Part 3 (2/2)

Tegan didn't understand. 'What do you mean?'

'You lost your way in the TARDIS, as well.'

'If it wasn't for your bright idea with the beads, we'd never have come this far.'

'Arguing won't get us out of here.'

'Maybe,' Tegan said, 'but it helps my temper.' The annoying part about it was that he was right.

There were no more drones, so they took a guess and moved on. They'd seen one more of the robots, with a different coloured bodysh.e.l.l and a different set of tools. It had crossed their path some way ahead and had paid them no attention. This wasn't really enough to make them feel safe it only meant that, at the time, whatever they'd been doing hadn't raised any objection from its programming. Let them wander into some unmarked but proscribed area, and the reaction might be different.

The plaintive calling that had lured them down had stopped shortly after they'd tried to turn back. Tegan was doing her best not to think about it. But she could hardly put it from her mind when it started again not when it was coming from the other side of a door that was only a few metres behind them.

It came through as a distinct Help me Help me. Tegan was transformed; she rushed to the door and pressed her head against it to listen. 'That's her,' she said, 'that's Nyssa!'

Turlough wasn't so sure. Even though they hadn't known where they were heading, they'd come a long way from their turn-around point, a place where they'd supposedly been getting near to the source.

'That could have been anybody,' he said, but Tegan was already convinced.

'Nyssa?' she said loudly, doing her best to make herself heard through the thickness of the door.

'Nyssa, are you there?'

A faint but unmistakable response came through.

Tegan looked around at Turlough in triumph, as if she'd had absolute confirmation.

'It's the Doctor we have to find,' he was starting to say, but Tegan wasn't even listening.

'See?' she said. 'We've got to get the door open!'

Whilst Tegan was trying to find a way to open a sliding door that has no handle and no visible controls on the outside, the Doctor and Nyssa were sitting in two of the crew chairs in the control room of the liner.

Weapons covered them from both sides, and the raiders with the weapons obviously knew how to use them.

It hadn't taken long for the Doctor to add an empty liner to a foam-plugged hole and work out how the newcomers came to be here. What he couldn't answer quite so easily was the question why why? In the meantime, he could see no advantage either in lying or in concealing his own motives for being on the liner.

'You've got a s.h.i.+p?' Kari said at the first mention of the TARDIS. 'Where is it?'

'That's the problem,' the Doctor said. 'We can't find it.' 'Is it armed?'

The Doctor and Nyssa both spoke together. 'No,'

they said, and then exchanged a glance. They wanted to present themselves neither as potential enemies nor as allies to be pressed into service. The Doctor added, 'We're not looking for trouble, we're just pa.s.sing through.'

Kari turned her weapon slightly and flicked a switch on its side. The movement seemed to be as much for their benefit as for any practical purpose. The burner emitted a high-pitched whine, and a red indicator light blinked alongside the switch. She flicked it off, and the whine stopped.

'I'm not convinced,' she said.

'This is all very one-sided,' the Doctor objected.

'I know.'

Olvir's attention, meanwhile, had drifted from them and was now directed more towards the panoramic window at the forward end of the bridge. 'Kari,' he said, and the undertone of warning caused her to glance his way. It was then that she saw the moving shadows around one of the ports, the first indication of an approaching light-source somewhere outside.

'Watch them,' she said to Olvir, and she crossed over to the window to take a look.

The Doctor had already weighed the possibility of making a run for it, and dismissed the idea. Olvir might be number two in the raider hierarchy, but he still knew what he was doing. Even if they made it out into the corridor, they'd be perfect targets. From his seat by what was probably the liner's manual helm, the Doctor watched as Kari stared out at something they couldn't see. She seemed to be getting paler and paler, all of her colour bleaching away until she had to turn aside from the brightness or be blinded. The windowgla.s.s reacted a moment later, darkening in response to the photon overload as a deep rumble made itself felt all the way through the control room.

Olvir couldn't help it. He had to see. He continued to keep the Doctor and Nyssa within his firing arc as he backed over to the window but he switched his attention away from them for a moment. Nyssa looked at the Doctor, but the Doctor shook his head.

'That's our s.h.i.+p!' Olvir said in disbelief.

Kari had unclipped her radio from her belt and was making a hasty attempt to communicate. 'Chief,' she said, 'this is the advance party. What's happening?'

But Olvir had already guessed. It was the obvious sequel to the lack of follow-up and the long radio silence a silence which even now wasn't to be broken.

'He's running out on us!' he said.

'He can't!' Kari tried again, but her only reply was a deafening wash of static as the raid s.h.i.+p's engines burned their way past. She switched off. The quiet of deep s.p.a.ce was abruptly back with them, the only background sounds those of the liner's engines running themselves up in preparation for some automated manoeuvre.

The Doctor leaned fractionally towards Nyssa. She looked at him, eager to hear the plan of action that would get them out of this mess.

'Any ideas?' he said.

'It's the motors,' Turlough said as he stepped back from the door, and he listened for a moment to be certain. 'Something's happening.'

Tegan didn't even seem to hear. They'd found that, by pressing hard and putting all of their strength into it, they could make the door give just a little. It wasn't enough to be of any real use, but it looked like progress. She said, 'Hold on, Nyssa, we're getting you out.'

Turlough had his own reasons for being helpful. His sights were set, not on Nyssa, but on the Doctor.

Helping Tegan was only a way of keeping his cover intact whilst he waited for the opportunity that the Black Guardian had a.s.sured him would come. He said, 'We need a crowbar. Something to lever the door open.'

'Well, find one!'

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