CODE: S2/S9
Episode Nine
Sally Wiget & Adam Perks
The Extinction Device
Excerpt from Federation Property Deed: 296718
...(and) deck 38b of Federation Scientific Research Space-Station Orpheus shall be entrusted to the Draconian Empire, for use by their Ambassador, Individual 398764251, Smith, John (Dr)…
...signed by Federation Supreme Senator, date: 978 / 6654 / 42 / 000001.
This document shall be immediately logged within the Federation database (subdirectory; acts; 000001; internal property sanctions), and all new acts passed by the Supreme Senate shall be taken into immediate account.
* * *
As the Doctor walked briskly through the gleaming corridors of the Orpheus, ever aware of the Arcturan’s cold metal probe dangerously near his behind, he reflected on how quickly the past two months had passed.
He turned a corner where he had welded a thick clump of pipes and cables onto one of the scanner access ports. There were little personal touches like that all over this deck. It had become like a home away from home (from home) for him.
He could hear the Alpha Centaurian’s shrill warble behind his left ear, whining at the Arcturan for moving too fast. The Doctor could sympathise as the probe once again prodded him in the rear.
Rounding a corner, a huge pair of doors came into view, and the Doctor quickly stepped to the left before stopping.
“You will open this door,” the Arcturan grated, its tinny voice like nails falling down a gutter.
The Doctor went over the little speech in his head and placed his eye to the retinal scanner. The doors burbled happily before whooshing open with a little hiss of compressed air. He leapt out the way as the Arcturan went tearing in like an out-of-control shopping trolley.
It had taken half a day to install that retinal scanner on the airlock and the other thirty-two hours to weld the VR chamber onto the other side. The head scientist had kicked up a huge fuss, so the Doctor had filed all his reports wrong and kept the pedantic fool busy long enough to get all this done. If anyone gave filing precedence over safety, they deserved to be taken advantage of.
The Doctor stepped in after the Alpha Centaurian had waddled through, its head blowing up like a balloon as it tried to get its breath back. The Doctor scanned the horizon for the Arcturan. It appeared to be about two hundred metres away by now, thanks to the VR effect; in fact it was only about two.
The door closed behind them, the chamber’s primary program activated, and suddenly they were standing in the iridescent glow cast by uncountable billions of stars.
It was the centre of the Universe, and the view was quite good.
The entire thing spun around them, multitudinous galaxies throwing a pale light over the group. The Doctor walked through a galaxy to get closer to his guests. The Alpha Centaurian had gone a peculiar shade of purple and now sounded like a purring Viridian reptile cat. The Arcturan was still trying to scoff but failing miserably. The Doctor saw his opportunity and wasted no time launching into his spiel.
“Welcome, delegates, to the Infinity Chamber. A real time representation of the entire Universe. It works by tapping into the natural data streams that structure the Universe. Each one is like a cornerstone, containing all the information in the entire area. Like DNA from a carbon-based life form. We used to make them back home.”
He appreciated the effect it was having on them, watching the entire Universe like this. He decided perhaps now was the time to narrow their view.
The Doctor walked into the centre of one patch of galaxies. “Zoom.”
It clicked and focused in. He walked into the centre of a particular galaxy and repeated the command. Once again, with a slight click, the view changed and they were watching the Milky Way. He crouched slightly (he’d have to adjust the user height soon), peering through the clouds of stars to locate one tiny little blue one in particular.
He reached out for the newfound star, holding it between his thumb and forefinger, before withdrawing it from the rest of the galaxy. “Clear.” The rest of the stars vanished and he let go of his. It entered the centre of the room. “Zoom.”
The chamber rushed in to reveal a star system. The model rotated at the Doctor’s command, so they could all see the system in detail. “Watch,” he said.
“What for?” asked the Arcturan, regaining some of his arrogant composure. He trailed off when he actually got a good look.
The solar system was metal. The entire thing was glinting with the blue light of the sun, which was the only thing that didn’t look artificial. Filling the space were satellites, artificial constructions, metal devices that expanded spherically from one of the planets until they reached the farthest of the seven. They moved outward in layers, millions of them. There were gaps in them for each planet, and the star, but that was it.
The planets were quite small, smaller than the Doctor remembered. They were all covered in metal, in various styles. One was almost built completely out of circuitry it seemed, and the Doctor thought it had been turned into a giant factory, as had two of the other planets.
Another three were giant weapons systems, with engines and shields. The cracks in the skin pulsed with the same blue light of the star.
The last one, though (the one the Doctor eventually focused in on), convinced the Federation delegates that they had seen enough of the rest of the System. It was smaller than the weapons planets, bigger than the factories and about the same size as he remembered.
It was also different from the others in that it served no purpose beyond being a home. It too was covered in metal but of a different sort, surrounded by glinting force fields and shrouded with a thick blue mist. The oceans had been severely reduced, and were the same metallic grey as the landmasses. Covering the landmasses were huge clear plastic domes, formed of tessellating hexagons. The group in the chamber tried to peer through, but they could only discern vague movement.
The Doctor knew that to the other two it would look chaotic, like a scrabble of insects, but to him it looked almost beautiful. Then again, his people had always been uncomfortably close in nature to this particular species. There was a definite order to the movement, a complex pattern in which it was working. Like currents and eddies in the shape of the land.
The Doctor was light-headed this close to the planet, dizzy and uneasy. He’d recorded the same effect during his last usage of the Chamber. Time was broken around the planet, like the inhabitants had smashed a hole in it with a hammer. The shards had all been connected together, like a web, only they were suddenly too big to fit the right way, as if Time had been put back together improperly and bits were still moving around to fit in. What worried him most was the nature of the spider at the centre of this particular web; its control over time in this area was impressive but was also gradually fracturing time further around it, the effect spreading to the rest of the System. His beard uncurled for a moment.
