The atmosphere in the Council Chamber abruptly changed. Bovem walked slowly up to Zoe and stared searchingly into her face. ‘Aliens?’ he murmured gravely.
‘Murder?’
Zoe squirmed uncomfortably and said nothing.
‘Kully!’ called a thin, cultured voice. At once everyone looked round in surprise. A very tall figure with fine silver hair and a pointed beard was standing by the wall. His robe was edged with a narrow green band.
‘Director Senex... we were not aware...’ Bovem faltered.
The Director raised his pale hand. ‘Quite.’ He gazed impassively at Zoe for a moment with keen blue eyes. Then he moved elegantly across to his chair. ‘I shall speak with Kully and the stranger alone,’ he announced.
The Councillors immediately rose and Bovem led them out in respectful silence. Zoe watched in uneasy bewilderment as Senex slowly took his seat. His face seemed filled with peace, wisdom and intelligence.
‘Do you enjoy being treated as a clown, Kully?’ he enquired at last.
Kully stared sulkily at his father and said nothing.
Senex turned to Zoe.’ What were you doing on the Island?’ he said gently, glancing at her unfamiliar clothing.
Zoe shrugged. ‘Nothing really. Just looking around.’
Senex glared at his son. ‘How could you expose foolish innocent citizens to such danger?’ he demanded severely.
‘But I didn’t take Zoe...’ Kully started to protest.
Senex waved his hand impatiently. ‘We know all about your irresponsible escapades.’
Kully looked genuinely shocked. ‘You knew? Then why didn’t you prosecute me?’
Senex frowned. ‘Prosecution would simply have flattered your reckless ego and it would have reflected badly upon myself.’
Kully clutched his head in his podgy hands: ‘Why can’t I be treated as an individual instead of always as “the son of our distinguished Director”?’ he groaned despairingly.
The Director ignored this and turned back to Zoe.
‘Please tell me exactly what happened,’ he requested courteously.
Zoe took a deep breath. ‘Well, your... your worship... the Doctor and Jamie and I had just landed on the Island in the TARDIS...’
‘The TARDIS?’
‘Oh, a Time And Relative Dimensions In Space machine,’ Zoe explained.
‘Transcends Time and Space Field Parameters...’ added Kully helpfully.
Senex rose angrily to his feet. ‘This game has gone quite far enough, Kully,’ he warned.
‘Oh, but it’s true,’ Zoe insisted, ‘ask the Doctor and Jamie. They’ll be arriving soon.’
Senex’s noble face clouded ominously. ‘What do you hope to achieve by this elaborate play-acting, Kully?’ he demanded in outraged undertone.
Kully could stand it no longer. He seized the loose folds of his father’s robe and almost shook him off his feet. ‘I told you the truth on the vision link,’ he shouted. ‘A spacecraft has landed. Three people have been killed.
Radioactivity has disappeared and there are robots destroying everything in sight Now please
do
something before it’s too late.’
The Director was virtually trapped face to face with his raging son. ‘And no doubt Zoe will confirm all this?’ he murmured.
Zoe glanced uncertainly at Kully. ‘Well... I haven’t actually
seen
the spacecraft and the robots...’ she mumbled apprehensively, ‘but Jamie and the Doctor...’
With unexpected force, Senex freed himself from Kully’s tenacious grasp. ‘So. We have only
your
word Kully; he breathed. ‘And bitter experience has taught us all just how reliable
that
is.’
Inside the ruined museum the tension was becoming unbearable as Jamie and the Doctor stood facing one another a few metres apart, each guarded by a Quark with its probes extended and primed. Rago had handed the Doctor the laser gun from the showcase.
‘What is it?’ the Dominator demanded.
The Doctor peered at the weapon short-sightedly. ‘Its a sort of a gun...’
‘Explain its function.’
The Doctor hesitated. ‘Well, I... it kills people...’
‘Fire it!’ Rago commanded.
Jamie’s heart leapt into his throat as the Doctor pointed the laser vaguely in his direction while preending to work out its mechanism, but he gritted his teeth and kept quiet.
For a few awful seconds the incessant chattering of the Quarks’ circuits was the only sound.
Then Rago snatched the weapon and handed it to Jamie.
‘You fire it!’ he rapped.
Jamie frowned. ‘Ah dinna ken how ta werk it,’ he mumbled. pointing the barrel at Toba.
There was a violent bleating and flashing from the two robots and Jamie immediately swung the laser towards the Doctor.
‘Obey!’ Toba bellowed.
