DOCTOR WHO AND THE INVISIBLE ENEMY Read online

  In one smooth movement, Lecla sprang across the room, plucked her knife from his chest, snatched the blaster from his hand and moved into the corridor.

  Rubbing his arm, Lowe went over to the dying Meeker and bent over him. 'Meeker! ' he whispered urgently. 'This Purpose... what is it?'

  The dying man looked up—and smiled. A fiery tentacle.of lightning flashed between his forehead and Lowe's...

  Leela saw a huddled shape lying face down at the end of the corridor. It was the Doctor. She was hurrying towards it when she heard a voice behind her. 'Leave it to me, I know this place.' Another crewman was running along the corridor.

  Leela leaped behind the shelter of a projecting massive pipe and waited in ambush.

  Behind her the Doctor rolled over and raised himself on one elbow. He lifted his blaster, training it upon Leela's back. The hand that held the weapon was covered with a thick grojvth of coarse metallic hair.

  The Doctor's finger tightened on the trigger.

  4

  Foundation

  A deep, horribly gurgling voice spoke inside the Doctor's head. 'The reject must be destroyed. Kill the reject. Kill it.' Somehow the Doctor found the strength to resist. 'I can't...' he gasped. 'I won't.'

  'You must!

  The Doctor's body convulsed, and he gave a strangled cry. 'Look out, Leela, I can't stop it.' In spite of his effort to resist, his finger pulled the trigger. But the Doctor's internal struggle had thrown off his aim. The blaster bolt passed harmlessly over Leela's head, narrowly missing Safran who was edging his way along the corridor. Safran jumped back, just as Lowe appeared in the mess-room doorway. Outnumbered, Safran turned and fled, and Lowe ran in pursuit.

  The Doctor writhed on the floor, at war with himself. With a desperate effort he snatched the blaster from his own hand and threw it away from him, writhing in agony. 'Got to fight it, got to fight it,' he muttered feverishly.

  Leela knelt down beside him. 'Doctor, what's happening? What was all that?'

  The Doctor's face was twisted with strain. 'I'm fighting for my lives,' he whispered feebly. 'Whatever attacked the others is affecting me.'

  'Then why doesn't it affect me?'

  'Perhaps because...'

  Another spasm shook the Doctor's body. 'I can feel it gathering strength to attack again.'

  'The Evil One?'

  Almost inaudibly the Doctor whispered, 'Some kind of organism that attacks the mind... the intelligence. It's trying to take me over, Leela.'

  'No, Doctor, please...'

  'I need help... I must withdraw into myself. Save strength...' "I'he Doctor's head fell back, and he lapsed into a self-induced trance. Only by suspending all the functions of his body could he gain the strength he needed to fight the intruder in his mind.

  Leela looked worriedly down at him. Again she murmured, 'But why not me?'

  Lowe caught up with Safran at the airlock door. He was desperately swinging the locking wheel, and it was clear that he intended to take refuge in the shuttle craft. At the sound of Lowe's approach he swung round, blaster raised, but Lowe snapped, 'No! Contact has been made. We are one, Safran.'

  Safran stared hard at him. There was a metallic rash around Lowe's eyes, and his eyebrows were beginning to thicken.

  'Then why do you pursue me?'

  'For the Purpose... The Doctor still resists the power of the Nucleus. You will stay here and prepare the tank for incubation. He does not suspect me yet. I will stay with them, to guard the Nucleus—and to destroy the reject.'

  They heard light, padding footsteps coming along the corridor. 'It is the reject,' said Lowe. He snatched a pair of space-goggles from Safran's belt and thrust the crewman to the ground.

  When Leela came round the corner, Lowe was fitting the goggles over his eyes. Safran's body sprawled at his feet. Leela looked clown at it. 'You got him, then?'

  'Yes—but he almost got me. My eyes... I caught the flash from his blaster.'

  'You must come with me,' ordered Leela. 'The Doctor is ill, very ill. He told me to find help.'

  Lowe looked worried. 'There are only the most basic medical facilities here...'

  'Where must we go then?'

  They began hurrying back along the corridor to the Doctor. 'Well,' said Lowe doubtfully, 'the nearest place would be the Centre for Alien Biomorphology, the Bi-Al Foundation. It's in the asteroid belt.'

