The Ark in Space

by Marter, Ian

  Without warning the Access Chamber was flooded with light. Sarah shielded her eyes against the intense glare which temporarily obliterated her view of the entrance. ‘Why have they turned the power back on?’ she cried. The Doctor shrugged. Still carrying the free-running cable, he advanced towards the Access Chamber, motioning Sarah to stay where she was. Just as he reached the entrance, a distorted gabbling suddenly burst out all around them. For a second Sarah imagined that the sleeping humans in the Cryogenic Chamber had suddenly revived, and that they were shouting in unison at her in a language she did not understand. She rushed to the Doctor’s side in terror.

  They stood in the Access Chamber listening to the eerie cacophony echoing around them. It was punctuated by harsh squeaks and hoarse whistlings. Gradually, there emerged a ghostly whisper, the shadow of Noah’s human voice. ‘Vira… Vira… hear me…’

  The Doctor indicated to Sarah to keep quiet, and went over to the intercom panel set into one of the Access Chamber systems consoles. He flicked the talkback button. ‘What do you want, Noah?’ he called.

  A hostile buzzing issued from the intercom. Through it rose Noah’s hollow whispering. ‘Your resistance is useless. We control the Satellite.’ The vicious buzzing increased as if in approval of Noah’s words.

  ‘And we control the Cryogenic Section,’ said the Doctor defiantly. ‘I repeat, what do you want?’

  ‘Go now… your lives will be spared,’ came Noah’s blurred reply.

  ‘Impossible,’ shouted the Doctor contemptuously.

  The babble of Wirrrn voices reached a crescendo of furious anger. Noah’s words struggled to be heard. ‘Let… Vira… speak… She is Commander…’

  The Doctor waited a moment, then he said, ‘Vira is occupied with the revivification of her people.’

  The buzzing of the Wirrrn reached a deafening roar. Again Noah’s voice rose above it, this time filled with scorn for the Doctor’s attempted bluff. ‘That cannot be; the systems are isolated.’

  The Doctor gave an exaggerated laugh. ‘You forget, Noah, I have quite a way with electronics.’

  ‘You lie,’ Noah screamed, his voice breaking into monstrous gasps and screeching sounds. ‘I am the Swarm Leader… I guarantee your safety… if you leave the Sleepers for us.’ The Doctor said nothing. The Wirrrn gradually fell silent, then Noah hissed, ‘If you refuse… we will suffocate you.’

  Sarah stared at the Doctor with frightened eyes. She remembered only too well the terrible sensation of breathlessness when the TARDIS had first materialised in the Satellite’s Control Centre, and also during her ordeal inside the conduits. The Doctor gazed at the intercom panel, his face filled not with anger or hate, but with a kind of infinite weariness. He closed his eyes, racking his brains for some stratagem with which to defeat the Wirrrn. After a long pause, during which the angry murmurs from the Solar Chamber began to rise again, he started to speak very quietly, in a last appeal to Noah.

  ‘Noah… please listen to me… if there remains within you any trace of your humanity – if you have any memory of the human you once were… leave the Terra Nova… lead your swarm into Space – that is where the Wirrrn belong… not on Earth… Earth is for the humans… Do you remember the Earth, Noah?… the wind… the sea… the sky… dawn and sunset…’

  Noah broke in with a prolonged sighing voice which sounded through the chambers long after the intercom went dead. ‘I… have… no memory of… the Earth…’

  In the Transporter Control Module, Harry had begun to fear the worst. There had been no contact with the Doctor since his warning about a Wirrrn attack on the Docking Sector, and he was also anxious for news of Sarah after her heroic success in reaching the Cryogenic Chamber. He was staring gloomily at the video scanner, wishing there were some simple way of returning to his office at UNIT Headquarters and forgetting all about Satellites and giant locusts and travelling Police Boxes.

  Suddenly he leaned forward to look more closely at the fluorescent screen. ‘I say, Rogin,’ he murmured. ‘I don’t want to be an alarmist, but there’s something moving out there.’

  Rogin swung round and adjusted the scanner. A blurred, moving shape came into focus; three Wirrrn were crawling across the Docking Area towards the struts leading up to the Transporter’s open maintenance hatch. At once Rogin manoeuvred himself over to the Propulsion Unit Panel. He began to operate a series of keys, muttering mechanically to himself. ‘Particle Emission Phase: initiated…’ A colourful illuminated scale began to register on the panel. ‘Acceleration to Tachyon Phase… Negative Thrust… Go.’ The Transporter was enveloped in a piercing whine. It vibrated and shuddered at its anchorage. ‘The Synestic Locking Field is holding,’ Rogin called above the din.