“Where is this?” The Arcturan’s voice jarred his mind back to the present, but the Doctor knew that the alien already had the answer.
“Nova Mondas.” The Doctor looked in surprise at the Centaurian. Judging from her putrid shade of grey he hadn’t expected her to be able to talk for at least a few hours. “That’s right." The Doctor decided to carry on with the demonstration and gave another voice command. “Play recorded event No. 42.”
The Chamber spun around them again, placing them at the edge of the solar system. The Doctor pointed into space behind them, and they watched as a vast space hulk careened towards them. It was dead, with no crew or power, only running off its own momentum. However, as it approached the outer layer of satellites, both activated. The satellites generated tiny pinpricks of light, and the spaceship glowed. The ship gradually started to break apart, reforming, changing shape and turning into more satellites. The outer net drifted apart to make room for three new modules. The Cybermen had just gained some more weapons.
The whole thing then spun around again and they gained a new perspective. They’d changed solar systems and were now focusing on a collection of strange black spheres in space.
The Doctor hadn’t given any further instructions. One of the Chamber’s security systems must have been tripped. He examined the new area and was surprised to note he’d been there only a few weeks ago. It was the area of space belonging to the Omnisci.
The chamber changed focus. There were three satellites, like the ones they had seen around Nova Mondas, approaching the Spheres. These were obviously ships too. It must be multi-functional technology, with incredible adaptability and technological sophistication, to be able to manually override alien computer systems from a distance and travel at such phenomenal speeds. And, the Doctor noticed with some dismay, it was invading Federation space.
He hadn’t expected this so soon. There was so much work he hadn’t done! He watched as the Spheres fired projectiles and approached the ships. The missiles reformed before they had even got halfway, changing their design, puncturing the Omnisci force fields on redirection. They destroyed a huge chunk of the Spheres, and the Spheres began to bleed a milky-white substance.
The ships' other weapons couldn’t get through, and they couldn’t break the defences in any other way. The Omnisci were safe, for about an hour. The Doctor looked at his shaking hands and realised he’d gone the same colour as the Alpha Centaurian. The Cybermen were attacking, and he wasn’t ready.
***
"Nick," Falex whispered out of the corner of his mouth as Nick buttered a piece of toast. "What is this thing?"
Nick had been trying not to think about that. He and Falex had tripped downstairs this morning to find EnalcKarnip had acquired something new for the shop. It looked like a giant, hairy spider and its black legs, spreading and drifting throughout the entirety of the shop, were easily tripped over. They were using the main body of the spider as a table, for lack of any other flat surface to place their breakfast on.
EnalcKarnip himself bustled past, muttering. "Why I bought this thing I don't know," he grumbled, poking at one of the legs, which happened to be in his way. "If we don't sell it soon, I don't know what we'll do with it..."
"Make a merry-go-round?" Nick suggested sotto voce to Falex. The boy stifled a laugh and stole the piece of toast Nick had just laid on his plate. Nick scowled at the unrepentant Falex and resignedly picked up another piece to butter for himself. His thoughts drifted, wondering where the hell the Doctor was this time. He'd been wondering that more and more the past couple months, as the Doctor was hardly ever at the shop anymore. Always building something out in space, or making peace between two alien races whom could be useful to the Federation. It made Nick nervous. What could scare the Doctor so much he'd take such measures to strengthen the Federation?
The Martians? The Cybermen?
Nick didn't want to think about it. Not until after he'd had his breakfast anyway.
He was just about to shove the toast into his mouth when the shop door burst open and the Doctor strode directly over to EnalcKarnip, now in the corner and dusting off some sort of metallic statue that Nick hadn't had a chance to get a good look at yet. The Doctor was carrying a pile of stuff; Nick couldn't make out what any of it was; some was technological-looking, with blinking lights, and some were fabrics, or perhaps even jewellery.
"More merchandise!" the Doctor boomed with a grin that didn't quite reach his eyes, dumping it all into EnalcKarnip's arms. He turned to Nick and Falex. "Hello!" he called and collapsed next to Nick onto what appeared to be a giant silver thimble. He picked up the piece of toast Nick had been about to eat and took a big bite out of it. "Sorry I've not been about lately, Nick; things have been afoot. I'm sure you understand. However, now I need your help."
"Oh yeah?" Nick asked warily, glumly watching his toast disappear into the Doctor's mouth.
"Oh yes," the Doctor nodded vigorously, brushing crumbs out of his greying beard. "The Cybermen have started their war."
Nick's heart stopped beating for a moment. "What?"
The Doctor glanced at Falex's anxious face, smiling reassuringly, before returning his focus to Nick. "They've attacked the Omnisci - have you heard of them? One of the Federation members. Odd sort of people, with some rather unique abilities. There's a group of Federation fighters about to set off for the Spheres - where the Omnisci live - to help the people out." The Doctor leant forward. "I'm going, of course. You don't have to come with me, Nick. This is going to be dangerous. But I would like you come with me."
Nick paused, studying the Doctor's face and thinking. The Cybermen frightened him in a way nothing else could, and yet the Doctor was asking him to come on this mission. He knew it had to be something important. And he couldn't let the Doctor down. Nick took a deep breath and said, "Yeah, all right, Doctor. I'll go with you."
The Doctor's face brightened, the grin even reaching his tired eyes this time, and bounded off his thimble. "Then let's be off!"
Nick blinked. "Now?"
"No time like the present, Nick! The fighters are all ready to go; they're just waiting for us to arrive. We mustn't waste any time."
Nick nodded, disoriented by the sudden rush when he hadn't had any particular plans for the day. I didn't even get my breakfast, he thought but obediently stood up and turned to Falex. "You be good, all right?" he said and hugged the boy. "We'll be back soon, Falex mate, I'm sure."
