The Wanderers--Chapter Two

The Crossover Internet Adventures
XIA#2--The Wanderers
Chapter Two: "Hall of Mirrors"
by Jeff Beuck

 "DANGER! DANGER! HOSTILE LIFEFORM APPROACHING!" The Robot began to flail its arms wildly. "IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL IMPERATIVE!" The Robot moved to intercept the creature, giving the others a chance to escape.

 "I concur with your mechanical friend's sentiments," echoed the Doctor, forcing himself to move despite the numb feeling that was beginning to permeate his limbs. "Run!"

 As the Doctor, Will, Jamie, and Zoe staggered away, the Robot positioned itself to prevent the creature from following. The hooved, insectoid creature hissed menacingly, emitting more of the gas. Robot's movements began to slow perceptibly.

 "THIS UNIT FUNCTIONING AT 50% OF NORMAL CAPACITY. MOVEMENT BEING SUPRESSED BY VAPOR WHICH LOCKS UP HYDRAULIC MUSCLES AND CIRCUITS. THIS UNIT NOW FUNCTIONING AT 40% ... OF NORMAL ... CAPACITY ..." The hooved creature jumped against the Robot and tried to take a bite out of it, but quickly realized that it wasn't edible.

 Robot flung its arms around the creature to stop it, but it was now moving too slowly. The creature sidestepped and moved off to follow the humans. Robot turned around to chase it, but found it could hardly move.

 "THIS UNIT ... FUNCTIONING ... AT 10% ... OF ... NORMAL ... CAPACITY .... CAN NO ... LONGER ... SUSTAIN ... OPERATION. I ... HAVE ... FAILEDDDDDD ...." And that having been said, the Robot's head and arms drooped alarmingly, and the lights in its head and chest winked out.

 The bug-eyed monster moved quickly after its prey.

 

At the mouth of the cave, two figures emerged from the darkness within. The crew of the Jupiter 2 would have recognized them as Penny and Judy Robinson. They walked purposefully from the cave, their motions smooth and mechanical. They stared blankly ahead as they moved in a direction which would take them back toward the Jupiter 2.

 

As Will Robinson and the fleeing TARDIS crew topped a barren, rocky ridge, Jamie spotted the answer to their troubles below. "Ach -- this way!" Too out of breath to reply, the others followed him.

 At the bottom of the rocky outcropping lay a pool of water. A cloud of vapor rose from it, like fog on a cold spring morning. Jamie slid down the slope toward it, pebbles and stones avalanching with his feet. "C'mon - we can dive into the water and it will lose our scent."

 The Doctor, Zoe, and Will Robinson all slid to an immediate halt and called out simultaneously, "Jamie! NO!"

 Just as Jamie was about to slide into the pool of water, he dropped to the ground and slid to a stop, just as he was about to go over the edge into the water. His foot dangled a mere inch over the vaporous liquid. "Ach. What's the matter?"

 Zoe scrambled down the slope to pull the big lug back from the pool. The Doctor and Will followed at a slower pace. "That's not water -- it's some kind of acid!" Zoe rebuked him, as, with a yank, she pulled him upright and away from the pool. A few rocks skittered into the pool, dissolving in a poisonous mist.

 "Oh ... er ... thanks," replied Jamie, scratching his head.

 A roaring and sucking sound from above their heads made everyone look up. The monster which had been chasing them had reached the top of the ridge and was looking down at them now, eyeing its prey.

 "Oh, no!" exclaimed Will. "Robot must not have been able to stop it!"

 "No, but I think we can," replied the Doctor. "Quickly now, scatter some pebbles along the bottom of the incline, where we slid down." The quartet sunk to their knees and began scattering pebbles and small stones at the bottom of the incline. The monster was sliding down toward them now, and they could all smell that paralyzing vapor it emitted.

 "Quickly now -- Zoe, young Will, move back. Jamie, if you would care to help me?" Jamie nodded and stood on the other side of the path.

 The monster half climbed, half slid down the slope. By the time it reached the bottom, it was sliding uncontrollably, much as Jamie had.

 "Now!" called the Doctor. He and Jamie reached out as the monster tried to skid to a halt on the pebbles they had strewn, and gave it a hearty shove toward the pool of acid. The monster slid right into the pool and hit with a splash, scattering acid along the shore. Instantly, the monster shrieked in agony and flailed helplessly as the acid ate away its reptilian skin. It slowly vanished under the water and its screams stopped.

 "Aye, that'll teach it," replied Jamie with a little too much bravado, dusting his hands which had become numb from contact with the immobilizing vapor.

 The Doctor frowned in disgust. "I hate having to kill any kind of life form, but I suppose we didn't have much choice in this case." He shook his hands and stamped his feet to try to shake off the effects of the numbing gas, and began to cough. "Come along. I think we'd best get away from the cloud of gas that creature left behind." He began to cough again. "Oh, dear," he muttered and placed one hand over his mouth while he ineffectually waved away the vapor with the other.

