Whitaker spoke up. ‘Final tests have all been positive. When the power build-up from the reactor is complete we shall be ready for the final count-down.’
‘How much longer to wait?’ growled General Finch.
Whitaker waved his hand. ‘Only a few hours, General. You must learn patience.’
Finch turned away. He couldn’t stand the sight of Whitaker. ‘I hope you realise that they’re trying to trace our learned Professor,’ he said to Grover.
‘Don’t forget, General, that they’ve also discovered this place—thanks to you people!’ said Whitaker. ‘Why could you not guarantee a little peace and security for my work? It’s frightful having this Doctor person prowling around.’
‘I told you not to underestimate the Doctor,’ said Yates.
‘We ought to dispose of him,’ snapped General Finch.
‘If we do that,’ replied the Captain, ‘we shall not be worthy of our cause.’
‘Quite right,’ agreed Grover placatingly. ‘We must maintain our high ideals. Under no circumstances shall we descend to murder.’
‘Then what do we do about the Doctor?’ asked General Finch.
Grover smiled. ‘We shall discredit him.’
While the instigators of Operation Golden Age conferred deep in the bowels of Central London, the Brigadier and the Doctor were talking in the Doctor’s workshop at UNIT Headquarters.
‘I always try to believe you, Doctor, but there isn’t a scrap of evidence that this underground place exists. Sir Charles Grover showed us the memo that confirmed it had never been built.’
‘He’s implicated. Don’t you realise that?’
The Brigadier laughed. ‘Why should the Minister be involved in the apparition of monsters?’
‘The reptiles are a side issue. They are a device to clear Central London, that’s all. Something much bigger is under way. You must go back to that underground station with explosives and blast your way in.’
The Brigadier was taken aback. ‘That’s public property! I’d need permission from General Finch before I could start blowing up underground stations!’
‘Then get it!’
‘All right,’ said the Brigadier with a shrug, ‘I’ll try.’
He hurried out. The Doctor began searching for paper on which to write a full report of the dinosaur apparitions for the government in Harrogate. Suddenly, Sergeant Benton burst in.
‘Doctor, there’s a phone call for you. It came through on the UNIT line, but you can take it in here.’
‘Thank you.’ The Doctor picked up the headmaster’s phone. ‘Hello?’
‘My name is Whitaker. I understand that you’ve been trying to trace me.’
‘I have indeed. Are you behind these dinosaur appearances?’
‘In a way, but I was tricked. I’ve escaped and now they’re after me.’
‘Who’s after you?’
There was a pause. ‘I don’t want to talk over the phone. Can we meet?’
‘Where are you?’
‘In the aircraft hangar where you were conducting your experiments. I hoped you might still be there.’
‘I’ll get over there as quickly as possible.’ The Doctor cradled the receiver, and bolted through the door.
The Doctor dismounted from his Army motorcycle, and ran into the vast building. All the soldiers had been dismissed after the disappearance of the tyrannosaurus. He walked through deserted corridors calling Professor Whitaker’s name. No response. He continued towards what remained of the little office inside the huge hangar. It was just as he and Sarah had left it—the window and its frame destroyed, the wall crumbling, part of the ceiling fallen in. What he didn’t notice among the wreckage was the miniature television eye that was watching him. A stray cat mewed. The Doctor turned. The cat was climbing up over the wreckage, sniffing about for food. All at once the cat started to walk backwards, exactly retracing its steps. The Doctor realised he was in the centre of a localised time eddy. He peered through the gaping hole that had been the window into the hangar. A fully-grown stegosaurus was beginning to appear and already he could hear its heavy breathing.
‘Professor Whitaker,’ he shouted, ‘did you just bring me here to show how clever you are? I already know you can materialise things from the past. So come out of hiding and let’s talk.’
The door behind him burst open. General Finch and a group of soldiers entered, the Brigadier following.
‘There’s your monster-maker,’ barked the General. ‘Caught in the act!’