Falex nodded seriously, holding back his many questions for once.
"Goodbye, EnalcKarnip!" The Doctor shook the man's hand, swept Falex into a bear hug, and dragged Nick out of the room.
"Bye!" Nick shouted as the door of the shop closed behind them.
* * *
"The Cybermen have attacked the Spheres," the Doctor repeated patiently to Nick. "Those are the Omnisci's home, their habitat. Big, black things, float in space."
"Right," Nick said, "you told me that. But why?"
He and the Doctor were standing on one of the five combat ships that were currently flying at an incredible speed toward these Spheres the Doctor kept going on about. It was the first chance Nick had had to pin the Doctor down and get him to tell Nick what the hell was going on since they'd left the shop earlier that morning.
"The Omnisci are very advanced in the field of bio data," the Doctor explained. Nick had pulled him aside in a short corridor, and now they were trying to stay out of the way of any crewmember that might occasionally stride past. "They can alter their bio data at will, and they're linked into a morphogenetic field."
"A morpho-what?"
The Doctor sighed. "Every species has a sort of link, a genetic template, from which all their characteristics are drawn. Within any ecosystem or biome, these 'morphic fields' will mesh into one complete morphogenetic field."
"So," Nick said slowly, "they've replaced the natural morphic field they had with a morphogenetic one?"
"Yes," the Doctor smiled, "very good."
"Which field?"
"What?"
"Which field have they replaced it with?" Nick insisted.
"That doesn't matter, Nick. What matters is that the rest of the Federation doesn’t know why the Cybermen have attacked the Omnisci in particular. But," the Doctor ducked a look around the corridor in which they stood before leaning closer to Nick. Nick instinctively also stepped forward to catch the Doctor's whispered words. "I think it has something to do with the space/time vortex."
Nick drew back. "You what?" he asked, startled, then looked around guiltily. There was no one else in the corridor.
The Doctor put an arm around Nick's shoulders, drawing the young man closer. "The vortex stopped existing about a month ago," he said. "I've run every test I can think of, searching for it, but it's gone completely."
Nick's eyes widened in shock. How could something like that just disappear? No wonder the Doctor had been rushing about madly for the past few weeks. But wait a minute... "How'd you know to look?" he asked. It's not like you have a time machine anymore...
"My people built the vortex," the Doctor replied, "and somehow when this Universe was accidentally created, the vortex stayed in place. I could feel it disappear--I'm sure it has something to do with my Gallifreyan time senses. But that's not important either. The Cybermen had something to do with the disappearance of the vortex."
Nick scowled; sometimes it was impossible to follow the leaps the Doctor's mind took. "How do you know that?" he hissed.
"I just do," the Doctor answered unhelpfully.
"All right," Nick replied, "then what does this have to do with the Omnisci?"
"I don't know yet," said the Doctor. Nick stifled a groan of exasperation. "But why are the Cybermen starting their attack on the Federation with the Omnisci? Why not someone else, more powerful, more in the centre of things? It must have something to do with the Omnisci's unique abilities..."
Nick was about to answer when the lights suddenly dimmed, almost cutting out completely. Nick looked around, unnerved, wondering if the ship was being attacked or something else had happened to it. A voice--Nick recognized it as the captain's--spoke over the speaker system. "Everyone to battle stations. We are nearing the location of the Omnisci Spheres and cyber ships battle; prepare to engage the enemy. Repeat, everyone to--"
"Come on," the Doctor said, taking Nick's arm and pulling him in the direction of the bridge. Nick went along unwillingly, avoiding crewmembers that were running past in the half-light of the corridor.
"How long till we get there?" Nick asked, trying to sound merely curious and not panicked.
"Oh, with these engines going their full speed, we should be there in about twenty seconds," the Doctor answered cheerfully.
Nick winced. Fan-bloody-tastic, he thought to himself wryly. "And just how," he added aloud, "do you know that, Doctor?"
"Because," the Doctor answered with a modest smile, "I designed them."
* * *
The fighter ships warp space and time around them, creating little wormholes in the structure of the Universe to get through it faster. This is Omnisci technology, and the Doctor has spent three weeks with them to get it.
Suddenly the ships emerge from the hole, spewing out into ordinary space. In front of them is the spectacular vista of the Spheres, with their stellar computers and glittering gold force fields, surrounded by the cold blue light of the Cybermen’s propulsion engines.
The Cybermen have noticed they are there. One of the Federation ships activates its shields.
* * *
Bloody hell! Nick collapsed back into his seat. He hadn’t been expecting this. The Spheres were like huge black balls of slime, blobs of crude oil in space. There were about sixteen of them, of different sizes in a random pattern. Well, random to him at least. They were all linked together by things that looked like giant human spinal cords. His stomach felt queasy just looking at it.
The thing that really knocked him, though, was the presence of three, tiny stars floating around the Spheres. The stars were surrounded by force fields to stop them destroying the Spheres or anything else near them, and they were about football sized. Nick didn’t know what a football was, but he knew that was the size they were.
“Er, Doctor.”
“Yes, Nick?” the Doctor replied cheerfully.
“What the bloody hell are they?”
In retrospect the Doctor had instinctively known that Nick was talking about the stellar computers, because he had answered without hesitation or pointing. So he must’ve known that they were bloody impressive really, but he answered as though they were nothing unusual.
“Stellar computers,” he replied nonchalantly. “Why?”
Nick remained silent until he noticed something else.
“Doctor?”
“Yes, Nick?” The Doctor was getting a little irritable.
“Are we in their weapons range?”
The captain, a purple-skinned hairless creature with three faces, turned to face the Doctor as well. “Yes,” it garbled, “are we?”
