Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive by David Fisher Read Free Book Online Page A

tone, Pangol glanced up from the computer console and stared in horror at the one-armed, one-legged, lifeless figure of Loman floating above the generator.
    'Get him out of there!' shouted the Doctor. 'Hurry, for Heaven's sake! Open up this thing!'
    Pangol fumbled with the catch, then slid aside the doors of the generator. The Doctor entered.
    'Who is that man?' Pangol asked Romana.
    'The Doctor.'
    'Is he a scientist?'
    Romana nodded. Experience had taught her to keep explanation down to a minimum. In any case, how did you explain the Doctor? Even his fellow Time Lords preferred to keep him at arm's length.
    He must be the scientist Mena decided to import from Terra,' said Pangol. 'That would by why he was asking all those questions about tachyonics.'
    Fortunately Romana was required neither to confirm nor deny the charge, for just then the Doctor emerged from the generator. He was looking rather shaken.
    'How is he?' demanded Pangol.
    'Dead.'
    'Dead? But that's impossible.'
    'Not if you've just had an arm and a leg torn off,' snapped the Doctor, who was in no mood to suffer fools gladly.
    Pangol stared at him aghast. 'You mean, what we saw on the bubble screen really happened? It's impossible.'
    'That's the second time you've said it,' observed the Doctor. 'Go and see for yourself.'
    'But you don't understand, the only way it could happen would be if the generator had been repolarized. And that would mean the reversal of the whole image function.'
    'Tell that to the poor devil in there,' said the Doctor tartly. 'I'm sure he'll be impressed.'
    With Romana at his heels the Doctor began to elbow his way through the excited mob. Meanwhile, using his communicator, Pangol ordered immediate medical facilities, then he spoke to Security at some length.
    The Doctor and Romana had found a quiet corner. They were hidden from the mob's view by one of the crystal statues of Argolin heroes which dotted the Great Recreation Hall. They were waiting for the hubbub to die down.
    'I don't know about you,' remarked the Doctor, 'but I've had enough of Argolis. Let's try and work our way back to the TARDIS and get out of here.' He peered through the crystal pelvis of the statue. 'I don't think anyone has noticed us yet.'
    'Wrong,' said Romana.
    'Eh?'
    Romana nudged him. The Doctor turned round to face three large Argolin Security guides, who were looking down on him with a distinct lack of cheer.
    'Madam Chairman,' said the smallest guide, 'wishes to see you, sir.'
    'Now, sir,' said the other two.
    At that moment Mena was in the boardroom showing Vargos, Dorant and Brock a holographic recording of the experiments which Hardin had done on Terra. They were watching Hardin and his assistant, Stimson, helping an elderly lady into a chair in their laboratory, which was placed in the midst of a set of tachyon projectors, all wired to small individual generators.
    The phantom Hardin in the holograph turned and spoke directly to his audience. 'In this experiment,' he explained, 'I propose to demonstrate the temporal anomaly inherent in the tachyon.'
    Brock, however, was not impressed. 'Is that what Morix sent you all the way to Terra for?' he demanded. 'What a waste of money!
    Unperturbed, the holographic Hardin continued his lecture, while his assistant checked the apparatus: 'As you all know, the tachyon travels faster than the speed of light, thus creating in its path, in whichever direction it may travel, a temporal anomaly. In other words, the structure of Time itself changes as a tachyon passes.
    'The theory behind my work, therefore, is simple. By controlling the emission and direction of tachyon particles within a confined space-for example, within the area bounded by these tachyon projectors—' he indicated the projectors '—we should be able to affect the flow of Time itself within that area.'
    The holographic Hardin nodded to his assistant who switched on the generators. Soon the projector tubes began to glow with a strange