Doctor Who: The Space Museum by Glyn Jones

and, not too sure of what he was going to look for, or where, marched off. The officer turned to Lobos.
    ‘Incompetent idiots,’ he snorted disdainfully.
    Lobos was not impressed. ‘You’re not a Morok,’ he said, ‘Where are you from?’
    ‘My name is Mort, sir. I am a mercenary from Kreme.’
    ‘Humph!’ Lobos turned his back. He might have known. He had no time for soldiers of fortune. Give him a professional every time.
    ‘What are they doing?’ Barbara whispered, the only one of the three unable to see.
    ‘"I’hey just seem to be standing around,’ Vicki replied. ‘Looking at the TARDIS.’
    ‘Let’s hope they don’t do any damage,’ Barbara wished fervently.
    ‘There’s not much they can do,’ Ian assured her. ‘Unless they get inside.’
    ‘Do you suppose they’re going to bring it in here?’ Vicki asked.
    ‘I would think so, eventually.’ Ian glanced at Barbara.
    ‘Well, what next? Find the Doctor, I suppose.’
    ‘Maybe one of us should stay here and keep an eye on the TARDIS,’ Vicki suggested. ‘If we have to leave in a hurry we don’t want to waste time having to look for it.’
    ‘We know where it’s going. We saw it before, remember?’ Ian re-applied his eye to the crack.
    ‘And could you find your way back there?’ Vicki said.
    Ian glanced down at the top of her head. ‘In which case we’d all have to stay here and watch it.’ And he went back to his spying.
    ‘Stay as you are! Don’t move!’ The voice echoed down the gallery. They stiffened. Ian was the first to turn around to see a Morok guard standing a few feet away, his gun levelled at them. Vicki got up from her crouched position and slowly she and Barbara turned to face the soldier. For a long moment no-one moved, then Ian took a step forward, but Barbara laid a restraining hand on his arm, never taking her eyes off the Morok.
    ‘Don’t, Ian. He’ll fire that thing.’
    Ian turned his head slightly towards her though he too kept a heady eye on their captor.
    ‘Well, wouldn’t that change the shape of things to come?’ he whispered.
    ‘It certainly would,’ she replied. ‘There’d be only three of us in those cases instead of four.’
    The guard frowned, waved his gun about, and ordered them to move away from the door slowly. Barbara and Vicki started to comply but now it was Ian who stretched out a restraining arm. ‘No, wait a minute,’ he whispered. Then, turning his back on the guard, went on: ‘From what we heard outside, these guys seem to work pretty much by the book. I doubt the word "initiative" figures prominently in their vocabulary. Why don’t we call his bluff?’
    ‘Because he’s not bluffing, that’s why!’ Barbara hissed. ‘Are you out of your mind?’
    ‘That’s enough talking!’ The guard barked. ‘I said, move out.’
    Ian turned back to him, smiling. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘we heard you the first time. But what if we don’t feel like it?’
    The guard’s frown deepened. This was hardly the reaction he had expected. Ian noted his irresolution with some satisfaction and started to move quite casually towards him.
    ‘Don’t go too far, Ian!’ Barbara warned, seeing in her mind’s eye the vision of what that ray gun could do. But Ian still continued his advance.
    ‘Yes,’ the guard said, ‘She’s right. Now move back. Move back!’ But it was he, showing increasing signs of nervousness, who took a step backwards.
    ‘There was nothing in your orders about killing us, was there?’ Ian said softly. The guard retreated. ‘Well, was there? Why don’t you answer me? Was there?’ His eyes never left the Morok’s face.
    ‘No, no, there wasn’t.’ He ran his tongue across his upper lip. ‘But that doesn’t mean to say I won’t if I have to.’
    ‘But you don’t have to. What do you think your superiors would say if you killed us?’ Ian’s voice was now so low it was almost as though he were trying to soothe a bewildered child. ‘ "Have you brought in the