Shakedown

by Terrance Dicks

  ‘Rutans,’ said Kurt.

  ‘Exactly,’ said the Doctor. ‘They’ve been fighting a war with the Rutans for hundreds of years. It takes up all their energies and all their resources, and it’s an utter deadlock, no one wins, no one loses. But what do you think will happen if the Sontarans do win? If they achieve a decisive victory?’

  ‘They’ll look round for someone else to fight,’ said Kurt. ‘It’s all they know how to do.’

  The Doctor nodded. ‘Their whole society is one vast war machine. They won’t turn it off, they don’t know how. They don’t even want to. Believe me, if the Rutans ever lose, we’ll all be seeing a lot more of the Sontarans.’ The Doctor stared into space, as if seeing a galaxy swarming with Sontaran troopers. ‘Where was I?’ He nodded towards Roz and Chris. ‘My two friends here had relevant experience, so I put them on Karne’s trail. They nearly caught up with him too.’

  ‘Nearly,’ said Chris.

  ‘He was planet-hopping,’ said Roz. ‘Killing to provide himself with resources and cover. We were right behind him on Alpha.’

  ‘Then he smuggled himself onto your ship,’ said Chris, giving Lisa his best smile. ‘And you blew him up for us!’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Lisa, not sounding sorry at all. ‘It seemed a good idea at the time.’

  ‘I don’t blame you in the least,’ said the Doctor. ‘Unfortunately it means I’ve failed.’

  ‘Can’t you warn the Rutans yourself?’

  ‘I tried,’ said the Doctor sadly. ‘Unfortunately the Rutans are paranoid, they only talk to other Rutans. Well, they’re all the same Rutan really – they only talk to themselves. They’d believe Karne, but they won’t listen to me.’

  ‘What about Benny?’ asked Roz.

  ‘I was forgetting poor Benny,’ said the Doctor guiltily.

  ‘I’m getting confused again,’ said Kurt. ‘Who’s Benny?’

  ‘I have another colleague, an archaeologist called Bernice Summerfield. I sent her to Sentarion, the Library planet, to research the Rutan-Sontaran war – and to see if she could get a line on the secret. I don’t suppose she found anything out, it was more of a holiday for her really. When I get the TARDIS back we must go and pick her up.’

  The thin, fair young man was called Rye, and he was a steward on the space liner Hyperion. He had an hour to kill before take-off time and he decided to go to Bay Seven and visit the solar yacht Tiger Moth. Everyone was talking about Lisa Deranne’s epic battle with the Sontarans, and it would make a good story to tell the passengers.

  Bay Seven was empty when he arrived. He studied the little ship for a moment, noticing the shattered solar sail, still projecting fin-like from the hull. Then he saw that the airlock door was open. The ship was being checked over, prior to eventual refitting and the workman had been careless.

  Rye hesitated for a moment, but the temptation was too great. Actually to have been on board would make an even better story. He went up the ramp.

  Excitedly he moved along the ship’s dimly lit metal corridors, imagining the thrilling scenes that had taken place. He made his way to the power room, the very place where the Rutan had been found lurking.

  The faint glow from the power drive didn’t alarm him, not at first. He simply assumed the drive had been left on. Curiously he approached – and a glowing sphere surged out of the power drive and engulfed him. He tried to scream, but it was far too late.

  The sphere hovered about the body for a very long time, as if somehow unaccustomed to its grisly task. But the necessary dissection was completed at last, the information stored.

  The sphere blurred, solidified – and a pale-faced version of Rye appeared beside the body. Moving stiffly at first, the figure made its way along the corridors and out of the airlock.

  Not long afterwards, the spacedock technician returned from his break. He slipped as he entered the engine room, bruising himself against the machinery.

  Then he saw what he’d slipped on, and started to scream.

  The spaceport security man came into the bar, looked round and spotted the party at the corner table. He handed Lisa a sealed message flimsy and stood waiting.

  Lisa tore open the seal and read the message. Her face tightened. ‘They’ve found a dead body – in the power room of our ship. Apparently it was – mutilated. Partially dissected.’

  ‘Come on,’ said Kurt. They jumped up and headed for the exit. It seemed quite natural for the Doctor and his friends to come with them.

