Doctor Who: Apollo 23

by Richards, Justin

  ‘It’s Private Dyson,’ Reeve said. ‘He’s supposed to be back at Hibiscus. In fact, all of these guys are. What are they still doing here?’

  ‘I’m guessing your guys at Hibiscus think they’re still up here going about their normal duties,’ Amy said. ‘Someone’s been lying. Using your own secrecy against you to cover up what’s really happening. Come on, we have to get out of here. Once he’s finished, he’s programmed to come after us.’

  ‘Programmed?’ Reeve shook his head, bewildered. It was almost comical to see the oh-so-cool Captain confused and astounded. ‘What do you mean? These people are sick. We have to help them.’

  ‘Yes, we do.’ Amy pushed him back through the door into the corridor beyond. ‘But we can’t do it on our own. And we have to know who’s behind this.’

  ‘Nurse Phillips must know they’re here.’

  ‘I’m sure she does.’ The door slid shut. ‘Hang on.’ Amy turned to stare at Reeve. ‘How did you know I was in here?’

  ‘I was in the security control room. I saw the door to the holding area had been opened. There was no authorisation, so I came to check.’

  ‘They must have a way of overriding that when they need to come here, so no one detects it.’

  ‘But who?’ Reeve asked.

  Amy was hurrying back down the corridor. ‘Nurse Phillips, and Professor Jackson.’

  ‘Jackson’s in on this too? What’s going on?’

  They reached the end of the corridor and Amy keyed open the door.

  ‘It’s kind of difficult to explain.’

  ‘Try me.’

  ‘Look, Professor Jackson’s process removes memories from the human brain. I think those people in there have had their brains wiped completely clean. Jackson talked about “Blanks” – that’s what they are. Literally, waiting to have a new personality imprinted into the empty brain.’

  ‘You mean, like a mind-swap?’

  ‘Yeah. Except the Doctor thinks that whatever is going to take over their brains is alien.’

  Reeve laughed. ‘You’re kidding, right?’ He stopped laughing as Amy glared at him. ‘OK, not kidding. So what do you suggest we do about this?’

  ‘Arrest Jackson and Nurse Phillips.’ Amy turned to look out of the huge window at the central hub containing the cells. ‘At least you’ve got somewhere to keep them. Solitary confinement.’

  Reeve nodded slowly. ‘I’ll have to clear it with Major Carlisle. She might take a bit of convincing.’

  ‘No!’ Amy said sharply. ‘I think she’s in on this, too.’

  ‘Andi Carlisle? No way!’ Reeve gave a sudden snort of laughter. ‘She’s not an alien, she’s always like that.’

  ‘We can’t risk it,’ Amy insisted. ‘Just you and me for now, till we find out more.’

  ‘How do we do that?’

  ‘From Jackson and Phillips.’

  Reeve nodded. ‘Makes sense. We’ll go to my quarters first though, there’s something I think we’ll need.’

  ‘Handcuffs?’

  Reeve shook his head. ‘Gun. Come on, let’s do this. And whatever happens there’s going to be hell to pay, so pray that you’re right.’

  ‘No,’ Amy told him. ‘Pray that I’m wrong.’

  Chapter

  14

  There were just the four of them in the jeep – the Doctor, Candace Hecker, Agent Jennings, and General Walinski.

  The General had insisted on driving. Candace was in the passenger seat beside him.

  ‘I don’t want anyone else knowing we even thought about this, unless we have to do it,’ Walinski told her as they pulled out of the base.

  A cloud of sand followed their progress, thrown up by the wheels as they sped across the empty desert. There were no landmarks, no signs, no road even. But Walinski seemed to know exactly where they were going.

  ‘You know this is crazy,’ Candace told him.

  Walinski nodded. ‘Crazy may be all we have left, Candace.’

  Jennings and the Doctor were sitting in the back of the jeep.

  ‘You know what they’re talking about?’ Jennings asked.

  ‘I can make a pretty good guess,’ the Doctor admitted happily. He was grinning like a kid in a candy store. ‘You?’

  ‘Nope. Crazy, that I understand, but nothing else. Hey – this whole thing is crazy, start to finish.’

  ‘It’s not finished yet,’ the Doctor said, his expression clouding over.

