DOCTOR WHO AND THE INVISIBLE ENEMY Page 6

  Vastly outnumbered, she was enjoying herself enormously.

  Absorbed in her battle, she didn't notice K9 gliding towards her, the nozzle of his blaster aimed at her back...

  8

  Interface

  The Doctor paused at a gaping, blackened split in the tunnel wall. 'After you, Leela.'

  'Are you afraid?'

  'Not necessarily,' said the Doctor a little defensively. 'But from now on we're right on the trail of the virus. That's the path it took.'

  'Where to?'

  'Well if I knew that I wouldn't have brought you along. This is where your tracking skills come in.'

  Leela nodded and drew her knife. She slipped through the dark, sinister-looking gap, the Doctor close behind her.

  Not for the first time, Leela's uncanny instinct saved her life. Sensing danger she swung round—to find K9's blaster covering her. K9 fired, but she was already hurling herself through the air in a flying leap. K9's blaster-bolt missed, and Leela landed awkwardly. She twisted her foot on a chunk of rubble, and pitched forward. Her head thumped against the wall.

  K9 wheeled to face Lowe who was clambering over the barricade. In a slurred voice K9 said, 'Reject liquidated. K9 into self-regeneration—non-functional...' K9's eye-screen went dim, and all his antennae drooped. He glided slowly over to the wall beside Leela, bumped his nose against it and stayed motion-less.

  Lowe dropped down over the barricade, saw the knocked-out Leela and drew the obvious conclusion. The reject was dead, the automaton de-activated. He had no further interest in either of them. 'Good—and now for the Doctor,' he whispered exultantly. He headed for the door of the isolation ward.

  Leela said, 'Ouch! ' and clutched the back of her head. 'What is it, Leela? What's the matter?'

  'Something banged my head... a real thud...'

  'Not in here, Leela, that must have been your outside head.'

  'Oh, well, that's all right then.'

  'No it isn't,' said the Doctor seriously. 'You and I have only got a limited life in here as it is. Your outside self and your inside self are made of the same tissue. If your outside self is hurt, then you feel the shock. And if your outside self is killed...'

  Leela shuddered. 'We'd better make the most of the next six minutes then.'

  They moved on their way, following the blackened trail of virus damage. It was very plain now, and it led them at last to what looked like a colossal chasm. Into the chasm projected a kind of bridge, a narrow strip of tissue arching up into the darkness. But the bridge stopped, abruptly, half-way across. It was a bridge to nowhere. A rushing wind filled the air, howling through the depths of the chasm.

  'Where are we?' whispered Leela.

  'This is the gap between one side of my mind and the other.'

  'But it's dark on the other side!'

  'Well of course it's dark, Leela. It's the gap between logic and imagination. You can't see one side from the other side.'

  'But it is there? There is something on the other side?'

  'This is the mind-brain interface, Leela—at least, I think it is.' The Doctor gestured expansively. 'There's the mind and there's the brain. Two things entirely different, yet part of the same thing.'

  'Like the land and the sea?'

  Pleased with her understanding, the Doctor said, 'That's right, Leela. That's exactly right!'

  Leela stared down into the chasm. 'It's very deep!'

  The Doctor looked thoughtfully into the darkness of his own unconscious mind. 'Yes... sometimes I don't quite understand it myself!'

  Giving Leela one end of his scarf to hold, the Doctor began edging his way across the narrow bridge.

  Leela followed nervously. The ridge of tissue was appallingly narrow and it felt spongy and unreliable beneath her feet. The wind howled around her, plucking at her clothes. Several times she came close to losing her balance.

  When he got to the point where the bridge appeared to vanish the Doctor stepped confidently off into blackness. He vanished. His scarf vanished too, except for the section Leela was holding. Leela hesitated. "There came an indignant tug from the invisible Doctor on the end of the invisible bit of scarf. Leela closed her eyes and stepped off into nothingness...

  Marius looked at his chronometer. 'Five minutes to go...' he said despondently.

  'Don't move, Professor,' said a harsh triumphant voice. Lowe was covering him from the doorway.

  Parsons made a desperate attempt to reach the blaster under his gown. Lowe swung his blaster and shot him down. He turned the blaster back on Marius. 'Release the Doctor.'