  All at once, the view of the Docking Area on the scanner was obliterated by a brilliant blue glare. After a few seconds, Rogin shut down the Propulsion Unit. The incandescent glare faded gradually away, revealing in the centre of the Docking Section a shapeless blob of colourless matter like melted glass. It was the fused remains of the three Wirrrn.

  ‘Good show, Rogin,’ cried Harry. ‘That singed their whiskers!’

  Vira sat staring blankly at the massive crystal shimmering beneath the Transporter. ‘I wonder if Noah…’ she began, then she lapsed into silence.

  ‘Commander?’ Rogin inquired gently.

  Vira immediately recovered herself. ‘It is of no importance,’ she said firmly.

  ‘Are you all right over there?’ The Doctor’s voice boomed over the communicator.

  ‘Doctor!’ said Harry. ‘Yes, we’re fine, thanks. Nice to hear from you at last.’ Harry quickly explained what had happened.

  ‘They’re up to something clever,’ the Doctor muttered grimly. ‘… For some reason they’ve restored the power here…’

  A series of warning lights flickered in front of Rogin. He leaned over and adjusted the scanner so that it showed the outside of the Transporter hull, and the great silver shape of the Terra Nova turning slowly against the multitude of stars…

  Floating eerily from around the outside of the Solar Chamber there came a cluster of Wirrrn. As they drifted into view, they linked their tentacles together, forming a chain which snaked its way slowly across towards the Transport Vessel. The Wirrrn looked like giant sea creatures, feeling their way through the deep.

  Harry spoke rapidly into the communicator. ‘Doctor, the Wirrrn have broken out of the Solar Chamber. They are approaching us. It looks as if the whole swarm is going to attack.’

  Rogin glanced across at Vira. ‘Commander, if the Wirrrn break into the hull we shall be lost. The internal bulkheads have a low stress tolerance…’

  On the scanner, the Wirrrn leader could be seen feeling with its antennae for a suitable gripping point on the hull of the Transporter Vessel.

  ‘Have you all gone to sleep?’ shouted the Doctor. ‘Rogin, cut the power. We’re coming out.’ Rogin obeyed. They heard the Doctor conferring with Sarah, then he added, ‘Rogin, if the Transporter has an Automatic Flight System then initiate it at once, and evacuate the ship.’

  Vira turned to Rogin in shocked protest. ‘I forbid this. If we sacrifice the Transport Vessel we have no hope of returning to Earth…’

  Rogin said nothing, but pointed to the scanner screen. The Wirrrn leader had now secured itself to the Transporter hull; one by one the creatures clambered over the ‘bridge’ formed by the others. The Wirrrn were soon swarming all over the hull. A sickening tearing sound rang through the Ship; warning lights flickered on the panel in front of Rogin. ‘The Wirrrn have pierced the hull in the Stabiliser Unit, Commander,’ he cried. ‘The sealing shutters are operating.’

  Rogin frantically began to programme the Transporter for Automatic Launch in accordance with the Doctor’s instructions. He did not understand the Doctor’s intention, but he had come to trust and respect the shambling, eccentric stranger.

  Harry manipulated the scanner, panning down towards the Transporter Propulsion Unit. What he saw sent shiver
s along his spine – a huge Wirrrn was tearing through the hull with its pincer as easily as a plough cutting a furrow in the soil. It was rapidly ripping a hole large enough for itself to enter. The whine of the Ship’s generators, the shrill scrambling of the Wirrrn and the shriek of tearing metal combined into a deafening cacophony. More warnings suddenly appeared on the panels as the internal bulkheads began to yield.

  ‘The Wirrrn have entered the Transport Vessel,’ Rogin shouted, pushing Harry towards the hatch in the floor of the Control Module. ‘You have four minutes to leave the Ship and clear the Launch Area before the Dock Shield opens and the Dock depressurises to vacuum.’ Harry nodded and followed Vira down the alloy ladder. All around them, the Transporter resounded with the Wirrrn’s onslaught as they clambered hastily down the servicing tunnels, desperately making for the maintenance hatch before the Wirrrn could penetrate into the bowels of the Vessel. At any moment, a giant pincer might slice through a bulkhead, or a panel might open to reveal a rearing Wirrrn, its claw poised in triumph, barring their escape.

