Doctor Who_ The Ice Warriors - Brian Hayles [52]
‘Because, Jamie, the computer is faced with an insoluble problem,’ explained the Doctor. ‘Either way, the computer risks destroying itself—and that it cannot do. It can only play safe.’
‘But if it does nothing...’ faltered Jamie, ‘...that’s just as bad!’
‘Exactly,’ came Penley’s quiet voice. ‘Which leaves its only one course of action.’
‘If you think I’m going to evacuate—’ Clent started to shout.
‘My dear chap, you haven’t got time for that,’ replied Polley. ‘It isn’t a question of logic any more. It’s a question of world survival. You must over-ride the computer.’
Clent looked at his former colleague, and shook his head. ‘You’re mad! You want to kill us all. There has to be another way!’
‘I want to survive,’ rapped Penley. ‘And I’m willing to take the risk that your pet machine daren’t! That’s what men are for, Clent! That’s what Leaders like you are for!’ He tried to appeal to the man who had once been his friend. ‘Be brave, Clent. Be yourself!’
‘But what about the World plan? If we act too soon, it’ll be as bad as being too late! We must act at the appointed hour, and not before!’
‘It’s our problem—not World Control’s!’ insisted Penley.
‘It’s us that’s out of step, not them—and they haven’t got aliens on their doorstep as well as the glacier! Unless we deal with them now, world civilisation is going to find itself involved in interplanetary war!’
‘Someone must decide—and quickly,’ agreed the Doctor. He looked into Clent’s face. The Leader seemed almost incapable of words—let alone action.
‘Such a decision...’ muttered the Leader, then bent his head, unable to look the others in the face. ‘I can’t.’ he said.
The Doctor glanced at Miss Garrett. She shook her head and nodded towards Penley—as the Doctor hoped she would.
‘It’s up to you, Penley,’ declared the Doctor, seriously.
The transference of authority stung Clent into one last typical act.
‘I demand the right to consult the computer!’ he cried, moving towards ECCO; without waiting for agreement or argument, he formally addressed the sleek head. ‘Problem—
in addition to previous data, include the factor that the alien spaceship is powered by an ion reactor. Dare we use the Ioniser? What are the alternatives? Answer!’
The reply shocked everyone—but Clent most of all.
Instead of its usual swift, objective appraisal and cold-blooded judgement, the tortured machine spluttered forth a stream of gibberish, half electronic, half verbal—and all totally incoherent. As its smooth head jerked from side to side in spasmodic twitches, a pungent whiff of overloaded circuits drifted from its control panel. and Clent, realising the impossible dilemma facing the machine, switched it off.
‘It’s gone out of its mind!’ exclaimed Jamie. ‘It can’t cope!’
As Clent slumped listlessly into a nearby chair, Penley took command, firmly but quietly. ‘Miss Garrett, inform World Control. We’re using the Ioniser now—and tell them precisely why. Full report to follow—we hope.’
Victoria suddenly remembered shat the Martian warlord had said to the Doctor. A look of alarm crossed her face. The Martian spaceship!’ she exclaimed. ‘If you free it from the ice!’
The possibility of the Martians freely roaming the sky gripped them all with a sense of doom. What other terrifying weapons did that vehicle possess? How could they combat such a threat? It was Clent’s tired voice that supplied the answer.
‘I told Varga that the Ioniser was a scientific instrument capable of melting rock,’ he said calmly. ‘But he saw it as a weapon.’ He paused. and studied Penley intently. ‘I suggest...
that it should be used as such.’
For a moment, all eyes were on the two top scientists.
Each weighed the bitter consequences of his calling, and pondered upon the grim decision that he must take. Then Penley nodded, and spoke with an air of quiet purpose.
‘It has to be done,’ he said and, moving to the Ioniser controls. began to raise its operating pitch to maximum power...
Zondal had expected the harshest of punishments for his dismal failure. With the sonic cannon wrecked and useless,