  ‘Tell me, are you serious about these aliens? I mean, seriously serious?’

  ‘Very seriously serious. Though I do notice you and the General haven’t been kicking up a fuss and insisting there’s no such thing as alien life or the whole idea is complete nonsense.’

  Jennings took off his sunglasses and polished them on a spotless white handkerchief before replacing them.

  ‘I guess Walinski’s read some of the same files I have. UNIT, Torchwood, Operation Yellow Book – the real deal, not the sanitised cover-up stuff they put out under Freedom of Information.’

  ‘UNIT?’ the Doctor said. ‘You know who I am, then?’

  Jennings smiled thinly. ‘I would if you were a good deal older.’

  ‘Believe me,’ the Doctor told him, ‘I’m a good deal older.’

  They drove for about an hour, the sun scorching down from a clear blue sky. Finally, in the distance, the Doctor could make out something that wasn’t just more sand.

  Jennings had seen it too. ‘What is that? It looks like a building. A spire of some sort.’

  The Doctor didn’t answer, but his grin was back.

  As they got closer, the shape resolved itself through the shimmering heat into a tall, circular, white tower. It tapered at the top, ending in a sharp-looking spike that thrust up into the sky.

  ‘It’s still a long way off,’ Jennings said. ‘Is that where we’re headed?’ he called out to Walinski. ‘Not that there’s anything else out here,’ he said to the Doctor.

  But the Doctor wasn’t listening. He was intent on the growing structure ahead of them, gleaming in the sunlight.

  The jeep bumped up a sharp incline, like the edge of a crater. It was now apparent that the structure was far taller than just the section visible above the edge of the ‘crater’. The ground dropped away into a vast open bowl scooped out of the desert.

  Walinski stopped the vehicle at the rim, throwing up clouds of sand as he skidded to a halt.

  ‘You are so kidding me,’ Jennings said, leaping out of the back of the jeep.

  The Doctor was bouncing on the balls of his feet with enthusiasm. ‘That is… fantastic,’ he decided. ‘Brilliant. Fab, if I can use a very sixties word – and I think under the circumstances I can.’

  The four of them stood at the edge of the ‘crater’ looking across at the enormous structure.

  ‘It always gets me,’ Walinski confessed. ‘I don’t come out here often, but every time I do I’m just staggered by the sheer size of it. The engineering that went into that.’

  ‘Three hundred and sixty-three feet tall,’ Candace said.

  ‘That’s about the same as St Paul’s Cathedral,’ the Doctor said. ‘What’s she weigh?’

  ‘Fully fuelled, over three thousand tonnes.’

  ‘That is one hell of a thing,’ Jennings said.

  Below them, several low buildings were clustered round the edge of the crater. They were well away from the main structure in the middle, though roads had been built between them. Huge pipes ran from one of the buildings to the enormous raised square of the launch pad.

  A massive tower of scaffolding rose from the pad, high above the edge of the crater where the Doctor was standing. And braced against it by supporting struts, standing proud and defiant against the sky, was a huge rocket.

  It was predominantly white, with black markings and ‘USA’ in huge letters down the side towards the bottom. Two-thirds of the way up, it tapered before continuing as the narrower cylinder that they had seen above the lip of the artificial crater.

&
nbsp; ‘The Saturn Five,’ Walinski said. ‘Biggest launch vehicle ever built by Man. That one’s serial number is SA-521, and it doesn’t officially exist.’

  ‘You said there were several secret Apollo missions to the moon, to set up Base Diana,’ the Doctor remembered.

  ‘That’s right,’ Candace answered. ‘Apollo 18 to Apollo 22. Then they got the quantum displacement systems activated and working, so they didn’t need the trouble and expense of another rocket.’

  ‘But they already had one waiting,’ Walinski said. ‘Couldn’t easily get rid of it without attracting attention and raising a few questions. The officially aborted Apollo 18 and 19 rockets, and the back-up Skylab launch vehicle were already decommissioned and on display at Houston, Kennedy, and the Space and Rockets Center at Hunsville, Alabama.’

  ‘So this one stayed here,’ Candace said. ‘Notionally as an emergency back-up, ready to be fuelled for take-off at a week’s notice.’

  ‘Except that was thirty years ago,’ Walinski told them. ‘Who knows what condition she’s really in now?’

