messed up, thought the Doctor glumly.
39
‘We trusted you, Doctor,’ Tiermann thundered. He was wearing a very glitzy golden dressing gown. ‘We took you into our home and, though we knew you were quite disapproving of the way we lived, we made you our guest. And you repay us like this! By sabotaging our defensive force shields!’
Amanda Tiermann sat carefully down on an armchair, looking very sorrowful indeed. She looked as if the Doctor had been caught com-mitting the worst crime imaginable. Her son sat by her, looking similarly woebegone.
‘Rubbish,’ the Doctor protested. ‘I wasn’t sabotaging anything!’
Stirpeek spoke up, ‘He was jabbing that sonic device into the force-shield mechanism, sir. I believe that he was trying to break through to outside.’
The Doctor shot the robot a venomous glance. ‘Well, that’s quite true. But I was just trying to get out so I could get to my ship. . . We left it out there. I wasn’t trying to damage your shields. . . ’
‘Sir,’ Stirpeek piped up again. ‘Sensors indicate widespread damage and fluctuating effectiveness of the shields across eighty-four per cent of the dome.’
‘What?’ cried Tiermann. Amanda jerked in her chair, her face stricken with fear. ‘We are almost defenceless!’ her husband bellowed.
He marched up to the Doctor and glared down into his face.
Martha darted forward. ‘The Doctor would never have done anything like that on purpose. Believe me! That’s not what he’s like. . . ’
‘How do we know?’ cried Tiermann. ‘He comes here, we welcome him. He tampers with our defences. . . ’
The Doctor broke in, enunciating very carefully: ‘I didn’t do any harm to the force shields. The fluctuations and the damage are caused by the approach of the Voracious Craw. Electronics often go haywire as the Craw comes nearer. It is a well-recorded fact. That’s what’s happening here.’
They all stared at him. ‘Funny,’ Tiermann said, in a quieter, infinitely more threatening voice. ‘How all of this. . . disaster arrives alongside you, Doctor.’
‘Hilarious, isn’t it?’ said the Doctor grimly.
40
Martha tried again: ‘He means no harm. Neither of us do. We just came here to help. . . ’
Amanda Tiermann spoke then, startling them all. ‘But, my dear, he was sneaking out in the night, back to his ship. He was quite content to leave you behind here. What about that?’
Martha frowned in confusion. ‘But, he wouldn’t! That’s not what he was doing!’
‘I was bringing the TARDIS here, under the shields,’ the Doctor said.
‘Or at least I would have, given half a chance. These robots of yours are very annoying, Tiermann.’
‘Take him,’ Tiermann instructed, making a lofty gesture.
The
ramshackle collection of robots surrounded the Doctor once more.
They would have been laughable in their incongruity, if the Doctor hadn’t also been aware of how incredibly strong they were. He felt himself grasped and pinioned by Stirpeek, the canapé robot and the spindly robot responsible for making sure all the high windows were closed at night. The Doctor wasn’t able to budge an inch as the Servo-furnishings waited to hear what Tiermann was going to say next.
‘We need to put him out of the way,’ Tiermann said thoughtfully.
‘Until it is time for us to leave. The Doctor has proved himself to be a meddler. And we cannot allow him to interfere with our escape.’
‘But he wouldn’t!’ Martha cried out.
‘Ssh, Martha,’ Solin said, stepping up to gently take her arm. He knew that there was no use arguing with his father in this mood. Tiermann had become imperious and hectoring. He was used to getting his own way.
The Doctor had stopped trying to escape from the robots’ many arms. He simply stood there looking cross – with himself, more than anything.
‘Put him down in the cellars, deep under Dreamhome,’ Tiermann said at last.
Martha could have sworn she saw the robots shiver at these