Doctor Who_ The Ice Warriors - Brian Hayles [30]
Penley’s eves glanced quickly behind Jan. She shook her head.
‘It’s all right—I’m alone.’
‘Well, now you’ve followed me here, what do you want?’
She had moved farther inside; the screen fell back across the doorway.
‘Elric...’ It was months now since anyone had called him by his first name. Jan had been his equal then: a genuine friend who showed some understanding of and sympathy for his clash with Clent—but not, he remembered bitterly, a fellow protester. Miss Garrett was too ambitious for that.
‘You haven’t forgotten my face then, Miss Garrett,’ he said politely. He glanced at her lapel. ‘No orders of merit yet?
Not even for trying to cope with that stupid machine.’
‘You’re the only one who ever understood it,’ she answered bluntly. ‘We’re in desperate trouble—help us!’
‘Us? Does that include Clent?’
‘He doesn’t know I’m here.’
‘I was going to say—he’s the last person to need me! All he needs is a mirror—preferably rose-tinted and of the magnifying sort’
‘He’s ready to admit... that you have the knowledge he requires. He needs you—it’s the only way he can be sure that the Ioniser will be permanently stabilised.’
‘I’m surprised it hasn’t already run wild, to tell the truth. Especially when I heard the evacuation broadcast.
Some fluke saved him, I suppose?’
‘A stranger came. He’s eccentric—and infuriatingly like you. He doesn’t think much of computers,’ she added.
Penley smiled as he remembered the clownish intruder he’d met over Clent’s unconscious body. ‘Good for him!’
‘But he doesn’t know it all!’ protested Jan. ‘Only you know all the imperfections of Ioniser theory—even this stranger says it needs an expert!’
‘And what does Clent say?’
‘You know how proud he is. But his back’s to the wall.
Sooner or later he’s going to have to make his report to the World Authority...’
‘So sooner than have to admit failure, he’d like back so he can produce a scapegoat! No thanks—let him face the music himself!’
‘It was never easy. It’s ten times worse now. Arden’s made a fantastic discovery in the glacier.’ She took a deep breath and stared at Penley. ‘Aliens.’
To her surprise, Penley didn’t even smile. He leant forward, his eyes keenly interested. ‘Of course!’ he exclaimed.
‘it must be alien! That thing could never be an earth hybrid or a throw-back!’ He saw her look of surprise. and explained,
‘I’ve seen it, you understand, at close range—working at the ice face, blasting great chunks free!’
There was a small silence before Jan spoke again; this time her voice sounded strained. ‘We think there may be an alien spaceship buried inside the ice,’ continued Jan, ‘and if it contains a nuclear power source...’
She didn’t need to say any more. But Penley’s brutal answer shook her.
‘Then Clent’s got no option, has he? He daren’t use the Ioniser any more. He’ll have to evacuate!’
Jan’s anger flared. ‘You know what’s at stake! Five thousand years of civilisation! Clent won’t give that up—none of us will! Even you can’t deny what we’re here for!’ She paused, trying to control her anger. ‘Doesn’t our civilisation mean anything to you?’
‘I know what it means to Clent!’ replied Penley sharply.
‘It’s a computerised ant heap! Well I’m a man—not a machine! I’d sooner live with the Ice Age than with his sort of robot universe!’
He paused for breath. Jan took out her tranquiliser gun and pointed it straight at him. ‘You most be desperate,’ he remarked. ‘But it’ll do no good. You’ll never manage to carry me even as far as your airsled.’
‘I’m willing to try,’ she said, then yelped with pain as Storr knocked the weapon sharply from her numbed hand.
She turned, stared at Penley’s savage-faced companion, and drew back nervously, holding her wrist. ‘Who... are you?’ she whispered.
‘A friend,’ said Penley, picking up the gun before Storr could reach is ‘You’ve said enough, Jan. Now leave us in peace. I’m not