Doctor Who - New Series Adventures - 030 - The Story of Martha by Dan Abnett;David Roden;Steve Lockley;Paul Lewis;Robert Shearman

Author:Dan Abnett;David Roden;Steve Lockley;Paul Lewis;Robert Shearman
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Doctor Who (Fictitious Character), Fiction
ISBN: 9781846075612
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 2008-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

The bulk container ship Xin Excel docked at Yokohama

Marine Terminal at eight in the morning, six months after

Day Zero.

The climbing sun had turned the uprights of the

Yokohama Bay Bridge ice white, and the waters of the

bay glowed gold, but a haze of smog generated by

ceaseless industrial manufacture hung across the city

sprawl, and stained the sky all the way to Tokyo in the

north, Chiba in the east, and Kamakura in the south.

Like the rest of the world, the islands of Japan had been

enslaved and put to work.

The piers and wharfs of Yokohama’s dry cargo docks

teamed with activity. Klaxons sounded, ship engines

grumbled and snorted like flatulent whales, and shrill

loading alarms rang out. Cranes and derricks swung their

giant necks around like primordial beasts in the tobacco-

coloured haze, and gantry portainers lumbered into

delivery positions like catcher crabs. The port was running

at a capacity undreamed of in Pre-Day Zero days. Hooting

pilot boats and tugs slipped and threaded their way

between the moving mass of bulk shipping. Proper safety

procedures and docking regulations had long since been

abandoned. Schedules and delivery rates were all that

mattered now.

The Xin Excel was one of dozens of ships bringing in

specialist component products and part-assembled

materials from what had once been the Russian

Federation. Much of this cargo would pass through the

specialist factories that had sprouted up like ugly blisters

around the edges of Yokohama and Tokyo and then,

completed, would be routed back to Russia and China,

back to Shipyard Number One and Shipyard Number

Four, the largest in the world, where fleets of universe-

conquering rockets were being constructed to aim like

missiles at the vulnerable heavens.

The Xin Excel was also bringing one other valuable

cargo to Japan. Her name was Martha Jones.

The only person on the Xin Excel who was aware that

Martha was aboard was an electrical engineer called

Dmitri Korbov. Korbov was an Underground operative

from Nakhodka who’d been crewing the run to Yokohama

and back since the shipments started, and he used his

position to filter whisper channel communiqués in and out

of the islands.

‘It’s different here,’ Korbov told her as the Xin Excel

chugged its way into the crowded port.

‘Different how?’ Martha asked.

‘A different level of security,’ he replied, ‘a different

feel to things. The Underground is far less well established

in Japan than in other parts of the world.’

‘Why?’ she asked.

Korbov shrugged.

‘Beats me,’ he said. ‘There are groups, up in Hokkaido

and down south in Kyushu, but Central Honshu, forget it.

There are contacts, a few individual operatives, but

nothing organised.’

‘Because of security?’

He shrugged again.

They were standing at the ship’s port rail, looking out

across the bustling pier. Two members of the crew strolled

past, and greeted Korbov amiably.

‘Talking to yourself again, Dimi?’ one of them laughed.

‘That’s right,’ said Korbov.

The crewmen looked right through Martha and carried

on along the deck.

‘All this time you’ve been on board,’ murmured

Korbov, ‘it still gets me when they do that.’

There were dull thumps and clangs from down below

as the Xin Excel settled into her berth. Gantry cranes

clattered forwards to grasp the first of the containers.

Debarkation/handling alarms whooped and buzzed. There

would be no preamble or customs delay. The Xin Excel

would be unloaded immediately, almost prematurely, and

then the ship would be sent off again without a pause to

gather her breath.

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