Doctor Who: Fury From the Deep (8 page)

'All right, Mr Robson,' called van Lutyens, breaking the silence. 'Where do we go from here?'

Robson was staring in disbelief at the giant pump. He refused to reply or even look at the Dutchman.

Van Lutyens persisted. 'Well, come on! You have all the answers, don't you?'

'Quiet! Everyone!'

The Chief Engineer had his ear pressed up against the perspex case of the Impeller Housing Unit. Robson and the others joined him.

'What is it?' asked the Dutchman in a hushed voice.

The Chief Engineer closed his eyes whilst he tried to listen.

Without turning, he said, 'I think I can hear something...

Frank Harris's face was ashen-white with distress as he held the lifeless body of his wife in his arms.

Victoria and Jamie were anxiously watching the Doctor examine Maggie with his stethoscope. Victoria swallowed hard, then plucked up courage to ask timidly, 'Is she - dead?'

The Doctor removed his stethoscope. 'No, she's not,' he replied.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, especially Harris. 'Then what's the matter with her?' he asked.

'She's in some sort of coma,' said the Doctor sternly. 'Possibly because of that gas.' He removed the stethoscope from his ears, then looked Harris straight in the face. 'It was toxic.'

Harris was shocked. 'That's impossible,' he said. 'Natural gas isn't toxic.'

"This wasn't natural gas. It's the same sort of gas we found when Victoria was locked in the Oxygen Room.'

Harris was even more puzzled. 'But where could it have come from?'

'That's what I'd like to know,' muttered the Doctor, taking a quick, suspicious look around the room. Then he resumed his examination of Maggie, pulling open one of her eyelids to see if there was any sign of movement in the lifeless, staring pupil. 'What exactly did she say happened to her?' he asked.

'Something about being stung by a clump of seaweed.'

To anyone else, Harris's reply would have sounded absurd, bizarre. But not to the Doctor, Jamie, or Victoria, who all reacted with a simultaneous look at Harris.

'Seaweed!' said Jamie, turning suddenly from the smashed window.

'I asked Maggie to get a file from my study. Apparently she found the seaweed on top of it.'

'A curious place to find such a thing,' remarked the Doctor carefully. 'Did you put the seaweed there, Mr Harris?'

Harris took exception to this. 'No! Certainly not!'

The Doctor did not pursue the point. He decided instead to resume his examination of Maggie. 'There don't appear to be any marks or abrasions.'

'Doctor!'

Everyone turned to look at Victoria, who was cowering from something on the floor nearby. It was a small clump of seaweed.

'Seaweed!' said Jamie, stooping down to take a close look at the clump. 'What's it doing here?'

Harris gently lowered his wife back onto the bed, then joined the others, who were all cautiously watching the seaweed clump.

'It's still quite wet,' observed the Doctor, studying the clump from all angles.

'Perhaps this is what Maggie was talking about,' said Harris, stooping down to pick up the intruder.

'No! Don't touch it!' yelled the Doctor, grabbing Harris by the shoulder and yanking him back.

'Why?' said the astonished Harris.

'Your wife said she was stung by a clump of seaweed, remember?'

Harris swung a look of incredulity at the clump.

'Furthermore,' continued the Doctor. 'I have a feeling that whoever put that seaweed on top of your file meant you to touch it.'

'Me?' Harris brushed his usual lock of hair from his eye. 'Wait a minute,' he said, suddenly remembering something. 'I was sure I put that file in my briefcase this morning, but it wasn't there when I went to get it. I was on my way home to collect the file, but I met Maggie and... ' He stopped, turned to look at the clump. 'But why?

Why should anyone want me to get stung by a piece of seaweed?'

'I hate the stuff. It's so, slimy and horrid.' Victoria stood well back from the clump. She was still chilled by the memory of her encounter with the Seaweed Creature.

'Och,' said Jamie, teasing Victoria, 'you've seen plenty of seaweed before. The beach near the pipeline was crawling with the stuff this morning.'

'Yes,' replied Victoria, her gaze transfixed on the wet, slimy clump on the floor. 'And that moved too. Just like this one.'

Jamie's eyes widened with horror. '
Moved?
'

Everyone was now staring at Victoria.

No-one was standing around idly in the Impeller Area. The place was buzzing with activity, with engineers rushing in and out, checking and adjusting every control valve in sight.

