Doctor Who: The Doomsday Weapon (12 page)

But Allen didn't answer. He produced a key and unlocked the manacles. 'On your feet,' he said, and took her arm and yanked her up. 'This way.' Allen turned Jo round and started to propel her towards the door. All at once five Primitives entered, silently coming through the door and the gaping holes that were once windows. Allen immediately pulled out his gun. 'Get out of the way,' he said menacingly.

Jo felt Allen's grip tighten on her arm, and knew that he was really nervous. 'Don't be frightened,' she said, 'they're harmless.'

Allen pushed Jo forward. 'Come on, let's go,' he said. But a Primitive stood directly in front of Allen. With his gun hand, Allen tried to shove the Primitive out of his way. Instantly, the Primitive grabbed Alien's arm, and tried to take the gun from him. Allen fired a shot, and Jo saw a Primitive by the door fall backwards, blood spurting from his chest. Everyone stopped moving; they all stood motionless, staring at the dead Primitive. Then one of the Primitives whirled round, and drove his spear into Allen's chest with a sickening thud. Allen fell backwards with a scream, the gun falling from his hand. He writhed a little then stopped moving.

Jo found herself unguarded, near the open doorway. All the Primitives were looking at Allen's body. She turned and ran. Outside the door strong arms caught her. Held fast, she looked up into the impassive face of yet another Primitive.

It was dawn. Winton and all the male colonists were gathered round the map. He had drawn an X to show the position of the IMC spaceship in relation to the main dame. Ashe stood forlornly in the background. The Doctor was in heated argument with Winton.

'I tell you again,' said the Doctor, 'a frontal attack would be sheer suicide!'

'We've got them outnumbered,' replied Winton.

'Do you think that means anything?' said the Doctor. 'The ship's like a fortress.'

One of the colonists, a big man called Smedley, spoke up. 'Who's side are you really on, Doctor? If you don't want to carry a gun with us, then clear off!'

'I don't intend to carry a gun with anyone,' said the Doctor. 'All I'm suggesting is that we don't offer ourselves up to the IMC guns to get killed.'

Another colonist spoke up. 'The difference between you and us,' he told the Doctor, 'is that we saved and scrimped to get here, and we've worked with our hands to try to survive here! We're willing to die for our colony and you're not!' This outburst got a lot of approval from all the other colonists.

The Doctor waited till they'd quietened down. 'Back in the days when Earth had wars,' he said, 'there was a famous soldier called General Patton who told his men, “I don't want you to die for your country - I want you to make the enemy die for his country”, or words to that effect. If you all get killed, as you certainly may, nothing will have been achieved.'

'All right, then,' said Winton. 'Have you got any better ideas?'

'Possibly,' said the Doctor. 'But since I suspect that there is at least one spy amongst as, I'd rather not disclose it at a public meeting.'

As the sun rose up gradually from the eastern horizon, Mary Ashe left the main dame and walked straight towards the IMC spaceship. She carried an one arm a small handmade basket containing a few items of food. There were now two uniformed IMC guards standing at the entrance to the spaceship. They watched her, curiously, as she walked straight towards them. As it became clear she was going to try to enter the spaceship, the guards closed in on her.

'Where do you think you're going?' one of them asked.

'I believe you've got a friend of mine here,' said Mary. 'I'm bringing her some food.'

'There are no friends of yours in this spaceship,' said the other guard, amused by his own joke.

The first guard laughed, too. Then his mouth fell open, and his body crumpled, as the Doctor, who had hidden behind the spaceship, applied a Venusian karate hold to the back of the man's neck. Winton, who had also been in hiding, simply hit the back of the other guard's head with a rock. Very quickly the two unconscious guards were dragged away.

Caldwell meanwhile had slept fitfully. As soon as he woke, he rolled out of his crew room bunk, pulled on his IMC uniform, and went up for'ard to the control room. Morgan and Dent were already there. 'Where's the girl?' Caldwell enquired.

Dent looked up. 'You heard me give the order last night for her to be brought here.'

Dent turned to Morgan. 'Where is she?'

'I don't know, sir,' said Morgan. 'I passed the order an to Security Guard Allen.'

Caldwell started to say, 'If you two are playing games - ' but Dent cut in, 'I don't play games, Caldwell !' He turned back to Morgan. 'Find out what's happened, and be quick about it!'

