The Ark in Space

by Marter, Ian

  ‘Well, she’s among the Chosen now, isn’t she?’ blurted out Harry. Vira turned a withering, blank stare upon him. Harry retreated a step and bit his lip, regretting his sarcasm.

  The Doctor intervened gently. ‘Is there any method of reversing the Cryogenic function at this stage?’

  ‘It would be dangerous,’ Vira replied distantly. ‘Is the female of value?’

  This was too much for Harry. ‘What kind of question is that?’ he exploded, wincing as the Doctor stood firmly on his stockinged toes.

  ‘She is of great value to us,’ the Doctor said quietly.

  Vira hesitated a moment, then passed her hand over a section of the pallet frame, activating a small fluorescent systems display. ‘Neural activity is rapidly receding,’ she declared. ‘I will discharge a monod block.’ Vira took out the instruments from the pallet kit, and repeated the procedure she had performed upon herself earlier. She pressed the probe against Sarah’s temple and triggered the charge. ‘The female will revive soon, or die,’ she said flatly, replacing the equipment in the holder. ‘At this stage, the action of anti-protonic is not predictable.’

  Vira turned. On the far side of the chamber, the pallet next to her own was beginning to glow and to emit the same pulsing hum which had heralded her own awakening. There was a sudden yielding in her face. ‘Commander,’ she whispered, crossing swiftly into the vibrating glare. ‘This is our Prime Unit – Noah.’

  Harry shielded his eyes, and turned to the Doctor.

  ‘As in Noah’s Ark, eh?’ he said.

  ‘Your colony speech has no meaning,’ said Vira. ‘We called him Noah as an amusement.’

  ‘A joke,’ Harry corrected her.

  Vira nodded gravely, her eyes fixed on the incandescent shield of the pallet. ‘There was not much joke in the last days,’ she added quietly.

  The Doctor moved to her side. Like Vira, he seemed unaffected by the fierce light. ‘What happened during those last days on Earth?’ he asked gently.

  Without taking her eyes from the pallet, Vira replied in amazement, ‘Has your colony no records? Where are you from?’

  ‘Well, Harry’s from Earth, and I…’ began the Doctor.

  ‘That is not possible,’ said Vira. ‘The solar flares destroyed all life on the Earth.’

  The Doctor nodded. ‘Of course, solar flares.’

  Vira opened the shield, now that the radiation had subsided, and checked the pallet systems-display. ‘We calculated that it would be ten thousand years before the biosphere became viable again,’ she said.

  ‘At the very least,’ agreed the Doctor. ‘But I think you have overslept by several thousand years. When we arrived, we found a massive systems failure. Your alarm clock failed to work.’

  Vira shook her head. ‘The systems have a negative fault capacity,’ she replied sharply.

  The Doctor took her firmly by the arm. ‘Possibly,’ he said. ‘But at some time you have had other visitors besides ourselves.’ He led Vira across the chamber into the bay beyond the central shaft, where the monstrous corpse of the locust-like creature lay in the shadows. Vira showed no fear, only surprise. The Doctor watched her reaction closely. ‘A truant from your Animal and Botanic Section perhaps?’ he suggested.

  ‘What is it?’ Vira demanded suspiciously. ‘I don’t know yet,’ said the Doctor, peering into one of the creature’s great yellow eyes. ‘But it had some purpose in coming here…’

  ‘What purpose?’ said Vira, suddenly tense, her eyes roaming over the ranks of softly glowing pallets stretched all around and above them.

  Before the Doctor could reply, she turned with a gasp and sped across the chamber to Noah’s pallet. The quiet, rhythmic pulse of light and sound had become irregular and staccato. ‘There is a fault in the Bionosphere,’ she cried in disbelief. She wrung her hands in desperation. Harry was amazed at her sudden helplessness.

  The Doctor swiftly ran his eye over the systems-display. ‘There is an optimum overload in the central power supply,’ he said. ‘We must prevent a cascade tripout.’

  Vira gestured to the other pallets in the bay. ‘But we have no Technops, Doctor,’ she cried. ‘The Programme was planned so that First Technops and First Medtechs would undergo simultaneous Revivification.’ Again she stared suspiciously at them. ‘There has been interference,’ she added threateningly.

