Apollo 23

by Doctor Who

  Graham Haines was already waiting for them when they arrived back at Base Hibiscus. He was all but bouncing up and down with excitement.

  'The scans the Doctor set running before you left -they've finished. It's incredible’ he told Candace.

  'What's incredible?' Walinski demanded, jumping down from the jeep to join them.

  'What he's done to the Herschel telescope for one thing, and all by remote control.' Haines shook his head in admiration. 'The man's a genius.'

  'Course he is’ the Doctor said, striding swiftly past them.

  'So let's see what Herschel has to show us, shall we?'

  Walinski, Jennings, Candace Hecker and Haines all crammed into the General's office along with the Doctor.

  Haines had routed the scan results through to the Walinski's computer screen.

  'Not bad for a dwarf’ Agent Jennings murmured quietly.

  'Excuse me?' Haines was looking confused.

  'It just looks like a load of bright colours against a dark background’ Walinski said. 'Someone care to tell me what it actually means?'

  'It means the Doctor's right’ Candace said.

  'It means trouble’ the Doctor added.

  "These orange sections, like the stripes in a rainbow’

  Candace explained, 'they're bursts of energy. This is calibrated like an MRI scanner. Magnetic Resonance, like you get in the brain.'

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  'It detects brain waves’ Haines s aid. 'In simple terms’ he added, catching a glare from Candace.

  'And where are these brain waves?'

  'We can't tell where they're coming from’ the Doctor said. 'But the point of arrival here...' He pointed to the end of the rainbow stripe. That's your Base Diana. Specifically, it's Professor Jackson's Process Chamber.'

  There was silence for a while as they all stared at the rainbow pattern on the screen.

  'Is this happening all the time?' Agent Jennings asked.

  'No, it comes in bursts’ Haines said. 'But, get this - the bursts coincide with the logged schedule for use of the process equipment. It drains the power, so they have to log it’

  he explained.

  'Jackson fires up his machine’ the Doctor said, 'and alien brain waves zoom in at exactly the same moment. Time and again. It's not a coincidence.'

  'And it's getting worse’ Candace told them. 'While Haines was putting through the data feed, I took a look at the back end of this rainbow of ours. Zoomed the Herschel as far out as it will go. This is real time, people.'

  She worked at Walinski's keyboard for a few moments.

  The image on the screen was replaced by a strobing pattern of red light across the darkness.

  "That is constant’ Jennings said. 'Right?'

  'Right’ Candace agreed. 'Not controlled bursts any more, but a constant stream. The good news is it hasn't hit Diana yet - this is all upstream. But it's on its way, whatever it is.'

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  'Reinforcements’ the Doctor said. 'Downloading, remember? So far they've been s ending bursts of mental activity. Like one alien brain at a time. Think of it like copying files to a CD, one after another.'

  'And this?' Walinski tapped the screen.

  "This is a constant download. This is a heap more dat a all coming at once. They just increased their bandwidth so they can send more than one brain at a time.'

  'How many are we t alking about ?' J ennings wondered.

  The Doctor shrugged. 'One each for everyone on Base Diana to begin with.'

  'To begin with?' Haines whistled. 'What then?'

  'Then one each for everyone on Earth.' The Doctor looked round at the grim faces of the others. 'They've accelerated their plans, st epped up a gear. Perhaps this was always their intention. Or maybe something's fright ened them into thinking t hey have to move more quickly. T hat's why they cut the link. T hat's why this...'

  He pointed at the s creen.'... is on its way. Once they have their reinforcements they'll reconnect the link and come through to Earth in force. We're running out of time.'

  'But why ? What could have frightened them s o much they've changed their plans?' Walinski asked.

  The Doctor grinned suddenly. 'Me. T hey know I can stop them. But I can't do it from here. I have to get back to the moon, and I think you know a way I can get there.'

  Haines saw the look between Walinski and Candace Hecker. 'You cannot be serious,' he said. 'Tell 138

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  me you're not thinking what I think you're thinking.' 'Doctor’

  Walinski said, 'we need to show you something.'

