Part 4 (1/2)

'Told you it pays to be polite.' Shower over, Cheryl opened her locker and began to dress in her indoor clothes. Pulling on the smoothly*flowing material and fastening the ornate webbing, she added, 'You know, there's something odd '

'About the starsuit?' Sam's eyes narrowed as he watched suit number seventeen retract into the wall.

'Yeah,' she mused thoughtfully. 'What did it say? ”No longer programmed...” I thought all these suits were fitted with personality matrices capable of acting upon colloquial language instructions.'

Sam took Cheryl's place in the shower. 'So did I,' he said.

Cheryl continued, 'Voice command: starsuit seventeen. Detail: self*diagnostic check. Detail: run all*systems comparison algorithm. Parameter limits: from suit activation date to current date, inclusive. Purpose: collate information and report incidence of last programming update.'

The starsuit replied: 'Command acknowledged. Program running... Program complete. No parameter update recorded.'

'So we were wrong.'

Sam poked his head out of the shower. 'Unless whatever has affected the instructions*input subroutine has also affected the self*diagnostics and other systems, in which case '

'In which case we've got a big problem.'

Sam and Cheryl exchanged alarmed glances. Cheryl had definitely not understated the case. A software bug in an environment as hostile as Belial could mean severe danger for everyone on the base. The neural net controlled every aspect of their environment. It kept them all alive. If it crashed... Well, to say the s.h.i.+t would hit the fan would be a prize*winning understatement.

'Sam. Have you got time to get the suit unhooked before your s.h.i.+ft on Moloch? I think I'd better report this to Piper straight away.'

'Sure. According to Tiw the Lift isn't due in for another half hour.' Sam left the shower and began talking to the wall as Cheryl left the antechamber. 'Voice command: starsuit seventeen. Unlink and prepare for excursion.'

The wall remained blank and smooth. There was no reply from the a.s.sociated software.

Sam swore softly to himself. The starsuits, like everything of a mechanical nature on the base, were extremely expensive and impossible to replace from Earth. Something as fundamental as a suitbrain couldn't be whipped up from old bits of cardboard and tofu. Sam had more than a vague idea of who'd be for the high jump if this suit were found to be inoperable and the cause pinned on negligence in the Technical Section. He'd probably find himself floating home on the next pigeon*post message pod. Minus starsuit.

As Sam was trying to decide what to do next, he saw a tall shadow sweep across the wall in front of him.

'Hi Cheryl. Jealous of the machinery, huh? Bet you just couldn't bear to leave me alone down here, could you?'

There was no reply, just the faint whisper of the recycling vents and the buzz of the ultrasound. The shadow stood poised behind him, unmoving.

Sam turned, a devastating line poised for delivery. The joke never came. Instead his eyes bulged in shock and a yell of alarm was trapped in his throat.

He tried to run or yell out, but found he could no longer move.

In the complete and utter silence only achieved by very large, complex items of machinery, the shadow approached.

Only then, far too late to do himself any good, did Sam find the strength to scream.

But not for long.

Chapter Four.

The man in the business suit stepped carefully across the dismembered body of a soldier and looked up dispa.s.sionately.

Behind him, the mist crawled across the churned ground like some huge, sluggish animal. Multi*legged scavengers, no bigger than a clenched fist, skittered along the tread*marks of heavy battle vehicles and into the craters left by sub*orbital laser bursts and tactical Z-bombs. The pale light of sunrise spilled over twisted bodies and broken weapons. In the violet sky, a wide swathe of debris, all that remained of the planet's moon, refracted the sunrise back in splintered rainbows. The heavier fragments were already beginning to re*enter the atmosphere in long shallow arcs of flame. The ground still shook violently in the grip of vast tectonic convulsions, but the man in the business suit did not flinch.

'No race or alliance has yet claimed responsibility for the ma.s.sacre, which has left a billion settlers dead. Sifranos is the fifth planet to be devastated in the Arcturus sector since the beginning of the year. As usual, no clue remains to the ident.i.ty of the attackers.'

A muted thudding seemed to swell behind his words like a slow heartbeat. As the sound grew louder the mist drew back, revealing more devastation, more death.

'Rumours that an unidentified alien fleet is ma.s.sing around Epsilon Eridani are strongly denied by the President. ”We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” she said, during a speech at the Earth Central Complex in Damascus today. Meanwhile, the Earth Alliance of Corporations rejected a call for the planet to be put on a war footing. ”War is bad for business,” said their Chairperson, Madrigal LaFayette. ”And what's bad for business is bad for Earth.”'

