Part 10 (2/2)

'He doesn't look very happy,' said Iaomnet.

'For this to work, the noise has to be fairly radical.'

Chris picked up the remains of his ca.s.sette. 'Not ”Don't Leave Me This Way”?'

The Doctor shook his head. 'It's a powerful source and we're still very close. I'm afraid I had to take drastic measures: Frankie Goes To Hollywood.'

'”Relax” or ”Two Tribes”?'

'”Relax”,' said the Doctor. 'The psycho buffer remix.'

's.h.i.+p's engineer, huh?' said Iaomnet.

'Could you take him to his quarters?' the Doctor asked her and Martinique. 'I think it's safe to move him now, and he needs a serious lie down.'

Chris watched as their pa.s.sengers scooped up the muttering Zatopek and carted him out. 'What about you?' he asked, when they were gone.

The Doctor blew his nose. 'I'm fine. There's a powerful psychic signal emanating from Iphigenia presumably from whatever's under Aulis Crater. The signal is much weaker here.

I'm able to filter out the random interference to a considerable extent.'

'What is the signal?' asked Chris. 'A message? Some kind of defence mechanism like a telepaths keep out telepaths keep out sign?' sign?'

'I think it's more in the nature of a leak. What's down there is very, very old, possibly damaged or worn down... A tiny amount of its power must be escaping.'

'Psychic pollution. So now what?' said Chris.

90.'We go back,' said the Doctor. 'And we land.'

Iaomnet slid Zatopek's wallet out of his jacket pocket and flipped through it. Chris had the impression she'd done this before.

'Land? Down there?' said Martinique. He was sitting beside the bed, anxiously watching his a.s.sistant. The telepath was half asleep, eyelids flickering, lips moving. The four of them barely fitted into Zatopek's cabin.

'Surely that's far too dangerous,' Martinique insisted. 'I'm not even sure if we should stay in orbit.'

Chris said, 'But you've come all this way. Shouldn't you at least find out what's down there?'

'No registration,' said Iaomnet. 'Either he left his inst.i.tute ident at home, or he's a Wild Card.' She looked at Martinique. 'Did you know he was a psi?'

'Of course not,' said the grey-haired professor. 'I was as surprised as any of you by the... attack he experienced.'

Iaomnet tucked the wallet back in Zatopek's pocket. 'Well, there's something going on here which I don't like,' she said, 'and I don't think we should proceed until we get some clarification.'

'But we can't abandon the mission now.'

'I thought you said you didn't want to land.'

'I'm not sure,' said the professor, glancing at his a.s.sistant. 'I don't know. He might need proper medical attention.'

'Exactly. I say we go home.'

'Well,' said Martinique, 'you're not in command of this mission.'

'No,' said Iaomnet, 'but what's the point of getting ourselves killed? How am I going to write that dissertation if I get fried?'

'We land,' said Zatopek.

They all looked down at him. He reached up and pushed one of the headphones away from his ear, the music spilling out in a recurring tinny hiss. 'I will be able to create a barrier in my mind, with a little work,' he said hoa.r.s.ely. 'I was taken unawares. But once I am ready, we must return to the crater.'

91.Martinique looked down at the younger man. 'Are you sure about this?' he said. 'Whatever's down there '

'We land,' insisted Zatopek, his voice heavy with some emotion Chris couldn't identify. 'We must discover the source of the power. There will be nothing more important we could do in our entire lives, Henri.' He looked at Chris. 'How long before we can return?'

The Adjudicator said, 'How long before you're ready?'

Iaomnet picked out the landing site, a smooth rock shelf close to the summit of Artemis Mons. Mons. Much too smooth. As the Hopper softly lowered itself, Zatopek and the Doctor peered out of the c.o.c.kpit window. Gazing into the shadowy cleft in the mountainside where the meteorite had torn through Artemis, trying to see the skull beneath her skin. Much too smooth. As the Hopper softly lowered itself, Zatopek and the Doctor peered out of the c.o.c.kpit window. Gazing into the shadowy cleft in the mountainside where the meteorite had torn through Artemis, trying to see the skull beneath her skin.

Chris obligingly switched on one of the vehicle's floodlights.

The beam stabbed into the gash. After a moment, their eyes adjusted.

There was a gentle b.u.mp as the Hopper's landing feet pressed against rock. Iaomnet shut down the engines. There was a moment of ringing quiet, that constant background noise absent for the first time in days.

No one noticed. They were all staring at the doors inside the mountain, the structures and shapes exposed to s.p.a.ce when the rock had been torn away.

After a few minutes, Martinique said, 'All right.' His voice quivered. 'Emil, Iaomnet, would you please accompany me to the airlock, where we'll suit up for EVA.'

'I think I'd better come with you,' said the Doctor. 'After what happened earlier, you may need a doctor.'

'He has a point,' said Iaomnet. 'I'd feel a lot better if he came with us.'

'The more, the merrier,' said Martinique. Zatopek opened his mouth to protest, but the professor went on, 'And hopefully the safer. Are you qualified for an EVA, Doctor?'

The Doctor grinned. 'I'm qualified in everything except HTML markup and dentistry. Chris, what are our Ogron friends up to?'

92.'They're in their quarters, as always,' said Chris. 'Probably playing ludo.'

'All right. We'll be on the surface in fifteen minutes. Get ready to track us.'

'Right.' Chris turned back to the controls.

A few minutes later, he heard the Doctor say, 'Testing, testing.

Who can hear me?'

'I can,' said Martinique.

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