Doctor Who, page 15
‘For what?’ asked Cann.
The Doctor shrugged. ‘No idea. But I reckon if they want to get into this base, they wouldn’t have much trouble.’
‘What do you mean?’ Cann was astonished. ‘This place is literally airtight. Everyone that comes in or out is recorded, noted. Every change of air pressure, every extra bit of water drunk. No one can just walk through the airlocks and get in here.’
The Doctor threw an arm around Sam and Savannah’s shoulders. ‘What do you two think? What’s the Commander missing in all this?’
Sam looked at Savannah, who shrugged, but then her face lit up. ‘They’re snakes,’ she said.
Sam got it too. ‘They don’t need to use the doors. They’re small and thin.’
Commander Cann still couldn’t grasp it. ‘What do you mean? There’s no other way in.’
The Doctor pointed to the floor. To a grille over the air vents that dotted the room. And every other room and corridor on Moonbase Laika.
‘Your air vents are connected by what, tiny thin tunnels, pumping recycled air around on regulated timetables? So, in those downtimes you mentioned earlier, in those areas humans don’t go in at night, imagine that something that can live out there, on the surface of the Moon and burrow beneath it isn’t going to be stopped by a few plastic tubes,’ the Doctor turned to Christoffel. ‘I’m guessing that over the last few weeks you’ve noted unexpected pressure drops, just for a few seconds at a time? Too brief to register as people coming and going, and so probably ignored – put down to a fault in HEART’s systems. But now – now we know what they were. Our little silver friends out there – coming and going.’
Cann stared at Christoffel. ‘Chief ?’
He shrugged. ‘Yeah, tiny drops, just a second here or there. Of course we never gave it much thought. Initially we thought it was a steady leak, but we thoroughly checked that out – there was nothing.’
Commander Cann frowned and pointed at Sam and Savannah as she spoke to Christoffel. ‘You didn’t tell me? Didn’t you think we should cancel these guys’ trip if the base wasn’t 101% safe?’
‘I bet he did. He’s a good Chief of Security,’ smiled the Doctor. ‘I bet that’s exactly what you did. Rather than worry the Commander over something so trivial, I bet you mentioned it to someone in engineering design at World State, got them to check the schematics first, am I right?’
‘I did. Word came back that World State thought it would be bad PR to cancel.’
‘Really? I wonder why… ah! Of course, I should have realised earlier. Aaron Relevy – he has a camera mounted on his baseball cap.’ He turned to Sam and Savannah. ‘Permanently recording everything?’
Sam reckoned so. ‘Probably sends a feed back to Earth, too.’
‘Unless the snakes want to be seen,’ he murmured. ‘I wonder if they’re receiving now.’ The Doctor let this all sink in. ‘They are clever and cunning,’ he said. ‘There’s a lot of intelligence in those snakes. They want to be seen. Otherwise, why say hello just now?’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Savannah.
‘Of course you don’t,’ smiled the Doctor ‘Why should you? At your age you should be thinking about ponies and pop music and fashion and how to date boys like Sam here.’ He stopped and looked at Sam. ‘Well, she should!’ he carried on,.‘No, Savannah, you shouldn’t have to worry that when UNIT was set up back in the 1970s, it needed places to store things that it found, strange alien things that it won in battle. Over the years they stored stuff in a variety of places – vaults, forges, Torchwoods even. But at the turn of the century, they built themselves a nice little Moonbase up here, not to keep a safe eye on Earth (although I’m sure it helped) but somewhere safe to store stuff. Space viruses; plastic eating nanites from Phophov IV – oh, that was a battle and a half, believe me, it’s why the CD industry had to give way to MP3 downloads – plus guns, tanks and other assorted weapons too dangerous to leave on Earth. Then there’s a Hopkiss Diamond – I had such fun vibrating that to communicate with its owners back on Jool. On their planet, “Doctor” translated as “Jeweller” – Jeweller to the Stars they named me. I like that. So much less aggressive than “the Oncoming Storm” or “Destroyer of Worlds” or “Bow tie of Doom”. No one has ever really called me that, by the way. Bow ties are never doom-y. Well, rarely.’ The Doctor spun around and looked straight at Sam and Savannah. ‘Oh, oh I wonder if the RavnoPortal Beast of Birodonne is still locked away here. Now him you’d love to see. All he ever wanted to do was eat up little… no, no perhaps you don’t want to meet him actually. Bad move. Bad RavnoPortal Beast of Birodonne. Baaaad.’
