DOCTOR WHO AND THE INVISIBLE ENEMY Page 4

  Marius looked down at his bristling companion. 'K9, memorise. Friend.'

  The muzzle of K9's blaster retracted. 'Memorised. Friend.'

  'Is that tin thing something to do with you?' demanded Leela.

  Marius was indignant. 'That tin thing is my best friend and constant companion. He's a computer!' Leela looked bemused and Marius explained. 'You see, on Earth I always used to have a dog. But up here, with the weight penalty, well, it's just not possible. So I had K9 made up. He's very useful, my own personal data bank. Knows everything I know, don't you, K9?'

  'Affirmative—and more—Master!'

  Ignoring this hit of robotic conceit, Marius went over to his patient. 'I'm afraid there's not much I can tell you about the Doctor yet.' He looked appraisingly at Leela. 'You know, I should like to have you scanned and datalysed.' Leela backed away in some alarm. 'Just to see why you're immune. You see, if we can isolate that factor, we can inoculate against it. Do you understand me?'

  'I'm sorry,' said Leela blankly.

  Marius looked thoughtfully at her. 'Yes. perhaps the Doctor was right. Maybe it is all a matter of intelligence...'

  Parsons came hurrying into the room, and Marius said sharply, 'Well, what about this Lowe chap? Where is he?'

  'He was in the eye section, sir, but he's disappeared. The consultant seems to have vanished as well...'

  A trolley was being wheeled slowly along the hospital corridors. Lowe lay stretched out on it, and the trolley was being pushed by the eye consultant who had attempted to treat him.

  Two young doctors appeared, walking towards them. 'Who are they?' hissed Lowe.

  'Doctors. Cruickshank and Hedges.'

  'Get them over here.'

  The consultant raised his voice. 'Cruickshank, Hedges, interesting eye-case here. Come and have a look!'

  Unsuspectingly, the two young doctors wandered over. Cruickshank bent over to look at the patient. Hedges suddenly became aware that the consultant was staring at him with strange intensity. 'What is it?'

  'Now!' hissed Lowe.

  A jagged lightning-streak flashed between the foreheads of Lowe and Cruickshank, Hedges and the consultant. Slowly the two doctors straightened up. 'Contact has been made,' said Cruickshank, in a slurred dragging voice.

  In exactly the same tone, Hedges said, 'Contact has been made.'

  Lowe sat up, and swung his legs down from the trolley. 'A place has been found, most suitable for our purpose. Titan is being prepared as a Hive. Meanwhile our duty here is twofold. To guard the Nucleus, which is in the mind of one called Doctor, and to make contact with the best minds here. When we leave for incubation on Titan, all rejects will be destroyed.'

  The consultant studied the two new servants of the Purpose. 'Do you understand?'

  'We understand,' said Cruikshank.

  'Contact must be made,' said Hedges.

  Reverently Lowe whispered, 'For the Purpose!'

  Leela lay apprehensively on a couch, being scanned by a complex of instruments similar to that surrounding the Doctor. Marius, Parsons, and a nurse stood over her. K9 waited at the foot of the bed, ready to convey the results of the scan.

  'Virus contamination would seem to be complete and total,' Marius was saying in his best lecturer's voice. 'If there is anything unique in her metabolism that enables her to resist, the scanner will detect it.'

  Lights flashed, instruments buzzed, clicked and whirred. At last K9 said, 'Negative on immunity, Master.'

  'But there must be something!'

  Parsons looked doubtful. 'But what if there isn't, sir?'

  Marius looked over at the couch that held the Doctor. 'Then he's our only guinea-pig, the only one to be affected by the disease and yet be able to resist it.' Marius came to a decision. 'I can't allow him to be taken over like those poor devils on Titan. If there's no immunity factor in Leela—I will have to operate on the Doctor!'

  Lowe and his three new recruits were walking steadily along the corridors, when suddenly Lowe stopped dead. He went rigid, a hand to his forehead. 'Contact!'

  A throaty, gurgling voice spoke inside Lowe's head. 'I am endangered...'

  Reverently Lowe said, 'It is the Nucleus...'

  'The host is threatened...' said the gurgling, in-human voice.

