Part 22 (2/2)

'What, in a static charged field with torpor balance?'

'Looks like it.' The Doctor entered a series of commands into the computer. 'This is going to take some working out.

These engines weren't built for this sort of thing at all.'

'Neither was I,' called Stokes. He had found himself next to Pyerpoint and the Ogrons. 'Your scheme looks ended at any rate.'

Pyerpoint regarded him with contempt. 'You are supposed to be dead.'

Stokes shrugged and pointed a finger. 'And you are supposed to be a trusted bastion of the establishment. Oh, I wish I'd never come aboard this dismal chunk of rubble!'

The Nisbett brothers had been sufficiently taken aback by the Doctor's spectacular entrance not to react with their usual threats of violence. He heard Charlie ask Xais, 'What's going on here? I thought he was an investigator. What's he doing helping us out?'

'I don't like this,' said Eddie. 'There's something wrong.'

'He's trying to save his own life,' said Xais. 'But there is nothing you can do, Doctor.'

'Well, perhaps you've been approaching this problem from the wrong angle,' he called back over the steadily increasing roar of the engines. 'You may well be a mathematical genius, Xais, but sometimes what's needed in these situations is some good old-fas.h.i.+oned creativity.'

Romana prised open a hatch on the side of the console.

'What he means is that we're going to alter course by confusing the engines. If we can suppress the next blast in the chain for a couple of seconds longer than usual, we'll overshoot the planet by several hundred miles.'

'I don't understand her,' said Charlie. 'Is she right?'

Xais nodded. 'They could blow us to pieces if the blast is kept down for too long. But it's our only hope.'

The asteroid tore open a dense belt of floating methane as it got closer and closer to the planet. A chain of brilliant blue explosions ripped away chunks of rock. A red haze began to form around the edges of the shaking Rock as it dived downward.

A blue acceptance light flashed on the navigation display.

'I've sent the command!' Romana heard the Doctor shout jubilantly.

He moved to complete the operation but was pushed back in his seat by the crus.h.i.+ng g-force. Romana had been thrown to the floor by the impact but was now nearest to the open inspection s.h.i.+eld. 'You'll have to release the zonal flow valve!' he called urgently.

She dragged herself up, pa.s.sing Stokes, who appeared to have pa.s.sed out. Xais had fallen on top of Pyerpoint. Nearby, the Ogrons were wailing with fear. The brothers had somehow managed to lose their balance with dignity and were seated smugly at control positions like successful players in the final round of musical chairs.

Romana pushed herself on. She flung out an arm and stretched for the valve control. It was mere inches from her grasp.

'Give it some welly, Romana,' she heard the Doctor cry.

Redoubling her efforts, she flung herself against the force pulling her away.

Her fingers brushed the enamelled surface of the b.u.t.ton.

The claws of gravity loosened their clutch at the offered morsel. Incredibly, destruction was averted. The ma.s.sive weight of the Rock lifted itself free and roared off, its confused engines howling in protest all the while.

The Doctor shook himself and brushed specks of dust from his coat. He put a hand to his head and frowned. Had he forgotten something?

'Doctor,' Romana groaned from the floor.

He smiled down at her. 'Do you know, you really should take a more vertical att.i.tude to life.'

'Doctor, the capacital limiter!'

He viewed the offending control. 'Yes, what about it?'

Almost before he had finished speaking he had leapt forward and flicked it to the on position. 'Well, yes, of course, the capacital limiter. You didn't really think I'd forgotten, did you?'

She pulled herself up painfully and drew a deep breath. 'Of course not.'

Apparently satisfied, the Doctor swivelled his chair to face his adversaries, who were climbing to their feet, and clapped his hands together. 'Well, there we are. We're safe. How about that?'

He found himself facing the tip of a compact black revolver. 'Get up and keep your hands where I can see them,'

Charlie ordered. He pa.s.sed the gun to his brother. 'Cover them.'

Romana and the Doctor stood up. 'Your manners are appalling,' the Doctor told their captors. 'We've just saved your lives.'

Xais was checking over the navigation console. She was joined by Charlie, who asked, 'Well? What's the score?'

'We're coming out of orbit but our course is still fixed,' she told him. A graphic curve on the screen picked out a path that would take the Rock away from Eleven and into interplanetary s.p.a.ce. 'In about twenty minutes we'll be out of transmat range. We have to move fast.'

Charlie nodded. 'Right.' He turned to his brother. 'Ed. You and Flarkk, take the prisoners with you, get down to the transmat and set up the beam. Chivvy the lads along with the mining gear. We'll be down in a couple of minutes.

Understood?'

'Understood.' Eddie gestured to the Doctor, Romana and Pyerpoint with his gun. 'Right. You heard. Get into single file.

No tricks.'

'n.o.body's even said thank you,' the Doctor grumbled.

Romana pointed to Stokes, who lay slumped in the corner of the room. 'What about him?'

'He's no use,' said Eddie. 'Get on.'

<script>