Jamie looked up sharply at the Doctor. The thought that Victoria might be in danger filled him with horror. His response was immediate and determined: 'We've got to find her!'
The Communications Hall was now on full alert. Not only was the impeller at a standstill, but the gas flow to the South of England was completely cut off. Even more serious was the fact that both audio and visual contact between the Refinery and its rigs had broken down. And now came the news that Megan Jones found absolutely shattering to even contemplate. 'Foam and weed on all the rigs?' said the Chairperson incredulously. 'Mr Harris, are you sure you've heard right?'
Harris was ashen-faced. 'According to the helicopter pilot, there is no sign of life at all on any one of the rigs.'
There was a deathly silence throughout the Hall. All that could be heard was the intermittent flickering of lights at the Control Cone.
'I don't believe it. I just - don't believe it!' The Chairperson could hardly bring herself to speak. She raised herself' out of her chair, and turned to look up at the illuminated panel on top of the Cone. 'All this - it's so fantastic!' Then, turning back to Harris she asked helplessly, 'What can we do?'
For once in his life, Harris was decisive in his reply. 'Our main priority is to save the lives of any of the crew who may still be alive...'
'What do you suggest?'
'Give me permission to evacuate them. Then blow every one of the rigs to pieces - right out of the sea!'
'What!' The Chairperson's secretary looked as though he was about to have a fit. 'You're out of your mind, Harris! Have you any idea how much those rigs cost to install?' He then pleaded directly with the Chairperson. 'Miss, Jones, you can't agree to such a thing. Euro-Gas is of vital economic importance to the Government, to the country. The Minister would never forgive us if we...'
'To hell with the Minister!' bawled Harris. 'The lives of our crews are more important than any one of those rigs!'
Perkins was practically purple in the face with indignation. 'Our duty,' he spluttered pompously, 'is to the British electorate!'
'Shut up, Perkins!' snapped the Chairperson. Perkins stared at her in disbelief. He felt like a balloon that had been pricked with a pin. The Chairperson quickly turned to Harris. In an extraordinary way, being put on the defensive made her look more attractive. 'Mr Harris,' she said calmly, 'You ask me to destroy years of hard work, skill, and Government money...'
Harris felt no guilt at interrupting her. 'Miss Jones, I am asking you to destroy this evil that's in the sea. Destroy it - before it's too late. I implore you - bomb the rigs - now!'
'No! Never!' A voice was booming out from the other side of the Hall. Everyone turned to look. The shadow of a man was standing in the doorway of the Compound exit. It was Robson.
'Mr Robson!' The Chairperson was visibly shaken as she caught her first glimpse of Robson. He came rushing across the Hall towards her, his appearance a shock to everyone. Heavy-eyed, tired, drawn, and unshaven, the Controller seemed to be on the very brink of a nervous breakdown.
'Leave the rigs alone!' Robson's demand was directed as much to Harris and everyone in the Hall as to the Chairperson herself. 'They're mine I tell you - mine!'
The Chairperson took a nervous step backwards. She was staring at Robson in wide-eyed amazement. Was this the man to whom she had entrusted so much power? The man whose career she herself had promoted? 'Robson...' she asked falteringly, 'what is it? What's wrong?'
Robson turned his back on her, and launched into a wild discourse to everyone in the Hall who was staring at him. As he spoke, there was a look of madness in his eyes. 'Can't you see it?' he yelled, his voice now back to its old harsh, loud tone. 'Can't you see they're all against me? Those rigs - they're mine! Mine! I built them with my own sweat and blood. They're my life! They want to destroy everything because they know it'll destroy me! But I won't let... we won't allow... we... ' His voice gradually faltered. He seemed puzzled and uncertain.
'We, Robson?' asked the Chairperson. 'Who are you referring to?'
Robson turned suddenly to look at her. It was as though he was only just aware that there was someone else in the Hall. 'What?' he murmured. 'My... I... I don't know...' He began to stagger, then clutched his hand to his forehead as if in pain.
'Mr Robson!' The Chief Engineer rushed forward to help Robson. Harris and two other engineers did likewise.
'Is he all right?' asked the Chairperson.
