Then the TARDIS's door closed with a heavy boom, shutting out the nightmare.
Sam sagged against the wall, fumbled with the catch of her helmet and pulled it off.The air of the TARDIS was warm and candle-scented, and held the friendly mustiness of a library. It smelled wonderful.
Then she turned her head and saw they were not quite done with loss and pain. Lyset Wynter was kneeling by Delray's chair. The Doctor stood over them looking grave.
Sam pushed through the numbed, bewildered crowd of survivors that still huddled close to the doors. Young Dan was standing there, almost unnoticed. God, she thought, he's watching his hero die. She tried to lead him aside but the boy pulled away and the Doctor gave a tiny shake of his head. All she could do was hold him tightly.
The boy said in a tiny voice, 'Was he brave?'
'Yes, he was very brave,' Sam said.
Distantly, inexplicably, she thought she could hear an animal whining.
Then a grey mist lifted from Delray's body, took shape and stepped aside.
It was the image of Delray formed in shadows and half-lights. Lyset looked from it to Delray's still form and back again almost without expression, as though her normal responses of fear and shock had been drained dry by what she had so recently endured.
'We had to get it right this time...' the ghost said, his words like the wind whispering across the grass. The Doctor gave the hint of a sad, knowing smile.
The slight movement of Delray's chest ceased.
There was a thin mournful howl from nowhere - a lament for an insuperable loss.They all shivered. Delray's ghost began to fade away. It looked down at itself, then at Lyset. 'Don't be sad...'A low, grey, vaguely doglike form appeared at his heels. 'You'll have to look after Evan... Maybe you can stop this happening to him.
Then he was gone. The thing at his heels gave a last whine, then it too was no more.
There was a long silence, broken only by the shuffling of feet of the still dazed survivors, and Lyset Wynter's stifled sobbing. The Doctor looked on - sad yet also deeply thoughtful. Of his own volition Dan Junior stepped up to Lyset's side and, in an unexpectedly mature gesture, put a consoling hand on her shoulder.
Sam stood beside the Doctor and asked softly, 'Evan? Did he mean Arcovian? But that thing with him seemed like a... dog.'
The Doctor nodded. 'Madness takes refuge in many forms.The need to escape from reality, balanced by the ties of love and devotion, shaped by the way a person had been treated in life.Think about it...'
Sam felt desperately sick and confused. "This has got to end,' she said with a shudder. 'If you can't help those poor creatures out there, then put them out of their misery.You must do something!'
'If I can, Sam. Delray has shown there may be a way. But first we must take the survivors back to the Cirrandaria . Then we'll need more power.'The Doctor pulled down hard on a lever in its brass housing. 'If we are going to change anything, we'll have only one chance to get it right!'
Chapter 34
Convergence
'We're trapped!' Bendix said, his face stark with fear.
Below him at the bottom of the shaft the lights of the corridor were flickering and failing.
'Steady,' Rexton warned him, his own mind racing. 'Back to the control room. Don't make a sound.'
They scrambled back up the ladder and sealed the airlock doors behind them. But the interface still confined them to half the chamber, and it seemed no barrier to the ghosts. Rexton saw Bendix looking at him with desperation in his eyes.
'Patience,' he said confidently. "The way may be clear in a minute.'
While they waited he prowled the control room, his eyes flicking across the hundreds of neat labels adorning the panels. At last he had the precious information; all he had to do was pass it on.
The sign saying EXTERNAL MONITOR caught his eye. It headed a block of the large multicoloured buttons and a couple of domelike protuberances.
Cautiously he touched one of the buttons at random. Nothing happened.
Perhaps the system needed to be activated first. There was a black button out of sequence. He pressed it.A clear glass screen rose out of a narrow slot in the panel before him. An image came instantly to life on it showing the view along the great hull of the ship. Bendix joined him excitedly.
'Can you see inside as well?'
