Part 14 (1/2)

He crashed to the ground with Olvir on top of him.

They rolled apart, winded. Olvir was feeling sick and dizzy at this, his second hand-out of abuse, but he struggled to his knees. If only he wasn't too late. He had to get Nyssa away from the danger of the radiation field.

But Nyssa was no longer there.

Olvir stared mutely at the chain and the straps that had secured her. They swung gently in the deadly light. He made it onto his feet. There was no sign of the Garm, either, and no clue as to where they might have gone. His burner had come to rest close to the reactor globe too close for safety. He'd have to reach into the hottest part of the danger area in order to reach it.

'I wouldn't,' Valgard said from behind him. 'The radiation would kill you.'

Olvir turned. Valgard was still on the floor where he'd fallen, but he'd managed to prop himself up. He said, 'Get much closer and you're dead, unless you can get to a decontamination unit.'

'You're lying.'

Valgard shrugged. 'Go ahead, then. In my day we had better training.'

'What are you talking about?'

'You're a raider, aren't you? Combat trained.

Colonel Periera, was it? The one they call the Chief?'

Olvir tried not to let his surprise show, but it was unavoidable. He said, 'How do you know?'

Valgard s.h.i.+fted a little in an attempt to make the most of the strength that he had left. 'I recognise the moves,' he said. 'He taught the same ones to me. I was with him for five tours until he turned me in for the reward.' He shook his head, and smiled at the memory. 'I was lining up to do the same to him, but he beat me to it. Good times.'

'How did you get here?'

'We're slave labour, all of us. That's how the Terminus works.'

'Where are the guards?'

Valgard almost laughed. 'Don't need them. If we don't work, there's no Hydromel for us.' He put out a hand. 'Help me up,' he said, but there was a whining note in his voice that caused Olvir to step back a little further.

'Come on,' Valgard said, 'Look at me. I'm a danger to n.o.body. I'm finished and I'm dying.'

But Olvir wasn't to be won around. He said, 'Where did that thing take Nyssa?'

'Who?'

'The girl. Where did it take her?'

'I don't know. This is the first time I've ever been into the zone.'

'Will he harm her?'

'He's supposed to be helping her to get cured.

That's what he's here for.'

Olvir glanced across at the straps and chains. They'd stopped swinging. If this was Valgard's idea of a healing process, he'd got it badly wrong. Was it worth even attempting to find Nyssa if she was doomed anyway?

He said, 'How can this be expected to cure anybody?'

'Help me, and I'll show you.' Valgard was just a little too eager in his offer. Olvir didn't believe that the Vanir knew any more about the inner workings of the Terminus than he did.

Olvir said, 'I'll find her myself.' The Garm hadn't pa.s.sed them as they'd fought, so that limited the choice of directions. Olvir took a guess and moved off.

'Don't leave me,' Valgard called after him.

One of the tactical principles of the Chief's combat training programme was that no enemy should be left alive if there was a possibility that he could pose a future threat. Olvir obviously thought that Valgard was finished and not worth the attention... which was what Valgard had wanted him to think.

As soon as he was sure that Olvir had gone, the Vanir scrambled to his feet. He wasn't fast, but he was a long way from being the helpless invalid that he'd pretended to be as long as the young raider was around. He got his staff and went over to the reactor globe, approaching in such a way that he was out of the direct line of the radiation. The staff was his protection as he used it to draw Olvir's burner out of the danger area.

His time in the zone might be getting short, but he had a weapon. Let them try to stop him now!

'Are you all right?' Tegan said anxiously, and Turlough fanned some of the acrid smoke away. His attempts to pull down some of the s.h.i.+elding in the newly uncovered section of the underfloor area had started a small electrical fire, but it had quickly burned itself out.

'I'm all right,' Turlough a.s.sured her.

'I might be able to help you if you'd tell me what you're trying to do.'

'There was some kind of radiation leak around here, remember? It gets worse when the motors are running. That's when the door to the TARDIS is fully materialised... that leak must be the engine signature that the emergency programme attached itself to.' And as if to prove a point, Turlough leaned back and started to kick at the cladding which lined the underfloor tunnel. There were sparks and more smoke, but pieces of the cladding came away.

Tegan looked up. On the wall behind her, a faint ghost-image of the door to the TARDIS was starting to appear. She was about to tell Turlough, but the liner's automated warning voice beat her to it.

' Primary ignition is now beginning Primary ignition is now beginning,' it boomed down the corridors. ' All systems running on test. Departure All systems running on test. Departure sequence is beginning now. sequence is beginning now. ' '

'What's happening?' Tegan said.

'I should think that's obvious. The liner's getting ready to leave.'

'But we can't leave yet!'

The liner was deaf to any argument that Tegan might offer it. ' All drones to designated a.s.sembly points All drones to designated a.s.sembly points,' it went on, ' Countdown to secondary ignition follows. Countdown to secondary ignition follows. ' '

Turlough heaved himself half-way back to corridor level, and he looked at the results of his work with some satisfaction. He estimated that the door was about one-third materialised. Tegan was no longer looking; she was more concerned about their imminent departure. They were already separated from the Doctor and Nyssa, and it was a situation that threatened to become permanent.