The Romance Of Crime Part 22

He picked up the list of Pyerpoint's commercial interests.

'Now, as one of the directors of the Board of Mineralogical Extraction, Pyerpoint received news about new finds before almost everybody else.'

He pa.s.sed her a slim blue folder. 'This report was compiled for Pyerpoint about five years ago. He hired a mineralogist to carry out an independent survey of Planet Eleven. n.o.body had ever done that before because it's a very inhospitable place. It can't be surveyed from orbit or by remote sensors, either. Far too much atmospheric distortion.'

'We hardly need reminding of that,' Stokes said with a nervous glance at the porthole. 'Is all this chat really necessary? We're about to crash!'

'I'm determined to get to the bottom of this plot before we go any further,' the Doctor told him severely. 'Now then, Pyerpoint must have related the findings of the survey, incidentally, to Xais. And she noted that the property is rich in helicon. One point three per cent of planetary ma.s.s, in fact.'

'And she can use helicon to reincarnate herself,' mused Romana. 'But how is that possible?'

The Doctor shrugged. 'It has to be something to do with that energy from her eyes. It reacts to molten helicon, allowing her to record psychokinetic information along telepathic wavelengths. However it works, it copied her personality, her memories, even her physical attributes.'

Romana tutted. 'That's an irritatingly vague theory.'

'Well, it's the best I can do at the moment,' the Doctor snapped. 'You'll just have to accept it. So Xais and Pyerpoint hatched a plot to mine the helicon for themselves. She needed him to keep prying eyes well away.'

'But the helicon is worthless to Pyerpoint. He can't duplicate himself, surely?' asked Stokes.

'It's possible that she could do it for him,' said the Doctor.

'She promised him half the spoils from Planet Eleven. That's always been the deal. But then, the police struck lucky for once and captured Xais. It looked as if the game was up.' He leaned forward. 'Until you presented yourself, Mr Stokes.'

The artist drew back. 'Oh really? I suppose the blame for all of this affair is now to be laid at my door?'

The Doctor nodded. 'Yes, You gave them a legitimate reason to bring Xais into contact, very briefly, with just enough liquid helicon to cross herself over. Her original self was executed and her new half slowly took control of poor Margo through the mask. And that's when things started going wrong for old Pyerpoint.'

With help from his whisky gla.s.s, Stokes had put his immediate discomfort aside for a moment and had become engrossed in all of this double dealing and intrigue, which appealed to his macabre sensibilities. 'I see. Because he didn't know that Xais was chummy with the Nisbett brothers?'

'Quite,' said the Doctor. 'She'd planned to call them in from the beginning. She needed strong allies with mining equipment and they fitted the bill. She'd thrown them some wild story about belzite reserves and arranged to send a homing signal when she was ready. As Margo lost control, Xais got her to steal a transmitter from stores, ready to send the beam.'

'And what about the raid on the survey base?' asked Romana.

The Doctor nodded grimly. 'That came about because Xais was dormant in Margo's thoughts. When Margo read that the McConnochie Mining team were coming to the end of their survey, Xais panicked. Although the place is technically worthless, there's a recession on and there was a slim chance the company might have gone in before she could organize herself. She summoned up all of her power and took control for just one night. Margo transmatted herself to Eleven and killed the survey team. And that put the mockers on any plans McConnochie might have had for a while. Then Xais came back up here and fiddled with the computers to cover her tracks, as we know.'

'I see,' said Romana. 'Although Pyerpoint knew nothing about any of that. He was waiting here patiently for Xais, as agreed.'

'Hence his concern when Zy was killed,' the Doctor remarked. 'He must have known full well who was responsible, but he framed poor Mr Stokes. Even then he didn't realize quite how advanced his partner's plans had become. And the sudden Ogron attack was as much of a surprise to him as to all of us. Of course, he took the first chance he got to dispose of you two. That gas would have destroyed your bodies completely, he doesn't want any evidence around to implicate him. And...'

