Doctor Who_ Match of the Day - Chris Boucher [38]
„The session of this Court of Attack is at an end,‟ the High Referee announced. „By the Rules of Attack we live and we die. Let the Rules of Attack be maintained before all and every one.‟
As the members of the court filed out of a doorway at the end of the elevated tier of seats, the Doctor said, more or less to himself, „Well that was bizarre.‟
„What was it for?‟ Leela asked.
„It was to make murder seem like an acceptable way of life,‟
the Doctor said. „We are apparently free to go and I think we should go back to the TARDIS and leave immediately. This is a sick society and we don‟t want to catch whatever it‟s got.‟
He started towards the door.
Leela did not follow him. „What about the man, Jerro Fanson?‟ she demanded of his departing back.
„What about him?‟ the Doctor said, striding out of the doorway and disappearing into the corridor.
„You gave him your promise,‟ Leela shouted.
The Doctor stuck his head back round the door.
„Irrelevant,‟ he said. „He was obviously released before we were.‟
„Why is it obvious?‟
The Doctor sighed. She was right of course, he thought.
Irritating girl. Before they left he should check and make sure. „We‟ll check and make sure,‟ he said. „Before we leave.‟
Leela nodded. „If your word has no value your life has no meaning,‟ she said solemnly.
The Doctor smiled his wolfish smile. „Another quote from the Warrior‟s Handbook?‟ he teased.
Leela walked towards the door. „A warrior‟s trust must be given before it can be taken,‟ she said.
„Oh dear I‟m sorry I asked,‟ he said wryly as they set off down the anonymous white corridor looking for directions and information and, most important of all as far the Doctor was concerned, the way out.
Chapter Seven
A spaceplane‟s climb to orbit was reputed to be one of the great travel experiences, especially if you could afford a window seat. From his window seat, Keefer watched the sky turn from blue to black, and then craned for a glimpse back at the planet‟s surface. Like everyone else he had seen tri-dee footage of this, and he had ridden a simulator, but it turned out that the real thing was different. It was noisier, less comfortable and you couldn‟t see as much: and yet it was more satisfying. Maybe it was because you knew it was real, and although you could trick your senses, Keefer understood better than most there was one instinctive response you couldn‟t fool. Only real things could really kill you. Deep down the thrill of reality was the chance of dying.
Before this his experience of off-planet travel was limited to one brief trip to the first moon when he was a kid. It had been paid for by the company orphanage so that he could take the entry tests for the Space Force training college, the Luni-Uni. He passed them all, but then the psych-profiling cost him the place and a better life. There had been a lot of technical jargon but the gist of it was that he was too aggressive. He never got into fights with the other kids, was never insolent to the trainers, never defied the dormitory matrons, but still the machines detected a buried rage, which it was suggested might surface at any time.
It occurred to Keefer that, but for that evaluation, he might have been flying the spaceplane now instead of hiding in it, running from one of the two most powerful people in the system. And since he didn‟t know which of the two most powerful people in the system it was, he might not be running from them at all, he could be running right to them.
Then it struck him: a blinding flash of the obvious. Running right to them was his only chance of survival.
„That‟s why they did it that way,‟ Sita explained patiently.
„Precisely because we would think it was too much trouble.‟
The State Security Minister looked sceptical. „You could buy your way into the spaceport for less than the cost of the ammunition. And nobody the wiser.‟
Sita put down untasted the