 

From up on the top of the ridge, Dr. Smith looked down at them with a cruel smile. "More humans! And if they have a working ship, perhaps I can finally escape this rugged ball of rock and that itinerant family with their interfering, inept, inane pile of iridium that passes itself off as a robot!" He chuckled gleefully to himself and went off in search of the strangers' ship.

 

From behind another outcropping of rock, Professor Robinson and Major West looked down on the time travellers and Will. "It looks like they've captured Will!" West exclaimed, pulling out his laser pistol.

 Robinson held out a steadying hand. "Wait a minute ... it looks like they're getting along pretty well to me. I'm more concerned about what happened to Dr. Smith and the Robot. Come on -- I think we should have a talk with our visitors. Maybe they know why we couldn't contact the girls." They began clambering down the slope toward the newcomers and Will.

 

"It looksh like we hov vijitors," muttered Jamie, pointing to where two men were descending the slope toward them. Zoe began to laugh hysterically. "Whash a matter?" Jamie asked.

 Zoe stopped laughing long enough to point at Jamie's face. "That gas numbed up part of your face. You look and sound like you're drunk." She collapsed into giggles again.

 "Whash?" Jamie replied indignantly. He turned to the Doctor who no longer seemed affected by the gas. "Doctor, lesh me borrow yur mirror."

 The Doctor nodded absently, pulled his hand mirror from his pocket, and handed it to Jamie. Jamie looked into the mirror and frowned -- or tried to frown -- at his partially frozen face.

 "Hey, howsh come I wush duh only one athected, Doctor?" Jamie asked indignantly.

 "I should think it was because you came into closest contact with the creature and inhaled a little too much of the gas. I shouldn't worry -- it should wear off in a few hours."

 "Oh, shanks a lot," Jamie muttered, glaring at his face in the mirror.

 

And from the other side of the mirror, something was watching Jamie.

 

Back at the Jupiter 2, Maureen Robinson looked up from where she was preparing dinner to see the two girls returning to the ship. They trudged along wearily, as if tired. Well, that was only to be expected after spending an entire day exploring caves looking for the ore they had detected from orbit. She wiped her hands on her apron and stepped out to greet the two girls. "There you are. Your father and Major West have been trying to reach you all day. Where have you been? Did you find the ore deposits?"

 "Negative, mother," replied Penny. The two girls continued to shuffle toward the ship.

 "Are you alright? You look very tired."

 "We wish to rest, mother," spoke Judy, in a monotone.

 "Well, all right. Dinner is almost ready. Go on in and get washed up."

 The two girls walked up the ramp into the saucer without saying another word.

 

The Doctor looked worryingly at the two approaching men until he noticed they were wearing silvery uniforms similar to that of Will's. "Hello," the Doctor greeted them. "You must be Will's companions."

 "Yeah," replied Major West.

 "Hello. I'm John Robinson, Will's father. This is Major Don West. We're from the Jupiter 2."

 "Yes, so Will explained to us."

 "How are you, Will?"

 "I'm fine. We were attacked by this green, insect-eyed monster, but the Doctor and his friends here stopped it."

 John Robinson ran an eye up and down the scruffy little character, sizing him up. "Well, it's good to meet another human being out here. We've been lost out here in space for ... oh, about two years now."

 "So have we," quipped Jamie, before the Doctor elbowed him in the ribs.

 "Is your ship nearby?" asked Major West.

 "Well, it's not very far from here," replied the Doctor.

 "Where's Dr. Smith and the Robot?" John asked Will.

 "We left Dr. Smith napping on the job, as usual," Will replied. "Robot stayed behind to try to fend off the monster that attacked us; I'm not sure what happened to him."

 West looked knowingly at the professor. "If there was one of those creatures, there are bound to be more."

 Robinson nodded in agreement and drew his laser pistol. "Dr. Smith is probably in some kind of trouble by now. He's probably gotten himself eaten by these monsters."

 "If we're lucky," West muttered. Will smiled.

 "Let's stick together," Robinson muttered, taking charge. "Can you show us where you left the Robot?"

 "Sure," Jamie replied. "It was this way."

 "No it wasn't," the Doctor replied, pointing in a different direction. "I'm certain it was this way."

 "You're both wrong," Zoe corrected. "*There's* where we slid down the slope. If you'd be so kind to follow me?" She led the way smugly back up the slope.

 

Inside the main room of the Jupiter 2, the ship was a shambles. The girls had rifled through all the closets and cupboards, overturning shelves and drawers, and now had a sizeable collection of supplies and impromptu weapons. Judy turned to the full-length mirror in her room. "We have assembled the materials you asked for. We are ready to come through."

 "Excellent," replied the being on the other side of the mirror. "I will reverse the orientation of your gateway."

 Judy and Penny stepped into the mirror with the bag of supplies they had looted.

 

Dr. Smith passed the deactivated robot and touched it. Nothing happened. "You worthless cacophony of combined cluttered parts," he muttered, and kicked it. He instantly regretted it when the pain surged through his foot, and he hopped around for a moment to let it wear off. He then spotted a rectangular blue box in the distance, and limped off to investigate.

