Doctor Who: Target - Novelisations [047] - The Planet of Evil by Terrance Dicks

Author:Terrance Dicks
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426116820
Publisher: Target Books
Published: 1983-05-14T22:00:00+00:00

7

The Creature in the Corridor

Helplessly Sarah watched the Doctor disappear. ‘Doctor!’ she shouted. Realising she was talking to a monitor screen she ran to Vishinsky. ‘Do something,’ she pleaded.

There was real sympathy in Vishinsky’s voice. ‘I’m sorry. There’s nothing to be done.’

Sorenson agreed. ‘Your friend has disappeared into the vortex between the universes. At least he’ll have a chance to find out if his theories are true.’ Dismissing the Doctor’s end with his usual scientific detachment, Sorenson looked severely at Salamar. ‘Night is coming. We should prepare to launch, Controller.’

‘I agree,’ said Salamar briskly. ‘Vishinsky, see that Professor Sorenson’s samples are removed from the ship.’

If Sorenson’s attitude to the Doctor’s disappearance had been lacking in emotion, the threat to his beloved samples produced a very different reaction. ‘You can’t leave those canisters behind, Controller.’

(The arguments began afresh, and in the middle of the wrangling Sarah slipped silently away.)

‘Those minerals are endangering the safety of my ship,’ insisted Salamar. ‘They must and will be jettisoned.’

Sorenson was almost crying with rage. ‘You arrogant young fool! The whole purpose of your ship, your command, is to get me and that material back to the home planet.’

‘So you can be hailed as the saviour of the Morestran race?’ sneered Salamar. ‘Oh no, Professor. My orders were to find your party and get back.’

‘But if you abandon that material you will destroy my work. You’d have done better to leave me on the planet to die.’

Salamar wearied of the discussion. ‘Professor Sorenson, I must remind you that you are a civilian passenger on a military vessel. If there is any further argument, I shall place you under arrest.’

It seemed for a moment as if Sorenson would persist.

Then, apparently accepting defeat, he turned and strode from the Command Area.

With frantic speed, Sarah forced her way through the jungle. She had no very clear idea of what she was going to do. But she was incapable of accepting the Doctor’s death as a distant event on a monitor screen. She had to see the place for herself. And if by some remote chance the Doctor had survived, she would be there to help him.

The Doctor floated slowly in a dream-like limbo of nothingness. He drifted through many coloured swirling currents, down, down, down… It would have been pleasant simply to relax, to float on and on… But a sense of mission began to stir in the Doctor’s mind. He had come here for a purpose… As if in response to his new mood, his surroundings seemed to grow brighter, and his swimming motions took him not down, but up. He floated to the top of a long shimmering vortex, a kind of whirlpool in reverse. There at the top something was waiting for him. Something huge, powerful, alien, with its flickering outline etched in fiery red…

De Haan and Morelli tucked a heavy metal canister under each arm, and began staggering out of the quarantine chamber towards the spaceship’s exit ramp. As they struggled along the corridor De Haan grumbled, ‘Carry it in, then carry it out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.