The Brigadier stepped forward. ‘Doctor, you are under arrest.’
8
Escape!
‘…Greed and aggression lead to the greatest crime of all—war. With the hydrogen bomb Man now has the choice of destroying his planet quickly through war or slowly through pollution…’
In the Reminder Room, the voice of the film’s commentator droned on. Sarah knew that everything the voice said was true. What she didn’t agree with was the way in which these people on the space ship were trying to run away from the problem, and their schoolmasterly attitude towards anyone who thought differently. Suddenly the film and the voice stopped. The door opened and Mark looked in.
‘How are you feeling now?’
‘Hungry, tired, and I’ve got a headache.’
‘Is the film helping you?’
‘Can’t you ever understand? You’re here because you want to be. I’m a kidnapped prisoner.’
He frowned. ‘You will have to drop this ridiculous story, Sarah.’
‘Why? It’s the truth.’
He looked round to make sure no one was listening in the corridor, then quietly closed the door behind him. ‘The Elders, Adam and Ruth, are not going to permit a disruptive influence among us.’
‘Do you mean they’re going to kill me?’ She tried to hide the fear in her voice. ‘Is that what they’ll do?’
He averted his eyes. ‘They are really sweet, gentle people. They are both vegetarians because animals have to die to provide humans with meat. But they are determined that nothing shall go wrong with our great mission.’
Sarah thought about this. A veteran journalist once told her, ‘Beware people who know they are right, like Oliver Cromwell. For the good of Humanity, those people sometimes do murder.’ She decided to act up to Mark. ‘Perhaps the time in suspended animation affected my thinking. I don’t even remember how I came to be here. Tell me about it.’
He smiled, overjoyed that Sarah was no longer persisting with her stupid kidnapping story. ‘There were just a few of us at first,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘We all shared a disgust with the way life was going on Earth. At first there seemed nothing we could do. Then one of our members, an astronomer, told us of this planet that we call New Earth. And another of us, a scientist, invented the space-drive that would take us there. We all contributed money to help build the fleet of space ships.’
‘Did we see the space ships?’
‘Of course not. They were built secretly. Don’t you remember how you were hypnotised before coming on board?’
‘Yes,’ she replied with complete honesty. ‘I remember that part very well.’
‘We had to report to that special place in the centre of London, and then each in turn was hypnotised into suspended animation—so’s to save oxygen and food on the three month journey.’
‘Of course,’ she pretended to remember. ‘It’s all coming back now. But I can’t recall how I first heard about the scheme?’
‘The organisers advertised in newspapers and magazines.’ Mark grinned. ‘Naturally they didn’t announce what it was really all about! They were small advertisements, seeking people who might be interested in setting up a commune and starting a new life. Thousands and thousands of people replied.’
‘I bet they did. Mark, you’ve made it all clear to me now. Will you take me to the Elders so that I can tell them that I now remember correctly?’
‘I’d be delighted.’
He held the door open
wide. Sarah dashed into the corridor, pulled the door shut behind her, and bolted it.
‘Sorry about that,’ she called through the closed door. ‘Enjoy the movie.’
As she hurried down the corridor she heard Mark pounding on the closed door behind her.
The Doctor was led, handcuffed, into the classroom at UNIT’s Headquarters. Two armed soldiers marched on either side of him, followed by Captain Yates, General Finch, and the Brigadier.
‘So that’s the end of that,’ barked General Finch. ‘Take those handcuffs off him, and put him into a cell.’
‘With respect, sir,’ said the Brigadier, as one of the soldiers removed the Doctor’s handcuffs, ‘we have no cells here.’
‘Then lock him up in one of the rooms. Make sure he doesn’t escape. The man is dangerous and possibly mad.’
‘Shouldn’t we question him?’ said the Brigadier.
‘There’s no need. I shall send a report to the Government immediately to say that we have arrested the monster-maker.’
