BBC Cult - Printer Friendly Version
Episode Six - Episode Six

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The Mercedes was waved to a stop at the tunnel's entrance by an armed guard standing in front of a red-and-white barrier. The guard wore a one-piece black boiler suit and a black belt decorated with various pouches and a pair of handcuffs. Hanging from it was a long black truncheon. He wore a matt-black helmet, attached to which was a clear plastic visor that covered his whole face.

The guard's machine pistol was held casually in his left hand, but it was undoubtedly primed and ready.

In the last few miles, they had passed so many 'Keep Out' signs that Sir Marmaduke had lost count. 'Since when have we had armed guards at tunnels in this country?' he asked. 'I thought I was in East Germany for a moment.'

Ciara did not turn to him as she explained that it was a safety precaution to protect the unwary as much as those working under the hills.

'You mean the place we're going is built inside these hills? But how?'

The pale young man showed a pass to the guard, who spoke into a walkie-talkie and then lifted the barrier. Cellian drove through. As the Mercedes entered the gloom, a series of red lights flicked on, dotting the roof in two parallel lines rather like, Sir Marmaduke thought, an airport runway upside down.

They carried on in silence for about half a mile before the two red lines became four as the tunnel forked. They took the right-hand turning and Sir Marmaduke swivelled round to watch all the lights behind click off, plunging their entry route into darkness. The glow from the lights through the windows cast unearthly shadows across his captors and for the first time Sir Marmaduke felt decidedly nervous.

'What exactly is this place?'

The pale young man smiled and settled back in the seat.

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'OK, Sir Marmaduke, brief history lesson coming up. Why was UNIT set up?'

'I don't know. I wasn't aware of it until a few years back, after that business with the electronics firm with the dodgy components in their wirelesses.'

'Radios, Sir Marmaduke. Do try and keep up with the times. But that's by the by. What do you believe UNIT does?'

Sir Marmaduke focused on the red lights, trying to avoid seeing his captors' faces. 'I suppose it deals with things out of the regular military forces' purview. Alien invasions, extra-terrestrial infections, the paranormal, people with extra-sensory powers. That sort of thing. I only know that really because of the people we treat at the Glasshouse. It's just a job for me, a service I provide. I don't investigate that much.'

The pale young man chuckled. 'Oh rubbish, Sir Marmaduke. Why did you abduct the policewoman from Hastings? To continue your feud with LethbridgeStewart, perhaps? Or because you knew that she was connected with the Reptile People whose previous victims you had cared for?'

'What would I want with Reptile People?'

'A good question. We wondered that for a long time. Even Ciara and Cellian here couldn't find that out. None of my agents at the Glasshouse could work it out. Shall I tell you what I believe?'

Sir Marmaduke snorted. 'I'm sure you will anyway.'

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'True. I think you believed that she would lead you to these Reptile People - UNIT's Silurians, or whatever they're known as colloquially. I think you believed that if you had one at the Glasshouse, you could begin to set up some kind of indispensable repository of... let's lump it together as alien paraphernalia. You'd go in after a UNIT operation and clean up. Gather the spare part, dead aliens or whatever and sell them to the highest bidder. I believe you already have contacts, especially where UNIT, as a United Nations sub-division, has no jurisdiction. Behind the Iron Curtain, perhaps? Or the Middle East? Somewhere where the leaders would hope to upset the balance of power.'

Sir Marmaduke did not reply. Cellian had driven the car into a small side tunnel which flared with a bright light, revealing them to be in something no larger than a domestic garage. He turned as a mesh shutter dropped down soundlessly behind them. Then he realized that they were going up, on some massive hydraulic ramp. Eventually they stopped, the shutter lifted, and Cellian drove the car into a huge hangar-sized car port and stopped. About thirty other vehicles littered it, some recognizable as cars and vans, others looking decidedly unusual. Sir Marmaduke saw one craft which he recognized as Mars Probe Six.

'That?' said the pale young man, as if reading his prisoner's thought. 'We got that shortly after the British Space programme was abandoned. With James Quinlan's death and Professor Cornish's retirement, the Government put the whole thing into limbo. They're looking at moving part of it down to Devesham in Oxfordshire, out of the prying eyes of the public, but until then, we have their cast-offs.' He unwound his window and as he did so a black-clad armed guard rushed over.

'I understand that everything is prepared, sir. The woman is in the laboratory with the two science people.' The guard looked across at Sir Marmaduke, then back at the pale young man. 'We have also had a report from our agent on the HR Project.'

'Go on.'

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'She reports that the targets are on a Channel Island known as L'Ithe. Mister Bailey decided that it would be inadvisable to send a force in because it would be difficult to avoid alerting people on the other islands. Traffic to and from L'Ithe is infrequent enough to draw attention.'

'Fair enough. What is his proposal?'

'He has sent some men down to Smallmarshes to wait in case the creatures return to the mainland, that way. He thought it safe to assume they would stick to familiar routes.'

'Probably right. OK, I'll review the situation later. Let me know if our agent contacts us again.'

'Yes, sir. Need anything else, sir?'

'No thank you, Mister Lawson.' Then he gently tapped his forehead, as if remembering something. 'Oh, Mister Lawson?'

'Sir?'

'Has anyone exercised the Stalker recently?'

'Not recently, sir, no.'

'Tell Bailey it will be going for a run sometime later today. I don't want it getting idle.'

'No, sir. Very good, sir.' Lawson nodded at the Irish Twins and walked towards one of the doors that dotted the huge car park.

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'Now, Sir Marmaduke, where were we? Oh yes, I remember. You were veering close to queering my pitch.' The pale young man opened his door. In unison, Ciara and Cellian undid their seat belts, wound up their windows and got out of the car. Ciara then opened Sir Marmaduke's door for him, much as she always had.

