Doctor Who_ Match of the Day - Chris Boucher [112]
He did not look back as he strode away. If he looked back it would give them a chance to hesitate, to question the action; this way there was no room for doubt about what they should be doing. Of course he was going to look pretty silly if they weren‟t following him...
Chapter Seventeen
They reached the ship without serious challenge, and with everyone on board the Doctor put his theory about top-of-the-range navigation programs to the test. As he expected it was a simple enough matter to instruct the system to recalibrate, reset and return to base, after which the ship functioned automatically. He had been vaguely tempted to make it look more complicated than it was and pretend to be concentrating constantly. That would have given him the chance to think rather than answer questions he wasn‟t ready to answer, or ask questions that other people weren‟t ready to answer. But in the event there seemed to be nothing else for it.
„What did you mean we both know why I‟m here?‟ Ronick asked in a lull in the conversation that followed the introductions and general explanations.
„The price on our heads,‟ the Doctor said, aware that he was back in the area of the technically true. „That is what you told me isn‟t it.‟
„It sounded like an accusation.‟
The Doctor shrugged. That‟s because it was an accusation, he thought, and said, „What did you mean when you said Finbar had been paid?‟
„Did I say that?‟
„You said that,‟ the Doctor said, and thought, that sounded like an evasion and...
„You‟d agreed to pay him, that‟s what I meant,‟ Ronick said.
...and that is because it was an evasion. „I see.‟
„Doctor?‟ Leela had been rummaging around in the small equipment lockers and was holding her knife and the carrying pouch she used. She looked by turns puzzled and delighted. „Did you know these were here?‟
„No,‟ he said. „I didn‟t.‟ More puzzlingly he knew that they hadn‟t been there when they had chartered the ship and its cocky young pilot and left the Hakai Orbital Transfer Station.
They got back to the OTS to find rumours about the approach of the fabled Ultraviolet Express were already dominating the news. When he set about booking the return flights to the planet‟s surface the Doctor found that his VIP
status was still intact and there still seemed to be no sign of arrest warrants for him or for Sita Benovides.
He thought he noticed a new interest from people though.
It seemed to be different, more guarded somehow. He even noticed some casual bystanders actually moving to try and avoid getting too close. Perhaps their motley little group appeared threatening. Perhaps Leela‟s fame had continued to grow in her absence and she was now so huge that everyone was overawed. Perhaps he really was getting paranoid.
He tried smiling and nodding at someone waiting nearby.
„Has anyone any idea what this Hakai woman is up to?‟ he asked, conversationally. „Any theories? What do you think?‟
The man looked surprised and then slightly embarrassed. „I think it‟s time for a change,‟ he said. „People break the law, the police should handle it. I think the whole Court of Attack thing is...‟
„Barbarous?‟ the Doctor suggested, pleased to find someone who agreed with his opinions. „That‟s exactly how I feel.‟
„I can understand that,‟ the man said. „And I wish you and the others the best of luck I really do.‟
„Thank you, I appreciate it,‟ the Doctor said as he watched the man‟s hasty efforts to manoeuvre himself away from the immediate vicinity. Weightlessness was a disorientating environment, but was that all it was? he wondered.
Something peculiar was going on.
The first attack came as they were walking through the concourse at Aerospace Main. While the return to full gravity had slowed them all up, in the case of Ronick and Sita it had caused giddiness and nausea as well. The Doctor himself was slightly discomfited, though he wasn‟t about to admit it but Ronick had no such inhibitions. „I‟m going to spew,‟ he groaned and stopped abruptly. The others stumbled to a pause, uncertain