"You didn"t know, though, did you? Just for a second."
There was definite satisfaction in the Doctor"s voice, and he left the wheel-house quite jauntily.
"Go away! Stop following me!" Tegan rounded on Marriner and almost spat the words at him. He had walked two paces behind her all the way from the wheel-house, and now that her cabin door was in sight she had felt brave enough to speak her mind.
"Why are you angry with me?" He sounded quite aggrieved, which annoyed her even more.
"Angry? I"m not angry, I"m disgusted! A ship blows up everyone aboard is lost and you don"t even care!"
She had meant to sweep into her cabin with these final words, but Marriner forestalled her. With a quick step he moved in front of her and barred the way.
"You don"t understand," he said, as though talking to a child. "They were not "lost", they merely transferred.
Home."
For a moment relief flooded through her. Everyone aboard that ship had been saved! But then she caught sight of Marriner"s expression.
"You don"t mean the crew crew were saved, do you?" She really could have hit him. "You mean the officers! Things like you! What happened to the crew? Were they all killed?" were saved, do you?" She really could have hit him. "You mean the officers! Things like you! What happened to the crew? Were they all killed?"
"Ephemerals have such short lives in any case," Marriner objected mildly. But Tegan was beside herself. "Human beings, you mean," she yelled at him.
"Whatever you wish to call them," he answered with infuriating reasonableness. "And on this ship, at least, they are treated well."
"Well!" Tegan"s voice was scathing. "I happen to think human lives are just as valuable as yours." And with a sweeping gesture she brushed him aside and went into her cabin. She could not resist sticking her head out again almost immediately, though. "I happen to be be a human being!" she said, her eyes flashing. Marriner obviously found her more irresistible than ever. a human being!" she said, her eyes flashing. Marriner obviously found her more irresistible than ever.
"You are different," he said, dotingly. "You are not like any Ephemeral I have ever met before."
Before he could speak again the door was slammed in his face.
Turlough was alone. At last he had found a deserted companionway. Slowly and almost reluctantly he took the Cube from his pocket. The time had come to call on the Black Guardian. Turlough now hated his master almost as much as he feared him, but he knew that he must have a.s.sistance in order to survive, and as his own survival was Turlough"s major concern, he managed to shut his eyes for the time being to the act which he knew the Black Guardian demanded of him in return.
"Can you hear me?" he whispered into the Communication Cube. And then more urgently, "I need your help!"
Nothing happened. Turlough realised why a second later. A seaman clattered down a ladder from the deck above. And then another, and another. As each one reached the bottom, he pushed back his s.p.a.ce mask, his face hot and sweaty, but elated. Obviously excitement and the strange "rum" mixture were a heady combination.
Turlough moved away. He rounded a corner into another alleyway, a darker one, with no companion-ladder in sight and then he tried again.
"You must answer! I need your help!" he said, slightly desperately, into the Cube. "What"s going on here?"
The voice that sounded behind him was as chilling as ice. "You are worthless to me." He spun round to the tall looming figure of the Black Guardian himself. "I have watched your progress," the voice continued, and then a long arm was stretched towards him, the brocade of the sleeve glinting in the gloom of the corridor. Turlough stood mesmerised, like a rabbit trapped by a stoat. The Black Guardian"s bony tapering fingers wrapped round his throat, and then it was too late, for struggle as he might, nothing could dislodge their grip. "You have had many opportunities to destroy the Doctor." There was no sense of effort in his captor"s voice, although Turlough was now beginning to choke. "I can"t kill him," he managed to gasp out, before he was hurled across the alleyway and dashed against the bulkhead.
"Then I condemn you to everlasting life," the inexorable voice slowly faded. "You will never leave this ship."
Tegan was sitting on her bunk looking at the photograph of Aunt Vanessa when she heard the knock. "Go away," she said, automatically. But it was not Mariner who spoke. "It"s me," said the Doctor, rather plaintively. Tegan was on her feet and unbolting the door in a flash, and the distress on her face was plain to see.
"What"s the matter?" The Doctor quickly closed the door behind him.
"This!" Tegan held up the photograph. "And this room!"
"They can reproduce anything they see in the mind," the Doctor said, gravely. "That"s how this ship was made. Out of the minds of the crew. Just as this room was made out of yours. They use human minds as blueprints. And not only human. Ephemeral minds anywhere from any system, any galaxy."
