DOCTOR WHO AND THE INVISIBLE ENEMY Read online

  Silvey and Meeker reached the door to the supervisor's office minutes later. They tried it, found it locked, turned their blasters on the lock. There was a fierce crackle of energy and the locking device melted away. They kicked the door open and burst into the room—just in time to see the emergency escape hatch close. They ran to the thick plastiglass window, but saw only the drifting clouds of gas and the blackness of space beyond.

  Meeker turned as Safran came into the room. 'The supervisor has escaped.'

  Safran considered. The part of his mind that was still human knew that the emergency suits and escape hatches were intended for use in case of some localised disaster, to enable station crew to reach a rescue ship. The built-in back-pack carried only a very limited oxygen supply. 'Leave him. Let him suffocate.'

  The bleeping of the distress signal was still filling the room, Safran went to the set and switched it off. The bleeping died away and he leaned over the transmitter. 'Titan Base, this is Titan Base to all vessels. Disregard Mayday.'

  The TARDIS hung suspended in space, waiting for the Doctor to decide on its new destination.

  A cloud appeared, and began drifting towards the TARDIS. As it approached it seemed to grow bigger and more dense...

  Leela waited patiently while the Doctor made minute adjustments to the TARDIS programme-circuits. Sensing her boredom, the Doctor said, 'Shan't be long, Leela. As soon as I've finished these checks we'll go somewhere really interesting.'

  Suddenly there was a high-pitched beep and a voice crackled from the TARDIS console. 'Mayday, May-day, Mayday, this is Titan Base... Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, this is Titan Base.' The same message, repeated over and over.

  The Doctor flicked a switch, and the transmission was cut off. He stood up, frowning at the console. 'What was that?' asked Leela curiously.

  'Distress call from Titan. Took a while to reach us.'

  'Is Titan really interesting?'

  'What does that matter?' snapped the Doctor. 'What's important is that someone needs help.' He began re-programming the TARDIS.

  Leela sighed. Sometimes it seemed she could never say the right thing.

  The space cloud had drifted very close to the TARDIS by now. It pulsed with energy and something gleamed and flickered in its depths...

  Leela shivered.

  The Doctor stopped muttering incomprehensible calculations to himself and looked up. 'What's the matter, Leela?'

  'I am troubled.'

  'What about?'

  'I don't know. I can—feel something.'

  'Don't worry,' said the Doctor vaguely, and went on with his work.

  Urgent beeping filled the control room once again, and a voice came from the console speaker. It was a different voice this time, with something slurred and dragging about it. 'Titan—this is Titan Base. All vessels, repeat, all vessels, disregard Mayday. I say again, disregard Mayday. All under control. Our apologies, our apologies. Titan Base out.'

  'That's it! ' said Leela suddenly.

  'That's what?'

  'That voice. It was something evil. It was not a human voice, like the first one.'

  'It wasn't?' The Doctor stared at her in astonishment. He opened his mouth to speak—then suddenly went rigid...

  As the TARDIS brushed the fringes of the drifting cloud, something deep within flared into life, lashing out with a lightning-tentacle of energy...

  The Doctor's body was surrounded by a kind of glowing halo. The effect faded and the Doctor shook his head and went on with his work.

  Leela was astonished and alarmed. 'What was all that about, Doctor?'

  'Space static. Nothing important.'

  'But there was a kind of glow all round you...'

  'There was? Probably a kind of St Elmo's fire. It happens at sea.'

  'St Elmo?'

  'Yes, it causes a sort of halo effect around the masts of ships.'

  'Halo?'

  'Why do you keep repeating everything I say?' asked the Doctor irritably. 'You're not a parrot, are you?'

  'Parrot?'

  'Yes. A parrot's a bird that repeats things. Move over.'

  'Move over,' said Leela mischievously.

  The Doctor removed another panel and stared broodingly at the inside of the console. It now seemed to be emitting a mysterious crackling.

  'Is there something wrong?' asked Leela.

  'There isn't actually anything wrong,' said the Doctor hurriedly. 'Well, nothing serious, anyway. But I shall have to check all the same.'

