Doctor Who_ The Dying Days - Lance Parkin [111]
'And when that happens,' Lethbridge-Stewart said, 'our aircraft wil attack it. They'll try to box it in, and bring it down. If that doesn't work, they should at least delay its return to London.'
'That still leaves the Provisional Government,' Bambera said. 'A lot of their forces are committed in the north, I know, but there are plenty left behind. They'll know we are coming - we can't keep half a dozen military convoys a secret.'
Lethbridge-Stewart smiled. 'They wil know we are coming, Brigadier Bambera, because we will tell them. We wil tell the world.'
End of extract
***
Xztaynz was showing Xznaal some 'medieval' art. The religious subject matter and naive rendering failed to interest him. One more day, and they would have visited every room in the National Gallery, and seen every painting that was not publicly displayed. The National Portrait Gallery sounded unpromising - all those rows upon rows of ugly primate faces - and so they'd skip that. Next week, they would scour the British Museum.
The large fossils and Egyptian exhibits were going to be of particular interest, Xznaal could see that just from the catalogues that Staines had supplied. The walls of his palace on Earth, the White Tower, were now lined with human art from this place.
100
A human came towards them, with that nervous scuttling motion that they had. Xznaal recognised that this was a female. They were smal er than the males on the whole, and wore brighter cloth. This one had red talons, and they were sharpened. No doubt this was to protect her offspring from predators until they had finished dropping from her mammal body and were able to defend themselves. It seemed a most unhygenic arrangement. She was holding a communicator in her paw.
'Good morning, Home Secretary. Er... Your Majesty.' Whenever he left the confines of his ship, Xznaal was always careful to wear the Imperial State Crown, as now, yet for some reason the humans failed to accept this symbol of authority. The human race lacked the discipline and respect for their leaders of a civilised people.
He waved a claw. 'Good morning.'
'This is Miss Helmond,' Xztaynz explained. 'What do you have to tell us?'
'The Royalist terrorists have launched an attack on London, Home Secretary. Our spotters report that they have blocked off the M25 and they are moving in on most of the major routes.'
'That's suicide,' Xztaynz objected. 'It's a co-ordinated assault?'
'They've taken over local radio stations, there's going to be a broadcast at mid-day. That's the same time that the Queen... the, er, ex-Queen,' she corrected herself quickly, 'wil address the UN General Assembly.'
Xznaal hissed. 'What iss happening?'
'They can't possibly succeed, your majesty. We outnumber them, we are holding a string of defensive positions, we have the warship, we - '
'Enough. We wil return to the ssafety of the Tower. Have Gerayhayvun join uss there.'
***
Extract from the memoirs of Professor Bernice Summerfield
Bessie streaked through the countryside at an implausible speed. The UNIT Land Rover following them was struggling to keep up.
I tried to dredge up what I could remember of the local traffic laws. None of the careful y-designed, non-cultural y specific road signs that lined the route made the slightest bit of sense to me.
Beside me, Ray was hanging on for dear life, unable to put his trust in the sophisticated inertial maintenance system that the Doctor had installed. The two soldiers in the back - Captain Ford and Sergeant Jenkins - were also looking a bit green.
'Professor,' Ray whimpered, 'I'd feel safer if there was a seat belt.'
'Are we nearly there?' I asked. We'd been on the road for twenty minutes so we ought to have been by now.
'Nearly.' Ray seemed subdued.
'Are you OK?' I asked. We were al nervous - even the trained fighters. Combat was like public speaking or acting -
if you aren't nervous, you're not only doing