Doctor Who_ Shakedown Part 26

Suddenly she saw someone in the mirror. She turned and was amazed to see Mari advancing towards her. Mari's face had a strange, fixed expression, and her skin was a sickly green.

Zorelle swung round. 'You really don't look yourself, darling! Should you be out of bed?'

Mari didn't reply. She moved slowly closer.

'I said should you be out of bed?' repeated Zorelle. 'I'm not,' whispered Mari.

Zorelle blinked. 'Of course you are,' she said, her voice slurred. 'Don't be ridiculous. Are you still delirious? I know Nikos's death was a shock but you must pull yourself together.'

'Someone's in the bed,' whispered Mari. 'Come and see.'

She led Zorelle to a nearby bunk and pulled back the blanket.

Zorelle looked down and saw the blood-soaked body of Nikos.

Zorelle gasped and looked back at Mari who was suddenly very close. Her hands reached out and touched Zorelle's face.

There was a crackle of energy and light pulsed between them.

With a scream, Zorelle fell back.

15.

Showdown In the engine room one of the power units was throbbing alarmingly. Lieutenant Vorn regarded it with dismay. Clearly something should be done about it but he lacked the technical knowledge to do it.

The throbbing grew louder.

Vorn was just about to adopt his usual remedy and refer the problem to Commander Steg when the human female who was the ship's captain ran into the engine room.

She stopped and listened to the throbbing. 'What's happening?'

Vorn demonstrated his usual unfailing grasp of the obvious.

'The power drive is malfunctioning.'

'It's the Rutan,' said the Captain. 'It must still be in there.

We can trap it. I'll open the inspection hatch.'

Vorn was too excited by the prospect of capturing the Rutan to question her logic.

Drawing his blaster, he watched as she opened a gla.s.s-fronted waist-level inspection hatch, revealing a blaze of light.

'It's here, in the heat exchanger,' she called. 'Come and see!'

Slow-thinking as he was, Vorn had a well-developed sense of self-preservation. He turned to the Sontaran trooper.

'Go and check!'

Drawing his blaster in turn, the trooper approached the glowing hatchway.

'Look inside,' urged the Captain.

Something about her eagerness aroused Vorn's suspicion.

Was the Rutan really there, or was it some trick? And if the Rutan was there, how was he to deal with it without getting himself killed? Suddenly Vorn saw the perfect answer a typically Sontaran solution.

'Thrust her into the heat exchanger,' he ordered. 'While the Rutan is killing her we can destroy it!'

Obediently the trooper rushed at the human female. To Vorn's amazement, she met the advance head on, twisted her body, and used the trooper's own momentum to send him hurtling through the blazing hatchway, slamming the door behind him.

There was a terrible sizzling sound and a horrible scream.

The writhing trooper appeared on the other side of the safety gla.s.s, screaming soundlessly, head and hands already melted into a shapeless blob.

Vorn levelled his blaster. 'You have killed him. Now I shall kill you.'

Before he could fire, the female sprang forward, grabbing the blaster and pushing it upwards. Vorn smiled grimly. No human could hope to match a Sontaran for strength. He began wrenching the blaster from her grasp.

When the weight of another human body thudded into his back, and a human arm curved around his neck, Vorn was still confident of victory. He managed to turn his head a little and caught a glimpse of the strain-distorted face of the human called Kurt.

He would kill them both.

Even as he was desperately trying to throttle Vorn, Kurt knew that the task was hopeless. The Sontaran's neck was too thick, his strength too great. With or without a blaster, Vorn was more than a match for them both.

Locked together, the three bodies crashed into the engine-room wall. Kurt hung on desperately. Once Vorn broke free he could easily kill them both in turn.

Something moved under Kurt's foot and he nearly fell.

Looking down he saw Robar's tool kit. Releasing Vorn, Kurt bent and s.n.a.t.c.hed up a long-bladed screwdriver, inserted it into the circular aperture at the base of Vorn's neck and thrust it home with all his strength.

Vorn gave a horrible bubbling scream, went rigid, and crashed to the ground, taking Kurt and Lisa with him.