  Lowe listened for a moment longer then turned to the others. 'The Nucleus says that the Doctor, its host, is in danger. We must act before it is too late. Now, all of you—concentrate.'

  The captain of the Bi-Al supply shuttle sat relaxed in his command chair, his two crew members dozing in their acceleration couches behind him. They would soon be approaching Asteroid K4067, and the computer would carry out the simple docking manoeuvre with its usual efficiency... Everything was routine...

  Outside, in the blackness of space, a drifting, formless cloud had appeared from nowhere, materialising directly in the path of the shuttle. As the shuttle passed through it, lightning streaked from the cloud and played about the ship...

  Suddenly the shuttle captain noticed that the ship was increasing speed. It was boosting to maximum power-drive—and heading straight for the asteroid.

  Panic-stricken, he tried to switch the controls to manual. Lightning tentacles flashed from the computer keyboard and played over his head and those of the two dozing crewmen. The shuttle captain sat back in his chair, watching calmly as his ship hurtled towards certain disaster. Contact had been made—for the Purpose. Everything was in order...

  It took some time to prepare the Doctor for his brain operation. Marius insisted on taking scan after scan of the Doctor's brain, and he made all his preparations with agonising care. He knew that the operation was a last desperate hope, and that there was a chance the Doctor would not survive it.

  Marius accepted the responsibility unflinchingly, for he knew the alternatives. Either the Doctor would become the slave of the alien force in his mind, or he would remain, in his own words, mindless for all eternity.

  The Doctor was ready at last. Robed and masked, Marius and Parsons leaned over him as he lay on the operating table. K9 waited to monitor the operation. Leela hovered uneasily by the door, not wanting to stay, yet unwilling to leave the Doctor.

  In a calm, steady voice, Marius was giving his final instructions. 'No anaesthetics yet, Parsons, he's still in the self-induced trance. K9, monitor the brain. If he shows signs of emerging from the coma, warn me at once, otherwise the shock might kill him.'

  'Affirmative, Master.'

  Marius leaned forward, ready to make the first delicate insertion of the laser micro-probe into the Doctor's brain. A voice blared from the speaker. 'Emergency, emergency! All stations, all stations, emergency. Supply shuttle approaching base on collision course, apparently out of control, refusing to respond to signals. All medical personnel report to casualty at once. Repeat, all medical personnel.'

  Marius lowered the scalpel with a groan of protest. 'Now? Why now?'

  For a moment he considered continuing with the operation, then abandoned the idea. He could scarcely carry out a delicate brain-operation with the entire base in chaos. Besides, it was impossible to predict what damage the collision might cause. An interruption in power supplies for instance would be literally fatal.

  'Repeat, emergency, emergency!' said the speaker voice. 'All medical personnel to casualty immediately.'

  'We'll have to go, sir,' said Parsons despairingly.

  'Yes, yes, I know we have to go. K9, stay in charge here. No one is to come into contact with him. Have you got that? No one!'

  'Affirmative! '

  'Well, come along, Parsons,' roared Marius, and rushed from the room, Parsons trailing behind him. Leela stood looking anxiously down at the Doctor.

  His face was calm and still. There was no sign that he was still alive.

  The supply shuttle screamed out of space and crashed into the side of the Bi-Al building. Debris shot up-wards and floated away. Masonry, equipment and people too were sucked into space as the damaged sections depressurised.


  The shuttle embedded itself deep into the side of the building—but not at random. The point of impact had been precisely calculated...

  There was a shattering thud, cries, screams, the shriek of tortured metal and plastic. The whole room shook, lights flickered and then came on again. Leela staggered, fighting to keep her balance. The shock of the impact woke the Doctor up. He opened his eyes and said peevishly, 'What's that?'

  Leela got to her feet. 'There's been some kind of accident—a shuttle crashed. They've all gone to help.'

  'Where did it hit?'

  It was K9 who answered. 'On level X3 below. As a result of structural damage this area is now cut off.' The Doctor sat up. 'What?' he shouted.

  Lowe and his three helpers ran along a corridor, and found their way completely blocked by fallen rubble. Lowe turned to the consultant. 'We have to get to level X4. There must be other ways.'

  'We could try the service shaft—but it would take longer.'

