Doctor Who_ Claws Of Axos Part 6

Winser nodded eagerly, relieved to find a fellow scientist who didn't think his theories too wild even to discuss. 'Why not?'

'Why not indeed?' The Doctor beamed at him. 'Well, it's all most impressive. Much larger than my own set-up of course,' he added casually. 'Mine's only about the size of... well, say a police box.'

'Your set up? You mean to tell me you've already been working with...'

'With a Time machine? Oh yes, very successfully too, for a while. Then I ran into some snags.'

The snags to which the Doctor referred were the laws of his own people, the Time Lords. As part of his sentence of exile to Earth, they had somehow prevented the TARDIS from functioning.

In addition, they had clouded that part of the Doctor's memory that held the vital Temporal Equations, so that he was unable to repair it.

But the Doctor was still determined to outwit them. Perhaps, in conjunction with Winser, he could somehow re-discover the information he needed. He sighed theatrically. 'Bit of a lash-up, the old TARDIS. But it functioned. I wish you could have seen it when it was working...'

Winser was still grappling with the Doctor's extraordinary claim. 'Why have I never heard of this research? You've published nothing?'

'Er, no. Well, not in England, anyway.'

'Where then?'

'Oh, elsewhere. You see, old chap, I had a sort of breakdown.

Believe me, afterwards I was a changed man! There are quite a few things I still can't remember.'

'How convenient!'

The Doctor shook his head. 'Most inconvenient, actually.' A sudden thought seemed to strike him. 'Still if you'd be interested in having a look at the old TARDIS, perhaps we could have it brought down?'

Winser gave him a puzzled look. 'Are you really serious about all this?'

The Doctor put a friendly hand on Winser's shoulder. 'Quite serious, I a.s.sure you. We could swop a few ideas... cannibalise a few parts. Perhaps even get the old TARDIS operational.' He crossed to the laboratory bench and put his hand on the lid of the golden casket.

'Now we've got this stuff-we might as well make good use of it! '

The Master walked into the brain area of Axos, then stopped short in astonishment. Before the great eye on its flexible stalk stood a familiar figure. Filer! Not the exhausted, broken figure he had last seen but a new Filer, fresh and alert. The whispering voice of Axos filled the air around them.

'The other Time Lord will be with the Axonite. You will find him and bring him here.'

The Axon with the face and body of Filer nodded stiffly and walked away.

6.

Escape from Axos 'No, Doctor! I simply won't hear of it!'

The Doctor groaned. His collaboration with Winser was getting off to a very poor start. The trouble was that Winser, being a careful and logical man, liked to carry out his experiments in a succession of careful and logical steps. The Doctor on the other hand favoured a more empirical approach-or as he himself expressed it, 'try it and see'. It was this att.i.tude that was drawing such anguished protests from Winser. The Doctor stood by the Particle Accelerator, the golden casket in his hand.

'All we do is put the Axonite in here and whizz it about until we crack it down into particles!'

Winser was horrified. 'Far too dangerous. The whole lot could blow up.'

'But don't you see, it's the simplest way to break the Axonite down.'

'Doctor, if you think I'm going to risk fifty million pounds worth of equipment... And how would we a.n.a.lyse the results?'

'If Axonite is a "thinking molecule", it should a.n.a.lyse itself.

All we have to do is link up with the computer and read the print-out!'

'a.n.a.lyse itself, indeed.' Winser beckoned a hovering a.s.sistant.

'That spectroscope set up yet?'

The a.s.sistant nodded, so intimidated by the row that he scarcely dared speak. Winser took the casket from the Doctor and marched to the far corner of the laboratory.

The Doctor watched him in disgust. 'Spectroscope,' he muttered. 'You might just as well look at it through a very large magnifying gla.s.s!'

Winser turned. 'What was that, Doctor?'

'Oh nothing, my dear fellow. Just coming! '

Muttering 'Pompous a.s.s,' (but well under breath this time) the Doctor followed Winser across the lab.

Filer awoke slowly, his mind in a whirl of panic. Golden men and tentacled monsters had been bad enough. But seeing one of the Axon monsters turning into a copy of himself had been almost too much. Now Filer knew he had to escape. The Axons had created his replica for some purpose of their own-and whatever it was, he had to stop them.

Filer looked round. He was back in the cell area, alone this time. Tentacles were holding him-but their grip was slack and weak. He moved, and the tentacles tightened. Filer lay very still, thinking hard. Clearly the tentacles were activated by movement. The more he struggled the tighter they would grip, So if he moved very, very slowly... Cautiously, inch by inch, Filer began edging towards the cell exit.

The Master stood in the Brain area, scrutinised by the Eye of Axos. He was pleading for his freedom with all the force at his command. 'I know the ways of the humans,' he urged. 'I can move freely, I am familiar with their organisations, their system. You do not have time to learn these things. If your Nutrition Cycle is to be activated within the next seventy-two hours, you must have world-wide distribution of Axonite.'

Behind the eye a part of the wall became a screen. Light-patterns flowed across it as the computer-like Brain of Axos considered and checked the Master's arguments. Then the Voice said, 'Data confirms feasibility of alien's plan. Motivation questionable.

Decision... release Time Lord but retain Time Capsule until successful completion of mission.'

