Doctor Who_ Enlightenment - Barbara Clegg [25]
Striker and the Doctor were at the wheel together, wrestling to keep the ship on even keel, for the explosion had shaken the yacht too. The others gazed at the scanner screen in fascinated horror. The clipper was burning in front of their eyes. Another massive explosion, and she disintegrated, leaving only flames behind. Marriner was the first to recover.
‘Davey’s gone,’ he called to the Captain, in a matter-of-fact voice. ‘An asteroid. Looked like a direct hit.’ Then catching sight of Tegan’s appalled expression, he added rather lamely, ‘Accidents will happen.’
‘Especially to anyone who challenges Captain Wrack and the Buccaneer!’ The Doctor’s voice made him swing round. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked, sharply. The Doctor sauntered over to him. ‘Have you forgotten the Greek who challenged Wrack’s ship?’ he asked the First Mate. ‘I wonder if the same thing will happen to us.’ Marriner seemed interested, but before he could reply, a whistle from the speaking tube sent him hurrying to answer it.
When he looked up a second later, it was to address his Captain.
‘The launch is waiting, sir,’ he said impassively.
The alleyway which led to Wrack’s stateroom was brightly lit, and a guard of honour of buccaneers was stationed along it. It was not their drawn cutlasses that alarmed Tegan, but the doors lying open ahead, and the music and conversation which drifted through to them. Wrack’s reception was obviously a large affair.
‘I’m scared, Doctor,’ she said, hesitating slightly.
But the Doctor surged on eagerly, and it was Marriner who answered her. ‘You have no need to be,’ he said, and his eyes told her that she looked beautiful.
The Doctor was surveying the stateroom when she caught up with hirn. A hundred candles twinkled from great silver candelabra, glasses clinked and glittered, and the room seemed to be full of people, all talking and laughing together.
‘Fascinating!’ the Doctor said, surveying the crowd. ‘A complete cross-section.’
‘Who are they?’ Tegan asked. There were Portuguese, wearing doublet and hose; there were Vikings, with long hair and rough beards; there were Chinese, in the stiff silks of the Manchu dynasty; there were people, it seemed, from every period of earth’s history, and from every part of the globe.
‘The masters of sail!’ the Doctor answered. His voice was admiring, but it suddenly changed. ‘Only they’re not, are they?’ he said sharply. ‘They’re Eternals, like your friend Marriner. Who knows what their true shape is.’
Tegan’s mouth dropped open. It had never occurred to her, until this minute, that the Eternals might not always be as they now appeared. ‘They can build ships from what they see in human minds,’ the Doctor continued. ‘Perhaps their human shape comes from the same source. Whatever they are, to them all this is just a game.’
‘To pass the time,’ Tegan murmured, her thoughts in a whirl.
‘To pass eternity,’ the Doctor replied softly. And at that moment, Marriner appeared at their side.
‘Champagne?’ He proffered the tray he was carrying.
Tegan took a glass eagerly, longing for something to steady her nerves. ‘Orange juice for me,’ the Doctor said, helping himself. He did not drink it, however, but stood, looking round the room.
‘Your friend isn’t here,’ Marriner commented.
‘I’d noticed,’ was the Doctor’s laconic reply. But his eyes still moved methodically from group to group in search of Turlough.
‘He isn’t far,’ Marriner interpolated. ‘I can sense his thought patterns.’
The Doctor continued to look around and so did Tegan, until her gaze was held by an arresting figure. The crowd had parted for a second, and she caught sight of a woman, voluptuous in a tight-laced velvet gown, a mass of auburn curls falling to her shoulders. Even as she stared,