Part 1 (1/2)

DOCTOR WHO.

AND THE ARK IN s.p.a.cE.

By IAN MARTER.

Prologue

The Intruder.

Out among the remotest planets, in faithful orbit through the Solar System, the great Satellite revolved slowly in the glimmer of a billion distant suns, reflecting their faint light from its cold and silent surfaces. All within remained utterly quiet and still, but primed and ready: ready for the eventual moment of awakening. Deep in its innermost structure an atomic clock oscillated, waiting for the moment when it would cause a tiny electric current to flow, activating circuits which branched throughout the vast Satellite, bringing it to life once more out in the wilderness of s.p.a.ce.Patiently it waited. Then suddenly, after many centuries, something stirred within it: something alien, that was not part of its intricate programming. Panels began to slide smoothly open. Faintest shadows ran over the gleaming walls. The deserted tunnels and chambers, forming the 'rim', the 'spokes' and the 'hub' of the enormous wheel, which was the Satellite, began to echo with rustles, hoa.r.s.e squeaks and whistlings. Cautiously feeling its way into one of the spherical control chambers-positioned like gigantic pods along the 'spoke' sections-there crawled an intruder. It dragged its ma.s.sive leathery body along on angular tentacle-legs, which bristled with sharp hairs and scratched shrilly against the metallic walls. Swinging its domed head slowly from side to side, it pierced the half-light with giant, globular eyes. At the end of its long, scorpion tail there glinted a menacing claw which clattered in the creature's wake.As soon as it entered the control chamber, the alien intruder eagerly scanned the ma.s.s of inert instruments which covered the walls, like exhibits in an abandoned museum. From the domed ceiling there descended a s.h.i.+ning metallic sphere. For an instant the creature was reflected in its mirror-like surface; information was flashed to a central computer bank, a.n.a.lysed, and a command relayed back to the sphere. It glowed brilliantly for a second. The startled intruder stared defiantly upwards, and at the same instant a fierce burst of energy sent it clattering against a control console, its tentacles contracting in agony.For a few seconds all was still. Then the creature moved. Again the sphere glowed, and with a sharp crack hurled it back across the chamber in a blazing electrical discharge. The creature cowered, uttering hoa.r.s.e screams as a stream of brutal shock-waves pulsed from the sphere, blistering its body with burns. Staring at the cl.u.s.ters of delicate instruments, its huge eyes useless in the fierce light, the creature began to flail at the wall panels as if searching desperately for something. All at once, a section of the panelling slid open. Fighting the searing bursts of radiation from the sphere, the creature dragged itself through the opening into a second, similar chamber. Out of range of the sphere, but now blinded and almost paralysed, the intruder fumbled among the control consoles lining the chamber until it somehow located the section it sought.With frantic, crippled, movements it ripped open the instrument panel and pulled out a thick bundle of multi-coloured cables. Then, arching its segmented tail up over its head, it gripped the cables in its huge claw and severed them cleanly with a single slice. At that moment, all through the electronic nerve centres of the Satellite, certain vital systems were closed down.With an unearthly sigh of satisfaction the creature turned away, and in complete darkness now, crawled back through the first chamber and out into the labyrinth of tunnels and chambers. Its mission was almost completed; one final task remained. Slowly and painfully, but with deadly purpose, it made its way towards the sleeping humans. The brittle, splintering sound of its movements died away as panel after panel glided shut behind it. The sphere hung inert in the darkness.When at last the atomic clock signalled the beginning of the great Awakening, no current flowed. The circuits remained dead, the systems did not activate. The Satellite continued its eternal orbit, the Solar Energy Reservoirs absorbing and storing energy from the sun-though no longer for any purpose.Then there came a second invasion...