  The soldier had almost finished reconnecting all the sleepers to the equipment. Amy and Captain Reeve stood in the open doorway. Reeve watched in astonishment.

  'It's Private Dyson’ Reeve said. 'He's supposed to be back at Hibiscus. In fact, all of these guys are. What are they still doing here?'

  'I'm guessing your guys at Hibiscus think they're still up here going about their normal duties’ Amy said. 'Someone's been lying. Using your own secrecy against you to cover up what's really happening. Come on, we have to get out of here.

  Once he's finished, he's programmed to come after us.'

  'Programmed?' Reeve shook his head, bewildered. It was almost comical to see the oh-so-cool Captain confused and astounded. 'What do you mean? These people are sick. We have to help them.'

  'Yes, we do.' Amy pushed him back through the door into the corridor beyond. 'But we can't do it on our own. And we have to know who's behind this.'

  'Nurse Phillips must know they're here.'

  'I'm sure she does.' The door slid shut. 'Hang on.' Amy turned to stare at Reeve. 'How did you know I was in here?'

  'I was in the security control room. I saw the door to the holding area had been opened. There was no authorisation, so I came to check.'

  "They must have a way of overriding that when 139

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  they need to come here, so no one detects it.'

  'But who?' Reeve asked.

  Amy was hurrying back down the corridor. 'Nurse Phillips, and Professor Jackson.'

  'Jackson's in on this too? What's going on?'

  They reached the end of the corridor and Amy keyed open the door.

  'It's kind of difficult to explain.'

  'Try me.'

  'Look, Professor Jackson's process removes memories from the human brain. I think those people in there have had their brains wiped completely clean. Jacks on t alked about

  "Blanks" - that's what they are. Literally, waiting to have a new personality imprinted into the empty brain.'

  'You mean, like a mind-swap?'

  'Yeah. Except the Doctor thinks that whatever is going to take over their brains is alien.'

  Reeve laughed. 'You're kidding, right?' He stopped laughing as Amy glared at him. 'OK, not kidding. So what do you suggest we do about this?'

  'Arrest Jackson and Nurse Phillips.' Amy turned to look out of the huge window at the central hub containing the cells. 'At least you've got somewhere to keep them. Solitary confinement.'

  Reeve nodded slowly. 'I' ll have to clear it with Major Carlisle. She might take a bit of convincing.'

  'No!' Amy said sharply. 'I think she's in on this, too.'

  'Andi Carlis le? No way!' Reeve gave a sudden snort of laughter. 'She's not an alien, she's always like that.'

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  'W e can 't risk it’ Am y in sist ed. 'Just y o u an d m e for no w, t ill we fin d o ut m o re.'

  'Ho w do we do t h at ?'

  'Fro m Jack so n an d P h illips.'

  Reev e n o d de d. 'M ak es s en se. W e'll go t o m y quart ers first t h o ugh , t h ere's so m et h in g I t h in k we'll n eed.'

  'Han dcuffs?'

  Reev e sh oo k h is h ead. 'Gun . Co m e on , let 's do th is. An d wh at ever h ap p en s th ere's go in g to be h ell to p ay , so p ray th at y o u're righ t .'

  'No ’ Am
y t o ld h im . T ray t h at I'm wro n g.'

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  There were just the four of them in the jeep - the Doctor, Candace Hecker, Agent Jennings, and General Walinski.

  The General had insisted on driving. Candace was in the passenger seat beside him.

  'I don't want anyone else knowing we even thought about this, unless we have to do it’ Walinski told her as they pulled out of the base.

  A cloud of sand followed their progress, thrown up by the wheels as they sped across the empty desert. There were no landmarks, no signs, no road even. But Walinski seemed to know exactly where they were going.

  'You know this is crazy’ Candace told him.

  Walinski nodded. 'Crazy may be all we have left, Candace.'

  Jennings and the Doctor were sitting in the back of the jeep.

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  'You know what they're talking about?' Jennings asked.

