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Captain Hopper had controlled his anger long enough. 'I can't
afford. to waste any more time with you guys,' he snapped. 'But I'm
just going to give it to you once more, right!. You may not know this,
but we've got to practically pull the ship apart and repair the damage.
There just isn't room for you all on board. No room to work.
Got it?'
'Ah, yes, of course,' said the Professor, understanding that this
was a professional problem. 'I see now.'
'It's all right for you!' shouted Viner, out of control, his voice
cracking. 'Have you any idea of what it's like in this deadly building?'
'It's not exactly peaches back on the ship, buddy.' Captain
Hopper turned to the door.
'Just a minute.' The Doctor's voice stopped the Captain at the
door. 'You have another reason for not wanting them back in the
ship, haven't you?'
'I wasn't going to mention it,' said the Captain, looking at him
gravely. 'But yeah! Until we know who broke into the ship...'
'Or what,' said the Doctor.
'Who broke into the ship,' Captain Hopper said firmly, 'I mean
to keep a round-the-clock guard on it.'
'Very wise,' said the Doctor.
'I just aim to get off this damn place with my skin still tight-
fitting all over all right, Doc?' He had raised his voice and was now
speaking to the entire party as well as the Doctor. The Doctor nodded
approvingly.
'Right,' said Hopper. 'In case it gets a bit cold at night, I've
brought along some anoraks and some food.' He indicated a couple
of well-filled rucksacks by the door. 'I'll let you know when I'm
ready to take off,' he added and left.
Klieg strode forward and looked around.
'Since we must stay' Klieg's voice had a slight rasp to it
'then there's no reason why we shouldn't finish our job and fully
explore down there.' He jerked his thumb towards the floor to
indicate the unknown levels of tombs below them.
'That is, if you have no objection, Professor,' he added as an
oily afterthought, with a glance at Kaftan.
'We have little alternative, it seems,' said the Professor, not
sure if he was glad or sorry.
'We could, of course,' said the Doctor with an ironic smile at
the others, 'stay here. It's quite a pleasant room really.'
'Och, speak for yourself, Doctor,' burst out Jamie, who could
never bear sitting about and waiting.
'You can leave here any time you please, Doctor, we won't
detain you,' said Klieg. He went back to the control console and his
open notebooks and calculations.
'Yes, I can leave, of course,' said the Doctor, smiling slightly to
himself.
'But you're not going to?' Victoria had come over to him and
put her hand on his arm. She was beginning to read the Doctor's
mind.
Before answering, the Doctor watched as Kaftan, in one
graceful movement, stood up and walked over to Klieg, leaning over
the console to whisper to him.
'Not yet awhile,' he said thoughtfully. 'No. But you and Jamie
can go back to the Tardis if you wish.'
'I'll stay with you.' Victoria hardly needed asking.
'Jamie?' said the Doctor.
'I'll no gae without you and the lassie,' he said.
'Thank you.' The Doctor seemed to rouse himself suddenly
from his thoughtful mood. 'I think the time has come to help Mr
Klieg,' he said briskly.
'I want no help,' cut in Klieg.
The Doctor smiled and walked jauntily over to him. The
shadow of a great hand passed over him and stopped against his
chest.
'You! Stay!' said Toberman's deep voice.
Jamie jumped up spoiling for action, even ready to take on the
giant. 'Let the Doctor pass,' said Jamie, bristling, 'or I'll have to ' He
stepped in front of Toberman, his shoulders braced, his right hand
near his dirk.
'It's all right, Jamie,' said the Doctor lightly. He looked at
Toberman who still stood there unmoving.
'Your colleague has very strong hands, I notice,' he said
conversationally to Kaftan.
'He is a strong man, like all my people,' answered Kaftan,
smiling at him a little contemptuously.
'Enough to cause a great deal of damage,' went on the Doctor,
'if let loose in the right places.'
She stopped smiling and for an instant they stared at each other
with cold eyes. Kaftan was the first to look away. She nodded to
Toberman, who shuffled , aside.
'Thank you,' said the Doctor. He stepped up to the console and
stood by Klieg, immediately absorbed into the 'scientist's problems.
After a moment's hesitation, Klieg let the Doctor glance over his
shoulder at his notes.
Now that the immediate crisis was over, they settled down to
their various expedition tasks: Klieg and the Doctor at the console,
Viner and Parry working out a hypothetical plan of Telos and the
underground workings and Kaftan' sorting out the clothes and food
left by Hopper. Only Victoria and Jamie had nothing to do. They
stood isolated in the vault of the metal room, looking up at the
Cyberman figures still marching in relent-less stillness across the
walls. They shivered and 'drew closer together..
'There's no doubt about it,' they heard Professor Parry say, his
voice now calm and academic again. 'The major workings lie below.
There are metal caverns down there, all interconnected. If only we
can get down to them...'
'That's it!' exclaimed Klieg, standing back from the console.
'I've got it! A complete sequence linked by one stokastic manoeuvre.
Finally a Boolean function of symbolic logic!'
'Logical, yes, but...' began the Doctor.
'Everything yields to logic,' cut in Kaftan, her underlying
sharpness showing, 'our basic assumption, Doctor.'
'Really?' murmured the Doctor sarcastically. 'Who are "we"?'
But Kaftan had turned back to the rucksacks. He stood with his
hands in his pockets, looking on thoughtfully. Klieg feverishly
worked the indicator and levers, '6 cap B4 if, and only if' he
muttered 'C is cap function of 2A.'
He pressed the lever and stood back, glowing with triumph.
'Your logic couldn't have got a bit thin, could it?' asked the
Doctor gently, as a whistling arose from conflicting electronic
circuits. 'What a pity,' said the Doctor, sadly.
'I must have made a mistake,' Klieg rapped out. 'I'll run it
again more carefully.'
'Of course,' murmured the Doctor. He moved closer, scanned
the numbers over Klieg's square shoulder, and without the other
seeing, clicked a 1 to an 0 in the sequence, then moved back as Klieg
put down his calculations and looked back at the controls.
This time the numbers on the dials made sense to him. He
started to reset the controls. '6 cap B, 4, if and only if, C is cap
function of... ah, that's it... 2F not 2A!'
Klieg reached out his hand and grasped the main lever with
confident anticipation.
'Now!' he said triumphantly.
CRASH!
The lights flickered, and from below came a slow grinding [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]