Menagerie - Martin Day [86]
Zoe's fingers ran over the door sensor pad. 'I know you're normally good at locks, Doctor,' she smiled, 'but I think that I can sort out this one soon enough.'
The Doctor sat next to the twins on the ramp that led up to the bunker's main doorway, sucking his burnt fingers. He stared at the hole in the fence through which they had come.
'I was sure that was going to work,' he complained bitterly.
'It worked in the power station.'
'This is a bit more fool-proof,' said Zoe, choosing her words carefully. She made a final couple of adjustments, and then replaced the plastiglass panel. 'That should do it,'
she said, running her hand over the sensors.
The huge door grated open. Only a slight whine hinted at the great age of the place.
'It's incredible,' said Reisaz. 'This still works after so long.'
'Unlike civilian equipment,' said the Doctor, 'military hardware is built to last.'
They stepped into a dark reception area, a ceiling with mock skylights yards above their heads. Various doors and corridors led off in turn. Zoe walked to the main desk, and sat behind a small console. 'I think I can bring the lighting and heating on from here,' she said. 'There's not been much power loss in the backup batteries.'
'We probably have Defrabax's experimentation to thank for that,' said the Doctor. 'The Dugraqs were clearly interested in preserving the status of the Mecrim, too.
Anyway, just concentrate on bringing the computer systems and lighting on line.' The Doctor strolled up and down. 'I was going to suggest that you only instigate dim lighting, but as these Mecrim creatures can see in the dark . . .'
The lights flared around the building. Even the Doctor and Zoe were forced to shield their eyes for a few moments.
'Now, we need to find the cryogenic control area. We must undo whatever it is the Taculbain have done.'
'Doctor,' said Raitak, 'how did they get past those doors?'
'I can only assume that the Dugraqs have some entrance of their own that the Taculbain also used. I really should have asked the scout before he went haring off. Anyway, we're in now.'
Zoe was tapping at the console. 'I've got a map of the installation. The cryogenic control centre is almost exactly beneath us, two storeys down.'
The Doctor ran for the stairs, Zoe and the twins following. 'I would have suggested the lift,' said the Doctor,
'but there are limits to my trust of old technology.'
The stairway was crudely constructed and very dusty.
Even when the building was in use it must have been no more than an emergency backup. The Doctor went down the steps two at a time with amazing speed. Soon he was at the bottom, waiting for the others to catch up.
'It's this way,' said Zoe, leading them down the corridor.
She paused for a moment at the door sensor, but this one proved much easier to open. 'The digits I input manually,'
she explained to a bemused Raitak and Reisaz, 'correspond to the palm print of a service engineer.' The twins nodded to cover their ignorance.
The door hissed open and they walked inside. The room was large but the walls and much of the floor space was taken up with computer equipment. The far wall was a huge window that looked down upon some sort of hangar. Strip lights flickered, illuminating the metal corpses of tanks and attack craft. 'A mere side show,' announced the Doctor. 'The cryogenic areas themselves are some levels below us.'
He sat at a console and brought it on-line. He asked Zoe to do the same with an adjoining one. The computer system was in some sort of sleep mode, but both screens soon glowed with menus. As the Dugraqs had indicated, the wisdom of centuries was just waiting to be tapped.
The twins sat in a chair and watched the Doctor and Zoe work. 'Try to find the cryogenic diagnostic program,' said the Doctor. 'I'm going to see if I can access the security cameras from here. We might be able to . . . Ah, there we are.' The software on the Doctor's screen vanished to be replaced by a sequence of small squares. A number were blank or showed nothing but static,