor could only offer an embarrassed apology. ‘At least the TARDIS isn’t damaged,’ he added in feeble mitigation. He then checked the navigational co-ordinates. ‘Neither are we lost.’
Delighted that something had gone right, he operated the scanner-screen. But instead of the expected blue and white beauty of the planet Earth, he was greeted by a white blob.
‘And what is that?’ demanded his irate companion.
The Doctor scratched his head. ‘A comet...’
‘Is that what we’ve come to see?’
‘Almost...’ he lied.
Concerned that his flight computer said they were very close to Earth, but seeing no sign of the planet, the Doctor set to work to locate what had gone wrong.
Frantically he worked on his calculations, his face becoming more grave as the minutes passed. Then suddenly the Time Lord looked up from the computer and smiled broadly. ‘Found it!’
‘What?’
‘You are looking at Comet nine, oblique, one two, oblique, four four.’
Peri glanced at the white blob on the screen and shrugged. ‘So?’
‘It’s Halley’s Comet!’ he added triumphantly. ‘What’s more, we are in your solar system in the year calculated as one nine eight five Anno Domini. In other words, you’re almost home.’
Peri wasn’t so certain. She knew that the white blob on the screen could be any comet anywhere in the Universe.
‘Are you sure that’s Halley’s Comet?’
‘Without doubt.’
‘Then where’s its tail?’
The Doctor was surprised, not so much by the question, as his companion’s ignorance. ‘Surely you know that only forms as it nears the Sun?’
She did; and was simply checking