by Mark Speed
Kevin jumped, hit the ceiling and fell back to the floor.
"– do something stupid."
"It's actually pretty good at cushioning impacts, isn't it?"
"Don't push it too far, lad. Now, we've been delayed long enough. This whole installation is about twelve thousand feet below the surface. We're going to enter here," the Doctor put a finger into the projection, "which I think is the main computer network room. It's separated from a much larger room by a wall on one side. I don't know what the larger room is."
"Umm, that looks like a dead-end, Doc."
"That's right. Just the one exit – or entrance – so far as I can see. Easier to guard."
"I don't much fancy the idea of being caught in a dead end. You hear what I'm saying?"
"I share your concern, Kevin."
"But at least we'll be able to get out in the Spectrel."
"The Spectrel will disengage immediately and await further instructions."
"You've got to be kidding me!"
"They've already hacked into David's Spectrel. We can't risk mine."
"You're out of your mind, Doc."
"Not at all. She'll be waiting for us."
"And the signal is?"
"There's no signal. She'll just know."
"Man, this sucks."
"Well, if you want out, Kevin...?"
"No chance. It might suck, but reality sucks even more. Let's do this thing!"
"I'll go left two yards," said the Doctor. "Kevin, you go right two yards." He took the Ultraknife from his pocket. Kevin gripped his Tsk Army Con-Bat.
"On my count," said the Doctor. "Three, two, one. Go!"
The Doctor ran at the exit, followed by Trinity. Kevin launched himself at the door and jumped to the right. He found himself in a dimly lit grey room about twenty feet wide and ten deep. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Spectrel wink out of existence. As his eyes adjusted, he realised that the only light was coming from the rows of panels that covered the opposite wall. Little chinks of light escaped into the room from the gaps between the panels. The Doctor was twelve feet away to his left. He couldn't see Trinity.
"Doc," he whispered. "Where's Trini?"
The Doctor pointed upwards. Kevin followed his finger. Trinity was upside down on the ceiling, crouched like a spring. He waved at her and one of her green eyes winked. He'd not seen her do that before and couldn't remember having seen eyelids on her. The thought was a distracting one and he glanced back up. Trini had disappeared. A green eye blinked open and shut – or was it on and off? he wondered – from a point a foot below the ceiling, and he was able just to discern the outline of her features. As with the winking, he'd been unaware of her ability to blend in like a chameleon. Then he noticed that he couldn't see his own arms and hands – or the Tsk Army Con-Bat which he could still feel in his right hand. He waved it and it became partly visible again. He waved it around some more.
He heard a psst to his left and became aware of the Doctor waving at him furiously from behind a counter. He tiptoed over to join him.
"What the hell are you doing, you clown?" hissed the Doctor.
"Just following your instructions," he whispered back.
"I didn't tell you to stand around like an idiot waving your bat."
"Chill, man. No harm done." A hard stare told Kevin he might be wrong. "Sorry, Doc."
"This looks like the processing centre," said the Doctor, holding his Ultraknife out towards the wall of panels. "Superfast quantum computing. And lots of it. The really big room is on the other side of those processors."
"Why's it here?"
"Because they need it, of course."
"What for?"
"Hack into Spectrels for one thing. I don't like the look of this one bit. And this sort of thing really isn't allowed on Earth."
"What do you mean?"
"What the hell do you think I mean? It's not allowed. Same thing as you're only allowed to wear that kit on my say-so. A long way ahead of where your people are now. Restricted technology."
"Gotcha. So how did it get here?"
"Behind my back. And I'm not happy. This has to be removed or destroyed, that's for sure."
"Just give me the order and I'll get stuck in, Boss."
"Not so hasty. First I want to raid it for data. This thing we're hiding behind seems to be the interface."
"Where are the bad guys?"
The Doctor shrugged and rose slowly to his feet. Kevin did the same. They looked around the room again. "Keep an eye on that door," said the Doctor, indicating the single door into the rest of the complex. "I'm going to figure out a way in."