  Leela was staring at the maze of circuitry inside the console. 'I can feel it, Doctor. Something is wrong...'

  The Doctor thrust his head inside the console. 'Now come on, old thing,' he said reproachfully. 'Stop acting I up.' A lightning-like tentacle of energy flashed from f the console and played about the Doctor's forehead. He slumped forward unconscious, his head crashing against the console. A deep throaty voice said, 'Contact has been made.'

  Safran was showing his two crew-members the wall-map of Titan Base. 'We shall start the incubation process—here.' He pointed. 'One of the largest fuel tanks is empty—it will become the Hive.'

  A gurgling inhuman voice spoke inside his mind. 'Contact has been made. The Nucleus has found a suitable host. Prepare for his coming...'

  With a wheezing, groaning sound the TARDIS arrived on Titan, materialising in a corridor near the airlock.

  In the control room, Leela was desperately trying to revive the Doctor. 'Wake up, Doctor, we've landed. We've materialised!'

  As she knelt by the Doctor, a fiery tentacle snaked from the console and played about her head. Leela didn't even notice it. 'Come on, Doctor. Wake up.'

  Safran, Silvey and Meeker came running down the corridor, and waited outside the TARDIS. 'There is one other with the host,' said Safran. 'She is a reject. We must destroy her, and dispose of her body with the rest. Take up your positions.'

  All three moved back out of sight, blasters covering the TARDIS door.

  The Doctor opened his eyes and said, 'Hello, Lalee.'

  'Doctor, are you all right?'

  'Rightly perfect, thank you, Lalee,' said the Doctor solemnly.

  'What did you say?'

  'I said I was perfectly all right, Lalee.'

  'My name is Leela.'

  'I know your name,' said the Doctor indignantly. 'Leela!'

  'What happened?'

  The Doctor sat up, rubbing his head. 'I must have had a bot of a shick.'

  'What?'

  'A bot of a shick,' repeated the Doctor patiently. Suddenly his body convulsed in a kind of spasm. Leela held his shoulders, supporting him, and the attack passed as quickly as it had come.

  'What is it, Doctor?'

  'I'm not sure. A voice or something in my head...'

  'The evil thing!'

  'Nonsense, just a nasty turn.' The Doctor climbed rather unsteadily to his feet. 'Come on, Leela, we're on Titan. Let's go and take a look around.' He strode unsteadily towards the TARDIS door, and rebounded from the edge. He paused, rubbing his shoulder. 'Odd, that...'

  'Doctor, don't go out,' pleaded Leela.

  The Doctor grasped the edge of the door to steady himself. 'What? Why not?'

  Leela operated the control that closed the door.

  'It's out there, waiting. Something evil. Please, Doctor, don't go!'

  3

  Death Sentence

  Waiting in ambush, Safran and the others saw the TARDIS door open. They raised their blasters... No one came out, and the TARDIS door closed again.

  They resumed their wait. Eyes fixed on the door, they failed to see Supervisor Lowe peering through the corridor window. A few minutes later, the watching face vanished as Lowe moved away.

  Out on the icy, windswept surface of Titan, Lowe groped his way through the methane fog. He worked his way round the edge of the base until he reached the emergency hatch through which he'd first emerged. With painful slowness, he opened the hatch and crawled back into the narrow tunnel.

  A few
minutes later, he was back in his own office. As he'd hoped, the office was empty. There only seemed to be three of his attackers, and the strange blue box was engaging their full attention.

  Lowe went to his desk and took a hand-blaster from his drawer. He peered cautiously out of his office, and hurried away down the corridor.

  Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor and Leela were still arguing.

  But we must go out and investigate,' insisted the Doctor. 'We've had a Mayday call.'

  'No... I can feel something wrong.'

  'Intuition?'

  'I don't care what you call it, Doctor. I knew, I knew—even before you were affected.'

  'What are you talking about, affected?'

  'Before you were knocked out...'

  'Leela, listen to me, I'm quite all right.' Gently but firmly the Doctor moved Leela away from the console and reached for the door control.

  Blaster in hand, Lowe arrived in the corridor behind the three relief crewmen. 'Drop your weapons,' he ordered. 'I'm arresting you—all of you.'

