Doctor Who: Shada (22 page)

The Doctor coughed. ‘Well, you see, I don’t like to keep boasting but that’s another little trick I picked up, I can suspend all life-functions for a very short period—’ He stopped himself and clamped his hand over his mouth.

‘What was that?’ asked the Ship suspiciously.

The Doctor shook his head.

‘You were saying?’ prompted the Ship.

‘I’m dead,’ said the Doctor cautiously.

‘I know,’ said the Ship.

‘Of course you do,’ said the Doctor.

‘Though maybe I should just give you another quick scan—’ began the Ship.

‘No need!’ cried the Doctor. ‘As the servant of the great Skagra, who is infallible—’

‘I’m glad you see him that way now,’ said the Ship. ‘What a pity you had to die before you had the realisation.’

‘Quite,’ said the Doctor. He continued, ‘As the servant of the infallible Skagra, your sensors must also be infallible. Ergo, I am dead.’

‘That seems reasonable,’ said the Ship.

‘And if I’m dead, then I’m an ex-enemy of Skagra,’ said the Doctor. ‘Correct?’

‘Correct,’ said the Ship.

The Doctor wiped his brow. He chose his next words very carefully. ‘So, if I’m dead, I cannot give orders that would be any kind of threat to Skagra. Correct?’

‘Correct,’ said the Ship.

‘Then I order you to release my friends,’ said the Doctor, crossing his fingers. ‘Please.’

There was a pause.

‘They will be released,’ said the Ship.

The Doctor gave a long exhalation. ‘Excellent! Thank you! I think I must be very clever.’ He mopped his brow again. ‘Do you know it’s getting very stuffy in here all of a sudden?’

‘You
are
dead?’ asked the Ship.

‘Yes!’ said the Doctor. ‘I thought we’d sorted all of that out.’

‘I am programmed to conserve resources,’ said the Ship simply. ‘Since there are no living beings on this command deck, I shut down the oxygen supply on the departure of my lord Skagra.’

The Doctor gasped for breath.

With a sudden dizzying sensation, he realised he had now used up all the oxygen left behind following Skagra’s exit. Normally he could have suspended his life-functions – but he had only just recovered from his last such trance.

He felt his knees give way. ‘Turn on the air supply,’ he gasped. Sharp, terrible pains pierced all three of his lungs.

‘That is not logical,’ said the Ship.

The Ship’s warm, matronly voice rang in the Doctor’s ears as he sank to the floor.

‘
Dead men do not require oxygen… Dead men do not require oxygen… Dead men do not require oxygen…
’

Part Four

Carbon Copies

Chapter 37

CHRIS COMPLETED YET another circuit of the tiny white room. Finally he crouched down beside K-9 and patted the dog’s head the way he’d seen Romana do it. It was a silly thing to do, but it was strangely reassuring. ‘We’d better face it, K-9,’ he said heavily. ‘When it comes to getting out of here, we haven’t got a clue.’

Suddenly Chris found himself looking beyond K-9 to a door that had seemingly appeared from nowhere. It was only when he got up and looked around that he realised they were no longer in the white room. Instead they had been transported – if that was the right word – into a long, curving corridor with doors at either end.

‘Hey, we did it!’ cried Chris.

K-9 trundled forward, heading down the corridor to one of the doors. ‘We must locate the Doctor Master and the Mistress. There is great danger!’

He reached the sealed doorway and extended his nose blaster. ‘Stand clear, young master!’ he warned Chris. ‘Preparing to fire!’

‘Hold on!’ called Chris. There was a panel on the left-hand side of the door, with two switches marked OPEN and CLOSE.

Chris pressed the button marked OPEN.

Hidden mechanisms built into the doorway clicked.

‘Most satisfactory,’ said K-9 glumly, the laser retreating into his nose.

Chris shrugged. ‘Sorry.’

The halves of the door parted with a smooth electronic hum. There was a rushing sound, and Chris was almost knocked over as a mighty wind roared past him and K-9 into the room beyond.

Chris shook his head, looked through the door – and saw the Doctor, lying sprawled on the floor. He raced in, barely registering the large white space and its sleek, inbuilt control panels.

