Doctor Who: Space War by Malcolm Hulke Read Free Book Online Page A

sometimes vehicles flashed by in the opposite direction, huge buses packed with people, but there were no small individually driven cars, as Jo was used to in her time in history. Most of the buildings were identical in design and colour, and so tall it was impossible to see the sky from the Security coach.
    The driver turned into a narrow street that ended in high gates, which slid open as it approached. The coach went through, the gates shut behind it, then stopped in a square, concrete courtyard.
    One of the guards positioned himself by the coach door. ‘Out! ‘ she shouted. The Doctor and Jo shuffled forward, down the step on to the concrete. ‘Forward march!’
    Flanked by guards, the Doctor and Jo marched towards a plain metal door set in the windowless wall. They passed through into a wide, low-ceiling corridor, and the door slid shut behind them. At the end of the corridor was another metal door. Inside a black-uniformed man sat at a desk.
    ‘What punishment?’ he asked as the party entered.
    Captain Gardiner stepped forward. ‘These people haven’t been convicted. General Williams just wanted you to hold them,’ he paused, ‘and to interrogate them.’
    The man behind the desk gave the shadow of a grin. ‘With pleasure. Who are you?’
    Gardiner produced his credentials, a plastic card carrying his photograph and identity number.
    ‘That’s in order, Captain Gardiner.’ "The Security officer handed back the plastic card. ‘Right, first we starve them a little, then we interrogate. Take them to cell 302.’
    ‘About turn! ‘ shouted one of the guards.
    The Doctor and Jo were marched out, back down the corridor, through another metal sliding door, to a row of cell doors. A guard kicked the Doctor in the back as he entered the cell. The door slid shut.
    Jo looked round the cell. It had two concrete bunks, nothing else. ‘There’s no place like home.’
    ‘It could be worse, Jo.’
    ‘It could be my own bedroom with dean white sheets and a stereo in the corner and colour television and a hot bath, if your rotten TARDIS didn’t keep going off course! ‘
    To her surprise the door opened. Captain Gardiner entered and looked round the sparse cell. ‘I didn’t think it would be as bad as this.’
    Jo said, ‘Come to taunt?’
    ‘Not exactly.’ The Captain lowered his voice. Guards stood outside the open door. ‘I didn’t like this business about starving you. When did you last eat?’
    ‘A thousand years ago,’ said Jo.
    ‘My young friend means we haven’t eaten for some time,’ the Doctor quickly put in. ‘But there’s something more important than that. I’ve got to get a message to your President.’
    The Captain shook his head. ‘Not a chance.’
    Jo walked up to him. ‘Why don’t you listen to reason for a change? Hasn’t it occurred to you that we may be telling the truth?’
    Gardiner looked uneasy. ‘I don’t want to get mixed up with Security. It isn’t healthy. But I might get them to feed you.’
    The Doctor grinned. ‘That’s jolly decent of you, old chap.’
    ‘I’ll do what I can.’ Captain Gardiner backed to the door. ‘But let me give you some good advice. You’re going to tell them everything sooner or later. They’ll use the mind probe, I think they always do when treachery is suspected. So make it easy for yourselves, tell them everything before they set to work. Meantime I’ll try and get you some food.’ He went back through the door and a guard closed it.
    Jo turned to the Doctor. ‘I didn’t like the sound of that. What did he mean—mind probe?’
    The atmosphere in the President’s office was tense. Standing before her was the Draconian Ambassador. To one side stood the space pilots Hardy and Stewart, dressed now in smart grey uniform tunics, to the other side General Williams. The President could feel the hatred emanating from the two pilots towards the Ambassador.
    ‘You’re quite sure it was a Draconian battle cruiser?’ she asked Hardy,