Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ A Growing Madness ❯ Chapter 5

Doctor Who and its accoutrements are the property of the BBC, and we obviously don't have any right to them. Any and all crossover characters belong to their respective creators. Alas no one makes any money from this story, and it's all done out of love for a cheap-looking sci-fi show.

 

Chapter 5

Darkness was blissful. That is until Raina felt the brazen lump in her head. Cool soothing moisture sponged her forehead gently, loosening the hardness. Muscles in her face loosening, her dark lashed eyelids blinked open. Someone's blurred head and shoulders huddled over her. A hand replaced her glasses. Once her eyes focused in on her surroundings, Raina recognized the face of the Doctor, hovering concernedly over her. He moistened his red handkerchief in a glass of water. The shadow of his arm passed over her sight. She felt the same soothing, cool sensation helping to bring her round. "What the hell happened?" she stammered.

 

"I would first inquire how you feel," answered the Doctor, raising one eyebrow. With his ironic correction, he smiled at her. The expression was contagious, for even the dizzy Raina managed to smile weakly in response. Slowly she took deep breaths to clear her mind.

 

She pushed against the floor, struggling to sit up. "Doctor! Is Callom okay?"

"Not to worry," reassured the Doctor, firmly restraining her with one hand. "Relax. Breaking through that force requires a considerable amount of energy from anyone."

"What did you do? Something about you being a time lord?"

"If you like. Steady on, you've only just recovered from a terrible genetic experiment by the Rani. You're still bound to be shaken up a trifle."

"Wish I could sit up. At least I could help them."

Supporting her shoulders with one arm, the Doctor helped her to sit. "Easy now, take a drink of this."

Raina drank some water from the plastic glass he offered her. "Our young friends are taking a well-deserved rest," he indicated with a wave of his hand.

Looking past his shoulder, Raina saw Ace and Callom, laying flat upon the floor. Both had pillows slipped under their heads and space blankets covering their figures. "Poor kids," muttered Raina. "They're sure out of it."

"Occurred to me it was wise not to move them, or rouse them yet."

"That damn noise was enough for a whole lot of aspirin."

"Quite," agreed the Doctor, gingerly rubbing the back of his scalp. "I'm inclined to agree."

With more sips of water, Raina began to feel her usual self. "Think I'll try standing now," she told the Doctor. Grasping her hands, the Time Lord pulled her to her feet. He stumbled over to the TARDIS console.

"We've materialized," said the Doctor, glancing over several of the indicators. On one of the panels, he noticed several damaged controls, and smelled the stench of smoldering circuits. "Could you be so kind as to check the Fault Locator, Raina."

"Several of the principal mains are blown, Doctor. Whatever that cloud was, it fizzled a lot of your directional controls. Or at least what this thing says."

"In for a spot of repair work, I see," sighed the Doctor, running his fingers through his dark hair. "The navigation relays are shot."

With a rustle of blankets, Callom began to stir. Raina shuffled over to him and supported his head upon her knees. "Rise and shine, Kid," she whispered, and to her relief his fair lashed eyes soon opened.

*You need not be so worried about me, nau, he transmitted, telepathically. She realized his fear, and sighed.

"But you are my responsibility, kid,” she whispered, face grim and serious, forming her thoughts into words he could pick up, as she had learned to do in their prison in the Rani's menagerie. “I mean I can't help but be worried about you. Since we are from the same place and time…”

"Ahem," coughed someone dryly. Looking up, Callom and Raina saw the Doctor looking toward them from the console. Callom glanced at her and they both smiled. Somehow the Doctor was a bit uncomfortable when he couldn't hear conversations aboard TARDIS.

"Oh, my head," moaned Ace, stirring from beneath her blanket.

"Callom . . . would you be so kind as to fetch some water and tend to Ace now?"

"Jest a minute!"

 

"Don't worry kiddo," said Raina. "I'll go."

Callom sat down on the Louis XIV chair and watched the Doctor work. On his back with his face buried into the console he banged and clattered with the TARDIS workings. Occasionally he'd mutter something, and his black and white shoes would twitch out his frustration. He looked like a mechanic tucked under a car.

Gently Raina offered water to the teenager Ace. "Here you go, hon," she soothed, supporting Ace's head and shoulders on one arm.

"A turnabout's fair play, eh?' she smiled weakly to Raina.