He addressed the Commander again. ‘So, that’s the question. What happened to everything UNIT used to have back up here – before World State so mysteriously bought this place up? Did they take it somewhere else, or did they leave it here? Did World State inherit a nice empty Moonbase, or did it come with a literal arsenal of lethal lethalness? And if so, why? We’re a few decades off war, the Oil Apocalypse and the intellectual copyright battle between T-Mat and iTeleport. Lots of questions and no answers.’
‘UNIT took everything as far as we know,’ Christoffel said. ‘World State inherited nothing.’
‘Well except for our serpentine chums,’ said the Doctor. And then, suddenly, he held up a hand. ‘Shhhh. Listen.’
And everyone did so.
They could hear a tiny scrabbling sound, a faint hissing.
The Doctor pointed to one of the vents. Then another. And another.
‘We have visitors,’ he said. ‘I’m not sure we should invite them in…’
CHAPTER 11
Monster
Back in the Planetarium, Hsui told Aaron about the hissing she’d heard from below.
‘Machinery?’ she wondered.
‘The projection equipment?’ he suggested.
‘A leak? Are we losing air?’ Michael said, earning himself a thump on the arm from Caitlin.
They had been warned about this more than anything in their training back on Earth. Of all the trials and tribulations that faced people living on Moonbase Laika, the ever-present threat of decompression was the most important to be aware of. Even the smallest hole, smaller than a pinprick, could kill everyone in seconds.
‘We are not losing air,’ Caitlin said.
‘Well, actually…’ started Michael, until Caitlin cut him off again.
‘We. Are. Not. Losing. Air. All right?’ she said, in a manner that dared Michael to argue.
He didn’t.
It was then that they heard more sounds – slithering and sliding noises, which definitely seemed to come from beneath them.
Aaron took charge. He remembered what they had been told during an emergency drill situation, when training for this trip.
‘Sit down,’ said Aaron. ‘Like they taught us, in a circle.’
And everyone did. ‘Is everyone okay?’ Aaron asked.
One by one they answered they were okay, if a bit nervous.
‘We stay here as long as possible as the Commander asked. We don’t leave the Planetarium until someone comes back to find us. Or unless we really need to. Basically, if something has gone wrong, this may be the safest place to be.’
‘What makes you say that?’ Hsui asked.
‘Because we’re not dead yet,’ Aaron replied grimly.
Suddenly, there was a massive hissing from beneath them, and everyone cried out in surprise as all the vent grilles, about six of them, flew away from the walls, as if massive pressure had been pushed against them.
‘Everyone, get closer. Take someone’s hand,’ Aaron ordered.
‘I’m not holding Caitlin’s hand,’ yelled Michael.
‘You are now,’ Caitlin replied. ‘Grow up!’
Aaron grabbed Hsui’s hand and squeezed it tightly. ‘Form a chain,’ he shouted. ‘We are stronger and safer if we are one.’
‘Not necessarily,’ Michael muttered. ‘If the place has sprung a leak, we all get dragged out into space together if we’re holding hands.’
‘Not helping,’ Aaron said.
‘Just saying…’
Suddenly the room was filled with flashes of silver!
Hsui screamed and Michael yelled.
Snakes!
The floor was swarming with slithering silver snakes, dashing about, rearing up and hissing at everyone.
Aaron’s camera on his cap recorded it all – the snakes raring up, spreading their hoods, dark yellow eyes glinting. The yells and cries of the gang, Aaron trying to keep them together, to protect each other, and slowly trying to find a way towards the door. He lead the gang bravely, but with each turn they took, more snakes blocked their path.
After a few minutes, Aaron told them to stand still.
‘They aren’t attacking us!’ he shouted.
‘Yet,’ Michael added.
But Caitlin could see what Aaron meant. ‘They had a chance to, but they’re not. They’re just… just…’
‘Herding us,’ Aaron said slowly, realising that they were now standing right at the centre of the room.
