"They"re dead," Shel informed him flatly, and held out a palm-sized gadget. "Would you like to check the displays?"
Shade shrugged. "You"re science officer."
"It"s more likely the corpse simply disintegrated when the systems started up," stated Shel. "Some resonance in the vibration may have interfered with the stasis field in some way."
Haunt nodded, perked up a bit. "Yes. That would make sense."
It didn"t to Ben, but he supposed they should be grateful for any explanation, no matter how incomprehensible it sounded.
"Maybe the force field"s there to keep the bodies safe."
Before Ben could be shot down in flames like Shade he quickly carried on: "You know; they can"t bury them, so they keep them up here."
"So where"s this piece of rock going to?" Haunt fixed him with a dark stare. "Some deep s.p.a.ce cemetery?"
"Maybe," Ben said. "We don"t know nothing, do we?"
"Double negative," Shel muttered, staring at the empty s.p.a.ce between the corpses at the end of the line. "That would suggest we know everything."
Haunt looked at him, thoughtfully.
II.
"Look at Shadow over there." Lindey"s voice was soft, conspiratorial in Polly"s ear.
"Shadow?"
"Yeah." Lindey plucked her switched-off headband from her buzz of red hair, and tucked it into her belt. Then she spat in her palm and slicked back her tufty fringe. "Adam Shade the Shadow. Just look at him."
Polly chose not to look in the direction of the bodies. "I don"t think it"s nice to call him names just because of his accident."
"Accident?" At first, Lindey acted like she didn"t know what Polly was talking about. Then she nodded knowingly. "Oh, sure. He didn"t waste much time going for the sympathy vote, did he? But we don"t just call him names because of his accident. Go on, look at him. Haunt"s little shadow." Go on, look at him. Haunt"s little shadow."
"You"re soldiers," Polly said primly. "Aren"t you meant to follow the person in charge?"
"Follow her orders, sure. Not follow her round like a lost lamb. He probably thinks that if he acts like a good little boy, it"ll never happen again. But just look at his face." Lindey smiled, showing a line of neat pointed teeth. "The one thing he can never be is whiter than white."
"All right," Haunt called out to her troops. "I"ll accept a corpse can maybe reduce itself to dust, but not one of my own squad. We need to find Denni."
"Or what"s left of her," Lindey muttered.
"And while we"re searching we can gauge how big a fragment has separated from the main ma.s.s of this rock. But first, we need to know if the ship is still accessible."
"I"m afraid your ship will be quite out of reach by now," said the Doctor.
"And just how would you know?" growled Roba.
"Surely, my boy, you don"t imagine this whole area has detached itself for no reason? That you stumbled upon these dead criminals by chance?" He turned to Haunt and Shel.
"When was this place constructed?"
"We don"t have access to that kind of information," Haunt said impatiently.
"Very well then, by what process was this asteroid chosen for your training exercises?" All the Doctor needed was a barrister"s wig, Polly decided.
"I made available to Pentagon Central the experiential records of each soldier in the squad," said Shel. "Their computers then ascertained what further training
experiences were needed to take the AT squad into elite cla.s.s, and selected a suitable location."
"c.r.a.phole computers," Roba snorted.
The Doctor shook his head. "The computer, sir, is only equipped to take decisions according to the caprices of its programmers." He surveyed his audience haughtily. "You were expected here. All this is an elaborate trap that has closed around you."
"Around us us, you mean," said Ben with feeling.
"Yes, quite so." At once the Doctor"s smugness vanished, and he looked suddenly distant. "I hardly think a means of escape will be left to us."
"While I"m sure you know everything everything, Doctor," Haunt said dourly, "I think we"ll check for ourselves." She turned to her soldiers. "Shade, Lindey, go back to the ship, check it out.
Roba, Frog, get out there and guard that doorway. Anything coming our way, I want to know about it."
Silently, they obeyed.
"And remember," Haunt called after them. "There could be one, maybe two droids still out there in our share of this rock. Watch yourselves." She turned to Polly. "You claim you left this room by another exit."
"I don"t claim claim anything." Polly crossed to stand by Ben"s side. anything." Polly crossed to stand by Ben"s side.
"It"s true."
"Creben. Joiks. Find another door." Haunt gestured broadly around her with her rifle. She waved it around so naturally, like the thing was a part of her.
Creben moved smartly away and Joiks slouched off to investigate in the other direction, his heavy-set face troubled.
"Tovel," Haunt went on. "You"re the pilot. Can this really be a kind of ship?"
"Sure it can," Tovel replied.
