Doctor Who_ Space War - Malcolm Hulke [6]
‘Sometimes we carry live cargo,’ said Hardy. ‘Animals.’
‘But we aren’t animals,’ Jo protested.
‘You’re Dragons,’ said Hardy. ‘What’s the difference? The sooner your lot are exterminated, the better.’ He slammed the door shut.
Immediately the Doctor began to rummage in a capacious pocket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, aiming it at where he expected the lock to be. There was no lock. From outside they heard Hardy slide two old-fashioned bolts across the door. The Doctor shrugged and put away the sonic screwdriver. Neither of them spoke until they had heard Hardy’s footsteps go back up the corridor.
‘Doctor, why do they keep calling us Dragons?’
‘Because that’s how they see us, Jo.’
‘But why Dragons?’
‘Some non-human life form, something they’re frightened of.’ The Doctor had a flash of-realisation. ‘Of course— Draconians !’
‘What?’
The Doctor was excited by his deduction. ‘If this is the period I think it is, there are two great empires spreading through the galaxy of the Milky Way—Earth and Draconia, both expanding, colonising one planet after another, and coming into head-on collision.’
‘The history lesson’s very interesting,’ Jo began, but the Doctor let her go no further.
‘Not history, Jo, at least not your history. For you, coming from Earth in its twentieth century, this is the future.’
‘Whatever it is,’ she said patiently, ‘why do they mistake us for these—what did you say?’
‘Draconians. Dragons is a rather unflattering nickname the Earth people use. You remember that sound you heard?’
‘Yes...’
‘And then we ran into that chap with the gun?’
Jo suddenly went white with fear and cowered away from the door. ‘No, I don’t want to remember! ‘
The Doctor gently touched her arm. ‘Think, Jo. Concentrate. What did you see?’
‘I saw... I saw...’ She covered her face with her hands. ‘I saw a Drashig! ‘
‘No you didn’t, Jo. You saw that man. But the sound made you see the thing you most fear.’
Jo slowly took her hands from her face. ‘How?’
‘Oh, it wouldn’t be too difficult. Probably ultrasonics geared to stimulate the fear centres in the brain.’
Jo thought about this. ‘It only lasted with me a short time, yet that man kept seeing us as Dragons—Draconians, that is.’
‘Maybe it affects different people in different ways,’ said the Doctor. ‘What interests me is why someone has gone to all this trouble to make people see things that aren’t really there.’
Jo nodded but she was busy looking at the small barred grille set in the door. ‘Doctor, we’ve got to get out of here.’ She stood on tiptoes and peeped out. ‘I can just see the TARDIS.’
The Doctor smiled. ‘Well, that’s some consolation, but not much use while we’re locked up in here.’
The Draconian voice repeated its warning over the ship’s loudspeaker. ‘If you surrender your cargo you will not be harmed.’
‘I bet they always say that. They promise not to harm you, then they come on board and kill.’ Stewart’s mind was filled with thoughts of his comfortable two-roomed bachelor apartment on Earth, and of the girlfriend he had hoped to see after this trip. He was twenty-five and strongly believed he was too young to die. He desperately wished he could open his eyes, wake up and find this was all a nightmare.
‘You’re the one who said it would all blow over,’ Hardy reminded his young companion.
‘I meant there wouldn’t be war,’ said Stewart, not now with very much conviction. ‘It’s madness for the Draconians to carry on like this. They’ve got so much to lose, just as we have.’
‘Maybe they are mad,’ said Hardy. ‘They look mad enough. I had half a mind to shoot those two prisoners instead of locking them away. Anyway, let’s try again.’ He spoke into the stalk microphone. ‘Emergency, emergency. This is Earth Cargo Ship C-982 on co-ordinate 8972-6483—’
The Draconian voice came again over the loudspeaker. ‘It’s no use, Earthmen. We know your emergency wavelength and we are jamming it. No one on Earth will hear your cries for help now.’
Hardy pushed the microphone away. ‘So that’s that.’
Stewart