1

The Second Invasion

'Clumsy, ham-fisted idiot,' cried the Doctor, striding out of the TARDIS into pitch darkness.'I'm terribly sorry, Doctor. I was only trying to... trying to open the door...' stammered Harry Sullivan, just catching the door as it swung back in his face.'Come out of there at once, and don't touch anything else,' called the Doctor, pausing for a moment in the light streaming through the door of the TARDIS and staring about him.The Doctor was a tall, broad man with a riot of curly brown hair bubbling out from beneath a stylish felt hat. His generous face was animated with intense curiosity as his enormous eyes peered into the semi-darkness. His hands were thrust deep into the bulging pockets of a voluminous red velvet jacket, and the trailing ends of a long multi-coloured woollen scarf flapped around his legs as he moved cautiously away from the TARDIS.Surgeon Lieutenant Harry Sullivan RN stood uncertainly in the doorway, fiddling nervously with his cravat. He was an athletic young man in his late twenties, with a straight back and a square jaw. He wore a rowing club blazer and sharply pressed slacks.'Oh I say,' he exclaimed, 'we've gone.''Who's gone; Harry?' asked a bright, laughing voice behind him.He turned to face the mischievous smile of Sarah Jane Smith, who was watching his confusion with evident delight. Sarah was a slim, level-headed journalist, about the same age as Harry, her trim figure clad in a trendy denim trouser-suit, her short dark hair tucked into a saucy woollen hat.'Well, I mean this isn't... we aren't where we were when we...' began Harry, venturing a step or two into the gloom. A few minutes earlier, when he had entered the old, battered blue Police Telephone Box, at the Doctor's invitation to have a quick look round, it had been standing in a corner of the Laboratory at UNIT Headquarters, in broad daylight. 'I think I've gone mad,' he muttered at last.Sarah Jane touched his arm sympathetically. 'I know what you mean,' she said. 'That's exactly how I felt after my first trip. You'll find it takes quite a bit of getting used to.'The door of the TARDIS swung slowly shut behind them. In the pitch darkness they could hear the Doctor moving stealthily about..'Where are we, Doctor?' called Sarah casually. A powerful torch beam snapped on and swept round.'Do you know, Sarah, I have no idea,' replied the Doctor after a pause. Sarah knew precisely what that little pause meant She felt her way cautiously over to the Doctor's side. The roving torchlight revealed a large spherical chamber, its walls entirely covered in instruments, with several flat control consoles, like circular tables, grouped around it.'Just a little trip to the Caucasus, or perhaps once round the Moon'-Sarah imitated the Doctor in one of his off-hand moods-'just to prove to Harry that the old Police Box really could travel in...''I didn't expect him to start fiddling with the Helmic Orientators, Sarah,' interrupted the Doctor sharply. He broke off as the chamber was dimly illuminated again. Harry had opened the door of the TARDIS and was staring into it open-mouthed.'It's bigger than a Cathedral... on the inside...' he gasped in amazement. The Doctor strode over and locked the door. Still in a state of shock, Harry mumbled away in the darkness, 'You know you could make a fortune out of this thing, Doctor...' But the Doctor was already pacing about the chamber, sweeping the torch beam over the curved reflecting walls and closely examining the dense cl.u.s.ters of instruments.Grotesque shadows flapped around them. Sarah s.h.i.+vered. It was bitterly cold, and the air suddenly seemed terribly thin. It was quite an effort to breathe. Something loomed up against her. She jumped. It was Harry.'Sorry, Miss Smith,' he mumbled, loosening his cravat, 'but I'm a bit disorientated...''Not much oxygen,' remarked the Doctor from the shadows. 'Still,' he added cheerfully, 'nothing to worry about.'Sarah turned to Harry. 'So suffocation is nothing to worry about,' she whispered sarcastically.'Oh, we can survive for quite a time yet,' boomed the Doctor, suddenly right beside them. He was concentrating on spinning a yoyo effortlessly up and down its string in the torchlight.Harry decided it was time to speak up. 'Well, I've got quite a few patients to see at four o'clock,;' he tried to affect a casual air, 'so if you don't mind, Doctor, I'd like to be getting...''A simple gravity reading, Harry,' grinned the Doctor, putting away the yoyo. 'It would appear that we are inside some kind of artificial satellite. Now isn't that fascinating fascinating .' .''Doctor, it's dark, it's cold and it's getting very airless,' Sarah protested loudly. But the Doctor had left them again, and was busily examining a section of wall panelling away on the far side of the chamber. He seemed quite oblivious of their discomfort.Suddenly they were bathed in a harsh, unwelcoming white light.'There we are,' cried the Doctor, turning. away from the control panel and surveying the scene with childlike delight, taking in every detail of their surroundings. He seized the ends of his long scarf and spun them like propellers. 