Vanderdeken's Children
Page 27
***
On the bridge, Lanchard saw the war-torn sky clear almost magically in front of them. And out of the void came the alien ship. Head on. They were looking straight down into its gaping mouth. The marine lieutenant was too distracted by the battle inside to notice.
Lanchard ordered,'Hard to port!'
Nothing happened.
"Thrusters are inoperative, Captain,' the helmsman said.
'Engine room, we need thruster control!' Lanchard shouted over the comlink. Only the sound of gunfire came back to her.
She looked helplessly at Vega, then at the screens.The perfect circle of darkness was swelling by the second. But deep within it was a pale glowing form. Vega realised what it was even as he felt time closing in.The acceptance of destiny enfolded them in a strange calm.
'I just wish I could have been on my own ship at the end.'Vega said. 'At least you will keep yours, Captain.'
'You'll always be welcome on the Cirrandaria , Commander Vega,' said Lanchard.
***
Sam pointed at the monitor. "The ghosts are inside the alien ship! Won't its interference mess things up?'
'Not as long as we don't try to dematerialise,' the Doctor said.'Get ready.'
His finger was hovering over the switch that would release the vast reserve of power stored within the TARDIS.
***
Rexton saw the Cirrandaria lying immobile directly in their path. They were going to collide and he could do nothing about it.
He didn't know how to steer.
'Now, Bendix, now!' he roared.
Desperately Bendix hit the last of the buttons, just as the viewscreen was obliterated as though they had been enveloped by a firestorm.
***
Whether it had been a Nimosian or Emindian ship was now impossible to tell.The blazing mass of wreckage crossed the path of the derelict, grazed the forward end of its pipe-encrusted hull and broke up into a dozen lesser fragments and a cloud of smaller debris. The fringe of this silent avalanche struck the central tower.
***
Rexton and Bendix dived through the main entrance of the control module as a ball of fire rolled into the central shaft after them, filling the air with fluttering fragments of burning labels blasted loose by the Shockwave. A wind picked up as air began to escape through the damaged tower modules. They scrambled down the ramps towards the lower levels as the complex assembly of waveguides and energy grids began to collapse.
Sparks showered over them from shorted contacts. Pulses of energy danced wildly. On the second level the silver mesh conduit leading to the temporal laboratory filled with flickering green fire.
As they ducked under it the structure collapsed, knocking them to the ground. Primary polarised temporal energy washed over them and sparks crackled between them, their bodies acting like shorted electrical terminals.
Bendix felt his suit shred and disintegrate about him, the metal corroding, the plastic cracking and flaking. His joints stiffened, his skin wrinkled. His cry of terror became a choking feeble whimper. Rexton thrashed wildly as his own clothing turned to powder and dirt, then rolled out of the beam and under the guard railing. As another fireball blasted what was left of Bendix to ash, Rexton fell kicking and screaming down the central well of the shaft.
In the space-time corridor directly under him hung the ghostly form of the Cirrandaria .
***
On the TARDIS's monitor they saw the Cirrandaria enveloped by the alien ship and its doppelganger appear to hurl itself towards them.An instant before they met the Doctor pressed the switch.
The TARDIS's lights dimmed.
At that same moment the continuum twisted about them according to Bendix's last command.
***
The units of measurement stored in the uncalibrated targeting system of the alien ship were neither standard years nor kilometres.The ship would never reach its intended objective. But as it fell through hyperspace a vortex beam, actuated by its damaged systems, did flicker briefly into life, reaching out to touch a point in time and space beyond and before the co-ordinates set.
Then it faded and was gone.
Chapter 36
To Begin Again
Pale stars burned in a grey void about the Cirrandaria , which itself was now a pallid insubstantial thing.After an interval the ghost ship's main drive was activated, and it began its timeless journey towards home and inescapable destiny.
***
Sam and the Doctor watched it depart from the TARDIS, which was hanging invisibly on the fringe of hyperspace. The Doctor's face was pale and pinched with regret.