Robson suddenly sprang to life again, and shrugged off the help he was being given. 'Of course I'm all right...' Everyone became aware of the change in his voice. It had resumed its soft, almost inaudible tone. For a brief moment he stood quite still, looking around him from face to face in disorientated bewilderment. 'I'm sorry,' he mumbled breathlessly, 'I don't know what I...' Without another word, he broke free from the group around him, and rushed out of the Hall. Everyone watched him go in shocked disbelief.
'Mr Robson!' called the Chairperson.
Harris said, 'Let him go. The strain must have affected his mind.'
'It's not the strain, I can assure you.' This time it was the Doctor's voice. He was approaching from the Impeller Area.
The Chairperson glared at the stranger. 'And who the devil are you?'
Harris turned with a start. 'Doctor! I'd almost forgotten. What about van Lutyens? Did you find him?'
Even before Harris had finished asking the question, the Doctor was shaking his head sadly. This was yet another shock which Harris found hard to accept. He swallowed hard and asked, 'Have you any idea what happened?'
'Unfortunately, yes, I have. Jamie and I very nearly suffered the same fate. The whole of the bottom of that shaft is filled with weed and foam.'
There was a shock wave of horror throughout the Hall. 'What's this all about?' asked the Chairperson impatiently. 'What's happened to Mr van Lutyens?'
The Doctor shrugged his shoulders.
'And what about Mr Robson?'
The Doctor hesitated before answering. 'Mr Robson, I fear,' he said gravely, 'is being controlled by some kind of mental force which emanates from this weed.'
Each face around the hall showed the same expression: fear and horror.
After a moment's stunned silence, the Chairperson spoke. 'This is preposterous! You expect me to believe such an incredible suggestion?'
Harris brushed the usual lock of hair from his eye. 'That's what we've said so far about everything the Doctor has told us. But each time he's been proved right.' He turned pointedly to the Chairperson. 'I think it's about time we started believing him.'
The Chairperson hesitated, uncertain what to do. Then she sat down in her chair again, took a deep breath, and said, 'Very well. The least I can do is to listen.'
'Victoria! Victoria, where are you?'
Jamie's frantic calls echoed throughout the Refinery. He was desperate to find Victoria before any harm came to her. Jamie knew that something terrible must have happened to her, for nothing in the world would have persuaded Victoria to abandon the Doctor and himself at a time when their lives were at risk. Time and time again he kept asking himself how Victoria could have disappeared from the impeller area without anyone knowing.
'Victoria!' he called again. 'Can you hear me...?'
Jamie eventually found himself in a dimly lit corridor which led to the Impeller Area at the far end. It wasn't surprising that he missed seeing the corridor when he first started searching for Victoria, for most of the rooms and corridors in the Refinery looked identical.
Half-way down the corridor he stopped at a blue-painted door which was marked, PIPELINE ROOM. AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY. He banged on the door and called, 'Victoria! Are you in there?' No reply. He tried the door handle. Locked. There was a small glass panel in the door. He peered through. He gasped with horror at what he could sec inside.
'Victoria!'
Inside the pipeline room, Victoria was lying spread-eagled on the steps of the platform in front of the transparent section of the pipeline. She
looked as though she was dead.
Jamie went beserk, tried to break open the door by throwing himself against it. The door wouldn't budge. He quickly looked around to see what he could use to force it open. But the corridor was quite bare except for a pile of metal boxes. Then he noticed a ventilator grille just above the door. Dragging some of the metal boxes over to the door to make a platform, he clambered up on to them and started to heave at the grille.
In the Communications Hall, everyone was standing around in awed silence, listening to the Doctor. The Chairperson clearly found the Doctor's theories almost too wildly incredible to believe. Tapping her fingers unconsciously on the side of her chair she asked, 'You're trying to tell me that this seaweed - or whatever it is - is a living organism, capable of exercising some sort of telepathic control over human life?'
The Doctor was firm in his reply: 'Yes!'
'But seaweed is a vegetable matter. Everybody knows that.'
The Doctor started to pace up and down. 'This is a struggle for power, Miss Jones - matter over mind. I'm convinced that these people - Mrs Harris, Chief Robson, and Mr van Lutyens - have all been overcome by this struggle.' He stopped, and turned. 'And goodness knows how many more.'