  'We'll take the TARDIS,' said Leela decisively. She looked down at the Doctor, who muttered and stirred. 'Doctor, we're taking you somewhere to get help, but we'll need the TARDIS.' She turned to Lowe. 'Where are we going?'

  'It's the Bi-Al Foundation, Asteroid K4067.'

  'What are the co-ordinates, Doctor?' She leaned over the Doctor and shook him. 'Doctor, what are the co-ordinates?'

  The Doctor opened his eyes. 'Vector 1, 9, Quadrant 3.

  Lifting the Doctor between them, they began carrying him towards the TARDIS. Leela muttered the co-ordinates to herself. 'Vector 1, 9, Quadrant 3.' Her knowledge of technical matters was almost nil, but she had seen the Doctor take off in the TARDIS often enough. Moreover, the Doctor had instructed her in basic takeoff and landing procedures, saying she might need the information in some emergency.

  Now that emergency had arrived. As she lifted the TARDIS key from round the Doctor's neck, Leela hoped desperately that she could remember what she'd been told. It looked as if the Doctor's life depended on it.

  The Bi-Al Foundation was one of the largest and most impressive research hospitals in the galaxy, occupying almost the entire centre of the huge, hollowed-out asteroid. Set up by a number of business conglomerates back on Earth, it was ideally placed to deal with the frequent injuries and many strange ailments encountered by the explorers who passed through the asteroid belt on their way to the outer planets.

  The Foundation's thousands of gleaming windows shone brilliantly out into the blackness of space, level upon level of them. Embedded in the centre of the building was an enormous glowing red cross, symbol of the healer since the earliest days of Man.

  They were used to strange craft and strange travellers at the Bi-Al Foundation. Once the staff had recovered from the shock of the TARDIS materialisation in main reception, they were treated like any other space travellers. White-clad nurses lifted the Doctor on to a trolley, and carried him to a lift, which whisked him out of sight with a pneumatic whoosh.

  Leela and Lowe were left at the reception desk, where an icily efficient lady sat in the midst of an array of communication devices. Leela looked uneasily around her. Long white corridors radiated off from this central area. There were bustling doctors and nurses in their different coloured robes, huddled patients waiting on their benches. Although she didn't know it, this was a basic hospital scene that hadn't changed for thousands of years.

  The receiving officer was looking at her impatiently, fingers poised over the computer terminal input keys. 'Patient's name?'

  'Er—he's just called the Doctor.'

  'Place of origin?'

  'Gallifrey.'

  'That's Earth, isn't it? Ireland?'

  'I expect so.'

  'Thank you, that's all we need for now.'

  'But where is he?'

  'Level X4, Isolation.'

  The receiving officer touched a control, and a monitor screen showed the Doctor lying on a bed, surrounded by a complex array of automated diagnostic instruments. 'He's being datalysed.'

  'Being what?' asked Leela, alarmed.

  'Treatment is already under way,' said the receptionist with professional reassurance. 'Are you next of kin?'

  'Oh... yes. I don't know. I expect so.'

  Lowe came up to the reception desk. 'Where's the Doctor?'

  'They've taken him away,' said Leela helplessly. 'To level X4.'

  'X4?'

  'Isolation wing,' repeated the nurse briskly. She looked at Lowe's goggled face. 'And what's your trouble?'

  'Blaster flash—it was an accident.'

  The receptionist pointed. 'Ey
e section, straight through, they'll deal with you there.'

  Lowe nodded to Leela. 'I'll find you later, then.' He hurried away.

  'Can I see the Doctor?' asked Leela hopefully. 'Not until Professor Marius has examined him.'

  'Marius?'

  'He's our specialist in extra-terrestrial pathological endomorphisms,' said the receptionist proudly. Then her manner became formal again. 'Will you wait there please?'

  She pointed to a row of seats. Leela sat down to wait.

  The Doctor lay unconscious on a bed in the isolation ward. Standing over him was Professor Marius, a stocky Germanic figure, whose comfortable, informal clothes indicated that he was too senior to be bothered with looking respectable. An explosively cheerful professor from New Heidelberg University, Marius had come to the asteroid belt in search of new and rare diseases. So far he had come up with nothing sufficiently exotic to satisfy him.

