Doctor Who: The Dominators Read Online Free PDF Page B

obediently to the panel.
    ‘The Dominators are obeyed!’ Toba roared.
    Jame stood his ground. ‘Not by me ,’ he retorted.
    ‘Quark!’
     
    One of the robots whirred into action, its long crystal antennae glowing reddish white. There was a rapid throbbing and and the young Scot was flung against the panel. He hung there dazed and limp for a moment. Then he feebly starred to struggle.
    ‘Help me... help me, Doctor...’ he pleaded.
    As soon as the Doctor responded, the staccato throbbing burst out again and he too was forced against the panel.
    Rago smiled contemptuously. ‘It is useless to resist. My Quark has bonded your bodies to the panel by means of molecular adhesion,’ he boomed.
    Toba touched some switches and Jamie’s section of panelling immediately slid outward and then swung through 90 degrees to form a horizontal pallet.
    ‘What are ye doing to me?’ Jamie gasped, transfixed with terror as a transparent globular apparatus swung out and hung suspended over his body.
    ‘Aliens are ocassionally of use to us,’ Rago explained coldly. ‘We shall assess your physiological status. Quark!’
    One of the robots tramped rapidly over and connected its two probes into sockets at the foot of Jamie’s pallet.
    Frantically Jamie tried to twist himself free, his eyes staring wildly and his white face glistening with sweat.
    ‘Doctor... can ye no do anything?’ he panted.
    ‘Activate!’ Rago snapped, stepping down from the dais.
    The Quark emitted a crazed giggling noise and the globular device above Jame started to glow. Helplessly the Doctor watched as Rago took a kind of visor resembling an ophthalmoscope from Toba and slipped it over his head.
    Jam was bathed in an eerie bluish aura as the Dominator bent over to examine him.
    ‘Brittle skeletal structure... calcium phosphate...
    reasonable degree of flexibility and muscular strength...’
    Rago murmured. ‘Single heart... superfluous organ present right side...’
    Jamie shuddered as Rago’s eye, magnified to monstrous proportions by the visor, bored relentlessly into his own.
     
    ‘Simple brain circuitry...’ Rago continued tonelessly,
    ‘signs of recent rapid learning... little intellectual development.’ At last Rago straightened up and took off the visor. ‘Assessment: possible marginal utility for elementary labour tasks,’ he concluded.
    ‘Shall I prepare the second specimen for scrutiny?’ Toba asked eagerly.
    Rago considered the Doctor for a moment. ‘Negative.
    They will be identical. Conserve power,’ he decided.
    The Quark disconnected its probes, the apparatus withdrew and the panel tilted back to the vertical. Jamie hung beside the Doctor pale and drained, his stomach cramped with nausea from the effects of the body scanner.
    Toba turned expectantly to his superior. ‘Sine these specimens are of inferior quality we can destroy them,’ he proposed.
    ‘Negative. They will perform in a labour force.’
    ‘We have the Quarks for such functions,’ Toba objected.
    ‘I repeat, Toba: the Quarks’ power must he conserved.’
    Rago turned abruptly away and stood staring into the Doctor’s mild brown eyes. The Doctor stared unflinchingly back, the faintest of smiles flickering around his mouth.
    ‘Set up a Neuro-Initiative Test on this specimen,’ Rago suddenly ordered, pointing at the Doctor.
    The Doctor’s smile vanished at once and he swallowed apprehensively. ‘Oh dear me,’ he muttered miserably, ‘not a NIT.’
    In the survey module, Teel struggled to visual maintain contact with the Capitol, but the image of Director Senex oscillated fitfully and finally broke up into a storm of static. However, the Director’s imperturbable voice continued to filter faintly through:
    ‘Four image is fading. Educator Balan... I regret that it is not possible to evaluate your...’
    ‘Oh never mind the picture, Father,’ Kully butted in irritably, ‘just tell us what you’re going to do.’
    The audio circuit hissed and squealed, and