Ben looked confused. "But how can it steer or whatever, if it"s just a dirty great rock?"
The Doctor ignored him and turned to Tovel. "Young man, would you agree that technology of this sort would need some kind of primed navigational matrix in order to move through s.p.a.ce?"
Tovel raised his eyebrows. "Yeah. It"s Schirr technology.
They load up crystals with cartographic info, all pre-programmed, and burnt into the systems at launch. But the crystals are gone. We"ve no way of knowing where we"re headed."
"We"re on the edge of Morphiean s.p.a.ce," Haunt said. "Any infringement on their territory could be construed as open warfare."
"Who are these Morphieans?" asked Polly.
Tovel looked at her. "So we can take it you had no relatives on Beijing Minor, then."
"We, er, have been out of circulation, you could say," the Doctor told him with an apologetic smile.
"Refugees," Haunt reminded Tovel.
"In a few years we could all be."
Polly didn"t understand what Tovel meant, but found herself shivering anyway.
"The Morphieans are the geezers with the magic, the Spooks," Ben piped up. "That bunch on the dais are called Schirr, and they"ve been ripping off the Morphieans" secrets, see Pol? The Morphieans want them back. And since the Schirr are part of Earth"s empire now, the Morphieans are having a pop at us us for not putting the lid on for not putting the lid on them them"
The Doctor gave Ben a withering look. "Succinctly put."
Polly was grateful for Ben"s summary, but still confused.
"How did the Schirr get these secrets in the first place?"
"We learned from the pacified Schirr that centuries ago, the quadrant was active in this sector; before their isolationist stance," Tovel told her. "Certain Schirr elements still practised the Morphiean black arts, and none better than DeCaster.
He"s become a hero, a G.o.d to these primitives."
Shel spoke up. "Over the last ten years he has used Morphiean rituals to commit the most devastating terrorist acts against Empire."
"Whole worlds," said Haunt, "just gone up in flames."
Polly thought she got it. "And once the Morphieans realised what was happening, they started reprisals with worse magic?"
"Much worse," said Tovel.
Polly"s voice rose a little in panic. "And we could be heading straight for them! We can"t tell!"
"How can these crystals have gone? We"ve only just set off."
Ben suddenly clicked his fingers. "Ere, maybe the stiff did the business while we were all out of the room - then then he dissolved." He swung round to face the dais, half-expecting the missing figure to have suddenly sneaked back in. he dissolved." He swung round to face the dais, half-expecting the missing figure to have suddenly sneaked back in.
"Not likely, is it," said Tovel.
"In any case, the countdown started ages ago," Polly said.
"According to you," Haunt pointed out.
"It"s true, we told you," said Ben hotly, his fingers feeling for Polly"s hand. "She just disappeared somewhere!"
Haunt sneered. "Just like you appeared out of thin air."
"You can see our craft for yourself, madam," the Doctor said impatiently, gesturing to the TARDIS.
"Where were you standing," asked Haunt, "when you disappeared?"
"It was dark, I"m not sure." Polly frowned. "Over by the bodies there, somewhere near the TARDIS. I was trying to get away from them."
"Marshal, these two were were here when we arrived," Shel said, his voice flat and emotionless as he looked at the Doctor and Ben. "It"s possible they could have set our destination and then hidden the navigational crystals." here when we arrived," Shel said, his voice flat and emotionless as he looked at the Doctor and Ben. "It"s possible they could have set our destination and then hidden the navigational crystals."
"Oh, come off it," Ben protested.
"The systems were dead until you entered," the Doctor agreed tetchily. "The area was pressurised, as you well know."
"But we don"t don"t know how long you were here before us," Tovel said, without, Ben was pleased to see, a good deal of conviction. know how long you were here before us," Tovel said, without, Ben was pleased to see, a good deal of conviction.
"We"re wasting time!" the Doctor said. "Even without the crystals I"m sure I can decipher the residual coding in the navigational circuits."
"You can?" Tovel looked surprised. "Care to show me how?"
"Wait," Haunt ordered. "Scan them, Shel."
Shel waved some weird-looking device over the Doctor.
Then he stuck it in Ben"s face. Ben felt dizzy for a few moments.
Shel opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out.
He looked a bit dizzy himself. Maybe it was catching, thought Ben.
"Cl... Clear, Marshal. No power source detected."
Haunt frowned at Shel. "You all right?"
"I"ll check the girl." He moved over to Polly as if nothing had happened. But by the uneasy look between Haunt and Tovel, clearly something significant had.