Morgan reached for the console microphone, switched on and sent out a call to Security Guard Allen. After five repeated calls he turned back to Dent. 'His receiver's turned on and working, but he isn't answering.'

'Get over there,' said Dent. As Morgan scuttled out of the control room, Dent turned to Caldwell , 'If anything's happened to one of my security guards, you are to blame.'

Morgan went down the connecting corridor at a run. Coming from the other direction were two men in IMC uniforms. 'Hey, you two,' he said, 'I want you to come with me - ' And then he found himself staring into the gun drawn by the younger of the two men.

'Sorry to deceive you,' said the Doctor. 'Now turn round and go back to the control room.'

As Morgan turned, Winton thrust the gun in his back. Then Morgan heard Winton emit a quiet whistle; there was a rush of muffled footsteps as colonists swarmed through the ship's entrance and along the connecting corridors. Morgan was pushed forward to the control room. The Doctor went ahead and kicked open its door.

Winton pushed Morgan inside. Dent and Caldwell looked up, alarmed; meanwhile sounds of a gun battle between the colonists and IMC guards broke throughout the rest of the ship.

'Where's Jo Grant?' said the Doctor.

Winton was now covering the three IMC officers with the handgun he had taken from one of the overpowered guards. Dent kept his hands well in sight. for fear of bring killed if Winton suspected he was reaching for his gun.

'She seems to have vanished,' said Dent, keeping very cool. This was exactly the sort of situation for which he'd been trained to well. 'I can't contact her guard. As a matter of fact, I was getting rather worried myself.'

The Doctor turned to Caldwell . 'Is he telling the truth?'

Caldwell nodded. 'I think so.'

The sound of gunfire had stopped, and the colonist Smedley came into the control room, his huge frame filling the doorway. 'Everything's under control,' he reported.

'Good,' said the Doctor. 'Winton, they're your prisoners now. I'm going to find Jo. Excuse me.' The Doctor hurried out.

Dent said, 'You realise this is an act of piracy, punish-able by death under Earth's laws?'

'We're not on Earth,' replied Winton. He turned to Smedley, 'Get their guns.'

'It's a pleasure,', said Smedley, and started collecting the handguns from the three IMC officers.

Using a captured IMC buggy, the Doctor - now back in his own clothes - and Ashe were at the Primitive ruin in a few minutes. Security Guard Allen's body lay where it had fallen. The Doctor inspected the spear in the chest. 'It seems that the Primitives are no longer friendly,' he concluded.

Ashe was looking at the large amount of dried blood near the doorway. 'It was probably in instant retaliation.' he said. 'He shot a Primitive, and then the others turned on him.'

'Where would they have taken Jo?' asked the Doctor.

'In the early days,' said Ashe, 'two of our people said they found underground ruins in some caves. Primitives lived there, and our people got the impression that the Primitives were guarding some other sort of creature that lived down there as well. They set out again, with guns, to see what it was all about.'

'What did they find?' said the Doctor.

'We'll never know,' said Ashc. 'Neither of them ever came back.'

Ashe was about to say something else, but his voice was suddenly drowned by the thunderclap roar of a spaceship in flight. Instinctively, they both looked up. Racing across the morning sky was a spaceship similar to the IMC one but much smaller. It was coloured a brilliant scarlet.

'The Adjudicator,' said Ashe. 'That's the Earth Government colour - scarlet.'

Captain Dent was tied hand and foot to his captain's chair. Morgan and Caldwell were tied to their lees comfortable ones. The control room was filled with colonists, and the sweaty smell of their bodies was heavy in the air that Dent had to breathe.

'You're only making things worse for yourselves,' said Dent.

Winton was busy trying to prise open a locker using a jemmy. 'You think so?'

'You heard the ship land,' Dent said. 'What sort of impression will this make on the Adjudicator?'

The colonists laughed. Winton finally broke open the locker and looked inside. 'Now what have we here?' The colonists pressed forward to see. Winton lifted out a film projector. 'What's this?' he asked Dent.

Dent thought quickly. 'Part of our survey equipment.' But Winton found the right button to press. The projector came to life and put a picture on the wall of a giant lizard. In fact, it was a very small lizard which had been filmed in close-up. 'Just as the Doctor thought; said Winton, 'an optical illusion.'

Smedley looked into the locker again and brought out a big metal claw. 'This is no optical illusion,' he said. 'This is what you killed the Leeson with. It's the evidence we need. You're murderers, and as of now the punishment on our planet is going to be death by hanging!'

