Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ A Growing Madness ❯ Chapter 7

Doctor Who and its accoutrements are the property of the BBC, and we obviously don't have any right to them. Any and all fan fiction 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 7

 

Next, Callom recalled waking up. He saw floor rushing underneath him, and the walls around him jarring up and down. Someone was carrying him over their shoulder. Raina had him slung on her back like a sack of wheat.

"But why didn't they kill us?" Ace and the Doctor were running ahead of them. Callom tried to make sense of the sequence of events. Hadn't he just tried to save Raina? And here she was, perfectly alright, hauling him around.

"Och, ma head!" he exclaimed.

"Keep it down," snapped Raina's voice, muffled, yet distinct. "They'll hear us!"

"What happened?"

"We're in the Karakulian's city. We've got to get away," she said hastily.

"Wait, let me doon!"

"You're too weak to move on your own," she huffed, stumbling.

"Quick, let's stop here a minute," said the Doctor's voice. Something white waved in his left hand. Graphed lines and pieces of transparent plastic were taped to its surface. Was it some kind of map?

Callom felt himself being propped up against a wall. He could see Ace crouching next to the Doctor. All around them curved steel corridors, made of a grey dense substance. There was little light.

"Doctor, where are we?" murmured Callom, trying to see straight.

"Rest easy lad," urged the Doctor softly. "You only just teleported two times. We thought you'd never wake up."

"The alien ship! Did they capture us?"

"No," said the Doctor. "I recalled the TARDIS to materialize on board the bridge."

"We're na on it nau are we?" he asked.

"No. We're on a planet called Karakul."

"Karakul?" moaned Callom, holding his head. Raina massaged his temples.

"Since when did we get here?"

"Since a few hours ago, Callom. You saved my life. Thanks."

"Och, it was nothing, Raina. Ma head!"

"That's what happens with overextending oneself," scolded the Doctor. But his eyes shone.

"Here they come," hissed Ace, ducking from around a corner.

"Can you walk?"

"Aye. Jest ye watch me, Doctor. But what is after us?"

"Their collectors," the Doctor whispered. "Unfortunately the Karakulians remain inside their labs, using their machines to do their dirty work... their collectors are their hands and eyes... and we must take the ultimate care..."

All four Time Travelers scurried off into the corridors. Ace gripped her baseball bat, the Doctor his umbrella. Raina took good hold of an ice axe, hefting it in one hand. Such primitive objects were ludicrously inadequate to confront the creatures they now saw.

A whole string of machines coasted towards them, each approximately four feet tall. They hovered only a millimeter above the floor on circular bases. Their squared off tops contained many blinking sensors, which the Doctor explained could track infrared as well as ultraviolet and heat emitting form their bodies. Together the mechanisms must have a good field of view. At about three feet from their base projected multiple robotic probe arms, including pincer arms, and a long gun nozzle, which crackled with the power of ten tazers. One blast of blue sparks narrowly missed the Doctor as he skipped lightly out of the way.

Ace gritted her teeth as they retreated. "Wish I could fight them," she snapped to the Doctor.

"Would you like to stop and ask them to play fairly?" he retorted, clutching his straw hat down on his head as he ran after her.

"Hop aboard," ordered Raina, squatting, gesturing to Callom to stand behind her.

"I dinna understand! Did we jest escape, or what?" He wrapped his arms around her neck while she locked his ankles in her folded arms. Felt the floor disappear as she stood up and ran. Not underestimating her strength he still gripped hold for dear life. By glancing over his shoulder he could see the squat mini-tanks shadowed on the corridor walls, only fifty feet behind them.

Raina trotted effortlessly with Callom piggyback. "Och, I ken run guid enau!" he protested.

"Cool it kid! I'm not letting you slip away this time!"

Callom felt as if he'd tuned into a soap opera without having watched for a week. It was so frustrating to be clinging to someone's back running for their lives without knowing why.

*Raina, why are we running away from these things? I ken they mean to kill us!

*They knew that ship had the Growth Accelerator. They wanted it."

*What wuild those wee tanks want with that? I dinna understand!"

