The engine room trembled as the power flowed into the impeller banks while the ship's frame groaned again under the new load.
The Doctor sprang to his feet. 'Which is the quickest way to the hold from here?' he demanded.
***
Delray heard the distant sounds of battle but made no move to leave his cabin. Once a shadowy form slid through the wall. There was a fierce snarling and snapping of unseen teeth. With an unearthly scream of pain and rage the ghost retreated. The growls subsided again to a low whine.
Delray hardly noticed.
The voice was deep within him now. There was nowhere to run or hide. It was confirming what he most feared about himself.
***
'The Cirrandaria's main engines have cut in,' the monitor reported to Vega.'Motion towards the alien ship is decreasing again.'
'Maintain thrust at this level; he confirmed. 'Any sign of system failure due to proximity to the alien ship?'
'None yet, sir. We are twenty-nine hundred metres from the craft. Estimate descent will cease at twenty-six hundred.'
We'll just make it.Vega thought. On the screen was a view along the tow beam. Tiny grey forms could be seen circling the Cirrandaria like wasps around a hive. Every few seconds one would emerge from the ship, actually through its hull, and tumble freely down the core of the beam and into the central shaft of the alien vessel. It looked as though each of them was carrying something.
'Sir, something else is coming up the beam. It's larger than the other creatures...'
***
A vehicle glided through the hull of the Cirrandaria as though it was no more substantial than air and dropped into the melee on the lifeboat deck.
It was a glittering craft the size of a small shuttle but apparently made of mist and soap bubbles: a vehicle less substantial than its crew, whom Sam could see riding inside it even as it set down on the deck. They were manlike figures in bulky armour, who piled rapidly out through the vehicle's hatchways.They carried tridents and nets in the manner of ancient Roman gladiators.
And they started attacking the ghosts.
Where energy bolts had passed through them with little effect, the primitive and apparently insubstantial weapons of the newcomers trapped and stabbed and drew blood and ichor from the ghostly veins. The ghosts turned upon the warriors, but their blows and slashes glanced off their plated armour.
It was as she was trying to make sense of this unexpected turn of events that Sam saw Jeni Engers.
She recognised her face clearly through the simple globe of her emergency pressure suit. She was holding on to the arms of a small figure in another suit who could only be Dan Junior. A ghost had the boy by the legs. Sam lunged forward through the throng, raising the normaliser and shouting for Bendix, even as Dan Engers Senior threw himself at the creature that was trying to steal his son.A thick tendril lashed out and smashed him aside. A second blow knocked Jeni over backwards. Before Sam could line up a clear shot, the ghost, with Dan wrapped in its cold embrace, ran at a viewport, dived through it and flew out into space.
Just then one of the armoured warriors threw a net over Sam and pulled her off her feet.
***
A ghost, drifting through the cargo stacks of the hold, had almost prevented the Doctor from reaching the TARDIS. But he had driven it away with his sonic screwdriver and managed to get within the TARDIS's own shielded walls. Now he was working frantically over the control console.
His first priority had been to prevent the ship crashing. Now, perhaps, he could do something about the intruders.
"The normaliser functions as intended,' he muttered to himself as his hands flew across the controls, 'confirming that the ghosts are susceptible to frequencies nineteen to thirty-seven... combine the characteristics and channel output through the ship's power distribution grid... allow for containment and amplification within the hull... cross fingers and -'
He threw a final switch.
***
The lights throughout the Cirrandaria began to pulse rapidly. Pieces of electrical equipment started up of their own accord and several immediately fused. A low drone of power reverberated through the length of the ship, rising rapidly to a shrill whine that drilled into the brain.The humans who heard it winced and covered the earpieces of their suits.
The ghosts fled.
Like fog shredded before the wind, they billowed through compartment walls and out through the hull, there to drop away into the central vortex of the red beam and return to where they had come from. And the armoured warriors also departed in their impalpable craft. And with them went Sam Jones.
***
Two minutes later, by which time the labouring engines of the Cirrandaria and Indomitable lifted the two craft five kilometres from the alien ship, the red beam flickered and died away as though it had never been.
Chapter 24
Through the Tunnel
The terrible cold numbed Sam's body and mind. She just had sense enough remaining to clasp the normaliser to her chest, though she no longer had the feeling in her hands to operate it. For that matter she could hardly feel anything about her properly. The only good thing about the cold was that it had apparently numbed her fear.
She was in a grey twilit world, all fuzzed at the edges and almost bleached of colour. She lay helplessly entangled in the net on the insubstantial deck of the armoured warriors' ghostly craft. Four of its crew of six sat with their feet resting upon her - which she would have resented had she the strength
- with their weapons held ready. Outside in the glowing red mist of the beam the ghost creatures spiralled thickly about them on their batlike wings. Sam muzzily realised there were figures struggling feebly in their grasp, and automatically tried to spot Dan Engers. Turning her head to follow them down she found herself looking through the craft's transparent deck.
And through her own outstretched forearm.
She could dimly see the bones and even a suggestion of the muscles around them, wrapped in the transparent layers of her suit. She had become a ghost!