  The Doctor strode towards the Access Chamber. ‘I think I can help you,’ he said. ‘Harry, you keep an eye on Sarah while I’m gone.’

  Before Vira could protest he ran out of the chamber.

  Meanwhile, deep in the Infrastructure of the Satellite, far down inside the central hub of the great wheel where, little by little over the centuries, energy from the pale and distant Sun had been focused and stored in huge reservoirs, a voracious alien life-form had established its lair. The surfaces of many of the spherical reservoirs were covered in a glistening, bubbling substance which pulsated in the dull amber glow of the chamber. Here and there, along the conduits connecting one reservoir to another, slid clusters of viscous matter which stretched out and then gathered again into globules with a dry crackling sound.

  As it spread slowly over the surface of the reservoirs, the substance became denser, more opaque and brittle. Occasionally the crackling globules formed weird, nightmare shapes which swelled and then burst into long, twisting fronds, hissing and spitting like snakes. Colossal quantities of the precious energy were absorbed by the parasite bubbles, so that the vital systems of the Satellite were increasingly starved of essential power…

  The Doctor swiftly made his way from the Cryogenic Section back to the Control Centre where the TARDIS had materialised. As he hurried along the softly-lit tunnels, he paused briefly to examine fresh trails of the tacky, silver substance clinging to the floors, walls and even ceilings. He was rapidly becoming convinced that something was, at that very moment, engaged in a destructive attack on the Satellite from within. He crept with the stealth of a predator stalking its prey – well aware that he himself might be the prey of an as yet unknown enemy. Reaching the smaller Control Chamber, from which Sarah had disappeared, the Doctor set to work with the sonic screwdriver, skilfully rearranging a mass of circuits in an attempt to provide sufficient power to the Cryogenic systems.

  As he worked, he was aware of an insidious, evil force infiltrating the innermost parts of the Satellite; a hidden enemy ready to attack at any moment.

  In the Cryogenic Chamber, Harry waited helplessly at Sarah’s side while Vira concentrated on the life and death struggle of her own people. She glided from pallet to pallet, checking the systems-displays, and occasionally administering treatment with an array of instruments whose function Harry could only guess at.

  ‘I should have gone myself,’ she said at last, returning to Noah’s pallet. ‘You are Dawn Timers; your companion has no knowledge of our Satellite.’

  ‘Oh, he’s an absolute wizard with bits of wire and things,’ said Harry with desperate optimism. ‘He’ll have it all ticking over in no time.’

  At that moment the oscillations in Noah’s pallet settled into a steady rhythm again. Vira checked the display, then she turned to Harry. ‘The fault has corrected,’ she smiled. ‘Noah will soon revive.’

  ‘Harry?’ The Doctor’s voice boomed out in the adjacent Access Chamber. Harry hurried through. Over the intercom the Doctor asked whether the power had been restored in the Cryogenic systems. He said that his lash-up in the Control Centre would not be adequate for very long, and that he suspected a major fault in the Solar Stacks. ‘I’m going down to take a look, Harry,’ he boomed.

  ‘O.K., Doctor,’ said Harry apprehensively. ‘But don’t be too long…’ There came an uncommunicative grunt from the intercom and then silence. Harry padded back into the Cryogenic Chamber, to find Vira stretching out her hand in greeting to a tall, slim but powerful man with short black hair and a trim beard. He was holding out his hands to her in a simple gesture of recognition.

  ‘Then it is ended, Vi
ra. We are alive again,’ the man said gently.

  ‘And together, Commander,’ smiled Vira.

  Feeling rather superfluous, Harry wandered across to Sarah’s pallet, and stood watching for a flicker of returning consciousness.

  ‘Who is this?’ Harry swung round at the ice-cold enquiry. Noah was staring at him with blazing eyes.

  ‘The name’s Sullivan… sir,’ Harry began.

  Noah turned to Vira in disbelief. ‘A regressive… here?’ he exclaimed.

  ‘I’m no regressive,’ retorted Harry, ‘I am a Naval Officer.’

