The Doctor looked desperately tired, Lanchard thought, as did all the surviving members of the landing party currently seated round the conference table. But he seemed to be able to draw on reserves denied to the rest, and his words poured out across space to Vega with undiminished vigour. Vega, however, appeared unmoved by them.
'Your concern for our safety is appreciated, Moderator,' he replied stiffly,
'but I cannot comment on any intelligence our landing party may have brought back with them, hi any case we shall not leave this zone of space until additional forces arrive and we are relieved of our duty.'
Lanchard saw the Doctor shake his head with sad resignation, as though he had been expecting just such response. She suspected both she and Vega would rather be anywhere else in the cosmos right now, but each of them was constrained by that same sense of duty and orders from higher powers.
Vega hesitated slightly before adding, 'I must thank you for taking Lieutenant Tane with you. I shall send a transport over for him shortly.'
'Our ship's surgeon, Dr Gilliam, has treated him for minor injuries,'
Lanchard said.'But she says he mostly needs rest and psychiatric care.'
'He shall receive all necessary attention,' Vega assured her, then he added,'I trust you did not lose too many of your own crew inside the craft...
or as they retreated. Our own shuttle experienced some interference from the alien beings during its departure.'
He's being unusually forthcoming, Lanchard thought. Is he fishing for something?
'We were OK once we got clear of the ship, but it was a bit "skin of your teeth",' Sam admitted with weary frankness. 'It was absolute bloody hell in there. Listen to what the Moderator's telling you.'
'We lost three people and have one seriously injured,' the Doctor told Vega simply. 'I suspect your losses were higher. I urge you not to risk any more lives.'
'We have a number of personnel still unaccounted for,' Vega admitted.
'Nimosians do not abandon their comrades, as you should know.'
'At least wait until we better understand the nature of the beings down there and have developed some defence against them,' the Doctor pleaded.
'Then perhaps we can organise a joint rescue mission.'
Rexton looked as though he wanted to object to the suggestion, but was too exhausted to do more than shake his head.
'We shall see,' Vega said noncommittally. 'My flight controller will send you details of our transport's approach shortly. Vega out.' The screen went blank.
Lanchard examined the haggard faces around her. If it had been as bad over there as their expressions suggested, then she was grateful she had not gone herself. Even Bendix had lost something of his self-assurance, and she noted he no longer looked at Rexton with quite such uncritical admiration. Maybe there was hope for him yet. Rexton, however, though evidently tired, was still clearly determined. Why don't you give in just for once in your life? she thought. But she had to put her personal opinions aside for the moment. Now it was her task to construct a coherent picture of what had happened on the alien ship for her log and the inevitable board of inquiry. Delray spoke up impatiently, making her jump.
'Now we've done with that, what are we going to about Lyset?' He had his arm in an improvised sling and had promised he would see Gilliam about it later. But for now he obviously had only one concern.'She might still be alive.We've got to get her back.'At his side Evan Arcovian nodded in agreement. 'I sympathise, Mr Delray,' Lanchard said. 'But by your own account you barely escaped with your lives.After what has happened I'm not sure I could authorise another landing. At least, as the Doctor says, until we know what we are dealing with.'
' Wynter was a volunteer and understood the risks,' Rexton said bluntly, making Lanchard wish he had kept quiet.
'You're pretty grateful she came, though; Sam pointed out scathingly. 'All those pictures she took of your precious control panels.You made sure you didn't lose those.'
Delray evidently didn't understand.'What do you mean?'
'He picked up her camera and case just before we made a run for it,' Sam explained.
Delray flushed.'Her camera was more important to you than she was!'
'If you mean that I did not let the vital information she had obtained go to waste, you are correct,' Rexton replied unabashed. 'In any case, I could not have saved Ms Wynter. None of us could. You were there.'
'What are you going do with the pictures?'Arcovian demanded. 'Sorry to sound mercenary, Don,' he said quickly to Delray,'but weVe got to face it, just in case. They may be the last ones she took. They belong to her estate. She wouldn't want them lost.'
Delray nodded heavily.
"They are with the ship's photographer,' Rexton explained. 'Fortunately he understands these old chemical imaging systems. I believe he is
"developing" the exposed film. I will be having the final images transmitted back to Emindar. The equipment, and those pictures not classified, will be returned to you in due course.'
Arcovian still looked puzzled.'But why keep Lyset's camera?'
'Because he wants to go down there again and finish the job she started, and that camera is the only one he knows will operate despite the interference field,' the Doctor said.
Lanchard saw that the life and animation had returned to his handsome enigmatic face, as if in a few minutes he had thrown off his fatigue. She felt an unexpected wave of relief at the sight. Nothing was quite as bad as it seemed if he was on your side, she realised.
'I think it's time you explained exactly what we're dealing with here, Doctor,'
she said.
Before he could reply, Rexton, who had been eyeing Arcovian doubtfully, said, 'I would rather we didn't go into details at this moment. We must be circumspect about what we tell the passengers. There are certain security implications to be considered first.'
'What are you implying - that I can't keep my mouth shut?' Arcovian said indignantly. 'I'm as patriotic as the next man.'
