by Mark Speed
“We’ve got his details if we need to question him further,” said the policewoman to her large colleague, who let him go. Kevin picked up the contents of his pockets from a nearby table.
“Thanks again, Kevin,” said the doctor, and glanced back pointedly at the policewoman before putting a hand on Mrs Thomson’s shoulder and leading her into the treatment area.
“Thanks, doctor. Laters, Mum. Alright?” He gave a half-wave to his mother. “Look, I’ll just be making my way back home, alright?” he said to the large officer. The man didn’t move out of the way, and Kevin had to step around him. The officers followed him through the crowded rows of silent, seated people waiting for treatment. The doors slid open in front of him and he exited into the cool air of Denmark Hill. The officers followed him out and stopped at the top of the stone steps. Kevin skipped lightly down them and turned.
“So, like, I’ll see you round, yeah?” he said. “Good luck with… whatever. You know?” He glanced around. He’d not normally be able to afford the train, but the Oyster card the Doctor had given him meant he could upgrade from the 45 bus. The train was almost risk-free because gangs from other postcodes couldn’t monitor the passengers the way they could with buses. The adventure with the Doctor was clearly over – at least for now. He felt conflicting pangs of relief and regret that he’d not be joining the Time Keeper in the trip to the lair under Essex.
There was the sound of police sirens closing in from two directions and he saw a carrier touch its brakes as it ran the lights at the crossroads near the station before roaring in through the gates to the emergency ward. Kevin stood rooted to the spot. Two police cars raced up the hill from Camberwell and parked on the double yellow lines outside. Officers from the carrier jumped out. He flinched as they ran past him. Five other officers, two armed, got out of the cars and moved more cautiously towards the other police.
Kevin felt eyes boring into his back, but as he turned to go towards the train station he glanced back one last time to make sure the officers weren’t following him. Sure enough, thirteen pairs of eyes were staring at him.
Next to the entrance to the A&E department was a red telephone box. He couldn’t recall there having been one there before. Even in the daylight it seemed to glow from within. He stopped and turned around fully. The police continued to stare at him.
“Sorry,” he said. “I need to phone a friend.” They continued to stare at him as he closed the fifteen yards towards the box. Two of the original officers pointed and made comments that he couldn’t hear. He smiled back sheepishly. “Just going to… Mobile’s out of juice, you see?”
His heart was pounding as he opened the door and stepped in. He took a deep breath and took a confident step towards the back of the box.
He found himself inside the cool white space of the Spectrel.
“Ah, there you are, Kevin. Glad you could make it.” The Doctor fiddled with some dials.
A wave of relief washed over Kevin, followed immediately by one of anger. “You just left me out there to dry, man! Like, thanks a lot!”
“I did the best I could, dear fellow.”
“No you didn’t!”
“Shush. Let me explain. I couldn’t just start messing with people’s memories inside a hospital, could I? There are sick people being treated. If I’d done that, I’d have had to take over their treatment myself or they’d have suffered the consequences. As it is, the cops will barely recall a thing. Your mum and that doctor aren’t going to create a stink.”
“But you –”
“If you’re a bit more invisible to a trio of Her Majesty’s Constabulary in the future, is that going to be a handicap?”
“Um…”
“No. Didn’t think so. Now, I’ve just got to get Trini.”
“What, we’re at home now?”
“I didn’t realise you’d moved in.”
The Doctor brushed past him and left the Spectrel for a couple of seconds. When he stepped back in he was followed by Trinity in her cat form. She made a beeline for Kevin’s legs, and rubbed up against them, purring. He bent down and stroked her head.
“Trinity, darling,” said the Doctor. “I think you might want to go and change.”
The cat broke away from Kevin and disappeared through the door into the Spectrel beyond the cabin.
“Does she, like, not change in public?”
“Have you ever known a classy female who would?”
“No, but I assumed…”
“You really don’t want to see her change, Kevin. Really.” The Doctor sat at the control panel and made some adjustments.
