Doctor Who: Harvest of Time

by Alastair Reynolds

  She wanted to believe that.

  ‘That’s terrible. He seemed like a really nice man.’

  ‘He was. I liked him a lot.’

  After a moment Jo said: ‘You don’t think we had anything to do with it, do you?’

  ‘No, you only asked him fair questions. It’s the other lot I’ve concerns about. Especially one of them.’

  ‘The other lot, Miss McCrimmon?’

  ‘Look, call me Eddie – it’s easier. And I’m sorry for what I said to you just now. I shouldn’t have doubted your credentials. I’m guessing you’ve worked hard enough to get where you are in UNIT.’

  ‘And I’m guessing it hasn’t been quite as tough as getting where you are in the oil industry.’

  ‘A few ups and downs on the way – although there are some who’ll always refuse to believe I could have got anywhere without Big Cal’s influence.’

  Jo nodded to herself at this remark – she couldn’t help but think of her own uncle, how he had pulled strings to get her into UNIT, and how that meant she had to work even harder to prove herself.

  ‘The fact is,’ McCrimmon went on, ‘my father never wanted me in this line of work. It scared the living daylights out of him.’

  ‘Maybe he had a point, if people are starting to jump off oil rigs,’ said Jo.

  ‘That’s the thing, though. Pete Lomax wasn’t the type to do that. That’s why I think someone got to him. Look, I’m going out on a limb here. But I have to talk to someone I can trust outside of McCrimmon Industries. Do you know of something called MERMAN?’

  ‘No,’ Jo answered truthfully. ‘I’ll need a bit more to go on.’

  ‘It’s a project – a government project, something to do with submarines … They needed our help to test it.’

  Jo sensed tremendous hesitation in the other woman, as if she knew that every word might end her career. ‘Go on.’

  ‘I don’t know much more than that. But men have been coming out here, putting MERMAN equipment on our platforms. Including the one that sank … or vanished. And now we’ve got this problem with two other rigs, and a full-scale evacuation in progress …’

  Jo could barely contain her exasperation, remembering how unhelpful McCrimmon had been during their visit to the platform. ‘Why didn’t you say something at the time?’

  ‘They put me in an impossible bind, I’m afraid. Even now, I’m taking a big risk by talking to you. There were lots of them to begin with, technicians, scientists. Now there are just three. One of them – Lovelace – is still on the rig. But it’s not him I’m calling about. There’s another man … I don’t even know his name, but he’s usually with them. I think he’s another scientist, a technical consultant or something. To be honest I don’t much care for him.’

  Jo had a nasty suspicion she knew where this was leading. ‘What about this other man?’

  ‘I think he might be the one who got to Pete. There’s more to it than that, though. After you’d gone … this man asked about your friend, the Doctor. As if they knew each other.’

  ‘Can you tell me what this man looked like?’

  ‘Beard, slicked back hair – something of the Devil about him. Always wearing the same black clothes.’

  ‘That sounds like the Master,’ Jo said. She thought back to the oil that the Doctor had found on the Master’s book, presumably carried back from the rig by accident. There could be no doubt now.

  ‘That’s the word on Pete’s drawing,’ McCrimmon said after an uncomfortable silence. ‘Master. It’s the same man, has to be. Do you know his name?’

  ‘That is his name.’

  ‘Just that? The Master? Like the Doctor?’

  ‘Yes. And they do know each other. In a manner of speaking.’

  ‘I can’t trust him, can I?’

  ‘No, you can’t. But the Master’s in prison. We saw him. He might have been able to come and go before now, but it’s not going to happen again, not with the Doctor and UNIT keeping an eye on him.’

  ‘I hope you’re right about that, Jo. That only leaves Lovelace to worry about, and the equipment.’

  ‘What about the equipment?’

  ‘I don’t know. But somehow this is all connected, isn’t it? The MERMAN experiments, the Master, and all these strange things happening. The sea opening up, the weird weather … the problems with the other rigs … all those odd things I keep hearing on the radio.’