'Ciara, why?' he asked quietly, but she ignored him.

Her real employer moved around to the front of the car. 'I think it might be best to incapacitate this vehicle. We wouldn't want Sir Marmaduke to attempt an escape.' He held his hand out and Cellian dropped the car keys into his palm.

With a smile, the pale young man closed his fist and dropped what was now a tight ball of metal onto the floor. 'And just to make quite sure.. .' Effortlessly, he thrust his arm through the bonnet, into the engine and started hitting things. After a few seconds, he extracted his arm, brushing off some minute fragments of metal. 'I don't think that's going anywhere.'

He looked at Sir Marmaduke again. 'Now, where was I? Oh yes, you asked what this place is.' He waved his arm around the area like an estate agent showing prospective clients around a house. 'This is the Vault. A - how can I put this - a side-line of C19. The sort of side-line that, should he be aware of it, would cause the likes of Sir John Sudbury to have a coronary. You see, I already do what you were hoping to.' He led them through one of the doorways and Sir Marmaduke found himself on a metal catwalk, high above another stadium-sized room built into the inside of the hill.

'The Vault takes up eight levels per hill. Two hills. Sixteen areas of research, storage and development, plus a few outlying areas where some of our more interesting experiments live. Look down there.' He pointed below, where white-coated men scurried about with clipboards. They were moving between various large computers with spinning tapes and other oddly shaped devices, while the double doors were guarded by more gun-wielding, black-clad men. 'Not everything here is extra-terrestrial in origin, Sir Marmaduke. Those men are building new computers, using man-made technology from a super-computer built during the sixties.'

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'WOTAN? My God, I thought it was destroyed.'

'Oh, rest assured it was. But here at the Vault, we're very interested in any kind of artificial intelligence, especially an accidental one like that. Imagine the possibilities of an AI that could run businesses, administer hospitals and schools. And, of course, the Government. No need to feed it, water it, give it sleep. That's something we're working towards.'

The pale young man walked on, Sir Marmaduke trailing him, with the Irish Twins bringing up the rear. They went through a doorway which led to an airlock. Before the next door was opened, Ciara shut the four of them inside the cramped area and a fine mist sprayed all over them.

'Decontaminant. All perfectly harmless. But necessary between each section.' They entered the next area, which was a little smaller and was bathed in a blue light. Sir Marmaduke's captor continued his recital: 'Basically we go in after UNIT has done its job. We collect the dead, the detonated, the inanimate and the unusual. We strip away the ruined computers, the deactivated weaponry. Ostensibly it is all destroyed. Incinerated, under the Brigadier's strict orders. But what no one at UNIT, or the main part of C19, knows is that it all comes here. We sift through it, cannibalize anything interesting and store the rest. Nothing is disposed of.

'This area is devoted to flora,. Every day millions of particles of dust enter our biosphere from outer space. Most of them are so microscopic that they are untraceable and irrelevant. But some attach themselves to plants on the planet's surface, causing interesting mutations. Did you know, Sir Marmaduke, that last winter eighteen people in Western Australia died after eating what appeared to be normal local fruits? They contained, however, appallingly high levels of mercurial duoxide, an element unknown to occur naturally on Earth. Over in that far corner is a new strain of the Venus flytrap. As you can see, it is large enough to catch a rabbit or small dog. It grew in someone's garden in Rhodesia a couple of months back. A unique specimen which, it has to be said, has created quite a stir in botanical circles. Among those who are aware of it, anyway.'

'This is obscene, you know.' Sir Marmaduke ran a finger round his collar. He was very hot.

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'Obscene?' His captor pursed his lips in apparent confusion. 'In what way is it more obscene than that which you were planning? Or is it just that we've already done it, and on a scale, with resources, you could only dream about.'

'We were working towards something similar I grant you, but we were nowhere near this audacious. Or secretive.'

'Pish and tosh, Sir Marmaduke. You had Peter Morley and his team working day and night on experiments that none of them guessed the end result of. Well, almost none.'

Sir Marmaduke stopped. 'How do you know about Morley? Was he one of your spies?'

'Good gracious no, I wouldn't have employed anyone who was that big a security risk. The man is a positive liability. No stomach for what he was doing. But a genius, I have to say. Quite useful to me now.'

'So he is here, then?'

'Yes. Under protest. Come through to the next area and he'll tell you all about it. I think it might interest you.'

The pale young man pressed a button when they reached the far wall. The door slid up to reveal an elevator. 'Going down for ladies shoes and handbags,' he quipped, but the smile on his face couldn't extend to his artificial eyes. Sir Marmaduke shivered, wondering what awaited him at the bottom.

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Liz Shaw was sitting on a swing in the back garden. Her parents' large back garden at their house in Burton Joyce.

The grass was a lovely rich green, the sky a cloudless blue, and a bright yellow sun bathed her in a warm glow. All the colours were very vivid, the heat too perfect. Something was not quite right.

And anyway, she was far too old to play on a swing.

She got off the swing and looked around. Definitely home, but everything looked too perfect, too neat and tidy.

But she did feel very safe. Very relaxed.

'That's because you remember it that way,' said a voice behind her.

With a start, she turned, and saw a tall man in her place on the swing. He had light brown hair shot through with strands of pure white. There was something she recognized about his pleasantly lined face and rather beaky nose, but his blue eyes were his most notable feature: the way they bored into her, as if seeing through her into, well, her soul.

He was wearing a silly black cloak, and a red velvet smoking jacket. That all seemed very familiar, Liz decided, but she could not quite work out why.

'Do I know you?'

'Oh yes,' replied the man. 'You know me as the Doctor. We work together. We are friends.'

