could fit into that thing?’ He switched his screen to a picture of the TARDIS and then to a quick succession of computer graphics. Having satisfied himself as to the dimensions of the strange ship, he switched to a hologram and the image of the TARDIS stood there before them. ‘You see? You see? Look at the size of it.’
Ogrek was not impressed. ‘They could be a whole colony,’ he said.
‘Maybe that’s why we haven’t discovered them. We’re looking for something more or less our size and they could be no bigger than that.’ Ogrek held up his hand, thumb and forefinger practically together.
‘Well we’ll soon know,’ Lobos said as a voice interrupted them.
‘213745 wishing to report, sir.’
‘Enter.’ Lobos turned to face the door as it slid open.
60213745 entered and saluted. ‘Well?’ Lobos barked. ‘Robot number 9284...’
‘His name is Matt,’ Lobos said.
The soldier frowned. ‘Matt?’
‘That’s right. His name is Matt. So forget the number, just tell me what he’s come up with.’
The soldier gulped. ‘Nothing, sir.’
‘What?’
‘Nothing. He’s still working on it.’
Lobos cast a quick glance at Ogrek who immediately wiped the smile from his face and found something very interesting to look at on the ceiling. But what was happening at ground level was even more interesting for, far from being annoyed, Lobos was highly delighted and Ogrek was quite startled when, hearing what sounded suspiciously like a chuckle, he looked down again to find Lobos grinning broadly. He raised a questioning eyebrow and Lobos burst into laughter.
‘He’s been beaten!’ he yelled. ‘Mau has finally met his match. He doesn’t know the answers! Now I can’t wait to meet these aliens.’ He pointed a finger at Ogrek. ‘So you take personal charge and get on with it.’
‘Yes, sir,’ Ogrek sighed - he only called the governor ‘sir’ when he felt put upon - and, waving 213745 to go ahead of him, turned to leave.
213745 saluted smartly but Lobos didn’t even see it. He was once again wrapped up in his video search.
‘If we keep going,’ Ian declared, a note of desperation in his voice, ‘We must eventually come to an exit.’
‘Must we?’ Barbara said between clenched teeth.
‘Well, we got in, didn’t we? So we must be able to get out,’ Ian hissed back.
‘I’m not so sure. I think we’re going around in circles. We’ve been in this corridor before, I know we have!’ There was more than a hint of desperation in Barbara’s voice. Now a-note of hysteria was creeping in. ‘I never thought I’d suffer from claustrophobia but I want to get out of this place!’
‘Easy, easy,’ the Doctor said soothingly in an attempt to lower the temperature. ‘I too have the distinct impression that we’ve been here before but it’s not a calamity. Oh, no. It’s helped me orientate myself. I know exactly where we are.’
‘Do you?’ Ian snapped, waving the muzzle of his ray gun in all directions. ‘Which way then?’
The expression of happy confidence on the Doctor’s face disappeared. But Vicki jumped to the rescue. ‘Straight ahead?’
‘Straight ahead,’ he agreed.
They moved warily down the corridor. Behind them the three Xerons suddenly appeared from around a corner and quickly ducked back again.
‘They’re armed!’ Sita whispered.
‘I’ll see which way they go, then we’ll try to cut them off,’ Tor replied.
‘The one had a ray gun! I saw it!’
‘So? We were hoping they’d be armed, if you remember.’
‘That’s all very well, but how do you know they’re friendly? They could shoot us on sight. They could be Morok allies!’
‘The Moroks wouldn’t be searching for them if they were allies.’
But Sita’s trepidation was not to be so easily assuaged. ‘They could still he aggressive,’ he insisted, his courage really beginning to let him down. ‘And you don’t know the Moroks are searching for them. We have to be cautious.’
‘We will
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley