"Fine... I"m fine, Controller."
"Good. Now listen carefully..."
The Doctor and his companions were hurrying through the chemical store when somewhere nearby a lift door opened with an audible hiss. "This way," whispered the Doctor. They ducked behind a stack of chemical drums.
Guards came running into the storage area, commanded, Tegan noted, by a young woman. At least women seemed to have made a bit of progress in this unpleasant future.
The young woman glanced quickly round the storage area. "Nothing here let"s move on."
The guards hurried away.
The Doctor straightened up. "That"s torn it. Come on, back this way. They"re between us and the TARDIS. We"ll have to try to work our way around them."
On the Silurian ship, the ice had melted away from the door of the hibernation chamber.
Tarpok checked the door. "It is ready. We may enter now." He touched a control and the door slid slowly open.
On the threshold, Icthar hesitated. So much depended on this moment: the restoration of the Silurian race to its former glory; the extermination of the ape-descended usurpers. The success or failure of his most cherished plans would be determined by what happened in this chamber in the next few minutes. Icthar strode into the chamber, Tarpok close behind him.
The ice chamber was dark and shadowy, lit by a green glow from the walls and floor, obscured by drifting clouds of ice-mist. It was occupied by row upon row of the creatures men called Sea Devils, marine cousins of the Silurian race. Ice-coated, motionless, they stood like statues, waiting as they had waited for thousands of years for the moment of awakening.
Icthar turned to Tarpok. "Revive the Warriors."
Tarpok moved to a console and operated controls. For a moment, nothing happened. Then slowly, very slowly, the green light faded, to be replaced by a warm golden glow.
Anxiously Icthar waited, observing the motionless ranks for any signs of life...
The Doctor and his companions came running along the corridor, and found their way blocked by a heavy metal door. There was a notice on the door: COOLING CHAMBER.
RADIATION AREA.
DANGER KEEP OUT The Doctor promptly opened the door and dashed inside. He found himself on a catwalk high above an enormous open-topped water tank. Steam drifted eerily over the surface of the water. The Doctor spotted a control console in the middle of the catwalk and hurried towards it. Reluctantly, Tegan and Turlough followed.
"What are we doing in here?" asked Tegan nervously.
The Doctor was busy at the console. "You saw that notice?"
"That"s why I"m asking. I don"t like like running into rooms with "Radiation Keep Out" on the door." running into rooms with "Radiation Keep Out" on the door."
Turlough looked worriedly at the Doctor. He felt they were already in a dangerous situation, and the Doctor was very probably making it worse. "What are you trying to do do, Doctor?"
"Start a diversion." The Doctor worked busily for a few moments and then straightened up. "There, that"s it."
"What have you done?"
"Oh, just hotted things up a bit. I"ve set the reactor on overload."
Tegan gasped. "You mean it"ll explode?"
"Oh, I shouldn"t think so, not for several hours. They"ve got plenty of time to work out what I"ve done, and put things right again.".
"You"re mad," said Tegan flatly.
Turlough looked at the console. All kinds of dials and gauges were creeping steadily upwards, and already a warning light was flashing. No doubt there would soon be alarms going off all over the base. "The Doctor"s right. This will tie up dozens of people, keep them busy for hours."
The Doctor smiled, pleased to be appreciated for once.
"Precisely. And in the confusion, we shall slip back to the TARDIS."
It was a good scheme, but the timing was just a little off.
As the Doctor spoke the door at the other end of the catwalk opened and two armed guards appeared.
At the sight of the three intruders, the first guard raised his blaster. Then a man in a brown uniform pushed,his way through the guards and knocked down the weapon.
"No! We can"t risk a shot in here."
The Doctor heard the announcement with considerable relief. The catwalk was only wide enough for one person at a time. If he could cause a delay...
As the guards advanced, the Doctor turned to his companions. "When I say run run!" he said.
The guards came nearer, and nearer.
"Right," shouted the Doctor. "Run!"
Tegan and Turlough turned and ran. The Doctor stayed where he was blocking the way.
"Get them!" shouted the man in brown.
The guards broke into a run. The Doctor stayed where he was by the console, hands raised in apparent surrender.
As the leading guard reached out to grab him the Doctor dropped his hands, and delivered a solid uppercut, dropping the guard in his tracks. "So sorry," said the Doctor with genuine regret. He turned to run. The second guard leaped over his fallen partner and winded the Doctor with a savage jab from the b.u.t.t of his blaster-rifle. The Doctor gasped and doubled up, and the guard grabbed him, pressing him back against the guard rail.
All this happened very quickly. Tegan turned at the end door, and saw, to her horror, the Doctor wrestling with his attacker.
The Doctor could feel the metal of the guard rail pressing painfully into the small of his back. His opponent was very strong, and very angry... The guard shifted his grip. Seizing his opportunity the Doctor wriggled free. The guard lashed out savagely and the blow caught the Doctor on the side of the head. Half-stunned, the Doctor pitched head first, over the rail, and into the water below. For a moment his body floated face downwards, then some unseen current caught hold of it, sucking it out of sight beneath the misty water.