  'No,' said Marius defiantly. 'No, I can't!'

  Lowe came menacingly forward. When he stood face to face with Marius, a jagged lightning-streak flashed between his own forehead and the professor's.

  'Release him,' said Lowe again.

  In a slurred, dragging voice Marius said, 'Contact has been made.' He moved to unfasten the straps.

  (Unseen, Marius's nurse crouched down behind the cloning booth, too terrified to move.)

  'We must make contact with the Nucleus,' said Lowe eagerly.

  With the virus in control of his mind, all Marius's loyalties were now devoted to the Purpose. 'No, wait,' he said. 'The Nucleus is in danger.'

  'What?' snarled Lowe.

  Marius's words seemed to come tumbling out. 'Micro-cloned copies have been injected into the brain to hunt down and destroy the Nucleus... If they succeed...'

  'They must not succeed!'

  'We can't stop them,' babbled Marius. 'There is no time.'

  'I say we must! ' roared Lowe. 'We must! '

  (Unseen, the nurse began edging towards the door.)

  Outside in the corridor, K9 came slowly back to life. Leela, too, was beginning to revive. K9 glided up to her and sent out a probe from his head to touch her forehead. 'Mistress! ' he called.

  A mild electric tingle brought Leela to full consciousness, and she scrambled to her feet. 'Why did you attack me?'

  'I had to. I was temporarily overpowered, and my motivational circuits were in confusion. I have now fully regenerated, and await your further orders—Mistress.'

  'Where are our enemies? Have they captured the Doctor?'

  Sadly K9 said, 'Affirmative, Mistress.'

  Suddenly the nurse slipped out of the isolation ward and ran down the corridor towards them. 'They've got Professor Marius—he's been taken over by the virus. They've killed Doctor Parsons...'

  She began to sob. Leela grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her hard. 'What are they doing now?'

  'They're cloning Lowe. Marius is going to inject him into the Doctor's brain.'

  Leela headed for the ward door. 'We'd better stop them.'

  K9 glided forward to bar her way. 'Negative!'

  'Why?'

  'We cannot interfere while there is still a possibility that the micro-clone of the Doctor will succeed in destroying the Nucleus. We must wait. '

  The micro-cloned Leela found herself following the Doctor across the other side of the narrow bridge. The only difference was that now instead of not seeing where she was going, she couldn't see where she'd been. The brain storm howled round them with renewed force now, and she wondered when the other side of the chasm would come in sight.

  'Bracing, isn't it?' shouted the Doctor.

  'Very!' said Leela grimly.

  The Doctor looked around him. They were facing a great cliff of sheer, solid blackness. There was blackness above and below them, blackness on every side. 'Magnificent, isn't it? The interface! The mind, un-sullied by a single thought!'

  'Where are we going?' asked Leela practically.

  'Into the land of dreams and fantasy, Leela..

  Professor Marius bent over the deformed body of the Doctor, a hypodermic in his hand. The colourless fluid inside it held the micro-cloned body of Lowe. Carefully Marius injected the fluid into the Doctor's head...

  A horrible gurgling voice came from the Doctor's twisted mouth. 'Hurry, hurry. They are closi
ng in. Hurry, hurry, hurry...'

  With the panic-stricken voice of the Nucleus urging him on, Lowe raced through the Doctor's brain. He forced his way through the blackened split in the neural tissue, and raced recklessly across the narrow windswept bridge...

  The Doctor and Leela meanwhile were forcing their way through a tunnel in what looked and felt like black, shiny rock. 'Is this your land of dreams?' asked Leela.

  'Well, on the way to it...'

  They emerged from the cleft into an enormous cavern, bigger than a thousand cathedrals. Huge silver pillars stretched away into the immeasurable distance.

  Near-by, on the floor of the cavern, was a twisted honeycomb of rock, a strange distorted growth that was obviously out of place.

  'There it is,' said the Doctor quietly. They began hurrying towards it. As they came closer, Leela could see that something living was stirring inside the rock. She caught a glimpse of lashing tentacles, the evil gleam of a bulbous eye.

  'The evil thing,' breathed Leela. She paused to listen. 'And another follows, close behind us, Doctor. We're trapped!'