'Fascinating,' he murmured, 'fascinating.' In his resonant voice,. excitement, understanding and wonder were mingled as he crept respectfully round the chamber. For a moment, his companions' discomfort gave way to amazement.'What's it all for?' gasped Harry. He s.h.i.+elded his eyes from the glare and peered at the coded switches, dials, lights and b.u.t.tons covering the circular wall. Despite his anxiety to return to UNIT Headquarters where he was Chief Medical Officer, he yielded to an unfortunate curiosity that had already got him into trouble in the TARDIS. He tinkered with one or two micro-switches on a nearby console.At the same moment, an invisible panel in the wall slid open directly in front of Sarah.'Doctor,' she cried, 'look at this.' But the Doctor was deeply engrossed in examining the bright metallic sphere which was suspended from the centre of the domed ceiling.'Of terrestrial design certainly,' he muttered, 'but I can't quite place the period.''Well, none of it seems to be working now,' gasped Harry, leaning weakly against the control console in an effort to ease the increasing pain in his chest.Sarah looked round at her two heedless companions. She knew that once the Doctor became involved in something, it was quite impossible to distract him. Besides, she had a habit of striking out on her own in search of a good front-page story. She shrugged at their indifference, and suddenly oblivious of how difficult it was becoming to breathe, stepped lightly through the opening in front of her.She found herself in a similar, slightly smaller chamber, which was dominated by a low, couch-like construction supported on a single slender pillar in the centre of the floor. She recognised the stream-lined cabinets and tape-reels of computer memory banks set into the walls. The upper part of the circular wall was patterned with blank video screens and systems display panels. Sarah leaned against the couch, her head spinning and her heart pounding. Her eyes tried to focus on a section of instrument panelling that had been ripped open, spilling out a cl.u.s.ter of cable ends. She suddenly found herself fighting for breath. The voices of the Doctor and Harry in the other chamber gradually receded into the distance...'... and judging by that modified version of the Bennet Oscillator,' the Doctor was saying, 'I would estimate that all this was put together in the Thirtieth Century.''Oh no,' gasped Harry. 'The Thirtieth what what ?' ?''You don't agree?' Sarah heard the Doctor inquire indignantly. Harry muttered something incoherently. Then the Doctor's voice boomed confidently, 'Oh yes, the late Twenty-ninth or early Thirtieth I feel sure. For example, Harry, just look at this...'Sarah suddenly heard the panel glide shut behind her. She whirled round. There was no trace of it; she was confronted with a wall of blank instruments. Sarah stumbled over, her heart. thumping like a steam engine, and searched for the edges of the panel.'There must be a manual control,' she panted. She gulped for air, scarcely able to fill her lungs. In sudden panic, she pounded and kicked the panelling. 'Doctor... please... I can't breathe... there's no air in here.' She felt herself gripped, as if in a huge vice. Her ears were ringing and her limbs were numbed. Desperately she clawed at the wall. 'Doctor... Harry... please help me... pl...' Sarah sank to the cold floor.Harry was leaning against a corner of the TARDIS; despite the cold he was beginning to sweat with the effort of breathing. 'Look, Doctor... I'm a straightforward sort of chap,' he gasped, 'are you telling me that we're now in the middle of the Thirtieth Century?'The Doctor seemed totally unaffected by the coldness and the lack of oxygen. 'Gracious me, no, Harry,' he replied. 'Well beyond that.''But... where... Where Where are we?' pleaded Harry, not sure whether he was dreaming or going insane. The Doctor was kneeling down and listening intently to the floor through an ancient bra.s.s ear trumpet. are we?' pleaded Harry, not sure whether he was dreaming or going insane. The Doctor was kneeling down and listening intently to the floor through an ancient bra.s.s ear trumpet.'Difficult to say,' he murmured, sitting back on his heels and taking a large bag of jelly-babies from his pocket. 'All this is obviously quite old,' the Doctor popped a sweet into his mouth, 'several thousand years at least.' He chewed away thoughtfully.Suddenly he leaped to his feet. 'Where's Sarah?' he demanded, advancing on Harry who stared back at him, dumbfounded.'Perhaps she went back into the TARDIS,' said Harry.'Impossible,' snapped the Doctor. 'I have the key.' He strode about the chamber, peering closely at the walls through a huge magnifying gla.s.s. 'I have told her time and time again about wandering off by herself,' he said grimly.'Well... there... there must be a door... somewhere,' panted Harry, his head whirling.The Doctor stopped in his tracks and fixed him with a piercing stare.'Not necessarily.'Harry glanced longingly at the TARDIS; strange and incomprehensible though it was, it suddenly seemed very familiar and safe.'You haven't touched touched anything again, have you, Harry?' the Doctor demanded accusingly. anything again, have you, Harry?' the Doctor demanded accusingly.Harry quailed. He was feeling decidedly unwell in the airless conditions. 'No I... well, yes I... I think I did just press something...''Show me,' commanded the Doctor.'