Trinity popped back silently into the room in her spider format. Her two main glowing green eyes were the same as they had been in her cat form, but the six surrounding them – and her spider form – still spooked Kevin. He tensed as she crawled soundlessly towards him. She put her two front feet up onto his stomach, and two on the legs of his trousers. He could feel the weight of her as she stared up at him, her mandibles about level with his groin. He reached down and put a hand on her head. The fur felt the same as it did in her cat form, but the surface underneath was not skin – it was a hard shell, rather like the cuticle of the oversized beetle. He stroked Trini’s head, and found it helped overcome his discomfort.
“Trini, I don’t suppose you’ve seen any giant beetles in your travels?” said Kevin.
“She’s never mentioned any,” said the Doctor. “Mind you, doesn’t mean to say she hasn’t. Unlikely, though. Trini comes from a jungle environment.”
“Jungle? Really? I’d have thought rocks. Or maybe desert or something.”
“No, you need jungle to support something like her. Hugely productive, jungle, in terms of edible biomass. Sort of the terrestrial equivalent of a coral reef.”
“I imagine her jaws must have come in useful for chopping off the occasional branch, eh?”
“Unlikely. More like cutting through the hard outer casing of some prey.”
“So do you think –”
“She’d be any use against the beetles? Don’t know. Aside from that, they’re oil-based. How do you like the taste of petroleum products?”
“I don’t.”
“Same for Trini. Eats the same sort of things as you, finds the same sorts of things distasteful. Haven’t tried her on Jamaican patties, though. Besides, she much prefers her food raw. Preferably alive.”
A 3D projection popped into being in front of the control panel. “Right, both of you, eyes front. All eight please, Trinity.”
“Not very good, is it?”
“I’m so sorry that it’s not to your apparently sudden very high standards, Kevin. Spectacularly high, given that you come from a society which believes a three-in-one dishwasher tablet that leaves glass clean is a technological breakthrough. What next for your scientists? Paint that dries? As previously explained, we can only go on the data from the hack. There’s also interference.”
Kevin rolled his eyes. “So, like, we have no data at all?”
“Nope.”
“We’re just going in blind? We could be ambushed, or anything!”
“Absolutely right. Well spotted. You’re in exactly the same position as your forebears who died fighting for your country.”
“Like, could you not emphasise the died bit? Maybe if you said fought.”
“Sorry, not selling this very well, am I? Perhaps if I told you it came with an added revolutionary teeth-whitening agent?”
“Can you just be straight with me, Doc? Like, what’s the plan?”
“Well…”
“You mean you don’t even have a plan? Jeez-Louise! Even those numbskulls in the Tulse Hill Crew always have a plan, man!”
“Aha, but they always end up in prison. Eventually.”
“Oh. Right. I think the consequences of an epic fail here are a bit worse, Doc. Like, what’s your objective?”
“Thank you for asking, Kevin,” sighed the Doctor. “First, it’s intelligence. I want to know
who they are and their intentions. Second, I want to destroy or disrupt if I deem it necessary.”
“Good. Now tell me how you intend to do that.”
“Since I can’t hack into their systems from here – and frankly I don’t want to run the risk of a cyber-attack on my Spectrel either – I need to get in there with the old Tsk Army Ultraknife and see what they’re up to.”
Kevin nodded his head slowly. “Riiight. And I’m guessing me and Trini are going to keep these guys occupied whilst you do that?”
The Doctor brightened. “Excellent,” he said. “So much better when people volunteer, rather than me having to bark orders at them.”
“Trini, is he always this bad at delegating?”
The spider dipped her head twice.
“So you’ve got your Ultraknife and Trini’s got her natural fighting ability. What do I get?”
“You’ve already got it, Kevin: your very own wit and guile. You did tremendously well in this morning’s little scrape. You’ll be fine. Really. And Trini will look after your back. Won’t you Trini?”
Trini hesitated, then her head bobbed up and down as she hissed.
“If it’s okay with you, I’d prefer, like, a blaster or something.”
“A blaster?”
“Well, yeah. You know, a laser, or maybe a plasma weapon of some sort. Failing that, I’d settle for a Glock like the Met use.”