  9

  Nucleus

  Before the Doctor could speak, Leela drew her blaster and ran back towards the tunnel.

  The Doctor walked forward to confront his enemy. As he got closer to the twisted honeycomb, he saw through the many holes and gaps that some strange living creature seemed to permeate the whole structure. He saw waving antennae, glistening wet red flesh, and a bulbous black eye that. seemed to swivel to and fro in search of him. From the little he could see, thought the Doctor, it was probably just as well that the rest was concealed.

  He strode up to the rock and said, 'Hullo! Who are you?'

  A slobbering, gurgling voice said arrogantly, 'I am the Nucleus!'

  'You're trespassing, you know,' said the Doctor reprovingly. 'Disturbing my unconscious, affecting my metabolism—' He paused. 'Nucleus of what?'

  'The Nucleus of the Swarm,' gurgled the voice.

  'I see,' said the Doctor thoughtfully. Then he napped, 'Why did you choose my brain?'

  'Because of your intelligence.'

  'Well, I can understand that,' said the Doctor. 'But you've no right—'

  'I have every right,' interrupted the hateful voice. 'It is the right of every creature across the Universe to survive, multiply and perpetuate its species... How else does the predator exist? And we are all predators, Doctor. We kill, we devour to live. Survival is all! You agree?'

  'Oh yes, I do. And on your own argument, I have a perfect right to dispose of you.'

  'Of course! The law is survival of the fittest!'

  A long whip-like tentacle lashed out at the Doctor's face, nicking his check. The Doctor touched the cut, and looked at the little smear of blood on his fingers. ' Touché!' he said wryly.

  'Your time is running short,' sneered the Nucleus. 'How do you intend to dispose of me? You have no weapons and in minutes you will cease to exist!'

  The Doctor said nothing. The Nucleus began a long, ranting speech of self-justification. 'I am the Virus and the Nucleus of the Swarm. For millennia we have hung dormant in space, waiting for the right carrier to come along...'

  This was too much for the Doctor. 'Carrier?' he said indignantly. 'What do you mean, carrier? I'm not a porter!'

  The Nucleus ignored him. 'Consider the human species. They send hordes of settlers across the galaxy to breed, multiply, conquer and dominate. We have as much right to conquer them, as they have to strike out across the stars.'

  'But you intend to dominate both worlds,' said the Doctor sombrely. 'The micro- and the macro-cosm.'

  'We have waited, waited,' said the gloating voice.

  'Waited in the cold wastes of space for mankind to come. Now we have not only space but time itself within our grasp! '

  'Time?'

  'Through you—Time Lord!'

  So, thought the Doctor grimly, the Nucleus knew. Now more than ever it had to be destroyed...

  Leela waited in the long black tunnel, knife in hand. She could almost sense the approach of her enemy.

  A figure lurched into view and she sprang—then jumped back in horror. A mass of pulsing white phagocytes was covering Lowe's body. Only his incredible fanaticism could have enabled him to keep moving.

  Leela hesitated, knife poised, looking for the human target under the pulsating mass. Somehow Lowe managed to fire, and a blaster-bolt scared Leela's side. She staggered back, drew her own blaster, and fired again and again. Lowe's body slumped down, and the phagocytes swarmed over it, devouring it. Leela ran back along the tunnel.

  'So, Doctor,' concluded the Nucleus triumphantly, 'How can you puny creatures compare yourselves to us, the Swarm? The new masters of time, space and the cosmos!'

  'New masters?' said the Doctor grimly. 'Not if I can help it!'

  'But you cannot! Your time is up. You have fallen for my stratagem. Already you cease to exist! '

  The Doctor touched a hand to his face. It felt insubstantial, paper-thin... He could feel cracks appearing. Too late the Doctor remembered that he was only a carbon copy with a strictly limited life—a life that looked like ending before its work was done...

  Leela came staggering back into the great cave, blaster in hand, and the Doctor shouted, 'Leela, the blaster! Give it to me!'

  She threw it, the Doctor caught it and swung round to fire at the rock. Already the black rock was splitting as the Nucleus struggled to escape... Eyes dimming, hand shaking, the Doctor fired at the rock, muttering, 'Get out of my brain! Get out of my brain...' The blaster dropped from his hand. He staggered and fell.

