Doctor Who_ Enlightenment - Barbara Clegg [38]
‘ I said “crack on”, Mr. Mate,’ Striker repeated with quiet fury.
‘There’s no point.’ Marriner said despairingly. ‘We just don’t have the sail, Captain.’
Striker paced again, this time to look through one of the ports. ‘Wrack’s pulling away from us!’ There was frustration and controlled rage in his voice. ‘She’s going to win!’
Marriner’s head sank and the life seemed to go out of his face. ‘We’re beaten –’ the words died away like an echo.
And he stood frozen and immobile again, as he had when Tegan first saw him. Striker, too, seemed to gaze with empty, fixed eyes that saw nothing, not even the ring of harbour lights ahead.
‘Beaten?’ the word jarred the silence. ‘Not quite.’ The Doctor’s voice was urgent and full of purpose. And as he stepped forward authoritatively, the two Eternals responded, almost as though he had breathed life into them.
‘Don’t forget Turlough’s over there,’ he said encouragingly.
Tegan could hardly believe she had heard correctly.
‘Turlough!’ she repeated contemptuously. ‘Him!’ How could the Doctor not realise what Turlough was like, she thought. It was pathetic. Turlough was about the last person you could rely on. He was cowardly, selfish, greedy
–
‘I trust him.’ The Doctor’s quiet voice broke into her mental catalogue of Turlough’s faults. ‘He’ll stop her.’ And then he became brisk and practical again. ‘He may need a hand, though.’ And turning to Striker and Marriner he went on firmly, ‘I shall require my TARDIS.’
The Eternals looked at each other. In some strange way, it was now the Doctor who was the dominant figure in the room. They were like puppets, hanging on his thoughts.
‘Very well,’ Striker nodded.
Marriner looked into the Doctor’s face. ‘Concentrate,’
he said. The two pairs of eyes locked together, and the stare between them was unblinking and almost hypnotic. Then slowly their eyes closed. They seemed to be in some sort of trance, but the tension in their faces showed the effort involved.
‘Where is the TARDIS?’ Tegan whispered.
‘Hidden in the Doctor’s mind,’ came softly from the Captain.
And then, with its usual grinding, rumbling noise, the TARDIS slowly materialised, right in the middle of the wheel-house. The Doctor opened his eyes. There was enormous relief in them, and for a second, Tegan had a faint idea of just how much the TARDIS meant to him.
Then he snapped into action. ‘Quickly now, Tegan,’ he said briskly. ‘No time to waste.’ And he made immediately for the door of the transdimensional machine. Tegan followed him, but before they could reach it, Marriner stepped between, and stood, firmly blocking their path.
‘Miss Tegan stays with me,’ he said.
‘No!’ the Doctor did not even pause to think.
‘She stays. Or you both stay.’ There was strength and determination in the young man’s face. And, even in her panic, Tegan wondered for a brief minute where the idea had sprung from. Was it from Marriner’s own mind? Was he learning again to produce thoughts of his own? But her conjecture was cut short by the Captain’s voice.
‘Wrack’s running away from us.’
He stood, staring through the port at the Buccaneer, as she crept ahead and the gap between the two ships slowly widened. Tegan felt the same frustration as he did. More than that, she thought suddenly of the White Guardian, and of how important his message had seemed to be.
‘Go, Doctor! she said emphatically.
He looked at her, still reluctant, but that simply increased Tegan’s determination. She thought of how the Doctor trusted her, of how he had made her co-ordinator once. ‘We came here to stop the race. Remember?’ she said even more vehemently. ‘It’d be silly to fail now!’ and she almost pushed the Time Lord towards the TARDIS.
Marriner stepped aside immediately. The Doctor opened the door and went in. Just before it closed, he gave Tegan one last long worried look, and then the TARDIS was going – going – gone.
‘She’s almost won!’ Striker shouted despairingly. Tegan and Marriner rushed to stare at the screen with him, and the three of thern watched