Doctor Who_ Earthworld - Jacqueline Rayner [47]
and residual embarrassment from her earlier faint, combined against another retreat into unreality as the Doctor, armed with his guidebook, negotiated their way through a medieval village and the Japanese zone, passing the triplets (definitely androids) dressed as three little maids from school. The dinosaurs Powerplay
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didn’t seem to have reached this far yet, but the absence of barriers was obvious from the mixture of costumes on display. They also passed several elephants, none of which were in their natural habitat. If anything got too close, Xernic blasted it with the anti-android zapper. The Doctor scooped up a number of visitors on the way, who were disposed to argue until a voice boomed out at them: ‘Evacuate! Evacuate! All visitors must return to the control centre immediately. Danger! Danger! Evacuate! Evacuate!’
‘Very subtle,’ said Anji, struggling to hold up her bit of Fitz. ‘Guaranteed not to cause undue panic.’
They got back to the control centre eventually. The loudly complaining visitors (‘Been looking forward to this for months!’, ‘Disgraceful, absolutely dis-graceful!’) were left in the foyer while the Doctor, Anji, Fitz and the three boys went to find Hanstrum and Durwell.
‘Well done on the announcement,’ said the Doctor, striding into the control room and seemingly taking charge instantly. ‘I knew you could do it. Now, any luck in locating those girls? We didn’t see them, and Fitz doesn’t know where they were.’
‘You didn’t search for them?’ asked Hanstrum.
The Doctor looked puzzled. ‘No. I went in to fetch my friends, Anji and Fitz.’
‘I’m not Fitz,’ muttered Fitz, as Anji dropped him into a chair.
Miss Durwell looked slightly alarmed. ‘It’s all right, he’s not dangerous,’ said Anji.
‘No, no. . . but he looks ill. . . I’ll take him somewhere he can rest quietly, shall I? It must have been quite an ordeal.’
The Doctor was busy consulting with Hanstrum, so Anji took it on herself to agree. ‘Thanks. I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.’
As Durwell led Fitz from the room, the Doctor beckoned the ANJI boys over to him. Anji followed to see what was going on.
‘Can I see that device of yours, please?’ the Doctor was asking.
Xernic produced the anti-android zapper. ‘This?’ he said, offering it.
‘That’s the thing!’ The Doctor turned to Hanstrum. ‘We need something like this, but on a massive scale. Oh, hello, Anji. Bit of a crisis, I’m afraid.’
‘I know!’ said Anji.
‘No, more than that. It seems that the barriers really can’t be set up again
– the whole mechanism’s fused. So the robots can just wander around at will.
And although at the moment only a number of them are hostile, it’s entirely possible that more will follow. Enrage an elephant, for example, and there’s no stopping it.’
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‘But at least we’re out of there now. I mean, they’ll only be attacking other robots.’
‘Hmm. Interesting thing, it seems now the internal barriers have collapsed, the main external barrier – the big thick one we went through? The one keeping the robots out of the streets of New Jupiter – is having difficulty coping with the power load. And we can’t turn the power off. It could go at any minute. So it’s probably a good idea to shut the robots down.’
‘Oh yes,’ said Anji. ‘I can see why it would be.’
‘Of course, the feedback may well cause this entire centre to explode. But at least we won’t have robots roaming the streets afterwards.’
Anji felt strangely uncomforted.
‘This doesn’t have a big enough range,’ Hanstrum said, indicating the zapper.
‘But if we could boost its power. . . ’
‘I’m assuming the androids all have their own internal power supplies – yes?’
The Doctor was taking apart a control panel as he talked. ‘So the greatest single power source is that being used to uphold this main barrier.’
‘The one you can’t switch off,’ added Xernic, helpfully.
‘That’s right. So, what we have to do is wire in this excellent device, increase its range, and then at the very moment the power load becomes too great