'Oh. Right. So how come I don't recognize you properly, then?'

'Ah, that's a bit difficult to explain. I've put you in a trance.'

Liz raised her eyebrows, pursing her lips in mock concern. 'Well, that's a friendly way to act, I must say.'

'If it helps, I don't like the fact that I've done it.'

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'Can't say I do much, but presumably I had no option.' Liz realized the house and garden were gone. They were standing in a huge room, with blank walls and a large door at one end. Liz decided it looked like a school science lab. There were Bunsen burners on the many benches and intricately built objects of tubes and focusing microscopes, thrown together like Salvador Dali's interpretation of something out of Goodbye Mister Chips.

'I recognize this. Why?'

'It's where we first met - at UNIT's temporary headquarters in central London. Before we all moved to Priory Mews in Denham. I spoke to you in Delphon. Remember?' The Doctor was sitting cross-legged, floating about two feet off the floor, framed and silhouetted by the massive rectangular window behind him. Liz decided that the bright light from whatever was outside made the Doctor's indistinct form look angelic - there was a kind of golden aura around him.

'Ah. It's all coming back now. OK, so why the trance?'

The Doctor smiled. 'It's an old Tibetan trick. It slows your metabolic rate right down to the bare minimum. You're still breathing, your heart is still beating, but only just. And this discourse we're having is your brain, needing to keep busy, latching onto the telepathic connection I've tried to establish with you. Simple really.'

'Isn't it just. But why?'

'Ah, that's the tricky bit.' The Doctor floated towards her. 'I hope you can cope with this. No, I'm sure you can.' He smiled. 'You're a very strong young woman.'

Liz rolled her eyes. 'Yes, Doctor, but as scientist to scientist, let's dispense with the archaic flattery and talk sense. Please?'

'All right. Liz, you've been shot.'

'As in by a gun? As in bang?'

'As in bang.'

'So I'm not dead yet?'

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The Doctor unfurled himself; planted his feet on the floor and crossed to the lab window. The room was starting to distort slightly. The window the Doctor was near became arched, and behind him a spiral staircase materialized. The whole room contracted, the cold grey walls of the London headquarters giving way to the dull hospital green of Priory Mews. 'Never liked that colour,' Liz muttered.

'When we get back, I'll get Lethbridge-Stewart to repaint it,' said the Doctor.

'Oh, so I am going to get back then?' Liz joined the Doctor at the window. Instead of the familiar Slough Canal, the outside was a massive starfield, planets and stars competing for her attention in the rich, textured dark background. 'My mother once told me that everyone has a star, Doctor. And when that person dies, their star vanishes from the sky.' She turned away, looking back into the laboratory, but sat on the windowsill. 'When my grandmother died, mother took me outside into the back garden. She pointed up at one of the stars, a faint one that was twinkling. "That's Nanna's star," she said. "It's marking her death with respect as we all should. In the morning the star will have gone, having collected Nanna and taken her to Heaven." And no matter how often I looked that next evening, I couldn't see that star any more. I think I still look for it today, if I'm out late. Or working here late. Not consciously, but when I look at the stars I think of Nanna and all the wonderful things she told me.' Liz touched the Doctor's sleeve, pulling him round to face her. 'You'd have liked her. She was your type.'

'Oh, and what type's that, Liz?'

Liz shrugged. 'Oh, I don't know. She knew lots of things and' - Liz smiled at him - 'when she didn't have the answer, she'd make one up that sounded exactly right.'

'Well, we'd have got on like a house on fire.' The Doctor crossed to one of the benches and stared at a piece of equipment. 'Funny thing, the subconscious. Here I am in your mind, your memories, and yet I'm holding my Triacteon Zeiton Regulator and it's fixed. Ever since I was exiled here, the TZR has needed repair, but I've never managed it. Something to do with the block the Time Lords put on me.' He looked up, smiling at her. 'Thank you, Doctor Shaw. When we get back, I now know how to repair it.'

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Liz was not really listening. 'Is my star twinkling right now, Doctor?'

'Now, Liz, we are both scientists. We know what makes stars twinkle. We also both know that those sorts of questions cannot be simply answered. When I go back to the real world, it will be up to you to help get yourself through this. I can try and save your physical body, but your spirit needs to be strong too. Your body has gone through a massive trauma as a result of this wound. That shock has caused your subconscious to retreat to a level where we can communicate like this. You need to reintegrate yourself with your conscious mind in order to survive.'

'But do you think I will?'

The Doctor started to fade away. 'I don't know, Liz, but I certainly hope you do. We still need to get to know each other properly.' And he was gone. So was the UNIT laboratory and Liz was back alone by the garden swing. Black clouds ranged across the sky. It was going to rain.

The Doctor's eyes snapped open, and Sula backed away, alarmed.

'What were you doing?' she asked tentatively.

The Doctor pushed himself up from his cross-legged position and walked across Baal's laboratory to where Liz was lying on a stone slab. 'Communicating Telepathically.' He touched the slab. 'This is very warm.'

Sula pointed at some controls on the wall above the slab. 'The rock absorbs and distributes the planet's natural warmth. It is the same principle that heats the whole Shelter. Baal reasoned that Apes need a lot of warmth.'

'Then I must thank him. He's right, Liz needs to be kept warm.' He touched the dressing around her shoulder. It was made of the same stringy webbed twine as the clothes he had worn when travelling underwater. 'What a fascinating material.'

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'One of our major discoveries.' Baal entered the lab from the direction of Marc Marshall's cell. 'The Apes have yet to synthesize anything similar. It has staunched her bleeding and should help to heal the wound. It is semiorganic, this version carrying a form of antiseptic through its strands. We can adapt it to carry anything we need: heat, light, even antibiotics.'