'We failed,' he said.'It's all starting again.'
'Well,' Sam said, feeling the weight of his sorrow, 'at least we tried.'
'I know.' He looked at the console displays.'There was a huge surge of energy along the space-time corridor. Rexton must have tried to move the whole ship.'
'Where are we now?'
"The energy surge interacted with the field we emitted.We've been projected a little over a year forward in time and several light years closer to Emindar.'
'What about the real Cirrandaria ' And the fleets?'
The Doctor operated the controls and the TARDIS dematerialised. Seconds later they appeared amid a thinning cloud of tumbling debris. A piece of hull plate drifted past with some lettering still legible: Indomitable.A bloated corpse came into view and Sam turned her head away.
'Not a single ship survived,' the Doctor said tonelessly. "They fought to the last, even though the prize they were fighting for was gone. In a year it will be the end for both their worlds. The phase-shifted Cirrandaria will arrive at Emindar to find a dead port and the repaired derelict.They'll use it to try to change the past and it will all begin again.'
'All because of one alien ship,' Sam said. Then she frowned. 'We never found out where it came from.Who built it? Something that size didn't just pop out of nowhere.'
'In a way it did,' the Doctor said. 'You see, the universe's accounts are only audited, so to speak, at the beginning and the end. Sometimes a little can be borrowed in between and returned again without upsetting things too much. The alien ship is never created or destroyed, just repaired by the Emindians with the information Rexton sent them, which he got from the labels they put on the instruments in the control room, which they made from his data... and so on. His final efforts must have sent it back, damaged and with its power depleted, to where the Emindians first found it. And so the cycle continues.'
'But it must have a beginning.'
'Pick any point you want.The ship was shaped within the nexus by the hopes and fears of the people who would later fight over it in response to its potential. An endless cycle of feedback making distorted wishes tangible. That was why it was so full of contradictions: the lock code and the nonsensical inscriptions, the way certain equipment would or wouldn't work, the interior being suggestive of alien origins yet so accessible to humans.'
'It's still hard to take in.'
'The TARDIS has recorded its time path through the nexus.You can see how it interacted with everything else,' he said absently, touching a few controls. A graphical image appeared on the vast, holographic display in the ceiling above them.
It resembled a sloppily tied multicoloured bow with three loops of different lengths, Sam thought. A dark-blue band ran across the display, sloping up from left to right, and was crossed in the middle by a rising curve of dark green. Both of these ran off the hazy edges of the projection. From the point they crossed, a small loop of pale green rose upward, a larger loop of red rose to the same height, then dropped well down, while a thin loop of yellow hung to the very bottom of the image. Arching along the vast display was a graduated timescale with an arrow pointing upward.
Sam realised the Doctor was staring at the image with an expression of wonder and delight spreading across his face.
'We haven't totally failed after all, Sam,' he said.
'How? What's it all mean?'
; 'The blue line is the TARDIS's time track and the dark green is the Cirrandaria's. The red loop is the alien ship, while the pale-green loop is the phase-shifted Cirrandaria - the ghost ship, if you will. But look closely where all the lines cross: the heart of the nexus itself...'
He zoomed in until the knot at the centre of the image dominated their view and pointed dramatically. 'See: the timeline for the ghost ship curves up, merges with that of the alien ship but ends just as it crosses
ours. It doesn't join itself. It isn't actually a closed loop. The pulse we have just seen must have been created
afresh by the energy surge from the alien ship, not by mutual annihilation by its doppelganger. I was wrong -
but the cycle has been broken anyways.'
Sam was trying to understand while peering intently at the screen. 'It looks like the ghost Cirrandaria's track branches off from the real Cirrandaria's as it crosses ours.'
