As Jim got up and left, Stoker frowned at Bunny. "What are you trying to do, scare everyone stupid?"
"I"m scared stupid. I don"t see why everyone else shouldn"t be." scared stupid. I don"t see why everyone else shouldn"t be."
"Well just stop it. I had enough of that stuff from Jaal.
Keep your mind on the job, Bunny. There"s nothing to worry about up here." Despite herself, Stoker felt apprehensive.
Jim Boyd came back with a look of horror on his face.
"You"d better come and see this, boss."
They recognised Nik"s body only by his overalls and jacket.
The jacket looked huge on the shrivelled corpse, with dry, wizened little hands poking out of the cuffs. His head was tipped right back, the face sunken into the bone, the eyes wide but opaque. His mouth was still open, the flesh inside grey and withered.
And locked into a perpetual, silent scream that Stoker recognised all too easily.
"Poor b.a.s.t.a.r.d," said Stoker gruffly.
"You know what this means, don"t you?" said Bunny Cheung.
"Whatever killed Vega Jaal Isn"t Isn"t sealed up in that lab." sealed up in that lab."
Stoker turned on her heel and marched away.
"Where are you going?"
"To see the Doctor."
"Wait a sec," said Tegan. "Didn"t you say something about suspended animation before? When we first found the lab - the equipment, you said it was all to do with suspended animation."
"Yes, that"s right," the Doctor said, frowning. He waited patiently for Tegan to make her point.
Tegan felt a guilty surge of hope: could this perceptual tampering inhibit his thought processes on such a basic level? If the Doctor"s brain was becoming muddled, then she could really be of help.
"Suspended animation," Tegan prompted him again.
"That"s all about freezing people, isn"t it? Well that"s where this Ravus Oldeman could be. Frozen somewhere!"
The penny dropped and the Doctor erupted with excitement. "Of course! Why didn"t I think of that?" He grasped her by the shoulders. "Tegan, you"re a wonder!"
Tegan glowed.
Although," said the Doctor, raising a cautionary finger, "it could just be that my mind is being dulled by the psionic field effect I mentioned. Yes, that must be it. Sorry."
Tegan slumped. "I thought I was helping!"
"You are," the Doctor a.s.sured her. "But it"s not always about cryogenics, or, er, freezing people as you put it.
Suspended animation covers a mult.i.tude of techniques: simple cryogenics, stasis fields, slow-time envelopes, reverse chronon manipulation. The list goes on. But it"s still a distinct possibility..." The Doctor whirled to face the blank wall where the secret door led to the lower chamber. "Maybe we..."
"Hold it," said Stoker.
The Doctor turned back guiltily, one hand raised to open the door.
Stoker looked white with anger, Tegan noticed. There was real fire in those amber eyes. "Nik"s dead," Stoker told them. "Killed by whatever it was that killed Vega Jaal."
A thick silence filled the laboratory.
"I"m very sorry to hear that," the Doctor said.
"Sorry?" Stoker took a step forward, balling her fists. For a moment Tegan really thought she was going to take a swing at the Doctor.
Then Bunny Cheung appeared behind Stoker and laid a big hand on her shoulder.
Stoker shrugged it off. "It"s OK, Bunny, I"m not about to do anything stupid. I"ve already done something stupid: let this joker carry on down here instead of destroying this dump in the first place."
"It"s too late for that now," Bunny said.
"Whatever it is that killed your men is already on the loose," the Doctor pointed out. "You can"t seal it in down here."
"And whose fault is that?" Stoker asked. "Certainly not mine."
"Everything was fine until you arrived!"
"Steady, Jyl," said Bunny. "Let"s hear what he has to say."
"I"m sick of hearing what he has to say."
"I can help you," the Doctor said. "We are all in extreme danger. Unless we stick together, we could all be killed."
"What do you suggest, Doctor?" asked Bunny.
"I a.s.sume Nik was alone when he was attacked?"
"We think so. He must have been."
"Just like Vega Jaal," the Doctor nodded. "I suggest you gather the rest of your men together and bring them all down here. From now on no one must be left alone."
"Roger that," Bunny said.
"It might be possible to afford you all some extra protection if you were to stay in my ship..."
"I"m not interested in your ship," said Stoker.
"No," the Doctor said. "I didn"t think you would be."
"I"m sticking right here until my own ship arrives," Stoker insisted. "I"m not letting this rock go, Doctor."
