Doctor Who_ Longest Day - Michael Collier [76]
Anstaar looked over to the ridge, a panic-stricken look on her face.
'Oh dear,' said the Doctor.
***
Felbaac poked about in as many dark corners as he could find, and his suspicion that Yast was hiding in one of them was proved correct.
'Come on. Out.'
Yast was reluctant. 'You made a mess of that, didn't you?'
'Shut up. Come on. I need your help to get them back on my side.'
Yast stared at him. 'What? After all this? You're the only man who can walk, Felbaac. You're responsible for the destruction of this entire camp, and all because you wanted a K'Arme head on your wall.'
'But now we're safe. I saved everyone! And I've got us safe passage off this dump! We've got to get ready to get out of here.'
Yast climbed painfully to his feet from under the bruk shelter and grabbed hold of Felbaac's tunic. Then come on, let's go. Forget everything here. We can just go, recover our strength -'
'Yast...' Felbaac turned away, as if from an overwrought child he was losing patience with. 'Sangton got away. He'll be heading for his ship. But I was clever - too clever for him!' Felbaac assumed a smug expression. 'I got the safe-path signalling frequency and the safe-path coordinates in and out!'
'I know that, I heard,' muttered Yast, but he looked suitably impressed at Felbaac's daring.
"Then I took out communications once I signalled through to our cargo thruster, and that's coming down soon.'
'You had the cargo thruster up there all the time?'Yast's eyes were wide open with sudden hope, but Felbaac ignored him.
'There's no flight crew left alive on the K'Arme ship but Sangton will still be trying to stop us. So we've got to round up the men, and get them ready to leave as soon as our cargo's taken their place.'
Yast shook his head. 'What cargo?' But the Fearless Rebel Leader, who had almost lost everything for them, was already moving quickly away.
'Come on then,'Yast muttered to himself, wincing with pain as he set off.'Let's be quick.'
***
The Doctor was scrabbling for bits of the probe's workings, the scraping of metal against metal putting Anstaar's nerves further on edge. Every now and then the Doctor would threaten to topple over, clutching at his head as energy from the probe assaulted his senses.
No other sound could be heard in the dead, damp air save for the steady plopping of Nashaad's landings in the soft wet mud and the unearthly rustling of the time barrier above. She saw the look of intense concentration on Nashaad's face. How long had he survived here, all alone, his friends and comrades dead or dying? How long before he joined them?
She glanced up at the lip over the huge basin they stood in, scared to imagine what monstrous shapes would soon be standing there staring back at her.
***
'Tanhith! Tanhith,wait!'
Sam kept the injured man moving. 'Ignore him. Come on, ignore him.'
Felbaac caught them up.'Wait! Wait! Didn't you hear me?'
'Yes, we heard you,' snapped Sam. 'We just chose to ignore you.'
'But I don't understand -'
'Drop dead, Felbaac.' It was hardly a sophisticated riposte but Sam was feeling too frazzled for pithy repartee.
'It looks like Tanhith might do so first,' said Felbaac, gravely. She spun round to glare at him, eyes flashing. Tanhith leaned heavily on her.
Felbaac looked at her, as if sizing her up. 'Now listen, Sam, you did a good job stalling the K'Arme, but I'm back now, and I'm taking command.'
Sam stared at him, and at Yast beside him in all his pallid splendour, in disbelief. 'Command of what, for Christ's sake?' She groped around incredulously for the right words. 'Look around you!' She gestured at the walls of the settlement, cracked and still smoking from blaster fire, the ragged queue for medical attention, the bodies still lying pink and blistering in the heat.'It's over. Leave us alone.'
'And where will you go?' Felbaac's