  Hovering beside the bed were Parsons, Marius's keen young assistant, and his senior nurse. Also included in the little group was the squat metallic creature that stood near the bottom of the bed. It looked curiously like a kind of squared-off metal dog, with a computer display screen for eyes, and antennae for ears and tail. At the moment it was studying the Doctor's motionless form with a very sophisticated battery of scanning devices. A strip of computer-print-out papers began sprouting from its mouth, rather like a very long tongue.

  When the print-out strip stopped protruding itself, Marius leaned down, patted the metal creature on the head, and tore off the strip.

  He studied it for a moment and then looked up at his two assistants. 'Blithering idiots! ' he said witheringly.

  Doctor Parsons and the Nurse exchanged glances and said nothing. They were used to Professor Marius.

  'This man is in a self-induced coma,' continued Marius. 'There's absolutely nothing wrong with the fellow. Look at him—he's probably one of these good-for-nothing spaceniks!' Descendants of the hippies and beatniks of the late twentieth century, spaceniks were penniless wanderers who somehow managed to smuggle themselves on board various kinds of space craft in their desire to commune with the mysteries of the universe. Since they were without either financial resources or technical skills, they usually landed in trouble, and had to be ferried home by the Terrestrial Government at enormous expense.

  Marius looked disgustedly at the untidy specimen before him. 'Why have I been sent for? Tell me that —why? It's a complete and utter waste of my valuable time!'

  With a kind of electronic growl, K9 produced another data strip. Parsons studied it. 'Excuse me, sir.'

  'What is it now?'

  'K9 indicates that this patient is not a member of the human race.'

  Marius turned. 'Nonsense. Just look at him.'

  'See for yourself, sir,' insisted Parsons. He passed Marius the data strip. 'Two hearts and a self-renewing cell structure.'

  Marius looked down. 'Is that right, K9?'

  The little creature spoke in a gruff metallic voice. 'Affirmative, Master.'

  Marius examined the Doctor with a good deal more interest. 'Non-human, is he? Point of origin?'

  'Beyond the solar system.'

  With heavy sarcasm, Marius said, 'Thank you, K9.'

  'Master,' said the metal dog smugly. Irony was wasted on automatons.

  Marius turned to the nurse, 'Let's get an encephalograph out on him, eh?'

  The nurse reached for a complex piece of equipment on a flexible arm, and swung it close to the Doctor's head.

  K9 transmitted the results. 'Unidentified viral-type infection with noetic characteristics. At present seated in the mind-brain interface, and therefore having no ascertainable mass or structure—Master.'

  Marius rubbed his hands. 'Interesting! Most interesting! Not every day we discover a brand-new infection, eh, Parsons?'

  'No, sir,' said Parsons dutifully.

  The Doctor opened his eyes. 'Hello! ' he said cheerfully.

  Marius was delighted. 'Good evening! '

  The Doctor looked at the maze of electronic equipment surrounding his bed. 'Find anything?'

  'Not yet, my boy, but we will!' Marius looked at the chart at the bottom of the Doctor's bed. 'You're a Doctor, I see.'

  'That's right. Come on now, what have you found?'

  'Cataleptic trance?' suggested Marius.

  'Yes.'

  'Self-induced?'

  'Yes.'

  'Why?'

  'Self-preservation,' said the Doctor simply. 'Whatever it is I'm suffering from seems to thrive on mental activity.'

  Marius was fascinated. 'I see... so the harder you think, the more of a grip it seems to take?'

  'That's right. Non-thinking is the only way to shake it off—but I can't stay mindless for eternity, can I?'

  'Take your point. take your point,' mumbled Marius sympathetically. 'Now. my computer here...'

  The Doctor looked down and seemed quite unsurprised to see a robot dog at the end of his bed. 'Hello, old chap, good dog! '

  'Hullo!' said K9 politely.

  'And how are you?'

  Before K9 could reply, Marius cut firmly through these social exchanges. 'As I was saying, Doctor, K9 seems to think that the virus is noetic in character—which means it would only be detectable during consciousness.'

  'I know what noetic means,' said the Doctor irritably.

  'I'm sorry.'

  The Doctor waved the apology aside. 'So, the virus is somewhere in the mind-brain interface?'

  Marius shrugged. 'If it exists...'