  In the power room, the appalled little group stood looking down at the blood-soaked body.

  Roz knelt to examine it. After a moment she straightened up.

  ‘Rutan work.’

  ‘You’re sure?’ asked the security man.

  ‘We’ve seen it before,’ said Chris. ‘Too often.’

  ‘We’ve all seen it,’ said Kurt.

  ‘The Rutan’s dead,’ whispered Lisa. ‘We both saw it die.’

  The Doctor looked at the body, at the pale face and the lank blond hair. ‘Do we know who he is?’

  ‘Name’s Rye,’ said the security man. ‘Steward on space liner Hyperion.’

  ‘Where’s the ship now?’

  ‘En route for Sentarion. Only...’

  ‘Only what? Speak up, man!’

  ‘We contacted the ship.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘They said no one was missing from their crew.’

  ‘Send them another message,’ snapped the Doctor. ‘Tell them –’ He broke off, shaking his head. ‘No, don’t tell them anything, they’ll be safer if they leave it alone.’

  ‘Can’t send any more messages anyway,’ said the security man. ‘They’ll be in hyperdrive by now. Can we remove the body?’

  The Doctor nodded and a security team gathered up the body and took it away. The Doctor stood staring into nothingness.

  Kurt studied his face for a moment. ‘You know what happened, don’t you?’

  ‘There’s only one possibility,’ said the Doctor. ‘Can I have some more light?’

  Lisa took a heavy torch from a locker and handed it to him. The Doctor shone the powerful beam into every corner of the power room. Suddenly he stopped. ‘Aha! I thought so.’ He shone the beam into a narrow space under one of the power units, revealing a pool of gelatinous slime.

  ‘What is it?’ asked Lisa.

  ‘You might call it afterbirth,’ said the Doctor. ‘Rutans reproduce by binary fission, just like the humble amoeba on Earth. Before it made its break for freedom, the Rutan reproduced itself.’

  Lisa looked at him in amazement. ‘At a time like that? Why?’

  ‘Insurance!’ said the Doctor. ‘Don’t you see? All Rutans are in effect the same Rutan. Karne was handing on the mission. This new Karne will have all the same memories. It isn’t over after all! We must set off for Sentarion at once.’

  He looked hopefully at Lisa, as if he expected her to start up the power drive right away.

  ‘What’s all this “we” business, Doctor?’ said Lisa. ‘I’ve got a solar yacht race to think about.’

  ‘You mustn’t worry about that,’ said the Doctor impatiently. ‘It’ll probably be postponed anyway. I’m having a little local difficulty with my own transport, you see. It’s – gone adrift.’ He bowed to Lisa and said grandly, ‘Captain Deranne, I wish to charter your yacht!’

  18

  Revival

  The space yacht Tiger Moth, now under special charter, was en route for Sentarion.

  It hadn’t been that easy, of course. At first Lisa had turned down the Doctor’s charter proposition flat. They’d adjourned to the station bar, where the argument had raged for hours.

  ‘For one thing, the ship’s not ready,’ said Lisa. ‘The power drive still needs work, and there’s not an engineer to be had.’

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ said the Doctor. ‘I can offer you the services, entirely without charge, of one of the finest engineers in the cosmos.’

  ‘Who?’

  The
Doctor tapped his own chest. ‘Me!’

  ‘You’re qualified in space engineering?’

  ‘I’m qualified in practically everything.’

  In the end it had taken all the Doctor’s charm, a fortunately timed official message from the Solar Racing Authority announcing the postponement of the Tri-Systems Solar, and a personal appeal from Kurt to persuade Lisa to go.

  It was Kurt who had finally won her over.

  ‘Listen, Lisa,’ he said quietly, ‘I’m not even going to mention that I own the ship. You’re Captain, and what you say goes. But I owe the Doctor, big. He saved my life when the Sontarans were going to execute me. Wasn’t for him, I’d be in an unknown grave on a nowhere planet.’

  ‘That still doesn’t mean I have to hazard my ship, or our lives on –’

  Kurt interrupted her. ‘The fact that I turned up on Alpha and joined your crew, that we ever met, is all down to the Doctor.’

  Lisa looked hard at him for a moment. ‘Then I suppose I owe him too.’ She turned to the Doctor. ‘All right, I’ll go. But it’ll cost you.’

