Deep Time

by Trevor Baxendale

  ‘Yes,’ agreed the Doctor. ‘Exactly what I was thinking. The wormhole had served its purpose – which was to bring us here.’

  ‘You mean we’re supposed to be floatin’ in the middle of nowhere?’ asked Mitch.

  ‘Nowhere’s nowhere. Wherever we are, we’re definitely somewhere.’

  ‘Somewhere specific,’ realised Laker. ‘If the Doctor’s right, then we’re here for a reason. Let’s find it.’

  There was a gleam of satisfaction in the Doctor’s eyes. Clara wondered if he wore the same look when she occasionally tumbled onto what he was already thinking. It was probably the same look she had when one of her pupils gave the right answer in a comprehension exercise.

  Tibby Vent held up a computer pad. ‘Let me tap into the ship’s navigation matrix. If we run a search-and-match program with our last known location on the Phaeron map, we might be able to work out where we are.’

  ‘Good idea,’ said Laker, as she joined him at the flight controls. ‘I’d be glad of the help.’

  —

  ‘Gives you a warm feeling inside, doesn’t it?’ said the Doctor.

  ‘Watching people mucking in and working together?’ Clara nodded. She saw it a lot in the classroom in group exercises. It was a great feeling. But there was always one, like Marco Spritt, who didn’t want to join in with anything. He stood to one side of the flight deck, scowling at the others.

  ‘I was talking about porridge,’ the Doctor said. ‘I don’t know about you lot but I’m starving.’

  Clara looked at him. ‘Porridge? Seriously?’

  ‘No sugar on mine,’ the Doctor said. ‘Just a wee pinch of salt.’

  ‘I’m not making you breakfast. I’m not your mum.’

  ‘I made you hot chocolate.’

  ‘Well, yeah…out of recycled…things and stuff.’

  ‘Well I doubt Balfour’s got a sack of oats just waiting in the stores. Of course you’ll have to use the food machine. It’s the only way of getting anything to eat on this ship, remember. It’s all recycled. Trugg can help you.’

  The robot whirred at the mention of its name. ‘Sir?’

  ‘Can you make porridge, Trugg?’ Clara asked.

  ‘Yes miss.’ It took the robot less than two seconds to come up with a response. Clara guessed it was downloading something from its memory banks. ‘It’s simply a case of programming the effluent recyclers to extract the correct ratios of beta-glucan isolates, saturated fats, cholesterol, carbohydrates and—’

  ‘On second thoughts let’s forget the porridge,’ said the Doctor.

  —

  ‘This is like looking for a needle in a haystack,’ complained Laker. ‘Only without a needle or a haystack. There’s nothing out here.’

  ‘There must be something out here for us,’ said Cranmer. ‘What are your longest-range scanners?’

  ‘Astrolaser and wide-beam spectronic,’ Laker said. ‘Make no mistake, the Alexandria’s got all the latest gear and it’s top of the range. But if there’s nothing out there to see, it doesn’t matter how good your eyes are.’

  ‘But if we could divide the volume of space around us into segments and check each one in turn, matched to the wormhole chart…’

  Laker sighed. ‘I’m willing to try anything.’

  ‘There will be something out there,’ Jem said. She had been resting in the astrogation coach, looking pale and troubled. ‘It’s just waiting for us, Dan…’

  ‘The “imperfection”?’

  Jem looked down. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘I’m just a bit tired. But I really want to do this. I really want to know why we’ve been brought all the way out here.’

  —

  ‘What are you thinking about?’ asked Clara quietly.

  She was leaning on one of the outer control panels overlooking the rest of the flight deck.

  The Doctor stood next to her, glowering. Clara sometimes thought the power in that frown alone could fix the energy supplies of a large city for weeks.

  ‘Everyone here wants something, Clara. And I’m not talking about breakfast.’

  ‘I know. We all want to find a way out of this, for one thing. Get home. Live our lives. Do some marking.’

  ‘No, I don’t mean that. I don’t mean just survival. Survival is boring. It’s the base-line requirement for any life. I’m talking about desire.’

  ‘You’re talking about the Glamour.’

  ‘Something’s brought us all here, Clara. Lured us through that wormhole. Jem knows it. She sensed it.’

  ‘The imperfection?’