"Are they are they like Time Lords?" Tegan asked in a small voice.
"No. They exist outside time," the Doctor answered.
"They are Eternals. They exist in eternity. Exist, not live."
"But why do they move like automatons sometimes?"
Tegan wanted to know. "Why do they look like zombies?
Why that blank stare?"
"Emptiness," the Doctor answered. "Their minds are empty, used up. They need ideas. From us us. They"re desperate for them."
Tegan was beginning to feel desperate, too. "We"ve got to get away from here!" she said. "I can"t cope with Marriner for much longer. Let"s leave!"
The Doctor shook his head firmly. "Not before we"ve found out what is at the end of the race" he said. "I understand how you feel, but I must ask you to stay. We can"t risk them finding out about the TARDIS." His face was grave and anxious as he finished speaking.
In the wheel-house, Striker and Marriner stood motionless and impa.s.sive. Then a faint smile curled Striker"s lips.
"TARDIS?" he mumured. Marriner"s eyes came to life. He was listening.
"They couldn"t do do anything to the TARDIS, could they?" anything to the TARDIS, could they?"
The Doctor"s words had Tegan really worried.
"I wouldn"t like to risk it," he answered. "They have enormous power."
He had already reached the door by the time Tegan caught up with him. "What can we do, then?" she asked desperately.
"Try and distract them," was the reply. "Give them something to worry about. Even an Eternal can"t put his mind to too many things at once." He opened the door and hurried into the corridor. "Come on we"ve got to find Turlough."
In the wheel-house the Captain and Marriner slowly turned to each other. They were alert and concentrating.
Suddenly their eyes met. "Now!" Striker ordered. Marriner jumped to a salute. "Aye, aye, sir." Then he left the room.
The Doctor and Tegan hurried along, slightly out of breath from their search. Then as they pa.s.sed the end of a companionway, the Doctor suddenly stopped dead. He had caught sight of a figure lying motionless in the gloom. It was Turlough. He was recovering consciousness and struggling to sit up by the time they reached him.
"What happened?" the Doctor asked with concern, as he helped him to his feet. But Turlough was evasive.
"Nothing. I fell," he answered, turning away as he spoke, and straightening his shirt collar.
He was not quick enough to prevent Tegan seeing the livid bruises on his neck. "What are those marks?" she asked, suspiciously. But the Doctor was hurrying them on their way before she could pursue the point. "Quickly!" his voice was urgent. "We must get back to the TARDIS."
Striker was oblivious of the helmsman at the wheel. He no longer stared out into s.p.a.ce; his attention was elsewhere, and he seemed to find something very amusing.
Panting slightly, Tegan reached the bottom of the companion-ladder where the Doctor was waiting. A second later Turlough joined them. Then the blackness of the hold enveloped them once more, as they started to feel their way back to the TARDIS. The Doctor had finally given in to his companions" pleading to be allowed to return. The beams from their pocket torches seemed thinner and fainter; but the Doctor went on ahead with apparent confidence.
"It"s round here," he said firmly, leading them past the pile of crates and boxes. But there was no TARDIS. "Where is it?" asked Tegan in a frightened voice. "It was here," the Doctor said slowly. Turlough nearly exploded with quiet irritation. "The TARDIS can"t just have disappeared!" The Doctor was silent for a second, then he swore under his breath. It was himself he was angry with. "The Eternals have learnt about the TARDIS," he whispered.
"You are right." The voice came from behind them. As they swung round, the First Officer was revealed in the light of their torches, standing a few inches away.
Turlough turned to make a dash for it, but where there had been empty s.p.a.ce a moment earlier, the Second Officer now stood, close enough to touch them.
"Take the woman to Mr Marriner."
Tegan"s struggles were useless, and she was led away.
The Doctor"s efforts to help her simply resulted in him being held in a painful and extraordinarily powerful grip by the First Officer.
"Please, Doctor," the smooth voice was unruffled.
"Resistance is futile. And we mean her no harm."
"What have you have done with the TARDIS?" was all the Doctor would say. The officer released him. "Follow me," he ordered, "You will soon find out."
Tegan was escorted, politely but firmly, to the locker where the s.p.a.ce equipment was kept. They stopped by the pegs where the pressure suits hung and Marriner emerged from the shadows. "I"m sorry you wanted to leave," he said in a reproachful voice, as soon as they were on their own.
"Please put on one of these."