Suddenly the weapon emitted a shrill whirring and the Doctor ducked out of range with a genuine gasp of fright.
Jamie continued to fumble and the gun repeated the whirring several times but did not discharge.
The Doctor was trembling and sweating but he pulled himself together and managed to grin simple-mindedly at the Dominators. ‘We don’t really understand such devices on Dulkis,’ he blustered. ‘You see, we haven’t used them for decades...’
Rago took the laser from Jamie and aimed it point-blank at the Doctor’s head. ‘So you do not understand this weapon?’ he said quietly.
The Doctor shook his head, licking his dry lips. All at once the laser whirred and then fired. The Doctor had no time to even flinch. Jamie screamed in horror and covered his face.
‘Neutral mode,’ Rago explained, smiling cruelly at the Doctor’s sweat-soaked face, ‘for testing only.’
Jamie was almost crying with relief and for a while the Doctor was unable to speak.
‘Ah yes, the Clever Ones,’ he eventually muttered. ‘They invented the weapons, but they stopped us using them...’
Rago’s interest was aroused. ‘Clever Ones? Then there are two distinct species on this planet?’ he suggested.
The Doctor nodded resentfully. ‘Not many Clever Ones left now. We don’t like them. They tell us what to do.’
Tossing the gun aside, Rago grunted with satisfaction.
‘There appears to be no danger from these primitives and the others are pacifists,’ he brusquely informed Toba.
The Probationer raised his huge grasping gloves. ‘These primitives are useless to us. They should be destroyed.’
Rago turned on him. ‘Negative. They can perform menial tasks for us in due course’ The Navigator swung round to the cowering and inanely grinning Doctor. ‘Keep away from us and from the Quarks until you are required,’
he commanded. Then he strode out followed by Toba and the two robots.
When they had gone, Jamie and the Doctor hugged each other in sheer relief.
‘Well done, Jamie,’ cried the Doctor, dabbing at his face with a large spotted handkerchief, ‘but perhaps you were just a trifle too convincing when they ordered you to shoot me!’
‘Bloodthirsty lot,’ Jamie said with a shudder. ‘But what are they after, Doctor?’
‘Judging by that message they sent to their Fleet Leader, I’d guess it’s fuel of some kind.’
‘But why do they want slaves? They’ve got those Quark beasties.’
The Doctor folded his handkerchief thoughtfully into smaller and smaller squares. ‘I wish I knew, Jamie...’ he muttered. ‘One thing is obvious: the Dulcians are in great danger.’ He listened for a moment, then motioned Jamie to follow. ‘They’ve gone. Come on, we must get back to that survey module.’
In the module, Balan and Kando were watching Teel complete a complex graph on a computer screen, their faces registering increasing concern and incomprehension.
Eventually Teel turned to them. ‘It is not logical, but that is the statistical result. There has been a steady decrease in the radiation levels for the past 172 annos...
until now.’
They stared at the display. ‘Now it has suddenly vanished,’ Kando murmured. ‘It is not possible.’
Balan shrugged unhappily. ‘It has happened, therefore it is a fact,’ he informed the two young students. ‘We have discovered that the radiation effects from an atomic detonation endure for 172 annos.’
Teel’s fine, intelligent features puckered with doubt.
‘But what is the explanation?’ he demanded.
Educator Balan raised his hands, palms upwards, in typical Dulcian gesture of resignation. ‘No doubt our experts will explain,’ he replied complacently. ‘It is fruitless for us to seek reasons to prove facts. Facts are truth.’
Teel’s jaw jutted defiantly. ‘I submit that the survey unit must investigate this phenomenon,’ he insisted, springing to his feet. ‘The spacecraft that Kully reported...’
Angrily Bolan cut his pupil short. ‘There is no such craft, Teel. Nor are there any robots.’
‘Oh I wouldn’t bet on that if I were you!’
The three Dulcians spun round to see the Doctor and Jamie just emerging from the airlock.
‘Kully was right,’ the Doctor continued. ‘There is certainly an alien spacecraft and most definitely there are robots’
‘And you’re all in great danger,’ Jamie added earnestly.
Balan iguorcd these revelations. ‘Your friend Zoe is already at the Capitol and Director Senex will be awaiting your own arrival,’ he informed them. ‘Do not delay.’
The Doctor had caught sight of the graph still glowing on the computer screen. His eyebrows shot up in astonishment. ‘There you are!’ he cried excitedly. ‘Just look at that. You can’t ignore that!’
Swiftly Balan turned and cancelled the display. ‘Please, Doctor, do not waste any more time in this foolishness,’ he pleaded.
