Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin [94]
Adam and Quint drew their ceramic knives.
Forrester and Adric were sitting inside the Machine, managing to sip from their cups of tea despite their handcuffs..Adric had the plate of biscuits on his lap. The Chief Scientist thought that they looked out of place. Was this because they had told her that they were time travellers? Adric was from another universe, Forrester was an Adjudicator from a couple of centuries in the future.
Adric had just said that the Doctor’s race, the Time Lords, could travel freely in the fourth and fifth dimension.
‘So this is a time machine?’
‘It’s a Time and Relative Dimension in Space machine,’
Roz supplied. Now that Whitfield knew, the Machine had lost none of its awesome power. If anything, it was more impressive than before: this was something almost entirely new to human science. From the Martian invasion onwards, contact with the spacefaring races had boosted human technology. Alien technology had provided improvements to FTL drives, interstellar communications.
An Arcturan broadcast picked up by a terrestrial radio telescope had included enough information to build a working transmat. A salvage team had recovered a starchart of the whole sector from a derelict Dalek saucer.
Human scientists would have made all these discoveries in time, but not for many centuries. The Machine was –
what? – ten thousand years ahead of current research.
Would it prove too advanced? Give a man from the Neolithic a nanocomputer and he’d not understand it and he wouldn’t have a use for it. Would humanity, would she be able to grasp even the basics of the machine’s operation?
‘This isn’t helping the Doctor. He’s trapped and we can rescue him.’
‘You can operate it?’
Roz laughed. ‘All I know is we need to pull that red lever,’ she said finally.
‘I will not allow this Machine to be activated until I understand its functioning,’ Whitfield stated. ‘You travel with the Doctor – you must know at least the basic principles.’
Adric was looking around the cramped control room again. ‘Just because we’ve travelled in the TARDIS it doesn’t mean that we know how to fly it. This room doesn’t look anything like the Doctor’s ship.’
Roz muttered something to the same effect, then:
‘Medford’s a member of the Unitatus.’
‘Yes, he is,’ the Chief Scientist replied.
‘The what?’ Adric asked.
‘It wasn’t that difficult to figure out. My deduction was helped by the fact that he wears the symbol of the Unitatus on his armour. In my time they are a little more secretive.’
‘What is the Unitatus?’ Adric asked again ‘Some sort of religion?’
The Chief Scientist straightened. ‘The Unitatus is a society based on an ancient organization that saw the military and scientists joining forces to defend Earth from alien attack. They are dedicated to that aim even over national and governmental loyalties.’
‘That’s the theory anyway,’ Roz said. ‘By the thirtieth century they spend most of their time organizing charity events and arguing whether “Lethbridge-Stewart” was hyphenated or not. A few centuries ago – now – the Unitatus is still a growing political force. Many legions and colonial administrations have strong Unitatan traditions. A bit like the Christian and Mithraic cults in the late Roman Empire.’
The reference meant nothing to Adric. ‘So that badge we saw on the statue of the Empress is the symbol of the Unitatus?’ he asked.
‘Yes, based on an ancient regimental design. As far as I am concerned, such superstition has no place in a modem organization, but many in the Empire have found that Unitatan membership furthers their career.’
‘You’re not a member. You’re not part of the conspiracy.
Medford’s got something planned, Chief Scientist, and if he’s not letting you in on it, then it can’t be good for your planet.’
‘You don’t seem in any great hurry to save the Doctor,’
Whitfield chided, unwilling to continue that line of conversation. ‘Does anything look familiar? Does that?’
The Chief Scientist indicated one of the instrument panels.
There were various dials, criss-crossed by a string of lights.
Adric stepped