"A s.p.a.ce suit! No!" The last thing Tegan wanted was to go out into that enormous void which surrounded them.
But Marriner continued, gently but firmly, "Please. There is so much I wish to show you."
Striker"s face was expressionless as he looked at the two prisoners in front of him. The Doctor"s was equally impa.s.sive. "I underestimated you," he said in a voice as cold as the Captain"s. "You have a greater ability to read minds than I realised."
Striker seemed amused. "You helped me. Such was your concern, I could see into your mind as far away as Miss Tegan"s cabin. The picture was as clear as if you were standing here."
"What picture?" The Doctor"s heart sank.
"The picture of your ship," came the answer. "I believe you call her the TARDIS. Adrenalin is a most effective energy boost. It was your own fear that gave her to us."
The Doctor had never felt so desolate, but anger pulled him together. "What have you done with the TARDIS?" he asked fiercely. "And where"s Tegan?"
"She"s on deck," Striker replied. "Perhaps you would care to join her."
An officer held out two of the s.p.a.ce suits, and while the Doctor and Turlough were struggling into them, the Captain continued smoothly, "On deck you will have an interesting view of our compet.i.tors. It might help you decide which one is the saboteur."
The Doctor went on fastening the suit, keeping his voice casual as he asked, "What are you all competing for?"
There was silence. Pretending to concentrate on a buckle, he persevered, "The whole point of a race is to win something, after all. So what"s the prize?"
"Enlightenment." Striker"s melancholy voice rang as he spoke the word. The Doctor and Turlough exchanged a look. "Enlightenment?" the Doctor asked.
Striker stared into some secret world of his own. "The wisdom which knows all things," he said, "and which will enable me to achieve what I desire most." Even as the question framed itself in the Doctor"s mind, Striker turned away. "Do not ask, Doctor, I will not tell you."
Tegan gripped the ship"s rail and gazed about her. How could she have thought that s.p.a.ce was empty, when it was so full of stars; there were a hundred thousand million suns in the galaxy they were sailing through, some shining with the brilliant whiteness of Rigel in Orion, some blue, some yellow, some red, some dim as glow-worms; there were open cl.u.s.ters, and close-packed globes of stars; there were nebulae, each a shimmering gauze of light; and in the distance the hazy brightness of another galaxy, the great spiral of Andromeda. There were stars all round, even below the hull of the ship. They were floating in a sea of stars.
"It"s beautiful, isn"t it?" she heard Marriner saying. "I can see in your mind you find it so."
Tegan tried to keep her breathing as calm and even as possible, determined not to give in to the mild claustrophobia that the s.p.a.ce helmet induced in her.
"You may remove it if you wish." Marriner as usual knew exactly how she felt. "The atmosphere is breathable. It"s maintained by an invisible energy barrier." And then, before she realised what he was about to do, he clicked her helmet open. Every nerve in her body jerked as she waited for annihilation, but nothing happened.
"You like giving people shocks, don"t you!" she snapped crossly.
"I wanted to show you I was telling the truth," Marriner said. "You can trust me now." He smiled sweetly at her.
"The helmets are simply an extra precaution." He removed his own helmet as he spoke, and bent closer to look into her mind.
The two figures leaning against the rail were the first thing the Doctor spotted as he and Turlough emerged, and Tegan turned and saw them almost at the same moment.
She waved and started to cross the deck. She was saying something, but Turlough suddenly found that he could not hear her. He could hear nothing but a dull booming in his ears, which made him feel as though his head was going to burst. Then, within the terrible pounding, he began to distinguish a voice.
The Black Guardian was speaking. "Boy... boy..." it vibrated inside his skull. "You are doomed... you have failed me..."
Turlough saw that the Doctor and Tegan had met now they were looking at the ships lying astern they were saying something but still he could not hear. In agony, trying to shut out the dreadful voice, he clapped his hands to his ears and stumbled away. The others did not even notice, they were engrossed in studying the other contestants. Turlough lurched against the ship"s railing in pain. "You will now see my wrath," boomed inside his head.
"You will live aboard this ship in perpetual torment for the rest of your natural life."
Turlough screamed.
The others turned, startled. By then he was already climbing the rail.
"No!" the Doctor shouted, and started to run.
Turlough was over the safety-rail by the time the Doctor reached him. He shook off the restraining hand, and, still screaming, hurled himself into s.p.a.ce.