Doctor Who: The Savages (5 page)

She hesitated, scanning the panel round the door. There must be some way in.

Concern turned to alarm as Steven, Avon, and Flower retraced their steps for the third time, calling Dodo’s name, looking everywhere, asking bystanders, but getting nowhere. No one had seen the Girl From Beyond Time.

‘Could she be playing a joke?’ asked Avon nervously.

‘Could it be just a game?’

‘Not even Dodo would be as silly as that,’ said Steven grimly. They came to a stop. ‘Something must have happened to her,’ he said.

‘But nothing can happen to anyone in the City. We are all safe here.’

‘Then where is she?’ Steven was getting angry with such reassurance.

He shouted loudly up and down the splendid aisles: ‘Dodo! Dodo!’ There wasn’t even an echo.

The panel beside the door was simple to understand, and Dodo quickly realised the combination that would open the door. But she hesitated for a moment, wondering what she might see on the other side. She had an unpleasant feeling. After all, that must have been the place the sick man had been. But once again her curiosity got the better of her. She tried the combination and the door opened.

She stepped in. At first she was disappointed: she had entered what looked like a small, glass-panelled, waiting room, brightly lit. She went smartly through it and as she stepped out she came to a sudden stop.

The scene before her was one of busy and efficient activity. The room looked like a vast laboratory, an experimental scientific institution, or perhaps part of a very modern hospital. A short distance away, some men dressed in protective uniforms were clustered round a cabinet recessed into some impressive equipment. She couldn’t see what they were doing as a cloud of white vapour drifted about inside the cabinet.

The man in charge was adjusting a number of instruments, turning a wheel, changing the reading on some dials, and keeping an eye on some great vats of inky liquid that stood beside him.

From where she stood, partly hidden in the waiting room, Dodo saw the inky substance getting a shade lighter. Something was bubbling through it that seemed to be purifying it. She stood entranced, absolutely absorbed by the process. She realised that everyone else in the room was equally concentrated on the same activity.

She wondered what on earth they could be doing, and she gradually edged a step or two nearer. No one seemed to notice the figure in the doorway. The low hum of the dynamo, the rhythmic bubbling of the liquid in the great vats, the gradual change in the colour — it was all quite hypnotic. She had to find out what was happening inside that cabinet. What held the little group’s attention so? If she moved round behind them, perhaps she’d be able to see. She tip-toed very gently behind the group.

Lights flickered up and down the panels above the Supervisor’s table. Things seemed to be speeding up.

The meeting in the Conference Room was going well. The Elders were beginning to congratulate themselves. Jano had put their philosophy very clearly indeed. The Doctor seemed impressed, listening, asking the occasional question, admittedly not giving much away, with a dry, unchanging expression on his face.

But he still listened.

‘So you see, Doctor,’ said Jano, ‘with this new vigour our intellectuals find they are able to accomplish more. Artists are able to turn out works of brilliance. In this way we have achieved this world you so approved of. And every citizen has an equal chance..

The door of the room was thrown open as Steven ran in. He was very agitated.

‘I must see you, Doctor.’

‘My dear boy,’ the Doctor was surprised. ‘You really mustn’t come bursting in like this.’

‘Dodo has gone,’ said Steven.

‘Gone? What do you mean... Gone?’

‘She’s completely vanished. We’ve looked everywhere.’

Behind him Avon and Flower appeared in the open doorway.

‘What are we to understand by this, Avon?’ asked Jano sternly.

‘It’s true,’ said Avon.

‘She has vanished into thin air,’ said Flower.

‘I can’t see what all the fuss is about,’ said the Doctor. ‘She’ll turn up. I don’t suppose anything awful can happen to anyone in a City as well managed as this.’ He looked quizzically at Jano.

Jano shook his head thoughtfully. ‘You are right. She cannot leave the City.’

‘And I know that young lady,’ said the Doctor. ‘She’ll be all right. She can look after herself.’ He didn’t seem the slightest disturbed.

Dodo could now hear some of the muttered conversation around the cubicle.

The man in charge said, ‘Reduce extraction rate,’ and one of the assistants repeated the order into a voice system. The rate of flow seemed to check, and the sound of bubbles changed gear.