  'I can make a pretty good guess’ the Doctor admitted happily. He was grinning like a kid in a candy store. 'You?'

  'Nope. Crazy, that I understand, but nothing else. Hey -

  this whole thing is crazy, start to finish.'

  'It's not finished yet,' the Doctor said, his expression clouding over.

  'Tell me, are you serious about these aliens? I mean, seriously serious?'

  'Very serious ly serious. Though I do notice you and the General haven't been kicking up a fuss and insisting there's no such thing as alien life or the whole idea is complete nonsense.'

  Jennings took off his sunglasses and polished them on a spotless white handkerchief before replacing them.

  'I guess Walinski's read some of the s ame files I have.

  UNIT, Torchwood, Operation Yellow Book -the real deal, not the sanitised cover-up stuff they put out under Freedom of Information.'

  'UNIT?' the Doctor said. 'You know who 7 am, then?'

  Jennings smiled thinly. 'I would if you were a good deal older.'

  'Believe me’ the Doctor told him, 'I'm a good deal older.'

  They drove for about an hour, the sun scorching down from a clear blue sky. Finally, in the distance, the Doctor could make out something that wasn't just more sand.

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  Jennings had seen it too. 'What is that? It looks like a building. A spire of some sort.'

  The Doctor didn't answer, but his grin was back.

  As they got closer, the shape resolved itself through the shimmering heat into a tall, circular, white tower. It tapered at the top, ending in a sharp-looking spike that thrust up into the sky.

  'It's still a long way off,' Jennings said. 'Is that where we're headed?' he called out to Walinski. 'Not that there's anything else out here,' he said to the Doctor.

  But the Doctor wasn't listening. He was intent on the growing structure ahead of them, gleaming in the sunlight.

  The jeep bumped up a sharp incline, like the edge of a crater. It was now apparent that the structure was far taller than just the section visible above the edge of the 'crater'.

  The ground dropped away into a vast open bowl scooped out of the desert.

  Walinski stopped the vehicle at the rim, throwing up clouds of sand as he skidded to a halt.

  'You are so kidding me’ Jennings said, leaping out of the back of the jeep.

  The Doctor was bouncing on the balls of his feet with enthusiasm. 'That is... fantastic,' he decided. 'Brilliant. Fab, if I can use a very sixties word - and I think under the circumstances I can.'

  The four of them stood at the edge of the ' crater' looking across at the enormous structure.

  'It always gets me,' Walinski confessed. 'I don't come out here often, but every time I do I'm just staggered by the sheer size of it. The engineering that

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  went into that.'

  'Three hundred and sixty-three feet tall’ Candace said.

  "That's about the same as St Paul's Cathedral’ the Doctor said. 'What's she weigh?'

  'Fully fuelled, over three thousand tonnes.'

  "That is one hell of a thing’ Jennings said.

  Below them, several low buildings were clustered round the edge of the crater. They were well away from the main structure in the middle, though roads had been built between them. Huge pipes ran from one of the buildings to the enormous raised square of the launch pad.

  A massive tower of scaffolding rose from the pad, high above the edge of the crater where the Doctor was standing. And braced against it by supporting struts, standing proud and defiant against the sky, was a huge rocket.

  It was predominantly white, with black markings and

  'USA' in huge letters down the side towards the bottom.

  Two-thirds of the way up, it tapered before continuing as the narrower cylinder that they had seen above the lip of the artificial crater.

  'The Saturn Five’ Walinski said. 'Biggest launch vehicle ever built by Man. That one's serial number is SA-521, and it doesn't officially exist.'

  'You said there were several secret Apollo missions to the moon, to set up Base Diana’ the Doctor remembered.

  'That's right’ Candace answered. 'Apollo 18 to Apollo 22.

  Then they got the quantum displacement systems activated and working, so they didn't need

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  the trouble and expense of another rocket.'

  'But they already had one waiting’ Walins ki s aid.

