Doctor Who_ Corpse Marker - Chris Boucher [88]
Toos was flagging. The robot was gaining on her. Leela pulled her knife and started forward. ‘Stay there, Leela!’ the Doctor shouted urgently. ‘Don’t cross the boundary!’
Leela hesitated.
‘Come on, Toos!’ the Doctor shouted. ‘Run, woman! Run!’
He reached out with the screwdriver into the space where he knew the electronic gateway had been switching on and off. It was off. There was nothing there.
Toos put in a final effort and ran across the boundary into the Sewerpits. She staggered on, her momentum carrying her to Leela. Without hesitation the robot followed her. As Leela stepped forward to meet it the Doctor leaped from the low roof, crashing into the robot and knocking it off its feet. Scrambling up, the Doctor called, ‘This way, both of you,’ and was relieved when for once Leela did as he said. ‘Quickly,’ he urged.
Dragging Toos with her, Leela dodged past the robot which was pulling itself back on its feet and reaching for its quarry.
As they crossed out of the Sewerpits the robot surged after them. There was a sudden crackle of static in the air. The Doctor stopped and turned to watch. The robot was lying on the ground, hands and feet twitching and drumming. The Doctor extended the screwdriver into the space of the gateway. As he had expected it was now on and for the moment was indistinguishable from the rest of the boundary. It would probably stay that way until the robot was removed or showed no signs of electrical activity of any kind. ‘I think,’ he said, ‘the Sewerpits might originally have been designed to trap rogue machines. It’s possible this civilisation might have destroyed itself with killer robots at least once before.’
Chapter Twelve
Taren Capel had analysed what his creations had learned and he understood what it was that was corrupting the data and threatening his being. There was a usurper, there was a counterfeit Taren Capel, there was a plot to steal his world using lies and confusion to make him doubt and force him not to be.
And he knew where the usurper had tried to hide from him as one of his creations had heard him named by a human Sarl that had stopped being.
Now he knew what the problem was, he could finally deal with it. He put the subjects to one side. With one part to hold them in place they would last until he was ready for them. The experiment would wait.
He took control to the deepest level of the dream that was the power and made it to be spread to all his creations, like and unlike, image and imagined.
The false Taren Capel and all the humans with him must be destroyed so that Taren Capel could be one with the world he had created.
It was confirmation, if confirmation was needed, that the Cyborg class was a disaster. The only consolation Uvanov could draw was that he was at least in a position now to make sure that none of the blame attached to him. It was the former Production Director who would be heading for the Sewerpits and taking all the responsibility for this murderous fiasco with him.
‘What’s so special about you?’ Uvanov wondered, looking at the skinny young man with the red hair and the soft-featured young woman with the quick, dark eyes.
‘That was what we said, Firstmaster,’ Tel said.
‘The thing said something about a profile match,’ Ging said.
‘That was pretty much all it said.’
‘If you hadn’t done such a thorough job of scrambling its systems we might have found out what that meant,’ Uvanov grumbled. ‘As a tech team you’ve been something of a disappointment.’
Cailio Techlan, bringing drinks for them, said, ‘Firstmaster Uvanov is glad you survived. He had a similar experience himself so he understands how inappropriate and unwelcome sympathy can be in these situations.’
Tel said, ‘These things have tried to kill you? When was this?
How come we didn’t hear anything about that?’
‘Why didn’t you issue warnings?’ Ging demanded. ‘We lost friends back there. Somebody covering their arse again?