  They reached the maintenance hatch safely and Rogin caught up with them as they slid down the struts to the Launch Deck. At the same moment, the Doctor and Sarah emerged from the airlock and they all met beneath the gigantic propulsion nozzles, where the twisted remains of the three Wirrrn lay like a vast glass sculpture. The Doctor gestured to Harry to escort Sarah and Vira back through the airlocks into the main Satellite. Harry tried to object to deserting the Doctor and Rogin at such a vital moment, but the Doctor pushed him firmly away. Soon Harry and the two women were making their way cautiously towards the Control Centre where the TARDIS stood patiently waiting. To their amazement and relief they did not encounter any Wirrrn as they crept through the chambers and tunnels of the Satellite.

  With the Transporter’s motors thundering above their heads as the Tachyon Drive prepared to ‘go critical’, Rogin and the Doctor each ran to one of the main anchorage struts beneath the propulsion nozzles. Rogin pointed to the chronometer bracelet on his wrist, and then held up two fingers. The Doctor nodded and brandished the sonic screwdriver; Rogin nodded and held up his Synestic key. They both immediately set to work to release the Synestic locks – three in number – on the main struts. Having completed the first one, Rogin glanced at his wrist. The chronometer scale showed barely a minute remaining before the huge circular shield, a hundred metres above them, opened like the ‘iris’ in a camera, allowing the atmosphere inside the Launch Area to evacuate into Space.

  The Doctor had also completed the release of his Synestic anchorage. They both made for the third and final lock, and arrived at the strut together. The Doctor motioned Rogin to take refuge in the safety of the airlocks. Rogin shook his head and bent down to deal with the remaining magnetic clamp. ‘Get into the airlock, man,’ the Doctor screamed in Rogin’s ear. ‘… There’s no sense in us both being disintegrated.’ He tried to pull Rogin away from the strut. With a sudden lightning movement, Rogin stood up, catching the Doctor neatly on the chin with his head. The Doctor slumped heavily on to the deck.

  Rogin dragged him across to the airlock and dumped him inside. He closed the outer shutter and ran back to the third Synestic lock. On his chronometer bracelet the red arc showed just five seconds to zero. As Rogin released the last clamp, he was enveloped in a deathly chill: the air was sucked out of his lungs, and the blood began to boil in his veins as the Docking Section depressurised. Far above him, the elegant ‘iris’ shield was opening to allow the Transporter to launch itself into Space. He crumpled with a soundless scream…

  A few moments later, the Launch Area was filled with a searing plasma discharge. Rogin’s body was transformed into a shapeless and colourless crystal in microseconds. Almost imperceptibly at first, the huge Transport Vessel separated from the Launch Assembly and began to climb away from the Docking Area. The very gradual acceleration was designed to disturb the Satellite’s orbit as little as possible.

  In the Control Centre, Sarah, Harry and Vira – watching on the main scanner – felt the slightest jolt. They stared in silence as the Transport Ship moved slowly away from the Terra Nova. Of the swarming Wirrrn there was no trace. The massive, ovoid craft began to accelerate into the depths of Space, its Tachyon Propulsion System leaving a brilliant blue aura in its wake. It grew smaller and smaller, finally becoming indistinguishable among the myriad stars. The luminous ‘comet’ tail lingered a little longer, then it too faded into nothing.

  At last, Vira spoke. ‘The Doctor and Technop Rogin must have perished instantly.’ Sarah turned away from the scanner, stifling the sobs that rose in her throat. Harry moved over to her side, and put his arm gently round her shoulders.

  ‘Come on now, old girl,’ he said. ‘You know he’d have wanted you to be brave.’

  Sarah shook her head. ‘It’s such a waste,’ she murmured.

  ‘Not if it means that Vira’s people are saved,’ said Harry consolingly. ‘I think we’ve seen the last of the Wirrrn.’

  But Sarah was overwhelmed; she looked up at Harry, her eyes brimming with tears. ‘Harry, I just can’t believe it… I just can’t.’

  ‘What can’t you believe, Sarah?’ boomed a familiar voice. The Doctor was standing in the entrance to the neighbouring Control Chamber, massaging his bruised chin. They were all too stunned to move or speak. The Doctor walked sadly across to Vira. He took her gently by the arm. ‘Rogin is dead,’ he said. ‘He sacrificed himself so that the Satellite would be saved.’ Vira nodded and turned slowly away towards the Cryogenic Systems Monitor Panel.

