Doctor Who: Galaxy Four (7 page)

‘Yes.’

She held out the gun and a disbelieving Steven was about to snatch it when Maaga’s voice cut in from the doorway. ‘You are trying to be too clever.’ She entered and confronted Drahvin Three. ‘You have done badly. You will be punished. This is a prisoner, not to be spoken to.’

The Drahvin’s face paled. ‘He was talking.’

‘He was trying to trick you, just as the machines do. The only words you need to hear are those I utter.’

Three bowed her head. ‘I was wrong. I did not understand.’

‘Go to your quarters.’

The Drahvin left. The other two remained quite still. Maaga turned on Steven, her voice still harsh. ‘You will keep out of our way.’

‘Gladly,’ he said. ‘I don’t particularly want to be here at all.’

She paused and looked at him shrewdly. ‘You don’t have to be. You could easily escape.’

‘Could I?’ he said, very much on his guard. ‘Yes, in your own ship.’

‘Ah, I see. And, of course, I’d be taking you lot along as companions.’

‘You would hardly expect us to remain here.’

‘Well, I’ll tell you something.’ He put his hands in his pockets and deliberately slouched his shoulders in an attempt to appear helpless, which as far as such a proposition was concerned he was. ‘Even assuming that I believed you and that you didn’t decide along the way that I was eating too ‘much food, there is a snag.’

‘And what is that?’

‘I can’t operate it, couldn’t if I tried for ever. Only the Doctor can do that. He designed it and he controls it. But I have a suggestion to make. Why don’t you put the offer to him? Or do you think he might be too smart for you?’ Steven smiled. ‘I may look the part of the gullible one, but I can’t help you at all.’

‘I could make you,’ she snapped.

‘No, you couldn’t. You’ve never seen the inside of the TARDIS. It’s bulging with instruments. I wouldn’t even know where to start. I’d push everything within sight and probably blow us all to Kingdom Come.’

She glared at him in frustration and pointed to a padded area in the corner. ‘Get over there and stay there in silence.’

‘That’s an order, is it?’

‘It is.’

He shrugged indifferently and crossed to where she had indicated, dwelling upon the fact that she was not as single-minded as he had thought. So, killing was not her main instinct; right alongside it was self-preservation, which was nice to know because out of that could come fear and he would very much like to see her with a touch of that. It would do him a power of good. He sat down, then decided that while he was at it he might as well lie, so he did, turning his head away from the Drahvins and closing his eyes.

There was silence for a while, then he heard them cross to the table and sit. The silence descended again until one of them finally spoke. ‘Maaga?’

‘What is it?’

‘Why do we not kill him now?’

‘I will let you kill him when I am ready.’

‘Thank you, Maaga.’

Vicki and the Doctor lay prone on the ledge and looked down. The air chittered with the sound of several Chumblies and now they could see them. There was a purpose about their movements. Each covered a certain distance until it met another Chumbley, then each turned about and recovered the ground until it met another coming toward it. The same thing, over and over again. They were sentries standing guard, and very efficiently at that. The Doctor was impressed. He admired the smoothness of their motion over the jagged landscape on what had to be telescopically suspended wheels and the precision of their repeated meeting and turning. This, added to the fact that all moved at exactly the same speed, would have qualified them for duty at Buckingham Palace, it seemed to him. He smiled to himself at the thought of a bearskin set atop the head of each of them.

‘We’ll never get past them’ Vicki muttered. They’re all over the place.’

But the Doctor was still gazing at the robots. He found them fascinating. ‘I wonder what the operating principle is? Relatively simple, I should think, once you knew it.’

‘Doctor!’ she said.

‘Mmm, what is it, child?’

‘How are we going to get past them?’

‘Yes, a good question.’ He still stared at the Chumblies. ‘And one to which I don’t have an immediate answer, so try to be patient. We have to observe, note, collate, then conclude. In that way we might find one.’

‘We don’t have an awful lot of time.’

‘That much I know.’ He nodded to the side. ‘Look, there’s another.’

She followed his gaze and saw the machine moving in their direction, soon to pass beneath them. She had had enough of this. Time was passing and each second took them one beat nearer to the end. And there was something about the Chumblies that had caught her attention. They were always face on to a target, always having to turn in order to get to the right position. It made for a certain awkwardness in their otherwise smooth mobility. A theory began to form in her head. Glancing at the Doctor she saw that he was still absorbed in the oncoming machine. She reached out and pulled a sizeable rock to her side where the Doctor could not see it. Then she, too, waited.

The Chumbley came on, was directly below them, then moved away. Vicki jumped to her feet, held the rock high above her head, then hurled it down behind the robot. It did not even pause but simply went on its way.

‘What the devil are you doing?’ the Doctor demanded in some agitation.

‘Testing a theory,’ she replied.

‘Then don’t. You could get us both killed.’

‘But don’t you see, Doctor?’ she sighed. ‘We were in no danger at all. The Chumblies only have sensors or whatever they are on their fronts. Anything behind them they aren’t aware of at all. After all, that one didn’t flicker, did it? But the rock was big enough to make anybody jump. So for as long as we can stay behind them they won’t even know we’re there.’

The Doctor narrowed his eyes in thought, then nodded: ‘You know, I think you’re right. But it was still a foolish chance to take.’

‘It wasn’t a chance. I noted, observed, collated and concluded, just as you said.’ She grinned. ‘Then I threw the rock.’

He gave her a hard look. ‘I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. But it means we’re going to have to run for it again. I seem to have done little else since we got here. If we take that one at the end we’ll stand a fair chance. Then we’ll duck down to that track because that, I think, is where the spaceship is.’

They waited until the end Chumbley had turned, then did as the Doctor had said, running up behind it and stepping lightly in its track. A hiss from the Doctor and they sprinted for the opening he had indicated, just making it before the Chumbley turned to make its way back. Out of breath again, the Doctor led Vicki a short way down the gap until there before them was the Rills’ base.

They halted and surveyed it. The ship itself was a vast black sphere rearing up into the sky. Here and there were observation ports and one large patch where the Drahvins had scored their direct hit. It had been repaired and stood out clearly against the matt grey of the hull. At the base of the ship the Doctor could discern vents for whatever form of propulsion was used. But, more interestingly, built onto the side of the ship was a building of quarried black rock, looking very much like a pillbox left over from a war. In front of that was some machinery which the Doctor judged to be a drill rig. He wondered what the Rills could be drilling for. Whatever it was it had to be important for them to go to such pains in constructing the building. He imagined the robots had done it. His admiration for them grew. Their designers must have been brilliant to make them capable of so many tasks. Compared with the lack of evidence of activity on the Drahvin ship these beings had been very busy indeed. He hoped he would meet them, rather than be gunned down on sight for his troubles.

‘What can they be after?’ he said.

Vicki was equally puzzled. ‘Oil? Gas?’

‘Difficult to say. Well, there’s only one way to find out.’

But they had to duck out of sight as a Chumbley emerged from one of the narrow entries in the building. It stopped, rotated its head from side to side, then went back in again. As soon as it had gone Vicki and the Doctor hastened across to where it had stood. The Doctor’s eye was caught by a grill set low in the wall. He stopped and examined it.

‘An air vent?’ Vicki guessed. ‘Or some sort of purifier?’

‘More than that, I think.’ He put his hand against it. ‘It’s drawing air in. It could be for converting air into something else.’

‘Like what?’

‘Heaven only knows. Come on, let’s go in and pray we don’t run into one of your Chumblies.’

He led the way through the entry and they found themselves in a passageway. Like the outside it was excellently and strongly constructed, either because that was the way the Rills always did things or because they feared the possibility of attack. And there was a peculiarly pungent odour on the air. The Doctor sniffed and looked a query at his companion.

Vicki nodded. ‘Yes, I can smell it too and I can’t place it, though I know I ought to be able to.’

‘Then let’s find out.’

They moved on down the passageway, hearing Chumblies moving about in the building and smelling the odour growing stronger. They emerged into a large space. Three of the walls were of rock, but the fourth was grey, clearly the side of the space vessel. Here and there, neatly stacked, were various constructional pieces and repair equipment. The Doctor looked about him at the numerous entries to the area. This was obviously the working centre. He looked at one of the stacks. ‘Look, part of a robot. They must repair each other.’