 

In orbit around the unnamed planet on which the Jupiter 2 and TARDIS had landed, a 2-mile long warship was scanning the surface below. The Aanotihf'ew, residents of the Carigian Sector, had detected a massive source of Aanotian ore below, a supply which would be vital to the Aanotihf'ewan war effort, as well as to their endeavors to protect this part of space.

 On board the warship, a hooded and cloaked Aanotihf'ewite was interrogating a pair of captured Hdojjwh whose ship they had followed to this planet. The Hdojjwh were currently bound to a wall by a biogenic force field. The Hdojjwh were a rare example of a species that bifurcated into "sexes", and the Aanotihf'ewite knew that these two Hdojjwh were part of a mating pair, necessary for reproduction of their kind. How inefficient.

 The Aanotihf'ewite walked up to the Hdojjwh on the left, the "male." It pulled out a device which resembled a bulbous gun with a long, needle-like point on the end. It held it up to the Hdojjwh's abdomen. The two Hdojjwh's eyes lit up in fear. Speaking to the aliens in their own language, the Aanotihf'ewite commanded, "I will not ask you again. Tell me what your race is doing with the Aanotian ore." The Hdojjwh remained silent. The female began to whimper with fear. "Very well." The Aanotihf'ewite turned around and walked a few feet away. Finally, it turned around and fired the needle into the male's chest. At first, nothing happened. Then the male screamed in pain. Wires and circuitry bloomed along its skin as the nano-robots injected into its body multiplied and created the pathways necessary for complete control of the Hdojjwh. The male's screams finally ended as the wires worked their way into its brain and took final control, destroying the parts which gave it independent thought and will. The female screamed and sobbed, knowing that her mate was mentally "dead."

 The Aanotihf'ewite released the biogenic field holding the male. The cyborged creature walked slowly toward the Aanotihf'ewan computer system and plugged a metal cylinder which had sprung from one of its fingers into a socket on the console. Readings in Aanotihf'ewan script flew across the console as the contents of the Hdojjwh male's brain were downloaded into their computer system. Once the download was complete, the Hdojjwh was deactivated, and its body collapsed to the deck, dead.

 "We will discover what we wish to know," stated the Aanotihf'ewite.

 

"So how did you get to this region of space?" the Doctor asked Professor Robinson.

 "We were nearly out of the ore we use to power our ship, and detected a supply on this planet. We need to find it, otherwise we'll never be able to lift off again."

 "But ... how were you able to enter this area of space at all?" Zoe asked. "According to all the astrochart information, ships with hyperdrive aren't supposed to be able to enter this sector."

 "We did detect several spatial fluctuations, but by the time we did, it was too late," explained Major West. "We were thrown too close to the planet, and we barely avoided crashing."

 "If I may ask," said Professor Robinson, "How did *you* get here?"

 The Doctor and his companions looked at each other.

 "We landed here rather unintentionally, as well," the Doctor replied.

 "Look! There's Robot!" called Will. The crew from the Jupiter 2 walked up to it, and Professor Robinson examined it.

 "It looks like that compound you were talking about froze up its joints and circuits. Should be nothing a little oil and cleaning fluid can't fix. Don, could you go back to the ship and get it?"

 "Sure," replied West.

 "Jamie, why don't you go with the Major. I'm sure he could use a little help, and with these monsters about, it's probably much safer to travel in pairs," the Doctor suggested.

 "Aye."

 Will came back from a short sortee over a nearby ridge. "Dr. Smith isn't where we left him."

 "I hope he wasn't captured and eaten by those creatures," Zoe stated.

 "He probably ran back to the ship at the first sign of trouble and got lost," Robinson replied. "Why doesn't the man ever have the sense to stay put?"

 

Dr. Smith examined the strange blue box closely. At first he read the words, "Police Box" above the door and wondered what a thirty-years-out-of-date British Police Box was doing on this planet. Then he touched it. It vibrated slightly and was warm to the touch. He put his ear to it, and he could hear a slight hum. He rubbed his hands in glee. This was no ordinary space ship. He pushed on the handle. It was locked. He pushed harder, then tried to kick in the door. He instantly regretted it as he bruised his foot even further. He would obviously need to make contact with the visitors and steal the key, he thought, as he hopped around angrily on his wounded foot. After assuring himself there was no other way into the box, he limped back toward the Robot and the spot where he had last seen the visitors.

 

In another dimension, an apparently human man stood in a chamber of mirrors. The mirrors hung and stood randomly around the chamber, mirrors of all shapes and sizes. The man was tall, and had a bushy moustache. He turned as Judy and Penny Robinson entered his domain.

 "Did you bring what I requested?" asked the man in a somewhat deep voice.

 "Yes," the girls replied in unison.

 "Let me see."

 The girls emptied the sack. Inside were knives, cans and flasks of chemicals, food, and some electronic equipment from the Jupiter 2.

 "Very good. You may rest now. Down the corridor, first door on the left." The girls trudged down the hall.

 The man with the moustache held up some of the items the girls had brought him and smiled.

 TO BE CONTINUED...

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