‘The subject looks very weak,’ said the same man, and everyone peered into the clearing gassy substance. Dodo tried to do the same, standing on her tip-toes, leaning as far forward as she dared.

She was so involved she didn’t notice that she had stepped from behind her cover. One of the assistants had turned away, and to his amazement he saw this stranger looking on. He said nothing, but gradually began to move round the room behind the others. She didn’t notice as he came up slowly at her back.

Senta was calling out instructions. ‘Vitality reading?’ he asked.

‘Twenty-six,’ called his assistant.

What could that mean, wondered Dodo. She intended to find out. She took a step nearer the transparent cubicle, and, as she did so, an arm was thrown round her, and a hand clamped roughly over her mouth. She tried to struggle and shout, but she could do neither.

She couldn’t see who was holding her, but a second man saw her, and ran to grab her arms. Together the two men dragged her from the room, pulling her into an alcove; it looked to Dodo like an office.

‘Who is she?’ one man was asking. ‘What is she doing here?’

The man behind her said, ‘She must be from outside. See if she’s on the list.’

Dodo managed to jerk away as the men glanced through a heap of papers on a desk. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ she said angrily. ‘Leave me alone!’ She tried to free her arms, but they were pinioned to her sides.

The man at the desk frowned over the lists. ‘She doesn’t seem to be here.’

He turned to look at her. ‘Why’s she wearing such strange clothes?’ He fingered Dodo’s dress as she spoke.

She managed to free one arm and pushed him away. ‘Keep your hands to yourself!’ she said indignantly.

‘I don’t understand this,’ said the assistant. ‘There’s only one female on the list and she’s in there now.’

‘Are you sure she’s here for transference?’ asked the other man.

‘She must be. Is there any other reason?’

One of them signalled to a third man still in the laboratory, and he came in a moment later bringing one of the strange trollies Dodo had seen outside.

‘Get her ready,’ the first assistant ordered.

She tried to kick and struggle, but the odds were against her. At close range the trolley with its mass of odd-looking equipment was alarming. She fought harder, but they dragged her towards it.

Steven didn’t like Captain Edal’s manner, but at least he was efficient, and he felt that with him they had a chance of finding out what had happened to Dodo.

They had returned to the spot where she had last been seen, and Edal checked the window.

‘She stopped to look out of there,’ said Flower.

Edal shook his head. ‘It’s far too small. She couldn’t have got out that way.’ He turned angrily to Avon. ‘You should have watched her. You will be held responsible.’

‘We thought she was following us,’ protested Avon. Edal suddenly stopped and looked up at the wall. ‘Did she come down here?’ he asked.

‘Yes.’ Avon glanced at the indicators on the wall. ‘But she wouldn’t go through there.’

‘Why not?’ said Edal sharply.

He pressed the release catches and the panel opened. Steven looked at the corridor beyond in surprise. ‘Where does that go?’

‘It’s nothing,’ said Flower. ‘We never use it. It’s for the guards.’

‘You don’t know Dodo,’ said Steven. ‘She’d go anywhere.’

‘If she’s taken that road,’ said Edal, ‘I don’t give much for her chances.’

‘She wouldn’t,’ said Flower. ‘It’s not allowed.’

‘If it’s not allowed,’ said Steven, ‘then Dodo would be first in the queue. I’ll have a look.’

He stepped quickly into the corridor before anyone had time to stop him.

‘Stay where you are!’ ordered Edal.

Senta looked up from his control panel as he heard one of the assistants call, ‘Senta... Senta, something is happening. We have one of the outsiders. We are trying to prepare her. But she does not submit. She is fighting.’

‘Impossible,’ said Senta.

‘She is over there, sir,’ shouted the assistant. ‘In the control office.’

‘Take over,’ Senta directed his assistant. He hurried into the office.

He arrived just in time to see Dodo throw herself to one side, dodge round the trolley away from the two assistants, and wedge herself behind a battery of files.

‘I don’t know what’s going on here,’ she said angrily, ‘but whatever it is, I don’t like it.’

They all looked at her in amazement. Never before had they had such opposition. It was hard to know what to do about it.

They made a rush to try to corner her.

‘Oh no, you don’t,’ said Dodo. She grabbed the trolley and used it to defend herself, ramming at anyone who tried to get near. ‘I don’t know who you think I am but —’ She spun round to see the third man trying to get behind her. She sent the trolley spinning across towards him, then snatched up a panel of instruments from the top of the filing cabinet.

