Doctor Who: Fury From the Deep (21 page)

Jamie could hardly believe his eyes. 'It's Robson... and Mrs Harris... and there's van Lutyens... there's a whole lot of them!'

Victoria became almost hysterical. 'Hurry, Doctor! hurry!'

The Doctor was still negotiating the computer controls, undecided which button or switch would activate the helicopter into a lift-off. 'Now, let me see,' he mumbled, 'is it this one... or maybe it's...'

'
Doctor
!' Jamie was yelling at the top of his voice, for Robson and the other zombies were gradually closing in on them.

The Doctor was still fumbling with the controls. 'Nearly there, Jamie! Nearly there...'

Victoria shrieked. The faces of Robson, Maggie Harris, and the other human Weed Creatures were pressed up against the windows of the helicopter, clawing with their hands to get in.

'Do something, Doctor! Hurry!'

Almost as Jamie was yelling, the Doctor found the computer button he was looking for, and the helicopter rose up from the chopper pad, scattering white foam into the air. The take-off was not exactly a perfect one, for the machine seemed briefly to veer sideways rather than upwards, narrowly missing the rig's main observation tower.

Jamie and Victoria, squeezed onto the front seat of the helicopter at the side of the Doctor, clung desperately to each other for protection. Eventually however, the machine did begin to rise, and the last view they had of the control rig below was of Robson and the other human Weed Creatures, all grouped together on the chopper pad, arms outstretched, as though reaching out in desolation towards the sky.

'Right!' said the Doctor, impressed with his own mastery of the helicopter's controls. 'Let's get back to the Refinery...' But as he pressed the steering stick he was clutching, the machine veered off at an acute angle, and started to plunge towards the sea.

Jamie and Victoria were scared stiff and yelling their heads off. 'Doctor! What are you doing? Up, Doctor!
Up
!'

The Doctor was in a complete flap at the controls. 'Oh dear, I seem to have...'

He was suddenly interrupted by a voice coming through the helicopter's RT system. It was the pilot of the other Euro-Gas helicopter who was tailing them nearby. 'Euro-Gas One to Euro-Gas Three. Having trouble? Heave back on your stick and increase your throttle!'

The Doctor called back: 'Are you sure that's right?'

Jamic and Victoria shouted at him in unison. 'Doctor! Do as he says!'

The Euro-Gas pilot watched with relief as the Doctor's helicopter pulled out of its dive just as it was about to hit the water.

Then it started to climb and level out.

The Doctor turned to his two terrified companions and smiled confidently at them. Then he talked to the other pilot through the RT

unit. 'Thank you so much for your help. I've got the machine off the ground and it should be comparatively simple to propel it forward.

However, there is just one thing...' He paused, glanced guiltily at Jamie and Victoria, then continued: 'How do I land it?'

Jamie and Victoria exchanged a look of agony.

Back at the Refinery, the Control Hall was like a tomb. At the Cone, Harris, Megan Jones, Perkins and Price were watching the video monitor screens for news of the Doctor. But all the equipment remained ominously silent. Everyone had the same feeling of impending doom.

'It's no good!' growled Harris, suddenly thumping the desk in front of him, 'it's quite obvious we're not going to hear from the Doctor or any of them again. We
must
evacuate the Compound!'

'No, Harris!' insisted the Chairperson, straightening up in her chair. 'We said an hour. He has ten more minutes.'

'But even if he does come back, what can he do? The only possible weapon we might have used against the weed has been destroyed.'

'You're quite sure we've lost the entire stock of oxygen?'

'Every cylinder.'

'Right!' The Chairperson rose quickly from her seat, and turned to her secretary. 'Perkins, get on to London. Inform the Defence Minister I want a full red alert on this now. Tell him what's happened, and ask him to arrange for as many tankers of oxygen as he can muster to be sent here immediately.'

'Yes, madam!' The bewildered Perkins swung back to Price to put the call through the London. You could tell he was disorientated by all that had happened: his tie was crooked.

'They won't be in time,' warned Harris. He and the Chairperson were strolling back towards the Office Area together. 'Our only hope now is to evacuate the Compound. The Pipeline Room is a mass of weed and foam. You've seen how rapidly it reproduces. It could swamp us all at any time.'

'It could, but it hasn't yet.' The Chairperson was becoming irritated with Harris again. 'Until it does,' she said firmly, 'we stay here!'

