DOCTOR WHO AND THE CLAWS OF AXOS Page 5

'Thank you for the warning, Brigadier. Captain Harker, I want these men under twenty-four hour armed guard, inside the Complex. They are to communicate with no one, you understand? No one! If you need me I shall be at the Nuton Complex myself.'

  Chinn, Hardiman,and Winser left. Seconds later, came the sound of their car driving off. Captain Harker moved over to the Brigadier. 'I must ask for your weapon, sir.'

  Slowly the Brigadier drew his service revolver and handed it over.

  'Thank you, sir. Now, if you'll all come with me?'

  The Brigadier, Yates and Benton were escorted from the room by the soldiers. The Captain waited, looking enquiringly at the Doctor and Jo, who hadn't moved.

  Almost absent-mindedly, the Doctor waved him away. 'Your orders don't apply to us, young man. We're both civilians, aren't we, Jo?'

  Jo nodded, although actually they were nothing of the sort. They were both members of UNIT, and she was quite sure that Chinn had intended them to be arrested with the others.

  Harker looked worried. 'I shall have to check with Mr Chinn, sir.'

  'Then do so. Now if you don't mind, we have important work to do.' The Doctor began leafing through a pile of reports.

  Captain Harker hesitated. There was something very impressive about the Doctor's air of casual authority. He was already unhappy about his orders, and he certainly didn't want to exceed them. 'Very well, sir. You can stay here for the time being. I should warn you that all communications are in the hands of my own men and there are armed guards outside.'

  Totally absorbed in his reports, the Doctor didn't seem to hear him. Harker paused, then went out of the control room.

  The Doctor looked up at Jo and grinned. 'For a while, I didn't think it was going to work.'

  'Well it won't work, not for long. As soon as he checks with Chinn, we'll be locked up with the others.'

  'Never mind. We've gained a little time and we must make good use of it. Now, tell me everything that happened to you in the Axon ship. I want to know more about this creature you saw. And are you certain you heard Bill Filer?'

  'You mean you believe me?'

  The Doctor looked hurt. 'Of course I do, Jo. I believed you all the time.'

  Filer and the Master didn't enjoy their freedom for very long. As they dashed down a corridor they found the golden form of the Axon leader waiting for them. Tentacles sprang out from the walls and held them in a remorseless grip. More Axons appeared and surrounded them.

  The Master became very angry. 'I demand that you set me free. I have kept my part of the bargain. I insist...'

  'Silence!' There was such concentrated malignancy in the Axon leader's voice that even the Master was quelled. 'Take the human away.'

  The tentacles holding Filer loosened their grip, and two Axons began dragging him away. He struggled wildly but the Axons had inhuman strength. 'What's going on?' he yelled. 'Where are you taking me?'

  Surprisingly the Axon leader answered him. 'To the replication section.'

  The Master watched dispassionately as his fellow prisoner was dragged away. 'Goodbye, Filer. I don't think we shall be meeting again.'

  The Axon leader turned to his helpers. 'Take the Time Lord back to his cell.' Remorselessly, the golden figures closed in on the Master.

  Jo finished her story and looked up at the Doctor. 'What's going on, Doctor? What is Axonite, really?'

  'Beads and tinsel for fools and savages... and something more. Why should they foist this gift on Earth? What do they want?' The Doctor frowned. 'Frankly, Jo, I find myself in something of a quanchy.'

  Jo remembered the Doctor's conversation with Winser, the interest he'd shown in the possible applications of Axonite to Time travel, 'About which side you're on? For a while I thought you were changing sides.'

  The Doctor seemed determined to change the subject. He tapped the pile of UNIT reports. 'What about this car they found? And the body?'

  Jo shrugged. 'The car was Filer's all right. The body disintegrated when they touched it.'

  'So it could have been Filer?'

  'No! I tell you I heard him. He's still alive, inside the Axon ship.'

  'I only hope you're right, Jo.'

  'I tell you he's in there. And we've got to get him out. We'll make the Axons let us search the ship.'

  A familiar, hated voice spoke out. 'You will do no such thing.' Chinn was in the doorway, Winser and Captain Harker by his side. He marched up to Jo and said angrily, 'There will be no search. As far as I am concerned, the man Filer has ceased to exist.'

