Doctor Who_ Original Sin - Andy Lane [112]
‘Look,’ Bernice said eventually, ‘offhand, I can’t think of any good reason to go in there.’
With no warning, fire suddenly bloomed across the hull of the ship. The three of them recoiled in the sudden heat.
‘What the . . . ?’ Bernice started to say as she turned, but the words dried in her mouth at the sight of the three bots pounding along the walkway towards them. They were tall, sleek, four-armed and terribly familiar.
‘I can,’ said Forrester, and dived through the hatch.
∗ ∗ ∗
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Hater Of Humans’s eyestalks perked up, then dropped slowly.
‘No, Doctor,’ it said. ‘I appreciate your efforts to help, but our agents work as cleaners in every major corporation on Earth, including INITEC. If the Skel’Ske was there, we would have known about it.’
‘Not,’ the Doctor said, ‘if it was held in hyperspace.’
There was silence around the table as they all digested the idea. Even Zebulon Pryce’s eyes opened in interest.
‘Explain,’ Hater Of Humans snapped.
‘Unlike ordinary ships, the Skel’Ske was designed to be able to stay in hyperspace with a zero power output.’ The Doctor waved his hands in the air as if clutching at passing thoughts with which he was building his theory. ‘All the Interstellar Nanoatomic ITEC had to do was to leave it there, and build some kind of hyperspace portal in their building. That way, they could get to the ship easily while still keeping it isolated from Hith space. That’s why your predictions were wrong about the levels of madness that should have swept the Earth by now. The particles only emerge, beaming like a searchlight across Spaceport Five, when the door is opened.’
‘A ship in hyperspace on Earth!’ Beltempest said, stunned. ‘It’s never even been attempted before. The amount of power required to keep it there, so close to a planetary core, would destroy the planet entirely!’
‘Not with this ship,’ the Doctor said. ‘Remember: it likes being in hyperspace. It prefers it. With the engines off, it’s almost impossible for it to be anywhere else.’
‘But the icaron radiation is still escaping,’ Hater Of Humans said. ‘Our predictions may have been wrong, but humans are still going mad. If the ship was in hyperspace . . . ’
‘Whoever is in charge of taking it apart has to get to it,’ the Doctor persisted.
‘The portal has to be opened in order to get the workers to and from it, and to get components back and forth. If they’d known about icarons driving people mad they could have fitted a double door at least, but they obviously haven’t, despite –’ He glanced over at Pryce. ‘– despite the evidence. If your ship is in the INITEC building on Earth, then the urgent thing is to switch the icaron power source off. Can you do it?’
In reply, Hater Of Humans beckoned to Hopeless Itinerant, who picked up the box at his feet and slithered forward, placing it on the table in front of Hater Of Humans, who said: ‘In this box is a control nexus for the Skel’Ske.
As with much of our technology, it is a living being, genetically engineered for its task.’
‘Is it intelligent?’ the Doctor asked, intrigued.
‘To a certain extent,’ Hater of Humans replied. ‘These mechanisms require some measure of self-determination in order to carry out their tasks. This one 191
is more intelligent than most, as it has to control the functions of our most advanced craft.’
‘A spare, I presume?’
‘The original was on board the Skel’Ske,’ Hater of Humans admitted, dipping its head. ‘We must presume that either the pilot or the navigator stole it.’
‘And their names were Homeless Forsaken Betrayed And Alone and Powerless Friendless And Scattered Through Space,’ the Doctor said quietly.
‘How did you know?’ Hater Of Humans was incredulous.
The Doctor just shook his head. ‘It’s a small universe,’ he said. ‘I met one of them on –’
He was interrupted by Zebulon Pryce, who calmly leaned forward and picked up the box.
‘Put the nexus down!’ Hater Of Humans screamed.
‘Am I right in thinking,’ Pryce said casually, ‘that