  ‘Perhaps.’

  The Doctor continued to stare at the clone astrogator. She and Laker were poring over scanner readings, searching for something, anything, in the void. Holographic images floated in the air as they cycled through various views and long-distance sensor sweeps.

  ‘Jem was very keen to carry on,’ Clara noted. ‘She insisted, even when Laker wanted to turn back.’

  ‘Yes, she did.’

  ‘She seems very driven. Could that be due to the Glamour?’

  The Doctor shrugged. ‘That’s the trouble with the Glamour, Clara. It’s so difficult to tell. Jem’s an astrogation clone, remember – genetically modified to feel sub-etheric fluctuations in dark matter. She’s bound to be sensitive to whatever brought us through the wormhole.’

  ‘She said she heard voices,’ Clara said.

  ‘Hmmm.’

  ‘You’re being mysterious. I hate it when you’re mysterious.’

  ‘No you don’t. You love it. What about the others?’

  ‘Laker wants to retire to look after Jem. So he needs Balfour’s money.’

  ‘Hm-mm.’

  ‘Tibby wants to find what happened to the Phaeron.’

  ‘What about Marco?’ wondered the Doctor.

  Marco Spritt was standing nearby, smirking and keeping a close eye on Tibby as she bent over the screens. ‘I think we all know what he wants,’ Clara said in disgust.

  ‘The Carthage?’ said the Doctor.

  ‘Well, I didn’t mean that exactly. But you’re right. Although I don’t think he’s really bothered about what happened to the Carthage, he just wants to find his mother. Family is a powerful thing; blood thicker than water and all that.’

  ‘You could be right.’

  Clara sat back and thought for a moment. ‘OK, so everyone wants something. But none of them need to be under the influence of the Glamour for that.’

  ‘But what about Raymond Balfour?’

  Balfour was hovering near the flight controls, where Laker and Jem were studying the long range sensor displays. His hands were thrust into the pockets of his dressing gown. Clara watched him carefully.

  ‘He’s one of the richest humans in the galaxy,’ said the Doctor. ‘He can have anything he wants. He can buy anything he wants. We’re not talking about fast spaceships or even planets. Balfour can buy entire star systems. He has several different multi-billion credit accounts at the Bank of Karabraxos alone. So what does he want?’

  ‘Adventure?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘He’s bored. Rich beyond the dreams of avarice, maybe, but bored. He’s got nothing to do. Nothing to strive for. So: adventure.’

  The Doctor considered. ‘You can’t buy adventure, Clara.’

  ‘Maybe Balfour thinks he can.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. We’re still in the dark, either way.’ The Doctor straightened up suddenly, his eyes widening. ‘Oh!’

  ‘What? There’s being mysterious and then there’s being very annoying. Which one is this going to be?’

  ‘Genius. I am a genius!’ The Doctor scrambled down to the forward section where Laker and Jem were busy.

  ‘Annoying, then,’ said Clara, and followed him down.

  —

  ‘I’ve had an idea,’ said the Doctor.

  Laker sat back in his chair, exasperated. ‘Well that’s good news, because I’
m all out of ideas now.’

  Cranmer rubbed his face tiredly. ‘We’ve used every kind of long-range multi-probe and come up with nothing apart from the minute quark and gluon field fluctuations you’d expect in a vacuum. There’s absolutely nothing out there but empty space.’

  ‘No there isn’t,’ said the Doctor. ‘There’s dark matter. Space is full of it, remember.’

  ‘I think I know what the Doctor’s idea is,’ said Jem.

  ‘What?’ Laker asked, looking between them.

  The Doctor looked anguished. ‘You won’t like it.’

  ‘Why not?’

  Jem said, ‘I can sense fluctuations in dark matter, remember. It’s how I see the universe. It’s how I can function as an astrogator.’

  Laker was instantly wary. ‘Firstly, you’re not just a function, you’re a person. Secondly, there’s no way you’re getting back into that astrogation couch.’ He turned to look at the Doctor. ‘Absolutely no way. You saw what happened last time, it nearly killed her.’

  ‘I know, Captain, but this is important…’

  ‘Important enough to risk her life?’

  ‘All our lives are at risk,’ the Doctor said.

