Doctor Who_ Full Circle - Andrew Smith [21]
'Beats a boring old scanner any day of the week, eh?' said Adric.
Romana shot him a look that spoke much more eloquently than words.
The Doctor had changed his strategy.
There were things about the starliner that somehow didn't 'smell' right to him, and he had made the decision that instead of trying to contact the inhabitants of the ship right away, it might in the meantime be best if he remained at liberty to explore the vessel as he pleased, to find out for himself as much as he could about it.
What nagged at the Doctor was that the starliner seemed in too perfect a condition. He hadn't been able to find one thing wrong with it, structurally or technically. The occasional welding scar was proof enough that the ship had once been in a state of great disrepair, but the Doctor's suspicions were aroused.
He wanted a look at the ship's engines.
At the end of the passageway ahead of him he saw three citizens standing talking amongst themselves. Immediately, he ducked into an ancillary passageway and waited, pressed against the wall.
A voice from a speaker set in the wall above his head made him start. It was calling for a maintenance crew to attend a passageway junction on the fourth deck. Immediately, the three citizens he had seen moved off. The Doctor thanked his luck and moved into the now empty corridor.
At the end of the passageway he stopped, sensing movement behind him. He started to turn, hearing another shuffle of movement, but when he looked back along the passageway whatever had been there was gone.
Deciding to investigate, he moved back up the passageway and peered round the corner into the ancillary passage where he himself had hidden.
No one.
The Doctor was about to turn away with the belief that his imagination was getting the better of him when a glint of light from the floor caught his eye. Looking down, he caught his breath suddenly.
He stooped to pick up the object.
It was the knife he had stabbed into the riverfruit.
Then he heard the voices - not imagination this time - excited, agitated human voices. The Doctor pocketed the knife and hurried in the direction of the sounds.
Turning a corner, he came across a sight that sickened him.
A group of citizens, a maintenance crew, surrounded the whimpering Marshchild, threatening it with their work tools. The poor creature was pressed up against the wall, shielding its face with short, scrawny arms that waved pathetically.
The leader of the maintenance crew, a brash young man called Omril, said, 'It's a marsh creature, all right. And it's only a baby one. Can't harm us. But maybe we can harm it, eh?'
The Doctor was reminded of the time he had witnessed the murder of a 'witch' in England on seventeenth-century Earth - a young girl, innocent, unaware of the atrocities people could perpetrate under the influence of an inbred fear. He had been too late on that occasion. Now he threw himself forward, knocking a couple of the citizens aside to get himself between them and the Marshchild. 'What do you think you're doing?' he snarled at them. 'There's no need to treat it like that - can't you see it's terrified?'
'What do you mean? It's an animal, not a person,' Omril began. Then he stopped, scowling. 'Wait - who are you?'
'A visitor,' the Doctor replied mysteriously.
'You unsealed the entrance!'
The Doctor could see now that they were the ones who were terrified. 'It's all right,' he assured them. 'I sealed it up again. Don't let appearances fool you. I'm really most awfully tidy when it comes to spaceships and the like.'
Omril regarded the Doctor levelly. 'I think the Deciders will want to talk to you.'
'The Deciders, eh?' said the Doctor. 'My, my. How thrilling!' His tone suggested it was very much less than thrilling, but, truth be told, he was rather pleased. This was a chance to get to the root of things.
'Come on,' said Omril.
The Doctor and the Marshchild were shepherded along the passageway.
'Don't worry,' the Doctor assured the small creature at his side, 'You're quite safe with me.'
They turned the corner.
'I hope.'