‘Once I’m under lock and key,’ the Doctor chipped in, ‘you can bring back those millions of Londoners.’
‘That’s a point, sir,’ said the Brigadier. ‘If the crisis is over, shouldn’t we end the evacuation?’
The General looked uncertain. ‘All in good time, Brigadier. There are many complicated arrangements to be made first. Until you receive further instructions, keep this maniac under close arrest. He is not to make contact with anyone. Captain Yates is to remain in charge of the prisoner. The Brigadier is to come with me. There is much to be done.’
The General turned on his heel and marched out of the classroom, the Brigadier following obediently. The Doctor was delighted to find himself alone with Captain Yates. The two UNIT soldiers remained well in the background.
‘Listen, Mike,’ the Doctor whispered urgently, ‘there isn’t much time. I need all the men you can muster and some high explosives to break into their control centre before the final phase of their plan…’
To the Doctor’s astonishment, Captain Yates wasn’t paying any attention. Instead, he opened the door and called, ‘Sergeant Benton, in here please!’
The Doctor touched Yates’s arm. ‘Are you on their side as well, Mike?’ For years the Doctor and Captain Yates had been good friends.
Yates would not turn to face the Doctor. ‘I’m sorry,’ he muttered quietly. ‘What we are doing is for the good of Humanity. I know that what we are doing is right.’
Sergeant Benton hurried into the classroom. ‘Sir?’
‘The Doctor is under arrest,’ said Captain Yates. ‘Keep him under constant guard. Find somewhere to lock him up. I’ll leave you to it.’ Without looking at the Doctor, Captain Yates quickly left the classroom.
Benton couldn’t believe what he had just been told. ‘You are under arrest, Doctor?’
‘That’s right. Where are you going to keep me prisoner?’
Benton paused to think, and then he addressed the two UNIT soldiers. ‘You two, go and fix up the textbook store-room as a temporary cell.’ The two soldiers looked apprehensive at leaving the Doctor, now regarded as a dangerous criminal, alone with the unarmed sergeant. He shouted at them, ‘Jump to it!’ The soldiers hurried out of the classroom. Benton turned back to the Doctor, lowering his voice, ‘Now tell me the truth, Doctor, what’s going on?’ He had known the Doctor some years and trusted him implicitly.
‘I’m still not entirely sure, but General Finch is mixed up in it, and Captain Yates, too.’
Benton’s eyes widened. ‘Captain Yates?!’
‘They’ve won him over somehow,’ said the Doctor. ‘He’s a good man, and believes what they are doing is good in some way.’
‘Strewth! There’s only one thing for it—you’ll have to knock me out!’ Benton stood to attention and closed his eyes. ‘Use your Venusian karate to overpower me, so that I’ll be lying here unconscious when the soldiers get back.’
‘Thank you. I promise not to hurt you.’ He gently applied the Venusian karate hold with two fingers to Benton’s neck. Benton lost consciousness almost immediately. The Doctor carefully lowered him to the floor.
‘Thanks again,’ said the Doctor, looking down at the prostrate form of Benton. He hurried out through the door.
‘… Man is the only animal to prey on his own species. As society breaks down, armed gangsters take over. In America, with fifty murders a day, law-abiding citizens live behind electrified fences to keep criminals out. In the City of London another type of criminal exists. Property developers have destroyed——’
The film and its commentary stopped automatically as Sarah opened the door of the Reminder Room. Mark, more concerned for Sarah’s safety than angry, swung round to greet her.
‘Sarah, you could put yourself in great danger by escaping like that. The Elders would be furious! Where have you been?’
She stepped into the room and closed the door. ‘You’ve got to listen to me, Mark. I’ve been looking round this space ship. There’s something you must see with your own eyes. This isn’t a real space ship at all.’
He took a step back from her, as one might retreat from a raving lunatic. ‘You told me your memory was returning…’
‘I was lying, to put you at ease, so that I could escape from this stupid Reminder Room.’ She opened the door. ‘Follow me. I’m going to show you something.’
