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.He waved the Orderlies away.‘Wait outside.I’ll accept no interruptions from anybody.’ Then he added pointedly to the Deputy,‘Off the record, I think.’ She rose and followed the two Orderlies out of the room.‘Now then, young man,’ said Brazen when the room was cleared of officials.‘ "They", you said.Who’s "they"?’Range came to Turlough’s defence.‘I tell you, Brazen, he’s in no state to be questioned.’‘You’re out of order, Mr Range!’ boomed the Chief Orderly.‘If there is a grain of truth in this story of yours, these are urgent matters of state.You expect me to delay the investigation because a young man is feeling delicate?’And with that he settled himself on the bench beside the Doctor’s young companion, and said in a voice that was almost kindly, ‘Name’s Turlough, eh? All right, Turlough, I want to hear all about this.’9The Excavating MachineAt any moment during their escape from the Tractator, the Doctor expected to feel the invisible trawl-net of that gravitational force pulling them back into its clutches.He had run as he had never run before, dragging Tegan with him until their legs ached and their lungs were almost bursting.But it seemed, as they paused for breath at last, that they were free.Tegan recovered first, and wanted to talk of practical things, like finding the way out.The Doctor was running his fingertips over the smooth surface of the wall.‘Sometimes it’s easier to look for the way in and work backwards.’Tegan tugged at his hand.‘Come on, Doctor, you won’t find it there.All these walls look the same.’‘Ah, but they aren’t,’ replied the Doctor, stooping to pick up a handful of chippings from the floor.‘What does that tell you?’‘Just loose chippings,’ said Tegan, unimpressed.‘Tegan, how many times have I got to remind you –nothing is “just” anything.Everything is a small clue to everything else."There’s a nexus between objects.’‘Yes, all right, all right,’ she said testily.She had heard his lecture on early Wittgenstein before, and now was not the time for a repeat.‘Doctor.the point?’He weighed the chippings in his hand.‘These have been machined – recently – from that wall.And in two stages.’He took her to a section of tunnel they had already passed, where the walls were noticeably rougher, carved to a flat surface but not yet polished.‘They have machines.?’ asked Tegan.‘That’s what it looks like,’ the Doctor replied.‘And functionally sophisticated ones at that.’ It was clear to him now that the Tractators were creating an extensive and elaborate tunnel system using pupose-built devices.Multi-stage processes like these would involve planning, construction of equipment, resource management, and execution on a huge scale.‘Insect-like I grant you,’ the Doctor went on, as they made their way along the tunnel.‘But these are no ordinary insects.They have highly-refined powers of abstract reasoning.And in case you hadn’t noticed.they also seem to have turned on the lights.’Tegan thought it had been getting lighter around them.It was the same sort of illumination they had seen when they looked down on the cavern, a pale white glow diffusing from the walls.‘Does that mean they’re watching us?’ she asked uneasily.A group of Tractators had gathered with their leader around a cage suspended in the middle of the large cavern.The words of Tegan and the Doctor, amplified by the peculiar geography of the tunnel system, echoed down to them with every syllable intact.A human form stirred in the cage.The leader of the Tractators turned its head to a tall narrow trolley that floated a foot or so above the ground, and drew the small construction towards him with the tiniest shake of his head.Mounted on it was the head and one arm of a dead Colonist, connected by improvised metalwork to a swinging pendulum.The hideous device spoke, translating the thoughts of the Tractator leader for the benefit of the prisoner in the cage.‘I am the translator that speaks for the Gravis, first among the Tractators.There is a man called "the Doctor"who wanders in our tunnel system.What do you know of him?’A hand stretched weakly out from the cage, causing the translator to edge back out of reach.‘You have nothing to say?’ it croaked, its dead mouth moving to the click of the pendulum.‘Then it is time, I think, we fetched this Doctor to us.’ The Tractators gathered around the Gravis shuffled their bodies in agreement.We will send – the machine.’In the State Room Brazen pressed on with his questions about the Tractators.‘Organised, intelligent.Not much of an enemy profile.I want to know what they’re about, and why.’Mr Range intervened.‘Please.That’s enough.Deep ancestral memory pictures can be dangerous when they break through the conscious mind like this.Leave the boy alone.If anyone is on trial here it’s me.’‘Not a trial, Mr Range – a pooling of information.Something we should have done decades ago.’ Brazen lifted his big bulk from the bench, terminating the interrogation of Turlough.‘You had the chance,’ said Mr Range.‘No – because you had the evidence, locked in a drawer.If you had showed us that.the dear good Captain who with his bare hands held together this shambles we call Frontios.Captain Revere could well be alive today.’Norna spoke up for her father.‘Captain Revere knew about these creatures.He must have done!’ She told Brazen about the plaque inscribed with his name.‘It’s Captain Revere’s fault! Why didn’t he tell us?’‘And add to the rumours and unrest?’ said Brazen [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]