  ‘Name your terms,’ said the Doctor grandly.

  Lisa thought of her usual charter rate and then tripled it.

  The Doctor looked surprised. ‘But surely that’s –’

  ‘Take it or leave it. That’s my price, and it’s non-negotiable.’

  ‘Then I’ll take it.’

  ‘Oh, come on, Lisa,’ protested Kurt. ‘You’re robbing him. I’ll pay the charter fee, Doctor.’

  ‘My dear chap, I wouldn’t think of it. Believe it or not, I do have perfectly adequate – resources.’

  Roz Forrester had been listening to the wrangle with quiet amusement. Not for the first time, she wondered exactly what the Doctor’s resources were and where they came from. They were certainly adequate all right. Wherever he needed to go, Wherever he needed to send his unfortunate assistants, the necessary funds were available, immediately, and without fuss.

  She leaned across to Lisa. ‘Soak him for all you can get,’ she advised. ‘If you work for the Doctor, you’ll be lucky to come out with your life, let alone your ship.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ said the Doctor cheerfully. ‘This is going to be a perfectly straightforward trip. We go to Sentarion, pick up Bernice, and see if she’s turned anything up in her researches, which she probably won’t have. We’ll also see if there’s any trace of our Rutan friend, which there probably won’t be either. He’ll have moved on by now. Then we come back here, Captain Deranne and Kurt prepare for their race, while we go back to Station Alpha. By then they’ll have recovered my transport. Nothing to it. There shouldn’t be any danger at all.’

  ‘Where have I heard that before?’ mused Roz.

  The Doctor jumped up. ‘Now everything’s settled, I’ll just go and tell the station authorities about our plans.’

  He hurried away.

  Chris smiled happily around the thoughtful little group. ‘Oh well, that’s all right then!’

  ‘What is?’ asked Roz.

  ‘The Doctor says there won’t be any danger.’

  Roz looked wonderingly at the others.

  ‘Do you know,’ she said, ‘I think he actually believes him!’

  There were objections from the space station authorities when the Doctor announced their departure and asked to be allowed to purchase the necessary supplies. It was felt that Tiger Moth and its surviving crew should stay for the enquiry.

  ‘I couldn’t possibly allow any of you to leave at the moment,’ said Malic, the station manager. He was a plump, sleek-haired man who liked to see things done properly. ‘Captain Deranne must face an enquiry into the deaths of her crew – and indeed into the deaths of a large number of Sontaran nationals currently occupying the station morgue. And I understand, Doctor, that you and your companions were very much concerned in the liberation of Station Alpha.’ He studied his screen. ‘I see you have a claim against Station Alpha for the loss of certain property – described here simply as “a blue box”. Antique was it?’

  ‘Depends how you look at it. Some people call it an antique. Others would say it was ultra-modern.’

  ‘And what was its value?’

  ‘Priceless. Anyway, I’m not interested in compensation; I just want it returned. It has great sentimental value.’

  ‘Well, we shall see,’ said Malic. ‘I’m sure my colleagues on Alpha will do their best to recover it. But you must understand that with all these matters still pending, I cannot possibly allow either you or Captain Deranne to depart.’

  ‘Well, if you say so,’ said the Doctor. ‘I should like to say how much I admire your courage.’

  ‘I don’t follow, Doctor. Courage has nothing to do with it. It’s simply a matter of principle.’

  ‘But it’s extremely brave of you to stick to your principles so firmly – especially in the face of such great danger to yourself and your station.’

  Malic was looking agitated. ‘What danger is that, Doctor?’

  The Doctor leaned forward confidentially.

  ‘You know what happened on Station Alpha – the attack, the damage, the terrible loss of life?’

  ‘Yes, of course I do. But I fail to see the relevance –’

  Sadly the Doctor shook his head. ‘The Sontarans executed poor Ferris, the station manager, you know, simply for questioning one of their orders. He was a man of principle too – very much like yourself, come to think of it. I’m sure you won’t stand any nonsense from the Sontarans – even if it costs you your life.’

  Malic shuddered. ‘What exactly are you trying to tell me, Doctor? Why should the Sontarans come here?’

