Doctor Who_ The Ice Warriors - Brian Hayles [44]
Clent looked across at Jan. ‘It’s what we both expected, isn’t it,’ he commented wearily. ‘But the computer must be obeyed. We must wait.’
‘In five hours from now, you have to report that we are in emergency status!’ exclaimed Jan. At least we have that at much time!’
Clent studied her tense face, and saw she didn’t understand. ‘Miss Garrett, you still don’t realise the logic of the computer’s decision not to act, do you?’
Puzzled, she shook her head. ‘The computer can only ever be logical. It hasn’t enough facts—it told us so a moment ago.’
Clent’s reply carried an undertone of despair. ‘We have just asked the computer if it is prepared to commit suicide. If we use the Ioniser and we explode the alien reactor, the Base—and the computer—will be destroyed. If we do not use the Ioniser, the glaciers will advance and destroy the Base.
Either way, its survival is at risk—and one of its prime directives, programmed as a vital part of its basic circuitry, is to survive! Now do you see the dilemma?’
Jan was silent. It wasn’t only the computer’s dilemma, she realised; it was Clent’s as well. Whatever he did, failure was staring him in the face.
‘We can at least evacuate,’ she said quietly, knowing what his reaction would be. ‘There’s still time...’ Clent was shocked, and angry. ‘Retreat? Throw in the towel? Perhaps you would be happy to face world opinion afterwards, Miss Garrett. I would not!’
‘Is that all that matters? It isn’t only your reputation at stake. There are the lives of—’
Jan stopped in mid-sentence as the picture of Walters flashed on to the video screen. His brisk message startled both Jan and Clent into action.
‘Security to Leader Clent. Two emergency arrivals, sir.
I’ve had them both brought to the medicare centre for treatment. One of them’s Scientist Penley!’
Zondal was supervising the removal of the sonic cannon from its usual mounting inside the spaceship to a traction unit in the cave outside. Varga turned to the Doctor.
‘As you can see, Doctor, we have more than just personal destructors!’ He pointed to the weapon on his arm, and Victoria shuddered, remembering vividly the horror of that deadly gun. ‘This can destroy a man in an instant—but the sonic cannon is capable of wiping out whole cities!’
‘What’s it to be used for?’ asked the Doctor.
‘It is an ultimatum,’ hissed Varga. He laughed brutally.
‘An ultimatum that accepts only one kind of reply—an agreement!’
‘But why?’ asked Victoria bravely. ‘You’ve already got us as hostages!’
‘Yes.’ agreed the Doctor. ‘What else do you want?’
‘Information,’ said Varga. ‘You have asked enough questions. Now you will provide answers..?’
‘I’ve already told you all I know about the Ioniser,’
replied the Doctor. ‘You don’t need to worry—’
‘What is its power source then? Tell me that!’
Suddenly the Doctor saw the situation in all its clarity.
While he had been desperate to know what sort of reactor the Martians had on their space craft, they had realised that the Base aright be the source of vital fuel for their reactor! The truth was, they were as helpless as Clent and the scientists—
the perfect stalemate. But a distant groaning from the glacier outside reminded him of that one random factor. The moving river of ice was dependent on no one; unless it was stopped soon, the Ioniser Base would be swept away like every other man-made object in the glacier’s path.
‘So that’s what you need...’ he said shrewdly, looking past Varga into the engine complex. ‘Fuel—for your reactor.
Without it, you’ll never be able to break free! ‘
‘Answer my question!’ commanded the warlord, holding his sonic destructor close to Victoria’s head, ‘or the girl dies!
Quickly!’
‘And if I tell you?’
‘We will take what we need, and use it to blast our way out of the glacier!’ came the fierce reply. ‘Speak!—’
The Doctor looked suitably dejected. He turned from the engine complex to face Varga. ‘Mercury isotopes—is that it?’
‘You have them?’ demanded the warlord eagerly.
Victoria’s face filled