‘Doctor!’ Chris ran to his side, fearing to touch him. There was nobody else in the room; no sign of Romana or this Skagra person.

‘Oxygen levels are returning to normal,’ said a warm, female matronly voice.

Chris spun around. ‘Who said that?’

K-9 turned on his axis. ‘Identify yourself!’

‘I am the Ship,’ said the voice grandly. ‘The servant of the great lord Skagra.’

Chris shuddered. It was eerie. The voice seemed to be coming from all around them. ‘Where’s that voice coming from?’ he whispered to K-9.

K-9’s eye-screen flashed. ‘Impossible to pinpoint source. The voice emanates from the fabric of this ship.’

‘That’s what I just said, dog,’ said the Ship.

Chris looked back to the Doctor, relieved to see his big blue eyes opening.

The Doctor sucked in great lungfuls of air and nodded to his friends. ‘Nice to see you, Bristol.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘You took your time, K-9.’

‘He’s alive!’ cried Chris.

The Doctor sat up like a shot and clamped his hand over Chris’s mouth. ‘No I’m not, I’m dead,’ he whispered fiercely.

‘You’re what?’ Chris tried to say.

The Doctor looked around and whispered into Chris’s ear, ‘I’ve been nearly too clever by three-quarters.’

Chris removed the Doctor’s hand from his mouth. ‘You never seem to do anything by halves,’ he said.

The Doctor rummaged in his pocket and produced a scrap of paper and a stub of pencil. He jotted something down hurriedly then held it directly before Chris’s eyes.

The paper read I PERSUADED THE SHIP I WAS DEAD AND IT CUT OFF MY OXYGEN SUPPLY.

‘You persuaded the Ship what?’ asked Chris, incredulous.

The Doctor slammed his hand back over Chris’s mouth.

‘What was that?’ asked the Ship.

‘Nothing,’ called the Doctor. He flashed the paper at K-9.

‘Confirm,’ said K-9 haltingly. ‘It is – nothing.’

‘Hmm,’ said the Ship.

The Doctor quickly jotted down some more. He showed the paper to Chris, keeping his hand firmly over Chris’s mouth.

THE SHIP WON’T TAKE ORDERS FROM AN ENEMY OF SKAGRA. BUT SINCE IT BELIEVES I AM DEAD, THE SHIP HAS NO REASON NOT TO OBEY MY ORDERS. GET IT?

Chris nodded. It was the sophisticated idiot problem again, this time working in their favour. The Doctor removed his hand.

He flashed the paper at K-9.

‘Confirm understanding,’ said K-9. ‘Logic is peculiar but acceptable.’

‘The logic of what?’ asked the Ship. ‘I really do think I ought to see what you’ve written on that piece of paper.’

‘I’m a dead man writing,’ said the Doctor, hurriedly stuffing the paper back into his pocket. ‘Whatever I’ve written, how can it be a threat to your great master Skagra?’

After a pause the Ship said, ‘Fair enough.’

‘The Ship turned the oxygen back on when you came in,’ the Doctor told Chris. ‘Because you’re still alive. Officially.’

‘That’s reassuring,’ said Chris.

The Doctor clapped a hand on Chris’s shoulder and got to his feet. ‘Where’s Romana?’

‘I thought she was with you,’ said Chris. ‘We got transported into this prison thing, then she got transported out again.’

‘Skagra,’ said the Doctor grimly. ‘He’s got Romana, as well as the book, and a copy of my mind.’

Chris was finding it slightly hard to keep up again. ‘He’s got what?’

‘A copy of my mind, in his sphere. He thought that I’d know how to read the book.’

‘But you don’t, do you?’ said Chris.

‘I don’t even know why he wants to read it,’ said the Doctor. ‘But I don’t imagine it’s simply the incurable curiosity of the bibliophile.’

‘Why don’t you ask the Ship?’ suggested Chris.

The Doctor clapped Chris on the shoulder again. ‘I was just about to.’ He looked up. ‘Ship, why does your gracious lord Skagra want to read the book?’