All the colonists seemed to agree with this. Then Morgan spoke up. 'Captain Dent's the killer,' he said. 'He's killed colonists on other planets, too.'

Dent thought quickly. Morgan might make mistakes, but he would never act the traitor. So Dent responded, 'Shut up, Morgan!' and tried to make it sound convincing.

Winton asked Morgan, 'You want to confess?'

'I only carried out orders,' said Morgan, which was more or less true. 'I could show you more evidence if you want to see it.'

'Don't trust him,' said Smedley.

But Winton asked, 'Where is this evidence?'

'In one of the lockers here,' said Morgan. 'Untie me and I'll get it for you. You can keep a gun on me all the time.'

'You show them anything,' Dent shouted at Morgan, 'and you're finished with IMC! Understand that? You'll lose your living quarters, your wife will turn on you, your children will disown you - ' One of the colonists hit Dent in the face.

Winton aimed his gun at Morgan. 'Untie him,' he told the colonists. Two of them quickly stepped forward and cut the ropes holding Morgan to his chair. He rose, and went to the most secret locker in the control room, unlocked it and put his hand inside. Now Dent had to get Winton's attention, even at the risk of another blow to the face.

'You listen to me,' Dent pleaded. 'I'm still your captain - '

Winton wheeled round, his gun pointed now at Dent. 'You're nothing!' he shouted. 'Keep quiet!'

And this gave Morgan the opportunity he needed. His hand came out of the locker holding a rocket pistol, which he pointed at the back of Winton's head. 'Drop that gun,' he said, 'or you're dead!'

To Dent it seemed a lifetime as Winton stood with his gun aimed at him, whilst Morgan stood with the rocket pistol touching Winton's head. In fact it was only three seconds before Winton realised that the colonists' victory was over, and he dropped the gun. Morgan moved Winton round, so that Winton acted as a shield against any sudden counter-attack. 'All of you,' said Morgan, 'drop your guns, or I kill this man instantly.' One by one the colonists dropped their guns to the floor. 'Now you,' he said to the colonist who had hit Dent, 'untie Captain Dent. And you,' he said to Smedley, 'untie Mr. Caldwell.'

As soon as Dent was free he picked up a gun and levelled it at the man who had hit him. 'I should blow your head off,' he said, 'but perhaps I'll save that till later.'

Then they all heard Mary Ashe's voice from the radio loudspeaker. '
Main dome calling IMC ship,
' she said. '
The Adjudicator is ready for the tribunal. Kindly advise me the situation there.
'

Dent grabbed site microphone. '
The situation,
' he said, '
is that we are all, I repeat, all coming over there to state our case.
'

'
Who is that speaking?
' Mary asked, surprised to hear Dent. But Dent did not reply.

John Ashe had arranged benches along either side of the colonists' meeting-room in the dome, and one big chair at one end for the Adjudicator. The Adjudicator was already sitting there, smart in his black tunic and trousers, a small dark beard accentuating the thrust of his chin, and compelling brown eyes which darted from one to another of the colonists and IMC men as they trooped in. The colonists sat one side of the room, the IMC men sat facing them. All the colonists were unarmed; all the IMC carried holstered handguns. Captain Dent walked up to the Adjudicator, hand outstretched, 'Captain Dent, sir, at your service.'

The Adjudicator looked at Dent, but did not shake his hand. 'Please take your place,' he said.

The affront angered Dent, but he tried to cover up. 'Certainly, sir. But I thought you might first wish to see my credentials as Captain of this IMC survey team.' He produced from his pocket his plastic identity card which carried a colour photograph of himself.

The Adjudicator waved the card aside. 'I am here to settle a dispute, not to check your identity.'

'As you wish, sir,' said Dent, acutely embarrassed that these affronts had been before both the colonists and his own IMC men. 'But may I ask to see
your
identification, sir?' At last he felt that he had the Adjudicator's full attention.

'My identification?'

'Simply a formality, sir,' said Dent. 'We're on a strange planet, we've never met before... it seems a reasonable request.'

'I am the Adjudicator,' said the Adjudicator severely, 'for this section of the galaxy. Now kindly be seated.' Dent turned and sat next to Morgan. He touched the younger mans arm , 'Good work, Morgan. I'll see IMC know how you acted today.' Morgan smiled, but nudged Dent to pay attention to the Adjudicator. Dent tumed to see the Adjudicator rising to his feet.