Menagerie - Martin Day [90]
'The upper limbs consist of a pair of arms that terminate in a four-digit "hand" and a pair that feature a more primitive hooked claw. The head incorporates a complicated mouth and the eyes are partly concealed. Tests reveal that Mecrim see heat rather than light.'
Zoe paused the playback and beamed. 'So I was right!'
The Doctor nodded. 'You were. But what can we do with that piece of information?' He rose to his feet, glancing across at the shutter. Huge dents were appearing in it now.
'You said that the creature was always attracted to the largest possible "heat signature"?'
'Yes,' said Zoe. 'I speculated that this was because it would equate that with the most likely threat to its own survival.'
The Doctor nodded. 'And presumably any one Mecrim can recognize the pattern of one of its own kind and therefore not attack.'
'That would seem logical.'
'So what we need to do is throw a spanner in the works,'
said the Doctor. He walked over to one of the glass cases and tapped his finger against its surface. 'Now, if we could modify the ammunition of this armour-piercing launcher . .
.'
'Modify it in what way?' asked Zoe.
The Doctor rummaged around for the shells. 'We want to change these bullets so that they impact into these creatures but do not explode. Instead we want them to give off a vast amount of heat. Any other Mecrim will therefore not recognize the creature as one of its own species but as a potential threat. If we can change the heat signature of some Mecrim to that of, say, a reasonably sized elephant, then we might be able to start a civil war.'
Zoe remembered that soon after she met the Doctor he had shown her a mind-projected account of his most recent encounter with the Daleks. One 'humanized' Dalek faction had been set against another. The slaughter was colossal.
'There is a flaw with this plan,' she said. 'There's almost certain to be at least one survivor. And even to get to that stage we will have to have fired at well over half of all Mecrim.'
'That's true,' said the Doctor. 'But we'll burn that last bridge when we've crossed it.' He opened a strong metal box and began to unpack its dart-like explosives. 'See if you can find out from the computer system how many creatures we're facing.'
Zoe nodded and began to tap at the keyboard. 'You'll need to ensure that the heat emission is consistent with a living creature,' she commented. 'The Mecrim eventually recognize flames and so on as non-living heat sources.'
The twins sidled over to the Doctor's side. 'Do you know what you're doing?' asked Raitak.
'Of course,' said the Doctor, jabbing a pin into the outer casing of one of the shells. 'But one false move and this whole building will go up in smoke.'
'We'll keep very quiet,' said Reisaz, taking the hint.
There was a loud thump from the shutter, two figures now seeming to hurl themselves at the thick metal. Although designed to resist almost anything short of a thermonuclear explosion the Doctor did not believe that the metal would hold out much longer. It was buckling and a single claw had already worked through into the room.
'Also scan through the rest of the files involving the Mecrim,' said the Doctor. 'Tell me anything that refers to the demise of this miniature civilization, or any other flaw in the Mecrim that we can exploit.'
'There were twenty-seven of the creatures originally,' said Zoe, having found the information she was looking for. 'I just hope they haven't bred over the past few centuries.'
The Doctor stared at the shutter. Most of an arm had now been forced through, the claws thrashing against the metal.
'So do I,' he said.
Confidential Memorandum
From: Dr J. Alforge,
To: C. Y. Dugied,
Pr. Mecrim
Control 429
Date: 2416,2111,21:55
(WST)
Subject: Mecrim