*Neither do I, but the Doctor thinks they trapped passing spaceships with a new weapon. A weapon that can disable a ship by attacking its sub-space drive unit."

*If they have that technology, they could build their ain gizmo growth Accelerator.

*That's what I can't understand why either... she admitted.

Ace stopped in her tracks, and pulled out a deodorant can. "No Ace, there isn't time!"

"Oh right, Professor," she shouted. "Like I want to be exterminated!"

"We need to conserve our resources."

"Well then, come on! Don't hang about!"

"May I suggest something?" asked Raina, as the Doctor pulled Ace along behind him. "Since we're only down the next level from the labs..."

"What?"

"See that doorway up ahead?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Looks like it leads to a room, a power area. If we could get in there, and blockade them out . . ."

"With two cans of weak explosives?" questioned the Doctor, huffing.

"With just one."

They reached the door. Quickly the Doctor smacked the switch with his umbrella. Swinging Callom off her back, Raina bustled everyone inside.

"Hurry up, get in!" shouted Ace. "They're almost on top of us!"

Callom saw Raina examining the cracks in the door frame. "Come on, Raina! They're coming."

"Okay." She let him pull her into the room, just before the door slid shut. Inside, Ace hunted for something to blockade the entrance with.

The room was filled with computer terminals and various electronic devices. It was anyone's guess as to what its purpose. Bent over, the Doctor examined the closest console lining one wall. Light panels in the ceiling gave fluorescent illumination. "There are several struts placed at cross angles," the Doctor announced. "A precise explosion would blow the whole shebang down . . ."

The Doctor made a rapid mental calculation. His fingers moved as if scribbling invisible equations on an invisible chalkboard. "Could work, I suppose."

 

“Who's got explosives?” Raina asked, rubbing her sweaty forehead.

 

"Ace?" the Doctor asked, holding out his hand. He felt the cold metal aerosol can pressed into it. “Raina, since you're a geologist, you try and find the weakest point in the door!”

Raina tapped places in the metal walls with her geological hammer. She scanned the wall struts around the metal hatch. "Hmm, not your typical alloy. Looks like a carbonized steel annealed with some lighter aluminum salt."

"Stop admiring the fixtures and do what you're gonna do!" cried Ace. The teenager's skin crawled as she watched the geologist whack the wall in one place. Distant blasts were getting steadily louder.

"The stress fractures indicate the material's weakest here," said Raina, turning to the Doctor.

"Exactly. Using the harmonic constant . . ." realized the Doctor. Absently he passed his map to Callom. Then the Doctor placed the can in a crack tapped out with her hammer. Then gestured everyone to the far wall. Grabbing Callom's shoulder, the Doctor helped him to crouch on the floor.

"How many seconds?" asked Raina.

"Eight . . ."

"Uh oh . . ."

Metal supports blew out of place. Both the Doctor and Callom huddled together, the Doctor clutching his hat more firmly on his head. The whole wall atop the girders slid down vertically in one sheet. Two or three struts clattered down on top.

"Mega!" cried Ace. She swatted Raina on the shoulder, laughing. "That oughtta stop n' make em think!"

"What a kick . . ."

"How'd you do it, Professor?"

"We knocked out the weld supports, instead of the metal. Caused the metal to fracture. But that's only bought us a few minutes," explained the Doctor. "We'd better find a way out of here."

"I'll scout ahead," offered Raina. She stopped momentarily to slip her geological hammer into a holster at her hip.

"Wait for me, Yank."

"It's a shame we can't weld these struts to the wall and seal them out permanently," muttered the Doctor. He hunted around for anything remotely resembling a torch or a melder.

Ace and Raina searched the chamber. The teenager clutched the map once held by the Doctor. Several huge turbines whirred in unison. "Funny,"

"What, Ace?"

"That these Karakulians should have a city running on electricity, instead of nuclear energy or something."

Raina bent over one of the generators. Took a quick look, and shook her head. "Could be using a nuclear fuel," she suggested. "There's some radiation present."

"Better get a move on, Yank."

Fzam! Both flinched as they heard the guns blazing away at the improvised barricade. "Those Collectors sound awful close."

"Anyway, can you find the power room on the map?" Ray asked.

"Not really."

