Apollo 23 Page 17
Jackson drained his tea and set the cup down on the desk next to the glass phial still standing there. He rais ed the gun again. 'There will definitely be consequences,' he said.
'What doesn't our globby friend know?' Amy prompted.
The Doctor was smiling. 'He does n't know he's been tricked. He doesn't know that Professor Jackson isn't a Talerian at all. It's not us who are being held prisoner here...' He turned towards the shimmering blob. 'It's you.'
The Talerian swung round to stare accus ingly at Jackson.
'He's bluffing,' Jackson said. 'I boosted the signal and opened the pathway so you could bring in the attack force.
This is his last pathetic attempt to...'
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Jackson blinked rapidly several times, hesitating as if trying to find the right words. '... to confuse us. To turn us against one another.' He leaned forward glaring at the Doctor across the desk through his pale blue eyes.
'Yes?' the Doctor prompted. 'Something to tell me?'
'Only that your time is up. I told you that Jackson's mind is completely suppressed by my own.'
'So you did. I remember that.'
'And I have the back-up copy safely here.' He pointed at the small glass phial standing next to the cup on the desk.
'So you do. I can see that.'
'You mean that phial?' Amy said. She frowned. There was something about it, now she came to look. 'That empty phial’ she realised.
Jackson stared down at the little glass bottle. His eyes widened in shock and surprise.
Raraarg surged forwards. A glutinous hand snatched up the phial, holding it close to the Doctor's face as the slit-like mouth dribbled and spat. The creature's body shook with agitation.
'Where did it go?' the Doctor interpreted. 'Well, I would have thought that that was obvious.' He nodded towards the pale-looking Jackson. 'I put it in his tea.'
'All the time,' Jackson said quietly, in a voice that was somehow warmer and more emotional than before, 'every single moment, I knew what was happening. I tried to escape - to find ways out of the prison of my own mind. I managed to get control
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for long enough to transfer a tiny part of my own memory to Prisoner Nine. I hoped that way to warn you, Doctor. But it was like looking out through windows in my own head.
Windows...' He looked at the Doctor. 'Of course, that's the answer. I remember what you said, Doctor. Thank you. And goodbye.'
'No!' the Doctor shouted. 'No, no, no - don't do that!'
He reached across the desk, trying to grab Jackson as the man rose to his feet.
Raraarg moved quickly, despite its bulk. The Doctor was knocked sideways as the creature surged forwards. Globby arms lashed out, sending Jackson flying sideways. He crashed to the floor.
'Hold on to something!' the Doctor shouted to Amy.
She grabbed the side of a bookcase, welded to the wall.
'Why?'
'Just hold on tight!'
Raraarg was bearing down on J ackson. The man pushed himself backwards, scrabbling for the Talerian gun knocked from his hands when he fell. He found it, brought it up, and fired.
Not at the alien creatures about to strike at him. At the wide picture window behind the desk.
The glass exploded into fragments, which were immediately whipped away as air rushed out of the base. An alarm sounded. The teacup and empty phial on the desk shot out of the window as the air escaped. Books were torn from the shelves, papers whipped into a swirling frenzy.
The Talerian leader gave an anguished cry of anger 240
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and pain. Then it exploded like a balloon blown up too much. Glutinous, viscous fluid spattered across the room.
The plates of armour went flying.
Amy's hair was blowing round her face as she held tight to the end of the bookcase, struggling to brace herself in position despite the wind trying to drag her towards the window.
Across the room, Jackson smiled with satisfaction. Then he was gone, his body tumbled across the grey lunar surface, debris and detritus from the base following.
'Decompression alert!' Captain Reeve yelled as the sirens went off. 'Hold on!'
'Get the door closed,' Carlisle ordered. 'It'll slow the loss of air.'
In the corridor, the Talerians were swept off their feet by the sudden rush of air drawn through the base. They tumbled backwards. As the pressure dropped, their bodies started to swell. Then, like their leader, they exploded - hurlin g grey-green ooze down the corridor.
'Oh gross!' Carlisle said. She gave the door a final heave shut.
Throughout Base Diana, the same thing was happening to all the Talerians. With the doors locked open, the whole base depressurised as the air escaped. Atmosphere pumps struggled to keep up. Emergency systems signalled bulkheads to close - with no effect, thanks to Major Carlisle's earlier sabotage.
In Jackson's office, the Doctor was holding on to 241
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the edge of the heavy desk.
'Here - help me, Amy!' he yelled.
'I'm not letting go’ she shouted back.
But she was. She could feel her feet being dragged from under her. Fingers slipping on the metal.
'I'll catch you’ the Doctor promised.
She didn't have any choice. Amy's fingers finally lost their grip and she tumbled towards the window.