'I want them all checked!' The Chief Engineer was yelling out orders to all the men around him. 'Every remote-controlled release valve on the line. Check and double-check the circuits!' Crewmen bustled to their individual jobs, one of them colliding with van Lutyens as he hurried into the area.

'Chief!' called the Dutchman, who was carrying a rolled-up technical diagram under his arfn. 'This impeller is still not working?'

'Not yet, sir!'

'What about the noise you heard in the pipeline? Have you heard it again?'

'No, I haven't sir,' replied the Chief, then added unconvincingly, 'Mr Robson was probably right. It's just a mechanical fault somewhere.'

The Dutchman cringed. He just refused to believe that someone as skilled as the Chief Engineer would accept such a basic theory. 'And you believe that?' he said.

The Chief Engineer avoided van Lutyen's glance, then answered awkwardly, 'It's not really my job to question someone in authority, sir.'

Van Lutyens sighed despondently. 'Chief, could you come outside for a moment? I'd like a word with you in private.'

The Chief hesitated, nodded, then followed van Lutyens out into the Control Hall.

'I've been studying the layout of the installation,' said the Dutchman quietly, 'and in particular, the impeller intake. I think I know where the blockage may be.' He found the nearest available table, and spread out the technical diagram he was carrying. It showed the complete layout of the impeller intake system. 'Look here,' he continued, indicating a specific set of valves on the diagram.

'This valve at the base of the main shaft: it leads directly into the intake. Is that correct?'

The Chief Engineer studied the diagram briefly, then nodded.

'Yes, sir.'

'Now as far as I can see, there's no other point between that valve and the Control Rig which could cause a blockage sufficient to stop the impeller.'

'Apart from the undersea emergency valves, sir.'

Van Lutyens took a quick look at the Chief. 'But you have remote-control observation of those, and they're free - yes?'

'Yes.'

Van Lutyens took a red pen from out of his pocket. 'Then the main impeller valve is obviously the fault?' On the diagram he drew a red circle around the offending valve.

'It's possible, sir,' replied the Chief without committing himself.

'Possible!' Van Lutyens was losing his patience with the Chief.

'Look, man, it's the only answer. What we've got to do is get down there and clear that valve.'

The Chief Engineer hesitated. 'I'd have to check with Mr Robson to do that, sir.'

'Robson! Robson!' exploded the Dutchman, quickly rolling up the diagram again. 'What are you all, children or something that you can't do anything on your own initiative?'

'I'm sorry, sir. I can't send men down that shaft without Mr Robson's approval.' The Chief turned his back on the Dutchman, and hurried off towards the impeller area. Van Lutyens followed him.

'And can you not also blow your own nose without approval?'

yelled the Dutchman.

The Chief Engineer replied from the door of the impeller area, but he did not raise his voice. 'Now, listen to me, Mr van Lutyens.

I've worked with Mr Robson a long time. We were out on the rigs together in the early days. Now, you may think he's wrong to run the place the way he does - that's your privilege. But I trust him. I take orders from him simply because I respect his judgement, and for no other reason.'

Van Lutyens had to respect the Chief Engineer for the honest way he had spoken, and felt slightly ashamed of his own outburst.

After the Chief had returned to the impeller area, van Lutyens hesitated for a moment, then followed him.

'All right Chief,' said the Dutchman, in a calm, more compromising approach. 'At least go to Robson and tell him where we think the blockage is. Get his official permission to inspect the base of shaft.'

The Chief was quick to reply. 'With respect, sir, that's your theory, not mine.'

'But it's the
only
possibility!' Van Lutyens suddenly realised that without the sound of the giant impeller, his voice could be heard by everyone around him. He quickly drew closer to the Chief, and spoke quietly. 'Look. Those voices you heard. They couldn't have come from anywhere but the base of the shaft.'

The Chief was finding it hard to come up with a rational explanation. 'If the main valve was open, they could have been echoes from any one of the rigs.'

'Yes,
if
it is open,' said the Dutchman fervently. He was practically whispering straight into the Chief's ear. 'But you don't know, and you won't know until you check!'

There was a pause. For once, the Chief had no answer. He turned around to see all his crewmen looking at him, as though waiting for him to make some kind of positive decision. 'Well,' he finally spoke, rubbing his chin anxiously, 'I suppose I could put it to Mr Robson...

