003 - Doctor Who and the Androids of Tara

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2024-12-14 0 0 376.88KB 109 页 5.9玖币

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On a peaceful rural planet, where the colourful pageantry

of old Ruritania mingles with ultra-modern Android

technology, the Doctor becomes a king-maker in spite of

himself.

In his search for another segment of the Key to Time, the

Doctor matches wits and swords with the evil Count

Grendel—aided, of course, by Romana and the invaluable

K9.

THE ANDROIDS OF TARA is a novel in the Key To Time

Sequence. Read THE RIBOS OPERATION and THE

STONES OF BLOOD available now.

ISBN 0 426 20108 6

DOCTOR WHO

AND THE

ANDROIDS OF TARA

Based on the BBC television serial by David Fisher by

arrangement with the British Broadcasting Corporation

TERRANCE DICKS

A TARGET BOOK

published by

The Paperback Division of

W. H. Allen & Co. Ltd

A Target Book

Published in 1980

by the Paperback Division of W. H. Allen & Co. Ltd.

A Howard & Wyndham Company

44 Hill Street, London W1X 8LB

Broadcasting Corporation

Reproduced, printed and bound in Great Britain by

Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading

ISBN 0 426 20108 6

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by

way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or

otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in

any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is

published and without a similar condition including this

condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

CONTENTS

1 The Doctor Goes Fishing

2 Count Grendel

3 The Double

4 The Princess

5 The Prisoner of Gracht

6 The Android King

7 Invitation to an Ambush

8 The Android Killer

9 Flag of Truce

10 Count Grendel plans a Wedding

11 Attack by Night

12 Victory

The Doctor Goes Fishing

The Doctor was playing chess with K9.

In the control room of the TARDIS the centre column

of the many-sided console rose and fell. Incredibly intricate

machinery whirred, clicked and hummed speeding, them

through the space time continuum towards their next

destination. That destination was now very close, though the

Doctor was too absorbed to realise it. He leaned forward,

made his move and started the chess clock.

K9 shook his head sadly. ‘Inadvisable, Master.’

‘What do you mean, inadvisable? I once saw Capablanca

win the world championship with that move...’

‘He lost.’

The Doctor stared indignantly down at the dog-like little

automaton. ‘Who lost?’

‘Capablanca.’

‘You’re sure?’

K9 was a mobile self-powered computer, and if there

was one thing upon which he prided himself it was the

accuracy of his data-banks. ‘I have been programmed with all

Earth Championship games since 1886. On the occasion to

which you refer, Capablanca lost.’

The Doctor sighed. ‘I must have missed the end of the

game. It’s your move, K9.’

‘King to Knight’s Two.’

‘King to Knight’s Two? That’s a terrible move, weakens

the King’s side. Are you sure K9?’

‘Affirmative.’

The Doctor made K9’s move for him, and studied the

board.

‘Clock, Master,’ reminded K9 reprovingly.

‘I know, I know,’ said the Doctor irritably, and started

the clock. Suddenly things seemed to have become

extraordinarily difficult, each possible move leading only to

disaster. ‘I think I’d better check your programming, K9,

you’re not supposed to be playing draughts,’ he grumbled.

A tall, elegantly beautiful young woman came into the

control room. Her name was Romana and she was a Time

Lady, the Doctor’s companion in recent adventures.

She looked disapprovingly at the scene before her.

‘Doctor, what are you playing?’

‘Playing chess, of course. Sssh, you’ll spoil my

concentration.’

‘Aren’t you forgetting something?’

The Doctor brooded over the chessboard. ‘Very likely—

only I can’t seem to think what it is.’

‘I am referring to our task, Doctor. The quest for the

Key to Time—remember?’

For once in his long career the Doctor was embarked,

not upon a series of random adventures, but on one

continuous quest. He was searching for the six segments of

the giant crystal that formed the Key to Time. In order to

prevent it falling into the wrong hands, the Key had been split

into six segments, scattered to distant parts of the universe.

But now the balance of the cosmos had been disturbed.

A mysterious and powerful being called the White Guardian

had given the Doctor the task of recovering the six segments

and reassembling them into the Key to Time. Armed with

this, the white Guardian would be able to restore the balance

of the cosmos, and thwart the schemes of the evil Black

Guardian to plunge the universe into chaos.

The Doctor was perfectly well aware of all this, but at the

moment he wanted to forget it, at least for a while.

Romana, however, had a keenly developed sense of

duty. She insisted on reminding the Doctor of the importance

of their mission. ‘The Guardian did stress the need for

urgency, didn’t he, Doctor?’