"What's with the Doctor?" Raina asked.

"That phenomenon blew a few relays, I guess," she explained, nodding over her shoulder. "Doctor's just patching her back together."

"It figures, right enough. He's always fixing something."

"He says it's the navigational control," Raina shrugged, not sure of what it meant.

"What else is new? We never know where we're gonna end up, anyway."

"Now since we all seem accounted for, let us see exactly where we seem to have materialized," he said, rising from the floor.

"All fixed, Doctor?" asked Raina.

"As far as I can tell," he replied, wiping his hands on his plaid pants. "Luckily there's a few spares in the emergency units, till I can land somewhere to replace the mains . . ."

"I don't care where we are," said Ace, standing with Raina's help. "As far as you can tell it's fixed? What kinda answer is that?"

"It's the only one I can give you, Ace."

"No way this crazy naff heap is fixed, Professor! I want out!"

"A crazy naff heap?" exclaimed the Doctor reprovingly. "My TARDIS? Just remember who's . . . "

"Relax, Doctor," spoke Raina, moving between them. "We're all cranky because we don't know just what the hell that cloud was."

Ten . . . nine . . . eight . . . seven . . . counted Ace in her mind. Raina could see the tension on the teenager's face as she grasped for self-control. "Shall we take a look on the screen, Professor?"

"Ah, yes Ace," he replied, his eyebrows lifting upwards in interest. Both his hands rushed over the scanner circuits to check the outside environment readings. "Let's see . . . Atmosphere is 21% oxygen; gravity is four-fifths of earth's; temperature a steady 285 Kelvin. We should be quite comfortable," he muttered.

Two panels on the roundelled wall slid open to reveal the scanner. Onto its screen appeared empty metal corridors.

"Looks harmless enau," said Callom, standing next to Raina.

"Huh, I'm not so sure," mused the geologist. Slowly she fingered her chin, narrowing her brown eyes behind her thick glasses. Her scientific mind, though trained in 1977 was trying to adapt to this ultramodern environment.

"Come on then," he urged, eyes brightening. "I'd love to see if there are any aliens aboot!"

"You would," quipped Ace. The Doctor walked over to the coat rack. "Agreed then? A little walk around?" he proposed, tossing on a battered straw hat and a brown half-belted coat.

"I'm game for that," said Ace, pulling on her black satin jacket littered with patches and pins. She scooped up her knapsack and slung it over one shoulder.

"You just want to get out of the TARDIS," grinned Raina.

"Well then, let's go, Doctor," goaded Callom. He knotted a tartan scarf around his neck and donned a black coat trimmed with square silver buttons. Raina took a sky-blue cloak from the hat-rack. Rather hesitatingly she attached the cloak to her vest, so it draped neatly over one shoulder. Picking up his umbrella, the Doctor hit the door switch. In the far wall the huge double doors sung open to reveal a hexagonal passage.

Callom looked up at the geologist. He could tell she was putting on a cheerful face for the Doctor. Nevertheless, he sensed Raina was suspicious of the Time Lord. Did she speculate what had really happened after the Rani's plot? Especially since Fiona had given her life to save them?

For a time the corridor meandered. They saw several hatches set at regular intervals down its curves. Strange markings, probably some sort of language, adorned the walls. "Ah, I think this should lead to the flight deck, if I'm not much mistaken."

"Flight deck?" asked Ace. "You mean we're on a ship of some kind?"

"Correct Ace," said the Doctor.

"How do ye ken, Doctor? That it is a space ship?"

"Hear that distant pulsing hum, Callom?" said he. "That's the ion power generator." Then he caught sight of a particular pattern of burn marks on the wall, obscuring the writing. "Wait a minute."

"What's the diff between this corridor wall and the next?" demanded Ace impatiently.

"If you like," muttered the Doctor, intently studying the burn marks. "You can go back to the TARDIS for a while. I'll give you my isomorphic key . . . "

"No thanks, I'd rather be bored," muttered Ace. Raina tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey Ace. Why don't you go exploring a bit and find out how the ship's laid out?"

"Great idea, Yank," smiled the teenager, her face brightening.

"Take me too," whispered Callom, nudging her elbow.

"Wait a minute," said Raina. Then looking at Ace, she relented. "Okay, but stick with Ace." Callom grinned mischievously. Like most children he loved sneaking away to explore.

