Doctor Who: BBC Past Doctor Adventures [008] - Eye of Heaven by Jim Mortimore

Author:Jim Mortimore
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780563405672
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 1998-03-13T23:00:00+00:00

13

Sidewinder

We had been adrift the rest of the night and the sun had risen when I had the idea. ‘Perhaps we can steer it.’

Royston roused from his exhausted stupor long enough to say, ‘It’s a whale. How can we possibly steer it?’

I shrugged; my skins, still wet, chafed my salt-sore shoulders. ‘You steer horses, don’t you? You use rope and kick them. We have rope. I am strong enough to kick this beast if it will not go where I want.’

‘Leela, that’s nonsense. Our only chance is to hope someone will find us. And hope the whale will not sound, or die. Either way we’ll be food for sharks. If you want to hope for something, hope for that, not that we can drive this thing through the ocean like a coach and nine.’

‘It is good that the men of your land are not all as weak as you or there would be no men in your land.’

Royston did not have the strength to reply. That or he could not be bothered. Either way I did not care. Royston could languish in his despair and die here on this swimming island if he wanted. I was going to live – or die trying.

I thought hard. It was true the whale had dipped beneath the sea many times since we had climbed aboard. Each time I thought we were to die.

But the animal did not stay under water long, and did not go very deep, either. And I noticed that the spume from its blowhole was now darker, flecked with evil-smelling blood. I had mentioned this to Royston. He thought the whale was staying on the surface because it was no longer able to effectively oxygenate its blood. I did not understand that.

He explained. ‘To live we must breathe. The air has many things in it but only one of the things keeps us alive. That is called oxygen. The more oxygen the whale has in its blood, the longer it can hold its breath beneath the water. It’s bleeding copiously. Maybe it cannot dive.’

I had thought about that. The idea that the air was full of things we breathed in and out was nonsense. If there were things in the air I would see them. I ignored Royston after that. He was obviously delirious.

Nonetheless, the whale stayed on the surface. And it was swimming fairly quickly, so it was still strong. I hoped it would not die before I managed to make it take us to the ship.

I gathered together the rope we had. Horses were steered by rope in their mouths. Somehow I had to get the rope in the whale’s mouth. I made a lasso and hurled it forward, nearly slipping into the sea as I did so. The lasso landed square in the jaws of the whale. I pulled the makeshift reins tight. The whale, irritated, slapped the water with its tail. It bit down.

The rope snapped. I now had two pieces of rope and the whale had not changed course.

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