The Doctor gently touched the material. It pulsated slightly. 'It's alive?'

Baal smiled. 'Sort of.' He gave the dressing a harder poke. It shivered slightly. 'Red blood. I had forgotten that your blood was that bright.' He looked at the Doctor. 'I believe she will live. No vital Ape organs were damaged. One lung has a slight tear along it, but it didn't break the whole tissue. She will be weak for a while. You and this Ape are fond of each other? You are bonded, perhaps?'

'We are friends. Nothing more.'

'Nevertheless, I can sense your pleasure at her survival. Apes give off very strong pheromones in such situations. As a scientist I am always eager to learn new things.'

The Doctor smiled. 'Your new-found compassion does you credit, Baal.'

Baal stepped back. 'Do not mistake scientific interest for compassion, Ape. My study of your companion is purely for the purposes of survival. Ours rather than hers. It suits our purpose to keep her alive.' He pointed back towards Marc Marshall's cell. 'His presence no longer suits us, however. If Auggi were to find him, it would be difficult to explain his condition. Tahni has agreed to take the two of you back to the mainland where she found you both. After that, he is your responsibility.' Baal waved a clawed hand over a sensor. 'And then you will return. Alone.'

'Why?'

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Baal pointed at Liz. 'The one she arrived with, the other female. She wounded Krugga and murdered Chukk. She also deliberately shot your friend with her projectile weapon. Crude it may be, but it is effective. This can only mean that someone knows we are here. Someone who wishes to stop my work. I cannot let that happen. Your return will ensure our safety.'

'How do you reason that? What makes you think I won't return with armed soldiers to wipe you all out?'

Baal laughed. 'You think I am a fool because I am rather single-minded in my attempts to save my generation, don't you, Ape? You're wrong. I listened to what you said about your role in Okdel's Shelter. Unlike my mother, I do not see war as the only answer. But if such strategies please her, and keep her away from my real work, I will not interfere. You said you tried to make peace and I believe you. Chukk believed you, for all the good it did him.' Baal opened Marc's cell. 'We are both scientists, Ape. We both long to increase our knowledge, to expand our horizons. I will protect your friend here; you will return to aid me with my researches. I have a list of things I need you to bring back. Tahni would not understand them by herself; or know where to get them from.' He passed the Doctor a small electronic data pad and ran a finger over a stud on it. A list appeared. 'Tahni will translate our script.'

The Doctor looked at Marc's quivering form. 'And what's to stop you doing this to Liz?'

'Your Liz is mature. This was a hatchling and its internal chemistry was still in a state of flux. That was what I needed to explore, to try and integrate with our physiognomy. Liz is useless to us as anything other than a hostage to ensure Tahni's safe return.'

With surprising gentleness, Baal reached down and scooped up Marc's prone body. 'I don't know if your science can help him, nor do I care particularly, but nevertheless I hope he survives. As a scientist, I would not wish to be thought of as a murderer.'

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Sula walked in with some of the webbing. She wrapped it around Marc like a cocoon and Baal passed him to the Doctor.

'You know, Baal, you are a very good scientist. Remarkable in fact. But you will never be a great scientist, a true scientist, until you stop regarding everything you do as justified whatever the cost. A true scientist always remains, if you'll excuse the pun, humane.' He started walking into the main lab, looking towards Liz's unconscious body. 'Mankind's history is littered with the dead bodies of scientists who forgot, or ignored, their moral responsibilities. I hope I don't return to find you added to them.' Tahni was in the doorway. 'This way, Ape. Auggi is in the Council Chamber asserting her authority. We must leave now.' She pulled him out of the laboratory and down a small tunnel. 'Our only means of escape is a battle cruiser. This way.'

The Doctor ran just behind her, trying not to bounce Marc too much. Once or twice, the boy stirred slightly but then relapsed into his coma.

'Just round this corner,' puffed Tahni, and ran straight into a recovered Krugga.

'What are you doing -' he began, but then saw the Doctor and Marc. 'No!'

Before he had time to stop her, Tahni's third eye glowed brilliant red and, already weakened from his injuries, Krugga dropped to his knees. His own eye flared red for a moment and the Doctor felt a stab of pain across his forehead, but it vanished almost instantly. For a brief second, Marc's body too convulsed.

Krugga fell forward onto his face and Tahni waved a hand over a door control. 'Why was he here, I wonder?' she muttered as she led the Doctor onto the battle cruiser.

'Is he dead?' The Doctor looked back at Krugga's still form as the hatchway slid closed.

'I don't know. He was already injured.' She suddenly swung round on the Doctor. 'And I don't care. He isn't one of us, isn't a hybrid. He isn't, or wasn't, going to die within the next few years because of other people's meddling.'

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her vehemence. 'I thought you were all very proud to be hybrids.'

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Tahni scoffed as she started up the cruiser's power. 'Yes, well, Baal and Auggi would like us all to be, but frankly a majority of us would rather they hadn't bothered having us. What's the point of living only a few years?'

'That rather depends what you do with them.' The Doctor sat in what he assumed was the navigator's position. The craft shot forward rather jerkily and he cast a look down at Marc's comatose body, huddled by the door. 'You'll have to forgive my lack of concern for your wellbeing, but if Marc there is the end result of your researches, then you deserve all you get. At least you'll have a life. You've destroyed his.'

Tahni slowly looked at the Doctor. 'Surely your science can repair him?'

'Repair him? I don't even know what Baal did to him. I assume it was some kind of DNA splitting but this planet hasn't developed sufficiently advanced methods to restore him.'

Tahm looked back at Marc. 'We only want to survive.'

