5.

Slavery After the capsule had screamed to a shuddering halt inside the terminal tube in the survey module, Kully gallantly offered to help Zoe disembark, but the independent young human jumped lightly out, none the worse for her second turbulent trip. They looked around the deserted module with a mounting sense of foreboding.

'Where is everybody?' murmured Zoe. 'What do you think can have happened?'

Kully glanced over the quietly humming systems monitors and shrugged. 'We'd better take a look outside.'

Just then Zoe glimpsed something through the small porthole nearest her. 'What on earth is that?' she exclaimed, leaning forward. Then she caught sight of a similar object through the neighbouring porthole. She ran from porthole to porthole and then turned slowly to face Kully as hot and cold pins and needles p.r.i.c.kled the back of her neck. 'We seem... we seem to be completely surrounded...' she gasped.

As Kully scrambled to see for himself, a chorus of unearthly noises briefly penetrated the hull of the module.

An nstant later, the whole structure shuddered and several equipment panels burst into showers of sparks.

Momentarily frozen with terror, Kully stared at the encircling Quarks inexorably closing in on them with throbbing probes and threshing antennae. Then he dived towards the airlock, yelling at Zoe to follow. Frantically he pressed and twisted and thumped the switches, but the door remained shut. Dense clouds of black smoke began to billow out of the shattered panels.

Again the module shuddered, this time tipping over at an alarming angle before settling back in a series of violent rocking movements.

'We're trapped... we're trapped...' Kully shrieked, before being racked by a fit of retching and coughing.

A third time the module shook and then it rolled over and over several times like a barel, flinging Zoe and Kully around like rag dolls. The din was appalling as they alternately screamed and choked in the deadly fumes, while the structure rapidly started to collapse around them.

When the module finally came to rest, the two prisoners felt blindly about in the poisonous darkness, their ears numbed by the prodigious reverberations of the battered hull.

Eventually they found each other. 'Maybe you'll believe in my robots now...' Kully gasped, clasping Zoe round the waist with one arm and feeling with his free hand for the airlock controls.

'What about the capsule thing?' Zoe panted through her handkerchief.

'Can't navigate... even if it still works... we'd end up back in the Capitol,' spluttered Kully, jiggling the switches in vain.

'Better than being cooked in here.'

Desperately Kully levered with his fingernails around the tightly sealed edge of the airlock, but it was impossible to budge it.

Zoe sank to her knees, her lungs burning. 'I...I just can't breathe...' she croaked piteously, doubled in agony.

A few seconds later, Kully collapsed against the airlock panel.

Outside, standing hunched on the dunes like a huge rearing turtle, Toba ordered the circle of Quarks to recharge their probes. A tremor of pleasure ran through his ma.s.sive frame as the robots bleated and sparked in unison around the scorched hulk of the module.

'And now omplete destruction!' he commanded, in a frenzy of hatred and power.

'Negative. Command negated!' Rago thundered, striding up behind his unwitting Probationer.

The Quarks clattered and buzzed in confusion and then fell silent.

Toba swung violently round. 'Intention was to prevent escape of any specimens,' he bl.u.s.tered feebly.

'Your obsession with destruction has seriously depleted Quark power reserves,' hissed Rag.. 'Did you examine the craft?'

'All data has been recorded,' Toba claimed. 'The craft was empty.'

Rago stared briefly at the blistered wreck. 'Bring any further specimens to me intact at once,' he ordered. 'And Toba I do not expect to have to correct you again.'

The Probationer glared at his superior from beneath lowered eyelids. 'Command accepted,' he whispered hoa.r.s.ely.

Rago nodded curtly and strode away.

Toba had just started organising the squad of robots to continue the search of the Island when he suddenly noticed that the outer airlock door had opened in the hull of the module, releasing a huge pall of acrid black smoke.

Then, to his astonishment, two dazed figures crawled slowly out and lay panting feverishly in the sand.

When at last they managed to raise their heads, Zoe and Kully found themselves staring at a semicircle of Quarks with Toba's towering frame in the centre relentlessly bearing down on them. With a gigantic effort Kully turned to Zoe. ' Now Now perhaps you will believe me...' he whispered. perhaps you will believe me...' he whispered.

Bovem met the Doctor and Jamie at the capsule terminal in the Capitol. As he hurried them along endless gleaming corridors to the Council Chamber, they tried to find out what had happened to Zoe but without success.

Bovem seemed very evasive.

'Director Senex will explain, should he consider it fitting,' Bovem told them soothingly as he ushered them into the Antechamber. 'I shall announce your arrival.'

As they waited for what seemed like ages to be admitted, Jamie paced restlessly up and down. 'Where d'ye think the wee la.s.sie can be, Doctor?' he asked anxiously. 'D'ye think they're holding her hostage or something?'

The Doctor roused himself from his reverie. 'Oh I'm sure the Dulcians wouldn't harm her, Jamie.'

The tough young Scot gritted his teeth. 'They'd better not!' he muttered grimly.

