Part 2 (1/2)

'Really. I mean, am I criticising you because you'd rather stay here than help look for Nyssa?'

That did it. She turned and went out through the doorway.

Turlough watched for a moment in case Tegan changed her mind, but he wasn't expecting it. Of the three, she was the easiest to manipulate. All he needed to do was to annoy her a little, and she'd jump off impulsively in whatever direction he wanted. He reached into his pocket and brought out the contact cube.

Although he couldn't say so, he blamed his controller for his earlier failure. There had to be a better way of bringing the Doctor down than by striking at his technology; that, after all, was the Doctor's strength. The cube started to glow.

'They've left me alone,' Turlough said as soon as contact was established. 'What can I do?'

' Nothing. Destroying the TARDIS is nothing if the Doctor Nothing. Destroying the TARDIS is nothing if the Doctor lives. lives. ' '

'He's gone.'

' Then follow and kill him. Find a way. Then follow and kill him. Find a way. ' '

Tegan hadn't even gone out of sight of the door when Turlough stepped down into the corridor. It wasn't going to be as simple as it had seemed at first; the corridor branched and divided further down, and the monotony of its appearance was disorienting. She heard her name being called, and she turned back to see what he wanted.

He was walking towards her, and she saw with a start of fear that the door was closing itself behind him.

No doubt it would open again when someone approached it, and if there was any problem in tracking it down there was always Nyssa's book that they could use as a marker, but Tegan still felt as if a cell door had been slammed on her.

But the big surprise was Turlough. He was looking sheepish. He was embarra.s.sed embarra.s.sed.

'Sorry,' he said, 'That must have looked really selfish. I couldn't let you come out here alone.'

It was certainly a change of heart, but Tegan wasn't about to take any bets on how long it might last. When she turned around to lead the way, there was that familiar uncomfortable feeling between her shoulders again.

In fact, she'd been on the point of turning back. It no longer seemed like a good idea to try to catch up with the Doctor, and it was only the thought of Turlough waiting and smirking at her lack of resolve that had caused her to hesitate, but now that he was with her and tagging along, she felt even less able to give up the notion.

So they followed the way laid down by the book, as the Doctor had done, pressing deeper into the unknown craft and walking in what they hoped were his footsteps. They paused only once, when the steady engine sounds from under the decks changed and became less intense. By then they were already some distance away from their starting point; there was no way that they might have seen their link to the TARDIS slowly fading out and leaving a blank section of corridor wall.

The Doctor was either staying well ahead of them or else he'd turned off somewhere. Tegan and Turlough moved as fast as they dared without making too much noise, staying with the main line of the corridor; this way they stood the least chance of getting lost, because they'd be able to trace a straight line back to their starting-point.

They met n.o.body. The place even had an empty feel about it, helped along by the low-level lights. For Tegan it was like an engine yard at midnight, and the only life was that which throbbed through the decks under their feet. Even so, this didn't make her any less uneasy lights of any kind, even at the lowest level, must have been provided for someone to see by. There were sliding doors at regular intervals down one side of the main corridor, but none was open.

Thanks for that, at least, Tegan thought as they pressed on. Tegan thought as they pressed on.

'Was that her?' Turlough said suddenly, and Tegan realised that she'd been letting her attention wander.

'What?' she said, but Turlough signed for her to be quiet.

They listened for nearly a minute, and finally it came again: what Tegan had a.s.sumed to be the far-off moaning of air through the craft's recirculation system was augmented by another, more distinctive sound. It was something very like a human cry.

'Well?' Turlough said.

Tegan listened again, but the sound wasn't repeated. 'I don't know,' she said, 'I suppose it could have been...'

But Turlough was already convinced. He even seemed to be sure of the direction, down a tunnel that intersected with the main corridor only a little way ahead. 'Come on,' he said, 'we'll catch up with the Doctor on the way.'

'Wait a minute! We could get lost!'

'All taken care of,' Turlough said, and he held something out under the nearest of the dim lights.

Tegan took a closer look and saw that it was the abacus.

Turlough took hold of one of the crosswires and sprung it loose from the frame. The beads ran from it easily into his hand, and he crouched. 'We'll leave a trail,' he explained, and he took one of the beads and set it in one of the cut-out squares of the floor grating.

It sat neatly, too small to roll out and too big to fall through. 'All we'll have to do is follow the beads home.'

Tegan couldn't help being impressed. 'Don't miss a trick, do you?' she said.

d.a.m.n it if Turlough didn't come close to actually blus.h.i.+ng. 'I look after myself,' he said.

Then both of them heard it, and this time there was no mistaking what it was: a girl's voice, far-off and filled with anguish. Even if Turlough hadn't already come up with a sure method of finding their way back, Tegan would probably have been unable to resist the summons. It was clear evidence that Nyssa was alive and hurt, and for Tegan there was no other explanation.

Leaving Turlough to take care of their trail, she was already heading down the tunnel.

Whatever was making the sound, Nyssa could hear it too.

It came from somewhere overhead. She crouched in the darkness below the metal stairway of the lower deck with her eyes shut, waiting for it to stop. Some of the dizziness was going but there was still the nausea whenever she tried to move, and any sound was like needles in her ears. She didn't know where she was, or how far she'd run; all that she could remember was the advancing edge of the field of instability as it devoured the room around her, and then the blinding pain and the Doctor's voice urging her to keep moving. Well, she'd kept moving even though her vision had been distorted worse than the worst of bad dreams and her head had been pounding with a dull, regular beat.

She'd kept on until a measure of conscious control had returned and she'd found herself half-way down the stairs to the lower deck, clutching the rail and on the point of pitching forward.

It'll pa.s.s, she'd told herself desperately, wanting nothing more than to let herself down slowly and let the bad feelings ebb away, She made it to the bottom of the stairs, where her legs almost gave out. It was then that she'd turned and seen the shadowed area underneath, and she'd crawled into the darkness much as a beaten fox might crawl into its hole. she'd told herself desperately, wanting nothing more than to let herself down slowly and let the bad feelings ebb away, She made it to the bottom of the stairs, where her legs almost gave out. It was then that she'd turned and seen the shadowed area underneath, and she'd crawled into the darkness much as a beaten fox might crawl into its hole.

The wailing had started then. Please, Please, someone seemed to be calling, someone seemed to be calling, help me help me. Even though there were no clear words, the message was plain. It was more than Nyssa could bear. After a few moments she covered her ears and did her best to sit it out.

As she rested, she started to feel better. The improvement was only relative, but at least the nausea began to subside. After a while she took her hands away from her ears and opened her eyes; even the lights no longer hurt. In a minute or so, she promised herself, she'd try to stand. As long as that far-off agony didn't start up again, Nyssa felt that she could face whatever she'd got into.

It was as she was standing that she heard a light footfall on the stairs above.

Nyssa froze, and waited. Whatever was coming down towards her had hesitated, too, but after a moment it came on. She could see its shadow through the open construction of the stairway, and hear its weight on the metal as it descended with stealth. She held her breath.

No details, just a dark shape. It came down to deck level and turned to step out into the light. Even though she'd been determined to stand quite still there was always the chance that it wouldn't see her, and pa.s.s on by Nyssa couldn't help taking half a pace back into the greater safety of the darkness.

The wall behind her was closer than she'd thought.

She came up against it with an almost inaudible b.u.mp... it was almost nothing, but it was enough to be heard.

'Nyssa?' the Doctor said. He was standing at the bottom of the stairway, one hand on the rail, peering uncertainly into the shadows.

For a moment she was sufficiently overcome to hug him, and he was sufficiently relieved to let her. He said, 'Where did you think you were going?'