"Where are the labs?"

"Looking on this here map, about a kilometer. Towards the northeast section of the City."

Raina dug through the pockets of her vest once more. Extracted a compass with a mirrored lid. On her flat palm she held it out at arm's length away from her body. "Correcting for the magnetic disturbances, this says north is behind this wall."

"But these generators are screwing up the compass aren't they?"

Giving the generators a wide berth, Raina rounded the corner into another chamber. Behind several drums there appeared to be a door. "C'mere, Ace. I see a door. North by northwest. About fifty degrees from north magnetically."

"But the wires . . ."

"I should be far enough away from them by now."

"Hey Doc!" Ace shouted. "Ray's found another door in back. Behind these turbines!"

"Our friends are having a time trying to get through," announced the Doctor. In his hands he clutched what looked like a gun with a short muzzle. Still he required two hands to hold it. "Luckily I scraped together this maser. Welded them out."

"Great, but how many minutes does that give us, Professor?"

"I'd estimate, about seven-point-six . . ."

"Doctor, I think they're getting thru!" cried Callom.

"That was an upper estimate. I should have guessed they'd have rolled in the heavy artillery."

"Hey, why aren't they coming in through the back door?" Ace suddenly shouted to Raina.

"I don't know. Perhaps there's something back here that doesn't lead to the outside corridor . . ."

"Can your maser cut through doors?" Raina asked the Doctor.

"What? What are you doing, Raina?"

"Trying to get out of here, Doctor."

"But that room is the nuclear power center! That's why they're not coming through the door . . ."

Immediately Ace grabbed the Doctor's improvised weapon and fired at the other door. "We must do something now!" she cried.

"Wait, perhaps the Growth accelerator's power unit can boost the laser . . ."

"If the power for the turbines comes from the next room . . ." gasped Raina. "They've trapped us?"

"Looks like it."

"Radiation exposure might be lethal," said the Doctor. "I should have thought of that."

"It's no like the Karakulians would map out every section of their city," chimed in Callom. "If they are our enemy and all . . ."

"It was my idea," sighed Raina, guilty. She clamped her jaw tightly as she watched Ace burning through the lock on the radiation door. Small droplets of metal dripped off painfully slowly.

"Oh, don't be silly, Raina," sighed the Doctor. "It gives us some time. To think."

"But the radiation effects might only be temporary," said Raina. "If we run through the room. That is, if there's another door."

"The map doesn't say whether there is or not," shouted Ace.

"Not if it's a lead lined room. But wait. If these Karakulians live on this planet, they must be used to the ambient radiation. It wouldn't bother them much to have a nuclear room in their city. So they most likely wouldn't waste time putting in unnecessary shielding . . ." realized the Doctor.

BLAM! The barricade glowed red, then yellow. "Hurry Ace!" cried Callom.

"Move towards the door," urged the Doctor, pushing him towards Raina. He gripped the Growth Accelerator, still wrapped in its casing.

White hot fire grew from the center of the barricade. Equally white hot sparks burst from the maser. Before it overloaded, Ace tossed it to one side. "I won't take this!" cried Ace. "We're only a few meters away from the labs!"

"Move over Ace," said Raina. "It's done its work." The Martian born geologist shouldered her ice axe. With one mighty blow she smashed into the molten steel. Two mighty blows later she knocked out the remaining material. Hot material splattered into the next room.

Meanwhile the Doctor watched the first door glow luminescent. Spots of the corridor outside were showing through. He gestured the three of them to race through the opening cut by the maser with his handkerchief. Still he toted his improvised maser.

Huge vats of power stood in the new chamber. Instead of dynamos, large tanks with fuel rods stood at the same intervals. Gingerly the trio wormed around the units to the far door. This was fastened by a combination lock. Ace went to work. The Doctor followed, trotting at top speed as he clutched his umbrella. "They're almost through!" he cried.

A blast knocked him on the floor. Raina raced to his side, jerking him to his feet with surprising strength.

"Professor, I need a hand with this!" Ace shouted.

"Where's the device?"

Ace gave him a horrified look. "I thought you had it!"

"I. . . must have dropped it," he realized.

"Work, Doctor! I'll get it!" decided Raina.