"Gotcha."
"Where are you off to?"
"I'm off to guard the door, innit? Not much use if I'm over here. Basic, man. Didn't you ever play Black Ops?"
"Some of us are too busy dealing with harsh realities to engage in fantasy."
Kevin rolled his eyes and walked towards the door. He glanced upwards but could see no sign of Trini.
The door itself was a disappointment to him. He'd wanted one of the sphincter variety that closed towards the centre, like he'd seen in sci-fi movies. What he was faced with was a solid metal sliding door with a mundane-looking control panel on the right side at his chest height. The door was about the same width as a domestic door but slightly taller. He imagined that might be to accommodate a species taller than humans, and made a mental note to ask the Doctor whether he was allowed to see any documentaries on alien species. Above all, he was curious to know whether the descriptions of aliens on obscure websites bore any relation to reality. He stood with his back to the wall on the opposite side of the door to the control panel. That way, he'd get a good forearm swing at whoever – or whatever – came in.
He looked over at the Doctor, who was busying himself in the gloom with his Ultraknife. A green glow suddenly lit his face from the top of the counter, giving his face a ghoulish, shadowy appearance. He looked pleased as he concentrated on whatever it was in front of him. The light on his face flickered slightly as the data changed. After a couple of minutes he looked satisfied. He left his Ultraknife on the counter and walked over to Kevin.
"What's the deal?" whispered Kevin. "Who is it?"
"No idea," whispered the Doctor. "But I've set up a transdimensional data link back through the Ultraknife to the Spectrel. That avoids the jamming that a normal data feed would suffer. Sucking up a huge amount of data. The Spectrel will analyse it and we'll see what we have."
"There's another way to find out, you know."
"Such as?"
"Open this door and take a look."
"Let me ask you a hypothetical question."
"Shoot, Doc."
"Suppose you were in a bank vault. No, let's make it easier for you to relate to. Let's say you were burgling your local computer shop and you'd got right to the most valuable stuff. You were just about to go back the way you came and get away with it."
"Right."
"Would you want to go and open a door that would set an alarm off?"
"Um, right. I get your point."
"Good. Well, if you just stay there and leave this in my hands, we'll be out before you know it." The Doctor walked over to the wall of panels and took in the expanse of it. He put his hand on the back of one of the eighteen-inch square blocks and leaned in to look at one of the chinks of light. Keeping his focus on the chink of light, he reached into his pocket, took out a thin screwdriver and inserted it into the crack.
Kevin felt his grip tense on his Con-Bat and looked nervously around the room. He still couldn't see Trini.
The Doctor drew the screwdriver along the crack and seemed to connect with something. He fiddled with the screwdriver and then shook his head. He fiddled again and then stopped. There was a tiny rattling noise, like the proverbial pin dropping, over and over again. Rrrat-tat. Rrrat-tat. Rrrat-tat.
Kevin stopped breathing, feeling his heart thumping in his chest. Whatever it was – a dislodged screw, K
evin imagined – rattled its way slowly down the column of panels before ending its journey with a final tat.
The Doctor looked back at the green glow around the counter. It continued to shimmer as data surged through the connection to the Spectrel. He glanced round at Kevin and shrugged.
Kevin breathed again and stood easy, shaking some life back into his tense legs.
The Doctor continued his exploration of the panels with the screwdriver, this time higher, and towards Kevin's end of the room. He reached another point of interest and fiddled again, then stopped, attentive. He fiddled again and there was another faint rattle. Rrrat-tat. Rrrat-tat. Rrrat-tat. Rrrat-tat.
Kevin followed the Doctor's gaze back to the counter, where the data continued to stream. He felt a pang of nerves and wished the Doctor would stop his explorations. He jiggled his knees and shifted his stance.
The Doctor felt his way over to the end of a row of panels, so that he was now just a few feet from Kevin, in the corner of the room. He took out another screwdriver of the same size and explored around a panel with both of them, ears pressed against the back of it. There was a ping and then a Rrrat-tat. Rrrat-tat. Rrrat-tat. There hadn't been a ping before, and the Doctor glanced over his shoulder to make eye contact with Kevin, who adopted a more alert stance.