  ‘I wish they weren’t,’ Jo said. ‘But I think you’re right. It is all connected. But UNIT are involved now. If you’d only …’ She halted, all of a sudden becoming aware of a kind of absence on the other end of the line. ‘Eddie? Are you still there?’

  But of Edwina McCrimmon, there was no answer.

  ‘Put the handset down,’ Lovelace said. ‘I won’t ask twice.’ He had a gun in his hand, a slim black automatic. That was as much as McCrimmon knew about weapons. Real or fake, she was not about to take the chance.

  ‘You brought a gun onto my rig? You’ve got a cheek, pallie.’

  ‘Our rig, Miss McCrimmon. Or were you somehow under the impression that you retained control out here? Your father understood perfectly well that it was never a question of choosing to cooperate with us. We needed the use of your facilities. We would have taken them one way or the other. Now.’ Lovelace twitched the gun. ‘Away from your desk, please. You’ve done enough harm for one day.’

  ‘What are you going to do – throw me overboard, the way you did Pete Lomax?’

  ‘A regrettable complication. Neither Callow nor I wanted things to end that way. But our colleague is a man of great persuasion. I’m afraid we should never have let him speak to Lomax.’

  ‘The Master, you mean?’

  There was no surprise in Lovelace’s face. ‘Yes. I overheard your conversation with the UNIT woman.’ He nodded at the telephone. ‘Doubtless you neglected to remember that all communications between Mike Oscar Six and the mainland are now routed through our seabed data link. We have been monitoring your calls since we initiated the MERMAN experiments. My only regret is that I did not terminate that data connection before you had a chance to speak to UNIT. An oversight on my part. There will not be another.’ The barrel of the automatic twitched again. ‘Move.’

  ‘You can’t take control of an entire rig, Lovelace. There’s just one of you.’

  ‘Beyond the continued functioning of the MERMAN equipment, what happens on this platform is of no concern to me. I merely wish to ensure that matters do not deteriorate any further.’

  ‘By killing me?’

  ‘If you insist. But I’m perfectly satisfied with locking you away, until you pose no threat to our operations. Move away from the desk, McCrimmon.’

  She did as she was told, confident that Lovelace would make good on his threats if she pushed him. He was already implicated in one death, after all.

  ‘Just tell me,’ she said. ‘Did Pete really die?’

  ‘I’m afraid so.’

  ‘That friend of yours is a snake.’

  ‘He’s no friend. In fact his usefulness to us is almost complete.’

  ‘Good, because if I never see him again …’

  Lovelace opened the door to her office. He glanced out into the corridor, making sure it was clear. ‘Quickly, please.’

  ‘Where are you taking me?’

  ‘The one place where I can be absolutely sure no one else is going to stumble upon you.’

  ‘We’re in the middle of an evacuation, Lovelace – in a little while they’re going to notice me missing!’

  ‘You overestimate your importance, McCrimmon. I doubt very much that you will be missed.’

  The corridor was still clear when they emerged. McCrimmon was half hoping that Tom Irwin or someone else was going to come along. But at the same time she did not want anyone else dragged into this trouble. ‘You really think you’re doing the right thing here, Lovelace? National security and all that?’

  ‘I would hardly be pointing a gun at you if I did not belie
ve in the rightness of my cause.’ They were in the corridor. He closed the door behind them. ‘Walk ahead of me, a few paces. I’ll have the gun on you the whole time. If we meet anyone, you act normally.’

  ‘You’re not going to get away with this.’

  ‘There is nothing to “get away with”, McCrimmon. I am acting in the national interest. This is a time of heightened international tensions. Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent must remain competitive. MERMAN is a vital element in the continued effectiveness of our submarine fleet.’

  ‘It doesn’t even work! If it does work, it’s not in the way you think it does! Haven’t you been paying attention? Everything’s going to pot! We’ve lost one rig, lost contact with another and there’s all hell breaking loose on Mike Oscar Seven! Don’t tell me that’s none of your doing!’

  Lovelace pushed open the door to a stairwell, descending into the rig’s lower levels. ‘All tests have proceeded satisfactorily.’

  ‘And who told you that – your creepy pal with the goatee?’

