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It was all checking out perfectly, a detailed map of the surface slowly unscrolling in the computer’s memory. ‘Ten minutes to Aulis Crater,’ said Iaomnet.

‘So,’ said Chris, ‘what do you reckon we’re going to find down there?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I thought I was just here to make sure the academics didn’t fall out of an airlock or something. But an ancient, alien construct… There might be a whole city under there.’

Chris ran his eyes over the controls. Something was trying to get his attention. Had he missed a telltale? ‘Hidden under the mountain all this time,’ he said. ‘For millions of years, maybe.

And we’ll be the first people to visit it.’

‘Great,’ said Iaomnet. ‘I hate places with too many tourists. I just hope nobody’s home.’

‘Do you travel a lot?’

88

‘Not much, no,’ she said. ‘The truth is, I –’ From somewhere aft there came shouts, followed by an appalling, high-pitched scream. ‘Shit!’

‘Stay here,’ said Chris, jumping up. He almost collided with the Doctor, who dashed in through the doorway.

‘It’s Zatopek,’ said the Time Lord. ‘Give me your personal stereo.’

‘What?’ said Iaomnet, unable to take her eyes off the controls.

Chris didn’t hesitate, snatching the Walkman out of its socket in the console. Kim Wilde vanished in a puff of silence. The Doctor took the Walkman and grabbed Chris’s bag of tapes and bolted.

Chris followed him. In the galley, Zatopek was in convulsions, lying on the table and screaming in Czech. Martinique was trying to hold him down, grabbing at his head as it smacked against the plastic.

‘I’m burning!’ Zatopek shrieked. His dark hair was in disarray, like a black halo. ‘Sailing in the lake of fire!’

The Doctor was frantically fiddling with the Walkman. ‘What’s wrong with him?’ said Chris.

‘Get us out of this orbit,’ said the Doctor.

‘Planets emerging born out of the red sear in the lake, crawling above!’ yelled Zatopek.

‘Higher up?’ asked Chris.

‘No. Just get us into an orbit which doesn’t cross the crater.’

The Doctor shrugged as though something was irritating him, and a tiny drop of blood ran out of his nose. ‘ Now, Chris.’

‘Right away.’ Chris turned and ran back to the bridge. Iaomnet was waiting. ‘What’s up?’

Chris flung himself into the seat next to her. ‘We’ve got to change orbit,’ he said. The acceleration plucked at them as they turned. ‘What’s the problem, Chris? Who screamed?’

‘Zatopek,’ said Chris. ‘I think it’s some kind of psychic attack.

Have you ever seen anything like that?’

‘No, this is my first –’ said Iaomnet. ‘No, I haven’t. Emil didn’t tell me he was Gifted.’

Another yell came from aft. ‘Merry Christmas, Emil,’ said Chris.

89

Half an hour later, the crew were gathered around the stricken psi. Zatopek was lying on the kitchen table, half covered by a first-aid blanket. He was murmuring about tacking across the wave of oblivion, hot chaos licking at the hull of his boat, and yelling at his neighbour to turn the noise down.

‘This is terrible,’ said Martinique. ‘This is terrifying.’ He looked at the device attached to his assistant’s head. ‘What is this, exactly?’

‘I’ve used one of Chris’s tapes to create a loop that will create interference in his neural pathways and reduce the intensity of the signal he’s receiving,’ said the Doctor.

‘He doesn’t look very happy,’ said Iaomnet.

‘For this to work, the noise has to be fairly radical.’

Chris picked up the remains of his cassette. ‘Not “Don’t Leave Me This Way”?’

The Doctor shook his head. ‘It’s a powerful source and we’re still very close. I’m afraid I had to take drastic measures: Frankie Goes To Hollywood.’

‘“Relax” or “Two Tribes”?’

‘“Relax”,’ said the Doctor. ‘The psycho buffer remix.’

‘Ship’s engineer, huh?’ said Iaomnet.

‘Could you take him to his quarters?’ the Doctor asked her and Martinique. ‘I think it’s safe to move him now, and he needs a serious lie down.’

Chris watched as their passengers scooped up the muttering Zatopek and carted him out. ‘What about you?’ he asked, when they were