Doctor Who: Fury From the Deep (11 page)

The ventilation grille above Robson was wide open, and the first few blobs of white foam were beginning to appear.

Robson was struggling to move, but his entire body felt like marble, as though he were paralysed.

Soon, the blobs of white foam became a deluge, bursting open the grille with a loud crash.

Robson tried to shout out, but it was taking all his effort to even open his lips. Blobs of white foam were cascading down onto him.

The sound in the room was now deafening. Thumping.

Pulsating. Bubbling. The heartbeat! Gradually, through the mass of white foam there emerged the long, curling tendrils of the Weed Creature, stretching down closer and closer towards Robson's face...

In the corridor outside, Harris was about to knock on the door of Robson's cabin. But he stopped dead as he heard Robson's piercing scream echoing out from inside the room.

'Mr Robson!' shouted Harris, banging on the door. 'Mr Robson, what is it? What's going on?'

'Help me!' Robson was calling frantically, banging on the other side of the door. 'Let me out of here!' He screamed again.

Harris desperately tried to open the door. It was locked. But the key was still in the lock, so he quickly turned it. No sooner had he done so than Robson pulled open the door. There were small blobs of white foam clinging to his clothes, and he was trembling with fear as he clutched his face. 'My face!' he spluttered. 'It touched my face!'

Harris was horrified. 'Mr Robson...' But Robson pushed him out of the way and rushed down the corridor in panic shouting, 'It touched my face!'

Harris called after him. 'Mr Robson! Wait! I need your permission to send two men down the impeller shaft...' He was wasting his time. Robson had disappeared through the door leading to the outer Compound area.

Harris, totally shocked and bewildered, brushed the lock of hair from his eye. Then he turned to look at the door of Robson's cabin, and cautiously went inside.

The sight that was awaiting Harris in Robson's cabin, was one which he would remember for the rest of his life. The moment he entered the room, he was coughing and spluttering from the deadly gas fumes which had almost overpowered Robson. There were blobs of bubbling white foam everywhere, and dangling down from the remains of the ventilator grille were the long, curling tendrils of the Weed Creature, its massive heartbeat pounding with frenzied, deafening life...

The short winter daylight was already giving way to the early evening darkness, as the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria peered through the window into the Harrises' sitting-room. There was hardly a murmur of sound, only the rumbling of waves crashing onto the distant sea shore. Luckily the window was not locked, so the Doctor was able to climb into the room quite easily. Jamie and Victoria followed him in.

'Good!' whispered the Doctor, trying to see in the dark,

'Nobody around. Much better on our own.'

'Speak for yourself,' said Jamie apprehensively. He wasn't at all happy with the Doctor for bringing them back to such a place. 'I don't see why we can't just go back to the TARDIS and get out of here. This place is full of... of... ah... ah...' It was happening again.

Jamie was about to sneeze.

'Jamie!' gasped Victoria. 'You're not going to...' Even as she spoke, Jamie exploded into a fit of sneezing.

'Gas!' The Doctor covered his mouth immediately. 'Out of here

- quick!'

The Doctor led the way out into the hall.

Victoria was covering her mouth with her sweater. 'Where's it coming from?'

'I don't know,' said the Doctor, looking up and down the hall.

'Jamie! Look in the kitchen!'

Jamie rushed off to the kitchen, leaving the Doctor and Victoria to find their way into the bedroom.

The Doctor opened the bedroom door, and looked in. The room was in darkness. 'Mrs Harris?' he called. 'Are you all right?'

No reply. There was an ominous silence in the room.

The Doctor fumbled for the light switch, and turned it on.

The air was immediately pierced by the thumping, heartbeat sound. Victoria screamed out hysterically for the floor was 'crawling with clumps of pulsating seaweed, their bubbled tendrils reaching out from the mass of white foam.

Coughing and spluttering, the Doctor threw his arms around Victoria to protect her. On the other side of the room, they were horrified to see that Maggie Harris was missing from the bed, where they had last seen her lying in a coma.

'Doctor!' Jamie was yelling at the top of his voice from the kitchen. 'Help me!'

The Doctor quickly slammed the bedroom door and locked it.

Then he grabbed Victoria by the arm, and practically dragged her off down the hall.

