The Doctor smirked. ‘Oh, really? In that case...’ He took his chalk and wrote eleven out of ten on the wall.
The Pilot was dazed. ‘You mean to tell me you worked that out by yourself?’
‘I had some assistance,’ said the Doctor.
‘I knew it! Who helped you?’
‘No person helped. I simply took the readings from the dials. They appeared to be related. I worked out the principle that controlled them. It was simple really. Like doing a sum backwards.’
The Pilot goggled at him.
‘Backwards?’
‘Yes... You know, given the answer – what was the question?’
The Pilot looked at him for a long moment, then came abruptly to life. ‘Wipe it away. Get it off the wall before anyone sees it.’
‘Oh... if you insist.’
He looked round for something to do the job. There was nothing but a bucket of water nearby. He picked it up regretfully and threw it with an almighty splash over his calculations, and then stood back to view it sadly. ‘There now. If anyone tries to follow that formula there’ll be a gigantic explosion... You see, X to the power of Y has dribbled into two threes are six... A formula for disaster!’
‘Get it all off,’ insisted the Pilot.
‘Oh, very well.’ The Doctor took a brush and began scrubbing the figures from the wall.
No sooner had one job been completed and the cable been secured, than the other members of the Danger Gang began drilling into the sides of the wall, moving forward as they did so.
‘What are they doing?’ Polly wanted to know.
‘We call that probing,’ Medok told her. ‘They are testing for further supplies of gas.’
‘More gas!’
‘Oh yes. The process never stops.’ Medok was bitter. ‘We find one source, create a pressure point, fix cables to syphon it off, and then go on and do the same thing again. It’s never ending.’
The passageway where they were had several short corridors leading off it. Some ended by being blocked off by a wall; others ended in the rock itself.
‘Take a look at this one,’ said Jamie. Polly joined him. The short passage ended in a metal door.
‘Where does that go, I wonder?’
Medok peered over his shoulder. ‘There are a lot of doors like that.’
‘It could lead to some old shaft,’ suggested Jamie. ‘A bit of the mine that has been worked out.’
He thumped the metal. It sounded thick and heavy. ‘Why would they want such a strong door?’ wondered Polly. ‘And it’s quite new,’ she said.
They heard Officia returning and moved on to pretend they were probing the sides of the wall.
‘You’ve completed the connections?’ he asked.
‘You know we have.’ Medok was contemptuous. ‘Otherwise you wouldn’t be back.’
‘Watch your mouth, Medok. There are worse places than the Danger Gang you could go to.’
He examined the connection they had made. ‘This is a high pressure strike,’ he said. ‘You’re going to need a stronger coupling.’
He shook it to test its strength.
‘No sense doing that,’ warned Medok.
‘You trying to teach me my business?’ Officia gave the screw a further twist. He staggered back as the gas hissed in his face.
‘I told you.’ Medok pushed past and hammered the screw back into place. Jamie and Polly hurried to help. Officia lay in a heap at their feet.
‘He’s passed out,’ said Polly.
Jamie knelt down beside the unconscious man. ‘He’s breathing... He must have...’
He broke off as he saw a bunch of keys attached to his belt. He quickly unclipped them.
‘What are you doing?’ Polly was alarmed.
‘They could be useful,’ said Jamie.
They spun round as they heard Ben’s voice. ‘What’s the matter?’ called Ben.
Jamie indicated the man on the ground. ‘He’s had a wee whiff of that gas.’
‘I’ll look after him,’ said Ben.
They helped the unconscious Officia to his feet. With an arm round him, Ben managed to drag him along the passage.
‘Did he see you take the keys?’ asked Polly.
‘If he did we’re in trouble,’ said Jamie.
‘What do we do?’
‘We’ll try the wee door,’ said Jamie. They slipped along the little passageway. ‘Keep watch, Polly. Sing out if someone comes.’
They waited until a group of the workers had passed.
‘Here we go,’ said Jamie. He tried a couple of keys in the lock, but they didn’t fit. The third key slowly turned.
‘Polly... This is it... We’re away!’
Medok saw her at the end of the passage. ‘You there,’ he said. ‘Lend a hand.’
She had to go. ‘You’re on your own,’ she whispered to Jamie as she joined the others.
‘It fits... it fits!’ He could hardly contain his excitement. The heavy door swung open.