“Of course we are, Nick; they've far superior technology to us. We were in their weapons range ten minutes ago, but they won’t attack us because we couldn’t possibly harm them. See?”
“So we are then.”
“Yes!” said the Doctor, thoroughly exasperated now.
“Right then,” said Nick, “I feel I should point something out.” He gestured to something on the screen.
The Doctor’s face fell. “Oh dear.”
“Bugger,” said Nick, “I thought so.”
There was a deafening crash, like thunder echoing in a canyon, as the weapon hit the force fields of the fighter ship Nick and the Doctor were on. A whole cacophony of voices started to pour out from the many mouths on the crowded command deck. Nick had sort of shut off with the loud noise; a human reaction, he supposed. Apparently they’d lost force fields and weapons systems.
A report started to crackle through on a speaker. Nick thought the reception was kind of tinny for a ship designed by the Doctor, until he realised it was just an Arcturan speaking.
“Distress! Distress! My ship has been destroyed! I am the only unit to have survived!”
Nick remembered all the Arcturan's had personal force fields. The screen at the front of the ship changed its view to show the wreckage of the destroyed fighter. At the centre was a squid-like exoskeleton, containing an Arcturan at the top. It was obviously an unusual design, built specially for space-combat. The wreckage started to reform itself, restructuring into a different design.
Even now the Cybermen were trying to control it. “I am activating my self-destruct mechanism. Stripping away safety layers from reactor core! Glory to Arctuurrrriiiiiisssss!”
The captain made a noise that sounded like it may have been swearing, and the ship lurched backwards just in time as a nuclear explosion tore open the space where the Arcturan had been. Nick felt his stomach jolt. The sheer force of the explosion had been incredible.
He couldn’t imagine anything more powerful than that. When he could see again, he realized he was wrong. The remains of the ship hadn’t been destroyed, only dissipated. They were relentlessly drawing themselves back together.
Suddenly the screen went blank and the control systems shut down. Nick had withdrawn into himself from the moment of engagement. Just observing the chaos. He felt ill. But he couldn’t just watch anymore. The deathly silence was threatening to burst his head open.
“What’s happened?” he asked.
“The Cybermen have taken control.” Nick didn’t recognize the voice that answered.
* * *
Excerpt From Federation Database:
The Spheres:
These artificial objects were the home of the Omnisci (see Federation Database File 0020040031). They were constructed, as nearly all Omnisci technology was, from organic material. The Spheres were living beings themselves, held together by a spinal cord and controlled by the Omnisci by artificial nervous systems running through their structure.
Due to the Omnisci reliance on their link to the morphogenetic field (see Federation Database file 012002043), each Sphere contained a carefully controlled eco-system, maintained by fully functional organic computers. They were powered by the other (see attachment) great Omnisci achievement, the stellar computers (see Federation Database File 1110020034).
For further information, select:
Location (Arcturan Co-ordinates)
Location (Federation Co-ordinates)
Population
Statistics
Properties
For related information, select:
Omnisci Technology I
Omnisci Technology II
Stellar Computers
Morphogenetic Fields
Federation Member - Species Profile
Archaeology reports: 9867 - 10024
* * *
Nick supposed they were lucky, having the ship’s designer onboard. The Doctor unplugged a maintenance port from the middle of the vessel’s deck. The systems were starting to come back online even before the Doctor began attempting to get control back. One of the pilots leaned over to grab a control and was killed by a lethal shock of electricity. His body went rigid and started to spasm with power as thick blue currents of electricity coursed over his flesh.
Nick watched in horror, his face strobe-lit by the flashes of light from the horrific sight. The power stopped, and the body was left charred in its seat, twisted and smoking with flesh cooked onto bones. The head was leering at him, the blackened lips pulled back over the teeth in a hideous smile.
Bloody hell, Nick thought. Bluh-dee hell. It was then that things started to get a bit psychedelic, as all the shapes and lights in the room started to change and reform. Things were eaten away and then reformed, collapsing and reforming, opening and closing like flowers at dawn and dusk.
The ship was starting to reform itself as the Cybermen redesigned it from a distance. Nick peered over a control bank to look at the Doctor and saw his friend trying to get back control. The Doctor held little drill-heads to his skull, activating by themselves and drilling into his head.
They must have connected directly to his brain. There were thin, black wires feeding from their ends down into the control point; and, as the Doctor winced, his mind entered the system and began fighting the Cybermen for control.
* * *
An Omnisci known as Roger was busily attempting to save the rest of his people from extinction. He was working as part of a massive crowd within the Engine Room, the only part of the Spheres to be built from what could be considered conventional technology.
The Engine Room was a mass of machinery with a huge cylinder shape cut out in the middle within which people could work. The ceiling was too far away to see, and it was big enough to have its own weather. They were attempting to get their escape engine functioning, but the task was proving difficult.
The engine was ready, but the navigation system wasn't. They didn’t want to wind up in the middle of a dwarf star. Roger noticed a little light flashing on one of the control systems. Apparently there were Federation ships nearby.
He moved to let them through the shields but was distracted when another Omnisci, who had no name (as the Omnisci didn't name themselves; Roger had acquired his name while away from the Spheres), intoned that all Roger’s Federation science couldn’t help them now. Of course, this other Omnisci was wrong, but his mocking tone did serve to draw Roger’s attention away for a few more moments.
* * *
An extract from the private journals of Nick, published after his death.
(Edited by Oolon Coloophid):
“…the Omnisci were really strange. They looked human at first, but then you noticed their skin looked sorta like clay, and it was really white. They looked as though you could punch one and it would've left a perfect impression of your fist in its body afterwards. They were completely hairless, and they didn’t seem to have any teeth or nails or stuff. They had a [lipless--Ed's note] slit for a mouth and big, black beads for eyes. Their noses were [crude and undefined], with little slits for nostrils.
