Doctor Who_ Longest Day - Michael Collier [49]
'Unless we can stop it, somehow.'
'Is that likely?'
'I don't know. But it's from this sector that the temporal leakage is emanating.' He met her gaze at last. 'But leakage from where, eh? That's what we've got to find out.'
'And will that distract you from the guilt you're feeling at losing your friend, do you think?' Anstaar stated the words as a gentle challenge.
The Doctor's face suddenly looked like that of a hurt child, but he said nothing. He turned back round and set off again up a steep incline, shoes squelching in the mud. "This way,' he mumbled as an afterthought.
Anstaar set off to follow him, feeling a little guilty now herself.
***
The explosion was so loud that Dwynaar imagined the silent sky would shatter as if it had been painted on glass. He leapt from his bunk in the communal centre stark naked and ran to the door, flinging it open.
It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the bright daylight still outside. By that time, standing in the doorway was a K'Arme guard.
Dwynaar almost spluttered in amusement at such a ridiculous idea. Then the guard broke his nose with the butt of his gun and kicked him into the side of the bunks. As the others began to wake, the guard fired several shots up at the ceiling. Patches of clear, bright, pink sky shone through the little holes. The guard walked into the barracks, and two more came in behind him as he pulled people out of their beds, shouting, scared, furious, or disbelieving what was happening.
'Felbaac, you stupid crusading bastard,' muttered Dwynaar, swallowing thick mouthfuls of blood. Sost, pale and sweaty, helped him stand, and the two of them were pushed with the others to the side of the room.
***
Tanhith looked at Sam, who seemed both scared and excited.
'What the hell was that bang?' she asked him.
'Our ship, I think. It's... OK. It wasn't going anywhere.'
She looked at him worriedly.'Are you going out?'
'No. I think they'll know me. I used to be quite a famous activist myself before they had me mineral crunching on Ipmuss, helping their terraform effort. My escape was big news.' He smiled, wryly. 'Felbaac wasn't much back then. My being here may help convince them you're Felbaac, fresh from some mission of liberty.'
'Fresh? Very likely,' said Sam, looking down at herself, at her stained clothes.
'It'll confuse them,' soothed Tanhith. 'Just like you confuse me.'
'Meaning?' Sam looked at him, kept looking at him as his face moved towards hers.
The door was abruptly smashed open and a chubby-faced man with an Artist-formerly-known-as-Prince moustache charged in with a drawn pistol and a guard in tow.
'Down!' he ordered, and Tanhith and Sam complied. There was a long silence as Sam gritted her teeth and waited for death to hit them, wondering what form it might take.
Eventually she heard Prince give an order to the guard.'Get hold of Commissioner Sangton.'
One side of her face pressed flat to the ground, she saw Tanhith's eyelashes doing their Mexican wave.
***
The Kusk Leader entered the control chamber, hissing angrily when he saw the modifications undertaken. 'Barely recognisable,' he rumbled, his jaw drooping in a curiously pathetic manner. 'Where is the humanoid responsible for the poison gas? He must be crushed.'
'He has gone,' said the Kusk technician dismissively, already busying itself checking circuitry.
'His life trace is not present,' confirmed the hunter Kusk.
"Then there must be some kind of transporter device in this area.'
The technician trudged over to the cannibalised transmission booth.
"This would appear to be a crude attempt at matter teleportation,' it rasped.
'Is it still functional?' 'Apparently.'
"Then that is how the humanoid has vanished. We shall use it ourselves to retrieve the Prize.' The Leader's gleeful smile abruptly dropped.'Wait. The humanoids have added... this.' He gestured disdainfully at the