"Okay, Callom," sighed Ace, hand on his shoulder. "Let's move."

She hoisted her backpack onto her shoulder, and set off down the corridor bend. MacLaren tartan swirling around his young knees, the Scot disappeared after her.

"What have you found, Doctor?" asked Raina, nudging the Doctor on the arm.

"Intriguing how these burn marks follow a regular pattern, don't you think?"

Squinting one eye, Raina examined at the scorched surface. She reached for a gold jeweler's loupe hanging around her neck on a gold chain, and peered at the same area with it. "This looks like a type of plastic but it has crystal structure like an alloy . . . "

"Humph, an alloy," muttered the Doctor, uninterested. "Civilization that built this thing didn't know of ceramics."

"Has a low stress factor anyway," stated Raina defensively, tapping the wall with her knuckles. "Something halfway between plastic wrapped around metal."

"Did you say plastic?" asked the Doctor, suddenly whirling his head about to stare at her.

"Yep I did," said she, continuing to scrutinize the burned wall through her magnifier. "What civilizations do you know of that would use polymer bonded with some metal to line a spaceship? I mean I'm NOT from this century, but it looks WAY advanced by my reckoning… so I'm guessing it's more then 21st century?"

"Off the top of my memory," mused the Doctor, licking his finger and pressing it to his forehead. "Not many. Barite is found in a few systems not far from Alpha Centauri. Aha!" cried the Doctor, snapping his fingers. "Barite polymers only line the corridors of a ship. Certain models. This is the handiwork of Mars colonists around the year 2230, Earth rel-time."

"Okay, we have a ship, but where's the crew?" wondered Raina. "Unless this craft is a derelict. But if it was, then why's the gravity still operative?"

"I'm puzzled too. Surely they didn't just slip out for a constitutional."

"Something's telling me that it hasn't been abandoned for long," Raina slid her eyes shut for a second, as if listening to something.

"What's the matter?"

"Just… an overwhelming sense of fear… foreboding… shit I've never felt this before…"

"I know the Rani abducted you, but you must not let the fear overcome you," the Doctor whispered. "That was then and this is now... and you must let it go. There may be all manner of things she could have done to you and Callom. So don't be surprised if you might have some… extra abilities you didn't account for."

 

“Great, NOW you tell me! I can hear Callom's thoughts, but that's because he made a mind bond… that's what Vitreum called it… to me. But Doctor… what the hell are you…” she asked, grabbing his sleeve.

 

“I examined you before you woke up. I do have SOME skill in medicine. Dr. Lister himself taught me, as did many others. Any harmful mutations I did a DNA scan of. Whatever she did was only a fraction of the genetic freaks she has turned out. If there WAS a problem I'd have found it in the DNA scan,” the Doctor said.

 

“But what did she do?” she asked.

 

“From w hat I gathered, she's enhanced your endurance and strength to the level of a primordial Sapiens. And your senses are enhanced along with your instincts. The primordial DNA of your primate ancestors has been activated… and you'll be able to act much with the enhancements of your forbearers,” said he.

 

“You mean like an ape woman?” she blinked.

 

“I see no outward problems. But your enhanced fear is a sort of sixth sense. Not to mention your strength must be increasing.”

***
Callom excitedly followed Ace toward a massive hatch. Briefly Ace touched the control panel, and the round portal opened in sections like a dilating camera iris. She restrained Callom with one arm. Lights inside glowed eerily on several bodies scattered on the floor. The same burn marks littered the dim walls.

"Och, begorra!" whispered Callom. "A tomb?"

"I dunno," whispered Ace, stepping one foot into the room. "Stay behind me, though. Don't know if this lot is sleeping or . . . "

"Don't," pleaded Callom, sick with the mere mention of death. Following Ace, he crept through the array of bodies. The air right inside felt staler. Indeed the picture behind this shutter was grim. As they stood twenty feet in the room, a clanking made Callom freeze.

Whirling about, Ace drew out her baseball bat. "Who's there?" she shouted defiantly. Her bright eyes flicked back and forth wildly as she stalked the room on tense legs. Yet all that had happened was the door behind them clanged shut.

The Scots lad drew in a breath of relief. He dropped beside one of the bodies, one of a young man, and shuddered. Did he dare to search for its pulse? His fingers shakily touched a cold wrist. "Ace," he whispered. "They're all gone. Dead. What wiped them out?"

