Doctor Who_ Longest Day - Michael Collier [75]
Keeping another button depressed, he passed his sonic screwdriver to Anstaar.'Pull down on the central shaft when I say now, all right? Pointing at this bit here.' He waved a finger in the general direction.'Now!'
She depressed the sonic mechanism, and the Doctor snatched his finger back from the hairpin as it glowed red-hot. "That's enough!'
She stopped. Nashaad was staring in wonder at them. The Doctor gave a small smile, then clicked his fingers. A gap began to open and widen in the structure of the sphere below the control operating unit.
'Now we can get to the bottom of things. Provided of course that this didn't land on its bottom as well.' He smiled at her and she felt herself blushing.
She turned to Nashaad. 'Jump up to the top again, Nashaad. Tell us if anything's coming. You understand me? Tell us quickly, come straight down.'
He smiled at her, and opened his mouth. She put a hand across it to stop him speaking, and smiled encouragingly. He slowly smiled back, and bounded off to the lip of the basin.
'Well, well...' breathed the Doctor. 'Well, well, well, well, well, well.'
Anstaar looked helplessly at him as he delved inside the dark gap in the machine.'Well?'
'Yes, very, thank you,' he answered vaguely, before bolting his gaze on to her.'It's a probe.'
'A probe? You mean, like a space probe?'
'Yes. Except I'm afraid this has travelled through more than just space: Anstaar stared at him, her voice an incredulous whisper. "Through space and time? '
The Doctor kept her fixed by his gaze, and nodded slightly. "The technology is fairly basic but rather elegant.'
'Isit damaged?'she began, cautiously.
'Crippled. It's been sitting here, phasing in and out of the present, sending out a signal to be found, reclaimed, to share all the knowledge it's acquired on its way through this part of time and space.'
'And it's seepage from that that is causing the time problems round here?'
'Must be.' The Doctor suddenly clicked his fingers. 'Wait. These circuits match some of those back in the moonbase computer.'
'What?'Anstaar stared at him.
"That's it! The Kusks created this probe as well!'
'But it malfunctioned in some way and crashed here?'
'Phasing in and out of the past...'muttered the Doctor.'You know, back on the moon I thought the main computer had been attempting to cure some kind of embolism in time that was affecting the regulation of the time fields, and in so doing had somehow formed a bond with it.'
'Really,' said Anstaar, blankly.
'Now I know why!' He held her shoulders, a delighted expression on his face. 'Temporal pollution from this damaged probe must've caused Hirath's condition in the first place! The Kusks sent out a ship to trace the probe and reclaim it.'
'But if it was phasing in and out of the past, how could they?'
'Precisely! They had to wait while the artificial intelligence in their computer insinuated some level of control over the intelligence in the probe. It attempted to stabilise the shifting timelines by regulating them, channelling them over different parts of the planet, creating these different zones. They went to sleep ready to wake up when it was ready -'
'And TCC came across it and decided to help themselves,' breathed Anstaar.
'A unique business opportunity,' said the Doctor, darkly.
'So why was the base breaking down?' asked Anstaar, struggling to take it all in.
'What if, while the computer was distracted trying to contain the time pollution that threatened to destroy the entire planet along with the probe itself, the probe's intelligence became too strong for it, swamped it, infected it? It's malfunctioning, and has made the base computer malfunction too.
That would explain why everything's been breaking down.'
'And meanwhile another group of Kusks has been sent to find out what happened to the last lot,' stated Anstaar.
'Persistent, aren't they?'
The heavy silence following