"How much time have we got?"
"We haven"t. We"re already in the gravitational field. We could still pull free though, if we had the guidance systems working. That"s the problem. I think the terminal cores must have fragmented."
"Mind if I have a look?"
Jackson lifted off the main inspection hatch, and the Doctor peered thoughtfully inside the console. He glanced curiously up at Jackson, struck by a strange lethargy in the captain"s manner. Despite his obvious competence he seemed exhausted, weary to the soul, a man operating on the very edge of his reserves. There was something about the others too... And the old woman who"d collapsed.
Studying the maze of delicate circuitry the Doctor said, "Been a long trip, has it?"
Jackson was silent for a moment. Then he began to speak, his voice deep and slow, every syllable produced with enormous effort. "We"ve been in mission a hundred thousand years, Doctor. The ship wasn"t designed for that... Neither were we. Each one of us has regenerated over a thousand times. Have you any idea what that means?"
The Doctor had. Regeneration can prolong life to an amazing extent, but it was never intended to be a ticket to immortality. If the body regenerates too often, the essential life-force, the soul itself, begins to weary and fail. In time each new lease of life becomes an intolerable burden, until the exhausted spirit longs for the repose of death.
The crew of this ship must have reached and pa.s.sed that point long, long ago.
Embarra.s.sed, the Doctor said, "Well, I"ve been through regeneration a time or two myself. Not pleasant..." He bent over the console.
In the regeneration room, Herrick laid Tala gently into what looked like a padded coffin, and lowered a transparent cover over her.
He went to a bank of controls, hesitated, then threw the switch. The body of the old woman in the transparent case twisted and writhed... and changed.
The regeneration method of the Time Lords was largely a natural one. A combination of genetic coding and long yoga-like training enabled them to trigger the regeneration process themselves at the appropriate time. The process used by the Minyans was machine-aided, swift, brutal and mercilessly efficient.
Face filled with compa.s.sion, Herrick watched as the old woman in the regeneration-chamber, grew younger, younger...
When the body in the case was that of a girl of twenty-five, the hum of power died away.
Herrick threw back the lid of the regeneration-case, and helped Tala to rise. Shakily at first, but with increasing strength, she walked across the regeneration-chamber to gaze at her reflection in the polished steel mirror.
As she looked at her smooth unwrinkled skin and dark, shining hair, her face filled with despair. "Again!" she whispered softly.
Once again, she had been sentenced to life.
The Doctor worked on, dismantling circuitry that had worn fragile with unimaginable years of use, Above him Jackson"s voice droned away. It was as if the Doctor"s arrival had unlocked a long-dammed flood of speech. "None of us wants to go on, Doctor, and yet we must. The Quest is the Quest. By now we are like the ship, degenerating faster than we can regenerate ourselves. Not the body, not the mind, but the spirit itself wears out... we are a ship of ghosts, going on and on, unable to remember why..."
The Doctor straightened up, his voice cutting across the poetic image. "This has had it, I"m afraid." He held out his hand. In it rested a crystal, once sparkling and beautiful, now dull and clouded, its surface crazed by a thousand hair-line cracks. The Doctor tightened his fingers and the crystal exploded in a puff of dust. "You"ve no more core crystals?"
"That was the last."
Crystallocybernetic guidance systems had many advantages, but once the crystals wore out they could never be repaired, only replaced.
Jackson stared at the roaring nebula, filling the entire viewing-port as the ship raced ever closer. "It"s finished, then, finished at last. The Quest is over!"
Chapter Four.
The Quest "Nonsense," said the Doctor cheerfully. "One can always bodge something up." Though in this case it was going to be difficult, he thought. "Tell me about this Quest of yours?"
"It"s for a missing s.p.a.ce ship, Doctor... our sister ship, the P7E. We get signals from time to time, we track it and lose it, track it and lose it..."
The Doctor felt the long hopeless years of searching that lay behind the words. "But surely after all this time... there won"t be any survivors?"
"Probably not."
"Then why go on?"
Jackson paused. "The P7E was carrying colonists. The entire future of the Minyan race depends on our finding her."
"Ah, I see! Does the P7E carry regeneration equipment, too?"
"Yes, Doctor. And the most advanced computer we ever developed. Something far more important, too, at least to us. It carried our future, the future of the entire Minyan race."
"A Race Bank?"
Jackson pointed to a coffin-shaped crystal case set into the main console. It was empty-but through the transparent lid the Doctor could see two shallow depressions; they might have been made to hold two enormous eggs. "The place is prepared but the Race Banks are not there," said Jackson sadly. "They would give us the chance to establish a new people on a new planet-Minyos II." Jackson stared at the fast-approaching nebula. "At least, that was the theory. It"s all finished now, of course."
The Doctor"s mind had been busy during Jackson"s recital. "Oh, I don"t know," he said cheerfully. "Seems a pity to give up now, after all you"ve been through. Anyway, I"ve had an idea. There might just be a ghost of a chance, if it"s at all compatible..."
The Doctor pulled a tool kit from under the console and sorted out two metal connector-clips.
