Doctor Who_ Corpse Marker - Chris Boucher [8]
Every chamber he looked into was the same. All the people in them were moving. All their movements were becoming more and more agitated. But no matter how frantic and exaggerated the actions, every individual was doing exactly the same as every other individual at exactly the same moment. The Doctor could not be certain but he was fairly sure that every chamber was synchronised with every other chamber so that each batch of six was moving in time with every other batch of six. If he could see them all at once it would be like watching shoaling fish. Then he realised that the level of the liquid in the chambers was beginning to fall.
Leela followed the sounds of fighting and found the route to the outside without much difficulty. Actually getting out there was more of a problem, however, since once she had pushed through the large double doors in the metal wall behind the ladders and walked down a short corridor she found the way was blocked by a more complicated system of smaller, locked doors. She suspected that this was why the Doctor had not made more of an effort to stop her going: he thought she was not capable of opening doors like these. Perhaps he had forgotten how easily she had opened the door to the TARDIS. It was true that she had watched what he did and copied it - monkey see monkey do, the Doctor had called it and she knew that whatever that meant it was not intended as praise. Still, she had learned some things about such mechanisms and how to make them move.
She could see through a clear panel in the first door that the opening was closed off by at least two doors with a small room between them. The second door had no panel so she could not see any further - there might be a whole line of doors and rooms, but Leela was sure that if she opened the first one she would have no problem with the others.
There did not seem to be a lever or a switch but there had to be something of the kind and it was almost certain to be near the door. Even if you worked the mechanism at a distance like you did in the TARDIS you could still see the door. There was nowhere to do that here. But if you could not see the door, she reasoned, why would you want to open and close it? Her conclusion was that it had to be a different sort of lever or switch and that it was most likely to be on the door itself.
It took a while but eventually she found the place on the frame which you touched to make the first door move aside and she felt the air push in with her as she stepped triumphantly through into the little room. She remembered too late what her warrior-trainer had told her over and over again. You must never feel triumphant. Triumph makes you stupid and the stupid die first and fast. She was not expecting the door to close immediately - and the stupid die first and fast - trapping her in the small room. Startled, she drew her knife and dropped into the defensive stance ready to fight her way out of the ambush as she had been trained to do. When no one came and nothing further seemed to be happening she relaxed enough to sheathe her knife and examine the door. Another touch-place in the same position as the one she had used on the other side opened the closed door again and a second small wind blew against her. She waited. The door closed itself. She operated it again with the same result. Satisfied that she could escape back if she needed to, she found the same touch-place by the second door. As it slid open and daylight flooded in she drew her knife again.
The sounds of fighting