"Their limbs looked funny [malformed] too, like there was something slightly skewed about them. And they only looked like they were [imitating] human movement, as though they didn’t have skeletons really. It was like children had made men out of clay, but didn’t really know what they were supposed to look like. And another weird thing: they didn’t have any [differences between men and women].”
* * *
The Cyber ship launches a new barrage of targeted projectiles. They scatter everywhere, but for the most part head with deadly accuracy toward the Federation fighters. The projectiles puncture the hulls of the ships, shells reforming around the entry wounds, scabs covering up damage done to skin.
Inside the ships each projectile bursts open, falling apart, revealing swarms of wasp-like drones. The drones immediately start flying throughout the ships, aiming for the crews and burrowing into the backs of the people's necks. The attack is so sudden most people don't even have time to scream in surprise.
* * *
There was a whoop from one of the crewmembers as it looked up from its console. "We have control again!" it cried from three different mouths.
Nick's knees went wobbly with relief, and he saw next to him the Doctor grinning in surprised delight and gently pulling the drill heads away from his skull. The Doctor opened his mouth to say something, but Nick was distracted. He could hear something--buzzing?--behind him. It didn't sound like any type of machinery he'd heard so far on the ship.
He turned around to look for the source of the irritating and disturbing noise and was horrified to see a swarm of tiny metal drones flying toward him. I hate insects crossed his mind irrelevantly even as he yelled out loud, "Arse! Someone close the door!" He stumbled backwards, away from the approaching metallic wasps.
The door slid shut just in time--he didn't see who triggered the control to lock it--but before Nick could feel relief, tiny dents appeared in the door. The drones hadn't stopped moving, impacting into the door instead. Nick dragged his eyes away, sickened.
The sight that greeted him on the scanner wasn't much better. It was from an internal camera of the corridor right outside the command deck. Crewmembers were sliding to the floor along the corridor, writhing in agony, as metallic ridges appeared beneath their skin and burst out.
They were becoming Cybermen, Nick realized. He tried not to gag. Nanites were spreading throughout those people, turning blue veins into black lines that curved exotic patterns along the peoples' bodies, and then their skin was bursting apart before being consumed by the nanites.
Some of the turned crew were already starting to stand up again, half-made skeletons of Cybermen, bodies still forming cybernetic organs to take the place of natural ones that had already been eaten. One of them held out its right arm and appeared to watch as the cables and machinery of its hand reformed into a gun. It aimed its arm and fired at the door in front of it, a bolt of energy arcing across the space.
Nick turned away from the view screen to stare dumbly at the reality of the gaping hole in the door. His eyes moved to the Cyberman who had fired at the door and watched in horrified fascination as the gun changed slightly to release a projectile.
That galvanized Nick into action, just in time, and he leaped out of the way as the projectile slammed into a control bank behind where he'd been standing an instant before. Nanites were released, but apparently these didn't know what to do without instantly entering a living body. They flailed around for a few moments before falling to the ground, shrivelling like raisins.
Nick stared, watching the entire process. The Doctor, meanwhile, was frantically working at a control panel, muttering to himself. "Come on come on..."
There was a shudder throughout the entire ship, making Nick stumble into the back of the captain's chair, and then the flight deck separated itself jerkily from the rest of the ship. The newly forming Cyberman and its fellows were left behind, on the other side of the holed door that now had a shield protecting it from vacuum. But Nick and the few crewmembers left on the bridge could still see the Cybermen, still see the new organs finish being formed and the protective outer shell running over and encasing the people in liquid metal.
"I'm gonna be sick," Nick announced.
* * *
"There's a ship coming!" Roger called; hoping somebody else would listen to him. "We must help it!" The only Omnisci who paid him attention, the one who'd mocked him before, snorted.
"Why should we?" he asked spitefully. "They'll die soon anyway."
Roger scowled at him. "I don't care," he said. "I don't agree with the plan! Besides," he added, "they could help us with the--the current situation."
Without waiting for an answer from the other one, Roger manipulated the Sphere's shields from his control panel, extending the shields around the small craft and pulling it into safety. He remotely opened one of the docking bays, and was so involved in his efforts he didn't see the other Omnisci glaring at him throughout.
* * *
Nick managed not to be sick. The Doctor distracted him, telling him to watch the screen (after changing the view to an outside look at the Spheres). "I still don't know exactly what you expect me to see out there," Nick grumbled to the Doctor, who was buried inside another of the control consoles, doing something inexplicable to it. A handful of crewmembers milled uncertainly, unsure what they could do to help.
"Got it!" the Doctor's muffled voice announced, and he pulled himself out of the console. A holographic model of their tiny ship and the Spheres appeared in the middle of the room, at first fading in and out before stabilizing. Nick turned to watch the hologram instead, finding the three-dimensional view much more interesting.
As he looked on, a part of one of the Spheres started to open up, and Nick could feel the Federation craft being dragged inside the larger ship even as he watched it on the holograph.
Nick blinked, and the holographic model disappeared. Simultaneously, the doors slid open, and the few people left on the flight deck ran outside. Nick roused himself to follow. He caught sight of a stranger greeting the Doctor, heard the Doctor cry in surprised delight, "Roger, I didn't know you were an Omnisci!" and then completely lost track of his friend when he took a good look at the ship he'd entered.
The place was huge. Huge. Bigger even, Nick thought, than the Doctor's TARDIS used to be. Cathedral-like walls, which didn't really appear to be walls but vines and tree trunks and other plant life instead, stretched up to disappear somewhere unseen above. The walls, floor and everything else were changing, too, constantly, almost too quickly for the eye to see.