  Struggling against restraining tentacles, Filer was once more a helpless captive, this time in another part of the Axon ship. He sensed he was somewhere close to the power sources. The walls glowed more brightly, and a deep throbbing filled the air. Bright multi-coloured lights flashed before his eyes, and waves of dizziness swept over him.

  Dimly Filer became aware that something was happening to the wall opposite him. A long bulge was forming, swelling out... A bulge about the size and shape of a man. Filer struggled wildly as the bulge became a writhing many-tentacled monster. It changed again into the familiar golden form of an Axon. Then the creature began a third and final change, and Filer's eyes widened in horror at the unbelievable sight before him... He was looking at himself.

  Jo used every argument she could think of to persuade Chinn to search for Filer. But she soon realised she was wasting her time—Chinn simply refused to listen. Finally she turned away in disgust. 'All you care about, Mr Chinn, is your contemptible under-hand deal with the Axons!'

  'That agreement is vitally important, young lady, and I will allow nothing to prejudice its success. This man Filer is not going to cause an unpleasant incident. There will be no search. The man is expendable and that is that! ' Chinn paused for breath. 'Captain Harker, have them both taken to the Complex and put them with the Brigadier. Remember, they are to be held incommunicado—no contact with anyone.'

  Suddenly Winser said, 'Take the girl by all means. But not the Doctor. He's going to help me with the preliminary investigations of Axonite.'

  Chinn thought for a moment. 'Very well. But remember this, Doctor. The slightest hint of sabotage or delay—and it's your head on the block, not mine.'

  The Doctor ignored him, and turned to Winser, 'After you, my dear fellow. I can't wait to begin our collaboration.'

  As Winser and the Doctor moved off, Jo said sadly, 'So you have changed sides after all, Doctor?'

  The Doctor paused in the doorway, and gave her a benign smile. 'A matter of basic loyalties, my dear. I'm afraid mine must always be to science.'

  The Master looked up as the golden figure of the Axon leader entered the cell. 'Well? Am I to be released?'

  'Perhaps. This indeed is a rich planet you have brought us to.'

  'Then set me free!'

  'In due course. As yet we have only gained a foot-hold on this planet. For us to achieve the maximum nutrient value, Axonite must encircle this world within the next seventy-two Earth hours...'

  'And something's gone wrong?' The Master looked keenly at his captor, sensing that there was a reason behind this visit.

  Briefly the Axon told of the agreement reached with Chinn. 'We were forced to accept his terms. The Doctor and the Brigadier were suspicious. They might have refused to accept Axonite. The greed of the human called Chinn blinded him to all dangers.'

  The Master laughed scornfully. 'And now your hands are tied. For Axonite to be distributed world-wide this secret agreement must be broken. I can do that for you—if you give me my freedom. We made a bargain...'

  'But the contract is not yet completed. The bargain, you remember, was that if we spared you and your TARDIS, you would lead us to this planet.'

  'As I have done!' The Master's voice was savage. 'And you made me a further promise. The death of the Doctor—and the destruction of all life on this miserable planet.'

  'Of course. But when this Doctor visited our ship, our sensors detected something you failed to tell us. The Doctor is a
lso a Time Lord, is he not?'

  Two more Axons carried the unconscious body of Filer into the cell, and flung it into a corner.

  The Axon raised a hand and the tentacles holding the Master relaxed their grip. 'Come. You may explain your plan. But remember—no one is irreplaceable.'

  The Doctor stood looking round Winser's laboratory, a fixed expression of admiration on his face. Privately he was thinking that Winner's equipment was both primitive and clumsy. But it might serve his purpose. A plan was beginning to form in the Doctor's mind...

  Dominating the enormous laboratory was Winser's pride and joy—the Particle Accelerator. It was a complicated piece of equipment resembling in appearance a massive electronic cannon. In the centre of the 'barrel' section was a transparent door, made of heavy-duty plastic, and just in front of the giant machine stood a three-sided control panel.