  'Then hurry!' snarled Lowe.

  The consultant led them away.

  The voice from the speaker said, 'All available personnel to accident zone on level X3, repeat, level X3.'

  The Doctor seemed to have recovered, at least for the moment. 'I don't think that was an accident.'

  'Why not?' asked Leela.

  'It must be something to do with whatever's in my head,' said the Doctor positively. 'K9, could I have a word with you?'

  'Affirmative.'

  Leela began edging towards the door; and the Doctor said, 'Where are you off to?'

  'I think I'm needed out here.'

  Leela slipped out of the room and stationed herself just outside the isolation ward door, drawing her blaster. She didn't completely understand what was going on—but she had a well-developed instinct for approaching danger. If the accident had been planned to isolate them, as the Doctor seemed to think, it could mean only one thing—their enemies were about to attack. Pleased to be faced with a problem she could understand and deal with, Leela drew her blaster and waited...

  Inside the isolation ward the Doctor was saying impatiently, 'Cloning techniques, K9! Give me a rundown, state of the art so far...'

  K9 liked nothing better than to be asked for some of his ample store of scientific information. He gave a sudden beep, the robotic equivalent of clearing his throat. 'Cloning is a form of replication, making a copy of an individual using a single cell of that individual as a matrix. Clones retain characteristics of original organism.'

  'Go on, go on! ' said the Doctor urgently.

  'Successful experiments first carried out in the year thirty-nine, twenty-two.'

  'Thirty-nine, twenty-two. Good, good! Carry on.' K9 continued his lecture. 'More recently, the development of the Kilbracken technique of rapid holograph-cloning...'

  The Doctor listened, his mind racing. He was beginning to form a plan... a plan that would enable him to fight back at the strange force that threatened to take him over. He had very little time...

  6

  The Clones

  The end of the corridor was totally blocked by a twisted mass of metal—the remains of the shuttle-craft that had embedded itself into the foundation. Surrounded by members of his rescue squad, the faithful Parsons at his side, Marius was examining two shattered bodies that had been recovered from the wreckage, Both had curiously thickened eyebrows and a metallic rash about the eyes.

  Marius straightened up, his face grave. 'If these two unfortunates have contracted the virus, we must assume that they all have. If we attempt further rescue and treatment, the disease could spread like wildfire and wipe out the entire Foundation.' He waved the rescue squad away. 'Everybody back. Clear the area. Everybody out of here! ' He turned to the head of the squad. 'I want the whole area cryogenically cocooned until we find out more about the nature of this virus. Get out the helium pumps. Parsons, nurse, come with me, we must attend to the Doctor!'

  Other people had plans for the Doctor, too. Lowe and his three aides were creeping towards the door of the isolation ward. They had broken into a security-locker, and now all four were armed with blasters.

  Lowe was in the lead. He edged round a corner—and found himself facing Leela, blaster in hand. Mutually astonished, both fired at the same time. Both missed.

  'Destroy her,' screamed Lowe. 'That's the reject.'

  'Reject yourself,' shouted Leela, and sent another blaster-bolt sizzling towards his head. Lowe ducked back just in time. He and the others found cover and began shooting back. Soon blaster-bolts were sizzling up and down the corridor.

  In the middle of it all Marius and Parsons came running along the corridor from the other direction, followed by Marius's nurse. Leela yelled over her shoulder, 'It's Lowe—he's got the disease! Get inside, I'll cover you.'

  The three leaped inside the isolation ward where K9 was just concluding his lecture. 'At present, holographic-cloning technique is simple but unreliable.'

  'Hurry, K9, hurry!'

  Rapidly speeding up his delivery K9 gabbled, 'Holographic replicas do not maintain their existence because of possible unsolved psychic problems.'

  'How long, how long?' demanded the Doctor.

  'Longest recorded life, ten minutes.'

  'Ten minutes fifty-five seconds,' corrected Marius. The Doctor looked up eagerly. 'Professor Marius, could you clone me?'

  Marius shrugged. 'Certainly. The Kilbracken technique is almost absurdly simple. But it's a circus trick, no medical value.'

  'Could you clone me now?'

  'Now?'

  'Yes. Because if you don't clone me now, and the virus gets to me, it'll take the whole Centre over.'