He hadn’t heard Polly and was surprised to look back and find she had gone. But it was no time to hesitate. He edged the door just wide enough to slip in.
Medok knew he’d be held responsible if the work got behind. He urged the others on. ‘All of you. Lend a hand.’
Jamie heard him as he softly closed the door.
He realised at once he was in an old shaft of the pit as he had supposed. If there was a way in, he reasoned there must be also be a way out. He saw the path run up and downhill, as on the other side of the door. Up, meant he’d get back to the open air. He set off.
The Danger Gang were dragging a second cable along the passageway. Polly was startled to hear the alarm bell ring again.
‘Is that more gas?’ she asked.
Medok shook his head, bewildered. ‘Not that bell,’ he said. ‘That’s not a strike.’
‘What is it?’
Medok shook his head in amazement. ‘It’s never happened before,’ he said. ‘It’s an escape! Sorneone has escaped from the pit.’
He looked round to check his gang. ‘It’s from this section,’ he added. ‘I can’t believe it.’ He turned to her. Your friend! Where is he?’
‘Give him a chance,’ she pleaded.
‘I’m going too,’ said Medok. He remembered. ‘The door! He opened the door!’
The Doctor helped Ben carry Officia into the pit head, office. He had started to recover and now limped along between them.
He had just seated himself by the dials when the alarm went off, and he leapt to his feet.
‘No one ever escapes,’ he told them wildly. He spoke into the intercom. ‘Get the guards... stand by... One of the Danger Gang has escaped.’
‘But you said no one...’ began the Doctor.
‘My keys!’ exclaimed Officia. ‘They were on my belt.’
‘You may have dropped them,’ the Doctor suggested. Officia grabbed his microphone. ‘Special guards are to cover all exits from the old shaft. Request the Pilot’s permission to go onto forbidden ground.’
The old shaft was silent as Jamie moved cautiously along it. In the half-light it was difficult to see much ahead, but as the ground still headed upwards he knew he was going in the right direction.
He had gone only a few hundred yards when he thought he heard a sound behind him, but he had been following the curve of the passageway, and the door was now out of sight.
Medok turned the handle of the metal door. Another chance to escape, he thought, as he hurried out into the shaft beyond.
It wasn’t difficult to guess which way Jamie had gone as the path sloped upwards. He was about to take it when he heard a movement in the shadows.
‘Jamie!’ He peered into another passageway that joined the main one. The shafts were honeycombed with such corridors.
‘Jamie...’
There was no answer so he took a step into the dark. He didn’t have a chance to see what it was that came out of the recess, nor did he have time to cry out. The huge claw that went round him choked the yell of terror in his throat.
Along the passage Jamie stopped and listened. ‘Hello? Who’s there?’ Perhaps Polly had followed, he thought. But there was no reply.
The Doctor watched the screen as it lit up with the image of the Controller. His old authority had returned as he frowned down on the Colony.
‘No permission is granted for Guards to go on forbidden ground,’ he said. ‘I repeat, no permission! They are not to cover the exit to the old shaft. This is at present in use by Control. Is that understood? No one is to go near the old shaft.’
The Doctor looked thoughtfully at Officia. ‘He was very emphatic about that. Can you think why?’
‘Control knows best,’ said Officia simply.
‘But suppose your prisoner escapes that way,’ persisted the Doctor. ‘What will happen to you?’
‘I shall be punished.’
‘Aren’t you going to do something about it?’
‘Control knows best,’ he repeated.
‘Who has escaped anyhow?’ asked the Doctor.
‘We shall soon know.’ Officia hurried out.
Ben came slowly across the room to join the Doctor. He hesitated, then he said, ‘It’s Jamie.’
The Doctor looked at him in surprise. ‘How do you know?’
Ben couldn’t understand the struggle that was going on within him. ‘I saw him take the keys.’
‘And you didn’t report him!’
Ben shook his head.
‘Why not?’ asked the Doctor.
‘I don’t know,’ Ben hesitated again. ‘I just don’t seem able to think straight.’
The Doctor was delighted. ‘My dear Ben, you’re recovering. I always said you were a tough customer. It takes more than a bit of thought infiltration to corrupt you.’
‘Control knows best,’ said Ben dumbly.
‘You don’t seem very sure about that,’ suggested the Doctor.
Ben was suddenly resolved. ‘Jamie took the keys. I must report him.’