'Reality divided about the TARDIS inside the space-time corridor,' the Doctor said. 'Apparently it was our predestined role in the nexus to help create faint copies of the Cirrandaria and its crew - and then to destroy them. The ghosts were never their future-selves doubled back in time. Their duplicated pattern must have reacted against some smaller object inside the corridor, so they became less substantial themselves. Then it was simply a matter of action and reaction throwing themselves forward in time.' Sam felt confused relief. 'Well as long as they're at rest now.' She looked at the diagram again.
'Wait a minute. The real Cirrandaria's time track runs off the top of the display.'
The Doctor was beaming broadly. 'I was wondering when you'd notice that. Obviously it reacted against the alien ship itself, which has been projected back thirty years or so from 3123 when we encountered it. Therefore, being of lesser mass, the Cirrandaria has been thrown quite a lot further forward...'
***
The Cirrandaria was in orbit about Emindar. Lanchard and Vega stood side by side on the bridge as the
scanner data came in. The commanders of the assault forces were with them, but they were no longer fighting. There seemed little point now.
'The remains of cities... a few pockets of low-level radiation... but the air and sea are clean,' Lanchard said.
She turned to communications. 'Still nothing on radio or hyperwave?'
'Some very faint signals on hyperwave, Captain. Can't quite make them out.'
'And nothing on the Nimosian channels?' Vega asked.
'No, sir.'
Lanchard looked at Vega. 'So, where are we?'
Before he could answer a distant rhythmic whirring sound became audible, growing into a harsh groaning. With a dull booming thud, a familiar tall blue box materialized in the middle of the room. A door in the side opened and the Doctor and Sam stepped out.
‘We had to say goodbye properly,' the Doctor said brightly.
Vega recovered his voice first. 'What happened to you? Where are we?'
'According to our instruments,' Sam said with a grin, 'it's the fifth millennium. You've travelled a little over a thousand years into the future. The Doctor says time has been more forgiving than usual.’
The Doctor indicated the blue and white world on the screens.
‘Emindar has not been resettled. In fact this whole sector has been more or less forgotten by the rest of the galaxy since the war. Let’s say you’ve had a second chance. Not many people get that. It won’t be easy, of course, but you’ve got the resources of this ship and what you can find down there. And your own courage, of course.’ He consulted his pocket watch. ‘But we have to go – and you’ve got a lot of work to do. Good luck.’
‘Goodbye,’ said Sam. ‘Make sure Dan has a good world to grow up in.’
‘I...’ Lanchard began, still sounding dazed. Then she seemed to pull herself together. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Yes. I promise.’
With a wave Sam stepped back inside the TARDIS. The Doctor paused on the threshold.
‘Incidentally, the history books say that look after the war Emindar was rebuilt by settlers of unknown origins.’ He smiled. ‘I think we know who they were now.’
The TARDIS was back in its natural element, riding the dimension winds of deep hyperspace. The Doctor’s eyes had that faraway look in them again. ‘Vanderdeken,’ he muttered to himself.
‘Who?’ Sam asked.
‘The mythical flying Dutchman. The captain of a ghost ship, doomed to sail the seas eternally attempting to double about the Cape of Good Hope. A bit like Cirrandaria’s ghostly twin.’
‘But at least it isn’t for ever for them. Thanks to you.’
‘I suppose so, Sam.’
‘And the real passengers and crew of the Cirrandaria still have a chance to make good. It’s better than nothing.’ She frowned at the nexus graphic still glowing on the monitor. ‘You never explained what the yellow loop represents. It goes even further back into the past than the derelict.’
‘That must be whatever balanced the ghostly version of the Cirrandaria forward.’
‘Oh, what?’
‘Something of equivalent mass. The ghosts weren’t very substantial, so It could have been quite a small object.’
‘And it will cycle around for ever like the alien ship?’
‘Yes, that’s a closed loop.’ A quizzical expression came over the Doctor’s face. ‘Without a beginning... or an end.’