'Let's check the external hatchway is clear first. Remember them dropping in on us the last time we left.'
He called up a quick succession of images, discovering that pressure on the domes panned or dipped the cameras. He began to see an order in the layout of the buttons that corresponded to the views he was getting. 'This should be it.'
It did indeed show the external hatch over the bay where they had left the Doria. But the hatch was open.And, even as they watched, the Doria rose out of it, rolling unsteadily from side to side. It cleared the hull, banked suddenly and sped off into the gloom of the huge cavern.
"They've taken it...' Bendix said dully.'But why -'
'It doesn't matter, it's gone,' Rexton said. He would not be defeated, he would not!
'How do we get back?'
Rexton waved him into silence, looking about him at the serried ranks of buttons and labels. If the Doctor could work it out without any guidance at all...
'We'll just have to take the whole ship with us,' he said.
***
The TARDIS materialised in its original landing place in the Cirrandaria's hold.The door opened and the Doctor walked briskly out, followed by Vega, Sam, leading young Dan Engers, and the first hesitant rescuees.
'You understand we have arrived here at the same time as if we had travelled back through the hyperspatial tunnel in the shuttle,' the Doctor was telling Vega. 'Any earlier and we risk breaking one of the prime laws of time.' He snagged one of the surviving Cirrandaria security men who had accompanied them. 'Go ahead and warn the crew we have Nimosian guests on board, otherwise they might think it's a boarding party.Then get these people to sickbay and make sure Mr Delray's body is taken care of properly.'
'Yes, sir,' said the still dazed man meekly.
'But can your machine take us back to the Indomitable !' Vega asked.
'Yes, but not right now. One focus of the time loop is the alien ship, the other the Cirrandaria . If I'm to do anything to alter it then it has to be from here.'
'Doctor, after what I've seen I want to stop this as much as anyone. If the war that led to... that abomination we saw, started here, then I must warn my people before it's too late.'
The Doctor nodded. 'Of course, you must have the chance to try. Who knows? You may succeed. Let's go and find the Captain.'
'And I've got to take Dan back to his parents,' said Sam.
***
Lanchard was amazed to see the Doctor and Vega appear on the bridge, and doubly surprised by the curiously intent look Vega gave her.
'How did you get here? We didn't see the shuttle.'
'We took a short cut,' the Doctor said. 'I'm sure the Commander will be pleased to explain it all later. We had to give him a lift back as his own craft was lost.'
'Did you... find the passengers?'
'We recovered those we could. They're in sickbay being checked over now.'
'Where is Councillor Rexton... and Bendix?'
'They abandoned us,'Vega said bluntly.
'Let's say the councillor felt he had more pressing business to attend to,'
the Doctor said. "They're still over there, but we may not have seen the last of them just yet. Meanwhile, what's been happening while we've been gone?'
'Nothing good. A passenger stole a lifeboat...' She glanced at Vega. 'And your flagship destroyed it.'
'You'd better explain quickly,' said the Doctor. 'I think we're running out of time.'
***
Down in the sickbay, the joy of the Engers family in being reunited was one of the most uplifting things Sam had seen. Their tearful expressions of gratitude for bringing Dan Junior back were sincer
e and heartfelt, but she could not accept them without thinking of their doubles on the other side of the space-time bridge. Was that how it was perpetually fated to be: joy crushed by remorseless fate? She left them clustered round the bed where Dan Senior was still having treatment for the injuries to his leg, listening to his son trying to explain his adventures. She wondered if they would have time to listen - and to believe - it all.
She found Evan Arcovian resting in a bed a few along from Engers. Lyset Wynter, wrapped in a thermal blanket, was sitting by him.
'He had a breakdown,' Lyset told her. 'Some sort of shock. But they won't tell me what.They just looked at me very oddly.'
And now Arcovian had to face the loss of Delray. Would it make any difference to the little man's grotesque destiny? Sam wondered. But what were the staff hiding from Lyset?
