Doctor Who_ Storm Harvest - Mike Tucker [75]
Mottrack’s eyes narrowed. They were expendable, but had none of the fight of a Zithra. They died within minutes of the start of an interrogation, leaving him frustrated and unfulfilled.
‘Get out,’ Mottrack hissed.
He slumped back in his chair, glowering at the read-outs. The Doctor’s face swam into view before his eyes. There was a man who he would look forward to interrogating after all this was over.
A smile crossed the general’s face.
Now he had something to look forward to.
144
Chapter Sixteen
Holly Reif sat in the cool of the boathouse staring at the space where the Hyperion Dawn was usually berthed. She was in her usual boiler suit, her tool pouch slung around her waist, ostensibly back on duty with the repair teams, helping to get the colony back together.
The doctors and nurses from the medical centre had complained, of course. There was no way she should be up and about, let alone back at work. But they could find nothing physically wrong with her and had reluctantly agreed that keeping busy was probably the best thing for her.
As she had left the control centre with R’tk’tk, the little man who had helped her – the Doctor – had stopped her. He had looked at her, concern in those mysterious grey eyes, saying nothing. Then he had smiled, thanked her for her help and bustled away with the crowd surrounding Brenda.
Holly shook her head. There was something very strange about that little man, but at the same time she felt more at ease with him than with anyone else she had ever met. When they’d been working so desperately together there had been something between them, as if they’d been relying on each other for years.
That familiarity was comforting now as she looked around at the shattered remnants of her life, and as the full enormity of What the Krill had taken from her began to hit home. She crossed the boathouse to a set of lockers. The crew lockers from the Hyperion Dawn.
Jim. Trevor. Auger. Geeson.
Just names now Tags on metal cabinets that were all she had left of her friends.
She opened Jim’s locker, not quite knowing what she expected to find, or wanted to find. She pulled out his oilskins, unpacked in readiness for the stormy season. A gust of wind rattled the boathouse and sent waves skittering over the surface of the water.
The hurricane was practically on them.
‘Holly...’
R’tk’tk was bobbing in the water, regarding her solemnly. Years of dealing with the cetaceans had taught her to recognise the subtlest of 145
expressions on their faces and she could see that the dolphin was concerned.
‘I’m OK, R’tk. Everything all right out there?’
‘I think you’d better come and look.’
Holly hung the oilskins back in the locker and followed the dolphin out into the harbour.
‘Good God!’
‘Yup. It’s a worry, isn’t it?’
She stared out at the dozens of shuttles and transports that dotted the surface of the sea. As she watched another thundered overhead to settle in the bay.
She turned back and looked along the jetty. She could see a crowd in the town centre.
‘Rescue ships?’
The dolphin shook his head. ‘They’re no type I’ve ever seen. These are out-of-town boys.’
A gust of wind blew spray across the water and Holly began to shrug into her jacket.
‘I think I might wander back up to control, find out from Brenda what the hell is going on.’
She set off along the jetty. R’tk’tk watched her go.
‘I’ll just float around here then,’ he chirruped.
Coralee control bustled with activity. Humans, Dreekans and cetaceans vied for position as the Cythosi installed their equipment in the damaged control room.
The Doctor and Q’ilp stood to one side watching the proceedings with interest. The Cythosi commander, Bisoncawl, moved among the chaos like a huge battleship, keeping everything running smoothly. The Doctor eyed him warily. His every instinct screamed that something was not right, but he could find no fault with the work the Cythosi were doing. Everything seemed to indicate that the aliens were genuinely