Van Lutyens sighed with relief and hope.

'But I'm warning you, he's not going to take kindly to...'

'Listen!' Van Lutyen's voice silenced the Chief immediately.

Everyone stopped what they were doing.

They could hear a sound. It was only a faint, distant sound. But it was certainly there, gradually gaining in volume. Thumping. Like a heartbeat.

Everyone automatically looked up at the pipeline tube. The thumping sound was echoing inside, as though something was trapped there, trying to get out.

Van Lutyens and the Chief Engineer went straight to the edge of the impeller shaft, and looked down. The sound they could hear was clear, sharp, and threatening. 'Don't tell me that's a mechanical fault!' said the Dutchman in a tense, strangulated whisper.

'Chief!' Robson's voice boomed out from the open doorway.

'What the hell's going on here?'

The Chief turned with a start. "That noise in the impeller, sir.

It's started again. I think we should go down and check the main valve.'

'Oh, you do, do you?' Robson walked slowly towards the Chief, then stopped just in front of him. 'Why?'

'That's where we think the blockage is, sir.'

Although Robson was glaring at the Chief, it was really directed at the Dutchman. 'We?'

Van Lutyens stepped forward defiantly. 'Robson, there's something alive down there in that pipeline!'

'Alive?' Robson pushed the two Men aside, looked down the impeller shaft, and listened.

There was absolute silence. No thumping. No heartbeat.

Robson turned to the Dutchman, and looked at him as though he was mad. 'You're out of your mind. There's nothing down there!'

The Chief quickly interceded. 'I promise you, sir, I did hear something... '

Robson ignored the Chief, and directed his fury towards the Dutchman. 'Van Lutyens, I'm warning you! You're stirring up my men, and they're behaving like a bunch of hysterical schoolgirls!

Now get out of here!'

'Listen!' Van Lutyens was staring up at the pipeline tube.

'There it is again!' said the Chief, almost too afraid to hear the sound of his own voice.

Robson was ready to explode with anger at both men. 'Did you hear what I - '

'Shut up!' yelled the Dutchman, swinging around suddenly on Robson. 'Now,
listen!
'

Everyone gathered around the edge of the impeller shaft. As they listened, the thumping sound returned. Soon the pipeline tube was reverberating with the alien sound. Thumping. Pulsating.

Bubbling. Closer and closer. Louder and louder.

There was shock and fear on the faces of everyone who was peering down the huge shaft.

It's down there,' said the Dutchman, his voice barely a whisper.

'In that pipeline... in the darkness... waiting...'

The massive heartbeat was pumping furiously.

6

'No, Jamie! Don't touch it!' The Doctor was determined not to take any chances with the clump of seaweed, which was still nestling on the floor of Harris's bedroom.

'Och, why not?' said Jamie, his hand poised above the clump.

'It's only an odd bit of seaweed.'

'Maybe so. But if it did move, like Victoria said...'

Jamie withdrew his hand, and straightened up. 'How can a bit of seaweed move? It's not a living thing - is it?'

The Doctor twitched his eyebrows. 'Everything in the sea is living, Jamie.'

'I'm quite sure it moved,' insisted Victoria. After all she had been through with the seaweed creature, she was keeping well clear of the alien clump. 'It gave me a terrible fright. It was like a giant spider.'

'Well, we'd better not take any chances,' said the Doctor.

Whilst he was talking, he took out of his inside jacket pocket a small polythene hag. 'Here, Jamie.' He shook out the bag, and gave it to Jamie. 'Hold this for me will you, please?'

Jamie was puzzled, but took the bag and held it open. 'What's it for?'

The Doctor stooped down to the seaweed clump. 'I think we'll take a closer look at this.' From another pocket, he took out a pencil, which he used to pick up the clump. 'Hold the bag down here, Jamie.

Mind your fingers!'

Jamie held the rim of the bag wide open, and the Doctor carefully dropped the clump into it. 'What are you going to do with it, Doctor?' he asked.

The Doctor took the bag from Jamie. 'I'm going to find out if an ordinary piece of seaweed really can move.' He tied a knot in the bag, then held it up to take a closer look. The seaweed specimen did look a bit as Victoria had described it: like a huge spider curled up in a heap.