“The thing is, Kevin, is that these beetles do have a tendency to explode, as demonstrated earlier.”
“I don’t want to shoot at the beetles. I want to shoot at the bad guys.”
“Look, shooting at people is generally a really, really bad idea.”
“Yeah? Why?”
“They tend to shoot back.” Kevin opened his mouth but the Doctor was losing his patience and cut him off with a wave. “You will be wearing some protective gear, though.” A bot came out of the door that led into the rest of the Spectrel. Hanging underneath were a helmet, goggles, a balaclava, boots, a two-piece suit and some gloves.
“Oh, cool, man!” Kevin had no qualms about changing in front of his companions. The top garment slipped over his head and had a roll-neck that went to his chin. He’d been expecting something thick and cushioned, but remembered what the Doctor had said about the properties of his own ordinary-looking suit and shirt, and realised that technology would have moved on. Although it clung tightly to him, it didn’t restrict his movements. Indeed, it seemed to enhance them in a way he couldn’t quite understand. The trousers were of the same material. The boots weighed much less than he’d thought, and their fit and grip were unlike anything he’d experienced. When he put the balaclava on he’d expected to find his breath restricted and to feel the moisture of his own breath, but the restriction was minimal. The helmet adjusted its internal dimensions to fit his head perfectly, and when he put on the goggles it didn’t seem like he was wearing them at all. The bot picked up his discarded clothes and hovered out of the room.
“You’ll still be able to smell things through the face-mask, but it won’t let anything through in toxic quantities. Just don’t get over-confident in that kit. It’ll protect you against a multitude of things, including poisoned gas, vacuum and fire – but stupidity isn’t one of them. And, before you ask, the answer is no – you’re not allowed to keep it. Restricted technology. Only for use on missions authorised by me.”
“Well, I might just tiptoe out wearing it.”
“And you wonder why I didn’t issue you with it this morning?”
“My God, you never did. I could’ve been killed!”
“This morning wasn’t supposed to be dangerous. Besides, you handled yourself perfectly well.”
“I tell you, you’re not going to get me out of this clobber in a hurry. I’m wearing this when I go back to the Hill, man, and you ain’t stopping me.”
The Doctor chuckled. “I think you’ll find the ‘clobber’ has a will of its own.”
“You what?” He felt a sudden restriction in his groin area. “Nuff said. I get the message.”
The bot returned with a thick black rod dangling under it and hovered to a stop next to Kevin. “What’s this? Looks like a slimmed down baseball bat.”
“Grab it by the handle and swing it around a bit.”
Kevin took the rod in his gloved hand and swung it. “Oh, wow. I can’t tell you what this feels like. I feel like I could knock a home run on every ball!”
“That’s not strictly true, because the ball would disintegrate with the force you’re able to exert.”
“Oh, baby,” said Kevin, and swung the bat around some more. “It’s like that scene in Star Wars when they’re in the Millennium Falcon and Luke Skywalker’s using the force to block the shots from the training globe.”
“No it’s not, and kindly don’t swing that thing in here. It does have friend-or-foe recognition, but you’re making the Spectrel nervous. And me.”
“What is it?”
“A Tsk Army Con-Bat.”
“Combat?”
“No, Con-Bat. Con, as in against. Bat, as in bat. For those situations requiring a special kind of force, was how the advertising went.”
“These Tsk people are fierce.”
“I’ll say. Now throwing spears at each other back on their home planet.”
“You what?” Kevin stopped swinging the Con-Bat.
“Quite literally bombed themselves back to the stone age.”
“But –”
“Civilisations rise and fall. Some more easily and frequently than others.”
“How did you get it?”
The Doctor shrugged. “Visited them towards the end of their second civilisation, of course.”
“It feels like my body is like, superpowered, or something, Doc.” Kevin was moving around the cabin of the Spectrel.
“That’s the suit. It’s power-assist, rather than just passive. I did warn you not to get too confident in it because you might –”
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!”
Chapter Seventeen
“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 o
ut 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.”