Behind the man the mist had retreated to form a circle, pushed back by some invisible force. A scarred metal object began to descend into the clearing. The red crescent on its side stood out like spilled blood.

'Meanwhile, on Sifranos, the long task of burying the dead has only just begun.' The landscape behind the man faded, leaving him standing in a pastel*coloured room. 'That simularity was prepared earlier today from recordings supplied by the Interstellar Red Crescent,' he continued in the same level tones. 'And now a report on the opening of the Earth Emba.s.sy on Alpha Centauri Five '

'News off,' Piper said as she walked over to the table where the Doctor and his friends were conversing quietly. The simularity in the centre of the refectory flickered and died. n.o.body else in the crowded refectory seemed to notice; after all, they had seen it four or five times already. Piper thanked G.o.d that Federique Moshe*Rabaan wasn't around. She would have had a field day going on about energy being expended for no reason, even if the news and entertainment crystals sent out on the monthly robot supply*s.h.i.+ps from Earth were the only link most of the crew had with home.

'You weren't watching, were you?' she asked as she sat down. Ace pointedly looked out of the window. Bernice was observing something on the far side of the refectory with cat*like intensity, and only the Doctor seemed to hear her words.

'History is always interesting,' he said with a soft burr in his voice. 'But never as interesting as good conversation.'

'History?' Piper couldn't help asking.

'Everything is history,' the Doctor replied, his eyes twinkling, 'if you look at it from the right perspective.'

'Excuse me,' Bernice said. 'I think I see a friend in need.' She uncoiled from her seat and walked off. Piper tried to make out who she was heading for, but all she could see was Christine LaFayette making rapidly for the door.

'From any perspective it's nothing but bad news,' Piper said, dragging her attention back to the Doctor. 'It's almost enough to make you want to stay here on Belial.'

'And do you?' the Doctor asked.

Piper looked at him. He was sitting bolt upright, arms folded and resting on his new umbrella, looking for all the world as if her answer was the most important thing in his life. With dawning amazement, she realized that he wasn't part of the Belial Base complement, and even as she did so she knew that it wasn't the first time she had remembered that. She tried to recall how he came to be there, but the memories were soft and fuzzy, and her mind didn't want to focus upon them. She couldn't seem to look away from his eyes. It was as if he and his friends had always been there. Had always always been there. been there.

Ace suddenly stood up. 'Got to go,' she said tautly. The Doctor looked away from Piper and watched Ace sadly as she walked towards the door.

Piper shook her head and frowned. She had been thinking about something, but she couldn't for the life of her remember what. She looked over at the Doctor, but he was still watching Ace as she picked her way between tables and barged past the people coming in. Had he asked her a question? Yes... About Earth, and whether she ever wanted to go back. She gazed around the refectory as she considered her answer. Most of the tables were full now, and the sounds of argument, conversation and clinking cutlery filled the air: B and C s.h.i.+fts, just knocked off from work, looking for food, fun and frolics. Her Her crews. Her friends. crews. Her friends.

'What is there for me back on Earth?' she asked rhetorically. 'You can't breathe the air without a mask, you can't stand in the sunlight without a hat, you can't turn on a light without permission from the Energy Police.' She smiled bitterly. 'Funny, I didn't use to notice the half of it. I used to think life was okay for Ben and me. He had a good job with one of the corporations, and I used to write for a living. Then Ben... Well, Ben died and I discovered that all those savings that I thought we had were gone, spent by Ben on keeping me wrapped up in my warm little coc.o.o.n. And I had to fend for myself.' Her voice was calm, almost dispa.s.sionate, but on the table her fingers were twining and untwining like a ball of worms.

'What happened to Ben?' the Doctor asked gently.

'He was an engineer for Inters.p.a.ce Incorporated,' Piper replied. 'Six months out in one of their exploration s.h.i.+ps, six months back on Earth. It was the only way we could manage to live in a room that small him being away half the time. Ever hear of the Hydrax Hydrax?'

'I think I may have done.'

'It was a scientific vessel out on an exploratory mission to Beta Two. It vanished, like some of them do. Crew of two hundred and forty*three. Including Ben.'

'I'm very sorry.'

She shook her head. 'Don't be. It was thirty years ago. I'm a different person now.'