The snakes stopped moving but never took their eyes off the gang.
‘Why?’ asked Hsui. ‘Why don’t they attack?’
Michael took a deep breath, trying to push down his fear and start thinking rationally, like the scientist Commander Cann had suggested he might one day be.
‘They want something,’ he said. ‘But not from us.’
‘They are waiting,’ Aaron agreed.
The Planetarium door swung open and Godfried Christoffel rushed in with some of his men. In their hands they clutched fire extinguishers, which they activated, spraying the snakes with C02 foam.
The snakes moved fast, but not towards any of the humans. Back, back the way they had come, into the vent tubes that lined the underside of the Moonbase.
Immediately everyone leapt forward with questions, but Christoffel shushed them. ‘Let’s get you back to the others,’ he said and his men led the shaken but no longer scared gang away.
‘Whose idea was sticking together, holding hands, forming a chain?’ Christoffel asked them as they headed out.
‘Aaron’s,’ Hsui said proudly.
‘Good call,’ Christoffel said. ‘Most people wouldn’t think that quickly. Well done.’
Hsui was convinced Aaron grew a couple of inches in pride at that.
CHAPTER 12
Hunter and the Hunted
Christoffel led them into another room, a laboratory, called the Shaw Labs.
It smelled sterile and unwelcoming, but the gang were relieved to see Sam, Savannah and the Doctor there, setting out comfortable chairs, and waving to each of them to sit.
Commander Cann was talking to the people there, most of whom were from the Command Area.
‘Moonbase Laika is on lockdown. The crew have locked themselves either in their cabins or in the Mess Area. I have activated Emergency Code Alpha – so the only people with roaming privileges around the Moonbase are the people in this room. That way, I know where everyone is. Moonbase Laika is secure.’
‘Apart from the Space Snakes,’ said Hsui.
‘They were all over the Planetarium, Commander,’ explained Christoffel. ‘We fought them off, they went back into the vents.’
The Commander blew air out of her cheeks. ‘Doctor?’
‘When they built Moonbase Laika,’ the Doctor was saying as he bustled around, ‘they built it to withstand… well, a lot. UNIT were good like that, being militaristic, they tend to make everything as impregnable as possible.’
‘Could a nuclear warhead take it out?’ Sam asked.
The Doctor gave him a look that suggested probably not, but he didn’t actually answer, instead he waved an arm around the lab. ‘This is the most well-protected room other than HEART according to Chief Hughes. Which makes sense because labs on Moonbases are never the safest areas, all those experiments and stuff that can go “BOOM” at inconvenient times. It’s best to make sure nothing external can get in and, in the event of chemical fires or whatever, nothing can get out.’
‘And yes, just for the record, a nuclear warhead could destroy this place. So could the nuclear power core that makes it all work,’ Commander Cann added.
Chief Hughes nodded. ‘In the event of an emergency, from within HEART I can destroy –’
The Doctor put his fingers to his lips, making a shushing sound. ‘I don’t think our young artists need to know about that,’ he said.
The Chief of Science nodded and sat down.
The Doctor smiled at all of them, visitors and staff alike. ‘So, I imagine you’re wondering why I’ve asked you here. Oh, always wanted to say that. I sound like a proper academic.’
‘Snakes?’ suggested Michael.
‘Indeed. Out there, on the surface, something is alive and Space Snakes seems to be a good description.’
‘Scary metal ones.’ That was Caitlin.
‘Metal?’ asked Savannah.
‘Yeah, close up, it looked like they were made of metal,’ Caitlin replied.
‘So a potentially interesting life form, if you think about it.’ The Doctor was up again, walking around. ‘Reptilian life forms enhanced by some kind of living metal, maybe some kind of nanotechnology, maybe some kind of robot.’
‘Or,’ said Michael, ‘snakes in spacesuits.’
Caitlin sniggered, despite her fear.
But the Doctor had stopped and was looking squarely at Michael. Then he glanced up to Hughes, Christoffel and the Commander.
‘That, young man, is brilliant.’ The Doctor was now standing by Hughes. ‘We simply didn’t consider that – snakes in spacesuits. We need suits to live on or under the Moon, why shouldn’t they?’