Sam searched out somebody senior, and found Dr Gilliam finishing the task of applying dermaform bandaging to a woman with a badly damaged face.
As soon as she was free, Sam flashed her Moderator's badge and asked about Arcovian.
'It's a fairly severe mental breakdown,' Gilliam admitted. 'He's been here since we found what we thought was, well, a ghostly form of Ms Wynter's corpse.'
'What?' Sam exclaimed.'Show me. It could be important.'
Gilliam took her to the cold locker, opened the heavy insulated door and pulled out the long tray within.
There was nothing on it but a white sheet.
***
Rexton's head ached and his eyes felt raw from reading hundreds of annotated controls and trying make sense of them.The wording was precise, and yet still hard to interpret. What did COMPENSATOR FOR
INTERNAL FIELD POTENTIAL VARIANCE mean in practice?
He hesitated, turning the phrase over in his mind. Maybe... He cautiously turned the large heavy dial to the right. The shimmering curtain of the interface drifted towards their end of the control room, causing Bendix to step hastily out of its way. Rexton twisted the dial left and the interface retreated out through the main entrance and into the central vertical shaft of the tower, where it halted.Apparently they could not be rid of it entirely.
'Well at least we can get to all the controls now,' Bendix said.'If only we could understand them.'
'We will,' Rexton said.'We must move fully into our space so we can leave with the data.This ship can't just be a tunnel between different parts of space. It must be able to move itself somehow. They have controls for everything.'
The sign, SELF-REPAIR: HULL COMPOSITE MATERIAL SYNTHESIS
UNIT caught his eye as he spoke. Interesting. As soon as they learned about that back at the research base they could replace the patches they had fitted over the old ship and make it as good as new. For a moment his thoughts faltered as the possible implication struck him, but he firmly rejected it.
'It could be this bank here,' Bendix was saving, leading him across to another panel.'Now the interface has gone I can see all of it clearly. Yes, look.'
SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL TRANSLOCATION, ran the heading of a large bank of controls. Various subsections read, UNIT CALIBRATION, FIELD
EXTENSION PARAMETERS, POWER RESERVE,TARGET CO-
ORDINATES, NODE EQUALISATION...
'This is promising,' Rexton agreed.
'As long as those creatures leave us alone,' Bendix said.
'If they were going to try to operate it themselves they'd have been here already,' Rexton pointed out.'There's no reason why they should come in here as long as we don't draw attention to ourselves.'
Bendix started. 'But we have. You just moved the interface several metres...'
Rexton turned and activated his normaliser just in time to stop the wraith that was gliding through the main entrance.
***
Only insistent demands by both Lanchard and Vega got Commodore Sternby and Admiral Mokai into a split-screen three-way conference. Vega then related to the two fleet commanders, in clipped concise tones, what they had discovered at the other end of the hyperspatial corridor.
Lanchard listened incredulously. The ghosts were themselves, reaching back to them from some post-apocalyptic future where Emindar was lifeless? But Vega sounded frighteningly sincere, and the Doctor's steady presence lent further credence to the fantastic, macabre tale. She found herself believing. When Vega had finished, the Doctor faced the two military men.
'Everything Commander Vega has told you is true. If you want my advice I would say get as far away from here as possible and forget all about the alien ship.' He saw the expression on their faces and added sadly,'But I don't suppose you'll do it.'
'Until we have craft modified for exploration of the alien vessel, we cannot verify your... most unusual report, Commander Vega,' Mokai said. 'I will send a shuttle over to collect you and your men for debriefing aboard the Starfire !'
'I was hoping to return to my ship, sir,'Vega said.
'Your own ship is under the command of one of my officers,' Mokai admitted gravely. 'I had to relieve your second, Fayle.' Noting Vega's mystified expression, Mokai moved stiffly on. 'I won't discuss the matter over an open link. Just hold yourself ready for retrieval.'