Part of the old shaft had collapsed in places, and a mass of rocks and debris lay across Jamie’s path. He climbed over it. Ahead lay a stretch in semi-darkness, curving upwards, quite sharply.
As he clambered over the rubble he thought he heard the sound again. He peered back and called; ‘Is that you, Polly?’ But there was only silence.
He began to move when he imagined the sound repeated, only this time it was ahead of him.
He moved a few steps, trying to see into the gloom... ‘Hello there?’
He stopped. Something had indeed moved ahead of him. He just caught the glint of light on a shiny bone structure shaped like the feeler of some huge insect. Did it know he was there?
Along the path, hardly moving, making a great effort, slowly jerking as in some final agony, the creature struggled to take a few steps, one vast eye blinking; making a desperate effort, then subsiding in a panting heap on the ground, its sides swelling and falling, struggling to breathe.
Jamie prayed it was dying. He doubted if he had the courage to try to get past.
The Danger Gang were ordered to return to headquarters, and Polly ran back to join the Doctor while further alarm bells sounded throughout the pit.
‘Have you heard?’ she asked.
He nodded. ‘Jamie got away... And by my calculations he’s got a very good chance.’
He was preoccupied with a number of test tubes he had on one of the benches, pouring drops of liquid into a jar containing a swirl of vapour.
‘What chance?’ she asked anxiously.
He was still busy with his experiments. ‘As I understand it, he’s got into the old shaft.’
‘That’s right.’
‘And for reasons of their own, Control don’t want anyone in there. They call it forbidden territory.’ The Doctor was attaching a tap to one end of a plastic pipe. The other end he inserted into one of the test tubes.
Polly was exasperated by his lack of concentration. ‘But what’s that got to do with Jamie?’
The Doctor turned on the tap and a puff of gas passed into the test tube. He examined it carefully. ‘On this planet it’s got a lot to do with everyone.’
He took the top off the test tube and sniffed it cautiously, muttering to himself.
‘What on Earth are you doing?’ she asked.
‘I’m trying to analyse this gas, my dear, and I’m not having very much success.’
She looked at it with sudden interest. ‘Is that the stuff we’ve been pumping from the pits?’
‘It is... And they go to great efforts to get it. My question is... why?’
‘There’s someone coming,’ Polly warned him.
‘Dear me... I don’t want anyone to find me doing this.’
He glanced up to see Officia looking at him and the equipment ‘What is the meaning of this?’ he demanded.
As Ben entered there was no one in the Pilot’s room apart from the assistant. She smiled welcomingly. ‘The Pilot is still dealing with the emergency. But I can help.’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Always lend a helping hand,’ she prattled. ‘A willing friend makes the task lighter.’
‘I’ll wait for the Pilot,’ Ben told her. He hesitated again. ‘That is... if I’m going to tell anyone.’
‘But you are, aren’t you?’ she encouraged.
He passed a hand over his face. He couldn’t understand why he kept getting these waves of doubt. ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do... I’ve got these voices telling me one thing. And then I think...’ He looked at her in wonder... ‘Sometimes I feel I’m just having a dream.’
‘Is it something about your friends?’ she asked.
‘One of my friends,’ said Ben.
For a long minute Jamie watched the creature lie on the ground, its scaly flanks hardly moving. It was fighting for breath. He couldn’t understand – a light puff of air blew down the corridor, fresh, cool, enough to put fresh courage into a man’s soul. But it seemed to suffocate the creature.
Jamie edged forward, step by step, watching, wary, wondering how close he dare go. Was it safe to try to get round the thing? Could he get safely through the space that was left? Dare he?
The stench as he got closer made him feel sick. He was overcome with nausea.
But he
had
to get past. Was the creature as weak and helpless as it appeared? Might this be a trap? Could it suddenly throw out one of its long feelers? A sudden twitch and the rope-like tentacle could whip round him.
He came to a stop about twenty steps away from the creature. He had to put it to the test.
He found a stone in the rubble, and took careful aim, throwing it smack onto the big humped back, but there was no reaction, not even a twitch from the creature.
He picked up another couple of stones and began to edge forward.
As he carne level, he prodded it with his foot. Nothing moved... then one heavy eyelid fell back, and a baleful eye, a last sign of life, thought Jamie, turned to look at him, so close that his blood went icy cold, and he found he was so horrified and repulsed that he couldn’t take the next step.