Doctor Who_ Enlightenment - Barbara Clegg [29]
Turlough had a moment’s sudden clarity. ‘That’s what Wrack uses to destroy the ships!’ he exclaimed. The Doctor nodded. It was almost with a feeling of disappointment that Turlough went on, ‘So that’s the secret of her power!’
‘Not quite,’ the Doctor’s voice sounded grave. ‘This is only part of it. We still have to locate the focus.’
‘What d’you mean?’ Turlough asked.
The Doctor spoke slowly, as though thinking aloud.
‘Wrack is only a channel for the power. And she must have something to focus it on. A focus aboard every ship she plans to destroy. Otherwise it wouldn’t work. Now how do you think she manages it?’ And he looked at Turlough as though expecting some sort of answer.
Wrack unlocked a small heavy coffer on one of the tables.
She lifted the lid and looked inside, then looked at Tegan, standing immobile at the other side of the room, the light shining on her tiara. From the coffer she lifted a large jewel, a cabuchon crystal. She looked again towards the girl, and her amusement was not a pleasant thing to see.
The Doctor was still staring at the eye of the amplifier. It reminded him of something, but he could not think what.
Then Turlough interrupted his train of thought. ‘How big would this point of focus have to be?’ he asked. The Doctor indicated a size between his thumb and index finger. ‘No bigger that that,’ he said, and immediately it came to him.
‘Of course!’ He could see it in his mind’s eye. ‘The clasp!
That’s why it was out of period!’ And he made for the door.
Turlough followed him. ‘What are you talking about?’ he demanded. The Doctor did not even pause. ‘Critas the Greek,’ he said, his hand on the opening lever. Turlough still did not understand. ‘You mean the first ship that blew up?’ he asked. ‘Yes!’ The Doctor finally did stop, in exasperation. ‘Wrack gave him a jewelled clasp. As a present. It must have been from her. And somehow she worked the same sort of trick with Davey.’
‘She did!’ Turlough exclaimed. He had a sudden vision of the cutlass blade swishing past his ear, and the hilt with the star sapphire. ‘She gave him a sword! There was a jewel like a crystal – in the handle!’
‘That was it!’ the Doctor said, triumphantly.
Turlough had a sudden sick feeling. ‘Will she try the same thing with Striker?’ he asked.
‘I shouldn’t think so!’ The Doctor still sounded pleased.
‘I can’t see Striker or Marriner accepting anything from Wrack. They don’t trust her.’
Turlough felt quite euphoric. ‘Luckily for us!’ he enthused. But the Doctor’s face had clouded again. ‘That won’t stop her,’ he said. ‘She’ll find a way.’
Carrying the crystal carefully, Wrack crossed the room and held it up to the tiara in Tegan’s hair. Matter was malleable in the hands of an Eternal, and when she lowered them again they were empty. The crystal remained, set perfectly in the centre of the tiara. Its shape and size were exactly that of the ruby in Critas’s clasp, the sapphire in the hilt of Davey’s sword, the pupil in the eye of the amplifier. Wrack stepped back and surveyed her creation. ‘Perfect!’ she said, with a little laugh.
10
Spy!
To Turlough’s surprise, the Doctor stopped suddenly at the door of the ion chamber.
‘Before we leave,’ he said, ‘we must work out some sort of plan.’
Turlough could hardly believe his ears. ‘Here!’ he complained, looking apprehensively at the grid and at the panel of warning signals, now blessedly quiet. ‘Let’s get out of this place! We don’t want to hang about making plans in here! ’ The Doctor stayed put. ‘We do’ he said. ‘This is the best place. They’re far less likely to pick up our mind vibration at this level.’ Turlough sighed in exasperation.
‘All right, what d’you think we ought to do, then?’ he asked, grumpily. The Doctor gave him a searching look.
‘I’ve got to think of some way of staying on this ship...’
‘You want to stay!’ Turlough exclaimed in amazement.
‘Why?’
‘Because I’ve got to stop Wrack winning