Desperately the Doctor stabbed keys. Raina raced for the door, and dashed through the still molten metal. Callom was close behind. Just inside lay the discarded object.

"HALT! HALT!" grated an electronically charged Karakulian voice. Raina froze. Callom climbed through the doorway that minute, to see Raina covered by a Karakulian gun.

*Callom! Get back!

Just inches from Raina lay the device. She pushed it back with her hand.

"Hey, over here!" shouted Callom. Swallowing his courage, he dove for the device.

A gun blazed. Callom's hands found the package.

"HALT. Decist specimens!" grated a second Karakulian, just gliding into the room. The young Scot threw his arm over his eyes.

"Push off! We're going nowhere!" shouted Ace defiantly. She stood in the burned entrance. Reaching into her backpack, she drew out a deodorant can. "Let `em go!"

"Analysis of container indicates highly unstable explosive!"

Holding the can in front of her, she moved towards Raina. "Back off now!" Slowly the squat metal shapes slid back. Callom raced across the room. Under his arm he carried the strangely shaped parcel. As if glued to his motion, the Karakulian's sensor pod swiveled. Raina raced after the Scots lad. "Look out everyone!" she shrilled. Backed against the wall were Doctor, Ace, and the frightened Callom folding into Ace's satin sleeved arms. The door was open now, as the trio tumbled backwards into safety.

"Commence specimen immobilization!"

"YEEARRGH!" came a blood curdling scream, almost inhuman in nature. Instantly, a whoosh and a blinding flash enveloped Raina. Her cheek and whole front smashed into bare cold metal. Searing pain drilled into her thigh. She could smell fabric and flesh sizzling.

Shoving Callom behind herself, Ace raced to Raina's side. "You bloody monsters . . ." she began, yet the words died in her throat as she trembled with horror and anger. Furiously she stared daggers at the cold metal shapes.

"What have you done?" thundered the Doctor.

"Subject has been immobilized. Inferior specimens will proceed to holding lab, or will be TERMINATED."

Raina groggily shook her head as Ace and the Doctor leaned over her. "Can't you see this person can hardly walk?" he snapped.

"You will assist. Move!" grated the Karakulian, gliding forwards.

Grimly the Doctor and Ace raised Raina to a vertical position. They draped her arms over their shoulders. Callom slowly shambled before the group.
***
Mirror lined walls rose up all around them. Save on one side where a dancing field of lasers separated them from freedom. Callom hunched down into the corner of his cell, miserably fixing his eyes on Raina's huddled form. Ace tried her best to nurse the geologist's recent burn. Offering soothing words were all she could do to keep Raina quiet. Finally the pain forced her into dreamless unconsciousness. She lay there on her cloak so rigidly and still, hardly breathing. Callom hugged his knees, and said nothing. He was sure he could hear himself whimpering, to his shame. Someone's hand rested on his shoulder, reassurance in its very touch.

"It wasn't your fault, lad," said the Doctor softly. A trace of Scots accent laced his voice. A reassuring burr that went straight to Callom's core. "If she hadna pushed me outta the way . . . she'd be all right," he replied shakily.

"Friends are always making sacrifices for me, when I don't exactly expect them to," explained the Doctor, removing his hat. He pulled himself closer to Callom, and sat down very much the same. Like two schoolboys they perched side by side, hugging their knees and talking quietly. "But has one of yuir friends ever died saving ye?" "There were a few times . . . but mostly . . . "

Silence choked off his reply for a moment. "But my companions always managed to come out safe and well, after I set them straight." The male arrogance made Callom smile, briefly. "It's jest that she almost died a few hours ago. Vitreum. And now Dr. MacLaren..."

"I know. But if the Karakulians wanted her dead, they would have totally destroyed her. They simply stunned her... but unfortunately in so doing their almost broke her leg..."

"Doctor..."

"I will do what I can to help her. There is still a possibility that I can use that growth accelerator to push her leg to heal itself." "But you can't even get out of this cell," Callom sighed. "Did I ever tell you, when a Time Lord is injured, they slip into a protective coma. Many times I've fooled a friend or enemy into thinking I'm dead."