The Doctor looked straight ahead. 'No one on Earth would criticize you for that. It's just your methods that need some restraint.'

The rest of the journey was made in silence.

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The pale young man was in his office. Opposite him was Sir Marmaduke Harrington-Smythe. Near the door were Cellian and Ciara. There was a knock on the door.

'Come in.'

The door opened and Cellian stood slightly aside as a dark-haired woman walked in. Sir Marmaduke frowned. 'Wildeman? Cathryn Wildeman? What are you doing here?'

The American zoologist walked over to the pale young man, and stood slightly behind him. 'I work here, Sir Marmaduke. I have done for about three years. Even before I went to Cambridge.'

'I convinced Sir John to select her for your Glasshouse project, you see,' said the pale young man. 'Ms Wildeman has been exceptionally useful in feeding me tit-bits of information.' He smiled. 'Actually, that's not true. To be honest, she's given me every security code, every Top-Secret, D-Classifled, UNIT initialled piece of paper that she could lay her hands on. It was Cath who passed Ciara and Cellian much of the information that I required.'

Sir Marmaduke glared at the American woman. 'You betrayed me. What about the others?' Cathryn Wildeman smiled an insincere smile, all teeth, with no honesty in her eyes.

'Oh, I betrayed them too.' She produced a small notepad from her pocket. 'Sir. You may be pleased to know that our agent following up the leaks from Whitehall has arrived on L'Ithe - a small Channel Island. The documentation provided by the leak led her and Doctor Shaw there a few hours ago. Her last report stated that if it was a Silurian base, she was going to seek entry, capture a specimen and return with it to the mainland. She suggested a rendezvous at Smallmarshes since it's in a direct line with the island and too isolated to draw too much attention. We've not heard from her since.'

The pale young man nodded. 'Fine. Send a squad down to Sussex. They ought to be there in three hours or so. Use the stealth fighter - that ought to stop UNIT or anyone else tracking us.'

'One other thing, sir,' said Wildeman. 'The Glasshouse has been dealt with. We have the WPC here, along with Doctor Morley.'

'Any others?' he asked.

'Alas, sir, Griffin and Atkinson didn't survive the visit.'

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The pale young man frowned momentarily. 'Did our man leave any evidence?'

Wildeman paused before speaking. 'A few bodies. Including Atkinson and Griffin, I'm afraid. Did he make a mistake?'

'Another one, yes.' The pale young man smiled. 'Still, killing people is what he's good at. For the most part.' He turned to Wildeman. 'I think we'll dispense with his services for a while. Contact him, pay him, thank him and say we'll be in touch next time he's in the country.'

'Yes, sir.'

Sir Marmaduke was appalled. They were discussing deaths, contract killers and future murders as if ordering a Chinese take-away. 'Do you people have any consciences at all?'

The pale young man looked at Wildeman in mock confusion. 'Do you understand what he's talking about? The man who set up the Glasshouse, the man who has gone to great lengths to lie, steal and cheat his way through life asks us if we have consciences?' He suddenly leant over his desk, staring straight into Sir Marmaduke's face. 'No, Sir Marmaduke. We don't possess a conscience of any type because we don't need one.'

Wildeman made her farewells and left. Ciara and Cellian followed, leaving the pale young man and Sir Marmaduke alone.

'The few things I still need, Sir Marmaduke, are UNIT's requisition codes, their secret military wavelengths and their communications passwords. You see, I have C19 where I want it, I now own and run the Glasshouse and so all I need for total control of this country's military espionage departments are those little things. And you are going to tell me.'

Sir Marmaduke started to sweat. 'I don't know anything about UNIT'

'You are lying, Sir Marmaduke.' The pale young man crossed to stand beside his seated prisoner. He bent over, took Sir Marmaduke's left hand in his, and tapped gently on his little finger. Sir Marmaduke howled in pain.

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'That's right. One little tap and I've broken it in two places. That's the kind of man I am. Or was. Or will be, even.' He tapped Sir Marmaduke's index finger, shattering the bone.

Tears were streaming down Sir Marmaduke's face.

'Can't take a little pain, eh, Marmie? But you're a big army man. Former instructor in the noble art of survival of the fittest.' He broke another finger. 'Who's the fittest here, you lump of lard? Me or you?'

Sir Marmaduke tried to speak, but all that emerged through the pain was a sort of strangled squeak.

The pale young man frowned. 'Sorry, old boy, didn't quite catch that, what? Try again, old sport.' He broke his trapped foe's thumb. 'Next it'll be the other hand. Then your feet. Your genitals. Your neck. Enough to destroy you, cripple you for life. But not enough to kill you. So why not save yourself all that, and tell me what I need to know?'

A trickle of blood threaded its way down Sir Manrmaduke's chin as he bit through his tongue. The pain was excruciating, but he no longer cared. He would endure anything rather than tell his tormentor what he wanted to know. Seizing on his new-found resolve, reserves of strength he had never known he possessed, he glared into his captor's eyes until, for the first time, an expression of uncertainty crossed the pale young man's face.

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'Where am I?' Even as she spoke, Liz knew it was a redundant question. She was in a Silurian Shelter, deep beneath a small island.

She had seen the Doctor and then something had hit her. The Doctor said ... no, the Doctor hadn't said anything. Yet she felt that they had talked. Impossible.

Something to do with stars... no, it must be in her imagination. So, what had hit her? 'A projectile, from this.' A Silurian faced her, wearing a mesh vest of some sort. It resembled the Silurians she had seen in Derbyshire, but there were subtle differences. Her scientific interest was piqued. Different genetic strains of the same species. As humans were black, white, yellow and so on; tall and short; fat and skinny, so the Reptiles must be equally varied. This one's eyes were far more fish-like, and instead of the wide ears, it had fins. The skin was a mottled green rather than the dark and olive hues she'd seen before.

