Doctor Who_ Island of Death - Barry Letts [54]
But what else would they find out, thought Sarah, as she left Bob checking, yet again, the effect that the tidal currents (which were apparently rather vaguely charted) might have on their new course.
She wandered across the bridge to look at the radar repeater screen, with its cursor endlessly going round and round. Would the Hallaton herself be the first to spot the island, or would they hear a hail from the lookout who‟d been stationed on the upper bridge? Belt and braces, Pete had said with a grin.
Once he‟d taken on board the idea of the Skang, he‟d turned back into the amiable, slightly furry, friend-to-the-world they‟d got to know. After dinner, he‟d entered with enthusiasm into a discussion with the Brigadier about how to go about arresting the leaders of the cult, as had originally been intended, or how to hold off an armed attack if it should arise.
It was agreed almost at once that it would be foolish for the landing party not to be fully armed and ready for anything.
But what were they going to do with the stranded devotees?
They‟d have to bring them back on the Skang, obviously, but that was taking for granted the co-operation of its crew. They might have to arrest them as well.
Not for the first time, the Brigadier had bemoaned out loud his serious lack of UNIT back-up.
Sarah had gone to bed, leaving them to it, noticing that the Doctor, with his second glass of what Pete called „cooking port‟ in his hand, was quietly listening with an ironic smile.
She could understand why. In their professional enthusiasm for their contingency plans, covering the logistics of every eventuality, they seemed to have quite forgotten who the actual enemy was.
Watching the radar screen was almost hypnotic; and as the line of light went round it had something of the flavour of a roulette wheel. Would this time be the winner? Would this be the time that a little blip would show up near the top of the screen that...
There it was! A spot of light on the very edge of the display, a little bit to the left.
As she turned in excitement to tell Bob, she heard a buzzer, and a disembodied voice. „Radar, bridge. I have a trace, sir. Bearing two six seven degrees.‟
By this time, Bob was by her side, looking at the screen.
And suddenly she had a doubt. „Maybe it‟s the Skang,’ she said.
„There was never a chance of catching her up,‟ he said. „No, she‟ll be waiting for us when we get there. In any case, that‟s far too big a blip to be a ship. That‟s the island all right! Fifty quid to a penny bun, that‟s it. It‟s just where it ought to be.
Chris! Give Pete a shout, will you?‟
You could practically hear his grin of satisfaction.
Chris disappeared at a run, giving Bob a thumbs-up as he passed.
„Red one zero! Something on the horizon...‟ Another voice, hollow through the voice-pipe coming down from the upper bridge: the lookout. Fine on the port bow... Looks like land, sir.‟
Belt and braces.
The Brigadier, in the cotton slacks and open-necked shirt that had become his preferred „dress-of-the-day‟ while on board, hardly looked the part of a senior Army officer in charge of a vital operation.
He was more like a little boy getting ready for a game of cowboys and Indians, thought the Doctor, as he watched him restlessly pacing up and down the upper bridge, from where Pete Andrews, with the Cox‟n at the wheel, was conning the ship through the narrow gap in the reef that made an entrance into Stella Island‟s large and peaceful lagoon.
Sarah seemed calmer than the Brigadier. The Doctor watched her as she leaned over the side of the bridge, trying to make out what awaited them. She was obviously excited.
Nevertheless, her face betrayed her underlying uneasiness at what might lie ahead. Of all the many companions he‟d had on his travels through space and time, she was one of the most remarkable - on the face of it, an intrepid adventurer, with all the intense curiosity of an eager child, yet with much of a child‟s anxiety as well. „I can‟t see a flipping thing,‟ she said.
As there was a band of mist in the way, through which