Doctor Who: Ultimate Treasure by Christopher Bulis Read Free Book Online Page B

anger that fuelled his courage died. No time to talk it over with Gribbs and Drorgon. In any case they'd never have the guts. But he had. He'd show them all just what Crelly Qwaid could do.
    He took a toolkit from the service locker and went out into the corridor, feeling numb and oddly detached from his actions. He unlatched an inspection panel, exposing a service conduit, and calmly traced cables from the main airlock and Alpha's cabin door. A few snips with the cutters, two cross connections and it was done.
    Qwaid returned to the control room, quietly closed its airtight hatch, went over to the engineer's station, and strapped himself into the chair. He opened a cover plate on the panel and pulled out a circuit board, disengaging the secondary safety system.
    Then, with a deep breath, he released the cover guard on a sliding toggle and pulled it down to the bottom of its slot.
    With a feeling as though the floor had dropped from under his feet, the Falcon 's paragravity faded away.
    He swallowed hard to keep his stomach under control, and resolutely started punching buttons. Safety doors slid closed, isolating the main corridor and the sleeping compartments.
    Alarms sounded and distant thumps came from the crewroom as Gribbs and Drorgon pounded on the hatch. The control-room intercom monitor came to life, showing the image of Alpha floating in his cabin like some misshapen balloon, his face enlarged as he pulled himself towards the console pickup.
    'Qwaid!' he bellowed. 'What's happening? Qwaid!'
    Qwaid kept his eyes firmly fixed on the controls and hit the last button.
    With a faint whirr both doors of the main airlock opened simultaneously, followed immediately by the hiss and roar of escaping air. The whole ship trembled and the port in the control-room door suddenly clouded with mist. The door of Alpha's stateroom, which normally should have sealed itself at the first sign of pressure loss, slid open smoothly.
    Only then, when the irrevocable step had been taken, did Qwaid dare look directly at the monitor.
    Alpha's bloated features filled the screen. Frighteningly, even at the last he showed no fear, only overpowering rage, his eyes as baleful as ever. His lips moved, and there came faintly to Qwaid over the roar of escaping air, 'You'll regret this...'
    Then he was jerked backward as though by an invisible hand, rebounded from the door frame and spun out into the main corridor. The distorted starscape of hyperspace blazed beyond the gaping airlock. With the last gust of escaping air Alpha tumbled through it and into eternity.
     

CHAPTER 5
CELEBRATIONS
    The transdimensional portal that opened into the space-time vortex flew towards the nebula, which still glowed hotly after its ejection from the stellar furnace that gave it birth. A heterogeneous elemental plasma flowed through the portal and into the black marble chamber, held in check by the mental fields of Shalvis and the others of the Seventh Circle. Then the portal was allowed to collapse until it was a microscopic point of warped space at the core of the softly glowing amorphous form that pulsated before them.
    The lights came on, and the Seers sank their heads in exhausted relief.
    'We have done well,' Shalvis said softly. 'It is stabilised for as long as we require. Now we can only wait.'
    Arnella Rosscarrino sprawled on the narrow bunk in her cabin on the Newton . Resting before her was a portable reader screen displaying a copy of the text contained within the data capsule her uncle and Thorrin had bought on Astroville. She ran it through for what must have been the twentieth time, though she practically knew it word for word now. It held a terrible fascination, yet she also thought she hated it. In the fruitless quest for a document such as this, her father had dissipated the family fortune and broken his heart.
    Her uncle, now the only other surviving member of her family, had been infected with the same passion. Since he had become her guardian she had