Doctor Who_ Winner Takes All - Jacqueline Rayner [69]
‘I’m really sorry,’ said Rose, backing away, trying desperately to see if there was anywhere to run to. But the Mantodeans behind her were closing in. And the jaws in front of her were opening wider and wider, getting closer and closer…
Snap!
The Mantodean’s jaws crunched shut.
Rose, to her great surprise, still had a head. The disruptor, however, now lay at her feet, the steel‐strong straps now neatly severed.
‘We shall study this,’ said the Mantodean. ‘We shall learn how to reverse the damage it has done, and we shall revenge ourselves on the Quevvils!’
The Mantodeans began to crowd round, legs and feelers reaching out to the disruptor, suggesting this thing or that thing to try. Rose whispered, ‘So can I go now?’ and began to back away again without waiting for an answer. They were all distracted. She should really leave before they began to, for example, notice her again.
Wonderfully, the power loss had affected all the doors, all the traps and puzzles. She felt elated at first, thinking it was going to be a cinch getting out. But of course it wasn’t. The power loss had affected all the lights too. The more she thought back to those hours wandering the maze of tunnels, and that was with the Doctor to guide her… and how on Earth was she going to get over all those pits and things in the dark? She was fit, and she was athletic, but she wasn’t, much as she’d like to be, Wonder Woman.
She’d thought the adventure was over, but perhaps it was just beginning.
* * *
TWENTY‐ONE
With indecent haste, while everyone was still trying to come to terms with things, the Doctor had dashed about removing all the control disks, and then sorted out the teleport system back to Earth – ‘Can you fix it?’ Robert had asked, cringing that he was making the Doctor sound like Bob the Builder – but ‘Yes, I can,’ was the reply, ‘it’s on a separate circuit, no worries.’ And the Doctor had zapped everyone back to Earth. He’d then proceeded to smash the teleport controls with a large spanner.
Robert – who had begged, pleaded and behaved like a total brat to be allowed to stay with the Doctor – got a bit panicky, but the Doctor assured him he’d allowed enough time for everyone to rematerialise on Earth before he destroyed the teleporter.
‘You’ll just have to go home in my spaceship,’ the Doctor told Robert.
And Robert wasn’t going to argue with that.
* * *
Rose was inching her way very, very carefully down a very, very steep slope, when she heard someone crying. ‘Hello?’ she called out. ‘Is there anyone there?’
The crying stopped, choked off. ‘Hello?’ said a woman’s voice. ‘Oh, I’m here, I’m here!’
Rose scrambled down the rest of the way. Her night vision was getting better, and she thought she could just see the dim figure of a woman. ‘I’m coming!’ she called.
‘Stop!’ the woman called back, turning towards Rose in a panic. Rose scrambled to stop her feet carrying on forward of their own volition. In the dark, she’d not noticed the pit in front of her.
She grabbed the arm of the woman. ‘Thanks!’ she said. ‘I’d have gone right in!’
It looked as if the woman half smiled. ‘Don’t thank me yet,’ she said. ‘I think we’re trapped.’
Rose turned round. Behind them was the steep slope. Hard enough to slide down. Impossible to climb up. In front of them was the pit. And there was no other way out.
* * *
The box might say ‘Police Public Call Box’ on the outside, but the Doctor told him that was just for disguise. It was quite a disguise! Because inside, inside the spaceship…
Robert thought his eyes were going to explode as he tried to take it all in.
‘This is your spaceship?’ he said. ‘Really? It really belongs to you?’
‘Uh‐huh,’ said the Doctor casually, but he gave Robert a huge grin. ‘Brilliant, isn’t it?!’
‘And you and Rose…?’
‘Travel round the universe doing good deeds, yeah. Well, and having a bit of fun. Sometimes.’
‘So she’s really… like, your