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By Root 167 0

direction. Quickly he reached to the oxygen cylinders strapped on his back and uncoupled the main tube that led to his helmet, taking care to hold his breath like an underwater swimmer, and to hold his thumb over the end of the tube. He pointed the tube away from the spaceship and gently raised his thumb. At that moment precious oxygen was escaping into the void. But slowly, at first imperceptibly, he started to drift back towards the spaceship. His lungs bursting, he re-coupled the tube, hoping that the drift would continue under its own momentum. With terrifying slowness he reached the spaceship and grabbed one of the hand-holds. A few moments later he was standing by the external door of the flight deck. Looking through a port-hole he saw the captain’s seat empty and the door aft closed. It meant he could open the external door without robbing the spaceship of its entire oxygen, which would have killed Jo and the Master. As he prised open the external hatch it crossed his mind as odd that the Master had deserted his command position.

Jo kept up her conversation with the dummy of the Doctor. ‘You see. Doctor, you really shouldn’t take such risks. You’re not as young as you were, over seven hundred years old according to you, and one of these days your luck will run out—’

The Master’s voice cut in on her monologue. ‘Very touching, Miss Grant, but you can drop this masquerade now.’

She jumped. On the other side of the bars the Master stood pointing his blaster gun. With a cunning smile he reached through the bars and ripped away the bunk blankets, revealing the Doctor’s dummy. ‘Now, young lady, where is the Doctor?’

There was no use pretending. ‘He found a space suit and went outside.’

The Master laughed. ‘What a prosaic expression! He went outside, indeed. No doubt to check the weather?’

‘To get at you,’ she said, with as much venom as she could muster. ‘I imagine he’s making his way towards the flight deck.’

The Master unlocked the gate set in the bars. ‘Come out.’

Jo stayed where she was. ‘Why?’

‘Because I’ll blast you stone dead if you don’t. Miss Grant. It may not have occurred to you, but although the Doctor may be useful to me, you are totally useless. There are men with an eye for a girl with a pretty face, adventurers with a touch of pity for the innocent victim of a situation. I am not one of those men.’ His voice became menacing. ‘Come out of that cage in five seconds or stop existing!’

Jo came out of the cage. ‘What now?’

‘Down to the air-lock.’ The Master prodded Jo with his blaster gun. ‘Get in there! ‘ He swung open the air-lock door, pushed Jo inside, closed the door and went to stand where the television eye could see him. ‘Already on the flight deck, Doctor? Miss Grant is inside the air-lock. Unless you surrender immediately I shall open the outer door of the air-lock from the control here. Miss Grant will be sucked into space—’

His concentration focused on the television eye, he failed to notice when the Doctor crept along the corridor from for’ard. With a quick chop. the Doctor knocked the blaster gun from the Master’s hand. The Master whirled round to face his adversary.

‘What an ingenious fellow you are, Doctor.’

The Doctor, who had discarded his space helmet on the flight deck, commanded, ‘Release Miss Grant from the air-lock.’

The Master looked down at his blaster gun on the floor. Catching the glance, the Doctor kicked the gun further away. The Master licked his lips nervously. ‘Just as you say, Doctor—’

Feigning surrender, the Master suddenly spun round to the Doctor with a clenched fist. The Doctor staggered backwards, but regained balance in time to catch the Master by the neck. The Master drove his elbow into the Doctor’s stomach, but ignoring the pain, the Doctor slammed a heavy blow at the side of the Master’s head. The Master reeled towards the air-lock and fell to the ground, apparently almost unconscious. Then he sprang nimbly to his feet and put a hand on the control that operated the outer air-lock door. ‘Kick that blaster gun across to me,’ he screamed, ‘or we say goodbye