Doctor Who_ Lucifer Rising Part 35

Whatever wave of reality*altering energy had splashed out from the alien control room had pa.s.sed by, leaving curved flux*lines of energy which spiralled back to the hub of the Pit like the backwash of water rushing down a beach to the sea. Through the now transparent wall of the Pit, Ace could see that the spiral of the Pit Path was rotating in time with the flux*lines.

'Doctor? Doctor!' Mark Bannen rushed through the forest of glowing metal mushrooms to them and grabbed hold of the Doctor's coat*tails.

'Mark! Where's your father?'

'Over here,' Bannen said as he emerged from behind one of the mushrooms. His skin was tanned, his hair was perfectly coiffured and he had lost a lot of weight. He looked to Ace a bit like Harrison Ford would have done had he been cast as the lead in The Alex Bannen Story The Alex Bannen Story. 'I've been waiting for you.'

'I wondered how we managed to get here unscathed,' the Doctor said. 'Trau Bannen, you have to stop what you're doing.'

'I let my family down once before, Doctor. I can't do it again.'

'Let the dead rest, Alex.'

'Easy for you to say.' The physicist leaned heavily against the nearest mushroom. Light from the stem seemed to soak into the flesh of his arm, creeping upwards. Bannen brought his hand in front of his face, watching with a deep fascination as the light spread in gentle ripples towards his shoulder.

'Easy for you to do do,' the Doctor whispered. 'Just switch it off.'

Bannen shook his head. A sprinkle of light flew from his neck like droplets of sweat. He smiled beatifically. 'Why should I want to? As soon as I realized what the Mushroom Farm was for, what it could do, why then my choice was clear.'

'And what can can it do?' Bernice asked. it do?' Bernice asked.

'The Doctor knows,' Bannen said.

The Doctor scowled. 'No time to explain.'

'Nonsense. If I'm about to change the human race, people should at least know how.'

'And have the choice not to be changed?'

'People don't know what's good for them, Doctor.'

'And you do?' Ace asked.

'Yes. Yes, I do. And, now that I have access to the morphic fields, I can implement a change for the better.'

'I hate to act the dumb brunette,' Bernice said, 'but morphic fields?'

'An interesting, but obscure offshoot of biology,' the Doctor said, grasping hold of his lapels and leaning forward in his best lecture*room manner as if nothing else were happening around him, 'first put forward on Earth by a scientist named Sheldrake in the twentieth century. The theory states that all living beings have a field a.s.sociated with them which defines their entire biology, just as an electric field defines an electron. Humans are the way they are because there's a morphic field for humans, just as there's a morphic field for Alpha Centurians and Arcturans and, Ra.s.silon help us, Daleks, and just as there was one for sparrows and for sheep. Morphic fields are reinforced by every successive generation, so that human babies look the way they do because the human morphic field influences the development of the embryo in the womb.'

He looked over at an astounded Bernice, and smiled briefly, like a flash of summer lightning.

'And that is why there are so many humanoid races in the universe. The Gallifreyans evolved first, and thus created a morphic field for humanoids. That made it more probable that the next race to evolve would be humanoid, and that made it much more likely that the next race would be humanoid. The majority of the non*humanoid races developed in environments where two legs, two arms and a head would have been a positive handicap.'

'Twentieth*century science foolishly discarded the theory,' Bannen interrupted. 'The race who built this installation,' and he gestured at the Mushroom Farm around him, 'obviously didn't. I don't know where they originally came from, but my researches prove that this whole place is a machine for altering morphic fields, just like an electromagnet can alter magnetic fields.'

'And the Angels are what they turned themselves into,' Ace said flatly. 'Big zarking deal.'

'Don't judge them too harshly,' Bannen said, and frowned. 'We don't know their motives. There may be advantages to living the way they do now that we cannot even begin to guess at. They may be happy.'

His eyes suddenly blazed.

'And if the Angels could use the system to rewrite their own morphic fields, then I can use it to do the same. Don't you understand? I can rewrite the morphic fields of everybody on Earth so that they can live longer, don't catch diseases, don't get poisoned by pollution and don't need as much energy to live! I can re*create the animals that we made extinct! We can have whales again, and cats, and the dodo if we want! We can have everything! We can have anything anything!'

Ace jerked her thumb at the door. 'And what about Doctor Bannen's House of Horrors out there?'

Bannen flinched. 'I'm still learning how to use the equipment. You can't expect me to understand every function straight away. I can control the local fields,' and he looked down proudly at his slim, young body, 'and I can even safeguard individuals from harm, such as yourselves, but I'm still practising with the extended functions. Don't worry, I'll get it right before attempting anything major!'

'And that brings us to the sixty*million adjusted erg question,' the Doctor snapped, stalking up to Bannen and staring up into his eyes. 'Why exactly did did you safeguard our forms? Why do you want us here?' you safeguard our forms? Why do you want us here?'

