Doctor Who_ Prime Time - Mike Tucker [35]
+YES, MR LUKOS+
‘The Doctor’s companion, the girl Ace, where is she?’
+OUTSIDE STUDIO ONE. THE BLINNATI FEMALE
IS WITH HER+
‘Excellent. Inform security. Get Commissionaire Gurney to drive her out of the building, but tell him that the two of them are not, repeat not, to be captured. I want that young lady to lead us back to the Doctor’s TARDIS.’
+VERY GOOD, MR LUKOS+
Lukos caught Trasker by the arm. ‘I think we should pay Saarl a little visit in the studio, my dear. Prepare you for your supporting role.’
Ace stared back into the cavernous gloom of the studio. There was no sign of the Doctor. Every instinct screamed at her to go back in and help him, but now that Gatti had told her that everything was being televised she knew she had no chance of getting to the Doctor and warning him without being seen.
Gatti hovered in the corridor, frightened and impatient.
‘Come on, Ace! They’ve got to know we’re here!’
‘I can’t just leave him! I’ve got to know what’s going on.’
Gatti caught her arm. ‘Then let’s find a television! If they are broadcasting everything that he does then we can watch, find out where they’re leading him!’
The sound of booted feet made them start.
Commissionaires, guns poised, appeared at the far side of the corridor.
‘There they are!’
One of the guards raised a gun and a stream of thick red liquid sprayed towards them. Ace hurled Gatti to one side. The liquid splashed on to the wall alongside them, hardening into a sticky web-like mass. Gatti pulled at Ace, dragging her back on to her feet. ‘Come on! We’ve got to go! Now!’
The guards began to lumber down the corridor towards them.
Gatti started to run. Ace gave one last anguished look back into the studio, then sprinted after her.
The Doctor and the Master stood at the edge of the jungle looking out at a vast barren plain. Red sand swept away in a bizarre dunescape, dust devils swirling through the air. Ahead of them vast structures stretched upwards – strange, twisted, root like buildings, looking more grown than built. Branch-like corridors and gantries twined amongst them, reflected in the glistening copper-coloured surfaces. The distant horizon shimmered in a heat haze and the sky overhead gleamed like brushed steel. A low moaning wail sang out over the sand, a mournful wind.
The Doctor gave the Master a quizzical glance. ‘If this is your TARDIS then you’ve got some very strange ideas about interior design.’
The Master set off across the sand, heading for one of the distant structures. ‘My TARDIS is damaged, Doctor. The entire pedestrian infrastructure is in a state of flux. We need to access an auxiliary control node and try and re-establish some kind of order.’
The Master pulled a small device from his pocket, a jet-black sphere, its surface twinkling with hundreds of tiny lights. ‘There are several power readings from the structures in front of us. I was tracking them before your rather melodramatic appearance. With luck we can access a control room before the Zzinbriizi catch up with us.’
The Doctor trotted after him. ‘An excellent idea, but may I ask why you have a pack of hungry Zzinbriizi after you? The last time we met you were trying to cure yourself by draining proteins and enzymes from helpless pensioners’.’
‘It is a battle for survival Doctor, one in which I have no time for your qualms about inferior species.’
‘Really.’ The Doctor’s voice hardened. ‘Survival at any cost, the entire universe merely lab animals for you to dispose of as you will.’
‘If need be.’
‘Will you never learn? Will life ever mean anything to you?’
The Master rounded on him. ‘It means everything to me! I am dying, Doctor! All my experimentation, all my schemes have been for nothing. This body is being ravaged by a disease from a dead world, and unless I can stop it I will be dead within the year!’
The Doctor stopped, speechless.