Part 10 (1/2)

86.'If they're intercepting us,' said Zatopek, 'why are they slowing down?'

's.p.a.ce combat isn't like dogfighting a flitter,' said the Doctor.

'There's no point arriving at your target and then zipping past it.

You've got to be slow enough, relative to your target, for your weapons to hit it.'

It was more complicated than that, Chris knew. The high-V weapons like the ASDACs traded off warhead for engine size. If you launched while on an intercept vector they could rip apart a s.h.i.+p just with the kinetic energy of their impact, much less effective at low or negative closure.

The low-V missiles like the Roscoes traded the other way: big warhead for a proximity hit, but the engine was smaller. Each weapon had its own effective envelope based on the absolute distance from launch to target and the relative velocity. The fighters were on a relatively simple intercept from behind and above, simple enough for even the Hopper's navigation computer to make the necessary calculations.

The fighters were closing at less than seventy kilometres per second. Too late, Chris reckoned, for them to bother with their ASDACs. Once they were below twenty kilometres per second they would be at minimum effective V for the Roscoes. Which would mean that they were going for a visual inspection and a little bit of cursory intimidation.

Unless they used their proton cannons. In which case the Hopper didn't stand a chance.

'Chris,' said the Doctor, 'I think you should stop broadcasting Jimmy Somerville now we don't want to get them annoyed.'

Chris winced and unplugged the Walkman from the navigation console, which immediately began to bleep at him. He'd forgotten all about it.

Iaomnet turned to the Doctor. 'If this is just an inspection, why haven't they hailed us?'

'They probably wondered who was strangling the cat,' said the Doctor.

Chris flipped a switch and the bleeping stopped. 'h.e.l.lo, unidentified Hopper,' said a speaker. 'Do please reply. We're becoming a little anxious.'

87.Chris tapped a control. 'h.e.l.lo there,' he said. 'Sorry to keep you waiting, we had a minor communications glitch.'

'Not a problem, unidentified Hopper, we were enjoying the music. This is the interceptor Albert Edward Albert Edward, out of the ISN Victoria. Could we please have your ident code?'

'Yes, ma'am. We're an intersystem Hopper out of Earth, bound for Iphigenia, Ident X181/481.'

'And so you are. Many thanks for your a.s.sistance, and a safe journey.'

'And you. Thanks.' Chris closed the link.

Everyone in the c.o.c.kpit let out the breath they'd been holding.

The Hopper slid into orbit around Iphigenia at 07.00 hours, s.h.i.+p's time, a tiny dot swinging around Clytemnestra's innermost moon. The gas giant was a ma.s.sive, faintly glowing ball, cutting off the sunlight, filling the bridge with soft reddish shadows.

Chris and Iaomnet were sitting side by side. She was keeping an eye on navigation while he watched the sensor array. Zatopek had given him a series of diagnostics to run, comparing the close-range data with the long-range scans they'd done en route. Two days' worth of recordings, all of the wrong side of the planetoid, Aulis Crater tantalizingly hidden on the other side.

It was all checking out perfectly, a detailed map of the surface slowly unscrolling in the computer's memory. 'Ten minutes to Aulis Crater,' said Iaomnet.

'So,' said Chris, 'what do you reckon we're going to find down there?'

'I don't know,' she said. 'I thought I was just here to make sure the academics didn't fall out of an airlock or something. But an ancient, alien construct... There might be a whole city under there.'

Chris ran his eyes over the controls. Something was trying to get his attention. Had he missed a telltale? 'Hidden under the mountain all this time,' he said. 'For millions of years, maybe.

And we'll be the first people to visit it.'

'Great,' said Iaomnet. 'I hate places with too many tourists. I just hope n.o.body's home.'

'Do you travel a lot?'

88.'Not much, no,' she said. 'The truth is, I ' From somewhere aft there came shouts, followed by an appalling, high-pitched scream. 's.h.i.+t!'

'Stay here,' said Chris, jumping up. He almost collided with the Doctor, who dashed in through the doorway.

'It's Zatopek,' said the Time Lord. 'Give me your personal stereo.'

'What?' said Iaomnet, unable to take her eyes off the controls.

Chris didn't hesitate, s.n.a.t.c.hing the Walkman out of its socket in the console. Kim Wilde vanished in a puff of silence. The Doctor took the Walkman and grabbed Chris's bag of tapes and bolted.

Chris followed him. In the galley, Zatopek was in convulsions, lying on the table and screaming in Czech. Martinique was trying to hold him down, grabbing at his head as it smacked against the plastic.

'I'm burning!' Zatopek shrieked. His dark hair was in disarray, like a black halo. 'Sailing in the lake of fire!'

The Doctor was frantically fiddling with the Walkman. 'What's wrong with him?' said Chris.

'Get us out of this...o...b..t,' said the Doctor.

'Planets emerging born out of the red sear in the lake, crawling above!' yelled Zatopek.

'Higher up?' asked Chris.

'No. Just get us into an orbit which doesn't cross the crater.'

The Doctor shrugged as though something was irritating him, and a tiny drop of blood ran out of his nose. ' Now Now, Chris.'

'Right away.' Chris turned and ran back to the bridge. Iaomnet was waiting. 'What's up?'

Chris flung himself into the seat next to her. 'We've got to change orbit,' he said. The acceleration plucked at them as they turned. 'What's the problem, Chris? Who screamed?'

'Zatopek,' said Chris. 'I think it's some kind of psychic attack.

Have you ever seen anything like that?'

'No, this is my first ' said Iaomnet. 'No, I haven't. Emil didn't tell me he was Gifted.'

Another yell came from aft. 'Merry Christmas, Emil,' said Chris.

89.

Half an hour later, the crew were gathered around the stricken psi. Zatopek was lying on the kitchen table, half covered by a first-aid blanket. He was murmuring about tacking across the wave of oblivion, hot chaos licking at the hull of his boat, and yelling at his neighbour to turn the noise down.

'This is terrible,' said Martinique. 'This is terrifying.' He looked at the device attached to his a.s.sistant's head. 'What is this, exactly?'

'I've used one of Chris's tapes to create a loop that will create interference in his neural pathways and reduce the intensity of the signal he's receiving,' said the Doctor.