Doctor Who_ Island of Death - Barry Letts [33]
Discovered in 1773 by Captain Harcourt Fleming, who named it after his wife. Still a British Territory. Uninhabited.”
And they‟ve got a drawing of it - what it looks like as you approach it from the east...‟
Bob Simkins looked up at the First Lieutenant with a rueful grin. „Out of the mouths of babes...‟ he said.
„Well done, Chris,‟ said Pete.
There! Not so bloody efficient, thought Lethbridge-Stewart.
The Doctor had taken the book from Chris, and was scanning the text. „Mm. Maybe our friend Whitbread has sent us chasing your wild goose after all, Lethbridge-Stewart.‟
„What do you mean?‟
The Doctor looked back at the book. „“Last visited January 1923 by a Norwegian whaler on passage to the Southern Ocean...” There‟s a translation of their report. “Good spring water... access via beach through eastern lagoon at high spring tide... Alternative landing place on northern shore...”„
He looked up. „So far, so good. But listen to this... “There is little sign of life. Apart from a few palm-trees, and some bamboo, the sparse vegetation consists of lowlying spikey shrubs resembling gorse. In spite of there being relatively few seabirds, very nearly the entire island is thick with ancient guano...”„
Chris looked enquiringly at Sarah.
„Fishy bird-crap,‟ she whispered.
„“...the stench of which catches the throat. It is quite clear why Stella Island is uninhabited...”„
There was quite a long silence after the Doctor stopped reading.
„I wonder what sort of marriage Captain Fleming had,‟ he said. „Poor Stella.‟
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Whyever should Mother Hilda take her flock to such an unwelcoming spot? Alex Whitbread must have given them the wrong information, either unknowingly, or deliberately to lead them astray.
The Brigadier, with grim face, led the way to Alex‟s cabin, determined to find the truth. But they couldn‟t tackle him.
He‟d been so frantic that Bob Simkins, in his capacity as surrogate medical officer, had raided the medicine chest to find one of the little ampoules of morphine, supplied with its own needle, which were available in case a member of the crew was severely wounded.
The young Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, only thirteen years old, had crept into his grandmother‟s bedroom just after she died, despite having been forbidden to go anywhere near her.
She‟d been lying on her back, her face collapsed and sallow, her toothless mouth gaping wide. No way was she the dearly loved Granny McDougal who‟d kissed him goodnight only the day before.
If it wasn‟t for his stertorous breathing, like the snoring of some sort of animal, the Brigadier would have said Brother Alex was as clearly dead as she had been. Nothing was going to stir him for some time, if ever.
The Skipper‟s reaction to his midshipman‟s discovery of the description of their destination was categorical.
„That‟s it, then,‟ he‟d said when Pete Andrews had taken the bad news to his cabin. „I‟ve no intention of sailing nearly two and a half thousand miles in the wrong direction, just to turn round and sail back again, on the say-so of some sort of phoney sw... swami in a white nightie. The sooner we‟re back in Blighty and rid of this old tub the better, as far as I‟m concerned. „S time we all rejoined the real Navy. Back to Bombay!‟
And he personally turned back to the gin bottle.
„Heaven preserve me from arrogant fools!‟ said the Doctor in an undertone to the Brigadier, when Pete arrived back on the bridge with the news. „Doesn‟t he realise that this is the only lead we‟ve got? Wasn‟t he listening when I told him that the very survival of the human race was at stake?‟
„Starboard ten...‟
„Starboard ten, sir... Ten of starboard wheel on, sir.‟
The Brigadier gave a worried glance over at the First Lieutenant, who had just given the order to the quartermaster to turn the ship. The Commanding Officer was the only one of the crew who had been told the whole story.
„Not to worry, Doctor,‟ he said quietly. „Leave it to me. I‟ll soon