'Jamie!' The Doctor burst into the kitchen to find his companion in real trouble. The patio door was wide open, and Jamie himself was balanced precariously on top of a table in the middle of the room. All around him, the floor was just like the bedroom, crawling with clumps of seaweed and foam, all pulsating with hideous life. And the same merciless, thumping heartbeat!

Jamie let out the most enormous sneeze. His eyes were streaming with tears from the gas fumes, and he was fighting for breath. 'Doctor! Do something! Get... get me out of here!' But he seemed to be in an impossible situation, for he was completely isolated by the weed and foam which prevented his escape in any direction.

'Stay where you are, Jamie!' yelled the Doctor frantically.

'Hold on!'

As the Doctor was speaking, Victoria suddenly clasped here head, as if about to swoon. 'The pressure... Doctor... my head... ' She was struggling to breath. 'I can't stand... the pressure... '

The Doctor caught hold of Victoria just as she was on the point of collapse. 'No, Victoria!' He pulled her back into the hall, and shook her violently by the shoulders. 'Come on now, Victoria! Deep breath!' Victoria's head rolled from side to side as she struggled to revive. Gradually, her strength returned, and she was able to stand on her own two feet again. 'Good girl!' said the Doctor, patting Victoria's cheeks reassuringly with his hands. 'Now - quick! Help me!'

'Doctor!' Jamie's calls from the kitchen were becoming more desperate. 'Hurry... '

The Doctor returned to the kitchen door and shouted back.

'Hold on, Jamie! Hold on!' He rushed out into the hall again to look for something that would aid Jamie's escape. He settled on a pair of long curtains that were hanging up at the hall window. 'Help me, Victoria - quick!' With Victoria's help, he ripped down the curtains, and tied them together in a huge knot lengthways. 'Stay here!'

'Doctor... ' Jamie's voice was becoming weaker as he began to droop under the pressure of the toxic fumes and overpowering sound of the heartbeat.

'Don't let it beat you now, Jamie!' yelled the Doctor from the doorway. 'Wake up!'

Jamie did not reply. His body was gradually crumpling dangerously close to the edge of the table, where the weed tendrils were waiting for him.

This time the Doctor shouted as loud and as firmly as he could.

'Wake up, Jamie!' Jamie was sinking fast and could not respond. 'Do as I say!' yelled the Doctor. 'Wake up!' Jamie suddenly snapped back into life again, and rubbed his eyes. 'That's it, Jamie! That's it! Quick now! Take the other end!' The Doctor swung one end of the curtain round and round his head, and threw it across to Jamie who caught it at the first attempt. 'Tie it to the leg of the table, Jamie, Hurry!'

It was no easy task for Jamie to tie the end of the curtain to the table leg, for the seaweed clumps seemed determined to drag him down into the sea. But he was finally able to give a weak signal to the Doctor that he had secured the end of the curtain to the table leg.

'Right!' yelled the Doctor. 'Now hold on!'

The Doctor spit on both his hands, took hold of the other end of the curtain, and with all the strength he could muster, pulled the table with Jamie on it, inch by inch towards the door. It was a slow, tense movement, which seemed to provoke the seaweed clumps into a squealing rage. The more the table moved, the more their tendrils tried to reach up and curl themselves around Jamie's legs.

Finally, Jamie's ordeal came to an end. As soon as the table reached the open door the Doctor and Victoria dragged him from it, and supported him out into the hall.

'Let's get out of here!' yelled the Doctor, as the foam and weed rapidly overflowed into the hall after them, bubbling, pulsating, and squirming with aggressive life...

Harris looked around Robson's cabin in total disbelief. Only a few minutes earlier the place had been a mass of bubbling white foam, and the ventilator grille jammed with the enormous figure of the Weed Creature.

'But it was here I tell you,' said the bewildered Harris, his eyes darting to every corner of the room. 'I saw it!'

Van Lutyens was only partly sceptical. 'Did you?'

'It was trying to get into the room from the grille up there. A huge, hideous creature with long tendrils... like a... like a gigantic octopus. It could move... it was alive... Van Lutyens ignored him. He was too busy looking around the room. 'You don't believe me, do you!' snapped Harris.

'On the contrary, my friend. I
do
believe you.' The Dutchman had found a few traces of white foam near the grille opening. 'It must have escaped through the ventilating system, just as it did in the Oxygen Store Room.'