‘Because they are snakes?’ Hughes suggested. ‘Alien snakes. That have just swarmed through this base.’
‘In spacesuits,’ added Michael.
‘Well, they’ve swarmed over one specific part of it, the Planetarium,’ said Aaron.
‘Were they actually doing anything other than slithering around?’ asked the Doctor.
Aaron shrugged. ‘Probably – I wasn’t really thinking about that.’
‘No,’ said the Doctor calmly, placing a hand on Aaron’s shoulder. ‘No, of course you weren’t. You were saving everyone else’s lives. Which is exactly what you should have done.’ And he turned to look at Aaron. ‘So thank you.’
‘What for?’ Aaron asked.
‘Being brave. And brilliant.’ He swung back to the others. ‘So, why swarm into the Planetarium, the “chill-out area” as I believe you call it? What’s in there of all places? I mean they can get through the vent tubes, which gives them access to everywhere on Moonbase Laika, so why go somewhere so insignificant? Command Area? No. These labs? No. Living quarters? Food halls? Nope, just the big shiny recreation room.’
‘Perhaps they wanted to watch a movie,’ Caitlin said, remembering what Commander Cann had said before.
‘Not likely,’ the Commander muttered.
‘Or,’ said Michael slowly, ‘perhaps they wanted to see something else.’
Hsui clapped her hands. ‘The planets, the stars. We were looking at those before the alarm started…’
‘When we saw the snakes outside on the surface,’ Savannah added.
‘As a distraction,’ Sam added. ‘We were busy worrying about them, giving others time to get into the Planetarium.’
‘Absolutely,’ the Doctor agreed. ‘Clever snakes in spacesuits. Oh, I love you kids. You all think outside the box. Brilliant. You are all brilliant. Be more brilliant – why would you want to see the solar system? I mean it’s pretty and all that, but hardly unique.’
‘What about that strange planet, the one we didn’t know whether it was old or new?’ Michael said to the Commander.
‘Oooh, what new/old planet?’ asked the Doctor, and Commander Cann repeated to him what she had told the others.
‘And the Rivas twins?’ asked Hsui.
‘Oh yes, where are they?’ The Doctor looked around the room as if he’d only just noticed they were missing. He even looked under a bench. ‘Not really very likely, is it, Doctor,’ he muttered to himself. ‘You’d see them hiding under a bench. Gotta think straight.’
‘They wandered off, and I couldn’t find them anywhere,’ Commander Cann said. She turned to Christoffel. ‘Chief, you better get some people out looking for them.’
The Doctor held a hand up. ‘Hang on,’ he looked at Christoffel. ‘Anyone else gone missing recently?’
Christoffel tried not to glance at his Commander, but everyone noticed.
‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ the Doctor said.
‘Not exactly,’ said the Commander with a sigh. ‘This is so not my best day,’ she muttered. ‘Over the last couple of weeks, a number of staff have gone missing for a short space of time but we always find them eventually, usually in their cabins. They have no memory of how they got there or anything.’
The Doctor turned to Pauline Brown. ‘Nurse Pauline?’
She shrugged. ‘Our best guess at first was some kind of electric shock they were getting, creating temporary amnesia. But we had no real answers.’
The Doctor smiled grimly at the Commander. ‘Amnesiac staff. Power losses. Space Snakes in silver spacesuits. You’re right, it’s just not your day is it?’
‘Thank you,’ the Commander said. ‘Anything useful to add?’
‘When was the last case, Nurse Pauline?’
She glanced at Llewellyn Hughes. ‘This morning, wasn’t it? Sym?’
The Chief nodded in agreement. ‘One of my staff, doing routines in HEART, found himself in the Mess shortly before you lot arrived.’
The Commander suddenly looked at the Doctor.
‘Oh, don’t give me that “Oh, so it’s all your fault” look, Commander, that gets boring very quickly, with all the questions and the “Where were you when A happened to B”. Trust me, it’s nothing to do with me.’
‘Oh great,’ the Commander drawled. ‘ “Trust me” he says. Like I have any choice.’
‘Can’t the big computer help us?’ the Doctor asked. ‘See if it can find any links between the disappearances, the power losses and the arrival of the Outer Space Reptile Race?’
