FOUR
"This is quite an impressive lash up," the Doctor remarked as he looked into the life support unit. There was an enormous tangle of cable cascading down from the open wall panels, some of which were dangling free while others were connected into several pieces of mismatched equipment.
"We did what we could when the main systems failed," Aurora told him. "Most of this came from those ships you saw. We were lucky Ramsay was here or we never would've survived this long."
The Doctor nodded approvingly. "I see. And now that your power station's going bad, you'll be losing what little life support you have."
"No, we won't" came a deep voice from behind them.
The Doctor turned to see a large, dark man wearing a space suit looming in the doorway. "Ah! An optimist at last," he chirped brightly.
Ramsay gave him a disapproving look before addressing his Commander. "I've just finished tying the life support systems into the power station from the starliner SILENT TRADER."
Aurora was puzzled. "But I thought…"
"Oh, she'll never fly again, but her solar generator still works well enough to keep this lot going."
"Look at the bright side, Aurora," the Doctor said cheerily. "Now you won't freeze to death when the lights go out."
"You must be the one Eric told me about," Ramsay observed dryly.
"Ramsay, this is the Doctor," Aurora informed quickly. "He says he can help us."
"The only way you can help us is to get us off this decaying hunk of junk," Ramsay snorted. A thought struck him and he scowled over at the Doctor. "Hang on a minute, how did you get onboard, anyway? I was just outside and there're no new ships out there. I know I'd've noticed that."
"My ship isn't moored among your derelicts, Mr. Ramsay," the Time Lord stated matter of factly, "she's inside one of them. And, at the moment, I'm afraid I don't recall which one."
"Inside?"
"Yes," the Doctor grinned unabashedly.
Before the Engineer could inquire further, the Commander was leading the way to the power station. "I'm sure we'll be able to locate it for you, Doctor," she was saying as they moved through the dimly lit passageway.
"That's very kind of you Aurora. You can't miss it. It's a sort of large blue box with a light on top."
Aurora wasn't listening. "If we can get full power restored, even for only half an hour, we'll be able to transmat down to the surface."
The Doctor stopped dead. "Transmat. You have a transmat?" The woman beside him nodded slowly, making him suspicious. "It does work, doesn't it?" he then asked.
Ramsay shook his head. "No, I took it off-line to conserve power. It'll probably need—"
"Then I suggest you go and see to it, Ramsay," Aurora cut in sharply. "We'll need everything ready to go should the Doctor succeed in giving us full power."
Ramsay shot the Doctor a dubious look. "Good luck," he said before setting off down the corridor.
"Commander, I think you may be overestimating my abilities," the Time Lord said darkly. "I haven't even seen—"
"I know, Doctor," she replied quickly. "I just…I had to get rid of him somehow. The last thing we need is to have Ramsay breathing down our necks. He's such a fuss-budget when it comes to the station's systems. And with the range we'll be covering, the transmat will need to be in perfect working order if it's going to handle maximum power."
They arrived at the power station and the Doctor looked inside. "The question is, can your power station handle maximum power?" he asked pointedly. Aurora gave him a dubious look, an expression of abject hopelessness coming to her pale eyes. The Doctor could see there was more to all this than she'd told him and said firmly, "Aurora, I think you should tell me just how badly damaged this station is."
Jason felt as if he'd been wandering forever in his search for the Doctor. Not that he knew what he was going to do once he found him. He happened upon the Command Center and went in, discovering for himself the full extent of the damage and the crew's desperate situation. Most of the control stations were inoperative and those that were operating seemed to be doing so on half-power. A buzzer sounded and then a voice called, "Eric?" Jason turned to see the vaguely famil iar face of Aurora on the view screen.
"Eric's not back yet, Aurora," a haggard young woman replied wearily.
"That's alright, Shawna, you'll do," the Commander said gently. "I'm down in the power station. The Doctor's going to see if he can restore full power so we can get the transmat working again."
The mention of the Time Lord's name immediately grabbed Jason's attention. Shawna, on the other hand, was more interested in Aurora's statement. "Restore full power? Can he really do that?"
"We're not sure yet, he's still working on it. I just wanted you to know in case—" Aurora broke off when the Doctor said something. She disappeared from the screen and the Doctor ap peared, carefully explaining to Shawna exactly what he needed her to do for him.
By this time the invisible Jason wasn't listening to either of them. He was on his way out of the Command Center and heading, he hoped, for the power station.
Before leaving the Doctor to his work, Aurora gave him a radiation suit that she insisted he wear at all times while in the power station's control room. Radiation leaks were becoming increasingly more common and the last thing she wanted was to be responsible for another death due to her own negligence.
Jason had walked so long he was convinced he was completely lost when he suddenly came upon an area he recognized, this being the entrance to the accessway to the docks where the derelict ships were moored. He looked out the same large observation port the Doctor had happened upon and studied the numerous, unfamiliar shapes. Among them he saw a very familiar shape as a space suited human came out a hatch in one of the docking arms. He moved hand over hand along the metal framework until he reached his objective, stopping for what was apparently a simple operation. Within a few minutes, he was returning to the hatch.
"Now what was that all about?" Jason muttered, squinting against the glare streaming through the window. He struggled for several minutes to make out what the person had done, but this proved impossible. Finally he could resist no longer and was about to go back to the main airlock when the reason for the space walk became plainly visible. A section of the docking arm promptly blew up.
The explosion shook the already badly damaged station, sending debris in all directions, a great deal of which slammed into the dangerously weakened hull. The power station was the nearest thing to the docking arm and the stabilizers on that side of the station momentarily failed, causing it to pitch sideways.
The Doctor was thrown across the reactor control room and into the far wall, the force of the impact leaving him stunned.
On the Command deck, Aurora and the others were thrown to the floor, many of the remaining systems shorting out at the same time. Within minutes, the crew was assessing the damage, which turned out to be considerable.
Jason was still staring out the observation port, he being the only one unaffected by the pitching and swaying of the structure. He looked around, wondering if the saboteur were still in the area and went to investigate, finding two men struggling into space suits just outside the main airlock.
"I'm not going out there during a meteor shower with no shields, Ramsay," Eric was protesting as the other man fastened him in. "I've seen what just one of those things can do to solid metal. You and I don't stand a chance."
"That was no meteor, you idiot," the Engineer replied forcefully. "That was an explosion if ever I felt one. One of those wrecks out there just blew itself to pieces. And if we don't take care of them now, one of others might go, too. Only this time it'll take all of us with it. Now, come on!" Ramsay punctuated his comment by jamming the young man's helmet on and locking it into place. He then dragged him and an odd looking piece of equipment into the airlock.
The bewildered Jason returned to the observation port and watched as the men moved slowly into space. Then, to his horror, he watched helplessly as they began cutting the tethers on the moored ships, setting them adrift in space.
"No!" the Alterran screamed in a voice no one could hear. "The TARDIS is in one of those!"