The Doctor stared furiously at Balan for several seconds.
‘Quite!’ he suddenly snapped. ‘Come along, Jamie, perhaps Director Senex will listen to us.’
Teel and Kando hurried across to prime the second capsule for launching, while Balan escorted the Doctor and Jamie to the launch tube and programmed the destination panel as they clambered aboard.
‘Capsule primed,’ Teel called out.
‘This will deliver you direct to the Capitol,’ Balan explained, ‘and the Director will see you at his convenience.’
‘The Director will see me
at once
,’ the Doctor retorted as the canopy and access panel zipped shut.
With a hollow screaming noise the capsule shot out of sight along the tube.
Teel and Kando had been eagerly whispering together and they turned as Balan came back into the laboratory section. ‘Now perhaps we can continue with our proper work,’ the Educator sighed.
‘Willingly,’ Kando agreed, glancing covertly at Teel.
‘Permission to commence soil-core sampling?’
‘Granted,’ Balan replied.
Grabbing their equipment, the students almost rushed for the airlock.
‘Wait!’ Balan cried sharply. ‘I shall accompany you, to ensure that nothing distracts you from your tasks...’
Zoe had been wandering impatiently round and round the Council Chamber, now and then glancing hopefully at the wall through which Director Senex had disappeared seemingly hours previously. Kully was lying in his father’s chair, his grubby and bruised legs thrown casually over the arm, idly watching a thin trickle of sand running out of the side of his battered sandals.
‘Oh, why are they taking so long?’ Zoe cried exasperatedly alter a long silence.
Kully yawned. ‘Everything takes time on Dulkis.
Nothing’s eh rushed. Not any more,’ he mumbled.
Zoe clasped and unclasped her hands in frustration. ‘If what you told them about the robots is true...’
‘So even you don’t really believe me,’ Kully said disconsolately.
Zoe tousled her neat black hair. ‘I don’t know. I’m really worried. Jamie and the Doctor should have got here ages ago.’
‘Perhaps my imaginary robots have gobbled them both up!’ Kully chuckled.
Zoe gave a little sigh of apprehension.
‘Sorry,’ Kully said gloomily. ‘You don’t believe me. The Council don’t believe me. It’s my own fault, I suppose.’ He stared at the little heaps of sand on the floor by the chair.
Then he suddenly leaped out of the Director’s seat and grasped Zoe by the shoulders. ‘Would you come back to the Island with me?’ he asked earnestly.
Perplexed and miserable, Zoe gazed listlessly at his grimy bulbous features. ‘Why, what are you going to do?’
‘Bring back some evidence. Make them believe me before it’s too late. Will you come, Zoe?’
Zoe thought for a moment. ‘What kind of evidence?
Anyway, how could we get past your father and the Council out there?’ she objected.
Kully seized her hand and headed straight towards the blank wall of the Chamber. It dissolved in front of them and before she could resist, Kully dragged Zoe through.
‘We’ll go through my father’s private apartments,’ he explained.’ Then we’ll have to steal a capsule somehow...’
Suddenly Kully stopped. ‘Your clothes, Zoe... not exactly Dulcian, are they?’ he said with a frown.
Zoe glanced down at her tee-shirt and slacks and then at Kully’s shapeless, pleated tunic ‘No, I’m glad to say they’re not,’ she retorted indignantly.
‘They’ll give us away. We’ll never get past the Transport Monitors...’ Then Kully’s face brightened. You can borrow something from Zanta! She’s in the Antipodes’
‘Zanta?’ Zoe echoed doubtfully.
‘My younger sister,’ Kully explained. ‘You’re about the same size,’ he grinned. ‘Come on. ’
Five minute, later, as arranged, Zoo met Kully in the curved shimmering corridor outside Senex’s apartments.
Kully whistled approvingly. ‘At least you look more like a girl now.’
Zoe grimaced at her chunky pleats and rather loose sandals. ‘This clobber isn’t very practical, is it?’ she complained.
‘Never mind, you look 90 per cent Dulcian,’ Kully chuckled ‘Your friends won’t recognise you.’
Zoe looked worried.’We’ll probably pass them going in the opposite direction.’
Kully led the way rapidly along the smooth deserted corridor. ‘Luckily I discovered some travel permits in Father’s pockets,’ he whispered, flourishing aome small plastic tokens. ‘All I have to do is forge his signature.’
‘Kully, you’re a shameless villain...’ Zoe giggled admiringly.
you arc an alien imposter,’ Kully grinned, seizing her hand and breaking into a trot...