  Sarah at last found her voice. ‘Doctor… how did you escape…?’

  ‘Thanks to Rogin’s bravery – and perhaps also to something else…’ The Doctor’s words tailed off as he turned to stare at the scanner screen where the Transporter had disappeared among the stars.

  ‘Something else, Doctor?’ asked Harry, puzzled.

  The Doctor walked over to the scanner. ‘Yes, Harry. Some vestige of the indomitable human spirit, perhaps.’ He turned to face them. ‘Was Noah one move ahead of us all the time… and even of the Wirrrn at the end…?’

  Vira looked at the Doctor in astonishment. ‘You mean that Noah deliberately led the Swarm into the Transporter?’

  The Doctor smiled and nodded. ‘I took a gamble that he would, and that…’

  The Doctor was interrupted by a rapid bleeping; an indicator pulsed on the External Communications Panel. Vira stared at it for a moment, then hurried over and touched a switch. ‘Project Terra Nova… The Commander,’ she said crisply, identifying herself. Above the faint mush of static they gradually distinguished the distant murmur of the Wirrrn Swarm. A single, clearly human voice emerged and softly filled the Control Chamber.

  ‘Farewell… Farewell, Vira…’

  Vira stretched her arms out towards the scanner. She struggled to speak, but could not. Her arms fell back to her sides, and she stood motionless. All at once, one of the billions of tiny points of light flickering on the screen flared up like a supernova. For a moment it blazed, then it disappeared into nothingness.

  ‘The Transport Ship’s exploded,’ Harry gasped. The Doctor walked thoughtfully away a few paces and then looked back at the scanner.

  ‘Infinite Mass,’ he muttered to himself. ‘Noah had absorbed all Dune’s technical knowledge. He must have known that would happen. He deliberately neglected to activate the plasma stabilisers.’

  Sarah looked at the Doctor in amazement. ‘You mean Noah sacrificed the Wirrrn for our sakes?’ she cried.

  Vira spoke with firm emphasis. ‘Noah sacrificed himself for the sake of his people here,’ she said.

  The Doctor nodded and smiled at her. ‘Now you can at last begin the great awakening of your people,’ he said. But Vira shook her head. She was contemplating the Cryogenic Systems Monitor Panel which indicated that the initiation of the Main Revivification Phase was imminent.

  ‘It is too late,’ she murmured. ‘Without the Transport Ship we have no means of rea
ching Earth.’ The Doctor frowned. He glanced irritably at Sarah and Harry, as if this latest difficulty were their fault. Vira moved towards the panel, her hand raised, as if she were about to cancel the Revivification Process once and for all, and abandon the great plan which had succeeded thus far against incalculable odds.

  The Doctor rushed forward and seized Vira’s arm.

  ‘Wait,’ he cried. ‘The Terra Nova Project will still be fulfilled. You can use the Matter Transmitter to reach Earth.’

  Again Vira shook her head. ‘There is no receiver on Earth. It is an internal system only.’

  The Doctor put his hands on Vira’s shoulders and looked earnestly into her eyes. ‘If you and your people will trust me,’ he said, ‘I can go down to Earth and fix something up for you. With a little bit of juggling at this end we should be able to make it all work.’ Vira stared at the Doctor as if he were demented. ‘Oh, I realise that you’ll have to travel one at a time,’ he shrugged. ‘And of course it will require enormous power; but I am sure that your Solar Power engineers will be able to oblige,’ he added with a smile.

  Vira opened her mouth to object, but the Doctor broke in briskly, with a gesture towards the Cryogenic Systems Panel. ‘Look,’ he cried. ‘It’s almost “reveille”. We must make a start.’

  Everyone followed the Doctor as he strode into the adjacent Control Chamber. Vira stared open-mouthed as the Doctor unlocked the door of the TARDIS. ‘Old faithful,’ he murmured affectionately, patting the chipped and faded blue paintwork. Vira gasped in disbelief. ‘Do you ask me to accept that you are intending to convey yourself to Earth… by means of this… this obsolete artefact?’

  The Doctor looked grieved. He rubbed his finger across the dirty frosted-glass panes in the door, and grimaced at the blackened skin. ‘This,’ he said proudly, ‘is a vintage specimen of Time And Relative Dimensions In Space technology – TARDIS – and, far from being obsolete, it has not even been invented yet.’