Doctor Who_ Storm Harvest - Mike Tucker [8]
The Doctor nodded. ‘Coastguard. Search and rescue. There’s quite a big town at the end of the bay.’
He handed Ace a pair of opera glasses and pointed down the beach.
Ace peered through the glasses. Through the palm trees she could make out gleaming white buildings bordering thick green jungle. The town swept out along a natural peninsula with a small harbour at its tip.
Ace could see sails and expensive-looking cruisers. It reminded her of the Greek islands; except for the rings of course, and the extra sun.
She lowered the glasses. ‘Professor...’
‘Hmm?’ The Doctor was hunched over the circuit board, poking at it with his screwdriver.
‘Do you have any plans? I mean, are we rushing off anywhere?’
‘Not especially, no.Why?’
‘Well...’
The Doctor looked up from his work, his eyes twinkling. ‘Well...?’
‘Could we stay for a couple of days?’
He grinned. ‘I was hoping you’d say that.’
Ace lay back on her towel. ‘Wicked.’
The Doctor returned to his tinkering. ‘If we’ve got a couple of days I’ll have time to magnetise the sand and get the doors to open.’
Ace was about to tell him that he was a sad git when a shadow suddenly blotted out the suns. Before she had a chance to shout out a warning the Doctor’s kite came hurtling out of the sky and crashed into the City of the Exxilons.
15
Chapter Three
The Hyperion Dawn drifted quietly in the swell of the ocean, with no indication on her decks of the violence of the morning. She suddenly bucked in the water as the coastguard flyer dropped over her in a low hover, its engines churning the sea into boiling foam.
Sensors swept over the craft and the ship’s log automatically uplinked to the hovering flyer. The pilot began a slow circle of the ship. His co-pilot suddenly pointed at the ragged holes torn in the deck plates.
‘What the hell d’you think did that?’
The two men looked at each other grimly.
‘Coastguard to Coralee Control.’
Brenda was at the communications console before the technician had a chance to raise his hand.
‘Go ahead. Her heart was pounding.
‘We’ve found the Hyperion Dawn . She’s at her original coordinates.
Looks like she’s still tethered to the com cable. She’s taken on a lot of water; barely afloat.’
‘What about the crew?’
‘No sign of life. And there are... marks.’
‘Marks?’
There was a pause. ‘It looks as if something tore the bottom out of the ship.’
‘You mean she ran aground?’
‘No. No, she’s too far out for that. I don’t know what in hell caused this.’
A low mutter began to run around the control room. If there was something that Brenda could do without it was a mystery at sea.
‘Quiet!’ Her voice was like a gunshot. She glared at the technicians around her. ‘Leave the rumours to the market traders. We’ve got a rescue in progress, remember.’
She turned back to the console.
‘Is the escape bubble still there?’
‘Hold on, we’ve just got to swing aft... No. No, the bubble has been launched!’
16
‘Then there may well be survivors. Get on to it.’
‘Do you want us to tractor the ship back in?’
‘Yes. No, wait. Brenda tapped her teeth. It sounded likely that the ship had been attacked by someone or something. If it was a natural phenomenon then it would be under her jurisdiction but if it was a deliberate act of piracy...
‘Send a drone down. Full data sweep. When it’s done I’ll send a salvage crew out. You get after that bubble.’
‘Roger that, Control. Coastguard out.’
Brenda crossed to the video wall that dominated one side of the control room. A Dreekan technician powered up the sensor array, his hands dancing over the keyboards.
‘Drone online. Receiving data.’
The screen glowed into life with the startup icon from the drone, then flickered briefly with static.
Brenda frowned. ‘What’s wrong?’
The Dreekan looked puzzled. ‘It’s as if the signal is being split.’
He punched at a series of controls. ‘Got it!’
The picture swam for a moment, then suddenly they were seeing the Hyperion Dawn from the air as the drone dropped from the belly of the coastguard flyer. Brenda leaned