  ‘That’s what you said last time. We had to unhook Jem from the ship mid-flight and it damned near killed her. And you.’

  ‘But the ship won’t be in flight,’ the Doctor argued. ‘We’re drifting. She doesn’t have to guide us. She only has to tap into the dark matter to see what’s around.’

  Jem nodded. ‘I might be able to find something the scanners couldn’t pick up.’

  ‘Dan’s right, Doctor,’ said Clara. Laker was trying to be reasonable but she had seen the anguish in his eyes. ‘We can’t ask Jem to risk her life again.’

  ‘I agree,’ said Tanya Flexx. ‘It’s out of the question.’

  ‘The only other option is to carry on drifting aimlessly in the hope that we might stumble across something in the trackless void out there,’ argued the Doctor, stabbing a finger at the holoviewer. ‘I don’t fancy that much. Do you?’

  ‘I have to put Jem’s health first.’

  ‘It’s too much to ask of her, Doctor.’

  ‘There’s no need to ask me,’ said Jem sharply. She lay back in the astrogation couch. ‘And I can speak for myself. I want to do it. Plug me in.’

  ‘You’re certain?’ the Doctor asked.

  ‘Yes,’ said Jem firmly.

  ‘You’re both mad and irresponsible,’ said Tanya.

  ‘But alive,’ replied the Doctor.

  Laker glared at him. ‘If anything happens to her…’ he began, but then he fell silent and concentrated on attaching the various wires from the couch to Jem’s head implants. As each clicked home, a display on the couch console flickered into life.

  ‘Will she be OK?’ Clara asked the Doctor.

  ‘Yeah, she’ll be fine,’ he replied quickly.

  Clara looked back at Jem, unconvinced. Wires sprouted from the implants all over her head and the astrogation console was humming again.

  ‘I’m in,’ Jem whispered, closing her eyes. The displays pulsed and holographic images glowed in the air around her.

  ‘Just take it easy,’ Laker said.

  Tanya said, ‘First sign of trouble and you’re out, clear?’

  ‘I’m all right, I’m all right.’

  Clara turned to the Doctor. ‘She’s not all right, is she?’

  ‘Her mind is tuning into etheric superstrings coded into the non-baryonic dark matter of local space,’ the Doctor said quietly. ‘No human being should be able to do that. But she’s been modified and augmented until she’s something other than human, Clara. Who can tell if she’s all right?’

  Jem was breathing deeply. With her eyes closed she looked as if she was asleep. No one made a sound as Laker checked and double-checked the astrogation monitors and holograms.

  ‘Nothing…there’s nothing…’ he whispered. ‘She’s drawing blanks on all levels.’

  The Doctor pressed the edge of one fist against his lip, concentrating hard. His eyes flicked between Jem and the holograms. His eyebrows formed a deep V as he willed the astrogator to find something…anything…in the depthless void.

  Laker toggled through a series of holograms, which mostly looked to Clara like different, darkly coloured smudges hanging in the air. ‘Still nothing,’ he said.

  The Doctor had clenched his fist so tight that his knuckles were bone-white. ‘Come on, Jem…come on…’ he muttered. ‘Find those axion strings…find the nodes…find something.’

  Jem’s breath quickened slightly. Her fingers twitched. The holograms swirled, flickered, changed.

  ‘She’s hurrying,’ Laker said. ‘Cycling through the levels. She must be running out of time.’

  ‘She can take her time,’ the Doctor warned. ‘There’s no hurry…’

  ‘You don’t understand,’ Laker said. ‘She must be in pain. She’s trying to get through as much as she can before it gets too much.’

  ‘Stop her now,’ Tanya urged. ‘If she’s in pain, stop her now.’

  ‘Wait until she finds something,’ said the Doctor. ‘There must be something. She’ll find it.’

  Clara looked horrified. ‘But if she’s in pain?’

  ‘No pain, no gain.’

  All attention was focused on Jem. The holograms glowed around the couch as she reached out into the void, extending her consciousness well beyond the confines of the Alexandria. Everyone watched in silence; Tibby, Cranmer and Tanya, Marco, Balfour and Mitch all stood with the Doctor and Clara as Laker checked and rechecked the navigation displays.

  Jem suddenly opened her mouth and gasped. ‘Got it,’ she said.