"Compatible? If what"s compatible?"
"You"ll see! K9! Where are you, boy? Come on, heel, K9!"
Jackson watched in astonishment as the robot dog glided into the control room. "What is it?"
The Doctor knelt down and patted K9"s head. "He"s my second-best friend, aren"t you, K9?"
"Affirmative."
The Doctor plunged his arms inside the control console, wrenched out two lengths of cable, fastened the clips to their ends and attached the clips to K9"s ears. "Now, let"s try it out. Can you feel anything, K9?"
"Affirmative. Contact established."
"Good! From now on, you"re in charge. We want to avoid that nebula. It"s all yours, K9-you"re on!"
K9 began to throb with self-importance. "On line. In link-up. Rudder control positive. Acceleration positive. All systems ready, stand by for g-loading, all systems positive..." K9"s voice speeded to an unintelligible babble as he took over control of the ship. There was a rising throb of power from the drive systems as the ship banked sharply, and a sudden increase in gravitational pull that pressed them back against the acceleration couches. The ship veered again, righted itself, and the intolerable pressure ceased. The roar of the motors dropped to a steady hum, and in the viewing port the nebula dropped away to starboard and began to recede in the distance.
Orfe said shakily, "We"ve made it. We made it, Captain!"
Jackson seemed unable to take in the fact of their escape.
Herrick came into the control room, a newly-regenerated Tala by his side.
Captain Jackson rubbed a hand over his eyes, began acting as if nothing had happened. "Ah, there you are, Tala.
I see you came through regen all right. Don"t leave it so late next time. I know you"re exhausted but the Quest-"
"Is the Quest," concluded Tala. "Yes, Captain, I understand."
"Right, everybody, back on station, it"s time for the next sweep. Tala, take over from Orfe."
Tala moved to the controls, and began operating the scanner beam.
The Doctor looked at the busy scene in mild astonishment. So ingrained was the routine of the ship, that once the crisis was over, Jackson reverted to it without a second thought.
Jackson was telling Herrick what had happened.
Herrick stared suspiciously down at K9. "It"s some kind of trick, Captain, a scheme to seize control of the ship."
"I don"t care what it is-we"ve got full power on all systems for the first time in I don"t know how long."
"He"s a Time Lord," said Derrick obstinately. "You know what they"re like. They can"t be trusted. Suppose he"s just setting us up for something else, something worse?"
Jackson ignored him. "Orfe, boost that scanner beam, let"s see what we can do on full power. Tala, course two, four, zero, and cube it. Herrick, get back on tracking."
The Doctor went across to sit beside Leela, who was still gazing longingly across the control room. "His name is Orfe, Doctor," she whispered dreamily. "What a beautiful name!"
The Doctor frowned. Apparently the pacifier beam had had a ma.s.sive effect on Leela"s relatively defenceless mind, with the unfortunate side-effect of fixing her affections on Orfe.
The Doctor decided he"d had enough of this new Leela.
He"d better do something about it before the condition became permanent. He leaned forward and touched a finger to her forehead, sending her into a light hypnotic trance. "Leela? Leela, listen to me. You"re primitive, wild, warlike, aggressive, tempestuous-and bad-tempered, too!"
Leela stared mistily at him. "I am?"
"Yes! You"re a warrior, Leela, from a warrior tribe, courageous, indomitable, implacable-impossible!"
Something clicked inside Leela"s brain, She shook her head, stared wildly at the Doctor-then came to her feet in one smooth flowing motion, the knife in her hand inches from his throat. "That"s far enough! You-stay where you are!"
Feeling he"d overdone things a little, the Doctor said, "No! No! Put that knife away. It"s all right, Leela, you were just pacified."
Leela glared threateningly round the control room.
"Who did it?" she snarled. "Who did it? I"ll kill him!" Her eyes fell on Herrick. "It was him, wasn"t it?" Before the Doctor could stop her, Leela started for Herrick, knife poised to attack.
Orfe looked up. "It wasn"t him-it was me!"
Leela whirled round. "You?" As she looked at Orfe"s kind, quizzical face, the feelings of affection came back for a moment. Torn between conflicting emotions Leela stood paralysed.
The Doctor came and put an arm around her shoulders.
"It"s all right, Leela."
She pulled away. "You"re laughing at me," she sobbed.
"You"re all laughing at me!"
"No, Leela."
"I"ll smash their stupid grins off their stupid faces!"
Herrick shouted, "Signal on tracker, two, seven."
"Boost and ident, Orfe."
"Boost and ident, sir."
A series of alternating high-and low-pitched beeps filled the control room.
"That"s it!" shouted Jackson exultantly. "It"s the P7E.
Keep tracking, Orfe. Lock on to her. What"s the bearing?"
"Two, four, zero, sir."
"Steering two, four, zero," confirmed Tala. "Thrust on maximum."
Jackson"s face was alight with fanatical enthusiasm.
"This time we"ve got a chance. Stay on that course. Don"t lose her, Tala. Don"t lose her now."
The Doctor did some rapid mental calculations, jumped to his feet, and ran across to Jackson"s command chair.