Doctor Who_ Underworld Part 6

'My son's a fugitive, my wife and daughters are dead.

What more can you do to me now?'

Rask kicked him again. 'On your feet, Trog. You know the penalty for your crimes. The Sword of Sacrifice awaits you.'

Idas fled through the tunnels, a hooded figure close behind him. He had managed to lose one Guard, but the other was fitter, more persistent, and more cunning. Nothing Idas could do seemed to shake him off.

Idas ran on, gasping for breath, determined not to surrender. Better a quick death by blaster bolt than the long-drawn-out ordeal of the Sacrifice.

He came to an open s.p.a.ce where two tunnels met, and sprinted desperately for cover.

The Guard raised his blaster. 'Stop, Trog, or I'll fire.'

Idas ran on. The Guard fired and a green flash lit up the gloom of the tunnel. Idas screamed and fell, rolling over and over, clutching his right leg. He slammed against the wall and lay still.

The Guard moved towards him.

Suddenly Idas sprang to his feet, and staggered into the nearest tunnel at a limping run.

Before the astonished Guard could fire again, he had disappeared into the darkness.

The Guard used the communicator in the b.u.t.t of his blaster. 'Suspect sighted on Eight, moving into Nine. In pursuit.'

He moved off purposefully down the tunnel after Idas.

The Trog was wounded now, and that would slow him down.

He was as good as dead.

Chapter Seven.

Skyfall on Nine The Doctor and Herrick were wrangling over the s.h.i.+eld gun.

'No, no, no,' said the Doctor. 'Hold it like this, and aim there-that's the weak point.'

Herrick looked at Jackson, who nodded wearily. 'Better do as he says.'

Herrick raised the gun and fired, and the centre of the rock-wall melted away. He peered cautiously through the ragged hole. 'We're through to the other side, Captain.

Looks like a cavern or a tunnel or something.'

He set off through the gap, and Jackson followed. They clambered through to the other side, and looked around.

They were in a long gloomy tunnel carved from reddishly glowing rock, stretching away into the distance on either side. Dim working lights gleamed at intervals in the walls, and here and there oddly shaped crystalline outcrops reflected their glow.

Close to where they were standing, and in several other places, the tunnel was partly blocked by huge chunks of rubble where sections of the roof seemed to have caved in.

Herrick ran his hand along the tunnel wall. 'None of this lot's natural, sir. It's all been hacked out of solid rock.'

'Hacked out by whom, or what, I wonder?' Jackson looked up at the ceiling, and saw something metallic sliding down a rail set high in the wall. 'Get down, Herrick!'

They crouched behind the rubble, and the device glided smoothly by, disappearing into the gloom.

'It's all right, sir,' whispered Herrick. 'It's moving on.

Do you think it was looking for us?'

'It was looking for someone,' said Jackson grimly. 'Well, at least we know the planet's inhabited. We'd better go back in the s.h.i.+p.'

The others were still waiting in the airlock-corridor and there was a babble of questions.

Jackson said, 'We've found tunnel workings and a surveillance system, so we know that whatever life there is here is intelligent. We must be on guard.'

'Oh, get on with it, Jackson,' said the Doctor impatiently.

The other crew members gave him reproving looks as Jackson went on. 'Our objective is to locate the P7E and remove the Race Bank cylinders to a place of safety. The Quest is the Quest.'

'The Quest is the Quest,' chanted the crew dutifully.

'Herrick, issue the s.h.i.+eld guns. Orfe, Tala, silent routine.'

Herrick went out first, and Jackson ushered the others through the airlock. When the Doctor and Leela reached the door, Jackson said, 'No, Doctor, not you.'

'The Quest is the Quest!' said the Doctor hopefully.

'Our quest, Doctor, not yours.'

The Doctor stepped back. 'You're quite right,' he said meekly, and closed the airlock door behind Jackson.

Leela tugged at his sleeve. 'Doctor, this is our chance.'

'What chance?'

'They've all gone. Why don't we just unplug K9, get back in the TARDIS and go on our way?'

In some ways it was the obvious course, realised the Doctor, and he hadn't considered it for a moment. 'What, and leave all these people in the lurch?'

'We don't owe them anything. Let them look after themselves.'

'Go away never knowing how things turned out? I'm surprised at you, Leela. Don't you want to know what happened to the P7E?'

Leela sighed in resignation as the Doctor opened the airlock door, and led the way through the gap.

They emerged into the tunnel and stood looking about them. 'Welcome to the Underworld,' said the Doctor. His voice echoed eerily through the darkness.

Leela s.h.i.+vered. It was dark and gloomy, the air was musty and the tunnel seemed to stretch away for ever. She could just see the Minyan crew in the distance. 'I suppose we're going to follow them?'

'Of course.'

