Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive by David Fisher

Author:David Fisher
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science-Fiction:Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426201472
Publisher: Target Books
Published: 1982-02-15T10:00:00+00:00

7. Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

Yes,' said the Doctor. 'I think so. A bit out of breath, of course. And my legs feel strange.' He looked round the circle of anxious faces. 'What's wrong?' he demanded. 'Why are you looking at me like that?'

He put his hand to his face. The skin of his cheeks felt rough and hard. He looked at his hands. The fingers were gnarled and twisted, like oak twigs. The skin on the back of his hands was blotched with brown spots.

He had no mirror. But the exterior of the generator was covered in black, shiny glass. He turned and peered shortsightedly at his reflection.

A bent, wrinkled, white-haired figure stared back at him.

Who was it? It couldn't be him surely. But it was. A terrible caricature of himself stared back at him.

'Is that me?' he asked wonderingly.

'There must have been a hardware malfunction,' said Romana almost in tears.

'But I've got so old.' He continued to stare at his reflection. 'Why should it have this effect? It doesn't make sense.' He frowned desperately, trying to whip his failing memory into life. 'There was something I was going to check when I was in there.'

'What?' asked Romana.

'I can't remember,' he said. Mena patted the Doctor's hand comfortingly.

'You're not well, Doctor,' she said. 'Go and lie down in one of the cabins.'

He's still on trial for murder,' objected Pangol.

'I thought that was his trial!' snapped Romana. 'Trial by ordeal.'

'It was,' replied Pangol. 'And how would you describe the verdict?' He turned to the Security guides. 'Confine them both.'

The guides looked to Mena for confirmation. But she was leaning on Hardin's arm, gasping for breath. At last she nodded.

'Very well. I declare a limitation on them.'

With Romana holding one arm and a Security guide the other the Doctor shuffled slowly towards the cabins.

'What's a limitation?' he asked.

'A simple form of restraint,' explained the guide. 'Quite painless. Unless you do something stupid.'

The Doctor paused and cupped one hand to his ear. Eh?'

'Your movements are proscribed,' said the guide in a louder voice. 'Programmed. It's as if you were on a chain. Except there's no chain.'

The Doctor shook his head blankly. But he found out soon enough. Vargos was waiting for them in the cabin. He carried two ornate silver collars. One he clipped round Romana's neck; the other he fitted onto the Doctor's wrinkled throat.

'You'll find them quite comfortable to wear, so long as you keep within the limits ordained for you,' he explained. 'The collars are programmed to forbid you access to certain parts of the Leisure Hive. For example, you are forbidden to enter the Great Recreation Hall where your blue box stands or the laboratories or the board room or the shuttle station.

Otherwise you are free to roam where you like.

'What happens if we go into a forbidden area?' demanded Romana.

'The collar will contract around your neck. It will squeeze tighter and tighter until it chokes you to death.'

There was a choking sound from the Doctor. They turned to find him tearing at his collar, his face contorted in agony.

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