Doctor Who: Earthshock (5 page)

'Yes, Doctor, we were studying fracture deformation patterns,' Kyle replied timidly, nervously twisting her gloves.

'In that case you were virtually on top of that hatch we've uncovered,' the Doctor mused. 'Perhaps the androids are guarding it.'

'But why should they?' the Professor demanded distractedly.

The Doctor turned to Lieutenant Scott. 'I think we should try to find out,' he suggested.

Scott scratched his moustache. 'I haven't had much experience fighting androids,' he said doubtfully.

'Well, as I said just now, they're almost like humans,' shrugged the Doctor.

'Only androids function much more logically...' Nyssa added.

'... which is also their chief weakness,' continued the Doctor eagerly, 'and we can exploit that weakness, Lieutenant. I propose that we attack the hatch!'

Scott stared at the Doctor as though he were demented. 'That would only expose our own weakness,' he retorted. 'Our powerpacks are almost exhausted.'

The Doctor turned excitedly back to Scott. 'The androids now know that we can inflict lethal damage on them - so we create a dilemma for them,' he explained.

'But why should they care if we attack the hatch?' Miss Kyle protested wearily.

'They won't
care
- they'll simply
react
,' retorted Nyssa impatiently. 'They have no choice but to obey their programmes.'

The Doctor nodded urgently. 'We create a conflict between duty and survival which should confuse their logic circuits enough to cause them to make mistakes...' he concluded triumphantly.

There was an unenthusiastic silence. The Doctor threw Scott a challenging look. 'Well, has anyone a better idea?' he demanded.

The Lieutenant stared hard at the earnest young stranger, a trace of suspicion lingering in his honest eyes, but he knew he had no better plan to offer. 'This had better work,' he muttered at last. He ordered three troopers to aim their laser tubes at the centre of the hatch and the rest of the squad to cover the androids' reaction.

'Now!' he yelled.

With piercing whines the three lasers tore into the metal plate. The two androids tensed, swaying uncertainly from side to side. They seemed unaware of Adric's crouching figure crawling stealthily along a ledge which ran along the tunnel wall behind them. Hesitantly the female android ventured round the buttress and begun to advance. A reckless young trooper stood up from behind the rocks and opened fire, but he was instantly melted by a flash from the male android's surviving hand. At once the advancing female started blasting the squad's positions and the barricade of fallen rock rapidly began to disintegrate around them.

Poising himself on the ledge, Adric picked up a heavy, jagged stone and taking careful aim hurled it with all his strength at the back of the male android's head. It bounced off harmlessly and the creature started to turn round. Quick as lightning, Adric grabbed a larger rock and flung it. The missile struck the side of the android's head as it was about to fire. Adric just had time to throw himself behind the buttress before the tunnel wall cracked and splintered into fragments exactly where he had been standing.

Seizing the chance created by Adric's diversion, the squad concentrated their fire upon the disabled and distracted male, blowing off its head. The female android began to lope towards the hatch as if to protect it with its body, still blasting away at the troopers behind the rockfall. Relentlessly the squad's concentrated laser fire poured into the creature. Its movements grew slower and more staggering. Finally, in a spectacular shower of sparks, it collapsed.

A roar of victory broke the sudden silence. Jumping from the ledge, Adric ventured cautiously into the cavern to find himself being greeted like a conquering hero.

'Well done, Adric, well done!' the Doctor cried, rushing out and almost hugging the confused but smiling boy. 'Not exactly elegant, Adric, but extremely effective. Don't you agree?' he chuckled, turning to Lieutenant Scott.

'Who is that boy?' Scott demanded, filled with admiration.

'This is my good friend, Adric,' the Doctor exclaimed proudly.

In their hushed and darkened lair the two silver figures had watched the destruction of their two androids vividly displayed in the blood-coloured glow of the holovisor disc.

Their metal masks betraying nothing, but the sharp snatching sounds from their ventilator units revealed their mounting anger and frustration. They stared down at the blank plate underneath the projector tubes.

'The androids were invaluable. It was an error to sacrifice them,' hissed the larger figure.

