Doctor Who_ Match of the Day - Chris Boucher [103]
„I see what you meant,‟ the Doctor said. It was not the biggest ship he had ever seen anywhere but it was certainly the biggest he‟d seen recently. And it was clearly not designed for close planetary orbits or intricate docking manoeuvres, no matter how large the satellite. „Fragile and cumbersome by the look of it. There would have to be a very good reason to bring that anywhere near the OTS.’
„Gods in a runner, I heard it was big,‟ Ronick muttered,
„but that scuffling thing‟s enormous.‟
„All that for one old woman?‟ Sita said.
„You‟re missing the point,‟ Finbar said. „The Lady Hakai‟s not one old woman: she‟s one old woman who can have whatever she wants, whenever she wants it.‟
„It must be difficult to decide what that might be,‟ the Doctor said and found himself wondering again how much of what was happening was actually by design.
„This is where you realise why you hired me,‟ Finbar said cheerfully, „and why I don‟t come cheap.‟ He started punching instructions into the navigation computer.
Watching closely, it was apparent to the Doctor that most of what the pilot was doing was nothing more than showmanship, smoke and mirrors for the uninitiated and the gullible. The core procedure was very simple and the skill required looked to be minimal. Top of the range did seem to mean ease of operation. Before the piloting charade had been completed the main drive responded and the ship, tiny in comparison to its weirdly florid and unwieldy target, began a gracefully elliptical closing manoeuvre.
As they watched on the screens Finbar crowed, „Would you look at that.‟ He continued to tap elaborate key combinations into what the Doctor could see was an obviously locked down and non-responsive navigation program. „That course is a thing of beauty is it not? And all it takes is a lifetime of practice.‟
The Doctor smiled to himself. And two key strokes, he thought, and a coin for the metre. „I imagine they are expecting us, aren‟t they,‟ he said.
„Expecting us?‟ Finbar stopped what he was doing and looked up.
„What makes you say that?‟ Ronick said. „Why would you think they‟d be expecting us?‟
„Because he‟s too relaxed,‟ Sita said, nodding at the pilot.
„He‟s not worried. No concerns at all about getting us on board, so unless he thinks we can overwhelm them with our superior size and power...‟
„Trust me I can dock this thing on that monstrosity without anyone noticing,‟ Finbar said, but the Doctor noticed he did not go back to his showy key work.
„You‟d better,‟ Ronick growled. „If you want to get paid.‟
On the screens the two ships converged.
The two huge, more or less naked men stood on either side of Leela holding her firmly by the arms. In her short life she had fought warriors of all shapes and sizes but these were a new experience for her. Their strength she could have expected but because they were so fat she had totally underestimated their speed and agility. Too late she realised that what she had learned and practised in the various stages between normal weight and weightlessness might not be the same for other fighters. These squat, very heavy men would clearly gain more advantage from the reduced weight conditions than she had and she was annoyed with herself for not waking up to this until it was too late.
She had woken to find the small ship she was on was approaching a much larger one and she had made a hurried search of the flight deck for a weapon of some kind but she had found nothing of use. She felt vulnerable and only half-dressed going into a dangerous situation without her knife and her combat pouch, but wasting time worrying about what she could not change would only add to the danger, she knew, so