Eventually they were summoned. They found themselves standing in the Council Chamber surrounded by a dozen elderly dignitaries. The Doctor looked impatient and uncomfortable under the steady gaze of Director Senex and made a feeble attempt to smooth his dusty, rumpled clothes and hair. Jamie simply stared around him with barely disguised contempt.

At last Senex spoke. 'As far as the Council is aware, your friend has left the Capitol in the company of my son Kelly,' he blandly informed them. 'Presumably they returned to the Island.'

'Why did ye no tell us before?' Jamie shouted indignantly. 'Come on, Doctor...' Jamie looked for a doorway in vain.

'That would not be advisable,' Senex warned quietly.

Jamie's blue eyes blazed defiantly. 'Ye mean we're prisoners?'

A murmur of protest ran round the n.o.ble a.s.sembly.

'There are no prisoners here,' Senex replied calmly.

The Doctor quickly intervened. 'There's no need, Jamie,' he explained tactfully. 'Dulcian society is totally pacifist.'

Jamie grimaced. 'Then how are they going to fight those Dominators and their Quarks?' he demanded.

The Director sat upright in his luxurious chair. 'It would seem to be true that you come from another planet,'

he announced.

'So do the Dominators,' said the Doctor earnestly. 'We have seen them. We were taken inside their craft. They are utterly callous and they are here on Dulkis for some sinister purpose.'

The Councillors began stirring uneasily in their reclining seats. Senex called for order and was instantly obeyed. He turned and courteously addressed the Doctor.

'We should be grateful if you would inform us what has occured on the Island,' he declared.

'Och not again,' Jamie exploded. 'We're hanging aboot blethering and Zoe's in danger...'

With phenomenal patience the Doctor briefly recounted events since the TARDIS had materialised on the Island.

'... and once the physiological tests were completed...

well, they let us go,' he concluded at last Senex appeared to be convinced. 'Did you discover the purpose of these tests, Doctor?' he asked.

'To see if we were clever enough to be useful,' Jamie spelt out with painstaking rudeness.

'Evidently you were!' Deputy Bosem retorted.

Before the quick-tempered Highlander could bite the bait, the Doctor again intervened. 'With respect, Director Senex, I know that it is the Dulcian custom to deliberate and discuss at leisure, but the situation is urgent. Send someone to the Island to confirm our story,' he pleaded.

'Aye, and we'll be organising a way to defeat these Dominators,' Jamie added with relish.

The Director raised his hands, palms upward. 'The Dominators let you go free, so why should we fear them?'

he demanded simply.

The Doctor adopted a menacing air. 'Don't expect them to think and act as you do,' he murmured, leaning very close to Senex. 'They are aliens. From another world.'

Senex smiled. 'So are you, Doctor.'

Disconcerted, the Doctor blinked and retreated a little.

Senex inclined his head kindly, as though he were talking to a small child. 'What could such aliens possibly want from Dulkis?'

The Doctor frowned. 'Well, they talked about refuelling their fleet...'

The Director laughed: 'We have no suitable minerals here. The aliens are welcome to whatever they can use,' he said, to murmurs of agreement from the Councillors.

TheDoctor shook his head thoughtfully. 'There is the puzzle about the disappearance of radiation from the Island,' he mused. 'Perhaps that is what they came for...'

Senex shrugged. 'That is no cause for alarm, Doctor.

Why seek menace where there may be none?'

The Doctor bit his lip for a moment, restraining his growing frustration. 'I am only guessing,' he went on. 'And there is the possibility that they are slavers recruiting for some vast project.'

'You can't just sit here and do nothing!' Jamie shouted.

'Better do nothing than do the wrong thing,' remarked an aged member in a wavering croak.

Senex held up his hand. 'What do you suggest we do?'

he asked the irate young Scot.

'First send an armed force to rescue Zoe and Kully...'

Jamie began eagerly.

'An armed armed force?' Bovem echoed in astonishment. force?' Bovem echoed in astonishment.

'Impossible.'

Outraged voices broke out all around the Chamber.

'For decades we have lived in peace,' Senex calmly replied. 'We have proved that universal restraint eliminates aggression.'

'Och, just try telling the Dominators that!' retorted Jamie scornfully.

The Doctor stirred himself into action. 'Jamie's right. I suggest you contact Balan on the Island at least he might have some more news by now,' he proposed earnestly.

After a pause, Senex touched a b.u.t.ton on his video panel. Amidst a snowstorm of interference, the interior of the survey module flickered unsteadily onto the miniature screen. There was a gasp of horror as the Councillors stared at their was individual monitors. The images showed a total ruin, a blackened pile of wreckage.

Senex panned the scanner calling agitatedly for Balan over the audio link. There was no reply, only a rush of static. The remains of the module seemed deserted.

Sadly the Doctor hung his head. 'I'm afraid it's too late.

I did try to warn you.'

'What... what is that?' Bovem suddenly cried, pointing at his monitor.

Through the open airlock, a squat mechanical figure was entering the module, its antennae flashing and its probes twitching eagerly.