‘No, you must stay in here. The film will help you get back your sanity.’
Sarah realised she could not make Mark follow her by force. She had to win him over through argument. ‘I’ll make a deal with you. I want you to see something that will help your sanity, and you want me to see the rest of this film. I’ve already seen part of it. Isn’t it my turn to show you something? Then, if you’re not convinced, I’ll come back here and see the rest of the film.’
He thought about that. ‘All right, but no tricks. And don’t try to escape.’
‘If this is a real space ship, Mark, I can’t escape, can I? Now come on.’
He followed her down the corridor to the main living area of the space ship. It was deserted. She crossed to the glass door of the flight deck. The unmanned controls were still moving in apparent response to the automatic pilot apparatus.
‘Come in here.’ She opened the door to the flight deck.
Mark held back. ‘We are under express orders never to enter the flight deck.’
‘Of course, because there’s something they don’t want you to know. Forget your silly orders and follow me.’
He went inside with her. Through the for’ard portholes they could see the infinite black vista of Space, studded with distant suns. Sarah put her hands under the outer edge of the control console and lifted it.
‘You’ll damage it!’ Mark yelled.
‘No I won’t. There isn’t anything to damage. Look.’
Mark looked into the cavity which Sarah had revealed beneath the control console. There was nothing there except a small electric motor that made the levers on the control console move. ‘You see,’ she said, ‘it’s all a fake.’
‘There must be some explanation,’ he said lamely.
Sarah let the panel drop back into position. ‘Mark, where exactly is this planet we’re heading for?’
‘The organisers said it was in another solar system, close to Earth.’
‘The nearest possible solar system to Earth is four light years away. If we travelled in the most advanced space ships developed on Earth, it would take hundreds of years to reach there.’
‘But one of our members invented a new space-drive.’
‘You’re not a scientist, Mark. You would have believed anything.’ Sarah parted her hair to reveal the bump on her head. ‘See that? I got it just before I was kidnapped. If I’d been on this so-called space ship three months, it would have gone down by now.’
Mark looked confused. ‘I don’t know what to think. If we aren’t on a space ship, where are we?’
‘I think this is a dummy. It
’s the sort of thing big stores build in their toy departments at Christmas for the kiddies.’
‘That’s ridiculous!’
‘Then I’ll prove it to you.’ She walked towards the door at the end of the flight deck. Across it ran the words KEEP SHUT WHEN IN SPACE. She put her hand on the lever. ‘I’m going out through this hatch.’
‘It opens directly into Space! You’ll be killed. All the oxygen will rush out of the ship!’ cried Mark desperately. ‘We’ll all be killed.’
‘The flight deck is supposedly airtight,’ she explained. ‘So go back through that glass door, close it, and watch me from a position of safety.’
Mark moved forward to grab Sarah. ‘No! I won’t let you!’
She started to pull the lever. ‘You can’t stop me. Once I pull this lever we’ll both be sucked out into a vacuum, if we’re really in Space. Get back. I’m going to pull the lever.’
Mark backed away reluctantly, and passed the open door to the main living quarters. Then he closed the glass-panelled door and watched.
Sarah turned her back on him. She didn’t want him to see her close her eyes and pray as she yanked back the lever. If they really were in space, the moment the hatch opened all the air would leave her lungs. Her lifeless young body would float away into a black nothingness, lost for ever.
Corporal Bryson had the classroom to himself. He idly glanced at the map of London which covered the blackboard. Were people really seeing things? He counted the flags. But how could so many people be wrong? He sat down in the Brigadier’s comfortable chair, put his booted feet on the desk, and opened the comic that he always carried in his tunic pocket. Just as he started reading, Sarah Jane Smith, the journalist girl, walked in. Corporal Bryson leapt to his feet.
‘Where’s the Brigadier?’
‘Out on the manhunt, miss, looking for the Doctor.’
She screwed up her face. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’
Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion Page 10