And it was holding a pistol. Liz recognized its distinctive shape immediately. And then wondered why she hadn't before. 'That's a UNIT service pistol, supplied to C19-related personnel only. They tried to teach me to use one once, but I flunked out.' She looked straight at the Silurian. 'How did you get it?'

The Silurian put his (her? its?) head on one side, the flap over its mouth sucking in and out rhythmically. Liz realized it was wondering what to say. She decided to help out. 'It is Jana's. It was in her handbag, so how come you've got it?'

'Your companion had this. She used it on you. She is dead.' The Silurian turned away, dropping the pistol into a pocket in its stringy coverall.

'How? And why?'

'She killed our leader. The Council killed her, just after she shot you.' The Silurian looked back. 'Chukk was a good Earth Reptile. Even Baal thinks it sad that he died.'

'Who is Baal?'

'He saved your life. He is our scientist.'

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Liz took this in. 'I am a scientist. Maybe we should talk. You are...?'

'Sula. Baal's sister. And he won't discuss science with you. Apes are not capable of being scientists. You do not have the brain capacity to learn enough. You have brains no bigger than ragga-nuts.'

'And that is very small indeed,' said a new voice.

'Baal I presume? My name is Liz Shaw and I'm a doctor. I gather I must thank you for saving my life.'

Baal shrugged. 'It was of no consequence. The Doctor wanted you to live, so you are now my hostage. It is of no relevance.'

'Nevertheless, I am grateful.' Liz pointed at the machine in the far corner. 'That's a particle disseminator. For breaking down DNA and other genetic structures. Why do you have one?'

A look passed between Baal and Sula but, unfamiliar with their faces, Liz could not tell exactly what it meant.

Baal looked back at Liz. 'You are a scientist, then?'

'I always thought so, but then again if my brain is only the size of a ragga-nut, I suppose I can't be.'

Baal stared at her, then back at Sula, who shrugged.

Baal continued. 'I believe that Apes ought to be eradicated. You have overrun our plant, destroyed many of our Shelters. You have tried to destroy us.'

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Liz pulled herself into a more comfortable sitting position on the slab. 'That's not true,' she said, hoping that it wasn't and that Baal couldn't prove her wrong. 'The only Shelter we've come across was in Derbyshire.'

Baal looked back at Sula again. 'Shelter 873?'

'Apparently,' Sula replied.

Baal waved his hand towards a screen in the wall next to the particle disseminator. It immediately glowed into life, showing a map which Liz recognized as Earth as it had been millions of years ago, one large land mass. Baal waved a claw over a stud and hundreds of red dots appeared.

'Your Shelters?'

Sula said they were, adding that many of them were known to have been destroyed when the great land masses separated. 'Some filled with water, drowning the non-aquatic Earth Reptiles. Others were crushed by tectonic movements. But many have been destroyed by the Apes testing their nuclear bombs in the oceans, or poisoned by you dumping your waste products into the seas or burying them in the deserts. One colony awoke about fifty years ago in the Antarctic regions. They left us communiqués saying that they had awoken and requesting other Shelters to get in touch as soon as they awoke. Their last message was about invading Apes, destroying their city.' Baal looked hard at Liz. 'That city was probably the last surviving piece of our above-ground architecture, and the Apes destroyed it. Your Doctor associate has been pledging the Ape's support for a unified Earth, where we would all live together. He is a fool. You know it and I now it. Apes will never share their planet any more than ye will.'

Liz took a deep breath. 'No, you're right. Not yet they won't. But in the years to come they might. If you really want to work towards peace, then you need to plan ahead.'

Baal snorted. 'You mean stay hidden. Here. Until the apes have evolved enough to lose their egos and accept co-habitation?'

'Yes.'

'Why should we? We have the means to wipe you all out.'

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'No you haven't,' said Liz. 'Otherwise, you'd have done it. In fact, you know too well that your plague doesn't work. We discovered an antidote. You're bluffing with an empty hand, Baal.' She stared back at him. 'What re you really so scared of? I don't think it's we Apes, or you wouldn't trust the Doctor, or use me as a hostage.' he looked at Sula.

'Where is he, by the way?'

'Back on the mainland. With Tahni. You are to remain here -'

'As a hostage, yes, your brother said.' Liz staggered off the slab, and Sula helped her stand. 'Thank you,' said Liz. Now, Baal, Sula, if I'm your prisoner, I'd better work for my keep. What are you really doing in this lab that needs a particle disseminator? Something's wrong with your genetics, isn't it?'

Baal actually looked surprised. In fact, Liz decided, that look probably meant he was completely taken aback.

Sula stepped between them. 'Yes, Doctor Shaw. Baal, Tahni, myself and all the other hatchlings here are dying-'

Baal pushed her aside. 'Sula, no!'

But Sula turned back, her third eye glowing for a brief second, and Baal winced. 'No, Baal, I have had enough of our mother's pride and your inability to have your own thoughts that aren't hers. I am as much in trouble as you or the others. I choose to survive by trusting this Ape with the information.'

'Yes, but what information?' asked Liz.

Sula told her everything.

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Auggi was addressing her new Council. Some of Chukk's major supporters had been removed from power and were now sulking in their quarters or in the Great Chapel. Auggi's supporters hung on her every word, however.

'Chukk is gone. With him, his soft ideas of how to deal with the Apes. I say we eradicate them. Totally destroy them. And -'

An elderly Sea Devil Warrior limped into the chamber. 'Leader,' he hissed. 'Leader, I was on duty in the monitoring section, watching the screens when -'

Auggi was livid at the intrusion. 'This had better be good, Naalix. I don't like being interrupted.'

