Doctor Who_ Longest Day - Michael Collier [23]
'It's this whole place,' he said.'It's all going wrong. Has been for ages.'
The machine stops, eh?' The Doctor looked up from his work dismantling a section of the control desk and ignored Vasid's blank look.'I rather think it's dying, actually.'
'What?'Vasid shook his head to try to clear the thick fog he seemed to be thinking through.
'Dying.' He theatrically slumped forward on to the desk, then straightened back up.'Fading fast. On its last legs. Dying .'
'What do you mean, dying? What are you talking about?'
'I think that surge of power was a last cry for help. A kind of warning. And I have the unpleasant thought that something out there was listening.'
'What?'
'There's an uninvited guest on the way. A ship, heading to this area. It's a long way off, but this base is designed to act early to seek proper authorisation. The ship refused to transmit access codes.' He looked down at the mass of circuitry and wiring lying on the desk. 'Of course, the ship may not even have known it had to send access codes for authorisation.
But either way, the terminal out there has recognised the ship as unfriendly and has transmitted an incredibly complex hyperspatially bounced set of coordinate corridors to mislead the ship as to our precise location.' He smiled grimly. 'It could've sent that ship on a fool's errand halfway to the next system - a foolproof defence against any craft with a technology level comparable to your own.' A thought seemed to occur to him.'Now, were you aware of that safety feature?'
'I'm not even aware of what you're talking about.'
'Precisely. So it wasn't you. And it wasn't me. And it certainly wasn't Sam or that poor girl you sent away.' He looked sadly over at the matter-transmission booth.
'Anstaar,' said Vasid, vaguely. He shook his head and carried on quickly.'What wasn't us?'
'It wasn't any of us that caused that gigantic power surge. I'd imagine this place stood out like a sore thumb while all that went on.' He paused. 'To anyone who was looking, anyway.'
'Could've just been a glitch in the life-support. A natural surge.'
'Of that magnitude?' The Doctor shook his head. 'No. So unless the base did it all by itself...'
'How?'
'I don't know. But as I was saying earlier, it's had a critical effect on our surroundings. Your sending Anstaar and Sam down to Hirath -'Vasid shivered under the Doctor's icy glare
- 'has pushed this place over the edge. You've drained more or less the last vestiges of power in these circuits. Which means I can't follow her down there. Which also means the systems that are currently keeping Hirath stable will be running down. And that means that this entire sector of the galaxy may soon be torn apart, and I'm afraid there's no way of knowing if the life-support systems will hold out long enough for me to try to fix it.' The Doctor suddenly grinned. 'Whoops, eh? Looks like you might have killed us all.'
Vasid looked at him with scared eyes. 'What do you know about it?' he sneered at last.'Nothing!'
'I know, Mr Vasid,' said the Doctor, his eyes flashing,'that you prefer to live in your head rather than the real world, but that's just not possible now.
Unless you start helping me to understand what's going on round here, you may find a bruised and battered cranium rather less comfortable accommodation for your little dream world than before.'
Vasid squirmed in his chair.'Is that some kind of threat?'
'No.' The Doctor's voice was hollow.'I'm just speculating as to the nature of our incoming visitors.' He frowned.'And what they'll want when they get here.'
Chapter 4
Confusing Right With Wrong
Tanhith's lungs prickled as he breathed deeply and slowly, staring out over the plain.
It was the same view as always from this preferred point of solitude.
Mudflats giving