... but absolutely nothing happened,' protested Harry. He could barely stand upright now.'Show me exactly what you did, Harry,' coaxed the Doctor gently.Harry tottered over to the control console and stared down at the maze of instruments. Switches, dials and b.u.t.tons danced about before his eyes in the unrelenting white glare. He struggled to remember. The Doctor's voice seemed to reach him from the other end of a long long corridor full of slamming doors.'Just try to remember, Harry.' Harry's hand wavered uncertainly; in desperation he pressed a switch.Immediately, the panel slid open. Sarah lay just inside the smaller chamber in a crumpled heap. At once Harry recognised the bluish pallor around her lips. 'She's cyanosed,' he whispered. 'There's even less air in there. We must get her out.'As they bent down to lift Sarah, the panel glided shut automatically, trapping them all together. The Doctor searched feverishly for the panel control circuitry. Harry, now almost completely overcome, sank down against the wall and feebly tried to prop Sarah into a sitting position.'All my... m... my fault... sorry...' panted Harry.The Doctor had discovered the damaged panelling and the cl.u.s.ter of cable ends. He set to work with magnifier and sonic screwdriver. 'No, no, Harry, I got us into this,' he muttered, deftly sorting through the broken connections.His movements grew rapidly heavier and clumsier as the lack of oxygen finally began to take effect. 'This... this is quite extraordinary, Harry,' he panted. 'Gyroscopic Field Governor Circuit... Temperature Stabiliser... Ah... Oxygen Valves Servo Backup Circuits...' Several times the Doctor dropped the sonic screwdriver and the magnifying gla.s.s. Once or twice he glanced anxiously at Sarah and Harry. They were both unconscious. Sweat ran into his eyes. His two hearts laboured. His hands felt like rubber. He forced his mind to concentrate on the delicate operation of sonic-soldering the tiny, complex connections. He kept thinking of the faithful TARDIS waiting on the other side of the vacuum panel, ready to take them all to safety-or to anywhere...At last, after what seemed an eternity, valves opened with a precise clicking. There was a gentle hiss of oxygen all round the chamber. Soon Harry's eyes opened. He struggled into a sitting position.'Only just in time, Harry,' whispered the Doctor hoa.r.s.ely from across the chamber. 'Are you feeling better?''Convalescent,' replied Harry, managing a grin. 'All I need now is a couple of weeks in Blackpool.'They laid the unconscious Sarah gently on the couch construction, and Harry tried to revive her while the Doctor set about repairing the remaining circuits.'There's a mystery here, Harry,' he muttered, 'Something quite extraordinary; these cables have been bitten through.''Bitten,' echoed Harry, all but letting Sarah tumble to the floor.'Yes,' the Doctor continued quietly, 'and whatever was responsible clearly possessed a reasoning intelligence.''And very large teeth,' added Harry wryly. Sarah's eyelids flickered and then opened. 'Sarah's coming round,' he said, smiling with relief.At that moment the panel leading to the other chamber slid smoothly aside. The Doctor strode triumphantly through. 'Splendid,' he said. 'All systems go, wouldn't you say?'Harry checked Sarah's wavering pulse. 'Now take it easy, old girl,' he said gently, as she caught at his sleeve in a momentary spasm of fear. 'You'll be right as ninepence in a few...' The words froze on his lips as, from the other chamber, there came a deafening crack. Harry ran across to the panel opening. The Doctor was nowhere to be seen. Something bright caught his eye. Glancing upwards he saw his own distorted reflection in the polished sphere suspended from the ceiling. Before he could step forward he was seized by one ankle and dragged to the floor. As he fell, something struck his other foot with the force of a cannonball, tearing off his shoe. He lay quite still, half under one of the control consoles. The acrid smell of burnt rubber filled the chamber. For a moment he dared not open his eyes; one foot was completely numbed, and the other was still held in an iron grip. He tried to twist himself round and sit upright. His head was at once thrust roughly back to the floor.'Keep down, Harry,' hissed the Doctor in his ear.Sarah lay limp on the couch. She felt as if she had floated to the surface from the bottom of a deep pool. There, in the fresh air, had been Harry's welcoming smile, but all at once he had disappeared again and she was alone. She heard the fierce cracking sounds and Harry's scream of terror. She struggled to get up, but found herself forced down on to the couch by invisible hands. Everything about her began to wobble and tiny electric shocks rippled suddenly through her entire body. She tried to call out, but no sound would come. Very slowly, and very gently, she was being pulled apart...Outside, in the Main Control Chamber, Harry and the Doctor crouched silently in the confined s.p.a.ce beneath the instrument console.'What happened?' croaked Harry at last, his throat parched with fear.'Just don't move,' whispered the Doctor. He had balanced his hat on the end of the telescopic probe he always carried, and was stealthily inching it up into the air above the edge of the console. At once came the shattering whipcrack from above them; the hat flew into the shadows beside the TARDIS and lay smouldering. The Doctor stared at it in anguish. 