Doctor Who_ Storm Harvest - Mike Tucker [16]
‘Hmm?’ He looked at her quizzically, his eyes shaded under the brim of his hat.
‘I was going to pop into the town, I need something for tonight but, er, well...’ She shrugged. ‘I’ve got no dosh, Professor.’
‘Ah!’ The Doctor sat back in his chair, rummaged in his pocket and pulled out the scarab. ‘And you’d like to borrow this.’
Ace tried to put on an endearing expression. ‘I won’t go berserk, Professor, honest.’
The Doctor stood up and looked at her sternly. ‘If you lose this...’ he broke into a huge grin ‘...then I’ll have to steal another one!’ He tapped 29
her on the nose and held out the scarab. Before Ace could reach for it the ‘beetle’ had hopped off his hand and attached itself to her vest, clinging there like some elaborate brooch.
‘Thanks, Professor!’
Ace bounded out of the room. The Doctor watched her go and then settled back into his chair. Reaching into his pocket again, he plucked out the curious shell and placed it on the rail in front of him.
His expression darkened.
‘No. Something is definitely wrong.’
The first of the suns was already sinking below the horizon when Brenda Mulholland finally turned away from the sea.
The search had been called off an hour ago and she had watched the coastguard flyer lumber back over the waves and settle on the pad, its searchlights blazing. If the colony had been bigger they might have had more search and rescue vehicles, but Earth Central had plenty of other, more important, colonies, and her request for another coastguard crew had been denied.
She snapped her computer shut angrily. Executives from Central were all too keen to take the supralight transport when they wanted a holiday, or when they wanted to impress some ambassador or other with a trip around their showcase colony, but when it came to shelling out hard cash...
More and more people came to Coralee every year, and yet the hastily assembled infrastructure was designed for a population half the current size. If ever they had a major disaster they were in real trouble.
She shut off the lights in her office and stepped out into the main control room. The dull red lights of the artificial night had just kicked in and she could see technicians swapping consoles with the next shift, handing over data-pads and pointing out anomalies to be watched.
Tired people stretched and yawned and prepared to head down to the waterfront, to meet loved ones, pick up the threads of their social lives.
Coralee seemed to be conducive to relationships. Brenda had performed three wedding ceremonies this month alone.
She nodded her goodnights and crossed through the security gate, her ID card bleeping softly as she checked out. She set off towards the main exit. The corridor was warm after the air-conditioned calm of the control centre. She stopped. Her apartment was a good walk away on the east side of the colony and she wasn’t sure she had any food in anyway. Perhaps she’d join Garrett for that drink after all. It would be better than moping around on her own.
Hoisting her computer bag on to her shoulder she turned about and 30
headed back the way she had come. Garrett tended to drink at Sullivan’s bar on the west quay. If she cut through the lecture room she could leave the building through the loading bay and save struggling through the market.
She jogged down the stairs to the lower level and tapped her access code into the lecture room door. After the warmth of the corridor she shivered as she entered the cavernous hall. Ranks of tiered seats stretched around her in a semicircle. Coralee boasted one of the finest lecture facilities in the colonies. It was due to host a major conference for the Braxiatel Trust next year.
She closed the door, plunging the room into darkness once more.
She could see the exit sign on the other door glowing from the far side of the room. She set off across the podium, using the backs of the front row seats to feel her way.
Suddenly she crashed into something and cursed as she overbalanced and tumbled to the floor, her computer flying from her hand. She struggled