‘It contains the secret of Shada,’ said the Ship.

‘And what is Shada?’ asked Chris.

‘I’m hardly going to tell you that,’ snapped the Ship. ‘You are an enemy of my lord Skagra.’

‘So he is, so he is,’ said the Doctor. He coughed. ‘But you can tell me, can’t you? I’m dead.’

‘I could tell you,’ said the Ship, ‘but I do not know. My lord has not shared that information with me.’

‘It can wait,’ said the Doctor. He set off for the door. ‘We’d better get after Skagra and Romana. K-9, you can trace them from the TARDIS.’

The Ship coughed. ‘I’m afraid that won’t be possible.’

The Doctor crashed to a halt by the door. ‘Why not? As a dead man, I can do what I like, it’s one of our special privileges.’

‘You cannot return to your TARDIS,’ said the Ship patiently, ‘because it has gone.’

‘Gone? What do you mean, gone?’

A hologram screen shimmered into view in mid-air. It displayed the meadow outside the ship. Chris could see the toppled fold-out stool and fishing tackle. But there was no sign of the TARDIS.

‘He’s taken Romana off in your police box,’ said Chris. He called up to the Ship. ‘Where has he taken her?’

The Ship harrumphed. ‘As if I’d tell you that.’

‘Where has he taken her?’ demanded the Doctor.

‘My lord did not share that information with me,’ said the Ship.

Chris watched as the Doctor slammed down into the big white chair, pulled his hat from his pocket and jammed it down over his eyes.

Chapter 38

FOR ROMANA, THIS was a nightmare. She clutched a bulkhead as the TARDIS bucked and swayed through the vortex.

Could the tall, slender young man holding on to the console really be Salyavin? The mere mention of that name had sent a shiver through her body. It had stripped her of the very training and detachment that she had been extolling, and suddenly she had been a little girl again, over a hundred years earlier. ‘Go to sleep,’ her mother had said playfully, in the mocking tone adults used without realising the horror they were inspiring, ‘or Salyavin will come to get you!’ She had seen holo-images of Salyavin, the wild man, in the history books, and spent the night still and silent, listening to the sounds of the Citadel, convinced that Salyavin was hiding beneath her bed.

And Salyavin, or Skagra, or whoever he really was, had stolen the mind of the Doctor, and left him dead. He had no reason to lie.

One thing gave Romana hope. She had not seen the Doctor’s body. Was it just possible he had somehow fooled Skagra, and would come bursting in at any moment, teeth flashing, eyes bulging, that ridiculous scarf flapping in the wind?

Finally the TARDIS started to groan to a halt, the centre column grinding slower and slower until Romana felt the familiar wrenching sensation of materialisation.

Skagra stood back from the console. ‘We have arrived,’ he said simply. He threw the big red lever, and the outer doors opened.

Romana gathered herself. Whatever was out there, she would refuse to be impressed.

Skagra gestured for her to exit first.

Romana stepped past him haughtily and went through the doors of the TARDIS.

She found herself among the stars. She stifled a gasp of astonishment.

The TARDIS had put down at the centre of a huge open circular space. Above and around her on all sides was a brilliant starfield, beyond what she guessed must be some kind of invisible spherical vacuum shield. At the edges of this arena she could see huge dark mountains, blasted black spires of rock reaching up to the heavens.

Romana turned to see Skagra exiting the TARDIS, carpet bag in hand, followed as ever by the sphere.

‘Where are we?’ she said as casually as she felt able. She waved a hand airily across at the infinite stars. ‘Of course I know roughly where we are from the star formations. We’re at the centre of this galaxy’s trade routes, among the most powerful civilisations, not so very far from Gallifrey. I assume from the look of those rock formations that this observatory is built into the surface of an asteroid.’

‘Of course,’ said Skagra, who did not look impressed either. ‘This is my command station.’

Romana sneered. ‘Command station! And what do you need to command?’

‘More than you can possibly imagine,’ said Skagra.

‘I have a very vivid imagination,’ said Romana.

‘Then it may be in for a shock,’ said Skagra.