  Laker instantly began to power down the couch as the Doctor leapt forward. His long, nimble fingers scuttled around Jem’s head, disconnecting the astrogation leads from the implant sockets. The holograms swirled and faded and the couch monitors dimmed.

  ‘Is she OK?’ the Doctor asked.

  Laker helped Jem to sit up. She looked exhausted. ‘I think so.’

  ‘What did you find?’ the Doctor asked.

  Jem’s eyes were open but they weren’t focused on anything in front of her. She opened her mouth to speak but said nothing, as if she was struggling for a way to even begin to describe what she had seen. ‘Deep in the darkness…’ she whispered. Everyone strained to hear. ‘Long distant…nothing more than an echo in the emptiness, like a voice calling for me just on the edge of hearing.’

  ‘A voice?’ The Doctor leaned closer. ‘What did it say?’

  ‘I don’t know. It was unlike anything I have ever heard before. I couldn’t understand any of the words – if they were words at all.’

  ‘This is worse than useless,’ said Marco.

  ‘You shut your mouth,’ snapped Laker, turning quickly.

  ‘It’s been a complete waste of time and effort,’ Marco insisted loudly.

  ‘Marco, be quiet,’ said Tibby. ‘Let Jem speak.’

  ‘It’s all right, it doesn’t matter,’ Jem said, raising a pale hand. ‘I couldn’t understand the voices that I heard, but they were calling for me. For all of us.’

  Clara felt a chill run through her. She looked at the Doctor, but his face was impassive, stony, his eyes hooded. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking, but Clara suspected it was nothing good.

  ‘It doesn’t sound very likely, I must admit,’ said Cranmer. ‘Voices in space?’

  ‘It’s how Jem interprets the gravitational fluctuations in dark matter,’ said the Doctor. ‘She’s trying to describe the indescribable. Is it any wonder her brain searches for a way to understand it? Genetic modification and surgery can only do so much, after all. The good news is that she found anything at all. The even better news is that it means there is something out there. Something we can find.’ He pointed at Laker. ‘Run through the astrogation record, Captain; there’ll be coordinate data for the moments when Jem heard the voices. Match them to our current location and see
what happens.’

  Laker got to work on the sensor array as the Doctor stalked around the flight deck, suddenly bristling with energy. ‘We’re searching for something invisible, hiding in the darkness…But we have one advantage now: we know it’s there.’

  Clara felt her pulse quickening, as if she was walking through a darkened room, hand out in front of her, groping for a wall, a piece of furniture, anything she could touch. It was at once exciting and terrifying.

  ‘Got it.’ Laker turned from the sensor array to face them. His face showed a strange mixture of shock and excitement. ‘The Doctor was right. Jem’s found something.’

  Chapter

  7

  The planet was clearly visible. At full magnification, the hologram showed a dull grey sphere, turning slowly in the blackness.

  ‘Dark world,’ said Luis Cranmer.

  ‘Not quite,’ replied Laker. ‘You can’t see it on screen but there is a sun, with this as the single orbiting planet.’

  ‘What’s a dark world?’ asked Clara.

  ‘An orphaned planet, adrift in space without a star to orbit,’ explained the Doctor. He was studying the holograph image intently. ‘But this isn’t one of those – look at that faint light, reflecting from the surface. This is an orphaned solar system, a tiny singular world and its sun, lost between the galaxies. Nowhere to call home.’

  Cranmer was pulling up more data on the planet from the ship scanners. ‘The sun’s a non-rotating neutron star, barely detectable. Plenty of thermal radiation, though.’

  ‘A dying star,’ the Doctor said. ‘Bleeding out into the vacuum.’

  ‘The planet’s small – around 7,000 kilometres in diameter but with a 5.5 grams per cubic centimeter density. Gravity will be around Earth normal.’

  ‘How far away are we?’ the Doctor asked.

  ‘About 70,000 AU.’

  ‘Just over a light year.’

  ‘Doesn’t really matter, though, if we don’t have engine power,’ said Laker.

  There was a grim silence as everyone stared at the hologram. The magnification and resolution were so good the planet felt close enough to touch. There were ridges that were probably mountain ranges and dark, foggy swirls that might be clouds.

  ‘What we need is a miracle,’ said Mitch Keller.