'I'm afraid we're trapped again, Harry,' he sighed.'But what is is it?' gasped Harry. it?' gasped Harry.'That,' said the Doctor, casting his eyes upward, 'is an OMDSS.''A what?''An Organic Matter Detector Surveillance System,' answered the Doctor patiently.'A sort of electronic sentry,' suggested Harry, suddenly catching sight of the shoe that had been blown off his numb foot; it lay curled up like a charred kipper. He shuddered.'Precisely,' said the Doctor. 'I must confess I was not expecting this-my repairs next door were a little too thorough.'At that moment Harry's mind cleared. He craned his head to look into the adjacent chamber where they had just left Sarah, but he could not see the couch construction.'Sarah... keep away from the door,' he called. There was no reply. 'Sarah... can you hear me... Sarah?' But the only sound from the other chamber was a faint humming. Harry glanced worriedly at the Doctor, but he was totally absorbed in jiggling the metal probe about in the air. Nothing happened.'Just as I thought,' he muttered, 'the system only reacts to organic matter in motion.''Well that hardly helps us,' said Harry. 'We're organic.''Not under here we're not,' grinned the Doctor mischievously; his voice booming in the confined s.p.a.ce. Harry watched blankly as the Doctor adjusted the sonic screwdriver and directed it at the joint between the console support-strut and the floor. The beam of ultra-high and ultra-low frequency waves soon unsealed the sonic welds...'... A little to the right... forward... steady now. One slip, Harry, and we'll be charcoal.'On hands and knees, sheltered by the heavy console which they carried like a giant umbrella, the Doctor and Harry inched their way across to the opposite side of the chamber. The silence from the other chamber was ominous: what if Sarah had blacked out again? Or worse, what if she suddenly came stumbling through the opening, unaware of the glittering electronic 'watchdog' in the domed ceiling?Gradually they progressed round the chamber, the console swaying precariously in their combined grip. Even when they paused for a moment's rest, they had to support the top-heavy 'parasol' by its single centre leg. Raw-kneed and breathless with effort, Harry decided that if this really was the Thirtieth Century, then it was an awfully long way to go just to play the fool.At last, the Doctor called a halt. 'There it is, but it's well beyond reach,' he said, craning upward. Harry was beginning to resent always being several moves behind.' What What is?' he asked, exasperated. is?' he asked, exasperated.'The Surveillance System Cutout, of course,' replied the Doctor, deftly fas.h.i.+oning his scarf into a la.s.so. He flung the loop up at the switches. There was the now familiar flash and crack, and the scarf fluttered down in two blazing pieces.'Bad luck. Good try though,' whispered Harry admiringly.'This is not a game of cricket,' snapped the Doctor.'Sorry,' whispered Harry, chastened. 'Mind you, if I had a ball I could jolly soon reach that switch.' The Doctor silently produced a worn cricket ball from one of his many pockets. Swallowing his amazement, Harry took it. He polished it on his lapel. His moment had come at last.The ball, with a good off-spin to it, had scarcely left his hand than it exploded into a shower of carbon fragments. 'Organic, of course,' he muttered, crest-fallen.The Doctor leaned forward, slipped off Harry's remaining shoe, and handed it to him. 'You don't need this any more, do you, Harry?' he said significantly. Harry was becoming more and more convinced that he was in the company of a madman, with no hope of rescuing Sarah or of ever getting back to reality. He opened his mouth to speak. 'No. Good,' interrupted the Doctor. 'Now listen carefully,' and he quickly outlined a simple plan...... A few moments later, at a prearranged signal from the Doctor, Harry flung his shoe high over the console under which they were still hiding. At the same instant, the Doctor leapt up at the switch; there was a rapid series of cracks, a smell of burning rubber, and then silence.After a long pause, the Doctor's head appeared slowly over the top of the control desk, followed, after another long pause, by Harry's. Cautiously they both stood up. 'That foxed you,' said the Doctor pulling a face at himself in the mirror surface of the OMDSS. He wandered over to retrieve the remains of his hat and his scarf, calling brightly, 'It's all right now, Sarah, you can come out.'Harry picked up his two melted shoes. 'The Brigadier will never believe a word of this,' he thought.Suddenly the Doctor's voice sounded urgently from the other chamber. 'Sarah... Sarah, where are you... ?'With a shoe in each hand, Harry padded over to the opening. The Doctor was standing alone beside the couch. All around, the chamber lights were beginning to flash on the instrument panels, and a mult.i.tude of quiet humming sounds enveloped them. The chamber seemed almost to be coming alive. The Doctor turned to Harry, his face filled with anxiety.'Sarah's not here,' he said.