Harris responded icily. 'And when it does attack, how do you expect to fight it? With what weapons?'

'Perhaps
I
can answer that question.'

Everyone turned to find out who was speaking. It was the Doctor, who was just entering the hall. With him were Jamie and Victoria, looking decidedly fragile after their hair-raising ordeal in the helicopter.

'Doctor! You're alive!' The Chairperson immediately went to meet him. 'What about Robson? Did you find him?'

'My wife!' Harris asked eagerly. 'What about my wife?'

'We found your wife, Mr Harris,' replied the Doctor solemnly.

'And Mr Robson.'

'Aye. And a lot of other people too,' added Jamie.

'Are they - alive?' asked the Chairperson timorously.

The Doctor nodded. 'Yes, they're alive. But only just. They're being held hostage out at the Control Rig, under the mental and physical control of the Weed?'

Harris was shattered. 'Then I was right. There's no hope. No hope at all.'

'You're wrong, Mr Harris,' said the Doctor objectively. 'I believe there
is
hope.'

'But even if we succeed in fighting off the Weed, what about...

my wife, Maggie... all those people affected by it?'

The Doctor suddenly became very positive. 'On our way back here, we stopped at the Medicare Unit. The man Jamie fought with in the corridor has almost completely recovered.'

'What!'

'The weed growth on him has disappeared, shrivelled up and died. The man is still confused and dazed - but he's alive!'

'But... how? Why? What killed the Weed?'

The Doctor smiled, and wagged his finger. 'A very good question, Mr Harris. But I think I know the answer.' He hesitated. 'It was noise!'

Everyone in the hall turned to look at him in absolute astonishment.

'Noise?' asked Harris incredulously.

The Chairperson was puzzled. 'You mean,
noise
can actually kill the Weed?'

'Not any type of noise, Miss Jones,' explained the Doctor, 'a particular pattern of sound vibrations.' Then he turned to Victoria who was standing just behind him. 'Actually, it was my young friend here who discovered it.'

'Me!' spluttered Victoria, astonished.

The Doctor smiled gratefully. 'You screamed, my dear.'

'I screamed?' For a moment, Victoria was puzzled. But gradually, a smile of comprehension showed on her face. 'Oh, yes - I screamed.'

The Doctor turned back to Harris and the Chairperson. 'You see, it is Victoria's own particular pattern of sound that seems to do the trick. The Weed's nerve system is clearly hyper-sensitive to it.'

'I'm not surprised,' muttered Jamie under his breath to Victoria.

'So am I!' Victoria retaliated by stamping on his toe.

'So that's why the crews on the rigs spoke softly,' suggested Harris. 'Certain types of noise affected them.'

'Very possibly, Mr Harris,' replied the Doctor. 'And in my opinion, that is the most important clue we've had so far.'

The Chairperson's spirits were beginning to revive. 'So where do we go from here, Doctor?'

'Before you evacuate this area, will you give me half-an-hour?'

he asked.

Harris shook his head anxiously. 'The risk is too great. The whole refinery is crawling with seaweed.'

'Half-an-hour won't make that much difference,' insisted the Chairperson. 'Doctor, what d'you think we can do?'

'We make a noise, Miss Jones - an awful lot of noise.'

Again Harris shook his head. 'We're too late. We'll never stop the Weed now.'

'We've got to!' said the Doctor forcefully. 'There may not be another chance.'

'It's impossible, I tell you. The foam is seeping in from every corner of the Compound.'

'What we need to do is to attack its nerve centre.'

Now the Chairperson was doubtful. 'But you said yourself, we don't know where the nerve centre is.'

The Doctor's eyes lit up. 'Ah - but we do!' He turned to look up at the illuminated rig guide at the top of the Cone, and pointed to the Control Rig light. 'There!'

'That's the Control Rig,' said Harris.

'Precisely! We must generate enough sound to penetrate through to the Control Rig.'

'Easier said than done,' said the Chairperson. 'How do we get it there?'

They were suddenly interrupted by a sound coming from the pipeline tube above their heads. Everyone in the hall stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at the giant tube. The sound was unmistakeable. Squeals, scratching, bubbling, and the thumping, pulsating heartbeat of the Weed itself.