'We don't care about security,' Delray said. 'We only want to find Lyset.'
'You cannot expect any more volunteers from the crew, for whatever purpose, unless they know exactly what they're letting themselves in for,'
Lanchard warned Rexton. Rexton conceded with dismissive shrug. 'Please continue, Doctor,' Lanchard said.
'As I explained to Councillor Rexton earlier, the alien ship is an experimental hyperspace bridge,' he began. 'Theoretically, if the continuum is simultaneously stressed by high-intensity energy and gravitic waves, then it will warp, forming a tunnel through hyperspace.' 'But how do you play with real gravity?' Manders asked. 'Not the simulated fields we use to keep our feet on the decks, I mean.'
'By using mass, of course,' said the Doctor. 'It's a crude solution but it works. The network of pipes enclosing the main body of the craft not only provides conduits for the transference of energy, but also for degenerate matter. Perhaps even stabilised neutronium.' 'You mean they pump neutronium around the ship?' 'I did say it was a crude process. The actual bores of the tubes would be quite small, perhaps only a few millimetres across.The rest, a metre or more, would be solid, high-tensile synthetic, strengthened by intra-molecular force fields to enable it to withstand the operating pressure. The ship's cylindrical central core would act rather like a dimensional lens system, distorting space to varying degrees depending on the distribution and intensity of electromagnogravitic fields along its length.'
'Doctor, you said those streaks of light we saw at the bottom of the tower well were stars,' Sam said, moving the conversation on to something she could grasp.
'Yes. Distorted images of the stars lying between the two ends of the ship.'
'What do you mean, between them?' Lanchard said, totally bemused.
"The two ends of that ship are really separated by a gap of several light years, forming a stable tunnel through hyperspace between here and somewhere else. That's why one end appears blurred and translucent to us. At the far end of the tunn
el that section would appear solid and our end would appear intangible.'
'Is that where those... creatures that attacked us come from?' Delray asked.
The Doctor's face darkened. 'Possibly. They may be beings whose natures ate radically different from our own. Or they may be the crew of the ship itself who have been so affected by the ship's function that they are almost totally out of phase with this reality. That's why they appear immaterial to us and can pass through solid matter, though it's clearly easier for them to follow the path of least resistance along conventional corridors.'
'But they kept changing shape,' Manders said.
'It may be their natural state, or it might be the result of dephasing. Their forms may no longer be stable.The experience would probably affect their mental state as well.'
"You mean they're mad,' Delray said bluntly.
'It's possible,' the Doctor said gravely. He glanced at Rexton.'I told you that technology was unsafe.'
Manders asked, 'Why did some of those creatures look more solid than others?'
"There may be individual variations between them due to other factors we know nothing about. Some may have been so faint we didn't see them at all. But generally they altered in apparent solidity according to their proximity to us. Remember the ceiling lights.'
The way they blinked out as they passed?'
'Yes. I think they were unconsciously drawing energy from them.'
'They were feeding off energy?' queried Sam.
'Not just any energy. Did you notice those lights were self-contained bioluminescents?'
Manders nodded.'So?'
'For want of a better description, those beings were feeding off any organic life force. Drawing power from the biomatter in the lights, or us, to increase the level of their own existence. That's why we feel physically drained by our encounter with them.'
'But could prolonged exposure kill somebody?' Bendix wondered. 'Would they suck all the life out of them?'
'Quite possibly,' the Doctor admitted.
There was an uncomfortable silence, then Rexton said, 'How can we fight them, Doctor? Our weapons were virtually useless over there. Even that device of yours only held them back for a few seconds.'
Lanchard realised he was openly asking the Doctor for advice. It was obviously not something he liked doing, but she began to suspect it was a habit people slipped into in the Doctor's company.
'I'm not sure we even should be fighting them,' the Doctor sighed. 'Still, I have some equipment in my luggage that might be useful.'
'But what about Lyset!' Delray begged. 'We can't leave her down there.'
Lanchard said, gently but firmly, 'Until we can find some means of protection from these... theseghosts , nobody will land on that ship again.
I'm sorry, Mr Delray, but I can't afford to lose any more passengers or crew.
At least not until they have a reasonable chance of coming back safely.'
She turned back to the Doctor again. 'Anything else, Doctor?'
'If it weren't for those lost on the alien ship I would advise you as I have the Nimosians: leave this area immediately. But I know there's no chance of either of you doing that.'
'Not until reinforcements arrive,' Rexton confirmed bluntly.
'Would it help if I told you I can arrange for the alien ship to be investigated by a properly qualified research team?' the Doctor said. He looked at Delray and Arcovian. 'I assure you they would do whatever they could for those still on board.'
'So that the Federation would benefit from the alien technology,' Rexton suggested.
'I promise you the Federation would do no such thing,' the Doctor said.
'Their only objective would be to determine the ship's origins and prevent any more such dangerous meddling by whatever race built her.'
'But you're a Federation employee,' Bendix said. 'Are you asking us to believe you'd turn down the chance to learn all you could from that ship?'