'I...' Bannen looked away. Droplets of glowing sweat trickled down the sides of his face like fiery scratches. 'I need your help. I can't operate it by myself. As you suspected, Doctor, the machine's functions are switched by emotions, and '

'And you can't do it!' Bernice breathed. 'When was the last time you felt happiness, or contentment, or anything apart from guilt and jealousy? It's a built*in safeguard! You can only access the power of the machine if you are emotionally stable. And you're not!'

The Doctor shook his head in frustration. 'Even if you weren't eaten up by guilt and jealousy, Bannen, or even if I were misguided enough to want to help you, it would be no good. IMC burnt the interior of Moloch. The forests and the undulant creatures were the fine*tuning, all this,' he gestured around him, 'is a powerful but uncontrollable engine.'

Bannen's smile faltered. 'That's a load of c.r.a.p! The interior of Moloch was just an artificially created habitat for the aliens to live in whilst they were building this equipment.'

'Not so. Moloch is the mechanism. The Bridge is the power system. Belial the Mushroom Farm is the control point; the keyboard which gives access to the computer. Alex, how much of the forest has been destroyed? Which systems will work now? Can you tell?'

'I '

'With the forests gone, whatever you attempt here will not work. It cannot.'

The glow had spread across Bannen's neck and into his chest. His face suffused with a terrible anger. 'You're wrong! You have to be wrong!'

The Doctor shook his head sadly. 'I wish I could agree.'

Bannen let out a soft moan of anguish. 'But I can make it work. I know I can.'

'End it now, Alex. Before it all gets out of control. Morphic fields don't follow the normal laws of s.p.a.ce and time. You could be sending out ripples of change that will affect the universe. Billions of races could end up unable to breathe their own atmospheres, or eat anything that grows on their planets' surfaces. Chaos could stalk the universe. You don't understand the changes you might make!'

Tiny gold sparks fell like moisture from his hands as Bannen held them out beseechingly to the Doctor. 'I can't. The system has control now. It's taking all my energy to keep us stable in here.'

Mark had been looking from the Doctor to the physicist in growing fear. Now he released his hold on the Doctor and ran to embrace his father. For the first time, Bannen lifted his son into the air and held him tight.

The Doctor frowned. 'Reality is changing as the morphic fields of local s.p.a.ce are being rewritten.' He took Mark's tiny, human, hand and looked at it with mingled awe and horror. 'It's beginning,' he whispered. 'Where and how will it end?'

Chapter Twenty.

Piper O'Rourke grabbed Miles Engado's hand to drag him faster through the heart of Belial Base towards the airlock chamber. Behind them, Christine and Cheryl led a ragtag bunch of stray personnel they'd collected on the way. Questions were flung back and forth in panicky voices. Off in the distance were screams and the sound of small*arms fire as the IMC staff attempted to fulfil their orders to withdraw, and found their attempts subverted from within. Piper ignored it all as she drove forward, intent on reaching the dubious safety of the Adjudicator's ship before the waves of energy rippling outwards from the Mushroom Farm altered them forever.

There was a terrible cry from behind. Despite her resolve, Piper looked back. Beyond Cheryl and Christine, glowing waves of light lapped at the walls and the floor. Tanetoa blurred as she watched, his bones stretching, his skin tearing, eyes and mouths breaking through all over his body. Piper wasn't sure whether it was him or her who was screaming as she turned and pushed her body to even faster flight.

Bannen did not answer the Doctor's question, but sank instead to the floor and embraced his son. Tears flooded from his eyes.

Ace stepped forward. 'Let me have my gun back, Doctor. There's more than one way to switch off a computer.'

The Doctor turned away from the poignant display. 'But how many safe ways are there? The Mushroom Farm is controlled by emotional feedback. Between Bannen's emotional instability and the partial destruction of Moloch, who knows what the Lucifer System is capable of?'

Bernice was appalled. 'Can't the Angels stop it? After all, they built the d.a.m.n thing.'

'The Angels don't know that IMC have destroyed Moloch's forest. They think that the feedback mechanism will cut in, like it did the last time that Bannen fiddled with the controls.'

He sighed theatrically. 'They're leaving it up to the last Angel.'

'What do you mean?' Bernice asked. 'It looked to me like the Angels were all tied up with their black holes.'

'The mathematics of morphic fields are too complex for any machine,' the Time Lord answered, 'no matter how sophisticated. It requires an imagination capable of leaping through mathematical flights of fancy without requiring rigorous proofs all the time. It requires a living mind.'

Bernice was horrified. 'You mean...?'

'The forest, the undulants they were an Angel. Or had been. It had been transformed into the necessary form to work as part of the mechanism.'