He raised a finger and lowered it again. 'And well, I suppose that's all, really. Got that? I can always go over it again for you.'

Stokes shook his head. 'They're a devious bunch, aren't they? I always preferred the hotheads. All this premeditation.

Takes the pa.s.sion out of the whole thing, really.'

'Well done, Doctor,' said Romana. 'That was an awfully clever piece of deduction.'

He smiled. 'Was it? Well, the time for deduction's over, Romana. This is the time for...' He scratched his head. 'Er, what is it the time for?'

'Tea?' said Stokes hopefully.

'Action?' Romana suggested.

'Yes, action!' He made for the door of the office. 'Now, keep close behind me and do exactly as I say and don't do anything stupid. Unless I tell you to.'

Stokes got up from his chair. 'Where are we going?'

The Doctor grinned. 'Where do you think?'

'Oh no,' Stokes pleaded. 'Not the Nisbett brothers, please.'

The Doctor stopped in the doorway. 'This asteroid is heading straight for that planet and I'm the only person aboard who can stop it.'

Romana coughed.

'Well, perhaps not quite the only person. Anyway, let's be off We've wasted enough time talking.' He strode away with Romana at his heels.

Stokes considered his options. He could drink himself into oblivion, he supposed. Then again, he hated being alone. He picked up the bottle of whisky and followed them.

The asteroid roared just above the upper atmospheric belt of Planet Eleven. Heat insulation material on the buildings of the justice block flaked away as the friction caused by the decaying orbit increased and the pull of the small planet's gravity strengthened. b.a.l.l.s of orange fire shot from the rocket ports as the asteroid tumbled towards what seemed certain destruction.

The Doctor pressed his ear to the door of computer control.

'There's no alternative,' he heard Xais say. 'We must return to your ship and evacuate.'

One of the brothers replied, 'Our ship'd never reach escape velocity from this far down. We're finished.'

'Not necessarily!'

The Doctor threw the doors open and bounded in, followed by Romana and Stokes, whose normally sallow complexion had begun to turn a disquieting shade of green from a combination of drink, fear, exhaustion and s.p.a.cesickness.

The Doctor rattled on before anybody had the chance to shoot him, a tactic that usually worked. 'h.e.l.lo, everybody. It's nice to see you again, Xais, and you Mr Pyerpoint, and you charming Ogron gentlemen, and, ah, you must be the Nisbett brothers. You don't know me, I'm the Doctor, this is my friend Romana, and that's Mr Stokes, and do you know unless you listen to me I think we're all going to die.'

Xais sprang from her position at the navigation console, resentment boiling in her eyes. 'Your robot was responsible for this, Doctor!'

'What, K9?' The Doctor tutted. 'I sometimes wonder why I ever let him off his lead. Now, then,' he indicated the navigation console, 'that looks important, I think I'd like to take a little look, if I may?'

Romana followed him. 'It looks like their control linkage has blown. Were they using a reverse thrust reaction?'

'Constant blast excitation/suppression, more like.'

'What, in a static charged field with torpor balance?'

'Looks like it.' The Doctor entered a series of commands into the computer. 'This is going to take some working out.

These engines weren't built for this sort of thing at all.'

'Neither was I,' called Stokes. He had found himself next to Pyerpoint and the Ogrons. 'Your scheme looks ended at any rate.'

Pyerpoint regarded him with contempt. 'You are supposed to be dead.'

Stokes shrugged and pointed a finger. 'And you are supposed to be a trusted bastion of the establishment. Oh, I wish I'd never come aboard this dismal chunk of rubble!'

The Nisbett brothers had been sufficiently taken aback by the Doctor's spectacular entrance not to react with their usual threats of violence. He heard Charlie ask Xais, 'What's going on here? I thought he was an investigator. What's he doing helping us out?'

'I don't like this,' said Eddie. 'There's something wrong.'

'He's trying to save his own life,' said Xais. 'But there is nothing you can do, Doctor.'

