Free Doctor Who: Delta and the Bannermen by Malcolm Kohll

was extremely slippery and Murray’s happy smile dissolved into a look of horror as he felt the sleek crystal suddenly slip from his grasp.
    Mel dived at it, catching it in her cupped hands moments before it hit the ground. ‘Whew!’ cried Murray.
    ‘You can say that again, butterfingers! Now, will everyone please give us some air so that we can put it into the navipod,’ said Mel.
    The space tourists stood back allowing Murray room to bolt the crystal into place. Murray worked slowly and carefully. He was determined not to take any more chances with their only means of escape.
     

Chapter Twenty
    Two young rabbits playfully hopped around a quiet meadow. Suddenly they stopped and their ears pricked up, then quick as a flash they disappeared into a burrow. Their play had been disturbed by the puttering sound of Ray’s scooter as she and the Doctor approached. Ray stopped her bike at a barred gate and looked around helplessly. The Doctor leapt off the bike and, bending down, he ran his fingers along a faint groove in the mud. ‘This is the end of the road, Doctor,’ said Ray. ‘I don’t know where else to try.’
    ‘These tyre marks show a heavy motorcycle and sidecar passed this way. Come on Ray! We mustn’t give up now!
    Their lives depend on us,’ cried the Doctor as he eased open the heavy gate.
    The Doctor clambered back onto the bike and they set off across the open meadow along the clifftops, avoiding numerous small boulders scattered in their path. Ray shouted against the wind, ‘I hope you’re all right Doctor.
    I’m sorry if this is a bit like an army assault course.’
    ‘My dear child, this is as smooth as glass. I once had a similar ride on the planet Themlon. I was TARDIS-bound for a week afterwards,’ he replied. Suddenly the land dipped, and there in the hollow was the Vincent!
    ‘They’re probably down on the beach!’ cried Ray as she put the scooter onto its stand.
    Delta had just opened her knapsack and produced a wafer of waxy cells which she fed to her hungry baby.
    ‘She’s growing so fast now that she needs to be replenished every half an hour or so. If I can get the hatchling safely to the brood planet then I can take my case to the intergalactic tribunal. They will send an expeditionary force to get rid of Gavrok and the Bannermen.’
    ‘I’ll do whatever I can to help,’ said Billy. Although he genuinely meant what he said, Billy couldn’t quite imagine how he was supposed to get Delta and the hatchling safely to the brood planet. He didn’t think that his Vincent was going to prove very useful. Delta glanced up to see two distant figures scrabbling down the cliff-face towards them.
    ‘Look!’ she said.
    Billy followed her gaze. ‘Hey, that’s Ray and the Doctor.
    They look like they’re in a hurry.’
    The Bannermen, said Delta to herself. She and Billy quickly gathered everything up and hurried along the beach to meet them.
    ‘Thank Heavens!’ gasped Ray as they finally came within shouting distance of each other.
    ‘Why’s everyone in such a lather?’ demanded Billy peevishly. He felt that he was just beginning to get to know Delta at last and he was annoyed that their peace had been disturbed so soon.
    ‘At last we’ve found you,’ panted the Doctor. Delta gazed steadily at the Doctor, knowing the worst.
    ‘Gavrok?’
    ‘Yes. We overheard Keillor giving the position of the camp,’ said the Doctor.
    ‘A space mercenary,’ Delta said looking shocked.
    ‘Yes. There’s a price on your head,’ he continued.
    Billy indignantly drew himself up. ‘Yeah? Well where’s this mercenary? I reckon we’ve got a score to settle,’ he said.
    ‘He’s been ionized!’ said Ray smugly. Billy suddenly became aware of her presence.
    ‘Uh... hi Ray,’ he mumbled, being unsure of what to say next. Something about the way she looked at him made him feel guilty.
    ‘We have to get back at once,’ said the Doctor. ‘Burton has already evacuated all the other staff.