‘Yes. I know what that smell is now, Doctor.’ ‘Oh?’

‘Ammonia.’

‘So it is. Interesting...’ He moved to the side of the spaceship and looked hard at it. ‘Well, I don’t need to try my screwdriver on that. A very superior metal. Beautiful. Hardly a metal at all, in fact. Wonderful material for a spaceship. I wonder how far they travelled to wind up here?’

‘Very far, do you think?’

‘That depends on their means of propulsion. But I would think it’s pretty advanced, because a ship built like this is easily capable of hopping from one galaxy to another.’

‘Like us,’ she said.

‘Like me,’ he corrected her.

And suddenly Vicki screamed and pointed in horror. ‘Doctor, look!’

3 Airlock

Rigid with fear, Vicki stared at the side of the Rills’ spaceship. The Doctor followed her gaze and was greatly interested. A shutter had slid aside. Behind it was a somewhat bigger observation port and behind that two huge, heavily-lidded eyes were watching them. They looked like soft pools of concern, dark brown and gentle. What they could see of the face surrounding them, which was bigger than the port, was a scaly coat resembling that of a lizard. Around this vision swirled thick strands of ammonia gas.

‘What is it?’ Vicki gasped.

‘At a guess, my dear, that is a Rill.’ The Doctor moved closer and looked into the eyes that looked into his. ‘Yes, I’d say I’m right. What I’m looking at is intelligence, and considerable at that. Come and have a look for yourself.’

Vicki shuddered. ‘No, thank you. And I’ll tell you now, I find it difficult to believe that an animal like that has "considerable intelligence".!

‘Animal?’ The Doctor tutted to himself. ‘No intelligence indeed. When will you learn that not all life forms are structured like man? Some ‘are better, some not. But they all have one thing in common: they’ve learned to adapt. And sometimes from that adaptation comes intelligence, as in this case.’

‘But that scaly head!’

‘What of it?’

‘It’s horrid!’

‘I do hope it isn’t listening to you,’ the Doctor said reprovingly. ‘For all you know, it finds our appearance revolting. I can’t think why it shouldn’t. I’m not too fond of mine.’

‘It’s a good deal better than that.’

‘A charming if somewhat back-handed compliment.’ He returned his gaze to the eyes, to see again what Vicki could not, the high intelligence. The eyelids blinked only every fifteen or so seconds, coming down like purple blinds in a most leisurely manner and contrasting oddly with the green scales, to open again equally as calmly. He wondered what it made of them. Whatever it was, the Rill showed no alarm, which indicated to the Doctor that either it knew no fear or felt quite secure where it was. He wished he could communicate, but knew that no sound, however loud, could penetrate the ship’s walls. It seemed a pity. He put his hands together and bowed slightly to indicate that he came in peace. Nothing happened. He repeated the gesture and again the response was nil. He sighed. ‘I’m afraid it doesn’t speak our language. I might as well beat my head against a brick wall. Such a pity. I know I could learn something worthwhile from it.’

‘It seems to me you’re presuming too much,’ Vicki said dustily.

The Doctor turned to her with raised eyebrows. ‘And what, pray, do you know of other life forms? Is your experience so vast that you can tell me what I can see and what I can’t? Have you been a time-traveller so long?’

Vicki was put down. ‘Sorry, Doctor. But I do find it very frightening.’

‘Then don’t. If you stumble through life believing that anything that doesn’t look like you is necessarily bad you’ll make a very poor fist of it. A little more tolerance is what you need and much less of this burgeoning female arrogance I seem to be encountering all the time since we landed. Claims of superiority I always find extremely boring. There’s always someone better–except in my case, of course.’

Vicki knew he was only half ribbing her. The other half was intended as a salutary lesson. She hung her head, only to lift it again in a listening attitude. ‘I think there’s a Chumbley coming.’

The ‘Doctor heard it too, the chittering growing louder as it approached. ‘This way. Quickly.’

He led the way to an entry leading away from the sound and they bolted into it. They came to a dead halt at the sight of another machine heading straight for them, turned and rushed back into the chamber to take another way out. Finding one that seemed safe they raced into that and along the passageway. Short as the distance was, it seemed to take them forever before they saw daylight ahead.