Doctor Who_ Match of the Day - Chris Boucher [101]
„She‟s not on it though is she,‟ Ronick was saying.
„Everybody knows that ship‟s just a decoy. Nobody knows where she really is. Nobody knows if she‟s still alive come to that. There are gods younger than she is.‟
„I don‟t suppose he said why, did he?‟ the Doctor asked Finbar.
„Why what?‟
„Why he wanted to get on board.‟
„Money he said.‟
„You didn‟t believe him.‟
Finbar grimaced. „There are easier ways.‟
„Perhaps he was ambitious,‟ Sita said.
„He gave me quite a lot more than I asked for. Didn‟t seem to matter to him.‟
„Why would it?‟ Ronick said. „If he thought he had a chance at a stack of cash you‟d get a nosebleed climbing over he‟s not going to be bothered about pocket change.‟
„It wasn‟t money he was there for.‟
„No,‟ the Doctor said. „Whatever this is about it‟s more important than money.‟
„More important than money?‟ Ronick snorted.
Finbar chortled. „Wherever she is I‟ll bet that fighter of yours is really glad to have you as her agent isn‟t she?‟
With a small guilty start the Doctor was reminded that he had forgotten about Leela. Again. He had been distracted.
Again. It was getting to be a habit of mind. I must set about finding her, he resolved. Wherever she is I must find her.
Wherever she is? Odd choice of phrase that since he hadn‟t told Finbar she was missing. One of the others must have mentioned it, he thought. I mustn‟t get paranoid just because I‟m on the run from the police. I mustn‟t see connections where there are no connections and plots where there are no plots. I must keep an open mind. And I must find Leela.
Wherever she is.
When Leela pushed open the airlock hatch she was holding her breath. She had heard the air pump stop pumping air almost as soon as it had started and she was not sure what that might mean so she held her breath as she slid out of the narrow chamber and into the larger space beyond.
Down a tight, dimly lit passageway she could see what she took to be the two sealed bulkheads the pilot had described: both now unsealed and standing open. Beyond them was what looked like the other emergency airlock he had spoken of. It was another emergency airlock. The words finally meant something to her. The airlocks were there to keep the loss of air confined to one part of the ship if anything went wrong in another. They were there only for emergencies. When she had faked unconsciousness it made the pilot afraid that something had gone wrong with her part of the ship. That was why he was wearing the breathing suit. She let out the breath she had been holding and inhaled deeply. Knowing too much about what could happen and being too careful as a result is what had got him killed.
She moved quickly along the passageway, more comfortable now with the partial weightlessness of pseudo-grav. She was satisfied that, with time and a small amount of practice, she could cope with any sort of gravity from normal to none at all. If she needed to fight in any of those conditions she was confident that she would be able to. It did not seem likely that she would need to though, which was a pity. She would have preferred to die fighting if she was going to die. As she clambered into the other emergency airlock she found herself wondering if the Doctor had any idea what had happened to her.
As she expected, the airlock opened easily with a minimum of air pumped in and a soft hiss as it was released. She pulled herself out onto the flight deck and was surprised at how small and squalid it was. The pilot had said his living conditions were worse than hers and he had not been exaggerating. Hating, sleeping, bodily waste elimination: everything was crammed into this one tiny, bad-smelling space. But if he had not exaggerated about that, he certainly had about his part in flying the ship. From the way he had talked she had imagined there must