Doctor Who: BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures [016] - The Janus Conjunction by Trevor Baxendale

Author:Trevor Baxendale
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780563405993
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 1998-11-14T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Lock-Up

‘All right, Blakt,’ said Moslei. ‘I’ll take them from here.’

Blakt glanced at the prisoners, who both stood to one side with their hands cuffed. The man was staring at him in a way he didn’t like – and then he just smiled. Blakt was sure that the Doctor could actually see through the reflective visor of his space helmet, see the puzzled expression on his molten face.

‘They’re unarmed,’ Moslei pointed out patiently. ‘And secure.’ He drew his own sidearm. ‘I’ll take charge of them myself. You can clear off until eleven hundred hours.’

Blakt threw a sloppy salute and stalked off down the passage, his rifle hanging loosely in one hand. As he disappeared around the bend in the corridor, the Doctor said, ‘You just can’t get the staff these days, can you?’

Moslei cast him a hostile look. ‘Things have changed a lot for us since we came to Janus Prime, Doctor. The lads have lost a fair bit of their self-respect.’

‘Did they ever have any?’ asked Julya.

‘Some. But it’s difficult to keep a grip when your skin’s melting.’ The Doctor nodded solemnly as Moslei continued. ‘A couple of the men committed suicide rather than rot away. Half a dozen deserted.’

‘Where to?’

Moslei shrugged. ‘Probably ended up as spider food.’ He motioned with his pistol for them to move, and they proceeded down the passageway.

‘This place makes as good a tomb as any.’

Presently they came to a doorway marked RESTRICTED ACCESS and Moslei told them to stop.

‘Are we getting the full tour?’ inquired the Doctor.

‘Just the edited highlights,’ Moslei said without smiling. He pressed a series of buttons set into a panel on the wall and the door slid open. ‘Inside.’

The Doctor and Julya stepped into a small room filled with computers and monitoring equipment. A curved Plexiglas window gave on to a view of the luminous desert outside.

‘This is the communications control unit for the spidroids,’ Moslei told them.

The Doctor said, ‘Now I understand why you dismissed Blakt. I gather we’re seeing a little more of things than the average prisoner, hmm?’

‘Quite. But don’t misunderstand me, Doctor. Prisoners you still are.’

Moslei activated one of the consoles with one hand, careful to keep his pistol trained on them with the other. Julya noticed that the barrel of the gun tended to point in her direction, presumably because Moslei knew that she was a Mendan combatant, and that the Doctor evidently was not.

‘I wanted you to see this,’ Moslei was saying as the control monitor lit up.

He replayed the images recorded in the ruins of the Doctor and Sam emerging from the TARDIS.

‘I hate watching myself on TV, don’t you?’ said the Doctor.

‘This part is particularly interesting,’ said Moslei as the spidroid’s final signal was replayed – that of the Doctor standing, apparently unafraid, in front of the creature as it scanned him.

‘Watch this bit,’ said the Doctor, grinning.

On the screen, the Doctor offered the spidroid some chocolate. Shortly after, the picture zigzagged wildly and then went blank.

‘A very effective piece of sabotage,’ noted Moslei.

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