Doctor Who_ Match of the Day - Chris Boucher [104]
By the time the ship finished its automatic docking procedures Leela was already inside the outside airlock and when everything finally fell silent she pressed the standard key sequence and listened to the air pump‟s brief fluttering.
She knew by the short time it ran that the hatch would open easily and she assumed this meant that there would be the same air on the other side of it.
She grasped the release bar, took a deep breath and pushed hard. As the hatch swung open she pulled herself out and dived forward. She rolled lightly onto the deck, vaulting back onto her feet and spinning round in a full circle to find and face her kidnappers. There was no one there. She was alone in what she recognised was another, much larger, airlock. She looked for the control panel. If they were not here then they must be on the other side of the next doorway. She found she was dizzy. She located the control panel and stepped towards it. She was dizzy. Why was she dizzy? She had practised in these conditions; she should not be dizzy.
She staggered a little. Had she practised the spin? She could not quite remember practising the spin. She must have practised the spin. The spin was an obvious thing to practise.
The door controls seemed to have moved further away. She reached for them. Her hand seemed to have moved further way...
When she woke up again she was facing a short, enormously fat man in a battle thong. She was still a little dizzy but there should be time enough to clear her head, she thought, because this short, enormously fat man in a battle thong looked as though he would have trouble doing anything quickly, except eat. Then he leapt at her.
Leela stood between the two squat, fat warriors without bothering to struggle. She could not unbalance them. Any movement she made was countered not by one but by both men working together. They were well trained and disciplined. There would be a time to fight back against them but this was not it. For the moment she wanted them to think she was beaten. For the moment, in fact, she was beaten but that was just for the moment. The three of them stood in a pool of harsh light, unmoving and waiting. Leela assumed they were waiting for them. She tried to peer through the cone of brightness and see into the darkness beyond but it was impossible. She closed her eyes and relaxed, letting herself go limp. She felt the two men bracing slightly to hold her in position. At least they would get tired before she did and there might be some advantage in that.
„So you are the infamous Leela,‟ a woman‟s voice said. „You are less impressive than I had imagined.‟ It was an odd voice: at once harsh and at the same time light, almost musical in tone. „Such are the limits of tri-dee I suppose.‟
Leela opened her eyes. She stared in the direction the voice seemed to be coming from. It sounded to her as though the speaker was trying to mimic someone else. The woman, if it was a woman, was invisible in the blackness. „Show yourself,‟
she said. „Or are you a sneaking coward like all the others?
Where are you hiding? Show yourself if you are not afraid.‟
„Turn her round slowly,‟ the voice said. „Let me see her.‟
Holding Leela firmly the two warriors shuffled in a ponderous, flat-footed circle. „Unimpressive,‟ the voice said.
„From any angle she is unimpressive. No threat that I can see. Disappointing. The agent must be skilful to have turned this one into a figure of note.‟
„Is this why I have been brought here?‟ Leela demanded. „To be sneered at by someone who cowers in the darkness?‟
„Revive the other one,‟ the voice ordered. „Bring him here.
Make sure he is uninjured. The fight must be fair or it is nothing.‟
Chapter Sixteen
Keefer