Free Doctor Who: Terminus by John Lydecker Page A

even dare to breathe; dust was still thick in the air, and a single sound would have given them away. The terror of the Lazars had been bad enough, but now this ...
    There was a drone waiting at the other end of the corridor. They saw the dark man bend to touch some kind of code into the machine’s front display panel, and when he straightened they heard him speak, a single word as harsh as a saw cutting through skin:
    ‘ Sterilise .’
    Then he turned and headed back for the door, and they closed their eyes tight as Death passed over. Again they felt the downdraft, again the slow tapping like the hammering of the Calvary nails.
    ‘It can’t get worse,’ Tegan whispered; feeling as if she would burst, ‘it can’t .’
    Turlough put a reassuring hand on her arm. He did it without thinking, and he surprised himself.
    Friendship was no part of his orders, and he’d kept it firmly out of his mind... but such things, it seemed, were not open to conscious control.
    And as he tried to pass on strength that he wasn’t even sure he had, Turlough was certain of only one thing. Tegan was wrong. It could get worse and, if his controller had his way, it would.
    In the meantime, they had to keep moving. ‘Come on,’ he said, and he looked around for a new route through the crawlspace.
     
     
    ‘If it’s about my running away,’ Olvir began, but Kari cut him off.
    ‘Forget that. It’s them.’ She looked over to where Nyssa and the Doctor were standing by the navigation screen, discussing the possible implications of the expanded star-chart. ‘They can’t be trusted. They teamed up and took my gun away.’
    ‘You’ve got it back.’
    ‘That’s not the point. Stick with your own kind and tell them nothing else.’
    ‘My own kind?’ Olvir said with some incredulity.
    ‘It’s our own kind who cut loose and dumped us here.
    You’d do the same to me now, if you got the chance.’
    ‘No, I wouldn’t.’
    Olvir looked at her suddenly, with searching interest and some hope. ‘Really?’ he said.
    ‘Of course I wouldn’t,’ Kari said, trying not to appear as uncomfortable as she felt.
    Olvir watched her a moment longer, and then shrugged. ‘You’d say that anyway,’ he said.
    The star-chart on its own was of no use. Both the Doctor and Nyssa agreed that it was an interesting curiosity which told them nothing. It was a clue, not a solution, and they didn’t even know the true nature of the problem. As far as the Doctor was concerned, this argued the need for the analytical resources of the lost TARDIS. Nyssa was worried about the prospect of taking the danger of infection back to Tegan and Turlough, whom she assumed to be safe and waiting inside, but the Doctor believed that the danger had begun the moment that the door to the liner had opened.
     
    In the meantime, they were getting no closer. Olvir and Kali finished their conversation and came over.
    Kari said, ‘Any progress?’
    ‘Nothing,’ the Doctor said, and he indicated the console with its scattering of useless memory blocks alongside. ‘If there’s a map of the liner, it isn’t here.’
    Olvir looked down for a moment, and then said,
    ‘Why not try some of the others?’
    The Doctor frowned. ‘What others?’
    Olvir indicated the equipment stacks where he’d been hiding. ‘Those little blocks,’ he said. ‘There’s a rack full of them back there.’
    Bor had taken a walk.
    Valgard had seen him go and had been able to do nothing about it. Once he’d passed the crude yellow line that marked the beginning of the forbidden zone, he was as good as lost. Valgard had called to him, but Bor had only hesitated briefly and shouted something that sounded like It’s still climbing . His helmet was off and he was looking worse than ever, a ragged scarecrow of a man who was obviously unwell and feverish.
    Valgard stood at the line in the middle of the storeyard and watched as Bor disappeared into the shadows that began on the far side of the area and