'And now the Earthlings are attempting to break through the hatch, Leader,'

boomed the other.

'Are their puny weapons capable?'

'It is possible, Leader. They must be stopped.'

The huge Leader loomed over the control module, its eye pods blank but weirdly hypnotic. 'Then we shall be forced to advance our plan. We shall commence activation of the device at once.'

There was a momentary silence.

'But it is much too soon, Leader...'

The Leader's massive arm flew up in a dangerous gesture of warning. 'We must be prepared. No more errors will be tolerated. Initiate the carrier signal.'

The subordinate hesitated, sounds of conflict issuing from its inner circuitry as it stared impassively at its superior.

'Initiate the signal!' the Leader repeated in a rasping, hollow voice. 'Now.'

Obediently the subordinate began to operate sequences of switches on the module. Lights flashed. Circuits hummed into life.

'Carrier signal initiated, Leader. Transmission beam locked.'

'Excellent. Activate arming sequence codes.'

Again the smaller figure hesitated. 'It is premature, Leader. The device will be wasted...'

'Only time is being wasted,' the Leader boomed. 'Activate the codes.'

Once again the subordinate obeyed, feeding a series of small discs into the module. 'Codes activated, Leader,' it reported eventually.

The Leader emitted a hiss of satisfaction and nodded slowly. 'Excellent. Now the Earth Powers shall witness the superiority of Cyber technology.' It leaned forward, the flashing lights reflected in a bizarre pattern on its immobile face. 'Prepare to detonate the bomb.'

The Doctor and Nyssa were kneeling beside the wreckage of the female android, poking about in eager fascination among the lumps of circuitry and silicon tubing.

'Fairly primitive,' Nyssa remarked critically, pulling the head apart with her delicate fingers and peering intently at the remains of the miniature computer.

'You think so?' murmured the Doctor, absorbed in examining the construction of the chest section.

Suddenly Nyssa held up a fused clump of wires. 'Look at this, Doctor!' she exclaimed excitedly.

The Doctor took the component and immediately sprang to his feet, calling Lieutenant Scott over to him. 'I think you should postpone your victory celebrations for the time being,' he told him. 'We must get that hatch open as quickly as possible.'

Scott gestured at the remains of the android. 'Why, Doctor? What's the hurry?'

'One of the androids contained a powerful photosonic transmitter,' Nyssa explained, pointing to the object in the Doctor's hand.

Just then Adric joined them. 'That must have been the cause of the terrible feedback interference I picked up in the TARDIS,' he told them.

The Doctor nodded. 'Very likely. The signals are easy to intercept, but impossible to decode without the proper receiver,' he explained.

Scott looked blankly at them. 'So? What's the problem?'

The Doctor gave a worried frown, 'I'm afraid that whoever is responsible for that hatch over there now knows that we have destroyed its guardians.' He turned and scrambled over to the rocks towards the hatch. The others followed chattering nervously.

The troopers' lasers had burned an almost circular hole about twenty centimetres in diameter in the centre of the thick metal panel. The Doctor knelt to investigate. Suddenly he whipped his hand away from the hot, blackened edge of the hole. 'Your squad got rather carried away didn't they, Lieutenant?' he complained, sucking his scorched fingers. Then he took out a pen torch and shone it into the darkness, peering as close as he dared. 'I suggest that you stand well clear,' he warned them gravely after a few seconds. 'This might be booby-trapped.'

'What about you?' Scott objected, obviously reluctant to give up his authority.

The Doctor flung out both his arms like aeroplane wings. 'My arms are only this long,' he laughed, 'I can't get any further away.' With that he resumed his examination.

Scott stirred himself. 'Right. Everybody back!' he ordered, shepherding the onlookers across the rocks to safety on the far side of the cavern.

Only Adric was left crouching a little behind the Doctor, who gingerly pushed his arm through the hole and tried to feel about behind the panel. For several minutes the Doctor struggled, attempting to keep his arm away from the molten edge of the hole while manoeuvring his hand inside. 'Got it!' he cried at last. 'The release mechanism.'

Then he noticed Adric. 'I thought I told everyone to get back!' he snapped angrily.

