Doctor Who_ The Twin Dilemma - Eric Saward [41]
Without comment, the Doctor handed the egg to Peri and quickly moved to another rack. Carefully he felt all the eggs housed in it, and like the first one, they were dry.
'Something wrong?' enquired Peri.
There certainly is. If these are gastropod eggs, why are they dry?
Where is the mucus, the jelly, the food which nourishes the young within?'
Peri shrugged and then looked down at the egg. It certainly was dry, but then the sort of slugs she was used to didn't come two metres high and talk!
'There's something wrong,' said the Doctor, snatching the egg from his companion. 'This may be the answer we've been looking for.'
Peri and Azmael followed as the Doctor made his way back to the laboratory area. T must see what's inside this egg,' he said placing it on a work bench. 'I shall need a laser cutter.'
Azmael rummaged momentarily in a cabinet and handed the Doctor what he wanted. The Doctor immediately set to work, allowing the white hot beam of light to focus on a single spot of the rubbery shell.
But nothing happened.
Strange, thought the Doctor, there must be something wrong with the cutter. But careful examination proved that it was in perfect working order. So he tried again. But still nothing happened.
'What are you trying to do?'jested Hugo. 'Hard-boil it?'
'Hardly!' The Doctor wasn't in the mood for jokes. 'The beam of the cutter is as hot as a diamond is hard. It should have at least scratched the surface.'
As the cutter continued to ineffectually blaze away at the egg, an unpleasant slurping sound was heard to come from within the shell.
The Doctor switched off the cutter as the sound grew momentarily louder and then more unpleasant.
‘Is it going to hatch?' enquired Peri.
‘I don't think so.'
And, as though to prove him right, the slurping sound stopped.
The embryo only reacted to the heat,' said Azmael.
'Precisely what it's supposed to do. Only it isn't anything like hot enough yet.'
Puzzled, Hugo glanced at Peri, but she didn't understand what he was talking about either. 'You're talking in riddles, Doctor.'
'No he isn't,' said Azmael, beginning to see what the Doctor was getting at.
'Now you're both talking in riddles,' insisted Peri. 'What is going on?'
How best to explain an intuitive leap, whose inspiration stems from tiny disparate events and observations? It was possible he was wrong, but the reassurance of Azmael's concurrence made it unlikely.
The Doctor was also aware that Peri and Hugo's own scepticism wouldn't help them to believe what he was about to tell them, especially after his eccentric behaviour since his regeneration.
But did it matter? Did any of it matter? Right or wrong in his assumption, Mestor had to be stopped.
In a quiet, even voice the Doctor began to relate how and what he had concluded.
At the safe house Azmael had said that Mestor had led an original army of several hundred gastropods. Not only had they taken over Jaconda, but they had reduced its once fertile plains to the scorched, barren state Peri and Hugo had earlier seen for themselves.
If so few gastropods could cause so much damage, it would take very little time to devour any produce grown on the two planets Mestor wished to cultivate. Yet only a few metres from them were millions of eggs awaiting the opportunity to hatch. Simple mathematics had told the Doctor that three small planets could not support so many hungry, greedy mouths. Therefore, he had concluded, Mestor's intention must be to extend his empire a great deal further.
So how best to do this?
As far as the Doctor knew, Mestor was not involved in building a massive fleet of transporters, but he was interested in moving planets. One very effective way to distribute his unhatched eggs would be to create an enormous explosion. The