Doctor Who - Past Doctor Adventures - 11 - Catastrophea (3rd Doctor) by Terrance Dicks

Author:Terrance Dicks [Dicks, Terrance]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780563405849
Google: ySsDAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0563405848
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 1998-05-05T07:00:00+00:00

Automatically, Jo swallowed the pill and washed it down.

‘Some things never change,’ she thought. This felt exactly like visiting the school nurse after a fall in the playground.

She looked down the ward and saw other patients, soldiers and guerrillas alike, being treated for cuts, bruises and blaster-burns. The only difference was that the guerrillas were under armed guard.

She saw Garon having a bandage applied to one arm. He raised the other hand in a wave and gave her a rueful grin.

‘Sorry you got hurt,’ said Avery apologetically. ‘I ordered that soldier to grab you, not flatten you. Unfortunately, you got jumped on by the fattest man in the force.’

Jo struggled to sit up. ‘It could have been worse. Were there many casualties?’

‘Well, nobody was killed,’ said Avery. ‘My lads got overkeen and shot a harmless melon-farmer a while back, and Charteris never let the General hear the last of it. The old man’s been a bit sensitive about unnecessary force ever since. We were ordered to take prisoners wherever possible.’

‘Well, you got me,’ said Jo.

‘We’d rather hoped to get the Doctor as well.’

‘He wasn’t there,’ said Jo. ‘Honestly. He’d gone off to take a look at a native temple.’

‘What for?’

‘He’s interested in that kind of thing. He’s a scholar, not a revolutionary. As he told you when he was here.’

‘For a simple scholar he seems to have made some very dubious friends.’

‘The Doctor makes friends with everyone,’ said Jo. ‘I sometimes think that’s why he gets into so much trouble.’

She looked up appealingly at Avery. ‘I know how all this must seem to you – the ambush and everything. But things really aren’t like that.’

Avery perched on the end of the bed. ‘No? Tell me about it.’ His voice was warm and sympathetic.

Jo had been trained in interrogation techniques when she first joined UNIT. She was well aware that Avery was just playing good cop. Maybe the bright lights and rubber truncheons would come later. But she didn’t think it could do any harm to tell the truth.

‘We really did come here by chance,’ she said. ‘The Doctor got into that fight with Rekar – that was my fault. Then this lot here turned up and sort of adopted us.’ She nodded towards the guerrilla prisoners. ‘They think the Doctor is some kind of revolutionary leader – and now you people seem to have the same idea. But it isn’t true. The Doctor didn’t want to get involved. If you hadn’t taken the TARDIS

we’d have been long gone by now.’

‘Are you telling me that blue box is some kind of spaceship?’

‘I’m not telling you anything about the TARDIS,’ said Jo firmly. ‘But everything I have told you is the truth.’

‘– and I’m inclined to believe her, sir,’ said Avery.

Jo had been locked up for the night and he was concluding his report.

General Walton was sitting behind his desk, his face impassive, writing on an old-fashioned notepad as Avery talked.

‘If it hadn’t been for that intelligence report about El Llama we’d probably never have suspected them anyway,’

continued Avery.

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