Doctor Who: The Ark (3 page)

‘Think about it; we’ve already established this place as zoological. So why shouldn’t there be such a thing as an animal with two heads. H’m?’

‘No reason at all, I suppose,’ Steven replied without conviction. ‘But the more we see of this place the less like Earth it becomes.’

Dodo had moved back out of the cave and was standing on an escarpment from which she had a panoramic view of the jungle. Then her attention was caught by signs of movement near the TARDIS. Creatures were approaching it and cautiously surrounding it. She concentrated her gaze and reacted in horror when she began to make out what form of creatures they were. She yelped with terror and retreated back into the cave.

The Doctor stared at her in puzzlement.

‘What is it, my child?’ he asked, as she breathed hard, attempting to speak. ‘You look as though you’ve seen a ghost!’

‘No...’ Dodo managed to say, wiping at her nose with her hand, her handkerchief forgotten. ‘If only they were just ghosts!’

‘They?’

‘Because, Doctor, if this
is
Earth, then it’s no longer inhabited by human life!’

The Doctor and Steven stared at her in amazement.

Then they went out to the escarpment and looked down on the jungle. Seeing what Dodo had seen, they pulled back.

‘You’re right, child,’ the Doctor said. ‘Terrifying! And those creatures... whatever they are... seem to be looking for us.’

‘What do we do?’ Steven asked.

‘We must try and get back to the TARDIS and away from this place!’ The Doctor led them cautiously out of the cave. They started back into the jungle, using the cover of the trees and bushes, the Doctor moving ahead and then signalling to the others to follow him. But now they could hear the creatures around them, shuffling nearer, steadily closing in.

Suddenly Dodo stopped as her nose started itching. Her shoulders heaved as she attempted to contain herself, but her breathing came in shorter and shallower gasps.

‘Quiet!’ Steven hissed desperately.

‘Trying to...’ she mumbled ‘... but my nose is running...’

She pinched it and managed to contain the sneeze and they scrambled on. Reaching a high mound, the Doctor looked out at the terrain ahead of them. Then he paused, his face lighting up in triumph. He turned to the others as they joined him.

‘Of course!’ he said. ‘I know where we are now. This –

all this – is some kind of spaceship!’

‘A spaceship?’ Steven echoed.

They followed his gaze and in the distance saw a cluster of domed buildings. They stared at it in wonder and for one brief moment forgot their haste and their anxiety to escape.

But then Dodo brought her attention back to their immediate surroundings. She tugged at the Doctor’s sleeve.

‘Hey, Doctor,’ she asked querulously. ‘If this is a spaceship... then what are they?’

From behind the concealing undergrowth the Monoids had risen to their feet, standing in a mute circle surrounding the Doctor and his two companions, who in turn stood transfixed, staring back at the scaly, reptilian creatures.

2

Much to their surprise, and despite the appearance of the Monoids, the Doctor and his companions had not been attacked by them.

Instead, the Monoids had merely signalled to them to follow them. In convoy they had started off through the jungle, passing the parked TARDIS, and had been led in the direction of the city of domed buildings.

Within, they had found it to be spacious and apparently well-organised. Vast spokes of corridors radiated out from the centre of the city, towards which they were led.

The Doctor was intrigued by the Monoids. He had attempted to communicate with them, but they had made no response to his overtures. Instead, by sign language, they urged their captives to keep walking.

Finally they reached a main door. A Monoid motioned toward it with a sweeping move of his arm and it slid open.

The Control Room.

The Doctor, Steven and Dodo relaxed immediately when they saw the humans inside. And they, for their part, studied the three of them intently as they entered.

‘Crikey,’ Dodo yelped. ‘Civilisation!’

The Doctor cast her a sidelong glance.

‘Perhaps,’ he muttered. ‘But the question still remains: what kind of civilisation?’

But if the Doctor was curious about their captors, it soon became evident that he and his companions would have some questions to answer. The Commander addressed them.

‘We don’t know how or exactly when you came here -

but did you travel in that peculiar blue box device?’

‘Yes,’ the Doctor replied. ‘That blue box, as you call it, is a spaceship.’ Indicating his surroundings, he continued:’Perhaps not on the scale of this one, but it travels just the same.’

‘But why did you choose to come here?’