  It was a gallant attempt, but a very foolish one. Lowe was dealing with three men who didn't much care whether they lived or died, as long as they served the Purpose.

  Not one of them obeyed Lowe's call to surrender. All three swung round. Silvey raised his blaster, and Lowe shot him down. Safran and Meeker opened fire, but Lowe jumped back and both missed. Before they could fire again, Lowe turned and fled down the corridor. Safran and Meeker ran in pursuit...

  Hampered by his space-suit, Lowe pounded down the metal corridors. He turned a corner and Meeker arrived in time to see the door close behind him. Meeker reached for the door control but Safran pulled him back. Anyone coming through the door would be an easy target for Lowe's blaster—and it was their duty to stay alive and carry out the Purpose.

  Instead of opening the door, Safran locked it. He pointed to a wheel-valve beside the door. 'Turn off the oxygen supply.' Meeker spun the wheel and there was an abruptly cut off hiss. Safran turned away, satisfied. Lowe would suffocate or freeze.

  The TARDIS door opened for the second time and the Doctor stepped out and looked around him. 'Nobody around. Not a soul.' Leela followed him from the TARDIS, her knife in her hand. The Doctor felt in his capacious pockets and found something that looked like a whistle, put it to his lips and blew hard. Unfortunately it proved to be some kind of duck lure—instead of a piercing blast, it produced only a raucous squawk. The Doctor abandoned the whistle and called loudly, 'Anyone home?'

  Leela saw a foot sticking out round a near-by corner. 'Doctor, look! '

  They hurried over. The body of Silvey lay sprawled where it had fallen. The Doctor stared down at it. 'Disregard Mayday,' he muttered. 'That second call we heard. He said disregard Mayday. Why?'

  Leela knelt and put a hand to the dead man's neck. 'He's still warm.'

  'Don't be gruesome,' said the Doctor reprovingly.

  'I am a hunter...'

  'You're a savage!'

  'Perhaps—I am not ashamed of what I am. And I tell you I can smell danger.'

  The Doctor looked thoughtfully at her. Although he often teased her about it, he had a great respect for Leela's instinct. 'Evil again, Leela?'

  She nodded. 'It is everywhere in this place.'

  'Then we'd better find it before it finds us. You stay here.'

  The Doctor set off down the corridor. 'I am no coward,' called Leela indignantly. But the Doctor was gone. 'Stay here,' she muttered rebelliously. 'He's always telling me to stay here! ' Mutinously she set off in the opposite direction.

  Safran was studying the wall chart in the supervisor's office. Meeker was standing ready by the controls.

  'Set temperature and humidity rate for optimum breeding conditions,' ordered Safran.

  'Set temperature and humidity rate for optimum breeding conditions,' repeated Meeker obediently.

  The Doctor appeared in the office doorway and watched them for a moment. He cleared his throat loudly. 'Excuse me, you don't know me. Allow me to introduce myself—'

  'There is no need,' said Safran placidly. 'We are preparing the Hive now.'

  'People call me the Doctor—' The Doctor broke off. 'Hive?'

  'For the Nucleus which you carry within you.'

  The Doctor stared at him. There was a strange metallic rash around the man's eyes, and the eyebrows were curiously thickened. 'Are you all right? I answered your Mayday...'

  'You answered the call,' corrected Safran calmly.

  'That's right. Has someone been hurt?'

  'It is of no consequence. The physical envelope is of no importance.'

  'Of no importance,' chorused Meeker.

  'What do you mean, of no importance? I've just found a dead body out there.'

  Safran came closer and stared at the Doctor. 'It is of no importance—now that you have arrived.' A jagged, lightning-like tentacle sizzled for a moment between Safran's forehead and the Doctor's, and as suddenly vanished.

  'I have arrived,' said the Doctor in a slurred, dragging voice.

  'All that matters is that the reject should be destroyed.'

  'The reject must be destroyed.'

  'And breeding begin!'

  The Doctor nodded slowly. 'And breeding from my Nucleus begin.'