  Seeing that the coast was clear, he closed the gap between them and gave her an encouraging prod from the automatic. ‘Down the stairs. Quickly.’

  ‘Don’t you get it, Lovelace? Something weird’s happening. The loss of Mike Oscar Four, all these reports of strange phenomena … it’s all happened since you switched on your stupid equipment.’

  ‘Nonsense.’ He was on the stairwell above her, keeping the automatic aimed at her shoulders. ‘You’re a resourceful woman, McCrimmon. Doubtless you already know something of our experiment. Our equipment generates neutrinos – the most harmless particles in the universe. There are countless billions of them sleeting through you all the time, whether or not our equipment is switched on!’

  ‘Then there’s obviously something about your equipment you don’t understand. Or did that not occur to you? You’ve started something, Lovelace.’

  ‘Keep descending. And remember you’re on an oil rig in the middle of the sea, so forget about making a run for it. If you do, I’ll kill you.’

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The helicopter swooped low as they neared the coastline. The Doctor, despite his growing misgivings, could not quite suppress his natural curiosity. He hoped it would not prove to be them, but if it did, there was a genuine mystery waiting to be unravelled. ‘You know, Brigadier,’ he said into his radio mouthpiece. ‘I almost wish the Master were with us. He and I might have a lot to talk about.’

  ‘The who … Oh, I see. Him.’

  ‘Do try and concentrate, old man.’

  ‘I’m doing my best. We’re all doing our best. But have you ever tried to remember something that wants to keep slipping out of your head? It’s like trying to hold onto a bar of soap in the bath! Of course you wouldn’t have that problem, being an alien.’

  ‘I assure you I am not immune to the effects of the time-fade … merely better equipped to resist them. Now, concerning these crabs …’

  ‘If you’ve met them before, I need to know everything you have. Their defences, weapons … tactical weaknesses … everything we can use against them.’

  ‘If I’m right, Brigadier, the enemy we’re dealing with are lightly armoured, minimally weaponed, and susceptible to just about everything above small arms fire. Get in close enough, and you can kill them with a well-aimed pebble.’

  ‘That’s very good news, Doctor – and it chimes with what I’m already hearing from my men on the beach. They’re taking these blighters apart as if there’s no tomorrow!’ But the Brigadier’s tone wavered. ‘You don’t sound as if any of that was meant to be good news.’

  ‘It’s not. These creatures – if I’m right about them – are also responsible for billions of deaths, for the wholesale slaughter and oppression of entire planetary civilisations. They are as ultimately ruthless and unstoppable as any adversary we’ve yet encountered.’

  The UNIT forces had the enemy pinned down on a stretch of sand, still wet where the sea had retreated. The helicopter touched down on a patch of hard ground near an assortment of military vehicles perched just above the start of the beach. Sandbags and barricades had been hastily installed around the vehicles and landing area. Further down the slope of the beach, UNIT forces were dug into small sand holes, with rifles and bazookas resting on sandbags. The Doctor heard the crackle of automatic weapons fire, punctuated by the occasional grenade or bazooka blast. Overhead, helicopters loitered. Further away, lost behind cloud cover, a jet or two circled, making an endless scraping sound like fingers down a blackboard. The stench of war filled the air.

  The Brigadier and the Doctor jumped out of their helicopter, stooping against the down-blast. Benton was already on site, handing the Brigadier a pair of sturdy military-issue binoculars.

  ‘Situation report, Sergeant,’ Lethbridge-Stewart said, as he raised the binocs to his eyes and fiddled with the focus wheel.

  ‘Almost too easy, sir. We’re picking them off like sitting ducks. Their armour can’t stop even light rounds. We’ve called in air support, but it’s almost not worth the bother.’

  ‘Are they still coming out of the sea?’

  ‘In waves, sir. I mean, in military waves. Not sea waves.’

  ‘At least make an effort to get to the point, Benton.’

  ‘We’re holding them, sir. Isolated reports of more coming ashore up and down the coast, but it’s nothing we can’t contain with a few mobile units and close air cover.’