'The Oxygen Room? You mean, when that girl - Victoria -

when she was locked in?'

'Precisely.' Van Lutyens was standing on Robson's bunk, staring up into the grille opening. 'My theory is that when you saw it, it had already accomplished its purpose in this room, and was finding its way out again into the ventilator shaft.'

Harris turned to look at van Lutyens. He was puzzled.

'Accomplished its purpose? What purpose?'

'Who knows?' replied the Dutchman, rubbing some of the foam between his fingers. 'We know so little about this phenomenon, or whatever it is. The trouble is, nobody is even trying to find out. Least of all Mr Robson!'

'Robson is in no position to find out anything,' said Harris, tersely. 'He rushed out of this room as though he was out of his mind.'

'Did he now?' The Dutchman took a pointed interest in Harris's remark. 'Well, we'd better alert security. Robson may do himself some harm.'

Van Lutyens took a last look around the room, then left. Harris followed him out, and locked the door behind him. 'At least nothing's going to get out through
this
door,' said Harris efficiently.

The Dutchman shook his head in despair at Harris's feeble logic. 'My friend, there must be hundreds of ventilator grilles in this compound. If any of that foam is in the shaft, it could find its way out through any one of them.'

Harris looked crestfallen. Such a thought clearly hadn't entered his statistical mind. 'I suppose you're right,' he sighed. 'In which case, we must ensure that all emergency ventilators are kept shut.'

Van Lutyens decided it was pointless trying to answer Harris.

He just marched determinedly along the corridor, with Harris following close behind.

'I trust you now know what you must do?' said the Dutchman, striding on.

'Do?'

'You must exert your authority and take over the Compound.'

Van Lutyens stopped at the transparent door leading to the Control Hall. He pressed a button on the wall, and the door slid open. Harris entered first, then the Dutchman.

'Price!' called Harris, going straight to the Control Cone. 'I want you to alert all security posts. Mr Robson may be ill. I'd like to know his whereabouts.'

'Very good, sir!' Price acknowledged Harris's order, then turned back to the Control Console to carry it out.

Harris continued, displaying a gradual confidence in his own authority. 'And instruct all areas to keep their emergency air vent systems closed.'

Price swung a puzzled look at Harris.

'Do you understand?' asked Harris firmly. 'Then get on with it!'

'Yes, sir!' Price turned back again to the Console.

Van Lutyens was impressed. 'You're taking over then?' he asked, walking with Harris to the office area.

Harris lowered his eyes almost guiltily before replying. 'Mr Robson's still officially in charge.'

'I have to remind you, Harris,' said the Dutchman, 'that I have already informed my own authorities in the Hague. As far as I am concerned, it is now up to you to do the same with London.'

Harris stopped walking, and brushed the lock of hair from his eye. He hesitated a moment, tense and unsure what to do. His instinct was telling him that what van Lutyens was asking him to do was something that should have been done several days ago. 'Yes,' he said, deep in thought, 'you're right.' He looked across the Hall to the Control Cone and called, 'Price!'

Price turned quickly, and called back. 'Sir!'

'Get me Board Headquarters in London. I want to speak to Megan Jones.'

The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria were making their way along one of the Compound corridors leading to the Control Hall. Jamie was still feeling queazy after his rescue from the foam and seaweed clumps in Harris's quarters.

'Take it easy now, Jamie,' said the Doctor, clearly worried about Jamie's condition. 'What you need is a few hours' sleep.'

'Aye,' said Jamie weakly. 'I wouldn'a mind so much, but I feel so... so dizzy...' He stumbled, leaving the Doctor and Victoria to support him.

'It's all right, Jamie,' said the Doctor, 'Just rest a moment.'

Jamie was panting hard. 'Aye. Just need to get my breath back.'

He straightened up, and leaned his back up against the corridor wall.

Victoria leaned against the wall too. She was looking very depressed. 'Oh, Doctor, why is it that we always seem to land up in trouble?'

The Doctor smiled affectionately. 'Spice of life, my dear.'

'I'm not so sure,' Victoria said with a deep sigh. 'I don't really enjoy being scared out of my wits every second.'

The Doctor turned to give her an anxious look. 'Victoria? Is something wrong?'