Read Online Doctor Who: Terminus by John Lydecker - Free Book Online

in some piping, or a neon glow escaping from behind some badly fitted safety cover.
    It seemed to take forever. In amongst the Lazars was the occasional drone, supporting one who couldn’t walk or leading one who couldn’t see. The weight of the robots made the flooring bend and creak, and Tegan and Turlough couldn’t help shrinking back slightly whenever one of them went over.
    But eventually, it was over. The last of them disappeared, and there was silence. Even so, the two of them waited for a while, listening to the quiet in order to be sure. They heard a couple of clangs and bumps, but they were a long way off.
    ‘Time to get out of here,’ Tegan said and Turlough, having no reason to disagree, straightened up as much as he was able and put his shoulders against the grating to lift it.
    This part ought to be so much easier, Tegan was thinking, because they were on the side where leverage could now work in their favour. But Turlough strained and pushed, and nothing happened.
    ‘It’s stuck,’ he gasped finally.
    ‘It can’t be,’ Tegan said, suppressing her panic. This was like something from the worst dream she could ever have. She added her own efforts and the two of them pushed together, and still the section wouldn’t move. They both fell back, breathless.
    ‘We’ll have to find another way out,’ Tegan said.
    Turlough looked at the shadows around them.
    ‘Where?’
    ‘We’ll have to look, won’t we?’
    They took a moment longer to recover, and then Tegan crawled around in an attempt to find them a way through. The cable trap went wherever the corridor went, so in theory they ought to be able to follow it and keep trying the floor panels until they found another that they could raise – assuming that they hadn’t all been stamped down as firmly as the one overhead. That was the theory, but the practice wasn’t so straightforward. Pipes and angles and intruding shafts blocked the way, and they were going to have to do a lot of wriggling and squeezing.
    As Tegan turned around, she nudged a piece of plating. It wasn’t even fixed in place, and as it fell loose a greenish light came spilling from behind it. Tegan scrambled back immediately.
    ‘It isn’t even decently shielded!’ she said. ‘This place is a deathtrap!’
    They stayed well away from the leakage, and managed to push some loose wiring aside to make a gap. The wire hadn’t been disturbed in so long that the dust lay like a carpet over it. They came through into an area where they could at least move more freely, but every section they tried to lift was as firm as the last. The channel got narrower and narrower, and it ended in a blank metal wall.
    ‘Oh, no,’ Tegan said.
    Turlough peered past her. ‘Is there any way through?’
    ‘Not a chance.’ She knocked twice on the metal. It was like the side of a tank.
    ‘Then we’ll have to go back.’
    Tegan wasn’t happy at the idea, but it seemed that they didn’t have any choice. She looked around into the darkness.
    ‘Wait a minute,’ she said, and stretched her hand out to the side. It met nothing.
    She pulled herself over for a look. What she’d taken to be a solid side-wall was actually the access to a vertical tunnel. Her head emerged into it and she could see that it was wide enough to take them. There were climbing-rungs all the way down, dusty but firm –
     
    as she found when she reached out and tested her weight on the nearest.
    Tegan looked over her shoulder. ‘We’re still in business!’ she said. Her voice echoed down the shaft. It almost seemed to be mocking her.
    ‘He isn’t here,’ Nyssa said.
    So much was obvious. The newly raised lighting levels showed an empty control room, from the panoramic window facing forward to the circuit racks at the back. Kari said, ‘I told you, we leave him.’
    The Doctor didn’t answer immediately. He went over to the window and looked out at the part of the Terminus that was visible from their restricted angle of