Doctor Who_ Wooden Heart - Martin Day [41]
The Doctor shivered, increasing his pace, but skidded to a halt moments later in front of a computer terminal. With the help of the sonic screwdriver, and the knowledge of hardware and software systems gained over centuries and lifetimes, he hacked into the main system in minutes. Soon a complete schematic was scrolling across the screen – every room, every system, was now laid bare.
‘A map!’ he said out loud, reaching into his pocket for his glasses. ‘You can change the world with a jolly good map!’
He stabbed impatiently at the keyboard, trying to overlay the life support details over the map, much as he had done with Martha before they’d stumbled across the forest where a corridor should have been.
‘That’s me,’ he said, pointing at a dull blue glow standing within Technical Corridor 12, Intersection K. In other circumstances, he’d have been offended by the summary currently underneath ‘his’ dot – Unknown and/or deviant life signs detected. But the important thing now was the range of life signs the Castor was picking up.
‘That’s the bubble world,’ said the Doctor, pointing to a mass of contradictory and conflicting signals over one unimportant-looking corridor. Though seemingly condensed in material terms compared to the vast swathes of trees and mountains they had seen, the Doctor’s worst fears were realised – much of the ‘bubble’ extended into deep space, beyond the station’s hull. Hopefully – somewhere amongst that mess of signals – would be Martha’s signal, still pulsing away strongly. Martha’s – and the dragon-monster, of course.
‘Hang on in there, Martha,’ breathed the Doctor.
Elsewhere on the Castor there was the faintest trace of the flickering, ever-changing life form they’d noticed earlier. Once again the ship’s systems were finding it hard to pin down, both biologically and temporally. Indeed, at one point, it seemed to be almost in two places at once, and then it appeared to be ascending vertically through the ship’s floors and ceilings.
Even more intriguingly, there was another – fourth – signal on the screens, pulsing steadily. He hoped to goodness it was not another monster – he’d had quite enough of them for one day.
The summary underneath this fourth signal was almost as intriguing as the Doctor’s – Human, unrecognised. The Doctor drilled down to get more information. For a split second it read Human – female – c. 12 years old – healthy – not in database, then it flickered and became Unknown – unknown – unknown – unknown – not in database.
The Doctor frowned – the life support and monitoring systems were not having their best day. He tapped at the keyboard a few more times, trying to isolate where on the Castor the readings were coming from.
He paused momentarily, drumming his fingers against the terminal – then turned on the spot, taking his stealthy observer completely by surprise.
‘Hey, Jude!’ he exclaimed, delighted. ‘Been wanting to say that for ages,’ he added.
TEN
The great skeletal dragon shook its head slowly. Now that it was facing two, apparently well-armed, targets, the creature seemed to be having second thoughts. Its deep-set eyes narrowed like smouldering coals in a fire, an almost human reaction to the distress it was feeling. Two of its legs were oozing viscous blood, and both Saul and Petr had managed to slash at its wings. Its skin, which naturally seemed to fall in ragged strips from the bones, was looking even more tattered now, and the creature was making a low, moaning noise somewhere in its throat.
Emboldened, Saul ducked through the legs one more time, aiming a sword upwards at the creature’s exposed flank. His sword returned to his side, stained and dripping, and he tumbled out of the way of the spiked tail as it lunged desperately towards him.
The creature shook its head one last time, folded its wings away as neatly as it could, and began to slink back into the trees. Saul and Petr stood side by side, watching it go. ‘Thank