There was another ping further to the Doctor's left, followed by a Rrrat-tat. Rrrat-tat. Then came another ping, and another, and another, each followed by its own Rrrat-tat. Rrrat-tat. Rrrat-tat. Within five seconds the air was filled with the sound of little ping noises and their cascades of Rrrat-tat. Rrrat-tat. Rrrat-tat. Rrrat-tat.
Kevin knew the noise was faint, but to his heightened senses it sounded like dried peas raining on a snare drum. The Doctor tiptoed back towards him.
"What the hell are you doing?" hissed Kevin.
"I just wanted to see if I could get a couple of sample components out and identify the manufacturer."
"Jesus, Doc. You're scaring me witless, man. Like, what components?"
"No idea. Couldn't really see."
"Lost without your bleedin' Ultraknife, ain't ya?"
"Relax. Listen."
The components stopped raining down inside the processing bank and silence returned to the room. The Doctor smiled.
Kevin loosened his stance again. "Man, you'll be the death of me. How much longer's left on the download, d'you reckon?"
"A couple more minutes and we should be done. Then we can get back in the Spectrel, analyse the data and then clear this mess up. We'll be back in time for tea."
Crash!
A panel shattered against the floor, sending pieces skittering everywhere. The echo reverberated and died down.
Bright light shone through a gap at the top of the wall where the panel had been. Kevin and the Doctor froze as the neighbouring panels moved perceptibly out of position, then back.
The Doctor relaxed again. "It's okay," he said.
A split second later, the entire edifice of panels cascaded to the floor; an endless, deafening crashing and shattering – like a truckload of beer bottles overturning.
Kevin instinctively flinched and covered his eyes as pieces flew towards him. He felt them hit his protective gear ineffectually and reminded himself he was safe. He crouched, grasping the Con-Bat in both hands and looked up. The wall had gone. It had been entirely made of the panels, which he now realised had formed the back of a gigantic display system for what was clearly the real control room, which was several times the size of the room they'd entered in the Spectrel. He could see movement.
"Oh, drat," said the Doctor.
Kevin shot him a toxic look. "I'm the clown?"
The Doctor ran back to the counter, slipped on a piece of debris, slammed into the opposite wall and cried out in pain as he fell to the floor.
There was confusion in the larger room, Kevin could tell that much. Several tall beings – two arms and two legs – in white suits with opaque spheres where the head of a human would be. Several small metal boxes – bots of some kind, he guessed – rushed towards the area where the display had been. Four looked like they were converging on the Doctor and one towards him. Fighting his fear, he stood stock-still as the metal box bore down on him, trusting that he'd be difficult to see or sense if he didn't move.
A rasping, guttural sound boomed around the room, which seemed to command the beings to head towards the rear of the room, where a door slid open.
"They're evacuating!" said the Doctor.
The box slowed down as it made its final approach at head-height, and two cable-like arms emerged from the side. When it was just four feet away Kevin stepped forward and swung the Con-Bat. He felt his suit speed his body through the range of motion and refine his aim. The Con-Bat itself seemed to accelerate of its own accord. As the ends of the cables reached out to grasp Kevin, his Con-Bat slammed down onto the top of the bot, bashing the centre of it to half the height and sending it smashing to the floor. It was the most strangely satisfying physical movement Kevin had ever made, and he felt elated and pumped full of confidence. The rearmost of the bots broke off its approach to the Doctor and veered towards him instead.
The Doctor had got up onto his knees and was reaching for his Ultraknife. A bot looped a metal cable around his wrist and pulled it away from the Ultraknife. A second cable grabbed the Doctor's other wrist, and a third looped around his neck.