  ‘Clearly a Regressive – the speech patterns are unmistakable,’ said the Commander in a hollow, detached tone that sent a shiver through Harry. Vira explained briefly about the Doctor and his companions. Noah continued to stare at Harry with intense hostility. ‘There was a Regressive element among the volunteers for Colony Seven,’ he said at last. He looked Harry up and down, staring at his crumpled clothes and shoeless feet in undisguised disgust. ‘Our Genetic Pool has been refined to the ultimate,’ Noah almost shouted, turning upon Vira. ‘You must be aware that three random units could threaten our survival… and the contamination factor… irrevocable damage may already have occurred.’

  Suddenly there came a gasp from behind Harry. He whirled about, and was delighted to see that Sarah’s eyelids were flickering. He took her hands. ‘Come on, old girl,’ he cried. ‘I know you can do it.’

  Vira hesitated a moment under her Commander’s furious gaze. Then she said quietly, ‘The Council can decide, Commander,’ and walked quickly over to Sarah’s pallet, and began monitoring her progress. ‘Your companion had not reached total metabolic suspension,’ she murmured to Harry. ‘She will revive soon.’

  Harry took a step towards the Access Chamber. ‘We must tell the Doctor.’

  Noah approached Harry menacingly. ‘Where is the third Regressive?’ he demanded.

  ‘He’s having a look at your… er… Solar Stacks,’ said Harry in euphoric relief at Sarah’s imminent recovery. ‘He reckons they’re on the blink.’

  ‘The Solar Reservoirs,’ hissed Noah. ‘He must be stopped.’ The Commander spun round and ran from the chamber.

  His improvised rearrangement of the main power circuits completed, the Doctor quickly found his way from the Control Centre down into the very heart of the Satellite. As he opened shutter after shutter, on his guard for whatever might be lurking on the other side, he puzzled over Harry’s description of the bubbling phenomenon he had seen, and tried to relate it to the gigantic corpse they had discovered in the Cryogenic Chamber. He encountered more and more silver trails criss-crossing the tunnels, emerging from and disappearing into the grilled openings.

  He soon found himself confronting a large circular door, similar to that of a strongroom, bearing a stark warning in luminous stencilling:

  SOLAR PLASMA CELLS

  EXTREME RADIATION HAZARD

  FIRST TECHNOPS ONLY

  The Doctor smiled to himself; after a few minutes’ juggling with ear trumpet, pocket magnet and probe, he succeeded in operating the lock. The door – a fifty centimetres thick Radiation Shield – swung open smoothly. Cautiously the Doctor entered the vast hemispherical chamber. His eyes adapted immediately to the subdued orange glow within. One by one he began examining the ceramic plasma bottles – translucent spheres five metres in diameter.

  ‘Well, well,’ he murmured, ‘the old vacuum plasma method – with a few little refinements. They must have been in a hurry to leave Earth. Not a bad lash-up at all.’

  Everything seemed to be in order. Then the Doctor detected, amid the almost imperceptible humming of the chamber, a brittle crackling sound, which was growing steadily louder and closer. He crouched beneath one of the reservoirs and listened. Although there was no sensation of hotness from the superheated plasma, the Doctor knew that even he could not stand exposure to the radiation for more than a minute or two. But he had to discover what was causing the colossal power drain in the Systems.

  The crackling sounds came from above. Staring upwards at the dim outlines of the plasma globes, he suddenly saw the clusters of pustular matter clinging to several of them, and to the interconnecting shafts. Stealthily, the Doctor emerged from hiding and inched his way towards a ladder leading up to the next level. Crouching close to the treads of the ladder, he reached the second catwalk safely and began to climb to the third level. Sections of the metalwork felt tacky, and they glistened with the familiar silver deposit. When he was halfway up the third ladder, the crackling sounds suddenly increased and the movement of the jostling, bursting bubbles quickened.

  Instinctively the Doctor flung himself backwards, just as a snaking tentacle of globule lashed through the gloom towards his head. He tumbled heavily down the ladder on to the landing below. Drenched in sweat, his ears splitting from the harsh crackling and his head aching from the fall, the Doctor scrambled back into the narrow space between two reservoirs. He watched in fascinated horror as a quivering mass of greenish bubbles began to form underneath the catwalk over him, oozing through the steel mesh. It grew into a shapeless glob the size of a man, then elongated itself into a droplet. Just in time, the Doctor ducked back as it whipped out at him with a vicious crack. Missing its target, it broke into fragments which stuck to the metal rails, sizzling like hot fat a few centimetres from the Doctor’s face.

