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'Code blue?' the Doctor winced. He was almost offended. 'That's just for the exploitation of minerals andother resources.'
Renshaw didn't care that much. It meant that at least there was no real urgency for a Dalek relief ship to arrive. However, looking around she still wanted to make pieces fit into place. She shrugged. 'Maybe they found something.'
The Doctor sniffed, 'Such as?'
'If we carried on looking, we might find that out,' Renshaw snapped back. This Doctor was either a bigot or an intense chauvanist pig, she decided. Damn cheek!
The Doctor proceeded to ignore her and continued to wave his arms around with mounting indignance. 'It's almost as if the whole base simply collapsed and the Daleks switched themselves off.'
'A Dalek suicide squad?' Renshaw laughed.
The Doctor suddenly remembered that she was there and looked at her with humour in his eyes. They shone brightly, like polished ebony. 'Deciding that they couldn't take it any more?' he burst out, sarcastically and shouted, 'Bye, bye cruel Universe!'
They both started to laugh. Suddenly a new message appeared on the screen and Renshaw was left to finish her laugh alone. It crumpled to an unsatisfactory halt. She was engrossed, eyes blazing at what was written:
"DATA: 0773/4/9640. MINERAL LOCATED. UNIDENTIFED. ORDERS: INVESTIGATE. PROGRAMME STARTS 044. TRANSFERRED TO SECURITY CODE YELLOW."
'They never cared for a detailed account of what they got up to,' the Doctor moaned, 'This is very unhelpful.'
'Doctor Renshaw.'
The voice cut the air sharply and the two turned quickly to find a worried member of the crew hurrying over, concern and panic flooding over his features. He was beckoning for attention in the middle of the floor.
They rushed over to him and faced him expectantly. He couldn't find it in him to force the words out.
'What is it?' Renshaw's clearcut voice brought him to the reality of the situation. He stammered in rushed speech what he had to say.
'It's the Daleks,' he gibbered, 'when we counted them there were eight. We've just checked again and one of them is missing!'
The Doctor exploded and rushed around the room. 'Are you sure you counted them right the first time?' he yelled.
'Yes, of course!' Reegan yelped in reply. 'Eight! Now there is only seven!'
'Which way did it go?' the Doctor asked quickly.
Reegan couldn't answer.
'Did you see it leave?' The Doctor continued unabaited. He caught Reegan's demolished expression and stood over him threateningly. 'Why didn't you see it go?'
Reegan looked down doefully. 'I was outside, with Willis- '
'You left your posts?' Renshaw exclaimed. She steamed cooly, 'Why?'
Reegan couldn't meet her eyes. 'We were smoking.'
'You fools!' she shouted. 'Not only have you usurped your duties, but you've also filled your lungs with that Andromedan filth!'
'Now, if you were to try the old Earth type tobacco- ' The Doctor was cut short by Renshaw.
'Where was it?' she asked.
'Here,' Willis indicated, 'God knows what it's doing now!'
The Doctor bent down and began to study the floor in rapturous concern. He followed the dust trail out of the door and then returned to the control centre, with the slightest trace of anger on his face. 'The crew have disturbed the dust out there too much for us to follow the trail. All we're left with is where it once stood.' He rounded on Willis once more: 'You and your friend Reegan are a bunch of incompetent morons!'
The two officers stood alone in slience for a few seconds. Renshaw made a note that when the time came for her to give them their debriefing she would give them a very hard time. She was contemplating taking that course a step further, when the Doctor suddenly reached over and grabbed her communicator from her belt. She started to protest, but the Doctor had it already and was pressing the call button.
'Captain,' he said 'Get up here!'
Johnson was unused to being commanded and from the other end of the line came a muffled squark of surprise. It was quickly replaced by a loud bellow. 'What?' he roared, 'Who said that?'
The Doctor seemed likely to begin attacking Johnson again and given the present circumstances Renshaw felt that this would only lead to the wasting of valuable time. She snatched the communicator back, deciding that she would not make excuses for the Doctor on the gorunds that Johnson already knew who had spoken and that she would only get into trouble for interceding. Interesting as the Doctor undoubtedly was, she could not afford to stake out her own reputation on his behalf.
 
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graveyard of the daleks pt2 page3