'You will not land a military shuttle on the Cirrandaria without my permission,' Sternby said.
"These are our men,' Mokai retorted angrily. 'On what grounds would you hold them there against their will?'
'They have made an unauthorised landing on our ship in mysterious circumstances. I want to see this travel device they used.' He looked at the Doctor. 'Perhaps if you could demonstrate it, that might give some credence to this fantastic story.'
'I'm afraid it cannot be moved at present,' the Doctor said.
'How inconvenient,' Sternby said, clearly disbelieving.
'It doesn't matter how they got there,' Mokai said.'We are taking our men off immediately -'
'As Captain of the Cirrandaria ', Lanchard shouted over them,'may I remind you that Commander Vega is my guest, and that I am obliged to him for his part in rescuing our lost passengers. He and his men may leave whenever and however they please.
'Captain,' Sternby said, 'in the current situation I am placing your ship under martial law -'
'That's outrageous!' Lanchard shouted.
***
Sam entered the bridge amid the babble of crossed words. The Doctor saw her and drew back a little way from the arguing group.
'Doctor,' she said urgently, 'while we were away they found Lyset Wynter's body in Delray's cabin - looking like a ghost. But now it's vanished.'
The Doctor stroked his chin thoughtfully. 'Now that is very interesting, Sam.
It proves the nexus isn't totally closed.'
'The what?'
'The probability nexus: a zone of twisted time and space. The loop containing the alien ship is only part of it. These people are all trapped within it. We may be ourselves, if we're not careful.'
Sam looked across at Lanchard, Vega and the soldiers on the screen.
'Can't you explain that to them?'
'Do you think they'd believe me? Vega has already told them the truth. Now it's up to them to decide their fate.'
'But you said you'd try to help.'
'I can't change the big picture, Sam, because we've seen how it ends -
perhaps how this little piece of history has always ended.There are terribly powerful forces at play here: pride, honour, fear, distrust.' He sighed. "The four horsemen in new guises. It is their destiny.'
A terrible look of melancholia enveloped him - a weariness beyond her understanding.
'But you haven't really given up? Come on, you never give up!'
The Doctor said nothing.
***
As Rexton held back the wraiths at the door he shouted over his shoulder,'Do it now!'
Bendix stared helplessly at the strange controls.'But I can't be sure -' 'Then guess! Or haven't you the guts to make a decision?' Bendix took a deep breath. Concentrate, he told himself. Activate the whole TRANSLOCATION panel. Boost power.
Set field within parameters. If NODES meant the two ends of the ship, and he moved this one towards the other that opened into their own space...
The whole ship trembled. From the depths came the rising pulse of raw energy. He felt the deck tilt under him as concentrated megatonnes of mass flowed through the vast structure, warping gravity to their needs. On the external viewscreen lightning played about the great horns of the distant hull rim, earthing into the rocks about them with shattering blasts and illuminating the whole cavern. For a moment he felt like a god riding the power he had unleashed. But then he saw a more incredible sight.
From out of the tunnel-pocked far wall of the cavern a pale luminous shape was emerging, flowing slowly out of the solid rock towards them. It was the Cirrandaria .
What were they doing bringing it here? What had happened to the rest of the rescue party?
A cloud of ghost creatures, some winged, some no more than drifting blobs, were emerging from the tunnels and swarming into the Cirrandaria's hatches. There seemed to be hundreds of them. Why were the humanoid crew allowing it? What had happened back in the port cavern?
Then he understood, with cold horror, that the insane had taken over.
But did they realise in their madness what they were doing? Was this their final effort, drawn by what common instinct he could not guess, to travel back to find the people they had been? To feed again on warmth and life?
***
The warning alarms cut through the intership argument, as all craft detected the change in the alien vessel.
'Gravity shift!' a bridge monitor called out. 'Massive energy discharge...
strong field fluctuations.'
On the screens they saw lightning play about the twin collars of spires.
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