Doctor Who_ Storm Harvest - Mike Tucker [84]
He pulled the body into an alcove and stripped it of communicator, entry coders, anything of use. He pulled a small device from the guard’s tunic. A transmat pad. He smiled. Things were going just as he had hoped.
Satisfied that the guard was safely tucked away in the shadows, he edged forward into the power room.
Warmth flooded through him. This was where he had first felt at peace. In the dark, with the echoing throb of the drums in his ears, he crossed to the console. Yes. This was right. He began scanning over the myriad of controls.
His hands hovered over the reactor console. His brow creased.
Jumbled images and thoughts crowded through his brain. He had to complete his mission, but everything was so confusing. Clear in his mind was the order that if anything went wrong, he was to detonate the reactor. Destroy the enemy. And everything was wrong. Everyone was the enemy.
Behind him he could hear booted feet, cries of alarm as the body of the guard was discovered. He knew what it was that he had to do.
The feet came closer. The creatures were close. Yes. The aliens.
They were evil. Must be destroyed.
With sudden clarity, Garrett punched at the controls on the board.
Read-outs began to fluctuate wildly, lights blinked red in danger areas.
Klaxons began to sound, deafening in the surroundings and echoing off the pipes. Garrett raised the plasma gun and fired charge after charge into the console.
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There were harsh cries from behind him as troops swarmed into the sub basement. Garrett smiled and triggered the transmat control.
In Coralee control Brenda and Q’ilp looked up in disbelief as emergency klaxons blared across the colony. Human and dolphin stared at each other.
‘You’ve got to be kidding...’ said Q’ilp.
Mottrack lumbered to Brenda’s side. ‘What?’
‘That’s the reactor!’
She barged through the milling technicians to a control board. ‘Good God. They’ve shut down the coolant flow.’ She rounded on the Cythosi general. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing, Mottrack?’
Mottrack hissed angrily. ‘This is not our doing. I too have men out there.’
The communicator on his belt screeched at him.
‘Yes!’ The general’s face clouded with rage. ‘Then find him, now!’
He turned back to Brenda. ‘Someone has sabotaged your reactor.’
Brenda knew what he was going to tell her. ‘Garrett?’
‘I believe so. I’m afraid that I am going to return to my shuttle, Co-ordinator. Things are becoming a little... how shall we say...
uncomfortable down here. I do hope that the loss of your reactor will not inconvenience you.’
He barked a series of guttural commands at his troops, and marched from the room.
Bisoncawl’s head jerked up as the alarms went off. Emergency lighting bathed the control room in a deep red glow. The Doctor raised his eyebrows quizzically.
‘Oh, dear. That doesn’t bode well.’
Bisoncawl shot him a venomous look and crossed to his panicking staff who were struggling with the reactor controls.
‘What is the reason for these alarms?’
The technician didn’t take his eyes from the monitors. His fingers moved clumsily over the keyboard, the human-made instruments looking tiny under his huge hands.
‘Coolant flow to the reactor has been shut down, Commander. The systems are going critical.’
‘How?’ Bisoncawl stared at the Doctor, who smiled innocently back at him. ‘How has this been done?’
The technician shook his head. ‘The problem isn’t at this end, Commander. The coolant has been stopped from a remote terminal at the colony and locked down. There is nothing we can do from this end.’
Bisoncawl was reaching for his communicator when it shrieked into 162
life.
‘Bisoncawl.’ His face went grim as a voice bellowed at him from the speaker. He nodded. Yes, General. I understand.’
The Doctor strained to hear the conversation. His mind was racing.
Something was going wrong with the Cythosi plans and he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
As he watched, Bisoncawl snapped the communicator back