Striding up to him, she rested a hand on his shoulder. "Don't look at `em all," she advised. "Didn't suffer for long. Look at those burn marks. Probably from laser weapons. Battled it out I guess."

"Why would they want to destroy each other?" he asked staring at her, with wide-eyed childish innocence.

The world wisely teenage regarded him grimly. "People hate each other and go nuts," she answered. "That's why the world still has wars where people blow each other sky high."

"But if they were the entire crew, was this a mutiny then?"

"A mutiny?"

"Och, dinna ye ken about ships 'n the sea?" groaned Callom, rolling his eyes. "Sometimes on long voyages they'rd be a break out of a panic nd' someone would rebel against the captain's word. That's mutiny. Ever heard of the Bounty?"

"Never rented that movie," muttered Ace, still on the alert. Her hands tightened on the baseball bat's handle.

***
A deep shudder shook the spacecraft suddenly. Then a strange floating sensation befell the geologist. Literally she drifted in thin air. "Well, Doc," she began. "So much for the artificial gravity. Guess those crew members or whoever they are didn't make things like they should."

"One less problem to weigh us down," quipped the Doctor. Extending his umbrella, he hooked its handle to one of the wall pipes running the length of the corridor. Raina tumbled about playfully as she tried to get accustomed to weightlessness again.

"Do you suppose this ship's on-board system is going kaput?" she asked suddenly.

"Could very well be," the Doctor muttered. Gingerly he edged himself forwards with his fingertips pressing against the wall. "All the more reason to find the command deck."

"The command deck?" asked Raina, curious at his silence. With a single touch of her foot or hand to the corridor walls she followed him. Ahead the Doctor pushed himself to a panel and held up his hand to a panel. Behind the opened door stretched a transparent cylinder ringed with metal sections.

"This ship's command deck is in the front section. We were in the living quarters."

"I wouldn't know, Doctor, cause I'm not from this century… it's WAY beyond me…"

"This model probably has a nuclear drive unit spaced out from the living bay," guessed the Doctor, pulling himself along the railings to the far wall. Glancing out through the cylinder of stars Raina could glance along the ship horizontally. To her right she saw the rest of the ship stretching its network of bars past a central section. Two spherical units were connected by triple bars to the residential section about one hundred feet back.

The tube was a connection corridor to the piloting unit up front. Raina suddenly was able to picture what the ship looked like from the outside. Aries class survey ships were built for planetary reconnaissance between short hops. But this ship was modified for sub-space warp transit. Very unusual. Most sub space ships were not girders bolting modules together. Perhaps that's what made this class so popular for exploration? The fact the ship was made in separate units that could be custom latched for an individual expedition. Yet, reasoned the Doctor, Aries class ships had their weaknesses. Clearly they weren't much in a military conflict. They were unable to touch down on a planet's surface, and relied on shuttle units to pull up ground parties. A circular hatch spiraled open to reveal a large flight deck festooned with thousands of computer panels. An arc of windows ringed the place about four feet from the deck.

"Doctor, look at this," muttered Raina, pointing to a slump figure floating over a chair. "A human being I think. She's badly beat up."

"Good grief," muttered the Doctor, examining her wrists and skin. Fine marks crossed her face, and a dark spot lay about where her heart would be. "Killed by a concussion maser."

"What the hell is that?" Raina shuddered, and pushed away.

"As I feared, Concussion masers were not used for wartime. Usually they were employed in the blasting away of bedrock when shelters were built on a new colony world," said the Doctor as his hands flew across the control panel next to the victim. "Maybe I can bring up the computer log."

"Doc, I don't think that's a good idea,” Raina said.

"What's wrong? I thought you'd like to know what's happened?" the Doctor snorted.

Raina pressed her hand to her head. Those nagging feelings of danger would not leave her be. "But there could be a booby trap . . . if what happened what I think happened, I mean I know I might be from a while before this, but my gut tells me this is like some sort of trap… and we walked into it…"

"Raina, I am quite familiar with this type of ship. From the way she is floating, she was making her last journal entry, and activated the lock file command on her log. There's no booby trap with it. Just a special code."

"Since when did you travel on a ship like this?" she asked.

"When I was on my way to the Wheel,” said he.

"Wheel?"