  ‘And we don’t have a week,’ the Doctor said. ‘We have twenty-four hours at most to get her ready.’ He clapped his hands together excitedly. ‘And we’ll need to speed up the journey too. Apollo 11 took four days to reach the moon. I want to be there in forty-eight hours.’

  ‘This baby will be quicker than the first moonshots,’ Candace said. ‘They found a way to use the M3 Variant fuel developed by the British Rocket Group for their aborted Mars Probe Missions way back. That’ll shave a lot off the journey time.’

  The Doctor brandished his sonic screwdriver. ‘And I can shave off even more.’

  ‘You know,’ Candace said, ‘this is not sounding as crazy as I thought it would. If you’d told me yesterday that we’d be seriously considering getting that thing ready for launch, I’d have said you were mad. But somehow, now we’re here, looking at her… Well, it sounds so plausible.’

  ‘If that thing will actually work after all this time,’ Jennings said. ‘And if you can find anyone experienced enough and crazy enough to agree to fly it.’

  ‘So we’re looking for three astronauts,’ Walinski said.

  ‘Two,’ the Doctor told him. ‘You’ve got me already.’

  ‘Like you’re trained up for this sort of thing,’ Candace said.

  ‘Got my Mars-Venus license,’ the Doctor said, apparently affronted. ‘Probably better qualified than anyone else you can rustle up. Ask Jennings here, he’s read the files.’

  Jennings nodded. ‘Don’t ask,’ he said. ‘Just believe.’

  After a moment’s silence, Candace said: ‘Pat Ashton is notionally in charge of keeping that thing in shape. He’s got experience on the shuttle, so he can probably pilot it.’

  ‘And Marty Garrett is back from his shopping trip,’ Jennings added. ‘He has more hours as Technical Officer on Base Diana than anyone. Be a good idea to take him anyway to help sort out the problems there.’

  ‘Garrett’s the astronaut who turned up at the burger bar, yes?’ the Doctor checked. ‘Then I only have one question before we start getting this thing literally off the ground.’

  ‘And what’s that?’ Walinski asked.

  The Doctor nodded at the colossal rocket in front of them. ‘Does she have a name?’

  Walinski laughed. ‘She sure does, though it’s not very imaginative. She may not officially exist, but you are now looking at Apollo 23.’

  Chapter

  15

  With his automatic pistol in a shoulder holster under his uniform jacket, Captain Reeve led the way to Jackson’s office.

  ‘Not all aliens are afraid of guns,’ Amy warned him.

  Once again, Reeve surprised her by taking her statement seriously and not questioning how she might have come by this information. ‘His body’s human even if his mind is alien.’

  ‘Fair enough. Let’s hope he realises that.’

  ‘We’ll make sure he does.’

  Jackson’s door was closed. Amy half hoped he wasn’t in his office. But they had already passed the empty Process Chamber. Next port of call would be Jackson’s living quarters.

  ‘Leave this to me, OK?’ Reeve said, knocking on the door.

  ‘You’re the man with the gun. You can do the talking.’

  Jackson’s voice was muffled by the door as he called for them to enter. He was working at his desk, and stood up as Reeve and Amy went in.

  ‘Captain, Miss Pond. What a delightful surprise. What, may I ask, brings you to my humble abode? Do, please, clear a space and sit down. Can I get you some tea?’ He gestured to the metal water heater nearby.

  ‘We’re not here to chat, Professor,’ Reeve said shortly.

  ‘Oh that’s a pity. Then why are you here, may I ask?’

  In answer, Reeve drew his gun. ‘I’m afraid the game’s up, Professor Jackson. Miss Pond has been doing a bit of investigating on her own account. She knows everything.’

  Jackson raised an eyebrow. ‘Everything? Oh I seriously doubt that.’

  ‘You’re not denying it then,’ Amy said.

  ‘I’m not quite sure yet what I’m being accused of, so no – I’m not denying anything at the moment.’

  ‘Miss Pond has been to Pod 7,’ Reeve said. ‘She’s seen what’s inside. She knows that you’ve been downloading alien minds into the blank bodies created by your process.’

  ‘Does she now?’ Jackson looked thoughtful rather than anxious.