Slowly and painfully they disentangled themselves, got up and leaned against the wall, totally exhausted.

'How did you do that?' gasped Lisa.

Kurt struggled for breath. 'The Dentist told me. Probic vent...weakness...screwdriver.' He held up the screwdriver, still dripping with thick, Sontaran blood. 'It works!'

Lisa stared at the screwdriver, eyes wide. 'I'll bear it in mind.' She straightened up, suddenly aware that the throbbing in the air meant that the power drive was approaching danger level. 'I'll close down the drive.'

Commander Steg stood by the open airlock door, a sentry beside him. He touched the com-unit in his neck ring.

'All patrols report in.'

Silence.

'Report!' snarled Steg.

More silence.

Just the faint ping that signified there had been no reply from any of the other Sontarans on the ship.

Steg considered for a moment. Brushing the sentry aside he stumped down the airlock tunnel towards the door that led to his own ship.

Armed with the blasters of the dead Sontarans, Kurt and Lisa hurried along darkened metal corridors towards the airlock.

A familiar shape stepped out of a narrow doorway ahead of them. It was Robar, face pale, eyes staring. 'Lisa!'

Lisa stared at him unbelievingly.

'Kill him,' said Kurt urgently. ' Kill him! Kill him! ' '

Lisa seemed paralysed as the agonized figure lurched towards them.

'Lisa, my dear, it's me. I'm hurt, help me!'

Instantly Lisa raised her blaster and fired. The Robar-shape dissolved into a glowing sphere and vanished down the corridor.

Lisa caught Kurt's enquiring glance.

'Robar never called me "my dear" in his life,' she said.

They went on their way.

The a.s.sault craft's armoury was a circular metal chamber, its walls lined with weapons of every kind. The dim red lighting was reflected in Steg's eyes as he studied the a.s.sortment. He selected a semi-transparent metal cylinder packed with complex machinery. His hands moved expertly over the controls set into its base.

Drawing the standard-issue officer's blaster from his belt, Steg put it down. He opened a locker holding a number of smaller weapons.

When all was ready, Steg carried the cylinder out of the armoury and left the ship. Closing the door behind him, he moved along the airlock tunnel and put the cylinder down close to the door at the other end.

He stepped out of the airlock and found himself facing Lisa and Kurt. They were covering the Sontaran sentry with their blasters as he was covering them.

The sentry glanced at Steg, who was apparently unarmed.

'Commander?'

'Kill them!' roared Steg.

The sentry fired, just as Kurt and Lisa dived apart.

The Sontaran's first shot missed. Kurt blasted him down before he could fire a second.

Without even a glance for the dead sentry, the final casualty of his defeated a.s.sault force, Steg backed away towards the airlock door.

'I shall leave now,' he said calmly. 'You and the Rutan have defeated me between you. I leave you to each other.'

Kurt stepped forward, blaster raised. 'Ask me now if I want to kill you.'

Steg raised his hands. 'Would you kill someone who is quite unarmed?'

'You did,' said Lisa.

'I am a Sontaran. Humans have different standards.'

'Don't count on it,' said Kurt grimly. He aimed his blaster but he hesitated all the same.

It was just that hesitation that Steg had been counting on.

'Surely you will allow a defeated enemy to depart in peace?'

Even as he spoke, Steg's hand flashed to the mini-blaster concealed at the back of his belt. He fired, and this time Kurt didn't dodge quite quickly enough. The blast took him across the top of the shoulder, smashing him to the ground.

Before Steg could fire again, Lisa shot him down.

He staggered back, slammed into the wall beside the airlock door and slid slowly to the ground.

He raised his head, looking up at Lisa. 'I was wrong,' he said feebly. 'It was you I should have killed.' His arm moved painfully across his chest. 'I salute you, Captain Deranne. You were a worthy...enemy...'

Steg's eyes closed and his head slumped forward.

A glowing sphere drifted along the corridor, transforming suddenly into Zorelle but not the Zorelle they had known.

Her body glowed with power and she looked taller, statelier, more beautiful than ever before.

When she spoke her voice had a remote, alien quality. 'Is he dead?'