  Leela ran to kneel beside him. Her body was dry and cracking too, and she could feel herself fading away. 'Has it gone, Doctor?'

  The Doctor pointed. The honeycomb rock was smashed to pieces, and the fragments were rapidly crumbling to black dust. Of the Nucleus there was no sign.

  The Doctor struggled to rise. 'The tear duct,' he muttered. 'Must get to the tear duct...'

  Leela tried to help him, but he faded away in her arms, leaving only a bundle of clothes and a long scarf. Then these too vanished.

  Next, Leela herself vanished. For a moment a knife and a lock of long hair lay on the cavern floor, then faded and vanished. The real Doctor and Leela, the originals, were still alive and struggling in the Foundation, but their carbon copies were no more.

  Something red and glistening scuttled away through the caverns of the Doctor's mind... towards the tear duct.

  The Doctor's face was almost entirely covered with the metallic rash by now. A tear welled from the corner of one eye. Marius, his own face affected by the rapidly spreading virus, caught the tear on a glass rod and transferred it to a glass dish.

  Lowe, the real Lowe, glared malevolently at the tiny drop of fluid. 'Destroy them. Destroy them now!'

  Marius shook his head. 'No. We must find out what happened in there. We must restore them to their full size and interrogate them while there is still time...'

  He carried the dish over to the cloning booth, reversed the RDS controls as the Doctor had shown him, switched on the machine, closed the booth door and stepped back.

  There was a hum of power, and a shape began to form inside the booth. But it was not the shape of the Doctor or Leela... It was not a humanoid shape at all...

  At the same time the signs of the virus infection were receding from the Doctor's face with incredible speed. Soon he was completely himself again. His eyes opened and he looked round alertly.

  Lowe opened the door. and stepped back reverently. A horrible, incredible shape was filling the booth. It was blood-red in colour and was as big as a man with a bony glistening body and lashing tentacles. The huge black bulbous eyes swivelled malevolently around the ward. The Doctor's RDS had magnified the Nucleus to full human size.

  'Help me,' gurgled the creature. 'Help me out.'

  Lowe and one of his infected aides went to help.

  'Marius! ' hissed the Doctor.

  Marius
swung round, and the Doctor saw the virus-rash overspreading his face. 'Oh, no,' he groaned.

  'Yes, Doctor,' said Marius complacently. 'Contact has been made. Now I serve the Purpose!'

  The Doctor looked at the pulsating creature being lifted from the booth. 'What? And that pathetic crustacean is your leader?'

  'You are speaking of the Nucleus, the Nucleus of the Swarm,' snarled Marius.

  'Take me to him,' ordered the Nucleus.

  Lowe and an aide lifted the horrible creature and carried it across to where the Doctor lay on his couch. The Doctor studied the Nucleus thoughtfully. It didn't look as if it could move or even stand unassisted. Perhaps it hadn't grown fully used to its new size. No doubt in time it would adapt. grow strong... 'Finding the macro-world difficult?' enquired the Doctor affably.

  'Soon it will suit me well,' promised the Nucleus. 'I thought I'd got rid of you!

  'You were mistaken. I made use of your escape route, through the eye.'

  'Yes, you'd have known about that,' said the Doctor thoughtfully. 'Snooping about in my mind...'

  'Another mistake, Time Lord—and a costly one for you. Now, thanks to your dimensional stabiliser, I am no longer forced to remain in the micro-world to breed and multiply. My Swarm, when it is hatched on Titan, will no longer take the form of invisible microbes, weak and prey to all, but mighty and invulnerable creatures. Invincible! The Age of Man is over, Doctor. The Age of the Virus has begun!'

  'I've heard all that before,' said the Doctor scornfully. 'You megalomaniacs are all the same!'

  Angry at the Doctor's blasphemy, Marius leaned over him, staring hard into his eyes. A lightning-tentacle flashed between his eyes and the Doctor's—and rebounded on to Marius again. He staggered back.

  The Doctor felt a sudden surge of hope. He was immune! Perhaps because he'd survived such a massive attack, perhaps for some other reason, the virus could no longer take over his mind. Now he could really fight back.

  His relief was short-lived. Lowe stepped forward, face twisted with anger, raising his blaster.