The bot bounced in the air and the cables were severed in quick succession. The Doctor shook them off and they fell limply to the floor. The bot spun in confusion, showering sparks. "Thanks, Trini!" he said. The bot behind it paused for a second in mid-air. It had two cables reaching forward, which hesitated for a second, then went limp as the bot was crushed by an unseen force. It fell to the floor.
Kevin jumped several feet through the air and met the rearmost bot with a blow that nearly cut it in half. It flew as gracefully as the piece of scrap metal that it had become and hit a counter similar to the one the Doctor had been using. Kevin saw a few sparks fly from the counter as he landed back on his feet and moved towards the remaining bot, which backed off and seemed to consider its options.
"Ah, download finished!" said the Doctor. He grabbed his Ultraknife and pointed it at the last bot. It remained hovering in the air. "There," said the Doctor, and put the Ultraknife back in the inside breast pocket of his jacket. Trinity reappeared as her usual uncamouflaged black spider self, next to the bot that she'd crushed.
"Let me take care of it," said Kevin.
"Leave it, Kevin."
"But you haven't finished it off."
"Good enough," said the Doctor. The bot floated uselessly in the air. "Components. Wouldn't mind taking a look."
"Yeah, suppose."
"They wanted us alive, that's for sure. A Time Keeper or a Spectrel is still their ultimate prize."
"Well, if you've got what you want, there's no sense in us staying here any longer. Call your Spectrel and let's get the hell out of here."
"Not so hasty. I want to have a look around and try to figure some of this out for myself."
"So you've, like, still no idea who this might be?"
"Could be anyone."
"They looked pretty distinctive to me."
"Oh really, Kevin? Describe them."
"Well, uh. Tall and slim. Two arms, two legs. Heads, obviously. Difficult to say much else coz they was wearing spacesuits."
"Okay."
"But you must know who that is, surely?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Could be anyone. For all I know it might have been a team of basketball players from your description. Do you think I should go and arrest the Harlem Globetrotters on suspicion?"
"No."
"Oh really? And why not?"
"There wasn't a funny short one."
"Very droll, Kevin."
"I mean, come on, Doc. That must narrow it down."
"I'm afraid not. It's a big place, the universe," said the Doctor. "You might suppose from that description that they're
from a low-gravity home planet. But then they might have spent aeons living in a low-G environment after leaving their home planet. Or they might have decided to engineer themselves those kinds of bodies."
"What about the language? Did you understand that?"
"Of course, but it was a lingua franca."
"A what?"
"A language that everyone understands. Like Latin used to be for science."
"What about the accent?"
The Doctor laughed and put an arm around his companion's shoulder. "A while from now you're going to be savvy to all this, and you'll laugh at your naivety. Anyway, great fight Kevin – you're taking to this like a pro."
"Like, the suit and the Con-Bat, man. They're just wild."
"So long as you realise that it's them and not you who have the superpowers, you'll be alright. Don't go trying to be a hero without them or you'll get yourself killed. Someone very close to me began to believe it was himself who was the super-being. He lost his sense of perspective and his ego ran out of control. Then..." The Doctor shook his head.
"Are you talking about, you-know-who?"
"Some other time." The Doctor took his arm from around Kevin's shoulder and walked off down the rows of counters. "Now, let's wrap this mission up. Something doesn't seem quite right here, but I can't figure out what it is."
"To be honest, Doc, that seemed a little bit too easy."
"Yes, I'd figured that bit out, but what I don't know is why." The Doctor tapped the top of one of the counters with his Ultraknife, and a 3D display flicked into life. It was showing fuzzy static.
"In all the Bond movies and things like that, the baddies always destroy the evidence behind them, innit? To be honest, it wasn't much of a fight, and they've left all this kit lying around. I can bash it with the Con-Bat, if you like. I need the practice."
"Oh, don't worry about that," said the Doctor. "The whole place is going to blow up in about T-minus four minutes."
"You freakin' what?"
"There's a countdown clock over there on the wall." The Doctor kept his attention on the panel in front of him and motioned disinterestedly at the far right corner of the room, where a blue display showed a rapidly-changing sequence of characters.