Doctor Who_ Shakedown Part 32

'I wonder why Kurt didn't tell me about it.' Lisa sounded a little hurt. 'He didn't really tell me about you, either.'

The Doctor went on checking dials. 'We talked a bit when we were sharing that cell. Kurt's had a pretty tough life. I imagine he's used to keeping his own counsel, trusting no one, relying on n.o.body but himself.'

'That's something I know a lot about.'

'It's hard when you have to learn to do that,' said the Doctor. 'Of course, un un learning it's harder still. But if you don't you might meet someone you could trust and not know how to deal with them.' He tapped a quivering dial. 'There you are. Steady power-flow from all drives. Guaranteed no Rutans.' learning it's harder still. But if you don't you might meet someone you could trust and not know how to deal with them.' He tapped a quivering dial. 'There you are. Steady power-flow from all drives. Guaranteed no Rutans.'

'You're quite a fixer, aren't you, Doctor?'

'Sometimes I think I'm just a meddler who does more harm than good. But I have to try.'

'Why?'

'Good question.' The Doctor paused, grey eyes staring somewhere very far away in s.p.a.ce and time.

'I was brought up with an ideal of service. In time I learned that the system I served was hopelessly corrupt. But somehow the ideal stayed on. You could call it the Gallifreyan work ethic!'

Lisa gave him a baffled look and the Doctor smiled.

In a deep, actorish voice he boomed, 'The time is out of joint. Ah, cursed spite That ever I was born to set it right.'

'What's that?'

'Just something my pal Will knocked off, between pints at the Mermaid Tavern.'

Lisa looked around the control room, remembering all that had happened. 'It's funny but I still half-regret killing Steg not that he didn't deserve it. But he did save my life.'

In the crewroom, Roz and Chris and Kurt were stretched out on the long benches, trying to relax and waiting for the voyage to end. Chris was very curious about Kurt, though he didn't like to ask direct questions.

'So you and the Doctor have met before?' he said casually.

Kurt nodded. 'We were in jail together.'

'What for?' asked Roz.

'Smuggling for me. I suppose it was more like politics for the Doctor. He was helping the local life-form to rebel against Earth colonists. When the Sontarans turned up he just sort of transferred the rebellion to them.'

'Sounds like the Doctor all right,' said Roz.

'So you're a smuggler?' said Chris, studying Kurt hungrily.

He looked as if he was getting ready to issue a caution, inform Kurt of his rights and make an arrest.

'Ex-smuggler,' corrected Kurt. 'And you're some kind of cop.'

'Ex-cop,' said Roz.

'Well, there you are,' said Kurt. 'It just goes to show anyone can overcome their early disadvantages if they really try.'

'What's your interest in all this?' asked Roz.

Kurt shrugged. 'When the Doctor and I were in that jail, the Sontarans were going to shoot us at dawn. The Doctor got me out so I owe him.'

'Honour amongst thieves?' said Chris.

Kurt leaned forward. 'Look, sonny, some crooks are people, believe it or not just like some cops. Now, if you want to try to take me when this is over, you're welcome to try your luck. Meanwhile, suppose you try to remember that for the moment we're on the same side?'

Chris blushed. 'Sorry. Old habits '

'Sure,' said Kurt easily. 'How about a game of cards to pa.s.s the time?'

Roz shook her head. 'Not me. Think I'll catch up on some sleep.' She chose one of the many spare bunks and stretched out.

'I wouldn't mind a game,' said Chris. 'We can play two-handed.'

Kurt took a pack of cards from a shelf. 'Don't know much about cards myself. I seem to remember there's some old game called poker, is it?'

'I know that,' said Chris eagerly. 'We used to play it in recruit school at the Academy.'

'Fine,' said Kurt. 'You can teach me how to play.'

Ah well, thought Roz. Everyone has to learn...

Business was booming in the morgue on s.p.a.ce Station Beta.

Usually it had only one or two occupants: some unfortunate s.p.a.ce technician caught in an accident, an overfed cruise pa.s.senger who'd paid the price for too many good dinners.

But now there was a full house. The unfortunate crew of the Tiger Moth Tiger Moth. All their Sontaran attackers. And now they'd found this other poor devil on Tiger Moth Tiger Moth. Talk about a death ship.

Kraal, the morgue attendant, found it was getting him down. He was a conscientious soul and it worried him having so many corpses to look after. He found himself checking and rechecking them all the time. Silly really. After all, they weren't going anywhere.

