Doctor Who_ The Zarbi - Bill Strutton [5]
Ian moved towards the dormitory door. Doctor Who turned back and stared thoughtfully at his control panel, stroking his chin, muttering uneasily to himself.
Barbara was coming out of the dormitory section. Ian nodded towards Vicki’s bunk beyond the sliding door.
‘How is she?’
He smiled now at her, and Barbara forgot the irritation she had felt with him.
‘Better.’ She turned. ‘Doctor, do we have such a thing as a, well, a sedative?’
Doctor Who roused himself from glumly staring at his controls.
‘Eh? Oh, should be with the first-aid kit, over there, in one of the cupboards.’
He pointed to a small movable table housing the astral computer. Barbara nodded, crossed to the table, began searching. Intent as she was on finding a medicine for Vicki, she seemed to have forgotten their plight in the ship, marooned and powerless on a bleak and alien planet.
Ian took a deep breath and resolved to tell her now what he and the doctor planned to do. Exploring this planet in search of whatever had wrecked the ship’s controls, and now held them tight, would mean leaving the two girls alone in Tardis — unprotected.
He said, ‘Barbara?’
‘Just a minute, Ian.’
Barbara was opening doors and drawers in the astral computer table, rummaging for the first-aid kit. She clicked her tongue in disgust.
‘Tch-tch. Look at all this stuff!’ She had pulled out a mixture of tools, boxes of wire, valves, and some specimen cases containing souvenirs of various planets and the civilizations they had visited. At length she found the first-aid kit. ‘Ah!’ She paused, turned and looked accusingly across at Doctor Who. ‘One of these days, Doctor, I’m going to have a big spring-clean around here, I promise you.’
Doctor Who grunted, absorbed with a problem. Ian stopped Barbara as she took a pill from a box and started back towards the dormitory.
‘Barbara, the Doctor and I are going to have a look round — outside.’
Barbara halted and stared at him. An anxious look clouded her face. She flashed a look across towards Doctor Who and opened her mouth to protest. Ian added hastily,
‘Don’t worry — I’ll see he doesn’t wander too far away.’
‘Well...’, Barbara said uneasily.
Doctor Who got up abruptly and barked, ‘Ready, Chesterton?’
Ian gave Barbara a reassuring smile and turned.
‘Right,’ he said briskly.
Barbara hesitated. She glanced at the grim landscape surrounding them which showed steadily now in the inspection window, then at both men. Her voice was a little uncertain.
‘Uh, well... be careful, both of you.’ She cleared her throat and smiled at them. But she could not prevent herself from taking another fearful look at the scanner.
‘Yes, yes,’ Doctor Who said cheerfully. ‘Of course.
Chesterton?’
Ian moved to join the Doctor. Barbara halted, watching them, then straightened and went back to the dormitory.
Doctor Who pressed the exit door button on the control panel and, staring thoughtfully, waited for the ship’s door to slide open.
He was answered by a whirring sound, but the exit doors remained shut. Doctor Who flashed a look at Ian, frowned, and poised a finger to jab the exit button again —
when the doors suddenly started to slide open, as if on their own accord.
It was Ian’s turn to look puzzled. The Doctor masked his uneasy surprise.
‘Delay in the circuit, probably,’ he muttered.
Ian nodded and strode towards the now open exit. On the threshold, he turned. Doctor Who was still staring thoughtfully at the doors, muttering to himself.
‘Doctor?’
‘Yes, yes, my boy — coming...’
Doctor Who squared himself uncertainly and marched towards the open doors.
Ian stepped out.
Doctor Who followed him, staring about.
The ship’s doors slid closed behind them.
Vicki raised herself on her bunk as Barbara came in, filled a glass, and offered it to her — together with a pill.
‘Take that and you’ll feel much better.’
‘What is it?’ Vicki said suspiciously. She loathed pills.
‘It’ll just help you sleep easier, that’s all.’
Vicki shrugged, took the pill, closed her eyes, and swallowed it, sipping the water. Barbara sat on the edge of her bunk.