"Space station XL7J883. . . About fifty years ago," he recounted. "Or was it one hundred and fifty years ago? I just can't recall when."

The cursor blinked across the screen as he typed in the log code sequences she could think of. "Aha," he laughed in triumph when the display read "ACCESS GAINED."

Captain's LOG:

SPACESHIP: Cerise, Class Aries Relief/Survey ship

LOCATION: Near Messier Arm 2

DESTINATION: THEILERIA MINOR

"Ring a bell?" Raina asked him.

"Theileria Minor," muttered the Doctor, narrowing his brow. "Now where have I heard that before? Anyway, let's see. Says here that they were transporting a special cargo. To a floundering colony. Some sort of Growth Accelerator . . . "

"Growth Accelerator?" questioned Raina. "Move over a sec ."

The Doctor scrolled to another entry. He patiently moved to one side as the Raina read an entry for herself. "Let's see. Unusual cloud of strange lights encountered midway through the voyage. Similar to what happened to the TARDIS. Causing power fluctuations . . . Repairs made . . . main star drive disabled."

 

“That sounds weird.”

"Indeed. Suspicion of sabotage when drive continuously failed to malfunction," the Doctor nodded.

"And get this Doctor. Says here that they suspected sabotage when the main drive was blown and someone suggested going to an uncharted area of space. Have you ever heard of this planet, Doctor?"

"What planet . . . "

"That part of the log is partially deleted. I can't make out the name well. Looks like Karr."

"Karr? Never heard of it," muttered the Doctor. "Just as long as it isn't Karn..."

***

Callom kicked off the wall, soaring through the thin air. "Jest try an catch me, lass!" he giggled.

"Come back here, you little terror!" she cried, struggling after him.

Both children soared through a corridor. They'd left the one room far behind to keep its secrets for just a little longer. Callom was practically space-happy. The moment they started floating he'd spun and kicked trying to get his bearings. Straight blonde hair fluffed into a flaxen halo around his head. He looked perfectly at home weightless, despite his soft blue and red wool kilt and home-knit sweater. Sky-blue, golden yellow, and flannel red seemed too gentle and soft against the metallic iron gray of the corridor. Even the tips of his tartan scarf floated spectrally as he drifted.

Ace had felt nauseous. Her braided hair floated. There was no clear sense of up or down. She turned green and tumbled awkwardly, clutching her baseball bat. "How'm I supposed to move?" she groaned, trying to swim over to Callom. "All the ships I was on had gravity."

"This isnae water, Ace," he said. "Ye canna jest thrash about like that. Ye gotta pull yuirself along."

"Fine for you," she muttered. "You're near a railing."

"Take that bat of yours," he said.

Ace shouldered her bat, and tumbled with the effort. "And?"

"Throw it away from ye as hard as ye can. At the far wall."

"What?" she asked.

"Do it."

She tossed her bat away. Then she began to glide slowly across the chamber toward the Scots boy. "Grab ma hand nau. That's it." Callom grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her effortlessly to the rail where he clung.

"Now how do I get my bat back, smarty?" she asked him.

"Och, yuir niver satisfied," he laughed. "By the way, do ye have some rope or something?"

"Yes. In my backpack here. What's your plan?"

"Tie yon rope to this here railing. Then crawl along the rope to where ye wanna go. Toward the door."

"Fine, squirt. But you're up the creek once you run outta rope. I've only got fifteen feet."

"I'm thinking," he murmured closing his eyes. "If only we had some sort of a pop gun or a crossbow to fire the rope."

"Left my crossbow on the TARDIS."

"Or else a kind of jet?"

"A jet?" Ace lit up. "Hold on a sec."

Callom held onto her jacket collar as she wrestled with her backpack. She drew out an aerosol can. "Here's a jet for you, squirt."

"What's that? Yuir nitro-9?"

"No. That's in the bottom. This really is spray deodorant. "

"That'll make a real smell fer sure. But that's pretty guid!"

Using the aerosol cans as hand jets they made their way along the ship. That is after Ace recovered her bat. Soon the smell of hair spray and deodorant filled the musty crew cabins. Callom was the one who found the cargo hold.

"Mebbe if we look in here we can find out what happened to the crew?"

"If we can get the door open," mused Ace, a mischievous smile appearing on her face for a change.

"Could we do it without the flashes and bangs this time?" "You don't think that I would waste this stuff on a mere door, do you, squirt?"

