Doctor Who_ The Ice Warriors - Brian Hayles [1]
Suddenly, the tension that gripped her was sharply increased by the sound of a man’s voice at her shoulder. She turned. Leader Clent’s face was dark with anger.
‘Why has this been allowed to happen?’ he snapped.
‘The whole power series is barely above danger level!’
As if in response to his angry words, the needles flickered upward and held, trembling on the verge of breaking out of the amber zone. But Jan knew that the improvement could only be temporary. The flaw was basic and, as yet, its cause unknown.
‘ Hold on Amber Two, ’ rang out the distant warning system. ‘ Prepare to return to Phase One stand-by. ’
‘That’s better, Miss Garrett.’ Clent’s anger was now in check, and his eyes, although stern, held and calmed her. It was his strength of personality that gave backbone to this unit, many of whom had despaired of the success of a mission that had seemed doomed from the start. She was young, intelligent, well-trained; with Clent to guide her, she would eventually come to terms with the promotion he had forced upon her when the treacherous Penley...
‘There was a pulse stoppage,’ she blurted out, breaking his train of thoughts.
The nearly inaudible tone of the Ioniser was beginning to falter—as though the machine was sick. Clent looked grim.
A pulse stoppage meant there was a danger of feed-back to the reactor: the resulting explosion would wipe the Unit from the face of the Earth. But what could be causing it?
Jan’s face tightened. She was close to panic.
‘I’m doing all I can to boost the power impulse—’
‘It can’t be allowed to fall any lower!’ grated Clent, studying the oscillator dials fiercely.
‘We still have time to evacuate,’ she muttered desperately.
‘We will not evacuate!’ he insisted. ‘We’ve beaten its ridiculous tantrums before.’
As they watched, the needles began to sag ominously close to the red sector again. Miss Garrett’s face grew pale with alarm. ‘It’s falling back again!’
‘Hold it steady!’ ordered Clent. ‘You must!’
‘I can’t! It won’t respond!’
Brushing Miss Garrett aside, Clent’s hands moved to the controls to make the necessary adjustments.
‘Then we’ll switch the stabilising circuits to computer control.’
Jan watched helplessly as Clent fought to retain control of the machine.
‘It’s still not holding...’ she whispered.
Clent was not giving up that easily. ‘All circuits, woman— all circuits! Don’t you understand?’
He snapped home a sequence of switches. Miss Garrett flashed a look of despair towards the dials showing the energy flow from the reactor. The readings were jumping wildly. She clutched Clent’s arm. ‘The feed-back...’
‘Not enough power for that...’ clipped the Leader. The scale readings were slowing at last. Clent smiled triumphantly.
‘Still just outside the danger zone. We should be able to hold it there...’
He turned to Miss Garrett for agreement. She shook her head without speaking. They both knew the bitter truth. In a matter of days—hours even—the Ioniser would be in a state of crisis again. But Leader Clent refused to admit defeat
‘Well at least it gives us time!’ he insisted irritably, then moved to return to his personal office. He stopped, as if remembering something, and turned back. ‘And while you’ve got the chance, call in Arden—I want him back at Base immediately!’
A geological map of the island which had once been called Britain covered one wall of the Grand Hall of Brittanicus Base. The line of electronic pin-point markers which divided the island horizontally in two seemed, at first glance, to be motionless; but they were in fact moving very slowly from north to south. Each pin-point of light represented a seismic probe set into the face of the river of ice that