Harris was completely bewildered. 'But where does the weed get this super-intelligence from, Doctor?'
'From the human brain. The weed is a parasite.'
The full implication of what the Doctor was saying suddenly showed in Harris's tense reaction. 'You mean... these creatures have taken over... human beings?'
The Doctor shook his head gravely. 'I don't know. But they're certainly instruments of the weed colony.'
Everyone suddenly turned with a dramatic start as a red flashing light began to buzz on the illuminated panel above the Cone.
Price called urgently from his seat at the Cone. 'Mr Harris! Control Rig!'
Harris rushed to the Cone, where the face of Chief Baxter at the Control Rig immediately appeared on the main television monitor screen. 'Chief!' he yelled. 'Where the hell have you been? We've been trying to contact you for the past five hours!'
Baxter was in a terrified state, almost hysterical. As he spoke, he was continually looking all around him. 'Mr Harris!' he spluttered, his face pouring with sweat. 'For God's sake! They're... all around us!'
Harris shared a stunned glance with the Chairperson. 'What are you talking about, Chief? What's going on out there?' The Hall was suddenly shattered by the piercing sound of crewmen screaming on the monitor, somewhere near the Chief.
Baxter struggled to speak, but the picture was beginning to vibrate. 'Those things... the place is alive with them... they're everywhere... we can't hold on - ' He was interrupted by even more terrifying screams, which chilled the blood of everyone watching the monitor screen. Baxter stared straight into the camera that was gradually going out of focus. He was desperate. 'Get us out of here! Somebody get us out of - '
Everyone in the Hall watched the monitor screen in helpless shock and horror. Chief Baxter was screaming out hysterically as a sudden upsurge of white bubbling foam started to engulf him.
'Baxter!' Harris shouted at the monitor screen. 'Baxter! Can you hear me?'
Within seconds it was all over. The picture on the screen disappeared, and was replaced by distorted lines and electrical interference.
'Feed Headquarters calling Control Rig. Feed Head-quarters calling Control Rig. Are you receiving me please? Over!' Price was operating every switch available to regain contact with Baxter. He called again. 'Control Rig. Come in please. Over!'
The monitor screen remained defiantly unresponsive.
Price turned from the Cone, thoroughly defeated. 'We've lost contact.'
There was a hushed, stunned silence throughout the Hall. The Chairperson cupped her face in her hands:
The metal ventilator grille above the pipeline room door crashed to the floor with a loud clang. Within a few moments, Jamie had eased himself through the grille opening, falling with a thud to the floor on the other side.
He quickly picked himself up, and rushed across to where Victoria was lying spread-eagled in front of the transparent section of the pipeline tube. He stooped down in a desperate effort to revive her. 'Victoria!' he called anxiously. 'Victoria, can you hear me?'
There was no response from Victoria. Her face and body remained quite motionless.
Thinking that Victoria was dead, Jamie became very distressed. Memories instantly flooded through his mind. Memories of all the good times he'd had with Victoria, of the many adventures they had shared with the Doctor. It was a pathetic, endearing sight to see the sturdy Highland lad from eighteenth-century Scotland kneeling beside the lifeless body of the young Victorian girl who had been his close companion for so long. Did it really have to end like this, he wondered, after all they had been through together? Jamie drew closer to Victoria. He talked gently to her, rubbed her hand, and stroked her forehead. It was his own simple way of trying to inject life back into her. 'Oh Victoria,' he whispered, his voice cracking with emotion, 'you can't be... you just can't be...'
What he hadn't noticed was that Victoria's eyes were flickering half-open.
Jamie swallowed hard. He felt there was a lump in his throat the size of an apple. 'If anything's happened to you, I... I don't know what I'd do...'
'Why, Jamie, I didn't know you cared...'
Jamie sat back with a start. 'Victoria Waterfield!' He quickly brushed the suggestion of a tear from his eye. 'You tricked me! That's not fair!'
Victoria sat up, still a little dazed. 'I did not! I was unconscious!'
'What are you doing here?' scolded Jamie. 'What happened?'
Victoria cleared her throat, which felt very dry. 'It was those two engineers.'