"What do ye have in mind? Some kind of lock-pick? It looks like Captain Kirk's safety deposit box!"

"I know a thing or two about these future space doors. This kinda spacecraft's no battleship. It's just a space cruiser. Hold onto me while I get my kit."

"I'll jest anchors mahsel with the rope."

Callom gripped her jacket as she wrestled something out of her backpack. Around his waist was the rope tied to a nearby railing.

"Y'see most've these doors are magnetically sealed," Ace explained.

"I take it ye ken more than I thought about these doors. Since when were you on this ship?"

"When you get whisked away from your planet and popped into an intergalactic shopping mall, you learn a lot of things about space doors. And different models of craft." As Ace spoke, she fiddled with some sort of small device. Callom thought it looked like a portable radio with headphones.

"That a lock-pick?"

She plastered it to the door. Then started to punch access codes into the digital entry pad. "It's something that lets me listen to what I'm doing."

"Strange that this part of the ship should be locked, when the other rooms we went through were all unlocked."

"Nearly there squirt."

***

"We've got to get out of here," urged the geologist, looking up from the control panel. "Now."

"Where's your spirit of adventure, Raina?"

"It's obvious that the people on this craft killed themselves. We can't accomplish much by sticking around here."

"What's with you? You look as if you've seen a ghost."

"I think we should find our friends and get the HELL out of here. . . " she hissed into his ear. “These `enhanced senses' are `tingling' like some blasted `spiderman' and I don't think I should ignore them if they helped my `ape' ancestors, do you?”

Just then the ship lurched. "What did I tell you? This ship's still on a heading toward some solar system."

"I thought the stellar drive was out," said Raina. "At least that's what the log said."

"Don't you think that whoever left this log would make some effort to complete their mission? The auto pilot is suddenly engaged."

"You did something when you turned on the computer? Like activated some program or something when you accessed the journal."

Her anxious eyes met the Doctor's. Mutually he nodded. "Whoever left that log was counting on someone being able to read it at a later date."

"So that commander was expecting help?" she realized.

"Exactly. Even if it took a week, a month, or a century. If that's true, then wherever we are headed to may hold the answer to this mystery, Raina."

"Perhaps the person who set the auto pilot was crazy," suggested Raina.

"Perhaps, but I want to know why. These people were on a mission, and this commander was dead-set on completing it."

"I think we owe it to these people to try and figure out what killed them," argued Raina. "Let someone else go to their destination. Like another ship from the Mars Colony. It's their problem, right?"

"But they killed themselves. At least from what I've seen. And the people at their port of call will want whatever cargo is on board this ship."

"Fine. But you can send a message to that colony and tell them."

"They might have an urgent need," persisted the Doctor.

Sighing, Raina said, "Doctor, I think I'll find our friends. They might have found some more answers."

"You do that," he muttered, turning to the log once more.

Raina shook her head as she drifted away, and said, "Where do I start?"

"Try reading the signs. I think you can make them out," he said, waving her away.

***

Another portal slid open. Ace and Callom jetted into the new room. Boxes and drums hung in zero G. Eerily their shadows floated with them, ghostly companions in a strange waltz.

"Och, so quiet," whispered Callom. "This must be the hold."

"You know lots about ships too, eh?"

"Ye can see that, lass. Take a look at this manifest. What were they shipping?"

"Huh, looks a lot like survey equipment to me," muttered Ace, drifting over to one crate. She glanced at the labels.

"I canna read this writing," complained Callom. "How can ye? No, lemme guess. You can read the writing cause ye were in space."

Ace nodded. "Says here . . . electronics . . . spares."

Callom drifted by a latched-down box. He glanced at the cryptic symbols adorning it. A red cross was printed just under the stenciled letters. "I betcha ye this is the first aid kit," he called.

"That's right. I thought you couldn't read the writing."

"A red cross is very clear," he giggled.

"Showoff," she muttered.

"Whoa, what's this,” Callom asked, nudging something with his toe.

"What?"

"This box here says Experimental Growth Accelerator. And is it tied up good! There's a warning on it . . . "

Distantly Callom discerned a voice. *What is it?

*Callom, where are you now?

*Ace n me are in the cargo hold. Jest looking aboot. She's found a device, called a Growth Accelerator.

*Stay there. I'm coming to meet you two.