Instinctively Tegan moved forwards. She was about to climb the rail when Turlough dragged her back. "Tegan, no! There"s nothing we can do."
"We can"t just leave him."
Tegan looked up. Already the guards had recovered from their shock and were running toward them along the catwalk.
"Let"s face it, Tegan," said Turlough brutally. "The Doctor"s drowned." And he dragged her away.
4.
The Sea Devils Awake The Doctor struggled back to full consciousness, and found himself twisting and turning under water.
A human would almost certainly have drowned. But the Doctor was not human. His Time Lord body had tremendous strength and resilience, resources far greater than those of any human body. It protected him now, sealing his lungs to preserve the little air that remained, slowing the beating of his twin hearts to conserve precious energy.
The water was warm, the Doctor realised, and it was strangely clear. Memory flooded back. He was inside the cooling system of the reactor. The Doctor looked round desperately for a way out. He had been carried some way into the cooling system, he sensed. There was little chance of regaining the surface, the pull of the unseen current was too strong. But there was a door ahead of him, in the side of the tank, a kind of hatchway with a wheel set into it.
The Doctor kicked out, propelling himself towards the door.
He caught hold of the wheel and tried to turn it. It refused to budge. Summoning up all his remaining energy, the Doctor heaved again... It shifted, turned more easily and the door swung open. The Doctor was swept through the hatchway into a small cramped s.p.a.ce. Water was draining away and suddenly his head was above the surface.
Taking in great gasps of air, the Doctor looked about him. There was another hatchway ahead, with another wheel set into the door. Wearily the Doctor waded towards it.
Angry fists hammered on the other side of the heavy metal door. Beside it, a disembowelled door-coder showed a maze of multicoloured wires and shattered circuitry.
Turlough slipped his penknife back into his pocket.
"There, that should hold them for a while!" He looked at Tegan for approval.
Tegan was still too distressed to appreciate his cleverness. "We should have tried to help the Doctor."
"We couldn"t," said Turlough gently. "There was nothing we could do. Come on, let"s get back to the TARDIS."
And what would they do when they got there, thought Tegan dully. Both she and Turlough had picked up a certain amount about the working of the TARDIS, but as for flying it to some particular destination...
Still, going back to the TARDIS was as good a plan as any. She followed Turlough down the corridor.
On the other side of the door, Bulic"s guards were hammering at it in vain.
"Leave it," ordered Bulic. "Work your way round to the other side and get it open from there."
The guards ran off in the other direction, and Bulic took out his communicator. "Bulic to Bridge."
Vorshak"s voice crackled back. "Bridge here."
"I"m in the reactor cooling chamber, Commander. We"ve located the intruders. There seem to be three of them."
"Well?"
"One was killed, drowned in the cooling tank. The other two got away."
In the psycho-surgical unit Maddox was still stretched out on the operating couch, the terminals attached to his head.
The computer was re-programming him with a programme that had been specially modified by Doctor Solow.
The intercom unit beeped, and Nilson flicked a switch.
"Nilson here."
"This is Commander Vorshak. The Base has been broken into. I need you here on the Bridge at once."
"On my way, Commander."
Nilson switched off the intercom and glanced down at Maddox. "He"s responding well. With Vorshak distracted, we may be able to activate him sooner than we expected!"
Doctor Solow was worried. "These intruders... if the Eastern Bloc planned a raid, would you not have been informed?"
"Not necessarily."
"But who are are they?" they?"
"That is what I intend to find out," said Nilson calmly, and went out of the room.
Doctor Solow looked worriedly after him.
Listening to Nilson"s calm lucid explanations of the logic of history, it had seemed so clear, so obvious, that only through the ideals he preached could peace and justice return to the world. Now, faced with the reality of treachery, faced with murder, deceit, the manipulation of the mind of a man too weak to resist, Doctor Solow was no longer quite so sure.
A radiation-suited guard came along the corridor and discovered the dismantled entry-coder. He should have sent for a repair squad at once. Instead he began fiddling with the damaged unit.
There was a crackle of sparks. A surge of electricity sent him flying across the corridor. He hit the far wall with a b.u.mp, and slid unconscious to the floor just as the Doctor came round the corner...
Instinctively, the Doctor ran to the fallen man and knelt beside him. He checked pulse and heartbeat and then straightened up, wincing as he rubbed his own bruised stomach. He looked down at the guard. "You"ll live, old chap. And it"s an ill wind..."
Kneeling down, the Doctor began removing the guard"s radiation-suit.
Turlough and Tegan turned a corner, and found themselves facing a group of armed guards. They turned to run. A door began sliding across the corridor, blocking their escape.
Turlough shoved Tegan through the narrowing gap. "Go on," he shouted. "Save yourself."
Tegan squeezed through just in time, and the door closed behind her.
Turlough turned to face the approaching guards.