'A Cruiser has been stolen. Krugga was attacked again. He said it was the Ape and -'

'The Doctor! I should have had him slaughtered.' She pointed towards the doors. 'Naalix, find me Baal. I want him here, no arguments.'

Naalix limped out. Auggi smiled at her Council. 'At last,' she said. 'At last I have the excuse that was needed. Prepare to eradicate that cruiser. Blow it out of the water.'

'No, Mother, you cannot!' Baal was in the right-hand tunnel entrance, Naalix hobbling behind him.

Auggi ignored him. 'Naalix, blast that cruiser out of the water. Every long-range torpedo we have.'

'Yes, Leader.' Naalix vanished, and Baal hurried forward.

'The Doctor is not alone on that cruiser, Mother. Tahni is with him.' He expected her to countermand her order. Stop the attack. Instead she just smiled. 'My daughter, captured by the evil Ape, sacrificing her life so that we may all live. How noble.'

Baal stepped back. 'She is your daughter, Auggi! My sister.'

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Auggi glared at him, and Baal saw something in his mother's eyes that he had been too devoted to see previously, too blinded by admiration and the need to keep his own secrets from her.

'I don't care.' Auggi smiled. 'Blast that cruiser to atoms.'

And Baal fmally realized what Chukk had always known. Why Chukk and the Triad had refused her original application for leadership after his father's failure to survive hibernation. Auggi wasn't just hungry for power, driven by obsession. She was completely mad.

'Mike! Look!'

Carol Bell pointed into the night sky, trying not to shiver despite her heavy parka anorak. Something had flown low overhead, momentarily blotting out the moon.

They were huddled down by the old cottage on the top of the Smallmarshes cliff-side, the one where the boy had vanished and the policewoman had been driven mad. It was cold, slightly damp and she wished she were back at UNIT HQ, running her efficient Communications Division, aided by Maisie Hawke and Larry Parkinson. She was not made for late-night surveillance, no matter how desperate the Brigadier was for extra troops. Mind you, the overtime would be useful.

Mike Yates tried to keep track of the low-flying object, but it was so dark that he could not see a thing. 'Wonder what that was.'

Bell gave in to her shiver. 'It wasn't animal, that I can tell you. The ground trembled very slightly as it went over. And my ears needed to pop.'

Yates looked at her. 'Are you sure?'

'Yes. Why?'

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'You must have been directly below it. Maybe it landed on the beach.'

'What did?'

Mike put his finger to his lips. 'Don't ask too many questions. I only know about it because I stumbled on some meeting the Brig had with Major General Scobie a few weeks ago.'

'Can I ask just one question?'

Mike nodded. 'Make it one that requires a quick answer.'

'What the hell are you talking about?'

'A stealth plane. Low-level reconnaissance. Possible armament as well. Got nicked from Geneva about a month back. They blamed our Government for leaking its existence. Scobie was asked to shift the blame onto us.'

Bell could imagine the Brigadier's response. 'I bet the old man was livid.'

Mike smiled. 'Well, he wasn't best pleased. Gave Scobie an earful that John Benton and I could hear from the Mess.'

'So, who did nick it?'

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Mike shrugged and started down the cliff path. 'Whoever it was just landed it down in that cove. Look.'

Bell peered over the cliff path's edge and saw a cove which, during a hot summer day, was probably swarming with bathers believing they'd found somewhere exclusive. It certainly had to be looked hard for. Sitting on the sand, like a huge shadow, was a triangular-shaped aeroplane. A small one, large enough for five or six crew only. Despite the bright moon and stars, no light reflected off it at all. It was like a huge triangle of black had been carved into the beach. They could not see how high or low it sat; it simply did not possess any points of reference for gauging such things.

Bell pointed to the left, further in towards the cliffs. She could see about six or seven black-clad guards, slightly more distinguishable than the craft in which they'd arrived. She shot a questioning look at Yates, but he shrugged.

'Never seen those uniforms before. The guns are standard UNIT issue though.'

Bell nodded. 'Which means they're unique. Our SLRs have faster reload and less recoil than regular issue.'

'I thought I'd noticed a difference.'

'That's nothing, Mike. C19 are working on developing a sub-machine-gun that fires armour-piercing explosives like bullets. You lot should have them in a few months.'

Mike Yates tapped his service revolver. 'I'm happy with this tonight. Less cumbersome. Are you armed?'

'Of course.'

'Prepared to use it?'

'Of course.'

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'Ever used a gun out of the practice range at Guildford?'

'Of course not.' Bell smiled. 'But there's always the first time. There aren't many telephonists that get to shoot up the bad guys.'

Mike touched her arm. 'You'll be all right. Don't take any risks. Whoever these chaps are, they're not on our side, despite their armament. It's more important that at least one of us gets to report back to the old man, as you call him, than that we both be heroes. Is that understood, Corporal?'

Maisie Bell stared at him, then at her gun. 'Yes, Sergeant. Sir.'

Yates grinned. 'Okey-dokey, you watch them, I'm going down.' And he slipped off into the darkness.

'She's firing on us!' Tahni was astonished. 'My own mother has launched torpedoes at me!'

The Doctor was staring at the same read-out as Tahni. 'I thought this was a battle cruiser. Can't you fire back?'

Tahni shook her head. 'No. This is a craft designed for short-range manoeuvres. The missiles we carry are good, but not at that distance.'

The Doctor waved his hand over the console, bringing up a picture of the torpedoes streaking towards their craft. 'Where are your short-range missiles?'

Tahni pointed to a control on her side of the cruiser. The Doctor gently eased her aside. 'Excuse me.' He sat at her console, and she sat at his.

'What are you doing, Ape?'

