Doctor Who_ Match of the Day - Chris Boucher [98]
bounced a runner on it that was it... and what had Jerro said about that... what was it you said Jerro... where was Jerro when he needed him? „Jerro?‟ he asked.
The android remained silent and unmoving. Keefer dropped the sabre and the gun and heard them clatter onto the deck at his feet. There was something wrong. He tried to discipline himself. A moment‟s concentration on each sense. A moment on sight alone; a moment on hearing alone... a moment on hearing alone hearing, touch, taste, smell sight...
It was just before he lost consciousness that Keefer realised he had been overcome by anaesthetic gas and the android was moving towards him now. He realised that the android was not affected by the gas and his last thought before his consciousness fell apart was that it was a dangerous talent...
Chapter Fifteen
The Doctor was not comfortable.
The seat he was in was small even though it was designed to contain him rather than support him. He had checked the so-called equipment lockers and found they contained very little in the way of useful equipment. The whole ship was a lot cruder and more cramped than it had appeared on the docking bay viewscreen. Of course it was not the first time that he had come across the bigger on the outside than on the inside concept. It was, after all, the basis of every sales pitch and advertising campaign on every world he had ever visited that had such things. The outside always promised more than the inside delivered.
At times like this he did miss the TARDIS. Bigger on the inside than on the outside was a basically modest approach and so much more civilised in his considered opinion. And he didn‟t enjoy not being in control under any circumstances, but if you were not going to be in control it was much better not to be in control of something reasonably comfortable with plenty of room to move about; something that didn‟t smell quite this bad.
„I‟m sorry I didn‟t get the chance to get a full ship purge and flush through,‟ Finbar was saying. „But if we‟re to make the rendezvous we have to kick on.‟
„Nice to know there‟s a reason for this stink,‟ Sita said,
„other than a lifestyle choice or a long-dead crew member.‟
„It‟s the smell of space travel,‟ Finbar said cheerfully. „You get used to it.‟
„I don‟t want to get used to it,‟ she said. „Personally I could have waited the extra few hours for the clean-up.‟
Finbar said, „Not really. We‟re shaving the one-point as it is.
Any more delay and we‟d have missed a full rotation.‟
„What‟s that supposed to mean?‟ Ronick said.
Finbar grinned. „It means if there‟s a god you‟re on good terms with, now‟s the time for a word.‟
The Doctor had found some passenger information displays while they were waiting for the docking bay formalities to be completed and had taken hard copies. To pass the time since they set out he had been studying these and watching Finbar work. His guess was that they must be approaching the first navigation point, where ships that had left the OTS were allocated a space-time location from which they took over responsibility for their own onward progress. Logic, experience and reading between the lines, put together with Finbar‟s air of suppressed excitement, suggested to the Doctor that probably the highest risk of catastrophic accident on these trips would be at the first navigation point. „It seems,‟ he said, „the Hakai Orbital Transfer Station take no responsibility for what happens once the first navigation point, presumably the one-point in pilot‟s jargon, is passed.
And unless you‟re accurate to the nanosecond they don‟t take responsibility for what happens before you get to it either. I imagine all this translates as: you‟re on your own, good luck and I hope you‟ve got a good pilot.‟
„You have got a good pilot,‟ Finbar said. „The nav programme is top of the range,‟ he flicked a switch, „and is laid in,‟ he peered at the screen read-out, „and we‟ll have full main engine burn in twenty.‟
„And if we don‟t?‟ Ronick was clearly not enjoying the