2

Sarah Vanishes

Sarah tried to scream, but the only sound she heard was a distant murmuring which grew gradually louder and more distinct. It was repeating over and over again a hypnotic refrain. 'Welcome, Sister, welcome to Terra Nova... Welcome, Sister, welcome to Terra Nova...'Finding herself suddenly free of the invisible hands that had seemed to tear at her body, Sarah struggled feebly to sit up. At once the mysterious voice spoke firmly but gently. 'No, Sister, do not move. Do not attempt to leave the Tranquiller. Remain in contact with the Biocryonic vibrations.' Too weak to disobey, Sarah lay back and stared listlessly about her. She was too exhausted even to be afraid.All she could remember was a terrifying sense of suffocation, then a brief moment of relief with the Doctor and Harry bending over her, followed by the sounds of a violent struggle and Harry's cry of distress, and finally the sensation of being slowly dismembered. The couch on which she was lying seemed familiar, but she did not remember it being encased in the translucent, gla.s.s-like canopy which now confined her. As she stared at it, the surface of the curved s.h.i.+eld appeared to be in constant motion, just like the surface of a soap bubble. The harder she stared, so the patterns changed until they began to resemble huge, eerie shadows cast by something moving about on the other side of the gla.s.s.The soothing voice began again, scarcely audible, and for a moment Sarah imagined that she could hear the Doctor and Harry talking, and that it was their shadows playing over the canopy. She tried to call out to them, but still she could make no sound. Panic-stricken, she attempted to hammer on the gla.s.s to attract attention, but found she could not raise her arms from the couch. She was trapped.As before, the strange voice grew more distinct. It had a slightly mechanical tone, and echoed around her as if she were inside a vast cathedral. 'Sister, the princ.i.p.al phase of your Biocryogenic Processing is about to commence...'... Cryogenic... cryogenic... the word reverberated in Sarah's mind. She tried to remember; what was it? Something to do with freezing... yes, freezing... the theory of tissue preservation for long periods of time... from the Greek word for frost... She fought hard to keep hold of her train of thought, but the trance-like voice went inexorably on-'... If you have any message that you wish to be conveyed to the members of your Community, you may record it at the end of this announcement. Please preface your message with your Personal and your Community Identification Codes...'During the pause which followed, the s.p.a.ce around Sarah began to fill with a white vapour that chilled her body. As it grew thicker and thicker, she felt her skin tightening and growing numb. The more she gasped with the coldness, the more the freezing vapour pierced her lungs. As it filled the capsule in which she was trapped, it seemed to solidify into a gelatinous ma.s.s; Sarah lay like a fish imprisoned in ice. She felt her blood running literally cold, her veins and arteries contracted around the chilling fluid as it coursed through her. She felt her heartbeat slowing and labouring. Her body appeared to merge into the cold jelly surrounding her. Shattering ripples burst through her as the substance began to vibrate at an ever increasing frequency. Within a few minutes, Sarah had lost all sense of her physical reality. She was aware only of her failing consciousness, and of the sound of a new voice, the quiet, authoritative voice of an elderly woman.'Greetings, Sister Volunteer. On behalf of the World Executive, I, the High Minister, salute you who are about to make the supreme sacrifice. In a moment you will pa.s.s beyond life. Lest there should remain any doubt in your mind or fear in your heart, remember; you take with you not only your own, but all our pasts. We, who remain to perish here, will live again in you. You are our only future... our only hope...' The voice finally faded into silence, and with it, Sarah lost consciousness. After a while, the white substance thinned and finally vapourised and disappeared. When it cleared, the couch was empty.'Harry, I am an idiot.' The