Part 33 (1/2)

Mark nodded solemnly. 'He's locked himself in. He won't tell me why. Have I done something wrong?'

The Doctor smiled. 'I very much doubt it.'

Legion moved closer. 'What does the physicist Bannen hope to gain from this action?'

The Doctor looked up sharply. 'Don't you know?'

'Sergeant!'

Ace snapped to attention, grasping Legion's intent immediately. 'Kreig. Ardamal. Let's check it out.'

The doors had no sooner closed behind the three troopers and Bannen's simulated son than the Base Tannoy crackled to life.

'This is Alex Bannen here. I have something important to say, so you'd all better listen really carefully.'

'Executive transporter three. Calculate escape vector and initiate maximum thrust,' Bernice said.

Bernice and Christine were pushed back into their acceleration couches as the executive transporter's engines began to fire at full power, straining to keep them free of the black hole's gravitational well. Bernice swallowed hard as the thrust, conflicting with the pull of the collapsar and the executive transporter's own internal artificial gravity field, churned her stomach into knots.

Her sick feeling increased as an alarm buzzed and the computer spoke. 'Reserve power source at minimum. Fuel exhaustion imminent.'

'Reserve power? Who said anything about reserve power?' Bernice punched the arm of her couch in frustration. 'What's the matter with these IMC cretins? Don't they have maintenance contracts?' power? Who said anything about reserve power?' Bernice punched the arm of her couch in frustration. 'What's the matter with these IMC cretins? Don't they have maintenance contracts?'

The computer made an enquiring noise; she attempted to think up more specific commands.

From her pilot's couch, Christine strained to speak. 'Don't take this the wrong way, Bernice, but... I really don't think there's... anything more you can do.'

Bernice grimaced. 'I'm... crushed.'

'Ah... sarcasm... a typical... defence reaction.'

'To tell you the... truth... I'm scared... s.h.i.+tless.' Bernice squeezed out a half*hearted laugh. 'I've... never done this... before.'

The rumble and comforting pressure of the engines stopped.

'Reserve power is now exhausted. Systems will shut down as per standard maintenance schedule.'

The lights went out.

Powerless, the executive transporter began to spiral closer in towards the black hole.

Bernice's laugh turned into an agonized scream as she felt the pull of the black hole's immense, uncontestable gravity.

Ace led Kreig and Ardamal along the main access corridor to the Mushroom Farm at a dead run, Alex Bannen's words still pounding in her ears.

'I am accessing the original operating centre of the Lucifer system. There will be power for Earth. Power beyond your ability to imagine. There will be room to live. Air to breathe. There will be gra.s.s again, and trees. And fish... and... and cats... and...'

Ace unslung her weapon, and ran towards the double doors which opened on to the Mushroom Farm. They were locked shut from the inside.

'...there will be... peace.'

'Burn the door down!'

'All I ask is that I be remembered as... saviour of the Earth.'

Three beams of energy lashed out at the door.

The creaks and groans of the executive transporter's overstressed plates suddenly ceased. Bernice took an experimental breath, expecting nothing but vacuum. She could breathe. More than that, she hurt. Slowly, she opened her eyes.

'What happened?' came Christine's muzzy voice from the copilot's seat. 'Did we pa.s.s through the black hole and out into some anti*matter universe the other side?'

'Don't be absurd,' Bernice said, overawed by the sight outside the executive transporter's viewscreen. 'It's much stranger than that.'

Bannen's last words echoed and re*echoed in Cheryl's mind. What was the idiot playing at now? If he could have done what he claimed, why hadn't he done it already? Her attention was drawn to the Doctor, standing quite still with a look of tremendous concentration on his normally quizzical face. 'He has no idea what he's doing,' the Doctor whispered. 'No idea.'

Legion unravelled towards the Time Lord. 'If physicist Bannen can do what he says, perhaps we should let him. My brief is to provide a power source for Earth. Why should I squander IMC resources and money if I can fulfil my part of the contract without it?'

The Doctor turned to Legion with a snarl. 'I take it that question was rhetorical? Legion, tell me, is it true IMC troopers have been burning the forests of Moloch?'

'To facilitate exploration and a.n.a.lysis of the interior structure of the moon. Excess vegetation is of no importance.'

The Doctor thumped the heel of his hand against his forehead. 'You narrow*minded fool! That vegetation was the negative feedback control for the entire Lucifer system. The trees, the gra.s.ses, even the undulants, they were all a vital part of the mechanism, just like the Bridge and the Lift. And you've destroyed them!'

Amazingly, the pod began to slow. The tremendous battering it was receiving began to abate. With an effort, Piper tore her eyes away from the glowing nimbus of energy surrounding the medicine wheel and restarted the real*time simularity. Lucifer leapt into sharp relief around her.

Stretched out before the hull of the starpod were its mechanical arms. Cradled in them was a tiny glowing bundle all that was left of Paula. Piper was reminded of a mother holding her newborn infant, except, of course, that Paula's life was ending, not beginning.

New tears began to course down dry tracks on her cheeks as Miles's voice whispered in her ears, 'Paula...'

Did the object seem to glow a little brighter for a moment, as Miles brought it nearer the pod? Did the heat on her arms and face from the medicine wheel grow just a fraction hotter?

'Dad...'

Piper strained forward to catch the words, which drifted past as if they were no more than a part of the cloudscape through which the pod was moving.

'We can't keep... meeting like this...'

Miles began to shake. Piper got the impression the glowing bundle on the pod's arms was smiling, and then Paula died.

Again.

Piper reached out for Miles. Quietly, he took her hand. She took off his eyepiece and saw that his eyes were bloodshot from crying. He was s.h.i.+vering.

'Cold...'