  ‘Well, the attack on Alpha happened because, for reasons of their own, the Sontarans were after Tiger Moth. As we know, they didn’t get it. But they probably know where it was heading.’ The Doctor sighed. ‘I’m afraid they’re rather angry with me as well. I’m very grateful to you for insisting on giving me your protection. The Sontarans would probably regard any association with me as a crime carrying the death penalty in itself.’

  ‘I see,’ said Malic thoughtfully. He paused for a moment. ‘These supplies, Doctor – exactly what do you need?’

  ‘Couldn’t do enough to speed our departure,’ the Doctor told Lisa later, when they were finally under way. They were in the control room, where the Doctor was checking the results of his emergency repairs on the instrument consoles.

  He was sitting in Robar’s place, next to Lisa. Somewhat to her surprise, she found she didn’t resent it in the least.

  ‘Do you really think the Sontarans will come after us?’

  ‘I’m afraid it’s a possibility. They seem obsessed with capturing your Rutan passenger – and they don’t know the Rutan’s dead. They’ll be waiting for reports from the commander of their assault team – and of course, he’s dead as well. So when they don’t hear anything from him –’

  ‘His name was Steg,’ said Lisa. ‘Commander Steg.’

  She remembered the red glare of triumph in the Sontaran’s eyes as he fell dying by the airlock. She remembered his last defiant whisper. ‘I win, Rutan. I win!’

  And she remembered the way he’d saved her life.

  ‘Steg?’ said the Doctor. ‘Really? Kurt and I met him once, you know.’

  ‘You met Steg? What happened?’

  ‘We didn’t really hit it off,’ said the Doctor regretfully. ‘As a matter of fact, he condemned us both to death.’

  He gave her a brief account of their adventure.

  ‘He didn’t seem to recognize Kurt when they took over the ship.’

  ‘I think they find humans pretty well indistinguishable.’

  Lisa nodded. ‘That’s what he told me when we first met.’

  She imitated the Sontaran’s guttural voice. “Forgive me, Captain. All primitives look rather alike to me.” ‘

  ‘Besides,’ said the Doctor, ‘Kurt wasn’t looking his prosperous self in those days. Clean clothes and no stubble make a big difference.�
�

  ‘I wonder why Kurt didn’t tell me about it.’ Lisa sounded a little hurt. ‘He didn’t really tell me about you, either.’

  The Doctor went on checking dials. ‘We talked a bit when we were sharing that cell. Kurt’s had a pretty tough life. I imagine he’s used to keeping his own counsel, trusting no one, relying on nobody but himself.’

  ‘That’s something I know a lot about.’

  ‘It’s hard when you have to learn to do that,’ said the Doctor. ‘Of course, unlearning it’s harder still. But if you don’t – you might meet someone you could trust and not know how to deal with them.’ He tapped a quivering dial. ‘There you are. Steady power-flow from all drives. Guaranteed no Rutans.’

  ‘You’re quite a fixer, aren’t you, Doctor?’

  ‘Sometimes I think I’m just a meddler who does more harm than good. But I have to try.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Good question.’ The Doctor paused, grey eyes staring somewhere very far away in space and time.

  ‘I was brought up with an ideal of service. In time I learned that the system I served was hopelessly corrupt. But somehow the ideal stayed on. You could call it the Gallifreyan work ethic!’

  Lisa gave him a baffled look and the Doctor smiled.

  In a deep, actorish voice he boomed,

  ‘The time is out of joint. Ah, cursed spite

  That ever I was born to set it right.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Just something my pal Will knocked off, between pints at the Mermaid Tavern.’

  Lisa looked around the control room, remembering all that had happened. ‘It’s funny but I still half-regret killing Steg – not that he didn’t deserve it. But he did save my life.’

  In the crewroom, Roz and Chris and Kurt were stretched out on the long benches, trying to relax and waiting for the voyage to end. Chris was very curious about Kurt, though he didn’t like to ask direct questions.

  ‘So you and the Doctor have met before?’ he said casually.

  Kurt nodded. ‘We were in jail together.’

  ‘What for?’ asked Roz.

  ‘Smuggling for me. I suppose it was more like politics for the Doctor. He was helping the local life-form to rebel against Earth colonists. When the Sontarans turned up he just sort of transferred the rebellion to them.’