"Oh, I betcha they love that," smiled Callom.

"One of my friends in particular was fooled all the time. Her name was Sarah Jane Smith. She'd always believed I'd died, and be hunched over me, crying . . . and then I'd sit up perfectly fit . . . "

"And she'd freak," finished Callom, shaking his head. "Ye gotta admit that was a dirty trick to play on her. But Dr. Mariner is no Time Lord."

"I know, but I am quiet certain she will recover... given time..."

"I hope yuir right."

***

Meanwhile Raina stirred, and pushed up against a hard cold floor. Someone had spread her cloak out for her to lay upon. "Easy, now, don't move, yank. "

"Ace, how long have I been out cold?" she croaked.

"Couldn't tell you. You crashed after you saw the burn."

"Why did you hide it from me. I can take being injured," Raina grumbled

"The prof. was scared you'd do something crazy . . . "

"What does he think I am, stupid?" grumbled Raina, pushing herself up onto one bent elbow. "I'm perfectly capable of controlling my own mind."

"You were so shaken up after . . . the experiment," Ace explained. “All the Rani's changes.”

"What's with you all anyway? Don't you trust me?"

 

"Of course we do, Ray," said Ace.

"Have I changed that much?" she muttered. "I wouldn't know how you were like . . . only just met you after that freaking Rani."

"Callom, are you all right, kiddo?" she asked across the separation.

"I'm fine," he replied, trying to sound brave. "I'm sorry I got you all into this mess. You should have tried to escape while you could."

"We couldn't just leave you," snapped Ace. "That's not our style."

"Don't be ridiculous ma'am," said the Doctor. "You saved our lives, remember."

"How can you be so sure that the Rani's experiment didn't include some other more sinister manipulation? She could have subconsciously reprogrammed me with her experiment." Callom and the Doctor exchanged glances.

"I checked yuir mind," said the Scots boy. "It's about . . . the same as before."

"After all, aren't you and the lad psychically bonded?" pointed out the Doctor.

 

“I don't know… you don't seem to know either,” she looked accusingly at the Doctor.

"I should know ye by nau," began Callom.

"No lad, she's got you there," said the Doctor. "Your DNA was altered both of you. Your mind powers were enhanced in your case, Callom, and in your case, Raina, they boosted you to the peak of physical fitness. I'd imagine it bolstered your immunity and your ability to heal."

Suddenly Raina slipped away into blackness again. She again felt the searing pain afflicting her thigh. Already her body struggled to heal the injury, but it was working overtime. Blackness seeped over her vision once again. Her friend's voices receded into the distance.

The last few days had been some of the most physically traumatic for Raina. Most of the time she weaved in and out of a comatose state, like a swimmer resurfacing from beneath a smothering sea. She didn't want to wake from the strange half dreams and snug darkness that felt so comfortable. Half dreams separated out as her mind paged through the memories. Even the memories themselves seemed mostly fictional. Memories of intense physical and mental pain mingled with images of Callom's frightened face begging her to live. Visions of the Rani's smiling austere triumph as she extracted the very blueprints of Raina's life. And tried to warp them to her reality.

Yet had she really succeeded? Hadn't Callom seized the formula at the last moment, teleporting to safety? How had he escaped her biological snares?

The Time Lord called the Doctor must have helped Callom. The Doctor and his companion Ace. Showing up in the nick of time by some inexplicable coincidence. Horrible pain wracked her body again after she felt the radiation of the Time Wind penetration. Radiation riddling every cell of her body. Nevertheless, she'd been brought back from the brink of nonexistence in the physical sense. Horrible pain spread across each bone and muscle, once torn apart and re-knitted into a new blueprint. A blueprint chosen at random from a seemingly endless universe of possibilities.

"Raina!"

A voice seemed such a long way off to the geologist, as if she were atop a high mountain. Yet now it felt as if she were at the floor of a huge subterranean cistern, pitch black.

"C'mon girl! Wake up... you're got to wake up!" called Ace. “You blacked out!”

"Please Raina... wake up!" pleaded a much higher voice.

"Callom," she answered weakly. Her eyes opened to a sterilely lit room. Two blurred shapes sat at the far wall behind dancing lines of light. "Did they hurt you?" she croaked.