"I"d still like you to consider -"
She shook her head. "It"s not even up for discussion."
The Doctor shot a sideways glance at Tegan, who shrugged. "Very well," he said carefully. "In that case we all stay here and try to find out what it is that"s responsible for the killing. And then try to stop it."
"d.a.m.n right," Stoker said. With great effort she seemed to control her anger. "Have you found out anything useful?"
"We might have," Tegan said.
"But we"re still working on it," the Doctor interrupted quickly. He patted the computer console. "Checking the databases."
"Right," said Stoker. "Get on with it. Let me know the minute you come up with anything. Come on, Bunny."
Bunny Cheung shot an apologetic look at Tegan and followed Stoker out.
"What was all that about?" asked Tegan when they had gone. "Why didn"t you tell her about Ravus Oldeman?"
"It"s only a theory at the moment, Tegan. I want proof before we go saying anything to Stoker, she"s in a very excitable state of mind."
"The psionic field?"
"No," the Doctor said patiently. "She"s just lost two of her men, Tegan. She"s upset, and rather understandably, don"t you think?"
"All right. Sorry. So what do we do now, then?"
The Doctor, pointed at the door leading to the lower chamber. "Well, there"s obviously no point in keeping that shut any more. I think we should open it up again and have a good look round, don"t you?"
Casting a dubious look at the door, Tegan slid off her stool. "If we must."
"Brave heart, Tegan!" The Doctor called back as he activated the door. It hummed away and he trotted confidently down the steps into the lower chamber. Tegan followed him, muttering all kinds of retribution for the next time he said brave heart brave heart to her. to her.
This was the first time Tegan had seen inside the lower chamber. It was cold and gloomy, of course, with some strangely shaped pieces of equipment ranged around the circular wall. On the floor lay the withered remains of the original scientists, or five of them at least. Tegan stepped hurriedly over the flaky remains to join the Doctor, who was already examining one of the wide cylindrical machines on the far side of the room. It resembled some kind of large casket or chest.
"I overlooked this in all the excitement earlier," he confessed. "After finding the bodies, I never thought of looking in these tanks."
"Tanks?"
"Rudimentary stasis tanks. They"re all of a slightly different design, suggesting that they may be experimental prototypes. That would fit in with the suspended-animation research, I think you"ll agree. The Doctor began to brush away some of the grime and dust that covered the surface of the chest. Metal glinted dully in the lamplight.
Tegan shivered. "It looks like a freezer. Or a giant coffin."
"Don"t be morbid."
"That"s easy for you to say," Tegan said. "Don"t forget we"re sharing this room with a pile of old corpses."
"Look at this," the Doctor said. He was pointing to a small row of flashing LEDs he had uncovered. "Self-contained power generator."
Tegan was intrigued despite herself. "It"s still switched on?"
"Apparently. I wonder what"s inside? There should be an inspection hatch here somewhere..." The Doctor took out his handkerchief and scrubbed vigorously at a panel on the metal casing. A few seconds" work revealed a square window of plastic. Tegan stood on tiptoe but it was impossible to see inside; it was simply too dark.
The Doctor fished out his pencil torch and shone it through the window. The beam fell into a dark green haze.
"It looks like it"s full of water or something; said Tegan.
"Bit murky, though."
"Wait a minute," the Doctor said, shifting the angle of the torch. "There is something. Can you see it?"
Tegan peered into the hole. The light of the pencil torch didn"t reveal much: just a faint shape floating in some kind of fluid. But as she looked, the shape seemed to rise toward the window, becoming clearer as it neared the light. Tegan felt her heart hammering in her chest. She wanted to look away, but she couldn"t. She had to see what it was.
The shape floated into view. Tegan"s gut twisted as she recognised it as a human head. It rolled around to face her through the porthole.
A pair of large round eyes stared madly out at her.
Chapter Nine.
"Can you wake him up?" asked Stoker. She was staring into the stasis tank window with a look of mild distaste. She wasn"t keen on the way those eyes were staring out. They looked like the pale and useless eyes of a blind man.
The Doctor was fussing around the tank"s control panel.
Lights flashed across its little display as he pressed switches and turned dials with great concentration.
"I said can you wake him up?" Stoker asked again when it became obvious the Doctor either hadn"t heard her the first time or wasn"t going to reply.