Doctor Who_ Eternity Weeps Part 17

'What?'

'Nothing. It's just that your sense of humour is . . .' A shrug? 'Oh I don't know. Somehow familiar that's all.' 'Compliment accepted.' I stood up. The cave was lit by worklights. Cables snaked everywhere. Plastic boxes with snap fastenings lined the walls. The boxes were quite large. Some of them were open. I had a sudden insight as to how I had been rescued from the airless chamber where the transport system had deposited us. Research equipment was stacked in neat piles. Equipment and boxes were marked with NASA logos. Some had another sign as well. UNIT. I nodded at the nearest box. 'Lethbridge-Stewart's lot come out of the woodwork at last have they?'

Liz's eyes narrowed. 'What do you know about UNIT?' Something about Liz's tone made me hesitate. 'Oh ... not much.'

Liz went quiet for a moment. Then she said, 'Listen to me. This place is top secret?' She held up her hands. 'Yes, sure, I know, cliche number one, but it's true. Right now you're a serious breach of security. If I was you I'd be a bit more circ.u.mspect about the names I dropped.'

'Hint taken. Going to take me to your leader?' Liz grinned suddenly. 'I am the leader.'

'Good. A sensible face running things for once.'

Liz stopped smiling. 'But I'm not the political officer.' 'The political officer?'

Liz shook her head. 'Never mind.'

I shrugged, abandoned the communist joke on the tip of my tongue, instead tried taking a few steps. I managed not to fall flat on my face, so I tried a few more. They were fine too. 'Seems I'm on a roll today. All I need now are my friends back and some painkillers for my ears.'

Liz frowned. 'Only two of you made it through the decompression. I'm sorry.'

'Oh d.a.m.n. How did they -?'

'Well one was killed by an explosion of some kind. Another was concussed and suffocated while unconscious.' There was a woman - it looks like she died of a heart attack. I don't know what else I can tell you.'

'You can tell me who else survived.'

The distant ring of gunshots gave me the answer to my question before Liz could speak.

I followed Liz out of the storeroom I had recovered in and together we ran along a narrow pa.s.sage. We ran in long strides because of the low gravity.

Liz was much better at it than I was.

'Where are we going?'

'The shots came from the Museum?' 'You have a museum here?'

A funny sideways look from Liz. 'We don't. They did.' 'They?'

'Yes, they.'

The rocky pa.s.sage ended abruptly, opening out into a chamber some five hundred metres high. The walls were smooth and glistened as if hollowed out by acid - although there was none of the random dissolution which you might a.s.sociate with acid etching. Obviously the chamber had not been produced with any current Earth technology. The chamber was a' sphere.

Suspended in the centre, by no visible means, was ... something. A machine? It, too, was clearly not of Earth origin. Though the chamber was brightly fit by more than a hundred worklights the machine seemed to be wreathed in shadows. Like smoke, the shadows drifted slowly around the machine, areas of deeper black in a bubble of jet, concealing its form.

Liz was off again, moving quickly down a curved ramp to the base of the chamber. Here the curvature of the concave floor was shallow enough to walk on. My first steps were tentative; the surface looked slippery, like black ice with billions of points of light buried in it. Then I realized there was more than enough traction here. And I also noticed that, although the surface looked highly reflective, I could make out no mirror image of myself - or indeed of anything else I could see. No worklights, no part of the machine hovering unsupported twenty or so metres above my head, nothing. No material I had ever seen absorbed light as efficiently as the surface on which I ran. I found the thought both interesting and scary. I followed Liz to an area isolated by movable screens, the kind you might find in a hospital ward or a laboratory, only very much bigger. They were green translucent plastic, obviously terrestrial, and stuck out like a mouse in a bowl of soup in the glistening alien darkness? Ranged along the base of the other side of the screens nearest us were a number of p.r.o.ne bodies.

One, a man, was moaning softly. The others were still. Beyond them the picture was less clear. There were lights and dark shapes. Some of the forms were person-shaped. One of them was moving. It strutted up and down, shaking its head. It was talking. I couldn't understand the words because the screens m.u.f.fled them and the only ones to reach me were too badly distorted by echoes to make out, but I recognized the voice: Tammuz. As I watched a shot rang out and another silhouette fell over. Tammuz kicked the body aside. It rolled loosely in the low gravity, stopping only when it b.u.mped against the screens.

