Doctor Who_ The Doomsday Weapon - Malcolm Hulke [18]
Ashe went away, which was exactly what the Doctor wanted. He took a magnifying-glass from his pocket and inspected one claw mark in detail. The marks were too regular to be natural. The Doctor needed to put tiny scrapings of the clawed surface under a powerful miscroscope to learn more about the true nature of the claw, was it that of an animal, or something made to look like one? He did not with to carry a whole section of the smashed kitchen table with him back to the microscope which he had in the TARDIS, so he decided to cut out a claw mark. He inserted the blade of a very sharp little knife deep into the wood just at the side of one, at such an angle that the tip of the blade went under the mark. Then he sliced down the wood, and now repeated the process on the other side of the claw mark. Now he cut across the wood at the top and bottom of the gouged out line, so that finally he was able to lift out a sliver of wood which contained the claw mark. This he put into a test-tube, also taken from his capacious jacket pockets. Then he froze rigid.
With an earsplitting crash a hole was smashed through the wall of the dome at the back. Through it marched a metal robot, with arms, legs and head like those of a man. It made straight for the Doctor, its metal hands waving about in search of its prey. The Doctor stepped backwards. He stumbled over wrecked furniture and fell back heavily, banging his head against the dome's metal wall. The robot turned, seemingly attracted by the sound of the Doctor's fall, then continued forward again crushing the remains of the kitchen table with its huge metal feet. Just as a metal hand made contact with the Doctor's face, the robot stopped dead, lifeless, like a mechanical statue.
'You can get up now.'
From his position on the floor the Doctor couldn't see where the voice was coming from, but it was human and sounded fairly friendly. The Doctor struggled to his feet. A man had followed the robot into the dome, through the hole in the wall. He was a tough, hardbitten man, in his late thirties. He had on a sort of uniform jacket and matching tunic, basically black but piped with bright red. Across the left breast of the tunic was an oval of red piping, and inside that the letters IMC. In his hand was a very small remote-control unit, a little black box with buttons and a dial on it, obviously the control box for the robot.
'You ought to keep that thing under better control,' said the Doctor.
'Yes,' said the man. 'Sorry. It's only a Class Three Servo robot, not very bright.' He looked round the room. 'What happened?'
'Something,' said the Doctor, 'or someone attacked this place last night. May I ask who you are?'
' Caldwell 's the name,' he said, indicating the initials on his tunic with a grin. 'Interplanetary Mining Corporation. We're doing a mineral survey. Is this your place?'
'No,' said the Doctor. 'It belonged to two colonists.'
'Colonists?' said Caldwell , with surprise. 'Earth Control told us this planet was uninhabited.'
'Then Earth Control,' said the Doctor, 'whatever that is, is wrong. Presumably you'll move on to another planet for your survey.'
'That's not up to me,' said Caldwell 'They'll have to sort it out at Earth Control. According to our records this planet has been allocated for mining.' He grinned. 'Maybe you people chose the wrong planet! It's awful easy, once you're out in Space!'
'I rather doubt it,' said the Doctor. 'Now if you'll excuse me I have some work to do...'
The Doctor moved to leave, but Caldwell stepped right in front of him, still grinning. 'Look, I'm on the way back to my spaceship. How about coming back there with me?'
'Why?'
'Just trying to be friendly,' said Caldwell . 'Is there any thing wrong with a little hospitality? We could talk about who's made the big mistake - us or you.' Friendly as he seemed, Caldwell remained standing firmly between the Doctor and the door.
'I'm sorry,' said the Doctor, 'but I've got a great deal to do. And I really ought to tell the colonists that you've arrived here.'