  The Doctor glanced casually around the huge circular room, taking his bearings. It was rather like being on the inside of a vast pottery kiln. An iron staircase led to a viewing gallery, and just above the gallery was the main control room. A huge picture window looked from it onto the laboratory. The Doctor could see Chinn peering suspiciously down at him, Hardiman at his side. The laboratory was in a separate wing, and the Doctor knew that there were armed soldiers outside. Chinn wasn't taking any chances with his precious Axonite. The golden casket stood on a laboratory bench nearby.

  The Doctor walked round the Particle Accelerator, his mind rapidly absorbing Winser's explanations. Winser touched a massive lever. 'These sub-controls are linked to those in the main control-room up there—this lever brings in the entire output of Reactor One.'

  The Doctor nodded. 'And with that colossal surge of power you accelerate the particles in an ever-increasing electromagnetic field?'

  Winser nodded, surprised at how quickly the Doctor had grasped the purpose and function of the complex machinery. 'Precisely. Eventually I expect to achieve controlled acceleration up to and beyond the speed of light.' There was a fanatical gleam in Winser's eyes and his voice was hushed. 'Once beyond that, the particles will be travelling in the fourth dimension... and I shall begin my experiments into the nature of Time itself.'

  'With the ultimate aim of achieving Time travel?'

  Winser nodded eagerly, relieved to find a fellow scientist who didn't think his theories too wild even to discuss. 'Why not?'

  'Why not indeed?' The Doctor beamed at him. 'Well, it's all most impressive. Much larger than my own set-up of course,' he added casually. 'Mine's only about the size of... well, say a police box.'

  'Your set up? You mean to tell me you've already been working with...'

  'With a Time machine? Oh yes, very successfully too, for a while. Then I ran into some snags.'

  The snags to which the Doctor referred were the laws of his own people, the Time Lords. As part of his sentence of exile to Earth, they had somehow prevented the TARDIS from functioning. In addition, they had clouded that part of the Doctor's memory that held the vital Temporal Equations, so that he was unable to repair it. But the Doctor was still determined to outwit them. Perhaps, in conjunction with Winser, he could somehow re-discover the information he needed. He sighed theatrically. 'Bit of a lash-up, the old TARDIS. But it functioned. I wish you could have seen it when it was working...'

  Winser was still grappling with the Doctor's extraordinary claim. 'Why have I never heard of this research? You've published nothing?'

  'Er, no. Well, not in England, anyway.'

  'Where then?'

  'Oh, elsewhere. You see, old chap, I had a sort of breakdown. Believe me, afterwards I was a changed man! There are quite a few things I still can't remember.'

  'How convenient!'

  The Doctor shook his head. 'Most inconvenient, actually.' A sudden thought seemed to strike him. 'Still if you'd be interested in having a look at the old TARDIS, perhaps we could have it brought down?'

  Winser gave him a puzzled look. 'Are you really serious about all this?'

  The Doctor put a friendly hand on Winser's shoulder. 'Quite serious, I assure you. We could swop a few ideas... cannibalise a few parts. Perhaps even get the old TARDIS operational.' He crossed to the laboratory bench and put his hand on the lid of the golden casket. 'Now we've got this stuff—we might as well make good use of it! '

  The Master walked into the brain area of Axos, then stopped short in astonishment. Before the great eye on its flexible stalk stood a familiar figure. Filer! Not the exhausted, broken figure he had last seen but a new Filer, fresh and alert. The whispering voice of Axos filled the air around them.

  'The other Time Lord will be with the Axonite. You will find him and bring him here.'

  The Axon with the face and body of Filer nodded stiffly and walked away.

  6

  Escape from Axos

  'No, Doctor! I simply won't hear of it!'

  The Doctor groaned. His collaboration with Winser was getting off to a very poor start. The trouble was that Winser, being a careful and logical man, liked to carry out his experiments in a succession of careful and logical steps. The Doctor on the other hand favoured a more empirical approach—or as he himself expressed it, 'try it and see'. It was this attitude that was drawing such anguished protests from Winser. The Doctor stood by the Particle Accelerator, the golden casket in his hand.

  'All we do is put the Axonite in here and whizz it about until we crack it down into particles!'