Liz ran for the screens. I bounded after her, grabbed her shoulder, managed to hold her back.

'Wait,' I whispered. 'Go in there and he'll shoot you just like all the rest.'

Liz looked at me. Her face was a mixture of fear and rage. 'Who the h.e.l.l are you? What are you doing here? How did you work the matter transmitter, something we've been trying for months to get operational?'

Her voice was close to panic - no, not just panic: rage. A dangerous combination at any time, let alone now. 'You're terrorists, aren't you? Here to mess up the project. You don't get it do you? If we're right about this machinery any sort of interference, that isn't strictly controlled could bring about a catastrophe of - 'Shut up a minute, will you?' I interrupted. 'I know what you're thinking. I came here with a Bunch of people - some were injured, you've seen evidence of explosives, now there's a man shooting your friends. I know what this looks like. But it isn't that. We're not trying to take over. The man in there is an Iranian soldier. He thinks he's found uranium or a stockpile of nuclear missiles near Ararat in Turkey but he doesn't understand that - look, it's just really complicated and we have to stop him. Now.'

I could tell Liz was still angry and shocked - but somehow she managed to stay calm. 'Well, you're right about that. There's machinery here that would make G.o.d's flood look like a kid splashing through a muddy puddle.'

Something in Liz's voice made me shiver. Machinery? Flood? Matter transmitters? Suddenly it all clicked into place. 'That's it. Oh G.o.d, that's it.

He wants the power. He thinks he can control it. He's wrong. He doesn't even understand it.' I hesitated. 'He's going to -'

'What?' Liz's question was urgent but I ignored it, instead crept towards the screens. I stepped over a body to reach the plastic sheeting of one screen and parted it a finger's width so I could peer through. And so I could listen.

Tammuz was standing beside a small group of technicians, all of whom were kneeling down, hands on their heads. I was terrified I was going to be right about what Tammuz was planning. I was.

'It is very clear to me that Americans have once again taken sides in a conflict which has nothing to do with them. Iranian satellites detect uranium beneath Ararat. When I investigate, what do I find? A military base with advanced technology run by Americans.'

Someone said in a quiet voice, 'Look, we're Americans, sure, but we're not running this place. We're investigating it. And we're nowhere near G.o.dd.a.m.n Turkey and we couldn't give a monkey's about your d.a.m.n war - A shot cracked out. The sound of a falling body. I winced. Beside me Liz tensed. I grabbed her and forced her to sit down. So far Tammuz didn't know we were here. He couldn't. That meant we had an advantage. Well, about as much of an advantage as you could expect under the circ.u.mstances. .

Tammuz said, 'Don't treat me like a fool. I am not a fool. This base is obviously military in nature. The technology alone makes this clear.' I parted the plastic curtains a little further. Now I could make out banks of machinery of alien design. Located centrally was a shape that was somehow familiar: a hexagonal master control system. A cylinder placed on top of the console was filled with a grey gas. I recognized a holographic presentation system. Tammuz slapped his hand against the console. Laser light blinked within the cylindrical tank. I saw maps. Maps of continents on Earth. Something was odd about them. I was still trying to puzzle out why the console looked so familiar when Tammuz said, 'This is obviously a targeting system. You will tell me how to operate it.' He pointed his gun at one of the few remaining technicians. Liz gasped softly. It was clear Tammuz was selecting someone else to kill.

The technician began to babble. 'Look, I've got a wife. Kids. Please listen to me. We're telling you the truth.' Tammuz pressed the gun against the man's forehead. I kept my hand on Liz's shoulder to stop her moving. I felt her body tense. Something was going on here. The technician said, 'All right, man, OK, don't shoot me! I'll tell you. I'll tell you it all - just don't shoot me, OK? OK?'

Liz swore softly. I got it. She wasn't scared for the man's life. She was scared he would say something he shouldn't. She was terrified he would say something he shouldn't.

The technician said, 'Look. You don't understand. You haven't been here.

We think these systems are in some kind of accidental lock. If we free the lock and activate the systems we might not be able to shut them down again. The program is designed to run until complete. Do you understand?

If we start them up they won't stop. They can't stop.'

Tammuz thought it over and pulled his gun back from the technician's head. I could see a circular bruise forming there. His voice was steady, perfectly calm. 'I'm waiting.'