The Master cursed silently. The Brain had guessed his intentions all too well. Once free of Axos he had planned to make one further attempt to kill the Doctor and then leave Earth, leaving the Axons to succeed or fail on their own. Now he was trapped, committed to helping the Axons as he had promised. As if to taunt him, a far recess of the Brain area lit up, revealing a plain white dome-about the size of a police box. It was the Master's TARDIS, in its basic, uncamouflaged form. He looked longingly towards it.

'I must have my TARDIS. Give it back to me.'

There was a mocking tone in the sibilant Voice. 'Negative. The Time Capsule is not needed for success of mission.'

'At least return my laser-pistol. I may need to de-fend myself.'

'Return of weapon is acceptable. Retention of Time Capsule will prevent hostile action.'

The Axon leader produced a stubby laser-pistol and handed it to the Master, who concealed it beneath his coat. 'Come,' he ordered, and led the Master away.

Filer walked very slowly, very calmly along the corridors of Axos, trying to find his way to some kind of exit. His every instinct screamed at him to run at top speed, but logic told him that this would trigger off Axon alarm systems. Step by step, he made his way, pausing only when he saw movement at a corridor junction. It was the Master, the Axon leader beside him. Keeping a safe distance, Filer began to follow them.

They led him through the maze of corridors, pausing at last in one which ended in a blank wall. The Axon raised his hand and a door slid back revealing a gleam of light. With a surge of hope, Filer realised they had reached an exit. The Master moved through the door. It began to close behind him...

Filer broke into a run. He hurtled down the short corridor, flashed by the astonished Axon leader and threw himself through the rapidly closing gap. Behind him he heard the sudden clamour of the Axon alarms.

The Master was already running towards the clump of trees.

An armed sentry appeared before him. 'Halt!'

Immediately the Master collapsed, gasping, 'I escaped... they were keeping me prisoner...'

As the sentry leaned over to help the Master to his feet, the Master smashed him to the ground with one savage blow. He ran quickly away into the trees.

A few minutes later, Filer came across the unconscious body of the sentry, and guessed it was the work of the Master. Filer drew his gun and reloaded it, then set off for the Nuton Complex at a run.

The Doctor and Winser examined the blob of Axonite as it sat smugly within its casket. They had subjected it to every imaginable laboratory test, and come up with precisely nothing. Winser slammed his fist down on the bench. 'Dammit, it must show some some response to response to something something.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'It's programmed not to. It's deliberately resisting resisting a.n.a.lysis.' a.n.a.lysis.'

Winser regarded him bitterly. 'Well go on-say, "I told you so".'

'I told you so,' repeated the Doctor obligingly. 'Now perhaps you'll listen. Particle acceleration is the only answer. Break it down and force it to a.n.a.lyse itself! '

'No. I won't risk my equipment.'

'Then will you risk mine?'

'I thought you said this... TARDIS wasn't working.'

'Ah well-there is a certain malfunction in the drive system, but the rest is all right. If we could link through to the reactor and bypa.s.s the malfunction...'

Winser began to look more hopeful. 'If your equipment is compatible with my Particle Accelerator... it might might work...' work...'

And so might the TARDIS, thought the Doctor, though he didn't say so aloud. 'Well, it's worth a try, isn't it? After all, what else is there left to use? Now if you can convince the powers that be to bring my TARDIS down here... It's not far away, at UNIT H.Q.'

'Just you leave it to me.' Winser marched towards the iron staircase with the air of a man determined to stand no nonsense.

The Doctor smiled, and looked at the casket of Axonite. 'And now for you, my friend,' he murmured quietly. The Doctor was sure Chinn wouldn't agree immediately-which meant Winser would be tied up for quite some time.

Carefully picking up the golden casket, the Doctor moved towards the Particle Accelerator.

He put the Axonite down on the console, and began adjusting control-settings. He had just pulled back the transparent door when he heard the lab door open. Presumably Winser had returned unexpectedly... But when he looked up he saw that it wasn't Winser.

It was Filer. 'Filer, my dear chap. Did you escape?' There was no reply. The Doctor looked again. The newcomer certainly looked looked like Filer, exactly like him. But he held himself with a certain stiffness, and the face was completely expressionless. The Doctor had encountered human replication before, during his battle with the Autons. So despite the amazing resemblance, he wasn't deceived by the creature that stalked towards him. This Filer was a fake. like Filer, exactly like him. But he held himself with a certain stiffness, and the face was completely expressionless. The Doctor had encountered human replication before, during his battle with the Autons. So despite the amazing resemblance, he wasn't deceived by the creature that stalked towards him. This Filer was a fake.

The Doctor was even more sure when the replica spoke. The flatness of the voice was another give-away. 'Come with me, Doctor.

You must come to Axos.'

'Nonsense,' said the Doctor briskly. 'I've no intention of coming with you anywhere. You're not Filer.'

'Come to Axos.' The replica seized the Doctor's arm in an iron grip, repeating the phrase like a broken record. 'You must come to Axos.'

The Doctor felt himself being dragged towards the laboratory door. Only his knowledge of Venusian Aikido enabled him to break free. He gripped the replica's arm, twisted, threw... The fake Filer reeled across the laboratory and slammed into a bench, sending retorts and test tubes cras.h.i.+ng to the floor.

A human being would have been stunned by such a fall. But the Axon stumbled to its feet and headed back towards the Doctor.