Part 14 (1/2)

'I don't see it,' said Roz, peering into the screen.

112.

'Right next to the crater.'

'That's not a crater,' she said. 'That looks like... I don't know what that looks like. The surface is torn up. Another fake?'

'Something more than that,' said the Doctor. 'Trust me, it'll be safe to land there. The sooner the better.'

'Right. I'll go tell Sekeris and then I'll suit up. Meet you in the airlock?'

'Bring Iaomnet.'

Roz let out a long, slow whistle.

'She can watch our backs. Besides, I want her where I can see her.'

'Doctor, that doesn't make any sense.'

His eyes never left the screen. 'Scenario: we leave Iaomnet in the shuttle. She manages to persuade Captain Sekeris of who she really is. He decides it would be a good career move if no one ever found out he'd ferried us. The shuttle quietly lifts off, leaving us stranded.'

'We'll see you in the airlock,' said Roz. 'Fifteen minutes.'

After travelling with the Doctor for a while, Roz had decided there was a switch inside the human brain marked 'That's Too d.a.m.ned Big'. She had felt that switch flip a few times now, in the presence of objects and creatures and minds that were just a bit much to cope with without a cup of tea, a lie down and a long session of philosophical introspection.

The switch in her head was jammed in the on position now.

She was grateful. It allowed her to think about the size of the things around her without having to comprehend it. Medical advice: never stick anything in your ear smaller than your elbow; never stick anything larger in your skull than, say, a continent.

Roz had expected to have to force Iaomnet out of the shuttle at gunpoint, but the double-eye had jumped at the chance to accompany them. 'I thought I was just going to babysit a couple of professors,' she told Roz, as they pulled on their suits. 'I want to know what's going on.'

'I doubt it,' said Roz. 'Just remember, once we're out there, your life depends on us, and ours on you. All right? Try to get the drop on us in a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere.'

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Iaomnet nodded, seriously. 'If it's anything like Iphigenia...'

She looked up as the Doctor came into the airlock. 'Well, you guys are the experts.'

There was a brief tussle as Roz and Iaomnet checked each other's gear, and the Doctor struggled into the old-fas.h.i.+oned s.p.a.cesuit he'd worn on Iphigenia.

They'd followed him on to the surface, Sekeris's voice nervously drifting after them as they headed over the snow and grit.

Now they were standing at the edge of the crater, looking down into it. She had been right no meteor or asteroid had struck the dirty s...o...b..ll to make this mark. This wasn't random.

Something had smashed its way inside.

Iaomnet said, 'Have you ever seen a bear smash its way into a beehive? In a sim, I mean?'

The rock had been gouged out, and then the metallic surface underneath had been gouged out. Imagine an office block the size of a small city, with all the roofs torn off. The edges of the metal s.h.i.+mmered, reminding Roz of fractal displays.

Here and there Roz could see vast tunnels, vanis.h.i.+ng into the heart of the comet. Comet. This wasn't a comet.

But she'd deal with that when the switch turned itself off again.

'How old old is this?' Iaomnet breathed. is this?' Iaomnet breathed.

'Ten million years,' said the Doctor. He scrambled over the lip of the rock and started heading towards the nearest tunnel.

Iaomnet said, 'We can't go in there. It's like Iphigenia, it's '

'Don't say it,' said Roz sharply.

'Come along,' said the Doctor.

They walked for an hour. Roz kept watching the sky, wondering when the Carrier would become visible, trying to keep her eyes off the structure.

Iaomnet seemed oddly comfortable with it. 'It was meant to store something,' she said. 'Or carry something. Something big was meant to move around in these tunnels.'

They had almost reached the edge of the great tunnel. Roz tried to estimate its size, but the scale was confusing, improbable.

Perhaps a kilometre across. She thought of missiles, or alien 114 carrier s.h.i.+ps, exploding out of their camouflaged home to devastate astonished empires.

They were standing deep inside the 'crater', surrounded by empty rooms. Roz wondered if they were looking at them from on top, beneath or sideways. It depended on how whoever built this thing generated their gravity, she supposed. She had a bizarre vision of office furniture floating out through the missing walls.

The rooms had white walls or floors, startlingly naked, as though rejecting the snow and filth. Or polished to that perfect white smoothness by millions of years of cosmic dust? Why was there anything left at all?

The Doctor walked up to a human-sized rectangular shape near the edge of the tunnel. To her total lack of surprise, he took out a screwdriver from a suit pocket and started to muck about with some bit of machinery or electronics or whatever it was that had once made this colossal thing tick.

'What are you looking for?' Iaomnet was almost giggling. 'The self-destruct b.u.t.ton?'

'The power relay,' said the Doctor. 'Which I've found. It shut down to conserve energy after ten thousand years of disuse. I'm trying to convince it we're here.'

'It? It what?'

'Ah! There!'

With a rumble they could feel through their boots, the door slid open. Roz realized she was looking at an alien lift.

'You're joking,' she said.

'Trust me,' he said. 'According to the relay, the power systems are quite intact. Much of the structure will have been in protective stasis. In we go.'

Iaomnet pulled back. 'What if it shuts off partway down, or something?'

The Doctor didn't look at her, climbing into the lift. It was big enough to hold a small crowd. Or a single, huge creature? 'There isn't time to think about it,' he said. 'You should stay here if you're not sure you want to come.'

Iaomnet got into the lift with him. Her frightened breathing was loud in Roz's ears. She followed them in.

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