"It's like watching a jungle on fast play," Nick muttered to himself. The floor was soft and springy, like grass; scattered throughout were what appeared to be actual, real-life furry (and not so furry) animals, the occasional giant mushroom or flower of some sort adding a splash of colour and variety to the scenery.
Where's the White Rabbit?
"Come on Nick!" the Doctor shouted, rousing Nick from his stupefied study of the Omnisci Spheres. Nick looked around, noticing that everyone else was already jogging out of this cavernous room and into another.
Nick ran after them to catch up.
* * *
He arrived last at their destination. He had fallen to the back of the running group, and now they were all dissipating into the melee to help.
The journey had been hard through the acid trip jungle. The landscape had kept reforming itself around them, and everything really was alive, including the trees and animals. They were all part of the same whole, the same integrated system. He didn’t know how he knew that, but he did, and he couldn’t help but feel that any moment now the Spheres were going to grow giant lymphocytes to get rid of the intruders.
What he saw now didn’t help his mental condition. There was a star in the middle of the room. A stellar computer. A star. Indoors.
There were some things a human mind was never meant to see. It was impossible to describe; Nick didn't even want to bother trying. He was actually taking steps up the evolutionary ladder just by watching it.
Bearing that in mind, he felt perfectly justified in having a sit-down.
* * *
The Doctor looked about. He hadn’t forgotten the Omnisci ability to change shape and form at will, but he had forgotten how impressive it was. The animal frenzy of their activity was quite dizzying. They were growing tails and claws and wings; changing size and shape, assuming characteristics from countless species, all to get around faster and do their job. It was very impressive, like a ceaseless tide of animal.
Roger was explaining things to him. The Doctor had already made sure Nick was safely nearby, and had pointed his human friend out to Roger.
Apparently the Omnisci had gotten an engine from somewhere, a propulsion device capable of folding space, like pulling a thread through the fabric of the Universe. They wanted to hop from one fold to another, but they had no functioning targeting system, so they didn’t know where they’d turn up.
They wanted to use their network of stellar computers as navigation beacons, but they were having trouble readjusting them for a secondary function. The Doctor nodded and sat down in front of a data-interface port, absorbing all the information again, with more detail.
He glided through reams of data. There were millions of stellar computers out there, permeating the entire galaxy. Some of these computers even had their own solar systems. They all functioned in a network, each one linking the morphogenetic fields of neighbouring ecosystems into itself.
Oh grief.
They had linked all the fields in the galaxy into one giant morphogenetic field. The Doctor was suitably impressed.
That must have been where the Omnisci had received their genetic information. It must be collated together somewhere, processed in another stellar computer to form a template. Gosh golly, Miss Molly.
The Doctor cleared his thoughts. It was irrelevant now. He set to work manipulating the systems.
* * *
Within the machinery in the engine room, things started to reorganise themselves. The Cybermen’s control virus had been transported aboard on the Doctor’s ship and had spread to the Omnisci computer systems. The organic computers were protected, but the Engine Room was currently having its infrastructure reorganized into a manufacturing device. A shame, what with the technological sophistication, but all the information was being processed by the virus for transmission. It would live on inside the Cybermen, and it would improve their race.
* * *
The Doctor laughed, a forced sound, because he wasn’t really happy. He was vaguely disappointed, actually, at how easy it had been to take control of the Omnisci systems. The navigation program was online.
He activated a massive hologram in the middle of the room, and the other Omnisci looked at it in surprise. One of them shouted out a question.
“Who did that?” He sounded impressed.
The Doctor started to power up the engine and began selecting target coordinates. He drew more and more of the Sphere's systems into his own data-interface terminal. He was giving himself almost complete control. Everything was ready; all he needed to do now was activate the engine and they would be off.
While the Doctor was busy congratulating himself on saving the day, the lights went off. There was a familiar buzzing sound; and while his eyes were still adjusting themselves to the dark, his brain already knew what to expect. Conversion drones, like the ones he’d seen on his ship earlier.
He could just about make out the small wasp-like dots now. They were flying all over the place in a mad swarm, attacking whoever they could find. Damn! He set about trying to regain control of the systems. Perhaps it wasn’t too late to save the people around him.
He was so focused he didn't even notice the people screaming.
* * *
Nick could hear the buzzing again as well, and he too knew exactly what that entailed. He pulled himself off the floor and started running again, aiming for the door through which he and the rest of the group had come earlier. His vision grew accustomed to the darkness, and now it was more than just a feeling that those damned wasp-like things were nearby; he could see them coming.
There was one now in fact, departing from its fellows who had aimed for the crowd of people near the main bank of machines. Nick reacted instinctively, yelling as he threw his hands up, as if that would somehow protect him from what was coming.
And then he was thrown to the ground, the wind knocked out of him. What the hell--? he thought dizzily and opened his eyes, trying to see what had happened.
Eyes were staring down at him, startlingly human-shaped and yet glinting and unblinking yellow, like a cat's eyes reflected in the darkness. Nick yelped in shock, trying to scramble away backwards while still sitting down.
A hand gripped his arm, and Nick found he couldn't move anymore. "Hush," a voice snapped barely audibly. "We don't know how those things find their targets. You might bring the whole lot down on us."
"Who the hell are you?!" Nick shouted. The unnerving glowing eyes narrowed into a scowl, and Nick took a deep breath, calming himself. "Who are you?" he asked again, more quietly.
"I'm Roger," the other--person--replied, barely above its breath. "I'm a friend of the Doctor's, just like you. Now, please don't shout again. We don't want to attract attention."
The hand clutching Nick changed; he could feel claws pricking at his skin now, rough fur brushing against the little hairs on his arm. Nick gulped. He felt himself being hoisted to his feet and then thrown over this Roger's shoulder, his chin banging into the figure's back.