'But Doctor, it's safe. You've checked for booby-traps,' Adric protested.

'I am not in any mood to argue!' the Doctor shouted.

Adric retreated a few paces.

'Further than that,' the Doctor insisted. He waited until Adric had positioned himself behind a large boulder and then he slowly unlocked the mechanism with a series of sharp clicks. Across the cavern, the others craned forward anxiously as the Doctor mopped his brow with his free hand and then gradually started to ease the hatch open. He paused and shone his torch around the few centimetres' gap around the hatchway frame. The space behind the panel was pitch dark and he could just make out vague shapes and bundles of wires in the cramped compartment. Tense and pale, Adric tried to lean round the rock to see better, but he ducked back when the Doctor glanced round to check that everyone was safely under cover.

Deciding that all was safe, the Doctor eased the hatch wide open. There was a blinding bluish flash but no explosion. The Doctor flung himself backwards across the rocks with a startled cry and lay still, momentarily stunned, an eerie blue light pulsing over his shocked features. For a moment no one moved. Then Nyssa, Tegan and Adric rushed to the Doctor's side.

'I thought a booby-trap had gone off...' Tegan murmured, helping the Doctor to a sitting position.

'Are you all right, Doctor?' Nyssa asked anxiously.

Adric stared into the pulsating, humming compartment. 'What is it, Doctor?'

he exclaimed, frowning at the two large cubes of flickering circuitry connected by a section of fluorescent tubing which was emitting the harsh strobing flashes.

The Doctor struggled onto his knees. 'That is a colossally powerful bomb,' he replied shakily. 'My interference appears to have triggered its arming sequence, I regret to say.' The Doctor shook himself vigorously to clear his dazed head, then he turned to Scott. 'You'd better warn your people on the surface,' he advised him.

Scott flicked on his communicator. 'How long have we got?' he demanded.

The Doctor shrugged. 'Perhaps only minutes,' he snapped. He turned urgently to Tegan and Nyssa. 'Get everyone into the TARDIS immediately!' he shouted, crawling painfully back over to the hatchway.

Tegan and Nyssa hesitated for a moment. Then, yelling to the troopers to follow them, they set off hurriedly towards the tunnel.

Adric grabbed the Doctor's shoulder and tried to drag him away. 'Come on, Doctor. You can't stay here,' he insisted.

The Doctor shook himself free. 'It was my own stupidity that set this thing going, Adric,' he retorted, 'and the least I can do is try to stop it.' The Doctor poked frantically about inside the compartment, while Adric looked on in mounting horror.

Scott had been vainly trying to contact Trooper Walters, but his radio produced nothing but a weird oscillating whine. Suddenly the Doctor whipped round and listened for a second or two. Then he thumped himself on the forehead with his fist. 'Of course!' he cried, leaping to his feet and seizing Adric by the arm. 'Come on you two!' and he ran off at breakneck speed towards the TARDIS.

The Cyberleader emitted a vicious, stabbing hiss as a shrill warning siren began to howl from the control module. The Deputy examined the instruments blinking in the gloom.

'The Earthlings have succeeded. They have penetrated the bomb cell, Leader.'

The towering figure waved his arm dismissively. 'The Earthlings are too late.

Priming sequence has been initiated?'

'Affirmative, Leader.'

'Then how much longer until detonation?'

'Sixty seconds, Leader. Neutron exchange approaching optimum,' the Deputy reported.

'Excellent,' the Leader replied with a soft, gaseous hiss. He removed a kind of key from his belt and inserted it into a socket on the module. Then with a rasp of satisfaction from his ventilator grille he twisted the key sharply back and forth several times. 'Master detonator released. Proceed to detonation.'

'Affirmative. In fifty-five seconds from now, Leader.'

In its cell deep underground the bomb buzzed and flashed with increasing power in obedience to the signals pulsing across the solar system...

'Set all co-ordinates to zero!' the Doctor yelled to Adric who was close on his heels as he rushed into the TARDIS control chamber. Then he ducked under the central console, snatched open a small panel set into the pedestal and rummaged about inside.