'What about K9?'

'Oh, he'll be all right. He's building up his strength, regenerating his energy-banks, like the s.h.i.+p itself.'

'How? There's no power source here.'

The Doctor tapped the wall. 'Oh yes there is.

Radiation!'

'Radiation? That's lucky, isn't it, Doctor?'

'Of course it isn't! Igneous rock core, new planet, bound to be radiation. Luck! Physics isn't luck, Leela. Physics is fact.' The Doctor paused, considering. 'Or should that be physics are are fact? Is fact, are fact, never mind! Why do you think these tunnels were dug out?' fact? Is fact, are fact, never mind! Why do you think these tunnels were dug out?'

'I don't know.'

'Energy! We're in a kind of giant mine. Whoever inhabits this planet uses the rock for fuel. Food, too, I shouldn't wonder. You can't survive on a new planet with a soul full of hope and fresh air, you know. Did I ever tell you about the time I went to Aberdeen?' he went on chattily.

'What? Oh yes, the Granite City.'

'That's right. Do you know, the people of Aberdeen absorb more radiation from the granite than people who work every day in nuclear power plants?'

'Is that good?'

'Well, of course it is! It proves that organisms can adapt to all sorts of environments, even ones like this with a high radiation content.'

Leela heard the patter of footsteps coming towards them. 'Look out,' she whispered, and pulled the Doctor into shelter behind some rubble, A thin ragged figure appeared out of the darkness, and shot past them at a limping run, disappearing into the gap that led to the airlock.

'He moved like a wounded animal,' whispered Leela.

'Why was he so frightened?'

'Let's go and ask him.' The Doctor started to rise, but Leela pulled him down.

'No, wait. The hunters are coming.'

A group of sinister-looking hooded figures ran out of the darkness.

Their leader looked round. 'He can't be far. Check those fallen rocks, over by that gap.'

The Doctor could see, though as yet the Guards could not, that the hunted man was crouched panting just inside the gap. The Guards would see him soon, and he was too exhausted to run. And if they found the fugitive, they would find the s.h.i.+p...

He tapped Leela on the shoulder, stood up, and gave a piercing whistle. The Guards swung round. The Doctor and Leela pelted off down the tunnels, leading the hunters away from their quarry.

'Aliens! After them!' screamed the leader. The Guards tore down the tunnel.

Idas got painfully to his feet and clambered through the gap. Before him was a kind of steel door. He pushed it open, clambered through, staggered a few paces and collapsed, exhausted. The Doctor and Leela ran on. It wasn't long before the pursuing Guards began to overhaul them. They were strong, fit men for all their size, and they were far more accustomed to the tunnels than the two they were chasing.

The Doctor and Leela rounded a bend in the tunnel and found themselves in a kind of loading bay. A recess in the wall held a line of simple dump-trucks, and tracks led away into the darkness of a side tunnel.

The Doctor held up the heavy plastic sheeting over a half-empty truck and motioned to Leela. 'Quick, get inside.'

Leela scrambled into the truck and the Doctor climbed in after her, pulling the plastic sheet to cover them. They crouched down, waiting.

A sharp bit of rock dug into the Doctor's knee and he s.h.i.+fted position. 'Keep still,' hissed Leela fiercely. She was completely motionless, like a hunted animal in a thicket.

They heard footsteps come closer, closer and then stop.

There was a murmur of voices-their hunters had stopped for a conference.

'Oh, for a force-weapon,' breathed Leela. 'If we had one of those s.h.i.+eld guns...'

'Ss.h.!.+ Listen!' whispered the Doctor.

One voice, obviously that of the squad leader, cut through a babble of discussion. 'Well, they're not here, are they? Must have dodged us and doubled back. These d.a.m.n Trogs know the tunnels like the back of their hands.'

'I'm not so sure they were Trogs,' objected another voice. 'Did you see the size of them, and the way they were dressed ?'

'Well, whatever they were, there are ways of dealing with them.' The voice changed its tone. 'Security? Rask here. We're getting nowhere, not enough men. We're clearing out. I want Nine closed down, main and ancillary workings. Stand by for fumigation, as soon as we're clear.'

The voice changed again. 'All right, let's get moving- unless you want to be fumigated!'

The footsteps moved away. A minute or two later, the Doctor scrambled out of the truck. 'Fumigation? I don't like the sound of that. They're going to smoke us out like badgers. Come on, Leela, we'd better get back into the s.h.i.+p. We left the door open!'

They began moving back the way they had come, keeping a wary eye out for Guards. They reached the main tunnel, and the gap in the wall without incident. Soon trey were going through the airlock and back into the s.h.i.+p.

Suddenly Leela pointed downwards. 'Look, Doctor, blood!' A scattered line of dots led down the corridor.