‘We didn’t,’ Steven answered. ‘Our spaceship chooses its own destination. Where it wants to go... and in what period of time.’

The Commander laughed. ‘You claim that that thing travels through both space and time?’

Dodo was peeved. ‘It isn’t a
thing
! It’s the TARDIS! And it does have a mind of its own!’

The Commander and the other humans were still amused by this claim. ‘I don’t understand,’ he said.

‘Experiments to pass through the fourth dimension were undertaken in the twenty-seventh segment of time. They failed completely! So how could anything so – so crude and elementary succeed?’

‘I don’t know how the flipping thing works,’ Dodo replied. ‘The Doctor is the one who will tell you all about that.’

‘Flipping?’ The Commander looked queryingly at Zentos. ‘I’ve never heard that word before.’

‘Perhaps a code word,’ Zentos suggested, frowning. ‘We should be wary of these intruders.’

He stared searchingly at all three of them. Steven and Dodo stood before them, but the Doctor had wandered off, gazing curiously about him at the details of the Control Room.

The Doctor was fascinated by the banked display of instruments and observation screens, and by the way in which the humans and the Monoids worked together in such harmony.

‘Extraordinary!’ he exclaimed.

Mellium glanced up from her duties.

‘What is?’ she asked.

‘Why, all this, my dear – and on such a scale. This spaceship is the largest I have known.’

‘It is two thousand leagues long,’ she replied proudly.

‘Leagues?’

‘Yes. Oh – the old measurements used to be in miles or kilometres. One league equals three of them; I forget which.’

‘A mere trifle,’ the Doctor shrugged. ‘Whichever interpretation is used it still means that this is a giant spaceship.’ He studied her appraisingly. ‘What is your name, my dear?’ he asked.

‘I am Mellium, daughter of the First Commander.’

‘First Commander?’

‘He’s over there, talking to your friends.’

‘Oh, yes – that gentleman! Funny how times might change, but gentlemen always emerge.’

‘That sounds like a class distinction of some kind.

Something that was common in the old days.’

‘But now no longer is?’

‘No. Although we have certain titles aboard this ship they only indicate skills in certain duties.’

The Doctor indicated the Monoids: ‘And those?’

‘The Monoids?... They have an equal ranking.’

‘Among themselves, I presume,’ the Doctor observed.

‘But how, in the system of ranking, do they compare with your father... and with you... and the rest of your kind?’

‘We try to treat them as equals, but they remain at some position between human kind and the animals that you have seen in the jungle.’

‘I see. Equal... but different!’

‘Well, they are,’ Mellium stated. ‘For instance they have no language. They cannot speak because they have no vocal chords.’

‘Ah, that explains it!’

‘What?’

‘When they escorted us from the jungle to this city I attempted to talk to them, but there was no response. I and my companions took it personally. We thought they didn’t like us!’

‘Oh, that would be nonsense!’ Mellium responded.

‘They are gentle creatures. They never give any trouble, and they are very happy working with us.’

‘Glad to hear it!’ the Doctor observed.

For a moment Mellium seemed uncertain, as though she had dismissed the Monoids too indifferently. ‘They have made progress,’ she went on. ‘They have learned to understand us by reading our lips and a form of sign language. They can comprehend most of our written data, and several of them can even write it!’

‘Ah, that is good to know. Soon you might have – what does one call them? – pen clubs!’ Mellium shook her head, not quite understanding the phrase. ‘But don’t worry about it, my dear! Just treat it as the ramblings of an old wanderer!’

The Doctor smiled and moved away.

Steven spoke up: ‘May I ask a question?’

‘No!’ Zentos snapped.

The Commander placed his hand reassuringly on Zentos’s shoulder. ‘Why not? We’re all friends here.’

‘Is this really a spaceship? This city and everything that we saw outside? The jungle, the cave, the animals, the flora

– everything?’

‘Yes, indeed,’ the Commander answered. He indicated the bank of panels. ‘Everything that you see on those screens is contained within our ship. The jungle, as you say, but also lakes and rivers, deserts... and even simulated polar regions which are constantly bathed in snow and ice.’

Steven was amazed. ‘But this must be the biggest ever..

he faced them ‘... Look, who are you?’

‘Like you, we are human beings. We come from the Earth.’