Doctor and Harry were bending anxiously over the couch on which, five minutes earlier, they had placed the semi-conscious Sarah. While they had been fighting their duel with the OMDSS in the other chamber, Sarah had apparently disappeared into thin air. Having satisfied himself that there were no more concealed panels through which she could have gone, the Doctor had removed a part of the upholstered section of the couch, and exposed a honeycomb of small cells, each about the size and shape of the reflector in a bicycle lamp. The cells were interconnected with fine coppery wiring embedded in a perspex frame.Harry was relieved that, just for once, he was not to blame for what had happened.'Fortunately it's only an internal relay,' said the Doctor, glancing up at one of the instrument displays set into the circular wall.'A what?' Harry looked from the couch to the instrument panel and back to the Doctor.'A short-range Matter Transmitter,' snapped the Doctor, striding back into the main chamber. Harry padded after him, still clutching the remains of his shoes.'What on earth does that that mean?' mean?''It means,' called the Doctor, stepping through another panel in the main chamber which opened automatically as he approached it, 'that Sarah can't be very far away. Do come along, Harry.'Slithering on the smooth metal flooring, Harry followed. As he entered the long tunnel-like pa.s.sage leading from the chamber, he was amazed to see that the Doctor had already reached the other end and was waiting impatiently for him. All at once, Harry's feet were swept from under him, and he found himself sitting on a moving track running down the centre of the tunnel. It carried him smoothly with a faint hum to the far end. Just as he scrambled to his feet, convinced that he was about to crash headlong into the bulkhead at the end of the tunnel, the track slowed and stopped. Harry had no time to express his astonishment; the Doctor was already disappearing through a panel he had opened in the bulkhead wall.They found themselves at a 'T' junction, where the tunnel joined at right angles with a s.p.a.cious gallery which curved away out of sight in both directions. The Doctor motioned Harry to stay where he was, then advanced cautiously into the middle of the intersection. All the surfaces of the gallery were made of the same highly reflective metal, and a harsh white light flooded everywhere from a concealed source. Along the outer wall of the gallery, at intervals of a few metres, were set large ovoid window panels of tinted gla.s.s, through which a brilliantly clear night sky blazed. It was clearer than Harry had ever seen it before.'I say,' he breathed. 'It's beautiful...' The words faded from his lips as he realised with a start that the billions of stars were moving slowly but unmistakably across the panels. He felt momentarily unsteady, as if a s.h.i.+p's deck were heaving beneath his feet. 'We're... we're moving moving ,' he said, his eyes wide. ,' he said, his eyes wide.'This is no time for star-gazing, Harry,' called the Doctor, setting off briskly to the left. When Harry finally tore his eyes away from the splendid panorama through the observation panels, the Doctor had already disappeared round the curve.'This must be the size of a running track,' panted Harry, as he hurried to catch up.'Naturally.' The Doctor grinned over his shoulder. 'We are now in the Cincture Structure.''The what?' Harry skidded in his stockinged feet.'The outer wheel,' called the Doctor. 'We appear to be inside an old Centrifugal Gravity Satellite, shaped rather like a doughnut with an eclair stuck through the middle and connected to it by several chocolate fingers.'Harry rather resented the Doctor's oversimplified explanation. 'I suppose we are now walking round inside a doughnut,' he remarked. But his sarcasm was lost on the Doctor.'Exactly,' he said. 'Of course it has been converted to a more sophisticated Electrostatic Field Gravity System, but it still revolves on its axis because there's simply nothing to stop it.'They were approaching another bulkhead. In the centre of its sealed panel there was a stencilled notice in green and maroon striped computer lettering: FIRST.

TECHNOP TECHNOP.