Doctor Who_ Full Circle - Andrew Smith [43]
Keara found it on the workbench and stood ready with it.
'Adric. Varsh,' said the Doctor. 'Go and find Login for me, and bring him here. It's very important. If you come across any Marshmen, use the cylinders on them. On you go, now, hurry.'
The two brothers started towards the doors. 'What if the Marshmen come back for you?' Varsh asked.
'We've plenty of oxygen here. Don't worry about us. On you go.'
'We'll be back as fast as we can!' Adric promised.
The two boys hesitated in the doorway, making sure the coast was clear, then sprinted away down the passageway.
'Now, Keara, the serum, if you please?' The Doctor held out his hand and Keara gave him the serum. He selected a hypodermic syringe from a tray of equipment attached to the operating couch, proceeded to fill it with the serum, then said, 'Now. Help me get Romana up here onto the couch, would you be so kind?'
Login led his small party of men along a totally silent, unsettingly deserted passageway, gesturing them to caution and quiet.
At the corridor junction ahead of them they heard the roars of Marshmen. With urgent waves of his hand, Login directed the others to press themselves back against the wall. They held their breaths as the Marshmen appeared from around the corner.
There were two of them, staggering backwards, retreating from the oxygen being directed at them by Varsh and Adric.
Login's eyes lit up as he saw the youngsters. 'Adric!' he cried. 'What's happened to Keara?'
'She's safe, sir,' Adric assured him. 'She's with the Doctor in the Science Unit.'
'Can you take us to him?'
'Follow us. Come on, Varsh!'
They gave the Marshmen another burst of gas, then turned and hurried away along the passageway, Login, Garif and the citizens running with them.
Romana lay inert on the Science Unit's operating couch as the Doctor inserted the needle of the syringe into her left arm. Keara watched intently as the Doctor eased the emerald-coloured serum into her blood system.
'Suppose it doesn't work?' she asked.
The Doctor carefully withdrew the needle from Romana's arm. 'Then she's dead.'
The Doctor handed the syringe to Keara and she placed it on the tray next to the couch. 'Keara... how long is it supposed to be since the starliner crashed?'
'Forty generations.'
'Forty generations. That's a good round figure.' The Doctor frowned and moved quickly across to the microscope. 'Can't be right, though.'
Keara crossed towards him. 'Why not?'
The Doctor bent over the microscope again. 'Evolution goes in quantum leaps,' he said. 'But it doesn't happen that fast.'
Keara frowned. 'What are you doing?'
'Karyotype comparisons. Analyses of the cell nuclei of these various specimens.' He stood aside to make way for her. To be polite, she bent towards the eyepieces.
Keara saw a microscopic view of the cell nucleus of the tissue specimen, the light and dark bands of the stained chromosomes showing up clearly.
The Doctor removed it, replaced it with another specimen. Keara could notice little or no difference.
'Definitely morphologically similar karyotypes, wouldn't you say?' he asked.
'Em... yes,' said Keara uncertainly, stepping back from the microscope and allowing the Doctor in again.
'Of course,' the Doctor went on, effecting minute adjustments of the magnification, 'these inversions in bands eight to ten might be significant... we need to establish how long the evolutionary process has taken.'
'From spiders to marsh creatures?'
'From spiders to marsh creatures... and beyond.'
Before Keara could query the Doctor's cryptic remark, a figure moved between them and bent interestedly towards the microscope.
'You could try gel electrophoresis,' Romana suggested, lifting her head to smile widely at them. Quite her old self.
Silently, carefully, Adric and Varsh led Login and the others into the boarding area. At the sight of Tylos lying dead on the floor they halted. Varsh warned the others