"Next time, I'm staying home," Nick groaned as Roger ran out of the room, carrying him.
* * *
The Doctor didn't know what had happened to Nick or to Roger, but at the moment he was rather preoccupied with other business.
"So that's how they did it," he breathed to himself, standing back from his console for a moment to stare at the information there in amazement. The Cybermen had used an incredibly advanced virus to take control of the computers, one that was capable of taking over any system it came across within minutes--the virus that had, in fact, infected the Federation fighters. And it could jump from system to system too, if they were somehow connected or in close proximity to each other.
"Idiot!" the Doctor shouted to himself as another realization sunk in. He'd brought the virus with him! When his ship had docked with the Spheres, it had brought the computer virus along with it, like injecting a virus cell into a healthy human body.
The Doctor's face gained a determined look; instead of cursing himself for being a stupid fool, he would solve this. He had to find a way to shut down the drones, stop them taking over any more systems or people. They were constructed, according to the information he still had up on his console, from components already found here, so perhaps the control relays were still active, which would mean he could...
"Ha!" the Doctor cried in triumph as that incessant buzzing sound abruptly cut off and thousands of little thuds indicated the drones had ceased functioning. No time for self-congratulation, though; he had to restore shields and see if he could get the engine running, get the Spheres away from this place.
Shields came back online fairly easily, the Doctor was relieved to find, and he busily set himself to restoring the engine. He hadn't got very far, though, when he heard an odd metallic voice somewhere in the room behind him.
Cybermen.
"Oh no," the Doctor breathed, remembering. The drones had already infected people before he'd found a way to stop them.
At that point, partial lights came back on, throwing the vast room into a shadowy gloom. He could see a half-formed Cyberman, skeleton and organs with no skin, staggering upright, dozens of other former Omnisci following suit behind him.
The Doctor stood very still, surveying as much of the room as he could for the infected. The numbers were discouraging, but at least some Omnisci and crew from the fighter hadn't been converted. Three Cybermen were standing up by this point, holding their arms away from their bodies so that what had once been hands could dissolve away to form weapons. Their eyes flashed blue, targeting the few uninfected, who still stood--including the Doctor.
The new Cybermen held up their weapons, releasing darts into the air. The ones who hadn't already been converted fell to the ground, almost as one, nanites already starting to take them over. Only the Doctor remained standing. He stared unblinking at the Cybermen facing him. The first one who had stood up was almost fully formed now, skin rippling over muscles that had just slid into place like worms, interlaid with thick snaking coils.
He didn't feel anything. He looked down and noticed the gaping wound in his chest. Tiny silver maggots emerged from the projectile embedded in his wound, writhing rhythmically. It made the Doctor feel slightly nauseated to look at it.
He fell forward and blacked out.
* * *
Nick was trying very hard once again not to be sick. Human bodies were not meant to be flung around in pitch-blackness while slung over somebody else's shoulder, he decided. And he was fairly sure Roger had been doing some jumping down between levels or something as well, because what else could cause his stomach to leap into his throat and then down into his toes like that?
One more lurch that almost made Nick lose his precarious control, and then he blinked his eyes open to find the lights had come back on. He appeared to be a hundred feet from the ground, in free-fall halfway down a waterfall.
Waterfall? Nick was incredulous. Come on! I would've heard the water! Even over the blood rushing through me ears. But now that he listened, he still couldn't hear the water rushing down. Bizarre.
So here I am, falling down a silent waterfall while being held in the grip of a giant cat-man in some serious leather his mind tallied up his current situation. Life used to be so much easier...
Nick's stomach couldn't handle it anymore. He gagged, throwing up whatever contents his stomach had (very little, considering he'd missed breakfast). Only instead of falling down Roger's back, the natural thing that should have happened, it flew back up into Nick's face.
Nick gagged again and shouted "Arse!" as loudly as he could, batting at his face. The word was cut off in his throat, though, because he and Roger suddenly hit water. It was like slamming into a glass wall, freezing cold and almost instantly numbing his body. He flopped around in the water uselessly, unable to do anything to save himself.
Roger grabbed hold of Nick again, his form changing to something vaguely fishlike as he slung Nick over his back once more. He started swimming strongly to shore. Nick used the chance afforded him to lift his head out of the water and breathe. "Arse," he panted, shivering, gulping in as much air as he could as Roger climbed onto the bank and dumped him to the ground.
Roger was looking like a giant cat-man again, Nick noticed vaguely, but he was concentrating on breathing. So was Roger, judging by the deep breaths causing his chest to expand, and then suddenly he reverted to the standard Omnisci form.
Nick had a lot of questions to ask, top priorities being where the hell were they and what the hell was going on. He coughed out some water and wheezed, "How do your clothes change shape like that?"
Roger gave him a puzzled look and answered, "Intelligent molecules, of course. A sort of living cloth."
Nick nodded, coughed up some more water, and passed out.
* * *
The Doctor’s people had been very advanced in their control of time. They had created the space/time vortex and, as the Doctor had said earlier, almost wired themselves into it, using little machines in their cells to change their bodies to make them stronger and closer to the space/time vortex.
Another thing these machines did was help the occupant defend himself against attacks by other invading machines. They would reprogram the invaders by amplifying the brainwaves of the individual to give them control. Therefore, when the Doctor stood up again off the floor, the wound in his chest was knitting itself back together with the aid of the Cybermen’s nanites as he watched.
One thing that didn’t occur to him was that he was using his body just as the Cybermen used theirs. It was functioning as a machine to prolong his life and extend his power. Yes, the Doctor's people were sometimes uncomfortably like the Cybermen...
