Doctor Who_ Father Time - Lance Parkin [113]
The door of the travel tube slid down, but there wasn’t a squad of guards waiting for them on the other side. There was nothing, just an empty corridor. The lights here were also dim.
‘Where are we?’ Miranda’s voice echoed off the metal walls and pipelines. She felt a little disappointed. An empty corridor was an anticlimax.
Cate shrugged. ‘This looks like a service area, right in the middle of the ship. We may be the first crew to come here. If there was a problem with the tubes, it may have dropped us off here. This is an uncharted area.’
* * *
Pilot Mordak watched as Prefect Ferran lurched through the gloom towards him.
The only source of light was the scanner, the image frozen where it had been when the systems had shut down. The Doctor’s face, staring down at them, eyes wild, his face split by a broad grin. The pilot had heard legends of the Doctor – everyone had: how he’d destroyed planets, how he’d wiped out whole intelligent species, how he’d brought darkness to the universe, how he travelled through time wiping out his enemies and turning those he abducted into monsters and terrorists.
The Doctor had killed the Prefect’s father, single-handedly wiping out a saucer and its crew of elite troops and hunters. Even Sallak hadn’t returned from that encounter.
‘We have emergency lighting,’ Mordak said, pulling himself away from the image, trying to stay calm. ‘Gravity, life support, limited travel-tube use. The medical units are active. We have use of some internal communications – emergency channels, alarm systems and the like.’
‘Computer!’ the Prefect shouted. ‘Computer!’
‘It’s offline, sir. There –’ Mordak pointed at the display that was counting down the minutes until Computer reactivated itself.
‘Turn it back on.’
‘It’s impossible. All the security measures you insisted upon are working.’
The Prefect flung the man out of his chair and took his place. Mordak watched nervously as his master looked over the consoles, but after a moment’s work it was clear that the pilot had been right.
The Prefect slumped forward, his head in his hands.
‘The human spacecraft has landed in the hangar deck, sir. Should we dispatch security teams there and to the Last One’s quarters?’ Mordak realised he didn’t know whether the communications circuits were counted as ‘essential’. All sorts of systems could be down – even the doors may be stuck.
The Prefect sat immobile.
‘My Lord, we have to react to this problem.’
Ferran looked up at Mordak, fire in his eyes. The pilot had thought he was a broken man, but –
‘I hate him,’ he said simply.
The Pilot stood, ignored the crewmen scurrying around trying to find some power for their consoles.
‘He and I are two sides of the same coin. We are equals and opposites. I am everything he is not, I have everything he wants but can never have. It is fate that we should meet here for a final confrontation. This is destiny.’
‘You are talking about the Doctor,’ Mordak reminded him. ‘Even in this time zone he is a powerful adversary, not to be underestimated.’
Ferran looked him square in the eye. ‘That was the mistake I made last time. I thought I could snatch his daughter away, that he would be powerless. But he is here, he’s disabled my ship against all the odds. He has come to reclaim his daughter, and I must stop him. Oh, this is almost mythic.’
‘I will dispatch guards to the hangar. They will kill him.’
Ferran looked around. ‘No. I must face him. Face him alone. Ready my armour.’
The pilot hesitated.
‘You heard me! Let the Doctor go where he will. I’ll track him down and I’ll tear those two hearts from his chest.’
* * *
‘This is too easy,’ Debbie warned.
The hangar bay was empty. They’d been able to leave the shuttle and cross the deck without impediment. Mather had come with them. The others had stayed behind, keeping the shuttle ready for a quick escape.
‘I have to agree,’ the astronaut said. ‘Why aren’t the guards all over