Free Doctor Who: Terror of the Vervoids by Pip Baker, Jane Baker Page A

lounge. Hastily, the Doctor opted for retreat.
     
    ‘Halt or I’ll fire!’ Unholstering his phaser, the sentry took aim. There was no doubting his zeal.
    The Doctor came to heel.
    ‘Oh, Doctor, you do have the knack of landing yourself in hot water.’ Shaking his head benignly, Rudge eased past the sentry.
    ‘"Satiable curtiosity", like the Elephant’s Child.’
    ‘Never mind the Just So stories!’ Mel knew her Rudyard Kipling from school days. ‘That guard looks trigger-happy to me!’
    He did.
    ‘Simply doing his duty, Miss.’ The word ‘duty’ tripped frequently from Rudge’s tongue. ‘The regulations are quite specific. Any person setting off a false alarm on an intergalactic liner is to be arrested. Forthwith.’
    ‘There’s no need to quote the book. I can explain.’
    Even Mel was dumbfounded. She had every faith in the Doctor’s ability to fabricate excuses, but how was he going to explain this act away? She was to be disappointed.
    ‘Not to me.’ Rudge’s unctuous smile accompanied his triumph. ‘To the Commodore! He is expecting you.’ He gestured to the sentry. ‘Take him!’
    ‘Halt the Matrix!’ The Valeyard was on his feet. ‘I fail to comprehend this evidence. The Doctor is on trial for his life. Yet in his defence – a defence that is supposed to prove him not guilty of the charge of meddling – he presents us with a situation in which he is deliberately flouting accepted authority.’
    The elderly Guardians of the Law began to mutter sympathetic comments.
    ‘Much of the evidence does seem to contradict your stated aim, Doctor.’ The Inquisitor’s contribution was put calmly, although her disapproval of the support being accorded to the prosecutor by what should have been an impartial gathering, was manifest. ‘Are you claiming the Matrix is again being falsified?’
     
    ‘No. And if the Valeyard would exercise the restraint that I showed during the presentation of his case against me –’
    ‘Huh!’
    ‘– and could suppress his blood lust –’
    ‘Doctor!’ The Inquisitor’s patience was not limitless.
    ‘This Court is dedicated to giving you a fair trial. Do not abuse its indulgence.’
    ‘My apologies.’
    ‘The Matrix, Doctor. I suggest we return to the Hyperion III .’
    The Hyperion III was skirting the edge of a giant whirlpool, the hub of which was a Stygian blackness. Even the surrounding cosmos had undergone a slightly sinister change...
    Seated at the console, the Commodore was contemplating the massive whirlpool through the navigational window.
    ‘Bring us in closer,’ he instructed the Deck Officer.
    ‘Reduce the margin by a factor of point-nought-one, to point-nought-two.’
    ‘Very narrow margin of safety, Commodore.’ This was the Doctor speaking. He had arrived with the escorting sentry.
    ‘Not for a ship of the Hyperion class,’ replied the Commodore.
    ‘Still unwise,’ insisted the Doctor. ‘Quirky phenomena, Black Holes. They can gulp with unpredictable turbulence.’
    ‘When I want your advice, I’ll ask for it!’ That was the Doctor dispensed with. He dismissed the sentry with a curt wave. ‘I’ll handle this. Get back on duty.’
    The sentry obeyed smartly.
    ‘What I do want to hear from you, Doctor, is the reason why I shouldn’t toss you in the brig! Fire alarms are not playthings for irresponsible buffoons!’
     
    While the Doctor was receiving a verbal larruping from the Commodore, Janet was experiencing panic.
    The fire alarm had meant that all passengers had assembled in the lounge. This was obligatory drill. The hoax having been quickly discovered, the gathering had dispersed. But Janet had noticed a missing passenger.
    ‘Mister Rudge,’ she called as she saw Rudge in the corridor with Mel. ‘Mister Rudge!’
    ‘Steady on, Janet,’ he uttered in his usual avuncular timbre.
    ‘It’s Mister Kimber, the elderly passenger in Cabin Ten.
    He didn’t report to the fire assembly point and he’s not in his