"Steady now, Yank you're hurt worse then we thought," muttered Ace, who supported her shoulders with her hands. At least she was on the same side of the dancing beams as Raina.

"Doctor, what's going on?" demanded Raina as she struggled to rise.

"Don't try to get up," he responded. “Ace, how bad is it?”

 

“Doesn't look pretty.” Said Ace. “No wonder she blacked out. It's extra crispy.”

"What do you mean," she began, until a jarring shaft seemed to pierce her leg as she shifted it. "What's happened to my legs? Why does it hurt to move them?"

"Please, dinnae look!" begged Callom.

Raina did look, in spite of herself. Fighting the protesting Ace, she whipped aside the cloth that covered her leg. A long black mark ran down her right thigh and calf, near the knee. Charred cloth was melted into the burned flesh, quite near the muscle itself. "Goddamn fucking son of a bitch!” she choked.

"I'm sorry," began Ace.

“Don't be. I don't need someone throwing a pity party,” Raina gritted, knocking Ace's hand away.

"Dinna say that!" cried Callom. Raina's mind whirled with all the memories. At last she'd straightened out the sequence. Now she rested with her head propped up on one hand, elbow resting on the floor.

"So how do we get out of here?" asked Ace to the Doctor in the cell across from theirs.

"Sh, I'm thinking," he hissed.

"Better think a wee bit faster then, Doctor," cautioned Callom. "That mechanical salt shaker's coming back."

"Doctor, how precisely do the Karakulians move? Those machines" asked Raina from her position on the floor.

"Electromagnetic levitation," muttered the Time Lord.

"If only we can disrupt that power," she whispered.

"Yes, that's it!" exclaimed the Doctor, leaping off his haunches. Excitedly he popped his hat back upon his head. "I've got it! It worked on Skaro years ago. Sure we don't have Susan, Ian and Barbara… but it might just work"

“What's he talking about?” Callom asked.

 

“A similar situation to this,” said the Doctor gleefully.

"Come on Professor, let's have it now," insisted Ace.

"Callom, can you use your special powers to make a Karakulian think I'm outside the bars and not inside?"

"Yes, but what good will my power work on a machine?"

"The Karakulian Collector isn't a mere machine. It's a cybernetic organism. A fusion of flesh and fabricated circuits. Much like the Daleks."

"I get it," said Callom. "I can affect something that has a mind."

"You or I will be ready to blind the Karakulian when we convince it to open the electron repulsor bars. Then one of us grabs it from behind..."

Hurriedly the quartet settled down when they saw the Karakulian glide into the hallway. Once between their two cells it stopped and leveled its eye stalk at the incapacitated Raina on the floor. It electronically requested, "Remain clear of the bars, female inferiors..."

This was not quite the Doctor's plan, with the practical Karakulian totally ignoring him and Callom. Yet Raina said, "Well, I can't walk. You'll have to come in and get me out yourself."

With a pressure of its claw, the Karakulian touched the force beam control. Silently the Doctor noticed how it did this.

"Hey!" shouted a voice behind it. It seemed that Callom was outside the dancing beams of light!

In confusion the Karakulian collector bleeped. Just long enough for Ace to grab the casing without being seen. Raina tossed her cloak over the top of the Karakulian.

"I can't hold this wretched thing!" shouted Ace. The Doctor helplessly stared as the Karakulian fired wildly, blue sparks flying.

Desperately, Raina grabbed the base of the machine, holding her knife in her other hand. . Anger and hatred exploded inside her brain. Raina could only touch the base plate, yet all her new found hatred and anger flowed through her fingers. She had sought to pry open the panel, and rip the wires apart to short out the electromagnetic repulsor unit drive... but why did she suddenly feel her fingers ripping into the base plate. Strength seemed to flow through and let her tear it like it was paper. It was as if her own body's strength suddenly spiked, then flared into a supernova of muscular power. Grabbing the wires she tore through, she ripped as many as she could

"Move-ment . . . ii-mm-parrd," droned the Karakulian, its voice slowing to a grunt.