  Leela crept silently along the corridor, senses alert, knife poised and ready in her hand. She was passing a closed door when she heard a faint scrabbling sound. She paused and listened. It was coming from inside the door. It took her a minute to fathom the workings of the locking mechanism, but she succeeded at last. The door slid open and a stiff, frost-covered body fell out into her arms. Leela lowered it to the ground, and knelt to check that the man was still breathing. Deciding that he was alive—just—she dragged him away.

  The Doctor took the blaster from Safran's hand. 'Leela is a reject. She must be destroyed. She will not suspect me.'

  'One of us will follow,' said Safran calmly.

  'That isn't necessary...'

  Safran ignored him. 'The Nucleus within you must not be harmed.'

  'Must not be harmed,' chanted Meeker.

  'Very well.'

  The Doctor moved off down the corridor, blaster in hand, and Meeker followed.

  Leela hauled the ice-cold body along the corridor until she reached an open door. Glancing inside she saw a room with chairs around a central table, littered with the remains of food and drink. The room also contained three dead bodies, but Leela didn't allow this to distract her. She dragged the unconscious man inside, and dropped him into a chair. The man seemed to be recovering consciousness now, and he was shivering convulsively. Leela found a plastic flask half-full of some kind of wine. She took it over to the chair and forced a few drops of wine between the man's chattering teeth. He gulped and spluttered. After a few moments he opened his eyes and looked dazedly up at her. 'Who are you?'

  'We answered your Mayday. Who are you?'

  'I'm Lowe—Chief Supervisor.'

  'What happened here?' asked Leela.

  'They tried to kill me... the relief crew. They're insane. They've already killed these poor devils.'

  'Why? Are they your enemies?'

  Lowe shook his head. 'No... they were my friends. I know them—at least I thought I did. But they've changed.'

  'Changed?'

  'Their eyes, their manner, their whole behaviour is different. One of them said something...'

  'What?'

  'About their purpose. "This place will be suitable for our Purpose"... Whatever that is!'

  'The Doctor will understand. He will find us soon.' From somewhere outside a voice called, 'Leela! Leela, where are you?'

  'That's him,' said Leela delightedly. 'That's the Doctor!

  She was about to call back when Lowe said, 'Wait, it could be a trap. They may have some way of taking people over.'

  Leela couldn't imagine anyone controlling the Doc-tor, but it was as well to be cautious. 'What do you want to do?'

  'Hide!'

  They cr
ouched behind an overturned bench and waited.

  Blaster in hand, the Doctor moved along the corridor, Meeker close behind him. 'Don't worry, Leela,' he called. 'It's only me. Listen to me, Leela, there's nothing wrong with this place, it's most suitable. It's a good place... a good place...'

  Leela looked worriedly at Lowe. It was the Doctor's voice all right, but there was something wrong with the tone. All the warmth and life seemed to have gone from it. And the words were strange...

  The Doctor walked along the corridor calling, 'Leela! Come on, Leela, I'm waiting! ' He was quite calm. Leela was a reject and she must die. It was necessary.

  Suddenly the Doctor stopped, looking at the blaster in his hand as if he had never seen it before. His own personality came flooding back and he gasped a desperate appeal to the power that had invaded his mind. 'Please leave me... please! I can't do it... I can't...'

  Meeker came up behind him. 'Think of the Purpose. She is a reject. She must die. Kill her!'

  'I can't...'

  'Think of the Purpose. The Purpose is all important!'

  Lowe shifted his position, caught an empty flask with his foot. It rolled across the floor of the mess room. It was only the tiniest sound but the Doctor heard it. His mental struggle suddenly ended as the power in his mind grew stronger. He raised his blaster and marched towards the mess room. 'The reject is here.'

  Meeker paused for a moment as if listening to some silent command, then put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. 'Stay—there is danger. The Nucleus does not wish to be harmed. I shall destroy her.'

  'Kill her,' muttered the Doctor feverishly. 'Kill her!'

  Meeker sprang through the mess-room door, firing as he came.

  Lowe dodged and returned the fire. He missed, and the fringe of Meeker's blaster-bolt numbed his arm. His weapon clattered to the floor.

  Meeker raised his blaster to finish him off.

  Leela's knife flashed through the air and thudded into his chest. He fell back, choking...