Doctor Who_ Alien Bodies - Lawrence Miles [21]
‘I think someone’s “fiddled with” the biodata of huuuuuuh this whole environment.’
‘A-huh. OK. Doctor?’
‘Yes?’
‘How long have we been running, now?’
‘Why? Not out of huh breath, are you?’
‘Who, me? A-huh. God, no.’
‘Good.’
Without warning, the Doctor let go of Sam’s hand. She gurgled in protest, lost her balance, and pitched forward. The Doctor had been dragging her along behind him, as if he’d thought she wouldn’t have known how to run on her own. All the time, she’d been able to hear the cats pounding through the undergrowth behind them. In the trees, the toucans had been screeching like car alarms.
Sam pulled her face out of the mulch on the forest floor. For the first time, she realised she was in front of a building.
It reminded her of one of those places you used to see on Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World, an old temple covered in scratchy little stick figures. The building was no bigger than a large shed, built out of stone the colour of dental plaque. The Doctor stood in front of the entrance, idly inspecting the carvings around the archway.
Sam cast a glance back over her shoulder. She saw the undergrowth being pushed aside, saw heavy muscles tightening under coffee-coloured fur. But the Doctor was still inspecting the carvings, as though he had all the time in the world.
He was like that, sometimes. He was like that at the worst of times.
Sam opened her mouth to shout out a warning, but a moment later, he was gone, vanished into the mouth of the building. Sam dragged herself off the ground and stumbled after him.
‘Oh, good grief,’ the Doctor said to himself.
There wasn’t much room to move inside the building; most of the space was taken up by the machine. To the naked eye, it was a simple cube, six feet along each side, made from the same material as the building itself. Its surface was covered in panels, all engraved with the same tired old pictograms. All the artistic integrity of wallpaper, the Doctor decided.
He stepped closer to the machine. The bits of him that were human insisted it was nothing more than a block of stone. Fortunately, the bits that weren’t knew better. He could feel the effect the device was having on the environment, its little manipulations, its biological gravity. His senses had drawn him to it, pulled him here across the rainforest.
He heard Sam stumble into the building behind him, gasping for breath.
‘Doctor –’ she began.
‘Shhh,’ said the Doctor.
He bashed the machine, twice, with his fists. Obligingly, one entire panel, two feet wide and two feet high, fell away from the surface. It felt more like plastic than stone, and it bounced when it hit the ground.
The Doctor peered into the space inside the block, examining the internal workings. The technology was fairly straightforward. Various electronic components were jammed into the interior, superdense plastic cables connecting morphogenic fission vials to the biosensory byput systems. There were also a number of little flashing lights, but he had no idea what those were.
He squeezed both his hands into the space. Sam was at his shoulder now, scraping his neck with short, nervous breaths. Outside, the whole forest was growling.
‘What –’ began Sam.
‘It’s a security device,’ the Doctor explained. ‘I thought as much when I saw the leopards.’
He watched Sam’s reaction out of the corner of his eye. ‘This controls the biodata around here?’
‘Not exactly. The ReVit Zone was designed by humans, and humans didn’t build this. The machine was planted here by someone else. Someone who wanted to protect their property.’
‘Then this thing controls the leopards?’
‘And the insects.’ The forest kept growling. The Doctor wondered if he’d see a big cat standing in the entrance if he turned around. He made the point academic by not turning round. ‘As soon as we stepped out of the TARDIS, I was bitten by something. So were you. If I know my biotechnology, the insects are programmed to take biodata samples from anyone who gets too close. If they decide the visitor’s friendly, all’s well and good. If not, they call