He drew the stubby laser-gun from his pocket, and stroked it gently.
"Now then, Doctor, where are you? Don"t keep me waiting too long..."
The Doctor was conducting a desperate mental duel with the Brain of Axos.
"I couldn"t help you if I wanted to," he protested. "The Time Lords took away my knowledge of Time travel when they exiled me to this planet."
"It is useless to lie, Doctor," hissed the Voice. "Not all all of your knowledge was taken from you. Besides..." The Voice took on a seductive note, "We have explored the blocks on your memory. It is possible that we can free them. We must have the secret of Time travel. We of your knowledge was taken from you. Besides..." The Voice took on a seductive note, "We have explored the blocks on your memory. It is possible that we can free them. We must have the secret of Time travel. We must must!"
"Must you? Why?"
"To expand our feeding range!" Greedily the Voice hissed, "Soon it will be necessary to enlarge the energy sources available to us. Time travel will give us the power to range through all Time.
Axos will be immortal, indestructible!"
The Doctor shuddered at the thought of this voracious monster roaming not only s.p.a.ce but Time to devour its prey. Defiantly he shouted, "I refuse to ally myself to... to such cosmic bacteria!"
" We shall see. We shall see. " Tentacles lashed round Jo and the Doctor, holding them powerless. "Are you aware, Doctor, that Axonite can absorb the very life-force of a human being? We have arranged a demonstration for you. You shall see your companion age to death." " Tentacles lashed round Jo and the Doctor, holding them powerless. "Are you aware, Doctor, that Axonite can absorb the very life-force of a human being? We have arranged a demonstration for you. You shall see your companion age to death."
There was a crackle of energy and Jo went rigid, her eyes staring before her. The Doctor struggled wildly, but he was firmly held. Helplessly he watched as wrinkles and cracks appeared in Jo"s face. Her skin sagged, her hair went first grey, then white... her body twisted into a crouch. It was like watching a speeded-up film of the effect of the pa.s.sing years. Jo looked thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy... she was turning into a wizened old woman before his eyes.
Soon she would be dead.
8.
The Power Robbers Eighty, ninety, one hundred... Jo Grant was withering into old age. The Voice of Axos whispered, "The process can can be reversed, Doctor, but only if it is arrested in time..." be reversed, Doctor, but only if it is arrested in time..."
The Doctor shouted. "Stop! For pity"s sake, let her alone."
"You will co-operate?"
"I can"t can"t co-operate. Not even Axos can defy the Laws of Time. co-operate. Not even Axos can defy the Laws of Time.
Give me a chance and I"ll prove it to you., "Very well."
Jo"s body seemed to freeze. She began to straighten up. Her hair went from white to grey, then back to brown. Her skin smoothed out, cracks and wrinkles disappeared... Suddenly she was young again. The Doctor sighed with relief. Jo stared round wildly, aware that something had been happening, but not sure what. "Doctor? I felt so strange..."
"Don"t worry, Jo, it"s over. You"re all right now."
Impatiently the Voice of Axos hissed, "Begin, Doctor. Begin Begin!"
"What do you want me to do?"
"Concentrate! You have only to think think the Time Equations. The mind of Axos will do the rest." the Time Equations. The mind of Axos will do the rest."
The Doctor wasn"t surprised. He had already guessed that Axos had a degree of telepathic ability.
"I a.s.sume you know the basic theories? In fact, you already have the power of Time travel-to a very limited extent."
How did you know that?" There was surprise in the Voice.
The Doctor smiled. "I knew from the moment you eluded the human missiles. How else could you have done that, but by a Time jump? You reached Earth before before the missiles were fired." the missiles were fired."
"That is so. But we can move only moments in Time. It is not enough. Begin!"
The Doctor stared deep into the Eye.
Jo looked on, only half-aware of what was happening. She saw an area behind the Eye turn into a kind of screen, across which flowed a stream of complicated equations.
The Voice said, "Good. And the power requirements?" More equations. Now the Voice was angry. "What is this, Doctor?
Remember what will happen if you lie."
"Pure mathematics cannot lie. You need a colossal amount of power to create a Time Field for a being as large as Axos. Look!"
Another equation filled the screen. Even Jo"s shaky grasp of mathematics was enough to tell her that it represented an immense quant.i.ty of power. "There," said the Doctor triumphantly. "Your final power requirements-well in excess of your total capacity."
There was a long pause, then the Voice said, "All data confirmed."
The Doctor waved towards the screen. "There you are then.
You might just as well abandon the idea of Time travel."
The Voice spoke again. "Add the total output of the Nuton Power Complex to your figures, Doctor."
"If you wish. Though there"s very little point."
The equations changed again. The Voice said exultantly, "Data confirms Time travel attainable using additional power from Complex. And we can call upon the whole of Nuton"s power whenever we need it."
"How? You can scarcely just walk in and take it." Gloatingly the Voice hissed, "On the contrary, Doctor-we can can!"
A huge map of the world had been installed on the wall of Hardiman"s office. Hardiman was at a conference in London. Around his big office table sat Chinn, the Brigadier, and the golden figure of the Axon leader. The Brigadier was making a final, useless protest.
"In my view the whole question of Axonite"s distribution should be shelved until we find the Doctor, and get his report on it" The Brigadier had recovered much of his confidence, and Chinn was his old objectionable self again.