Ace frowned. 'How did it change itself into the forest if the machine wouldn't work without it already being the forest?'

'An interesting bootstrap question,' the Doctor answered, scowling, 'which I shall consider at a slightly less fraught moment. Besides, I might be wrong. Ace tells us that an exclusion zone will form around the Lucifer planetary system in the short*term future. Perhaps the Angels don't care what's happening in the universe at large, in h.e.l.l, as it were, so long as they can preserve the integrity of their local area of s.p.a.ce. They've got the singularities. That's all they want.'

'Like I asked before,' Ace said, 'why do the Angels want the singularities?'

The Doctor sighed. 'Is this important, Ace?'

'It might be.'

'The Angels can rewrite s.p.a.ce and time the way they want but...' His voice trailed off as he realized what he was saying. 'But singularities are beyond their grasp. s.p.a.ce and time don't exist inside singularities. They worship them. They think that's where their G.o.d lives.'

He stared past Ace, overawed by the thought, and shuddered. 'I don't know whether they took advantage of IMC's presence, or whether they somehow arranged for Legion's race to be brought in as subcontractors to IMC, but either way it's a scary thought.'

There was a moment's silence filled by the crackling of energy around the Mushroom Farm and Bannen's racking sobs.

'Still doesn't explain what we're going to do about it though, does it?' Ace stared at the Doctor. 'Well?'

The Doctor took a deep breath. 'There is a way. But you have to trust me.'

He gazed at each woman in turn. 'Especially you, Ace.'

A deep rumble shook the Mushroom Farm. Arcs of energy blazed in a complex web around the kneeling form of Bannen and his son. He seemed larger than she remembered him, more muscular.

'Bannen!' the Doctor shouted above the harsh noise of the Angels' machinery. 'Bannen! You have to help us! The machinery is linked with your brain now.'

Bannen looked up. His face was a glowing mask. 'I can't operate the machine. You told me that.'

'No human can.' The Doctor indicated his companions. 'But we can, between us.'

'And what about the feedback control mechanism that IMC destroyed?'

The Doctor's face was harsh. 'That, I'm afraid, is up to you.'

Bannen stared into the Doctor's eyes for a long moment, and then nodded. 'It's all my fault, isn't it?' He looked at Mark, then reached out and ruffled the boy's hair. 'I could have gone back,' he whispered. 'Perhaps this time, I can.'

He pulled his son to him, and nodded again. 'Let's go.'

The Doctor took Bernice's hand, and looked over gravely at Ace. Ace turned away. Bernice obviously trusted the Time Lord, as Ace herself once had. How hard was it going to be to recover that trust? What might happen if she didn't... or couldn't?

Abruptly, she turned back. 'What the h.e.l.l. Family's where, when you come back, they've got to take you in. Like it or not, you're my only family.'

She reached out and took his hand.

Cheryl saw the main airlock up ahead as she felt Sonny Lopez's three*fingered claw slip from her hand. The scream came as she knew it would. She didn't even look back. Couldn't. Mustn't. If she did...

Ahead, Piper slapped her fist against the emergency controls, punching the doors when they were slow to open, driving them apart by force of will. Cheryl was practically crying by the time the airlock slammed shut behind them, imprisoning them in the blessed cool darkness of the starsuit chamber.

'Suits on, everyone. And be snappy! We don't know how long we've...'

Cheryl looked up as Piper faltered. The doors were glowing. Light was seeping through in fizzing runnels.

The new reality had reached them.

Ace flinched. The Doctor's grip was firm and warm. Hot, in fact. She tried to pull her hand back, but his grip was too tight and she couldn't let go.

Glancing across at Bernice's face, she saw the same seeds of panic that she herself was feeling. The heat in her hand was painful now. She looked down, and felt cold waves of horror lapping across her mind. Her flesh had flowed into the Doctor's; their hands had vanished into each other to form a k.n.o.bbly knot where their wrists joined.

'Trust me.'

Miles clutched his glowing medicine wheel as the new reality began to weave around them. Light interacted with light. There were screams. His mind turned briefly inside out. As if from a great distance, he was aware of hands clutching at his body, moving him, pushing him into a starsuit.

'No good...'

'Shut... up... and... run run.'

The Doctor's other hand had run together with Bernice's, and Ace could see their flesh rippling as it drew them together. Rather than pulling away, Ace reached out on impulse to the older woman. Bernice extended her hand hesitantly and touched Ace's fingertips. Their skin flowed like treacle. It was as if Ace had dipped her fingers into a perfectly still pool and watched herself and her reflection merge, except that instead of the coolness of water there was the heat of... Of what?

The Doctor was joined to her up to the elbow now. Even their clothes seemed to be running together in a bizarre melding of corduroy and battle armour, tweed and lycra.