  The Doctor was caught up in his own deductions. 'Of course, how stupid. That's why it attacked the TARDIS computer first, because it was showing the greatest amount of mental activity. I was just idling, so to speak...'

  'When was this?'

  'When we were first attacked, on our way to Titan. I assumed it was just a static build-up. And then when I checked the computer it jumped into my mind—and that explains why Leela was unaffected. Have you met Leela? She's all instinct and intuition. That's why the virus rejected her. Of course, I can see it all now!'

  'It's possible, possible,' said Marius, who didn't really see at all. A thought struck him. 'Was anyone else exposed to this virus of yours?'

  'Yes, the entire crew on Titan succumbed to it—with one exception, a man called Lowe. He came here with us...'

  'Supervisor Lowe is in the eye section,' volunteered K9. He was linked to the main hospital computer and knew most of what went on.

  'Are you sure?' snapped Marius.

  'Affirmative.' As always when his answers were questioned, there was a slightly huffy note in K9's voice.

  Marius turned to the Doctor. 'Are you sure that this man Lowe was exposed—'

  He broke off. The Doctor was lying back motionless, eyes closed. Feeling the alien force in his mind gathering strength, struggling to lash out and take over Marius and the others, the Doctor had returned to his trance, determined to starve it of the mental energy upon which it fed.

  'Oh, he's gone again,' said Marius disappointedly. 'I want him kept under constant observation. Full monitoring. See to it, K9.'

  'Affirmative, Master.'

  Marius turned to his assistant. 'We'd better get hold of this chap Lowe and take a look at him. Even if he wasn't affected, he could still be a carrier...'

  Supervisor Lowe was sitting in an examination chair with an eye specialist standing over him. 'How did this happen?'

  'An accident—on Titan.'

  'What sort of accident?'

  Lowe didn't reply. The specialist sighed. 'Well, let's have a look at you...'

  'Certainly,' said Lowe. He lifted the goggles from his eyes, and a sudden lightning-streak flashed between his forehead and that of the doctor.

  The specialist staggered back, hand to his eyes. When he lowered the hand a second later, his face was quite calm.

  In a slurred, dragging voice he said, 'Contact has been made.'

  5

  Counter-attack

  It didn't
take Leela very long to get bored, sitting in the reception area waiting for news. She'd never been one to pay much attention to the orders of authority. Choosing a moment when the receptionist was busy, Leela slipped out of her seat, and went to look for the Doctor.

  She'd memorised the only clue she had to his whereabouts—level X4—and there were plenty of signs to follow. There were plenty of people moving along the white corridors, specialists striding in solitary majesty, chattering groups of medical students, nurses murmuring quietly together. One or two people glanced curiously at her, but the Bi-Al Foundation was used to strange visitors. No one made any attempt to stop her, or ask her where she was going.

  Distrusting the high-speed lift, Lcela reached level X4 by climbing endless flights of service stairs. When she reached level X4 at last, she found herself in another complex of white corridors, though these were silent and empty.

  She saw a door ahead of her marked 'Isolation Wing. Strictly No Admittance', and promptly opened it.

  Behind it she found the Doctor, stretched out on a kind of couch, surrounded by an array of instruments. 'Doctor!' said Leela delightedly.

  To her astonishment, a kind of robot animal glided from the other side of the couch and began barking orders at her. 'Negative, negative, negative, no entry!'

  Leela had no intention of being chased away now she'd found the Doctor at last. Her hand went to the blaster thrust into her belt. 'Look, you—whatever-you-are...'

  'I am K9,' interrupted the little creature importantly, 'and I am warning you...'

  Leela drew her blaster. 'Look, I came to see the Doctor—I arrived with him.'

  K9 ignored the explanation, his attention focused on Leela's blaster. 'I too have offensive capability,' he said proudly. A stubby blaster-muzzle protruded from just under his nose. 'You have been warned. Retreat, retreat!' K9 glided menacingly towards Leela. 'Patient in total isolation. Contagion risk. Retreat, retreat!'

  Leela backed away—and bumped straight into the stocky figure of Professor Marius, who was just coming through the door behind her. 'Who are you?'

  'I am Leela.'

  'Ah, yes, of course. The Doctor's aide?'

  'I think so.'