Epilogue/Prologue
POLICE HEADQUARTERS, MELCONVILLE, NORTH BERRON, EMINDAR EXCERPT FROM NIGHT PATROL LOG: 17th to 18th JUNIS, 3072
01.23: Responding to call from residents in 104th Street Lower West District with Officer Sabrinus. Unidentified lights and sound reported. Concern over possible explosion. Investigated locality. In service way at rear of apart, block 3 found male child approx. 7 or 8 years of age. Child was dressed in rags so poor they disintegrated to the touch. He appeared physically unharmed but confused. Did not respond coherently to questioning. Could not give name or explanation for his presence.
Extensive inquiries made among local residents but nobody could identify child. Accompanied child to Melcon Central Hospital where he was examined and pronounced physically fit, though still unresponsive. DNA test did not match with any family group on register. Communicated with Social Care Department and was advised to take child direct to local facility. Handed child into care of supervisor of Rexton Hall at 07.48
End of duty period. (signed)
Officer John Kale, MPD.
VANDEREKEN’S CHILDREN
It is 3123, and traveling in the TARDIS into deepest space, the Doctor and Sam find three spacecraft. One is a Ximosian warship, the other an Emindaran civilian starliner, and the third a ship of strange allen design. Both Ximosian and Emindaran crews want to discover what cargo this strange structure holds.In attempting to discover where these vessels come from, the Doctor and Sam unearth a terrible truth. The aden ship is caught in a closed loop of time, being neither created nor destroyed, constantly circling the vortex. The Doctor wants the ship to be destroyed, but the Ximosian and Emindarans are caught in a wrestle for power, and both desire to possess the spacecraft and transform its power into a source for their own political ends.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - The Derelict
Chapter 2 - The Diplomat
Chapter 3 - Pendulum
Chapter 4 - Executive Pressure
Chapter 5 - Moderator
Chapter 6 - A Meeting at the Rail
Chapter 7 - Out of the Shadows?
Chapter 8 - Family
Chapter 9 - The Experiment
Chapter 10 - Brothers
Chapter 11 - A Patriot’s Tale
Chapter 12 - Ghost
Chapter 13 - Dead Man’s Hands
Chapter 14 - Lost
Chapter 15 - Conundrum
Chapter 16 - Soldier
Chapter 17 - Guilt
Chapter 18 - Suspicion
Chapter 19 - Sabotage
Chapter 20 - Exit
Chap
ter 21 - From a Well of Stars
Chapter 22 - Cavern
Chapter 23 - The Shadow Host
Chapter 24 - Through the Tunnel
Chapter 25 - Aftermath
Chapter 26 - Command Decision
Chapter 27 - Garden of the Lost
Chapter 28 - In The Ruins
Chapter 29 - Standoff
Chapter 30 - Tears of a Ghost
Chapter 31 - The Warning
Chapter 32 - Breaking Point
Chapter 33 - The Circles of Hell
Chapter 34 - Convergence
Chapter 35 - Nexus
Chapter 36 - To Begin Again
Epilogue/Prolgue
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - The Derelict
Chapter 2 - The Diplomat
Chapter 3 - Pendulum
Chapter 4 - Executive Pressure
Chapter 5 - Moderator
Chapter 6 - A Meeting at the Rail
Chapter 7 - Out of the Shadows?
Chapter 8 - Family
Chapter 9 - The Experiment
Chapter 10 - Brothers
Chapter 11 - A Patriot’s Tale
Chapter 12 - Ghost
Chapter 13 - Dead Man’s Hands
Chapter 14 - Lost
Chapter 15 - Conundrum
Chapter 16 - Soldier
Chapter 17 - Guilt
Chapter 18 - Suspicion
Chapter 19 - Sabotage
Chapter 20 - Exit
Chapter 21 - From a Well of Stars
Chapter 22 - Cavern
Chapter 23 - The Shadow Host
Chapter 24 - Through the Tunnel
Chapter 25 - Aftermath
Chapter 26 - Command Decision