The fear at last penetrated her sluggish brain and she had to fight to stay in control.The Doctor wouldn't panic, she told herself firmly: he would reason.
They knew touching the ghosts made them more solid, but obviously the process worked in the other direction. In their dealings so far they had made only brief contact with them. But evidently if the contact was extensive or prolonged, the living person became equally out of phase with reality. That was why everything appeared so hazy to her. Part of the light normally intercepted by her retina was simply passing through it and the rest of her insubstantial body. And it was in that state that she had been taken through the hull of the Cirrandaria . But was the change permanent?
No! That was why they were resting their feet on her. It was only their continuing contact that stopped her regaining normality and falling through the hull of their almost nonexistent craft.
It meant her condition was reversible. She would not remain a ghost for ever!
She clung to this rationalisation even as the craft dived into the gaping tunnel mouth of the alien ship.
Around her were stars, smeared and distorted as though by a funhouse mirror. Then she felt space pressing in about her. The craft, the warriors and her own body were being sickeningly twisted and stretched. The stars contracted to pinpoints once more, blazing brilliantly as they flew past.The cold deepened. She wanted to cry out but she couldn't move. It was the interface effect, spread out along the entire length of the shaft. Time slowed to ah eternal moment. A few trillion kilometres and several aeons crawled by.
Her stomach knotted again and she writhed in pain as the process slowly reversed. The far end of the tunnel opened around them and they were clear.
She heard sounds that might have been muffled words.
Craning her neck, she saw that one of the two warriors seated before the craft's glassy control console was swaying from side to side and flailing about with his arms. His comr
ade seemed to be trying to restrain him.The warriors seated about her started forward as though to help, but it was too late.
The disturbed one rose from his seat, tearing at his armour, which was splitting and falling away from his body.
Then a rock wall came out of the darkness straight at them.
If they had been in a normal state of being they would have been smashed to pieces.As it was, the crash resembled hitting foam rubber. But evidently they were still travelling too fast to pass cleanly through as they had the hull of the Cirrandaria .
The craft sank a few metres in, buckled and disintegrated.
Sam, still bundled in the net, was thrown through its fragmenting hull and hit the rock wall. She felt its substance soak into her flesh before peeling away again and letting her go. Then she was falling slowly into darkness, the life coming back to her as she receded from the ghosts and their craft, sharing her store of reality only with their net, which remained tangled about her.
By the time she hit ground the rock felt as hard as it should have -and the impact knocked the senses from her.
Chapter 25
Aftermath
Bendix spoke regretfully to the Doctor.
'Your assistant was heading for the woman and child.We were right behind her when we were hit by a ghost. It took one of my men and knocked me over.' He touched the fresh bandage on his forehead.'By the time I'd got back on my feet, the warriors had already bundled her into that craft of theirs.Then your alarm, or whatever it was, started up and they all simply poured out of the ship back through the hull. There was nothing I could do.
I'm sorry.'
The Doctor's face was a pale, set mask. The others round the table looked on sympathetically.
'I wish we'd left when you suggested,' Lanchard said to him. She thought of Dan and Jeni Engers, whom she had visited in the sickbay while Dan was having his injuries treated. The look on their faces would stay with her for a long time.'Now we can't leave. Not with all those people missing. Unless you think there's no hope...'
"There's always hope,' the Doctor said firmly. A little animation seemed to flow back into him. 'We'll have to go after Sam and the others who were kidnapped, that's all.'
'Into the ship?'
'Not quite. Into the interdimensional tunnel that runs through the middle of the ship. The hull already formed the initial hyperspatial bridge, and now they've used it to open the main corridor. But I can't determine where the other end lies, so there's no other way but to travel along it. My instruments show it's passable for the moment, but it will inevitably collapse in a few hours.'
'What if that red beam appears again?' Lanchard asked.
"The vortex field? I doubt it. It's a secondary hyperspatial effect.The creatures needed it to launch their attack. Vacuum may not harm them, but they can't move themselves through it. I suspect their wings were to work against the resistance of the beam. If you keep clear you won't be troubled by it again.'
'What about those humanoid warriors?' Bendix asked. 'They seemed to be fighting the ghosts - at least at first.'
'I have no idea what their motives are - yet. But if they still have Sam then we will certainly be making contact with them,' the Doctor assured him.'But now we must get ready.' He fished a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Manders. 'How soon can you produce, say, four of these?' She unfolded the sheet to reveal a hand-drawn circuit diagram and a set of specifications.'It's a normaliser, like the one Sam had. They seem to be our best defence against the ghosts.'
'Yes, we'll certainly need all the protection we can lay our hands on,'
Rexton agreed. 'We underestimated those creatures. On the ship they seemed to be no more than wild animals acting purely by instinct. But this attack was very deliberate. The one that got aboard examined the engine room systems, then set the ship on a very precise course to take it within range of that beam.'
'I take it you are prepared to accompany another party to the alien ship, Councillor?' the Doctor asked.
'I am,' Rexton said.