Ace shuddered as the Karakulian stopped dead. Small screeching were the only sound it now made. "All right, Yank!" she cried, slapping Raina's hand in a high-five.

"I . . . I don't know what I did," stammered Raina. Astonished, she stared at her palms, seeing the skin that was bleeding with torn metal.

"Whatever you did, Yank . . . thanks. Damn your hands are all torn up,” Ace whispered. Quickly the blood seemed to clot, and Raina realized they were healing quickly.

"Ace, turn that control to the left," instructed the Doctor when it was all over. Callom rushed over to Raina and hugged her tight. Wearily she patted his head and assured him she'd be all right.

"That's done it," declared the Doctor, bringing both palms together in a single smack. "Now. Let's get it open."

Callom shrank back. "Och! Ye sure the creature isn't jest deceiving us? Like playing possum?"

"Can I borrow a knife?"

Reluctantly, Callom reached into his sock and pulled out his skeindu. Taking the shortened dirk, the Doctor gingerly pried into the crack between the domed top and the grating. Raina helped swing up the lid, and they saw the fused bits of biological cells merged together with circuitry.

Corners of her mouth drawing down, Raina shuddered. "So that's what a Karakulian looks like."

"Yes," the Doctor sighed. "A living brain fused to modern circuitry. This gives me an idea. Help me get this out of here... and we can make use of a tried and true method..." he whispered, voice low. Using Raina's cloak, they reached into the casing and bundled the squirming mass out. Quickly she wrapped a cord round its top.

"You mean there's a wee beastie inside that machine?" asked Callom from behind. "Like some sort of a brain or a gremlin?" All he and Ace had seen was the Time Lord and the geologist hefting a small bundle out of the Karakulian. Bits of electronics flew out, Ace and Rayna working hard to clear the inner workings of the mechanism out.

Turning to everyone, the Doctor announced, "Step one of my plan is accomplished. Now for the next play. One of us lucky souls must get inside the casing and play dress-up."

"Raina could get inside," suggested Ace. "Then we could push her."

"Och, can I?" asked Callom, sensing Raina's emotions of loathing repulsion at the very thought. "I'm the wee lad remember?"

"No way, shrimp," said Ace.

"I don't see a problem," said Raina. "He'll be safest inside there if the Karakulians fire upon us. Besides, he can manipulate the controls. I mean you did jury rig it..."

"Yes," the doctor muttered, twisting wires and circuits together. "I removed the prime brain and control unit. Now this connection here will work like a makeshift joystick Callom. You just twist this toggle here to go left, and this to go right. The pedal on the floor controls speed..."

"Okay Professor," sighed Ace. "Whatever you say."

"Time to try for size," announced the Doctor. He made a stirrup with his hands to boost the young Scot inside. Holding Raina's hand, he slid into the seat.

"Och, this is strange," he exclaimed from inside. The curved walls of the Karakulian casing rose around him. Eerily it felt the right size for him. He sat on the bottom, holding the improvised control unit the Doctor handed down to him. A small screen flared into life, and the doctor explained it could show was immediately outside the small tank.

"We're closing the lid now," said Raina. Callom's world became dark temporarily, only illuminated by the doctor's improvised LCD screen before his face.

"Kind of like a tank in here," he shouted. Callom grasped the control box, twiddling with the tiny control rods. Slowly the casing slid forwards, toward the door. "We may have to push him from the back," said Ace, sliding around behind the travel machine and pushing it out the door. Helping Raina to walk, the Doctor followed.

"See anything?" asked Ace.

"No," came the reply, in her mind.

"Here, Ace. Raina and I will walk ahead of you two, like we're prisoners."

Ace halted Callom, letting the Doctor and Raina pass. Hand under Raina's right arm, the Doctor and the explorers moved out into the corridor. Callom managed to move the travel casing as Ace pushed from behind.

The real test came when a Karakulian rolled down the corridor toward them. "You don't have to push, you infernal machine!" shouted the Doctor.

"Query, moving experiment subjects is not authorized?" asked the new Karakulian.

"New authorization," grated Callom, swirling his mind into an illusion, and hurling it into the cybernetic brain cells of the Karakulian Collector.

"Perfect," muttered Ace behind him