'Watch. And learn.' The torpedoes were almost upon them. The Doctor cast a quick look at Marc, unconscious in the corner, then back at Tahni. 'Hold very tight. This will hurt.'

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The expression of puzzlement was still on her face as the Doctor fired their short-range missiles. He waved his hand over the button again, and the cruiser bucked violently as the missiles exploded outside, neutralizing the incoming torpedoes as well.

The Doctor held tightly to his seat, but Tahni was flung out of hers and over the back, where she thudded to the floor next to Marc. She was on her feet in seconds, however, as the Doctor wrestled with the controls.

'Clever, Ape.' She pushed him aside and sat in her seat, trying to calm the cruiser. A massive explosion wrecked a rear console, showering the Doctor and Marc in sparks. 'Outer hull breached,' Tahni hissed. 'We're going to be taking on water in seconds.'

'How far to the beach?'

'A few more seconds and we'll be at the underwater tunnel I created. It's airtight, but you might want to wear our clothing for warmth.'

'No time.' The Doctor pointed at the side of the cruiser where the console had exploded. A dribble of water was seeping through, setting off more minor bangs. 'Get away from those controls,' he yelled.

Tahni did not need to be told twice. She swivelled round and jumped towards the Doctor as both the pilot's and navigator's consoles erupted, shattering the view screens. 'We're moving blind,' she shrieked and an instant later the cruiser crashed into something hard.

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'We'll have to swim for it,' the Doctor cried, grabbing Marc and throwing him over his shoulder. He pointed at an emergency red switch. 'Is that for the hatches?'

Tahni nodded. 'This will fill with water in seconds. You'll drown!'

The Doctor ignored her, hitting the hatch release. The catches on the hatch opposite exploded but the door flew inwards rather than out, almost hitting the Doctor and Marc. There was a small splash, and for a moment it seemed as if they were safe. Then a massive inrush of water filled the cabin, flushing the three bodies straight out.

The Doctor looked for the darkest patch above him, knowing that this usually indicated the safest place to surface. A few seconds later he and Marc broke the surface and the Doctor gasped for air. He turned his head. The beach was close and, lying Marc on his back, the Doctor dragged him, half-swimming, half-puffing towards the sand and pebbles. Just as they got there, the water behind erupted in a fountain of froth. The cruiser had exploded. 'Tahni?' called the Doctor. 'Tahni, where are you?'

'She's right here,' said a man's gruff voice.

The Doctor found himself staring down the muzzle of a high-velocity rifle. He looked to his left and realized that sitting on the beach was one of the Government's new, and highly secret, stealth aircraft. 'Interesting,' he murmured. 'I didn't think that had made it beyond the drawing-board yet.' Tahni was being held by four other men, a gun at her head. The Doctor caught her look, and saw her third eye begin to flare. Hoping that Reptiles could see better in the dark than humans, he mouthed a 'No' and was relieved to see the red glow fade.

Another soldier was hauling Marc over his shoulder. The man who had initially spoken waved his gun at the plane. 'Into the Blackbird, all of you.'

The Doctor, the man carrying Marc and those with Tahni all boarded the ramp. The leader looked around, then whistled.

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The man who was obviously the group's look-out heard the whistle. He was about to give one back when a large lump of rock caught him behind the ear. He dropped like the proverbial stone, but before he even hit the ground, he was yanked back into the darkness of a recess in the cliff.

Mike Yates unclipped the man's belt and used a knife to slice through his boot laces. Mike had already shed his own top clothes and was trying not to shiver as he unzipped the black coveralls. The whole procedure only took thirty seconds, but it was long enough for the leader to whistle again. Hurriedly, Mike zipped up the coverall on his own body and slipped on the damaged boots, hoping no one would look too closely at the laces. Pushing on the helmet and snapping down the visor to cover his face, he stumbled out of the recess, almost crashing into the group's leader.

Mike mumbled an apology as indistinctly as he could. 'Yeah, well, we'll discuss your look-out abilities back at the Vault,' said the leader, pushing him towards the plane.

Forty-five seconds later, the plane executed a perfect vertical lift-off and, watched by Corporal Bell, silently shot back into the sky and headed northwards.

Auggi and Krugga watched the cruiser explode into millions of pieces as their torpedoes hit.

'Excellent. The Apes cannot be warned by my treacherous daughter.' Auggi pointed to Baal. 'And you had better return to your laboratory. I thought you had the stomach for war, the love of it that you should have inherited from your father.'

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Baal looked hard at her and Krugga and then stepped back to the right-hand tunnel. But instead of heading down it, he waited, listening to his mother's next order to her Council.

'The Apes are pathetic,' she was ranting. 'Chukk was wrong. The Triad are wrong. It is our job to start a war with these usurpers. We will attack now, while it is dark.' She raised her hands dramatically. 'Arm the battle cruisers. Activate the Myrka. We'll attack now, destroy every Ape we see and take over this land mass. Once that is ours, their world will soon fall.'

Baal hurried back to his laboratory, then hesitated in the doorway, watching Sula and the Liz-Ape using the computers. The Liz-Ape's arm was in a sling, but she was clearly quite efficient at what she did.

Had he got it all wrong? Was his mother's fierce upbringing responsible for blinding him to the truth? Sula and Liz were working together. To some extent he and the Doctor were working together. Chukk and the Doctor had certainly worked together.

Alarms rang throughout the Shelter. Young able-bodied Earth Reptiles of every sort threw themselves into one, two or three-person cruisers and headed for the mainland at maximum speed. Auggi and Krugga led the attacking fleet from the main cruiser, which also housed the fearsome Myrka.

Auggi watched as the coastline grew in the viewscreen.

'Within a few hours, this planet will be ours!'