Both races had extended their lives with technology in order to give themselves more power, and both had wound up cutting out their emotions in the process. However, where the Doctor’s people wanted to keep their power in check, the Cybermen wanted to theirs to grow, by converting as many people as possible.
So when the Doctor awoke, after the exit of the Cybermen, and found his attention divided between his healing chest and another figure in the room, he was duly confused, thinking all the others had been infected. However, this figure was a fully formed and apparently unaffected Omnisci.
The Doctor attempted to commence an interrogation, but the Omnisci wasn't exactly cooperative.
* * *
The Doctor stared in horror at the face of the mad Omnisci standing in front of him. The Doctor couldn’t believe it. The Omnisci was just laughing, as if this situation were the funniest joke he'd ever heard. The Doctor could feel his belt against his midriff; a sure sign he was getting angry.
“When you built the network of stellar computers, and linked them up to all those morphogenetic fields, you found you could do more than that, didn’t you?”
The Doctor was just guessing, but the alien was still laughing. It was the laugh evil villains always had when their plan was going into action, the Doctor reflected. He continued with his guesswork.
“You found that they didn’t just link the fields, they could control them. They could manipulate the morphic field of an entire species, yes?”
“More.” The Omnisci managed to force out the word between his chortles.
The Doctor’s face contorted again. “What did you do?”
“We put in a new gene --hehehe-- a tripwire, for genetic death," he gasped out between laughs. "Each morphic field is in a constant state of change as new genetic potential is acquired, through evolution and crossbreeding --hehe-- and genetic experimentation --hah!” The Doctor realised there was something wrong with him. This was more than just villainous hilarity; there was something almost involuntary about the laughter. “As soon as enough change has occurred, the species will --hehe-- die.”
The look on the Doctor’s face was terrible. His eyes faded, their sparkle disappearing. “How many,” he asked through gritted teeth. “Which species?”
“Heh. All of them. Everything in this galaxy has about two weeks to live. Haha-haha!" The Omnisci grinned, laughing helplessly.
That was when the Cyberman walked in and shot them both with explosive charges.
* * *
Nick's eyes were already open before he realized he was awake again. And then he wished he hadn't realized--his head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and he was dizzy, and even though his eyes were open, everything was a blur.
Somehow he managed to drag himself to a standing position, and only then could he bring his eyes into proper focus. As soon as he did that, though, sparkles lanced across his view and he almost blacked out again. His head throbbed, protesting every time he moved it.
He blinked, trying to clear his vision again, and found Roger lying on the ground, curled around himself in pain. "What the--?" Nick asked in bemusement, staggering toward the fallen Omnisci in concern.
Only when he got closer did he notice the metallic patch on the back of Roger's neck. Nick froze, stunned, and then shook himself into moving again--away from Roger this time.
But Roger had heard Nick's movements, and he turned around, standing up in one smooth motion. He opened his mouth, metallic words spilling out. He started advancing toward Nick, repeating the same phrase over and over. "Target acquired, preparing to initiate conversion process. Target acquired, preparing..."
Nick knelt to the ground, frantically searching with his fingers for something to use as a weapon even as he kept his eyes locked on what had been one of the Doctor's friends. His hands found something, heavy and rough-textured--a log. Nick immediately swung it, smacking Roger across the head.
Roger fell to the ground.
Nick retrieved the log, ready to swing it again if he had to, but Roger spoke in his normal voice, making Nick pause. "Wait! Please, Nick, it's me!"
Nick was relieved to hear that voice, without the metallic overtone, but he wasn't ready to trust the Omnisci again yet. "You've been infected," Nick stated steadily, still holding the log at the ready.
Roger stared up at him, a pained look on his face, his entire body tensing in on itself. "I know!" he gasped. "I'm trying to...fight it..."
"How?" Nick asked. "Nobody else could resist those drones!"
Roger nodded. "I'm unique in that I can hold off the nanites," he said. "I have a-- synthetic nervous system. There was an...accident when I was away...from the Spheres once. The doctors didn't understand my physiognomy; they...implanted the system in me, and now my people can't--can't remove it." He let out an agonized groan that made Nick start back and swing the log up again in fear. "I'm sorry, Nick," Roger panted. "The nanites are winning, I think. As soon as I convert something back to what it should be...the nanites take over again..."
Nick took an unconscious step forward, wanting to help somehow. "What can I do--" he started.
Roger howled, and Nick dropped the log. "Arse arse arse!" he shouted as Roger regained his standing position. "Buggery bullocks!"
"Target acquired," Roger replied expressionlessly, "preparing to initiate conversion process." He raised an arm so that Nick could see the veins on his palm, black and criss-crossing each other. The flesh was puckering up, bizarrely like lips getting ready to make a fish face, and then it opened into five tiny suckers, as if Roger had turned into an octopus.
So that's how he'll give me the nanites, Nick thought numbly. He didn't bother trying to run. There was nowhere to go; he didn't know his way around this ship, and who knew what had happened to the Doctor?
Roger approached closer, and Nick found his survival instincts taking over again as he flung up his hands to protect his face. Roger easily pushed the hands out of his way before grabbing Nick's neck and locking it into place.
He moved his suckered hand toward the nape of Nick's neck. Nick squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath.
Next Episode:
Into the Vortex
CAST
Brian Blessed as The Doctor
Nick Pereira as Nick
Daniel Hogarth as Arcturan #1
Ian Richardson as EnalcKarnip
David Baker as "Jackal" Captain
Sally Wiget as Arcturan #2
Jonny Depp as Roger
Adam Perks as Crewmember
Philip Clarke as Omnisci #1
Simon Hart as Omnisci #2
Neil Chester as Laughing Omnisci
and
Haley Joel Osment as Rahlena Falex
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