  Leela fired off a final volley of blaster-bolts. The last one fizzled out in a dispirited whine. She ducked back inside the ward. 'Can't hold them off any longer, out of ammunition.'

  'K9!' snapped Marius. 'Kalaylee!'

  'Affirmative, Master!'

  'What does that mean?'

  Marius smiled grimly. 'He knows!

  Blaster-muzzle projecting, K9 trundled out into the corridor like a small canine tank. He blazed away at the attackers, who were rushing forwards, confident of victory. His first shot blasted down the astonished Hedges. Lowe and the others turned and fled. When they were safe round the corner, Lowe paused. 'We'll never get past them that way. Is there a visiphone?'

  'In my office,' said the consultant. They hurried away.

  Marius and his nurse were supervising the installation of a portable booth with opaque plastic sides, not un-like a twentieth-century telephone kiosk. A tiny control panel was set into one side. 'Hurry, Marius, hurry! ' urged the Doctor. His brief spell of recovery seemed to be coming to an end, and he was weakening rapidly. Deep in his mind, the dormant virus was struggling to reassert its control.

  Marius checked circuit-connections, and waved the technicians away. He went over to the Doctor, lifted a scalpel from an instrument-tray held by his nurse and took a minute sample of the Doctor's skin.

  'You must realise, Doctor, that this will not be, in any real sense a clone but a short-lived carbon-based imprint, a sort of living, three-dimensional photograph.'

  The Doctor's strength was fading rapidly. 'Leela,' he muttered. 'I shall need Leela...' He fell back, unconscious.

  Leela checked the blaster she'd taken from Hedges's body. 'What did he mean, he needs me?'

  'It must be because you are immune. I think he wants you cloned as well.'

  Marius picked up his scalpel and reached for Leela's hand.

  'But what will happen to me, the real me?'

  'Nothing. Nothing at all,' said Marius soothingly. 'But you said it was just short-lived.'

  Marius transferred his skin sample into the special cloning dish and added the necessary nutrient solutions, talking as he worked. 'A permanent clone or copy is theoretically possible, but it would take years to achieve because of the experiential gap.' He carried the containers over to the booth. 'Now in this way we manage to transfer both heredity and
experience, but the transfer is unstable...'

  'What does that mean?'

  Marius sighed. 'It means that your photo-copy twin will deteriorate and vanish after a maximum life of ten or eleven minutes.'

  Leela felt it would be rather unpleasant, watching yourself fade away and disappear. 'Oh, I see,' she said politely. 'Then in that case I don't think I'll stay to see her. If you need me I shall be with K9.'

  'Yes, yes, yes,' said Marius impatiently, and carried the first cloning dish over to the booth. He nodded to Parsons, who switched on the machine. There was a hum of power and a steadily rising beep. The booth was flooded with dazzling light, and inside the radiance a shape began to form

  It cohered, solidified, and seconds late the Doctor stepped out of the booth. The second self was identical to the Doctor on the couch—the Kilbracken technique had reproduced every detail, including clothing. The new Doctor nodded briefly to Marius and headed for the door.

  'Doctor, where are you going?'

  The new Doctor turned. 'Trust me, Professor Marius, just trust me.' He disappeared through the door.

  Marius sighed. 'I hope he knows what he's doing. Come along, Parsons, we'd better get on with cloning the girl.' He picked up the second cloning dish and carried it over to the booth.

  Leela, the real Leela, looked up in astonishment when the Doctor, apparently restored to full health, Caine out of the ward and strode briskly down the corridor.

  Staring after his disappearing figure she asked, 'Which one was that?'

  K9's sensors enabled him to differentiate between original and carbon copy. 'That was the Doctor-2.'

  'Can you explain?'

  'Affirmative.'

  'Well?'

  'The Kilbracken holograph-cloning technique replicates from a single cell a short-lived carbon copy. Efficacy of individuation not completely guaranteed.'

  'Can you explain simply?'

  'Negative! ' said K9.

  The consultant led Lowe and Cruickshank into the eye section—and straight into one of the consultant's students, who looked curiously at them. 'Come here,' snapped the consultant. The student came over to them. Lightning sizzled between the consultant's forehead and his own...