'What engineers?'
'You know who I mean.' Victoria used her hands to mime a description of Mr Oak and Mr Quill. 'The short man and... the tall, thin one.'
Jamie suddenly recalled the identical white jackets and caps. 'Oh yes. That weird pair that sent us down in the lift.'
'I don't remember. I just passed out.'
'Aye, well just wait 'til I get my hands on them! It must have been their fault that the Doctor and me very nearly got... well, never mind that now. At least no harm's come to you.'
Victoria was now sitting up, resting her chin on her hands. She looked thoroughly depressed. 'Oh Jamie,' she sighed, 'why are we always getting into trouble like this? Everywhere we go it's always the same.'
Jamie looked concerned. 'How d'you mean?'
'I don't know,' said Victoria, staring aimlessly at the floor. 'I'm just fed up, that's all. I'm tired of one crisis on top of another. I just want... well, some peace and quiet.'
Jamie's face crumpled. He felt quite hurt. 'But aren't you happy with the Doctor and me?'
'Yes, but... oh, never mind. I suppose I'm just...' Victoria stopped speaking abruptly, and looked up with a start.
'What's the matter?'
'Listen!' Victoria looked up towards the ceiling, then all around.
Jamie's head was rigid, but his eyes were darting all over the room. 'What is it?'
The girl's voice became a strangulated whisper. 'Listen! Can't you hear it?'
Both of them sat absolutely still, hardly daring to move a muscle. It was the faint approach of the heartbeat sound. This time it came as a metallic echo.
'Where's it coming from?' whispered Jamie tensely.
Even as he spoke, the alien sound exploded into a deafening roar.
Jamie and Victoria sprang to their feet. 'Look!' yelled Jamie. Both turned, and squirmed in horror at what they saw behind them.
The transparent section of the huge pipeline tube was crawling with clumps of pulsating seaweed, all wriggling in a mass of oozing white foam.
In the Control Hall, the Doctor was pointing up to the illuminated panel at the top of the Cone. The indicator light was no longer operating for the Control Rig, and only three rig lights remained: rigs B, E, and F.
'N
ow that the Control Rig has gone,' said the Doctor urgently, 'that leaves us with just one conclusion.' He turned, to direct his assessment straight to the Chairperson and Harris. 'The Weed is trying to take over all the rigs, forming itself into a vast colony.'
The Chairperson frowned. 'With what objective?' she asked.
'The saturation of the British Isles and in time, perhaps the entire planet.'
Perkins spoke. For the first time, sneering disbelief was giving way to genuine fear. 'Is such a thing possible?' he asked.
'It is,' replied the Doctor with complete conviction. 'Unless we can find the nerve centre of the colony and destroy it.'
The Chairperson exchanged a puzzled glance with Harris. 'How could we possibly do that?' she said. 'It may be anywhere out in the North Sea.'
'Precisely,' said the Doctor, sounding a note of warning. 'That's the problem.'
'Doctor!'
Everyone in the Hall turned with a start to see Jamie and Victoria calling from the door of the Impeller Area. The pipeline!' yelled Jamie.
'Please hurry!' Victoria was practically screeching.
By the time the Doctor and everyone had reached the pipeline room, the transparent section of the pipeline tube was jammed solid with the oozing mass of seaweed clumps and white bubbling foam.
For a few moments, the group just stared in silent horror at the awesome sight before them. The thumping heartbeat sound was frenetic, and the Chairperson had to shout to he heard. 'In heaven's name - what is that?' she spluttered from a safe distance near the door.
'The advance guard.' The Doctor moved into the room, his eyes transfixed on the squirming mass of seaweed tendrils inside the pipeline tube.
'I don't understand,' shouted the Chairperson. 'What's happening?'
'The first part of the invasion... ' The Doctor moved a few steps closer towards the pipeline tube.
'No, Doctor!' Victoria was yelling from the door. 'Don't go any nearer!'
On hearing Victoria's voice, the Doctor stopped dead. 'It's begun!' he said, addressing the warning more to himself than to the other. He was staring hard at the pipeline tube. 'The battle of the giants!'
DOCTOR WHO - FURY FROM THE DEEP Page 12