'I consider myself primarily a citizen of the galaxy,' the Doctor replied without any trace of pomposity.'A Moderator must act without fear or favour, not simply for the short-term good of the Federation. I know that ship is dangerous, both in itself and as a potential prize that is further dividing you and the Nimosians. It's as I told you - rather than let any one side have it, I would destroy it utterly.'
He realty means it, Lanchard thought. If only Rexton would believe him.
'But what about its crew? What about Lyset and the others?' Arcovian asked.
The Doctor shook his head mournfully, but said nothing. Manders broke the uncomfortable silence that followed.'This business of the external hatch keyboard locks we found down there still bothers me, Doctor.'
'Yes, you haven't explained how you managed to crack that, Doctor,'
Bendix said with more than a trace of suspicion.
The Doctor sighed, drew across a notepad and stylus and began to sketch rapidly, drawing uncannily precise angles and straight lines. In half a minute he had produced a neat replica of the keyboard in question, which he then placed in the centre of the table.
'Sometimes the truth is hidden by the observer's own insistence on seeing complexity where there is none,' he said.'Look at the squares running down the rows three, four, two, five, three and six in from the left, and then think of the word "unlock"
There was a moment's silence and then a rising chorus of exclamations.The Doctor nodded.
'Exactly.The pad simply displays six stylised letters of the alphabet, with a few minor embellishments, rotated through ninety-degree increments. Here the C resembles a V somewhat to distinguish it from a U, and square dots have been added to fill in the Os and Ls, but apart from that it's quite clear.'
'And reading down four, five, four and one in spells "lock",' Sam Jones said.'It's as easy as that.'
'But it's absurd!' Rexton exploded. "The ship is unmistakably a product of alien technology. And even if somebody were to have concocted some incredible hoax, they wouldn't have left such a blatant clue behind.'
'Perhaps not, but the fact remains,' the Doctor said. '1 take it you never noticed this anomaly on the ship you found?'
'Its hatches were all unlocked,' Rexton admitted. "The door pads were hardly a priority -'
'I can imagine,' interjected Sam dourly.
Rexton scowled at her and continued. "There was no need for the linguists to examine them closely. But they did examine all the inscriptions inside the ship,' he pointed out. 'Except they couldn't translate them.'
'Naturally,' the Doctor said. 'Unlike the hatch keys, those were simply collections of random symbols.'
'But somebody's translated them now all right,' Manders said. 'We saw that in the main control room. But if they're nonsense as you say... that's impossible!'
'Doctor, what does it all mean?' Lanchard demanded.
The Doctor's face became very solemn, and he leaned slightly forward as though about to impart a great confidence. The rest bent forward in turn, gazing at him in expectant silence.
'I only wish I knew,' he admitted softly.
***
A little later Sam and the Doctor were in the lift descending to the cargo hold. Sam yawned prodigiously.
'I prescribe an hour in the TARDIS's sleep room for you,' the Doctor said.'Set the neural dampener on eight.Then you won't have any bad dreams.'
'I wish you'd told me about the lock business first,' Sam said, stifling another yawn. 'How am I meant to assist you if I don't know what's going on?'
'The truth is, I'm not entirely certain myself,' said the Doctor with an apologetic smile.
Sam looked at him. Her natural reaction was to believe him, of course, but there was something in his eyes that seemed... distant. Sam took a deep breath.
'Are you telling me the truth now?'
If she was expecting a reaction from him, she was disappointed.
'Absolutely,' he remarked, eyes half open as he scrutinised the bland decor of the lift.
They reached the hold le
vel, exited, and made their way along the passage to where the TARDIS rested. The Doctor glanced at Sam's despondent features and continued, 'If you must gather confidences, there was one other curious detail you may have observed on the alien ship that nobody else, as far as I know, has so far commented upon.'
'What?' Sam asked, feigning disinterest now.
'It concerns the weaponry.'
'The guns didn't work very well against those ghosts, did they?'
'My dear Sam, they shouldn't have worked at alR All other devices of any complexity were affected by the alien craft's energy field. Even within the ship our radios were operating very poorly, remember. Why then should contemporary energy weapons, outside the shuttle's counter-interference field, function normally?'
'Oh.' Sam looked at him.'I didn't even think about it.'
'Neither did anyone else, apparently - not even the Nimosians, I suspect.
But we'll have to find an answer before this is over.'
Chapter 16
Soldier
Squadleader Harren Sho's life centred about a small number of jealously guarded certainties. They were not particularly subtle beliefs, but they had served him well thus far. For example, he believed that the space marine corps were the finest fighting force in the galaxy, that Nimos was the most perfect planet created by God - and that you could never trust an Emindian.
His current prisoner gave him no reason to change his mind on any of these points.
She simply looked scared, though she was trying to hide it. Her naked fear made him feel pity and some contempt for her, coupled with a warm glow of satisfaction in his own professional composure. She claimed she was the photographer of the Emindian exploratory party, yet she had no camera with her. When challenged on this point she claimed to have lost it when the ghost creatures attacked them. Sho smiled. He'd been attacked by the same creatures but he hadn't lost any item of his kit in the process. Exactly how he had escaped from them he could not for the moment recall precisely. All he remembered was a confusion of shapes and gunfire and a feeling of cold as a pack of the things had descended on his squad and...
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