Dodo indicated the Monoids.

‘But what about them – where did they come from?’

‘Ah, the Monoids!’ The Commander smiled at them in a friendly manner. ‘They came to the Earth many years ago, apparently from their own planet, which was dying. An obscure place. But they offered us their assistance and services in return for places on this spaceship.’

‘Where are you going?’ Steven asked.

‘The planet Refusis,’ replied the Commander. ‘The Earth is also dying and now we have left it for the last time.’

‘The last time?’ asked Dodo in alarm.

‘Yes. In a short time it will burn and be swallowed up in the gravity pull of the Sun.’

Steven tried to take this in, working out what the statement meant.

‘Then we must have journeyed forward... millions of years!’

Zentos interposed, ‘You
are
human, I take it?’

‘Of course!’ Dodo replied hotly. ‘Do you doubt it?’

Zentos ignored her and addressed the Commander.

‘They could be Refusians, sent here to intercept us – to spy on us!’

‘Refusians? Us!’ Dodo retorted. ‘We wouldn’t know one end of... of this Refusis from our elbow!’

‘To try and sabotage our mission,’ Zentos continued,

‘they could have assumed human form. After all, we only know of the Refusians as intelligences that inhabit their planet. They may have the means to pass as human beings and attack us before we reach them!’

The Doctor had completed his very satisfying tour of the Control Room, taking in the advanced technical detail of its lay-out and smooth running operation. But now he returned to join his companions and the humans.

‘Oh, rubbish! Rubbish! With all my imperfections, sir, I can assure you that if you were to cut my skin I would bleed. So would my two friends.’

‘Right!’ Steven assented.

Dodo’s nose puckered again and before she could contain herself a sneeze burst forth. ‘
Atishoo!
’

‘There, you see,’ the Doctor stated. ‘Complete with chills.’

‘Chills?’ Zentos was puzzled.

‘Yes! A cold. Quite common to human beings.’

‘Ah, yes, I have heard of them,’ the Commander said.

‘But cured and eradicated so long ago that we have completely forgotten what they were like. Fascinating! It’s like history coming to life.’ He took the Doctor’s arm. ‘Tell me, Doctor – if you cannot direct your space craft your journeys must have taken you to some strange places! Is that not so?’

‘Correct!’ affirmed the Doctor. ‘And I could tell you some strange stories...’

Zentos gave Steven a slow, appraising stare, then moved away to join Mellium at a scanner. She noticed his attitude and watched as he paused to speak to a Monoid in sign language. The Monoid nodded, then left the Control Room.

‘What were you telling him?’ Mellium asked.

‘I wish to know more of the intruders’ space craft. I know very little of them.’

‘You don’t trust them?’

‘Your father seems to accept them, I agree,’ Zentos replied. ‘But I know that he has a simple faith, whereas I am suspicious. My faith is in my own eyes and ears... and machines tell fewer lies than men.’

The Doctor had caught this last statement. ‘Including the Daleks,’ he ventured.

The Commander furrowed his brow. ‘Ah – yes! Nero, the Trojan Wars, the Daleks! But all that happened in the First Segment of Time... at the dawn of Man’s history!’

The Doctor was curious. ‘To use your own phrase, sir, what Segement are we in now?’

‘The Fifty-Seventh!’

‘Good gracious!’ The Doctor made a hasty calculation on his finger tips. ‘We must have jumped... er... ten million years! Incredible!’

‘When do you expect to end your journey?’ Steven asked.

‘Not for a long time,’ the Commander replied. ‘Neither I nor my daughter Mellium, nor any of the beings here today, will ever see the planet. That pleasure is reserved for our children’s children, many years hence.’

‘How many?’

‘Using your measurement of time – seven hundred years!’

The Doctor, Steven and Dodo caught their breath.

‘Seven hundred... repeated the Doctor. ‘But why travel so far?’

‘Simple! Only Refusis has the same conditions that we had on Earth. Atmosphere, water, the right temperate zones.’

‘Has anyone ever been there?’ Steven asked.

‘No! Our knowledge is based on audio space research.’

‘H’m!’ Steven ruminated. ‘I suppose you had to bring at least two of everything?’

‘Like the Ark?’ Dodo asked.

‘The Ark?’