  The Doctor’s keen eyes made out the remains of the aliens, where they had been butchered in their dozens. Pieces of shiny silver crab, dismembered and smoking, littered the shoreline. The UNIT soldiers had already killed hundreds of them.

  ‘This is how it always begins,’ he said grimly, when Benton had wandered off to talk to another group of soldiers.

  ‘I’m sorry, Doctor?’

  ‘You are dealing with Sild, Brigadier. This is how their planetary offensives always begin. With relatively small numbers of lightly armoured invaders. You’ll think you have the upper hand, and indeed for a little while you will. But these Sild are coming ashore in hundreds. Will you be so confident of taking them all out when they arrive in thousands? Tens of thousands? That’s their modus operandi, you see. Force of numbers.’

  ‘We’ll just keep shooting them.’

  ‘Eventually some will get through.’

  ‘But they have no weapons, no obvious armour.’

  ‘You don’t understand, Brigadier. They have no need of weapons or armour because they are ready – eager, even – to accept tremendous losses. But all it takes is one Sild to reach one of your men. Then that Sild has control of that soldier, with his gun and armour. And then everything changes.’

  ‘Preposterous. My men would sooner die than turn against their fellows.’

  ‘Your man would already be dead, to all intents and purposes. The Sild establish direct neural control of their hosts. They gain access to memories and tactical knowledge, as well as the ability to move around undetected. It happens in ones and twos to begin with. Then tens and twenties, then hundreds, then thousands.’ The Doctor paused for effect. ‘Then millions. That’s how they take over a world. They’ve done it countless times.’

  Something of this grim diagnosis seemed to reach the Brigadier. ‘What can we do?’

  ‘Very little. The more you throw at them, the more likelihood there’ll be of the Sild eventually co-opting one of your soldiers.’

  ‘And the alternative is …? Just let them take over?’

  ‘The net result will be the same.’

  Benton came running back. ‘We’re ready for an extraction, sir – robot’s in position, and we’ve identified a candidate.’

  The Brigadier looked at the Doctor. ‘We have a chance to bring one of them back in more or less one piece.’

  ‘It’s a dreadful risk.’ But the Doctor added: ‘If you let me examine it, the risk would be reduced. And then at least I’d be confident it’s the Sild we’re up against.’

&n
bsp; The robot was the kind they used for bomb-disposal operations. The Brigadier had gone to considerable trouble and called in several favours to borrow this latest technology. About the size of a large toy tank, it had tracks, a camera and an extensible remote manipulator arm. It was guided by an operator using a hand-held control unit, squatting behind the cover of the sandbags.

  ‘Send it in,’ the Brigadier said.

  The robot trundled down the beach, electric motors making a high whine. The bursts of automatic fire continued, but for now the UNIT forces were concentrating their efforts away from the area of beach where the robot was moving. Most of the Sild, as far as the Doctor could see, were either dead or incapacitated. He could not see any new units emerging from the waves.

  But it would not stop here, he knew. It never did.

  The robot reached the damaged unit, which was upside down and with two of its main limbs blown off. The arm lowered, extended, and then clamped its claw around the body of the alien.

  ‘Gently,’ the Doctor urged.

  ‘My chap knows what he’s doing.’

  The robot had the Sild. The creature’s remaining legs and tentacles were thrashing now that it had been lifted from the sand. It looked rather helpless and pathetic, although the Doctor knew it would be a very grave error to think that. While they could still move, Sild remained lethal.

  ‘Reverse,’ the Brigadier instructed. Then, to his other men: ‘Resume fire!’

  The robot backed its way up the sloping beach, until it was back on level ground. A detachment of soldiers surrounded it, aiming the muzzles of their guns at the thing in the robot’s grip. The Doctor jumped over the barricade and made his way down to the scene. ‘Be careful!’ he shouted. ‘Keep well away from the legs and tentacles. One touch, and they’ll reach your nervous system.’

  The ambulator was damaged, but the travelling compartment – the glass cylinder on the crab’s back – remained intact. The claw had closed around the body without crushing or trapping the cylinder. The Doctor approached warily. The thumb-sized thing inside the cylinder was twitching nervously, like a maggot on a hook.