Doctor Who_ Last Man Running - Chris Boucher [102]
‘That’s your plan? You really are an alien halfwit, aren’t you?’ Sozerdor raged. ‘It won’t let you overload it.’
‘Why would the machine destroy itself, Doctor?’ Leela asked thoughtfully. ‘You showed me that it had great power stored –’ she gestured at the floor – ‘down there.’
‘That’s true,’ the Doctor said. ‘We can’t overload the power source, but we can overload the systems that use the power.’
‘No you can’t!’ Sozerdor shouted furiously. ‘It has self-control built in.’
‘Unlike you.’ The Doctor smiled bleakly and, turning back to Leela, went on, ‘We can overload them, because when the control systems are already fully extended, there’s a good chance they won’t be able to defend the machine from a major bombardment – say from three search-and-retrieval ships.’ His smile became broader. ‘That’s an unusually large number, it seems.’
‘Will they attack?’
‘I think so,’ the Doctor said. ‘They have things to prove.
Those of Sozerdor’s co-conspirators that are out there will think the way be does, that it’s not going to have any effect.’
Leela nodded. ‘I am ready.’
The Doctor wandered down to the edge of the force field.
‘We won’t be seeing each other again, Sozerdor, so I’ll say goodbye.’ He smiled. ‘Pay attention, and the chances are that with one mighty bound you’ll be free.’
‘What does that mean?’ Sozerdor demanded.
‘It is another bad joke,’ Leela guessed. ‘Is that not it, Doctor?’
Kley and her second in command had formally requested a full bombardment of the whole area they had gone down in, as was their right by custom and practice. They’d lost three men: ACI Monly, SI Sozerdor, and Investigator Belay. The two drop ships had both lost two crew members and the rest of their complements were angry enough to risk straight suborbital attacks. But still nothing was happening. Pertanor and Rinandor, both armed now, waited outside the control deck while Kley and Fermindor pressed their claim in person.
The captain of Lead One was not a happy toody. ‘It’s a pointless waste of armaments,’ he said, his face an expressionless mask. ‘There’s nothing down there.’
‘How would you know that?’ Kley demanded.
‘There has been a full instrument search,’ the navigation coordinator, also a toody, said.
‘I’ll bet there has,’ Kley snapped.
‘With respect, Captain,’ Fermindor said, ‘but aren’t you required to decommission all ships’ weaponry before the return jump anyway? So what’s the difference?’
‘Word is,’ the captain said, watching Fermindor for a reaction, ‘there’s unrest back home. We may stay primed.’
Several members of the Lead One crew looked up from their consoles. This was clearly news to them.
‘That’s against every regulation in the code,’ Kley protested ‘Even to think that is treasonable. You cannot enter the system armed.’
‘Don’t presume to give me orders, madam. Or to tell me my duty. You have no firster rank here.’
‘She has an OIG rank,’ Fermindor said. ‘It’s Chief Investigator. I suggest you use it. She outranks you, Captain.’
‘Not on my ship she doesn’t,’ the captain said tersely. He was getting angry.
‘She outranks you and so do I.’ Fermindor was very calm.
‘You have the request. You have the ordnance. You have no shortage of volunteers to do the job. What’s it to be, Captain?’
Outside the entrance to the deck, as they waited to see which of the crew were in this thing with the captain, Pertanor said, ‘Do we stay together now, Ri?’
‘The four of us?’ Rinandor said.
‘The two of us,’ he said.
‘You’re easy to tease,’ she said, and then nodded. ‘I will if you will.’
‘You have to promise me something first,’ Pertanor said.
‘Already there are conditions?’
‘If we find out it is Skinny-dick, I get to arrest him.’
‘Before or after I kill him?’
He shrugged and grinned. ‘Whichever.’
The Doctor began modestly. He set a small range of mountains rising, put tropical savannah to replacing the pine forest and resited the jungle where the pillar stood in its desert rockscape. Satisfied that he could build up and tear down the environments