The Doctor's arm grabbed her as she flew past, draggin g her down behind the desk.
The whole desk was shifting now, dragged towards the smashed window.
'We' ll have to time this just right’ the Doctor shouted above the nois e of the rushing air. He was holding tight to one of the two support struts holding up the desk.
Amy nodded. She realised now what he was going to do.
She grabbed the other support strut. 'Count of three.'
The Doctor grinned. "Three!' he yelled.
At the same moment, they each lifted and flipped the desk over on its side. Caught in the outrush, the desk flew across the room, top surface first. The desk was bigger than the window. It slammed over the hole, sealing it tight. The pressure held the desk incongruously in place, as if it had been glued to the wal.
The Doctor dusted his hands together. 'Result’ he said.
'One nil to the good guys’ Amy agreed, still gasping for breath. 'We should get to the canteen.'
The Doctor grinned. 'Just as soon as I've sealed 242
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this room s hut and turned off the homing beam that Jackson's equipment is broadcasting. Then, cinnamon buns here we come, oh yes indeed.'
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Chapter
25
'Without the quantum link,' said General Walinski, 'Base Diana is unsustainable.'
'To be honest, I'm amazed it worked as long as it did’ the Doctor told him. 'The whole thing was incredibly unstable.
Could have failed at any moment.'
The Doctor and Amy were in Walinski's office with Candace Hecker and Agent Jennings.
'You managed to get the quantum displacement systems working long enough for you and Miss Pond to get back, I see’ Agent Jennings said.
'Something like that’ Amy agreed.
'And Pat Ashton is due to splash down in a couple of hours’ Candace said. 'He's a bit low on oxygen, but he'll be fine.'
'We'll have to put together another mission to bring everyone back’ Walinski said. ' Shame they couldn't all come back with you.'
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'They were a bit busy’ Amy said. 'We just snuck out.'
'Left them to tidy up, check the base is airt ight again, do the washing up’ the Doctor said. 'Oh, and dismantle Jackson's equipment, too, before anyone gets the idea it can be salvaged and tries to get it working again.'
'So how do we get them back?' Jennings wanted to know.
'Can we rely on your help again, Doctor?' asked Candace.
'Oh you know what it's like - things to do, people to visit.
Invading aliens to s ort out. But I' ve got some notes you can have on how to adapt one of the decommissioned space shuttles for the flight to the moon. And I'll pop in if I get a chance.'
'Why do I feel that's a snub?' Candace said.
'You' ll manage’ the Doctor told her. 'You' ll do magnificently.'
'What are you going to do with the prisoners?' Amy asked. 'They don't deserve to be shipped off to another world like that. It's like deportation all over again.'
Jennings said: 'Most of them are due for release anyway under the President's new plans. It was Jackson's influence
- or rather his alien counterpart's - that kept them up there.
The others, well I'll make sure they're dealt with fairly.
They'll be properly treated, I assure you.'
"They'd better be’ the Doctor said. 'I'll be watching.'
I believe you, Doctor.'
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'I know you want to be on your way’ Walinski said, ' and no doubt you have your own reports to write and forms to fill in.'
'No doubt’ the Doctor said.
'But we will need to debrief you both thoroughly. Could take a while, I'm afraid. And I think we all have some pretty searching questions. Obviously I'll clear it with your superiors. Which Agency did you say you were with again?'
The Doctor and Amy exchanged glances. 'Tell you what’
the Doctor said, 'why don't we get ourselves some coffee or something and we'll be right back.'
Jennings' mouth twitched into a smile beneath his ever-present dark-tinted glasses. 'No problem. I think we could all do with a short break.'
'Bye then’ Amy said. 'For now, I mean.'
'Yes’ the Doctor said. 'Bye for now. It's been... real.'
Candace got coffee for the others while they waited for the Doctor and Amy to return.
'So what's with that blue cupboard he had brought in?'
Walinski asked.
'I didn't see it’ she admitted. 'But I did hear a funny noise -
did you? Like a rasping, grating sound.'
'Sort of wheezing and groaning?' Walinski said. 'We heard that. I think it came from outside. There's a window open somewhere. It blew some papers across the office.'
'Except’ Agent Jennings said slowly, 'this is a secure building. None of the windows open.' He took his glasses off and gently rubbed the bridge of his nose where they had been resting. 'You know, I'm not
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sure we're going to see those two again.'
'What makes you say that?' Candace asked. 'Just a feeling’
he said. 'At the back of my mind.'
He smiled suddenly. 'And I've read the UNIT files.' It struck Candace that she'd never seen Agent
Joinings' eyes before. She'd expected them to be as dark and colourless as the lenses of his glasses. But in fact they were a bright, cheerful green.
248
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