  ‘Yes she does,’ Amy told him, hoping to wipe the smugness from his tone and the half-smile from his face. ‘So like Captain Reeve says, the game’s up. You and Nurse Phillips and whoever else you’ve got control over will have to come quietly.’

  Jackson sat down again. ‘And what are you going to do with us, young lady? Shoot us?’

  ‘No,’ Amy told him. ‘We’re going to lock you in the empty cells in the prison hub. We’ll keep you there until the Doctor comes back. He’ll know what to do with you.’

  ‘Except that the Doctor isn’t coming back. How can he?’

  ‘He’ll find a way,’ Amy said, sounding more confident than she felt. ‘It’s all over, Jackson. You’re in a whole heap of trouble, and you know it.’

  Jackson nodded slowly. ‘I was right to accelerate the schedule and disable the quantum systems. Whoever sabotaged them originally did us a favour there. This is getting out of hand. The sooner we take over the whole of Base Diana and make preparations to infiltrate the minds of the people of Earth, the better.’

  Amy gave a snort of derisive laughter. ‘You just don’t get it, do you? It’s all over. The invasion’s off. In case you hadn’t noticed, Captain Reeve has a gun pointing at you.

  Jackson cleared his throat, a strangely apologetic sound. ‘I’m afraid it’s you that doesn’t “get it”, as you say, Miss Pond. In case you hadn’t noticed, Captain Reeve’s gun is not pointing at me.’

  Amy felt the colour drain from her face. Slowly, she turned to look at Reeve. She already knew what she would see, even before Jackson added:

  ‘The gun is pointing at you, Miss Pond.’

  Above the pistol pointing straight at Amy’s head, Captain Reeve smiled. But his eyes were cold and grey as stone. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said quietly. ‘But I couldn’t risk you telling anyone else what you’d found out. After all, you never know who you can trust these days, do you?’

  ‘Apparently not.’ Amy could have kicked herself. Then again, she thought, Reeve had found her in Pod 7. If she’d realised he was being controlled by the aliens, he’d still have brought her to Jackson. ‘So what are you going to do to me? Put me through your process machinery?’

  ‘Of course,’ Jackson said in a matter-of-fact tone. ‘But the schedule is very precise. We can only instil one of our minds into a human brain at certain predetermined times. The signals from our home world are timed to the second.’ He smiled. ‘But rest assured we are fixing that. Soon there will be a constant supply of thought and personality data that
we can tap into and siphon off at will.’

  ‘The next signal isn’t due for a few hours yet,’ Reeve said. ‘I suggest we adopt Miss Pond’s own plan and lock her in the hub until then.’

  ‘There’s a spare cell now that Nine is no longer with us,’ Jackson agreed. ‘Very well. I was going to start downloading into the Blanks in Pod 7, but we can wipe and replace in a single operation.’

  ‘Sounds great,’ Amy said sarcastically.

  ‘I’m afraid not. There will be considerable pain.’

  ‘You don’t sound too upset about it.’

  Jackson seemed surprised at the comment. ‘Why would I be? It’s not me who’ll be feeling the pain.’

  ‘Oh yes it is,’ Amy said. ‘Maybe not yet, but soon… Trust me – you’ll feel it.’

  Jackson fixed his grey eyes on her, regarding Amy without expression.

  ‘Take her away,’ he said.

  It seemed as though the base was deserted. Amy guessed that when the aliens had brought forward their plans, Reeve had consigned all the soldiers to their quarters, or made sure they were busy well away from Pod 7 and the cells.

  Her only moment of hope on the way back to the central hub was when a uniformed figure appeared from a doorway ahead of them. Should she call for help? Would Reeve really shoot her, even with someone else there to witness it? It took her less than a moment to decide he would – he could explain it away. Blame her for the sabotage, or whatever. He might just shoot them both.

  Or the soldier in front of them might already have been taken over. The figure turned and Amy saw that it was Major Carlisle. Her last glimmer of hope faded into dark despair.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Carlisle demanded.

  ‘I’m putting her in the cells,’ Reeve said.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I know,’ Amy said. ‘I know everything about your plan, about who you really are and what’s going on here.’

  Carlisle stared back at Amy, her expression giving nothing away.

  ‘She’s seen inside Pod 7,’ Reeve said.

  ‘Which is more than I have,’ Carlisle retorted.