Doctor Who_ Father Time - Lance Parkin [116]
‘I am not a slave.’
‘You are.’
‘No.’
‘I can prove you are.’ Miranda took the pain inducer from her belt and pointed it at Cate, and pressed the button.
Cate flinched, then realised it wasn’t working.
Miranda looked baffled, and passed the wand over. ‘Is it being blocked by the walls?’
Cate tried to puzzle that out as Graltor and Tarvin caught up with them. She handed it back to Miranda.
‘Did I just see what I thought I just saw?’ Tarvin asked.
Miranda nodded.
‘Do you want to hurt us?’ Graltor objected.
Miranda tossed the wand at him. ‘No. And I don’t think I could if I did want to.’
Graltor was too slow to stop Tarvin from catching it.
‘The wand works,’ he said. ‘The light’s coming on, look. It must be the receivers that are damaged.
Cate took it from Tarvin’s hand, pointed it at him and pressed – but nothing happened. ‘It draws its power from the ship’s generators.’
Miranda looked around. ‘And if the travel tubes and the lights aren’t working properly... Ferran’s men don’t carry guns, do they?’
The Deputy shook her head and held the wand up. ‘He doesn’t trust them to – they have these, that’s all. There are weapons, but they are locked in the armouries. Only Computer can open them, and only with Ferran’s voiceprint.’
‘Then the slaves can overpower the guards?’ Miranda asked.
‘ “Overpower”?’ Graltor grunted. ‘Kill. You mean kill.’
Cate grabbed Miranda’s arm. ‘Those men joined up to serve the Empire and their people, not Ferran. They are men and women doing their jobs.’
‘Just following orders?’ Miranda hissed.
‘This isn’t a matter of sides. There are guards loyal to Ferran, of course there are – but there are at least as many who aren’t.’
Graltor and Tarvin both snorted at that, but Cate was pleased to see Miranda giving it some thought.
‘You know who’s loyal and who isn’t?’
‘I have my suspicions,’ Cate replied diplomatically. Of course, she’d never asked anyone. ‘None of us are here through choice.’
Tarvin eyed Cate, perhaps suspecting that she was of senior rank. ‘The slaves would love to riot. But the guards can locate us and use the pain inducers – unless you know how to remove them.’
Miranda nodded. ‘But given the chance, they’d want to be free?’
‘Isn’t that obvious?’
Miranda turned to Cate and looked coldly at her. ‘Not to everyone.’ She stopped in her tracks. ‘OK. Change of plan – we take control of the ship.’
‘Lady Miranda, they won’t just let us walk on to the flight deck and hand us control.’
Miranda smiled. ‘Then we’ll just have to steal it.’
* * *
The Doctor checked his watch, then slipped it back into his pocket.
‘Our twenty minutes is nearly up,’ he told Debbie.
‘This ship is even bigger than it looks.’ She was starting to get out of breath. ‘What’s that map of yours saying?’
‘We’re nearly there. In fact –’ The Doctor stopped abruptly. ‘This door,’ he exclaimed, staring at a large circular hatch. Then, hesitating, he took four steps forward and turned a hundred and eighty degrees. ‘No, this one.’
Debbie smiled and reached for the control panel.
The moment before she touched it, the Doctor sensed something was wrong.
There was a thunderclap, and a flash of light seemed to transfix her. Debbie fell back.
The door control was blackened, smoke pouring from it. The Doctor knelt over Debbie. He checked her pulse. She was untouched – no sign of burning, no sign of charring.
But she wasn’t moving and he already knew...
He stood quickly, looked around. He realised he was becoming agitated. He tried to concentrate, to raise his endorphin level, but it didn’t seem to be working. Behind him, he realised, the door to Miranda’s cell was opening. He looked back at Debbie. He would deal with that in a moment, when he’d found Miranda. Until then, yes, finding Miranda was his top priority, and nothing else mattered. No one else mattered.
The Doctor ducked through the door. Inside was a circular room, with a large bed in the middle.
The Doctor looked around. ‘Miranda!’ he called out.
This wasn’t a prison cell. It looked more like the penthouse suite of a hotel in Vegas. Something