  Winser was horrified. 'Far too dangerous. The whole lot could blow up.'

  'But don't you see, it's the simplest way to break the Axonite down.'

  'Doctor, if you think I'm going to risk fifty million pounds worth of equipment... And how would we analyse the results?'

  'If Axonite is a "thinking molecule", it should analyse itself. All we have to do is link up with the computer and read the print-out!'

  'Analyse itself, indeed.' Winser beckoned a hovering assistant. 'That spectroscope set up yet?'

  The assistant nodded, so intimidated by the row that he scarcely dared speak. Winser took the casket from the Doctor and marched to the far corner of the laboratory.

  The Doctor watched him in disgust. 'Spectroscope,' he muttered. 'You might just as well look at it through a very large magnifying glass!'

  Winser turned. 'What was that, Doctor?'

  'Oh nothing, my dear fellow. Just coming! '

  Muttering 'Pompous ass,' (but well under breath this time) the Doctor followed Winser across the lab.

  Filer awoke slowly, his mind in a whirl of panic. Golden men and tentacled monsters had been bad enough. But seeing one of the Axon monsters turning into a copy of himself had been almost too much. Now Filer knew he had to escape. The Axons had created his replica for some purpose of their own—and whatever it was, he had to stop them.

  Filer looked round. He was back in the cell area, alone this time. Tentacles were holding him—but their grip was slack and weak. He moved, and the tentacles tightened. Filer lay very still, thinking hard. Clearly the tentacles were activated by movement. The more he struggled the tighter they would grip, So if he moved very, very slowly... Cautiously, inch by inch, Filer began edging towards the cell exit.

  The Master stood in the Brain area, scrutinised by the Eye of Axos. He was pleading for his freedom with all the force at his command. 'I know the ways of the humans,' he urged. 'I can move freely, I am familiar with their organisations, their system. You do not have time to learn these things. If your Nutrition Cycle is to be activated within the next seventy-two hours, you must have world-wide distribution of Axonite.'

  Behind the eye a part of the wall became a screen. Light-patterns flowed across it as the computer-like Brain of Axos considered and checked the Master's arguments. Then the Voice said, 'Data confirms feasibility of alien's plan. Motivation questionable. Decision... release Time Lord but retain Time Capsule until successful completion of mission.'

  The Master cursed silently. The Brain had guessed his intentions all too well.
Once free of Axos he had planned to make one further attempt to kill the Doctor and then leave Earth, leaving the Axons to succeed or fail on their own. Now he was trapped, committed to helping the Axons as he had promised. As if to taunt him, a far recess of the Brain area lit up, revealing a plain white dome—about the size of a police box. It was the Master's TARDIS, in its basic, uncamouflaged form. He looked longingly towards it.

  'I must have my TARDIS. Give it back to me.'

  There was a mocking tone in the sibilant Voice. 'Negative. The Time Capsule is not needed for success of mission.'

  'At least return my laser-pistol. I may need to de-fend myself.'

  'Return of weapon is acceptable. Retention of Time Capsule will prevent hostile action.'

  The Axon leader produced a stubby laser-pistol and handed it to the Master, who concealed it beneath his coat. 'Come,' he ordered, and led the Master away.

  Filer walked very slowly, very calmly along the corridors of Axos, trying to find his way to some kind of exit. His every instinct screamed at him to run at top speed, but logic told him that this would trigger off Axon alarm systems. Step by step, he made his way, pausing only when he saw movement at a corridor junction. It was the Master, the Axon leader beside him. Keeping a safe distance, Filer began to follow them.

  They led him through the maze of corridors, pausing at last in one which ended in a blank wall. The Axon raised his hand and a door slid back revealing a gleam of light. With a surge of hope, Filer realised they had reached an exit. The Master moved through the door. It began to close behind him...

  Filer broke into a run. He hurtled down the short corridor, flashed by the astonished Axon leader and threw himself through the rapidly closing gap. Behind him he heard the sudden clamour of the Axon alarms.

  The Master was already running towards the clump of trees. An armed sentry appeared before him. 'Halt!'

  Immediately the Master collapsed, gasping, 'I escaped... they were keeping me prisoner...'