Doctor Who_ The Dying Days - Lance Parkin [19]
Satel ites monitor the environment. They help the rescue services. Military satellites can tell us when a country is building weapons that they shouldn't be. Those things are a great deal more use to us than putting a man on the Moon.'
'So the question seems to be why are the British going back to Mars? Are they hoping to find little green men?' she laughed.
They were nearing the end of the report, Benny realised, and the reporter wanted to end on a lighter note.
'They are five million years too late for that, if they are,' the Professor snorted.
'The findings of the Mariner probes of the nineteen-sixties didn't rule out the possibility that Mars might support human life, but I'm afraid that ten years later the British astronauts and the American Viking unmanned probes proved beyond al doubt that Mars was a barren, radioactive world, at least now. There may have been primitive life, many billions of years ago, but I remain sceptical. Mars is the world most similar to ours in the solar system, but the only water is frozen solid as a rock in the polar regions. I’m afraid that any human being walking on the surface of Mars without a spacesuit would be blasted by radiation, frozen to death by the temperature and then he would suffocated by the lack of atmosphere.'
'Wel on that note, it's back to the studio. Thank you gentlemen. This is Eve Waugh, coming live from outside the Mars 97 Mission Control at the British National Space Museum, London, England.'
The picture cut back to a middle-aged man in the Washington studio.
'Thank you, Eve. We'll bring you coverage from London all day, including live coverage of the landing itself starting at 5am Eastern Standard Time.'
The Doctor tapped a control and the sound cut off.
'What do you think?'
'I liked his monocle and her hairdo, they're both good at their jobs. The Professor needs to switch to decaff, though. I've walked on the surface of Mars without a spacesuit, and I'm fine.'
The Doctor beamed. 'Most of Mars has been terraformed by your time, as wel you know.' He screwed up his face, trying to dislodge a memory. 'The National Space Museum is in Trafalgar Square.' He paused. 'That's only a two minute trip by TARDIS.'
He set about the instruments again, rotating some big blocks on the navigation panel, pulling across a couple of switches and releasing the handbrake. The column that protruded from the centre of the console and carried on up as far as Benny could see began to hum, the mechanisms within it rising and falling with a familiar piston movement.
The Doctor moved in a way that was both manic and calm - suggesting that after centuries operating the TARDIS
he still wasn't entirely sure he knew which buttons he should be pressing. It was odd to see someone else at the controls. Odder stil to think that this man was the Doctor. He was in his element here, the tails of his frock coat flapping in time with the strands of his hair as he moved around.
Wolsey had found her again, and was brushing around her legs, keeping her between himself and the Doctor.
There was the familiar chime, deep below the console. At least that hadn't changed. This part of the procedure, at least, the Doctor could accomplish with a practised ease. He straightened up, staring into the central column for a second or two, then flicked the last few controls and applied the handbrake.
It was quite a trek to the door, now, though. Benny followed the Doctor to the exit. The doors swung open as they approached.
20
The pigeons scattered as they stepped out. Once again the TARDIS had managed to land in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world without anyone noticing. The Doctor locked the door behind him as Big Ben chimed nine o'clock.
Bernice was walking on ahead, looking at the National Space Museum with an historian's eye. Perhaps she had heard about the controversy a quarter of a century ago when it had been built. The concrete and chrome building was striking, one of the most recognisable modern buildings in Britain, but that hadn't silenced the public outcry when it