  He quickly looped a length of scarf round a stanchion and dived through the railings of the catwalk, swinging down to the floor. Darting through the Radiation Shield, he dragged it shut behind him and ran swiftly back to the Control Centre. The savage crackling of the globule as it had massed to attack him still filled his head. The Doctor knew that he must find some way to starve the alien creature of energy and stop it from multiplying and spreading through the Satellite; he also knew that to tamper with the Solar Plasma System could be catastrophic.

  Reaching the Control Centre, the Doctor sought out the Solar Systems Panel. He stood for a moment staring at the complex displays; one slip and an irreversible chain reaction would occur. He decided that the risk had to be taken. He bent over the console and began to calculate the exact sequence in which the system would have to be run down.

  ‘Stand away from the systems console.’

  The Doctor glanced over his shoulder in surprise. He recognised Noah standing in the entrance to the Control Chamber Suite. Noah was pointing a small, torchlike weapon straight at the Doctor’s head.

  ‘Ah there you are, awake at last.’ The Doctor smiled. ‘I’m just about to close down the Solar Plasma Systems.’

  ‘Move away,’ said Noah. ‘The Terra Nova is ours.’

  ‘In theory certainly,’ agreed the Doctor, turning back to his task. ‘But unless we do something quickly, it will not be yours much longer.’

  Noah advanced a few paces, levelling the weapon. ‘Degenerate Seventh Colonists,’ he sneered. ‘Your pathetic attempt at sabotage has failed.’

  The Doctor turned to face him and stood upright. He spoke rapidly but calmly. ‘There is some alien life-form feeding on the energy in your Solar Reservoirs, and if we do not stop it at once it may completely overrun your Satellite.’

  Noah broke into a mocking laugh. ‘You and your companions are the only alien forms here,’ he cried. ‘It is you who must be stopped.’

  There was a brilliant sheet of spark from Noah’s hand. The Doctor was momentarily enveloped in a blue aura. He froze, his hand raised and his mouth half open to speak. He did not move.

  4

  A Fatal Wound

  FULL OF PROFESSIONAL admiration, Harry watched Vira moving calmly about the Cryogenic Chamber, monitoring the progress of her people as the Revivification Programme entered the final phase of its preliminary stage. From time to time, he glanced anxiously at Sarah; she did not appear to be responding to the treatment Vira had given her earlier. Vira now seemed completely oblivious of them both, and the Doctor’s long absence was making Harry feel extremely uneasy. Suddenly Sarah began
to moan, and her body convulsed. Harry moved to help her.

  ‘Do not touch the female,’ snapped Vira, without looking round.

  ‘Now look here,’ said Harry. ‘I am a fully qualified physician and I do think I…’

  ‘You have no function here,’ retorted Vira dismissively. ‘You are intruders.’

  ‘Charming,’ muttered Harry to himself. ‘If it weren’t for the Doctor, neither you nor your people would be alive now.’

  ‘The Commander will not permit contamination of the Genetic Pool,’ said Vira in a hard voice. ‘All Regressive influences must be eliminated.’

  Harry gasped at the sinister tone of her words. At the same instant he turned, just in time to catch Sarah as she toppled forward. He eased her gently back into the pallet and checked her pulse. It fluttered weakly. He looked across at Vira, but she was totally preoccupied. All at once Sarah screamed – a terrifying hoarse cry that ripped through Harry’s head. He caught her again as she staggered out of the pallet, staring with wide, panic-stricken eyes at the corpse of the giant ‘locust’ creature lying in the shadows. The shock brought Sarah to in a flash.

  ‘What… what is it…?’ she whispered, clinging fast to Harry’s arm. He was overjoyed to hear her speak, and put his arm protectively round her shoulders.

  ‘Oh, we found it in the cupboard,’ he said nonchalantly. ‘Sort of galactic woodworm, old girl.’

  Sarah stared around her open-mouthed. ‘Where’s the Doctor?’ she asked shakily.

  Before Harry could answer, Vira’s voice pierced the quiet humming of the chamber. ‘Where is Dune?’ she demanded. Sarah jumped with fright. Vira was pointing to an empty pallet near where the Doctor and Harry had found the tacky trail on the chamber floor.