'That's how!' yelled the Doctor above the sound, pointing to, and carrying his glance along the pipeline tube around the hall. 'We'll transmit all the noise we can to the Control Rig - through the pipeline.' He turned back to Harris, who was again shaking his head warily. 'Mr Harris, this is the only way of saving your wife - and everyone else!'

Harris still resisted. 'Yes, I realise that, but - '

'Half-an-hour, Mr Harris, that's all.'

Harris, torn by indecision, stared hard at the Doctor for a moment. Then he moved quickly to the Control Cone. 'Price! Let me see what's happening in the pipeline room.'

Price flicked a switch and the huge central video monitor screen sprang into life. There was an immediate gasp from everyone in the hall. The screen showed the pipeline room, now completely engulfed in a seething mass of bubbling white foam and squealing, wriggling weed tentacles.

Harris, although shaken, spoke quickly, urgently. 'Half-an-hour? Yes, that's about all the time we've got.' Then he swung back to the Doctor. 'But you're right - we
must
try!'

'Right! Let's get started!' The Doctor immediately became very busy, inspecting the electrical circuits at the Cone. 'Where are all these wires connected to?'

Price answered. 'Transmitter and loudspeaker system underneath.' He watched in bewilderment as the Doctor followed the path of the wiring to the back of the Cone equipment. 'Doctor, what's this all about?'

The Doctor was thinking rather than answering Price's question. 'If we can boost this equipment to transmit enough sound through the pipeline, we can destroy the weed's nerve centre.'

The Chairperson was watching the Doctor's bustling activity as though he were quite mad. 'Do you really think this idea will work?'

The Doctor, who had briefly disappeared behind the control panel, suddenly popped his head up again to ask: 'Mr Price, have you a tape-recording machine or some such instrument? It needs to be quite a powerful one.'

'Yes, sir!' Price flicked more switches, then swung round in his seat to pull down an overhead snake microphone. 'Ready when you are, Doctor!'

The Doctor called, 'Over here, Victoria - hurry now!'

Victoria rushed across to the Cone, looking very worried about the whole thing. The Doctor took her hand, patted it reassuringly and said, 'I want you to scream as loud as you can for Mr Price. He's going to record it. All right?'

Victoria bit her lower lip nervously and replied, 'If you say so, Doctor.'

The Doctor smiled, then quickly turned to Price. 'Make a loop of the recording so that we can repeat it continuously,' he said.

Price nodded, then adjusted the microphone to suit Victoria's height. The Doctor rubbed his hands together excitedly, then bustled off towards the engineers over on the control platforms.

I hope he knows what he's doing,' sighed the Chairperson.

Jamie answered her indignantly. 'Of course the Doctor knows what he's doing!' But he had second thoughts, and added, 'At least, I think he does... '

'Mr Harris!' The Chief Engineer was calling from the door of the impeller area. 'The shaft!'

Harris exchanged a quick look of alarm with the Chairperson, then hurried across to the impeller area.

The Chairperson went straight to the Doctor, who was concealed on the floor behind the Cone, sorting out a vast complex of cables and electronic equipment. 'Doctor,' she said urgently, 'we must hurry!'

In the impeller area the thumping, pulsating heartbeat sound was deafening. By the time Harris and the Chief Engineer rushed in, a flood of foam and weed had seeped up from the lift shaft, and was swirling around inside the airlock.

Back in the Control Hall, the Doctor was feverishly dismantling four magnetised loudspeakers from the back of the Cone. Then he turned to a group of engineers watching him tensely nearby: 'Somebody take these speakers and attach them at intervals along the pipeline!'

There was a rush of volunteers, who took off with the speakers, each one trailing its own cable behind it.

Meanwhile, Price finished preparing the tape recording equipment for Victoria, who was very unnerved by the thought that the survival of the human race might depend on her scream.

'Right, Miss,' said Price, adjusting the microphone one last time, 'the moment I give the signal, scream your head off.' Victoria nodded, and waited for the signal. When it came, she opened her mouth, then hesitated. Price signalled again. Victoria shook her head.

She seemed mesmerised by the microphone dangling in front of her.

Price was getting frantic. 'Co ahead, Miss,' he urged, 'the tape's running!' Victoria again shook her head. She was in a panic. 'I can't! I don't know why - but I just can't!'

'What's the matter?' asked the Doctor impatiently as he joined them.