The technician clambered to his feet. 'Look. You can't do this. You're opening Pandora's Box, for Chrissakes. Even we don't know what's inside!'

Tammuz placed the gun back against the technician's head and held it there until the man broke down and agreed to help him?

Liz tensed once again beneath my restraining hand. I heard her exhale an angry breath. And suddenly one part of it made sense: if I was right this place was six billion years old - yet the holographic systems were displaying modern maps with current geological configurations. The systems were six billion years old but the maps could have been made this morning.

I pulled Liz to her feet and dragged her away. She protested. I shook her hard? 'You know how to use this machinery. You know what it's for. Tell me! It's important.'

Something poked me hard in the ribs. I looked down. 'Ah. Cliche number two: the good guys have guns.'

Liz said, deadpan, 'You're right. It is important.'

I quipped, 'Cliche number three: the good guys are really the bad guys.'

I didn't see Liz pull the trigger, because I'd turned to run. But I felt the blast as she shot me.

I fell over,. paralysed. I was aware of my body jerking convulsively and realized the gun was an electrostunner, a development of the kind used by women against a.s.sailants in the twentieth century.

Eventually I stopped jerking. But I couldn't move. Liz bent over me, peered into my eyes, took my pulse. Checking I wasn't dead. What a kind heart.

She stood up. I had a first-cla.s.s view of her boots.

I heard her take something from her pocket. It must have been a personal recorder because she began to speak into it. 'Commsystem activate.

Authority Shaw Zero-Zero-One-Alpha. Transmission to Tranquillity Base.

Message as follows: security breached Museum activated. Shutdown impossible. Recommend standby team move into target zone five; priority: investigation, possible sterilization. Recommend primary zone evac ASAP Situation critical. Casualties at sixty per cent. Be aware: targets are armed and dangerous. Condition black, repeat condition black. Agent Yellow is on the move. I'll do what I can with the serum from this end but I think it's unstoppable now. Tell Imorkal I love him. End transmission authority Shaw Zero-Zero-One-Alpha.'

Something in Liz's voice made me shiver. That was the second time that had happened. Was I wrong about her? What was wrong or right, anyway, in a situation like this?

Liz bent to check me once more. She said, 'I think it's too late to stop what your psychotic friend in there has started but I'm going to try anyway. We're not the bad guys, Benny-whoever-you-are. Just remember after this is all over that I could have killed you.' She walked away.

I lay there for a while. Then I heard voices. At first I thought the voices were in my head, the after-effects of the taser shock, my mind playing tricks on me. No? I recognized these voices all too easily. Liz. Liz and Tammuz. Liz's voice was slightly distorted, as though she were speaking on a tannoy - or a communications device.

She said, 'This is Operations Chief Elizabeth Shaw addressing the terrorist in the Museum. Shut down the transmission systems now. If you do not, you will endanger the lives of millions of people.'

Tammuz's response was typical. 'What you say is irrelevant. The systems are active. Targeting has commenced.'

'You don't get it, do you? Whatever you're trying to do, it won't work. I am standing in the transmission room. I am holding the only quant.i.ty of an experimental antivirus yet to be developed. If you launch now you will destroy me and the virus. There will be no possibility of any countermeasures against Agent Yellow.'

'Then a lesson will have been learnt. A lesson I wish very much to teach.'

'Listen to me. You're irrational> If you go ahead, millions will die.'

'Miss Shaw, you are repeating yourself. I will entertain no further discussion.'

The voices stopped then. In fact it was the last time I ever heard Liz speak.

Moments later, as I lay, still paralysed on the floor, shooting stars began to edge my vision. I thought I was beginning to lose consciousness but then realized the lights were coming from the machine hanging above me.

Tammuz had made good on his threat. He had activated the transmission sequence. I hoped Liz had got out of the chamber in time. My own recollections of being there were the furthest thing from pleasant I had encountered in a long while.

A ticking noise came from the machine like a Geiger counter, or a clock ticking away the last moments of someone's life. The shadows englobing the machine swirled faster and faster, oil on black water. The ticking increased to a machine-gun rattle, a painful scream of noise, then dropped abruptly to a floor-shaking subsonic rumble which made my teeth rattle and my ears itch and my flesh feel like it was being shaken off my bones. After a few moments the sound stabilized into a rhythmic pulse; a familiar sound which brought another memory clicking into place.