‘I imagine this little lot is worth a packet,’ she said grimly, ‘and if any of you come one step nearer it’s all going to be junk.’

They hesitated, looking to Senta for a lead. He tried to take command.

‘What do you think you will achieve —’ he began. Dodo cut him short. ‘Just back off,’ she said, ‘or I smash the lot.’

Senta gazed at her, baffled, then signalled to the others to move away. ‘Do as she says,’ he whispered. ‘If she breaks that, she may kill us all.’

It looked for a moment as if there was going to be a shouting match between Steven and Captain Edal.

Steven didn’t like being ordered about, and he saw no reason why he should not search this darkened corridor. He knew it was just the sort of place to attract Dodo with her insatiable curiosity. But Edal forcibly pulled him back.

‘Did you not hear?’ asked the Captain sharply. ‘You are not allowed in there.’

‘It’s the only place she can be,’ protested Steven angrily.

‘Then I shall go and see,’ said Edal, and he disappeared into the corridor, leaving Steven fuming with Avon and Flower.

Edal knew his way and headed directly for the sound of a powerful dynamo and the noise of some. thing bubbling through liquids.

It was a state of impasse in the Control Office. Senta had reason to think again. This was not the behaviour of the people of the scrubland. Nor were these the clothes they wore.

‘Who are you?’ he asked, puzzled.

‘You should have asked that before,’ said Dodo.

‘I’m supposed to be a guest here. Though if this is the way you treat your guests, I’m not sure I want to stay.’

‘A guest?’ Senta had a sense of apprehension.

‘I’m with the Doctor. The Traveller From Beyond Time, you call him.’

‘It isn’t possible,’ said one of the assistants. ‘It certainly is,’ said Dodo firmly.

‘Then how are you here?’ asked Senta. ‘In this place?’ He indicated the laboratory.

The door of the office burst open. An assistant looked in anxiously. ‘Senta, quickly. The subject.’

Senta hurried out, shouting over his shoulder, ‘Stay here everybody.’

He reckoned he got back to transference control just in the nick of time. One glance at the dials and he knew just how close this subject was to complete extinction. Good grief, he thought. Two near mishaps on the same shift. And usually nothing went wrong. It seemed to Senta like a black omen, and if the truth were known he was inclined to be superstitious — although that was considered to be quite ridiculous in the City.

He spun the dials, and shouted into the speaker, ‘Disconnect!’ As he did so, he heard another voice calling, ‘Dodo!’ One quick glance towards the entrance and he saw Captain Edal burst in. Then Senta turned his full attention to salvaging the energy-subject on the transference extractor, and that took all his experience and quick thinking.

But he heard Edal behind him saying in amazement, ‘What are you doing here?’ and the girl replied, ‘I just came through the door up there, and it closed behind me.’

As he worked furiously Senta shouted, ‘I shall report this. The whole matter. How can we be expected to carry out our work? Who is supposed to be in charge of the visiting party?’

Edal didn’t answer, but asked in return, ‘What has _ she seen?’

‘Who knows?’ barked Senta. ‘But the Elders will certainly be told about this.’

‘The Elders have already been told,’ said Edal coldly.

‘Get her out of here,’ shouted Senta.

‘I already have my orders,’ said Edal. He turned to Dodo. ‘Follow me. This way.’

Dodo was unwilling to go before she understood what had been the centre of so much excitement. She pointed to the huge vats. ‘All these instruments,’ she said, ‘what are they for? Those glass things over there. Those things like trollies... What do they do in here?’

‘We must hurry,’ said Edal sharply. ‘The Elders are waiting. And your own Doctor.’

Dodo still dragged her feet.

‘Move her,’ shouted Senta. ‘We’re disconnecting.’

The trolley was now being backed out of the recess in which it had played its part during the activity.

Dodo would dearly have liked to have seen it, but Edal stood in her way, then backed her out of the laboratory.

She had gone before the assistants hurriedly made the necessary detachments, and unclamped the limp body from the platform.

Senta hurried to make an inspection, checking the readings on the dials against her head. His chief assistant sidled in beside him. ‘Too late?’ he asked in a whisper.