"The Doctor! We shan"t be seeing that that gentleman again. If he wasn"t killed in the explosion, then he"s simply cleared off." gentleman again. If he wasn"t killed in the explosion, then he"s simply cleared off."
"We have still to search the Axon ship-"
Smoothly the Axon intervened. "At the present time, our energies are fully occupied with providing the Axonite your planet demands. Mr Chinn, perhaps you would show me the extent of your operation?"
Eagerly Chinn rose. "Yes, of course. A very efficient set-up, if I do say so myself." He took up a pointer and touched it to the map.
"Cape Kennedy, Ottawa, Baikonur, Lop Nor..." The string of names droned on and on... Chinn ended with a triumphant flourish of his pointer. "There you are, gentlemen! Axonite consignments are now on their way to every major scientific establishment on this planet."
A smile curled the golden lips of the Axon leader. He thought of all those units of Axonite suddenly coming alive when the Nutrition Cycle was triggered. Breaking out of their containers, feeding, growing. Sucking up every atom of energy, and returning with it to Axos. Then and only then would Axos depart, leaving behind it the dead husk of a planet. "Excellent. Truly excellent."
Chinn smiled complacently. "Thank you," he said, with unconvincing modesty. "Just doing my job."
Suddenly the Axon leader went still. In his head there was a commanding Voice. "Depersonalise. Locate and enter main reactor.
Establish link and transmit power." The Axon strode abruptly from the room.
Chinn, who was still looking at the map, turned and said, "Yes, I think that more or less wraps it..." He broke off, realising that the Axon was no longer there. "Funny chap, that..."
The Brigadier snorted. "I"m off to see Filer in the medical wing.
I gather they"re expecting him to come round about now."
The Brigadier. marched from the room. Chinn was left alone with his map. He was quite unaware that his efforts had brought considerably nearer the total destruction of Earth.
Filer had indeed recovered. Still pale and shaky, watched over by a hovering nurse, he gave the Brigadier the true story of the events in Winser"s laboratory.
The Brigadier was highly delighted. "So the Doctor and Miss Grant weren"t weren"t killed?" killed?"
"They sure weren"t. The Axonite got Winser-then that spaghetti-monster turned up and clobbered me. My guess is the Axons have got them."
"The Doctor definitely said Axonite was dangerous?"
"Sure! Said it could drain all the energy from the planet."
The Brigadier stood up. "I"m off for a word with Chinn-not to mention our Axon friends friends. Maybe we can still stop distribution. Stay here and rest, Filer."
"Not on your life," yelled Filer. But the Brigadier was gone.
Filer turned on the hovering nurse. "Don"t just stand there, Florence Nightingale. Get me my clothes!"
The Axon leader moved between the concrete buildings of the Nuton Complex. His humanoid form was already dissolving into a monstrous many-tentacled figure, the Axons" basic shape.
The golden appearance was a.s.sumed only to rea.s.sure humans, and maintaining that shape took up much of the Axon"s strength. He needed all his energy for the task before him.
A UNIT guard appeared, and stopped at the sight of the horror lurching towards him. He raised his rifle but the monster was already upon him. A lashing tentacle, a surge of energy and the guard crumpled to the ground. The Axon moved on.
Nuton"s Main Reactor was housed in a squat, blank-walled building with ma.s.sive steel doors. Two bored sentries were on patrol.
Boredom changed to unbelieving terror as the Axon monster turned the corner of the building and came rushing towards them.
Shaking off their fear, they opened fire. They poured shot after shot into the heaving tentacled ma.s.s, with absolutely no effect. The monster seemed to flow towards them... One of the sentries fled in panic. The other hesitated too long and was blasted to extinction by the Axon monster"s tentacle.
The creature moved up to the ma.s.sive steel doors. Its tentacles flailed out, there was a ma.s.sive surge of energy, and the doors sprang open.
Returning from the medical wing, the Brigadier heard the rattle of gunfire. Drawing his revolver he set off at a run. He ran straight into the fleeing sentry, and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Pull yourself together, man. What happened?"
The sentry pointed a shaking hand behind him. "Killed my mate, sir. It just went in there... inside the Reactor inside the Reactor!"
The Brigadier let the man go and sprinted for the Reactor. He saw the steel doors hanging open and peered cautiously inside. At the end of a concrete-lined corridor the Axon monster crouched by a heavy, lead-shielded door. The Brigadier was just in time to see the door fly open, there was a glare of light... and the Axon disappeared.
Shaking his head in disbelief, the Brigadier turned and ran back to the administration buildings.
As he arrived outside the main block, a car drew up and Sir George Hardiman stepped out. The Brigadier ran up to him. "Sir George, come with me!"
"What"s happened? What"s going on?"
"I want you to check the Main Reactor."
"Then we"ll have to go to the control room. What is going on, Brigadier?"
The Brigadier bustled the astonished Hardiman over to the laboratory block and into the control room. "I"m sorry, sir, this really is urgent."
"Oh, very well!" Watched by a puzzled technician Hardiman began checking the maze of dials and meters that lined the walls of the reactor control room. Suddenly he broke off, peering through the picture window. "I say, why is there a police box in Winser"s laboratory?"
"Part of the Doctor"s equipment. The Reactor, Sir George!"
Hardiman completed his check. "Everything seems pretty much in order. The readings are slightly slightly up. Now, what up. Now, what is is this all about?" this all about?"
"Our Axon friend has just walked straight into the furnace of the Main Reactor."