Apart from its size and the fact that it had obviously been etched from a block of metal by corrosive acid, the central operating system Tammuz must now be using was identical in shape to the navigation console in the Doctor's TARDIS.

As I thought this the machine went dark and silent. Transmission was complete. But transmission of what and to where? Only one person knew.

But though I lay there for hours, paralysed by the taser shock, Liz Shaw never came back.

Chapter 8.

Four hours after I waved the Russian semiautomatic at Chris we were back on Mahser Dagi. The flight had not been uneventful? After ten minutes in the air we were overflown by military jets. I had no idea what side they were on but there sure were a lot of them? About half a dozen.

That was a h.e.l.l of a force to fly over an empty mountain. Except it wasn't empty, was it? Bernice was there - and heaven alone knew who or what else with her. Ten minutes later we flew over the foothills - and over a procession of military vehicles. They seemed to be heading in the same direction, towards Tendurek, but compared with our speed they were moving at a crawl. We left them behind easily.

With the setting sun at our backs we overflew the Tendurek Formation high and fast, and that was when I saw the bodies. There were at least a dozen of them. Obviously soldiers. Lying in various positions indicating they were dead. Who had killed them? Had Bernice gone ape? Had other Iranian soldiers caught up with Samran's Iraqi forces?

I told Chris to go back? We overflew the area again and that was when I noticed the excavation - and the signs of an explosion. If Tendurek really was the Ark somebody had first dug a big hole right in the middle of it and then blown it up? So much for religious sanct.i.ty. At least it explained the bodies.

I pointed all this out to Chris and asked him if he thought it was safe to land. The big guy simply shrugged and eased the stick forward, setting the chopper down in a cloud of grit and dust a few hundred yards from the site of the explosion. Leaving the engine idling we stepped out of the chopper and on to the ground. It was cold. And dim, the setting sun casting a muted orange glow across the barren rocks. The light flickered intermittently from the tips of the newly repaired rotors. The rest of the chopper was in the shadow of the mountain.

The nearest soldiers lay still and cold. Their clothes rippled in the down-draught from the rotors. Chris stopped by one, checked for a pulse. The man was dead. A trickle of blood ran from one ear along the corner of his jaw. The blood was coated with dust - but it was long since dried.

According to Chris the man bad been dead for several hours. Chris checked another soldier. 'Iraqis and Iranians.'

'They killed each other?' 'Seems likely.'

'Now will you believe me when I say it was worth coming back for her?'

Chris straightened up, loomed over me as if he were part of the mountain.

'Jason, I don't want to discuss it. You knew the situation. You held me at gunpoint. I thought we were friends.' I saw with a shock that he was holding the soldier's sidearm. I expected him to point it at me and to order us to get the h.e.l.l out of there. He simply put the gun in his pocket. 'Well now we're here. So let's just get on with it, shall we? And hope the consequences of our actions aren't too serious.'

I turned angrily away and walked towards the Tendurek Formation, some hundred yards distant. The sun was setting over the mountaintop now, and shadows were deepening. I squinted into the sun, wishing I had a pair of sungla.s.ses with me. Stupidly, I'd left them at the hotel in Dogubayazit. I could make out nothing at the site beyond a heap of earth and rubble - obviously debris from an explosion.

I moved towards the site, checking each of the bodies to make sure none of them was Bernice, and clambered up on to the pile of rubble. I looked over the edge. It took me a moment to penetrate the gloom. I don't know whether I felt relieved or disappointed to see there was nothing there. At least nothing beyond a large block of what looked like concrete.

Chris clambered up beside me. 'Look at this.' He showed me a laptop computer. It was bashed and the casing was scarred by grit - but the screen still lit up when he switched it on. 'Now look at this.' He booted the computer. Nothing happened. 'Dead as a doornail.'

'Someone wiped it?'

'Including the operating system? There's nothing in here at all. No files, no system manager, nothing.'

'So it's broken.' I shrugged. I had more important things to worry about?

'Not just broken. Wiped. As in by an EMP.'

I laughed. It came out rather more nervously than I intended? 'You see signs of a nuclear blast here?'

'Other things can cause an EMP.' 'Such as?'

Chris shrugged. 'Badly aligned matter transmitter would do the trick.'

'Could that have caused this explosion?'

'Maybe. But probably not.' He peered into the gloomy crater. 'You see anything here?'