Part 20 (1/2)

The Doctor grinned. 'That'd be a clever trick for someone who's just been blown up.' Calmly, he took a sip of tea. 'Nice. But it would taste so much better from a Wedgwood pot.'

Bishop sighed impatiently.

The Doctor set down his beaker. 'Well, Adjudicator. Are you ready for the moment of truth?'

Bishop nodded. 'Neural net,' he said quietly. 'Access simularity file one. Location: Conference Room exterior. Let's see who the murderer really is.'

The lights went out; all power to the neural net was severed.

Teal Green was coughing up a lungful of smoke when the Base was plunged into darkness. Immediately, a string of curses echoed down the corridor and there was the sound of someone falling over. Teal felt his way carefully forward. His foot thumped against something soft in the darkness.

'Be careful! That's me you're kicking!'

'Bernice?'

'You were expecting the Isley Brothers?'

'Who?'

'Grief, help me up will you? And what's going on?'

'Power failure.'

'How can that happen?'

'It can't. All systems are independently monitored by the neural net.'

'Well, I hate to disagree with you, but '

'Yeah, right. Point taken. Come on.'

'Where to?'

'The backup systems should have kicked in by now. We must be looking at a general systems failure. If we don't get life support up and running soon, we'll all suffocate.'

'Wonderful,' Bernice said dryly. 'What do we do first?'

'Finding a torch would be a good trick.' Teal groped around the corridor wall. 'There ought to be a ah! Here we go.'

A door opened. From within the room came the sound of a man sobbing.

'Miles?'

'Paula? I'll be with you soon. I promise.'

Before they could move, someone pushed past them and shambled off down the corridor.

The Doctor pulled a small torch from his pocket and clicked it on. The beam was more than adequate to illuminate the non*operational neural net systems. He tapped a key experimentally, but there was no response. 'Someone has a positively dramatic sense of timing.'

Bishop drained his beaker of tea. 'Power failure.'

'Yes, but what caused it?'

'More sabotage?'

'Not unless the saboteur planned to take his own life as well.'

'Or unless '

'The saboteur had already worked out an escape route.'

'There is another possibility.'

The Doctor nodded. 'Whoever, or whatever, invaded Moloch Base is now attempting a similar takeover here.' He led the way to the office door. 'Come along, Adjudicator. I rather think your services will shortly be needed in the main airlock. And your gun.'

Alex Bannen swung the beam of his torch wildly around the Operations Room. 'Piper? Are you here? What the h.e.l.l is going on? The power's out all over the base, the temperature is dropping, the air's running out and Mark's gone. He's just switched off.'

Piper rose from the MultiCray inputting terminal. 'I'm doing my best to restore emergency power. Until the backup generators come on line, I can't get enough ergs to run a full check on the main systems.'

Bannen sighed. 'For G.o.d's sake. Ask a scientist to do a scientist's job not an overblown plumber's mate.'

He pushed Piper aside and unclipped a service hatch in the main neural net cabinet. Piper glared angrily at his bulky silhouette. If she didn't do something now, he was going to screw everything up.

The Doctor rushed down the corridor, his small feet making virtually no sound on the metal grillework. Puffing hard, Bishop followed close behind. Either the corridors were empty of people, or the Doctor had managed to follow a less well*travelled route from Miles's office to the main airlock, several levels below. With no power to drive the klaxons or the air recyclers, the Base was eerily silent. Only distant clangs and echo*distorted s.n.a.t.c.hes of conversation drifting along the cross*corridors testified to the tremendous effort being put into restarting the systems.

The Doctor slid to a halt at the inner door to the main airlock. He tapped quickly at the opening mechanism.

The door remained shut.

'Odd. The door's been locked with a command level override.'

Bishop frowned in the darkness. 'Only Miles Engado has that clearance.'

The Doctor cleared his throat. 'Ahem. Well, actually...' He tapped out another rapid series of digits and the lock disengaged. The Doctor grabbed the manual locking wheel and began to spin it rapidly. Hydraulic pressure built up slowly until the door wheezed open.

Umbrella held high, the Doctor led the way into the chamber. There were clanking noises coming from further within. He shone his torch around the chamber. 'Miles? Miles Engado? We know you're in here...'

There was a hollow clunk, and the rising whine of power. Ten metres away, lights bloomed in the darkness.

Bishop drew his gun. 'Miles Engado, I am arresting you for the '

'Miles, no!' The Doctor rushed forward, but was too late to prevent Miles latching down his helmet and powering up the starsuit. Warning lights flashed on the suit's shoulders as it lumbered slowly to the airlock outer door. One servo*driven arm reached out to grip the door's locking wheel.