Part 7 (2/2)

Oh, very useful too, that's where the money is.'

'I have trained these humans to study the problem, but they make no progress,' said Drathro almost plaintively.

'Well, black light is very tricky stuff, Drathro...'

'I have a learning capacity, but my process of ratiocination are strictly logical. Organics sometimes eliminate such steps.'

The Doctor went on working. 'It's called intuition,' he said absently.

'Your first task will be to restructure the system.'

'Now just a minute,' protested the Doctor. 'Black light just isn't my field.'

'Then you will make it so - or die!'

In the Courtroom the Doctor leaped to his feet. 'I protest!'

The Inquisitor said wearily, 'What now?'

'Yes, now!'

'I mean what are you protesting about about Doctor?' Doctor?'

'I am charged with interference, yet it is obvious to a blind sneelsnope that I am working under duress.'

The Inquisitor considered. 'That does seem a valid point. What is the relevance of this presentation, Valeyard?'

'If the accused had not interrupted, My Lady, the point I wish to make would have become obvious.'

'Then I apologize for my outburst, My Lady,' said the Doctor handsomely.

'As Your Ladys.h.i.+p is aware, unlike the Valeyard I am unfamiliar with court procedure.'

For the first time the Inquisitor mellowed a little. 'The Court accepts your apology, Doctor,' she said graciously.

'Valeyard, you may proceed.'

The screen lit up once more. This time it showed the village of the Free people. They were building a pyre.

Peri, Dibber, and most particularly Glitz, watched unhappily as the eager hands of the villagers piled brushwood around the foot of a sinisterly charred wooden stake.

They laughed and chattered excitedly as they worked.

For the villagers a public burning was the equivalent of a stoning to the underground dwellers - one of the few bits of entertainment in an otherwise dull existence.

'What a terrible waste,' said Dibber.

'You're telling me,' said Glitz, the intended victim, touched by his taciturn colleague's concern.

'No, I meant the wood,' explained Dibber. 'If I was handling this execution I'd go for a bullet in the back of the neck. Much more economical.'

'He has a point,' said Peri.

Glitz glared reproachfully at them. 'Of all the snivelling screeds to be stuck with in my moment of need I have to get you two!'

'Depressing innit,' said Dibber.

Their guards prodded them back towards the prison hut. There was still a lot of work to be done on the pyre.

The Doctor straightened up. 'Sorry, Drathro, there's not a lot I can do down here.'

'I order you to work.'

'You can play the slave-driver all you like, but the fault doesn't lie down here at all. There must be a malfunctioning collection aerial up there on the surface.

I'll just pop up and take a look at it for you.'

The robot barred his way. 'You will remain here and proceed with your task.'

'I think you must have fluff in your audio circuit,' said the Doctor reprovingly. He looked round the equipment-crowded control room. 'What's all this stuff for, anyway?'

'It provides Drathro with his energy source,' said Humker.

'It was intended also to maintain the three sleepers till they could be returned to Andromeda,' said Tandrell.

'The three sleepers?'

The Doctor was beginning to piece the story together.

Drathro had been installed by an expedition from Andromeda, designed perhaps to save some of the natives of the planet from the effects of the approaching fireball, by setting up an underground survival system. But something had gone terribly wrong.

'The sleepers are dead now,' said Drathro. 'The relief s.h.i.+ps failed to arrive.'

Three Andromedan astronauts in suspended animation, thought the Doctor. Waiting for a back-up expedition that never came. But the fireball had been less devastating than had been feared, and life had gone on, on the surface and underground...

But that was all in the past, thought the Doctor. An equally terrible crisis now menaced them in the present.

'Now, listen,' said the Doctor urgently. 'If this black-light power failure is allowed to get any worse, we'll all be as dead as your three sleepers.'

Humker stared at him. 'Why?'

'Because there's going to be a most enormous explosion, that's why! An explosion in which everyone in your precious underground colony will be destroyed!'

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