‘Sssh! I’m trying to think.’

Romana moved across to the console. ‘Shall I check the

instrument readings, Doctor?’

‘If you must...’ The Doctor looked up. ‘I just feel we’ve

earned a little break, that’s all,’ he said in an aggrieved voice.

‘After all, we’ve got three of the six segments by now. I’d

much rather play chess.’

‘Really?’ Romana studied the instrument readings. A

wand-like device called the Tracer was plugged into the

navigational circuits, steering the TARDIS to the part of the

universe where the next segment could be found. The Tracer

was a very necessary part of their search, since the divided

segments had the power to disguise themselves as almost any

imaginable, or unimaginable object.

‘Almost there, Doctor,’ said Romana briskly. ‘We should

be materialising in about... fifteen seconds.’

‘What about my game?’

Romana went over and looked at the board. ‘Your game

is already over, Doctor. Mate for K9 in twelve moves.’

‘Correction, Mistress. Eleven moves.’

Roman looked again. ‘Eleven? Yes, quite right. Sorry,

K9.’

‘Apologies not necessary, Mistress.’

‘Mate in eleven?’ Concentrating hard the Doctor ran all

possible moves through his head, and then shook it in gloomy

agreement. ‘That’s the trouble with chess, it’s all so

predictable.’

Romana’s hands were moving over the controls.

‘Materialisation commencing... now. Five... four... three...

two...’ The central column came to a halt, and Romana said

proudly, ‘Smooth enough for you, Doctor?’

The Doctor looked up in surprise. ‘Arrived already,

have we? A very creditable landing—for a beginner. Where

are we?’

Romana gave him a withering look. ‘On the planet

Tara.’ She began checking instrument readings with her usual

efficiency. ‘Earth-level gravity. Oxygen atmosphere.

Temperate climate...’

‘Tara, eh?’ said the Doctor thoughtfully. He flicked on

the scanner and saw an attractive green landscape. Neatly-

fenced fields, wooded hills—was that a castle on one of them?

There was even a river, meandering peacefully across the

countryside, its clear shallow waters sparkling in the sunshine.

The Doctor looked hard at the river. A thoughtful look

came into his eyes. ‘Tara, eh? Looks like a peaceful enough

place. It shouldn’t give you too much trouble.’

‘Me? You mean us, don’t you, Doctor?’

A rather guilty expression came over the Doctor’s face.

‘Aren’t you going to get changed?’

Roman gave him a suspicious look, opened a door and

went into one of the innumerable rooms adjoining the control

room. Since the TARDIS was dimensionally transcendental—

bigger on the inside than on the outside—the number of

rooms it held was potentially infinite. So far Romana had seen

only a fraction of them. She had acquainted herself with the

wardrobe section though, and she made her way there now,

sliding back a door to reveal a long cupboard, big enough to

be a room in itself. Inside were racks holding coats and

dresses and costumes of every imaginable period and planet.

Romana walked through the racks, mentally checking off the

codings. She stopped. ‘Tara... costume for Tara... should be

just about here.’ She took a hanger from a rack and found it

held a rustling grass skirt. She rechecked the coding on the

hanger. ‘Tara? No, Tahiti! Still, can’t be far away!’ She put the

grass skirt back and went on searching.

The Doctor, meanwhile, was rooting through a

cupboard in the main control room. It was a big corner

cupboard, and it held an astonishing assortment of junk. He

was always intending to store the stuff properly or get rid of

it, but never seemed to get round to doing either. He heard

Romana’s voice behind him. ‘What are you looking for?’

‘I know it’s here somewhere...’

‘What is?’

The Doctor pushed aside a medieval battle-axe and a

partially-dismantled Martian sonic cannon, and found what

he wanted. Seizing it triumphantly, he came out of the

cupboard.

‘Found it! Gosh this takes me back... or is it forward?

That’s the trouble with time travel, you can never be sure.’

He was holding a long slender pole, with a kind of reel

arrangement attached to the butt. The reel held fine thread,

which was fed through loops attached to the pole.

Romana stared at the contraption in astonishment.

‘What is it?’

‘A fishing rod, of course. Last time I used this, I went

out for the day with old Izaak Walton.’

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摘要：

Onapeacefulruralplanet,wherethecolourfulpageantryofoldRuritaniamingleswithultra-modernAndroidtechnology,theDoctorbecomesaking-makerinspiteofhimself.InhissearchforanothersegmentoftheKeytoTime,theDoctormatcheswitsandswordswiththeevilCountGrendel—aided,ofcourse,byRomanaandtheinvaluableK9.THEANDROIDSOFT...

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