'But our objective is not the ship itself but whatever lies on the far side of it,'
the Doctor pointed out. "That is most likely where the passengers have been taken. Unless, of course, you're still thinking of trying to recover the data from the other half of the control room beyond the interface. Logically that should be accessible from the other side. But be careful, you may find it quite literally a ghost ship now.'
Before Rexton could reply Lanchard said sharply,'May I remind you my ship and its complementhave been put at risk, Councillor, so I am at liberty to leave this zone of space as soon as I am able. Remember also that you will get a volunteer crew to accompany you on arescue mission, butnot for more intelligence gathering.'
Rexton had the sense not to protest. 'Suppose I get a chance to obtain the data myself?'
'At your own risk; Lanchard conceded. 'It must not jeopardise the safety of the others.'
'Agreed,' Rexton said.
He doesn't lack courage, Lanchard thought. Aloud she said, 'Nel, how quickly can you make more of these devices of the Doctor's?'
Manders had been scanning the diagram.'Most of this looks pretty standard. I think I can use some regular items. Say a couple of hours. That is if it has priority over repairing the main drive, Captain. It's pretty well burnt out.'
'How long to fix that?'
'A ship's day, maybe thirty-six hours.'
Lanchard pinched the bridge of her nose, realising how tired she felt. 'If there's the slightest hope, we must try to recover passengers. We can hold our position with thrusters until then.'
'Good,' said the Doctor. 'Now I'd better have a word with Commander Vega. I think he'll want to be involved in this.'
'You don't mean to ask the Nimosians along?' Rexton said incredulously.'They cannot be allowed to see -'
'It's too late, Councillor,' the Doctor interjected sharply.'After what's happened it won't take them long to deduce the alien ship's purpose. Your secret's out. Start thinking of some compromise, because this is one trophy you won't be taking home.'
Rexton glared back at him but said nothing.
'And I'd also like an item of my luggage moved from the hold into the Doria!' the Doctor added. 'I've a feeling we may need it.
***
'I shall complain to the shipping line,' Rhonda Plecht said angrily,'It's quite intolerable. We were crushed into that tiny lifeboat for no reason at all.'
They had returned to their cabin once the all clear had been given. Rhonda had apparently taken in the damage done to the ship and the sight of the injured being tended with the same critical eye she turned on an unmade bed. The general atmosphere of fear and uncertainty touched her not at all.
'It was an emergency, dear,' Lester pointed out. 'And we were lucky enough to avoid being attacked by those ghost creatures.'
The argument did not seem to count with Rhonda. That sort of thing happened to other people and certainly shouldn't be allowed on a well-run cruise. Lester knew she wasn't very good at empathising with the suffering of others. It was not callousness exactly, more an inability to accept simple misfortune. She believed life was what you made it and if it went wrong it was somebody's fault - probably your own. Except in her own case, of course, when somebody else was to blame.
'Do you think it might be good business to check on Ms Schollander?'he said casually.'As a prospective client, I mean. See that she's come to no harm.'
'Yes, that might be a good idea. But don't be too long, Lester,' she said absently, looking at a message flashing on the room's infopad. 'Well really, they've put back the restaurant openings by two hours...'
Lester slipped out and made his way quickly to Ingrid's cabin. He found an apologetic steward just leaving and Ingrid looking pale and drawn.
'Are you all right?' he asked anxiously.
She forced a weak smile. 'It's nothing. I was just locked in my room when the call came through to abandon ship.'
What?'
'Somebody seems to have played a badly timed practical joke on me. They also sabotaged my phone so I couldn't call for help. I suppose I'm lucky one of those creatures didn't find me. They said they were terrifying. The steward only heard me banging on the door after it was all over.'
'But who'd want to do such a thing?' Lester said.'How could anyone want to hurt anybody as nice as... I mean, it could have been dangerous.'
She smiled at him. 'You are kind,' she said. And she kissed him on the cheek.
***
'Where were you, Don? You had me thinking they'd taken you with them.'
Arcovian's face was a picture of concern as he confronted Delray in the door of his cabin. Delray said simply, 'I had some thinking to do, Evan. I was all right.'
'Thinking! While those ghouls were tearing the ship apart! Don, you don't look right. It's worry about Lyset, I know. You gotta see the doctor.'
'No. It's something I must sort out for myself. Just leave me alone. Please.'
'You won't do anything... foolish, Don?'
'I've been doing foolish things all my life. But I'm not feeling suicidal, if that's what you mean. That would be the coward's way out... and I think I've got past that stage.' And he closed the door firmly.
Of course he was not really alone. Now he could just make out a grey fuzzy shape on the floor, but he no longer feared it. He now knew what it was and, though the knowledge sickened him, he was beyond fear.
The burst of sound and light that had driven the other ghosts away had not removed them. The voice had cried in pain while the thing on the floor had howled. But they had not left him. Perhaps they had courage. It was more than he had.
'Fine words,' said the voice inside his head. "Think you can live up to them?'
'I don't know,' Delray said huskily.
'You took Evan for granted, but he was better than you deserved. But you'll never be able to make up for that.'
Vanderdeken's Children Page 18