  'Couldn't easily get rid of it without attracting attention and rais ing a few questions . The officially aborted Apollo 18 and 19 rockets, and t he back-up Skylab launch vehicle were already decommissioned and on display at Houston, Kennedy, and the Sp ace and Rockets Center at Hunsville, Alabama.'

  'So this one stayed here’ Candace said. 'Notionally as an emergency back-up, ready to be fuelled for take-off at a week's notice.'

  'Except that was thirty years ago’ Walinski told them. 'Who knows what condition s he's really in now?'

  And we don't have a week’ the Doctor said. 'We have twenty-four hours at most to get her ready.' He clapped his hands together excitedly. And we'll need to speed up the journey too. Apollo 11 took four days to reach the moon. I want to be there in forty-eight hours.'

  'This baby will be quicker than the first moonshots’

  Candace said. 'They found a way to use the M3 Variant fuel developed by the British Rocket Group for their aborted Mars Probe Missions way back. That'll shave a lot off the journey time.'

  The Doctor brandished his sonic screwdriver. And I can shave off even more.'

  'You know’ Candace said, 'this is not sounding as crazy as I thought it would. If you'd told me yesterday that we'd be s erious ly considering getting that thing ready for launch, I'd have s aid y ou were mad. But somehow, now we're here, looking at her... Well, it 147

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  sounds so plausible.'

  'If that thing will actually work after all this time’

  Jennings said. 'And if you can find anyone experienced enough and crazy enough to agree to fly it.'

  'So we're looking for three astronauts’ Walinski said.

  'Two’ the Doctor told him. 'You've got me already.'

  'Like you're trained up for this sort of thing’ Candace said.

  'Got my Mars-Venus licens e’ the Doctor said, apparently affronted. 'Probably better qualified than anyone else you can rustle up. Ask Jennings here, he's read the files.'

  Jennings nodded. 'Don't ask’ he said. 'Just believe.'

  After a moment's silence, Candace said: T at Ashton is notionally in charge of keeping that thing in shape. He's got experience on the shuttle, so he can probably pilot it.'

  'And Marty Garrett is back from his shopping trip’

  Jennings added. 'He has more hours as Technical Officer on Base Diana than anyone. Be a good idea to take him anyway to help sort out the problems there.'

  'Garrett's the astro
naut who turned up at the burger bar, yes?' the Doctor checked. 'Then I only have one question before we start getting this thing literally off the ground.'

  'And what's that?' Walinski asked.

  The Doctor nodded at the colossal rocket in front of them.

  'Does she have a name?'

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  Walinski laughed. 'She sure does, though it's not very imaginative. She may not officially exist, but you are now looking at Apollo 23.'

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  With his automatic pistol in a shoulder holster under his uniform jacket, Captain Reeve led the way to Jackson's office.

  'Not all aliens are afraid of guns’ Amy warned him.

  Once again, Reeve surprised her by taking her statement seriously and not questioning how she might have come by this information. 'His body's human even if his mind is alien.'

  'Fair enough. Let's hope he realises that.'

  'We'll make sure he does.'

  Jackson's door was clos ed. Amy half hoped he wasn't in his office. But they had already passed the empty Process Chamber. Next port of call would be Jackson's living quarters.

  'Leave this to me, OK?' Reeve said, knocking on the door.

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  talking’

  Jacks on's voice was muffled by the door as he called for them to enter. He was working at his desk, and stood up as Reeve and Amy went in.

  'Captain, Miss Pond. What a delightful surprise. What, may I ask, brings you to my humble abode? Do, please, clear a space and sit down. Can I get you some tea?' He gestured to the metal water heater nearby.

  'We're not here to chat, Professor,' Reeve said shortly.

  'Oh that's a pity. Then why are you here, may I ask?'

  In answer, Reeve drew his gun. 'I' m afraid the game's up, Professor Jackson. Miss Pond has been doing a bit of investigating on her own account. She knows everything.'

  Jacks on raised an eyebrow. ' Everything? Oh I seriously doubt that.'

  'You're not denying it then,' Amy said.

  'I'm not quite sure yet what I'm being accused of, so no -