Or were they? On his latest check, Kraal seemed to be one dead Sontaran short.

He counted and recounted, and he just couldn't make the numbers come out right. He even knew which one was missing. The one in the fancy uniform, the Commander. Kraal counted again. 'Come on, Commander,' he muttered. 'Where are you?'

A dreadful voice behind him said, 'I am here.'

Kraal whirled round and saw a ma.s.sive form looming over him. He tried to scream but two hands clamped around his throat. He saw two little red eyes glaring into his own.

It was the last thing he saw.

Minutes later, Kraal was one of his own customers, neatly laid out on a slab. Steg looked round the room and discovered that the dead Sontarans' weapons had been neatly stacked on a shelf. Seizing a blaster, Steg was about to set off when something caught his eye. It was a body on a slab the body of a slight, fair-haired young man. The body had been extensively mutilated in a fashion that Steg found very familiar. His mind flashed back to the body of the engineer on Tiger Moth Tiger Moth.

Like Robar, this human had been killed by a Rutan a Rutan who was probably now wearing that human's shape.

But where had it come from?

Steg lurched out into the corridor in search of some answers.

The first to know of his revival, apart from the unfortunate Kraal, were the communication technicians of s.p.a.ce Station Beta.

Steg marched into the communications room and barked, 'Your attention! I am Commander Steg of the Sontaran s.p.a.ce Corps. I need information and a certain amount of a.s.sistance.

Give me what I require and no one need be harmed.'

The duty security man tried to draw his blaster.

Immediately, Steg shot him dead.

'I said no one need need be harmed. That is up to you. If you make it necessary, I will kill you all.' be harmed. That is up to you. If you make it necessary, I will kill you all.'

'You're one of the Sontarans they brought in on Tiger Tiger Moth Moth,' said Malic shakily. 'You were dead. They were all dead. We saw the bodies.'

'The report of my death was greatly exaggerated. Where is the Tiger Moth Tiger Moth now?' now?'

'On the way to Sentarion.'

' Sentarion? Sentarion? ' '

'Yes, you know the Library Planet '

'I know of Sentarion. Why is Tiger Moth Tiger Moth going there?' going there?'

'She's under charter '

'To whom?'

'To a Doctor John Smith.'

'Describe this Doctor.'

'There's nothing special about him '

' Describe him! Describe him! ' '

'Smallish, grey eyes, rumpled clothes very ordinary looking. Got a way with him though '

Steg held up his hand. 'Enough!'

Doctor John Smith. General Smith! The one who had deceived and defeated him on Jekkar. The Doctor. The old enemy of the Sontaran people, interfering once more.

Interfering, it seemed, in the most important operation in Sontaran history. Then there was the Rutan. He resumed his questioning.

'There is the mutilated body of a young human in your mortuary. Where did it come from?'

'It was found on board Tiger Moth Tiger Moth...'

Prodded by Steg's urgent questions, Malic told the strange story of Rye's death and of the fact that the crew of Hyperion Hyperion seemed to think he was still on board after his death. seemed to think he was still on board after his death.

'This s.p.a.celiner where is it bound?'

'Sentarion.'

So the Rutan was heading for Sentarion with the Doctor in close pursuit. How much did they know?

Watched by the handful of terrified technicians, Steg thought for a moment.

'To an extent, our interests are the same. I wish to leave here. You, I am sure, wish to see me gone. You will send a message for me to our War Wheel, and it will come and remove me. Here is the message.'

Steg dictated a stream of guttural syllables, the secret battle-code of the Sontarans, only employed in the greatest military emergencies.

Obediently Malic transmitted the message.

'What now?'

'We wait,' said Steg. 'Continue with your normal duties, making no reference to my presence. Conceal the body of your colleague. And I warn you, do not copy his rashness. It will do you no good to attack me. Even if you succeed, you will die.

Now that the message has been sent, the War Wheel will come. If I am not here, waiting, when it arrives, this s.p.a.ce station will be destroyed.'

Hunched into a corner, blaster in hand, Steg settled down to wait.

19.

Sanctuary Bernice Summerfield was going mad.

It wasn't that the conditions of her imprisonment were so unbearable, especially for an archaeologist. The Temple, after all, was an outstandingly beautiful place, filled with fascinating works of art. She had free access to all sorts of historical material that no scholar outside of the Sentarrii themselves had ever been allowed to see.

'Your name's made if you manage to survive and publish, Benny,' she said to herself. (She was talking to herself quite a lot these days.) But of course, she was never going to publish.