Doctor Who_ Longest Day - Michael Collier [41]
'Yes. A flagship, I think.' Tanhith looked at Yast, who was in turn looking at Felbaac.
'Yes, it would be,' breathed their leader.'I knew he couldn't resist it. Now it begins.' His voice was suddenly strident, confident.
'What begins? What are you talking about?' Tanhith stared suspiciously at him, then grabbed hold of the fabric of his tunic, pulling him up close to his face.'What?'
Felbaac pushed him away. He looked at his men, and gestured expansively with his arms. "This is what we've been waiting for.'
***
The Doctor screeched to a halt outside the control room, parking the battered Beetle across the entrance. A thought occurred to him, and he pulled out the choke so the revs of the engine increased. Black clouds of exhaust pumped out into the corridor.
'Good job I didn't book that service,' he muttered, getting out of the car and clambering over the bonnet.
'Right. Computer - still online, good. Power still up, now the settings, the settings...' His fingers played over the digitpad as he accessed the destination of recent dispatches from the matter transmitter.
He frowned. There were three or four sets of coordinates but only two recent transmissions. Suddenly the screen went black. Then row upon row of alien symbols flickered into being.
'Oh, no! Come on, stay with me, stay with me...' He got up and dashed over to fiddle with his modifications to the matter transmitter. The roof of the small chamber had been removed and welded to the ceiling. Bright multicoloured wiring connected the roof to the walls, and Yost's transmitter spun gently, dangling from a thick cable running from the base of the unit to the ceiling. He inserted the sonic screwdriver into a small hole in the black box and activated it.
Much to the Doctor's relief, a pale glow spread from the floor of the unit to the improvised roof. He marched over to the computer and banged the top of it hard with his fist. The screen cleared, but each transmission still had two sets of coordinates.
'Eeny-meeny-miny-mo...' he muttered.
Then he heard the sound of the Kusks advancing, roaring in anger, choking and spluttering on the exhaust fumes. The noise sounded like thunder.
The Doctor closed his eyes and selected the most recent set of coordinates. He glanced down at his lapel absent-mindedly for a cat badge to rub. Seeing nothing there, he satisfied himself with shaking his own hand and saying,'Good luck.'
He looked again at the glowing opacity swirling in the improvised cabinet, then at his small brass fob watch, and walked straight into it. Instantly he began to feel dizzy. He imagined toothless piranhas nipping at his flesh, his bones being stripped, his biodata coiling away into infinity. The control room faded like an old photograph, then his sight was shredded into ribbons. He was left wondering vaguely why unconsciousness couldn't be a rich warm mauve in colour when everything went its usual cold black.
***
The black ship had settled near the tiny river, and its touchdown jets had scorched a huge basin into the parched earth. There were three white cubes imprinted on the side of the ship in the shape of a basic pyramid, although a ripple of rust had corroded the pristine design. A ramp opened up from the top cube, and soon a dozen grey-suited humanoid guards with the three-cube insignia on their breasts were descending it, each carrying a stubby blaster. They spread out in an arrowhead formation, and after a suitably sinister pause, another figure appeared at the top of the ramp.
He wore the same style of grey uniform but with a long pale-blue cloak that hung down to his ankles in the still air. He was tall, and his white hair was cut extremely short around the chubby oval face, lined with age and responsibility. His big round eyes had their eyelashes cut short, and they flicked around the landscape, left and right. Apparently satisfied, he walked down the ramp slowly, and obviously with some pain. Behind the ramp at the base of the arrowhead pattern, two of the guards swapped glances as they waited.