'Well, perhaps you've been approaching this problem from the wrong angle,' he called back over the steadily increasing roar of the engines. 'You may well be a mathematical genius, Xais, but sometimes what's needed in these situations is some good old-fashioned creativity.'

Romana prised open a hatch on the side of the console.

'What he means is that we're going to alter course by confusing the engines. If we can suppress the next blast in the chain for a couple of seconds longer than usual, we'll overshoot the planet by several hundred miles.'

'I don't understand her,' said Charlie. 'Is she right?'

Xais nodded. 'They could blow us to pieces if the blast is kept down for too long. But it's our only hope.'

The asteroid tore open a dense belt of floating methane as it got closer and closer to the planet. A chain of brilliant blue explosions ripped away chunks of rock. A red haze began to form around the edges of the shaking Rock as it dived downward.

A blue acceptance light flashed on the navigation display.

'I've sent the command!' Romana heard the Doctor shout jubilantly.

He moved to complete the operation but was pushed back in his seat by the crushing g-force. Romana had been thrown to the floor by the impact but was now nearest to the open inspection shield. 'You'll have to release the zonal flow valve!' he called urgently.

She dragged herself up, pa.s.sing Stokes, who appeared to have pa.s.sed out. Xais had fallen on top of Pyerpoint. Nearby, the Ogrons were wailing with fear. The brothers had somehow managed to lose their balance with dignity and were seated smugly at control positions like successful players in the final round of musical chairs.

Romana pushed herself on. She flung out an arm and stretched for the valve control. It was mere inches from her grasp.

'Give it some welly, Romana,' she heard the Doctor cry.

Redoubling her efforts, she flung herself against the force pulling her away.

Her fingers brushed the enamelled surface of the b.u.t.ton.

The claws of gravity loosened their clutch at the offered morsel. Incredibly, destruction was averted. The ma.s.sive weight of the Rock lifted itself free and roared off, its confused engines howling in protest all the while.

The Doctor shook himself and brushed specks of dust from his coat. He put a hand to his head and frowned. Had he forgotten something?

'Doctor,' Romana groaned from the floor.

He smiled down at her. 'Do you know, you really should take a more vertical att.i.tude to life.'

'Doctor, the capacital limiter!'

He viewed the offending control. 'Yes, what about it?'

Almost before he had finished speaking he had leapt forward and flicked it to the on position. 'Well, yes, of course, the capacital limiter. You didn't really think I'd forgotten, did you?'

She pulled herself up painfully and drew a deep breath. 'Of course not.'

Apparently satisfied, the Doctor swivelled his chair to face his adversaries, who were climbing to their feet, and clapped his hands together. 'Well, there we are. We're safe. How about that?'

He found himself facing the tip of a compact black revolver. 'Get up and keep your hands where I can see them,'

Charlie ordered. He pa.s.sed the gun to his brother. 'Cover them.'

Romana and the Doctor stood up. 'Your manners are appalling,' the Doctor told their captors. 'We've just saved your lives.'

Xais was checking over the navigation console. She was joined by Charlie, who asked, 'Well? What's the score?'

'We're coming out of orbit but our course is still fixed,' she told him. A graphic curve on the screen picked out a path that would take the Rock away from Eleven and into interplanetary s.p.a.ce. 'In about twenty minutes we'll be out of transmat range. We have to move fast.'

Charlie nodded. 'Right.' He turned to his brother. 'Ed. You and Flarkk, take the prisoners with you, get down to the transmat and set up the beam. Chivvy the lads along with the mining gear. We'll be down in a couple of minutes.

Understood?'

'Understood.' Eddie gestured to the Doctor, Romana and Pyerpoint with his gun. 'Right. You heard. Get into single file.

No tricks.'

'n.o.body's even said thank you,' the Doctor grumbled.

Romana pointed to Stokes, who lay slumped in the corner of the room. 'What about him?'

'He's no use,' said Eddie. 'Get on.'