Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ A Growing Madness ❯ Chapter 9

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 9

"Just how many times before had this happened?" the Doctor asked himself. He could hear their grating voices planning havoc. A diabolical plan. Which he had walked straight into with his young companions.

"I must be getting old," he complained. "Happens when you reach nine hundred fifty-five!" He couldn't move a millimeter. A drug attenuated to his unique nervous system kept him rigid, yet conscious.

From a strange tank he saw the tendril brain forms of the lead Karakulians drifting. Their control Collectors moved about in the haze, fitting the Doctor into restraints. Loathing filled his mind when he regarded the creatures that thought themselves far superior to anything that did not possess their form or intellect.

There was a good reason why he endured this. He wanted to discover their plans. Sometimes that meant stepping into the lion's den to hear them roar. Still, he'd counted on being able to get out alive and unscathed. A slim hope still existed: Ace was not in their clutches. This eighteen-year-old human saved his life time and again. Funny how much he'd come to rely upon his companions over the aeons. He could always count on his companions doing the exact opposite of what he said.

The Theileria Minor colonists. If he could have saved them, it would have been a miracle. Most likely, they were Karakulians themselves now. Of all the times to land on Karakul, it had to be when the Karakulians were just developing space flight. To think Karakul's sun would be destroyed in a few measly years from now.

Time was relative. Especially to a Time Lord.

Why did the Karakulians want a human invention like the Growth Accelerator? Surely they could develop one from their own technology.

He was figuring this riddle out when they caught him.

"Test results on first human subject?"

"Test positive. Aging accelerated significantly. Test subject was destroyed after termination of experiment . . . "

Hearing these words, the Doctor felt a stab of guilt. Pity about Callom. Such a young boy. He could recall the last despairing look on the lad's face as the Karakulians guns blazed around him. This timid boy seemed capable of such sudden bravery when he grabbed the Growth Accelerator short hours ago. Or when he helped them to save Vitreum from the Rani's genetic experiments.

"Tests results of alien female indicate strong physical constitution."

"Prepare cell cultures."

Perhaps the geologist would survive. She was a strong creature. Humans always survived somehow. Just trying to figure out her genetic code would occupy even a Karakulian. It was a certainty that they never encountered her species before. At least not in his experience. Adaptable self mutating DNA was a rarity.

Commencing scans on Doctor. Query. Is Accelerator functioning to specified parameters?"

"Affirmative. Cellular cultures of Doctor accelerated 1.5 percent."

"What . . . do you want of me?" he managed to croak.

"You will be silent, Time Lord. You among these creatures is perhaps even worth speaking to. But you will not succeed this time. You are under our control, and soon the Rani will deal with you when we've extracted every bit of information!" hissed the speaking units of the Karakulian scientist closest to him.

"If I'm to die, I must know. And do you think the Rani will just let you have knowledge without a price?”

 

“The price is sharing what data we've gained. We are advanced to study in her methods. She is a superior being and has deemed us worthy.”

 

“But why kill me? Surely the Rani would want me alive.”

"You will continue to function. Your mind will be of use to us. Growth Accelerator has increased metabolization of a drug in your nervous system. Soon you will be under our control. All your knowledge will be shared willingly. When we're done, you will be traded."

"What in the Twelve Galaxies would you want with that device? Surely you've developed one of your own . . . "

"Human Growth Accelerator technology is not dependent upon the absence of radiation, Time Lord."

"Aha, so your ambient radiation is stopping your experiments?"

"Radiation halts accelerator's process. Human devices have overcome this limitation by using radiation as a power source. The Rani has given us the means to obtain what we wish."

"So what are you going to do with it, now that you've got it?"

"Growth accelerators will speed up process of Karakulian embryo production. New genetic material will stop spread of the virus."

 

“Humph surely the Rani's machinations can help you with that!”

 

“Her knowledge comes with a price. And you are the price, Doctor.”

"And what about me? Surely you aren't gong to all this trouble just to kill me?"

"Your regenerative properties will be in-fused into our Karakulians."

"My regenerative properties? You know about them? How?"

No answer. Horror rose in him as he realized, "That ship . . . was a trap to bring me here?"

"Affirmative," came a harsh clatter that passed for a Karakulian laugh. "And you as a primitive lesser being were drawn here..."

"I'm flattered. I didn't think you Karakulians were capable of such a brilliant plan," he croaked. "I knew that device that stopped me was the same as what stopped the Cerise!"

"One of your old nemeses divulged your location."

"The Rani?" he gasped. “Then you aren't just joking around.

"Correct. In exchange for information gleaned from you, she will assist us in the rebuilding of our world."

"Now it makes sense," the Doctor mumbled grimly. "Only she would have had such a contingency plan."

***

Explosions rocked the corridors. Raina pushed herself to a sitting position, despite the pain in her leg. One of the Karakulians, the furthest from her, vanished into a smoke cloud. Only seconds later, there was a blinding flash that painted the dingy lab into a flare of light. Lab counters and devices were momentarily visible. Raina sniffed the by- products of a nitroglycerin explosion.

"Unknown explosives!" screeched one Karakulian, from within its vat.

For a moment the Karakulian Collector unit guarding Raina turned away. It regarded the lead Karakulian scientist, bubbling away in its mobile vat, "Query! Determine nature of explosion!"

"Eyarrgh!" something screamed at the top of its lungs.

BOOM!

Choking smoke exploded just outside the lab doorway. Pulling herself with her hands, she began to crawl from beneath the scanner.

"HALT. Do not move!"

Glass shards sliced up Raina's nerves as she crawled another two inches. The geologist shivered, trying to ignore the searing sensation.

"Ye canna get me, ye Sassenach machines!" shouted the same tenor voice in the dark. There were yet another flash and an explosion as a bank of computers bit the dust. Collectors sizzled and exploded, leaving their master defenseless.

Suddenly the Karakulian unit standing over Raina screeched, "AM under attack! Assistance required! Small female alien... ASSIST YOUR CONTROLLER!"

"Not likely!" shouted a female voice. Light flashed off her baseball bat as she hammered the Karakulian. Its ray blazed wildly toward Raina. Fortunately she had moved precious inches out of its line of fire.

"Ace!" cried Raina. "I've never been so glad to see anyone!"

"Steady on, Yank," she said, dropping to her haunches by the geologist. "I'll get you out of here in no time flat!"

"There's a pain... Ow! A pain sensitizer! On . . . my leg!"

"Got it covered," she said, ripping out the wires. "Are you okay?"

"I will be now."

Mayhem erupted all around the two women. Two other Karakulian collector units raced back and forth, guns blazing. They sought an enemy that was in many places at once. In the blaze of their tazers Raina sighted a male figure wielding a long sword. He hoisted the weapon over his head, and crashed it down on computer terminal after terminal. Before the Karakulians could shoot, he'd vanish in a swirl of light.

Raina could swear the sword looked like a claymore, an ancient Scots weapon. Such a sword took a great deal of strength to wield. War cries in Gaelic echoed from every direction.

"Let's get you out of here," Ace said, wrapping Raina's arm around her shoulders. "Can you stand?"

"Painfully," she gasped, tottering to her feet.

"HALT! Do Not Move!"

"Blast!" gritted Ace.

Another tank swung into view. Right beside the Karakulian covering them, the stranger appeared. He placed the point of his claymore at the base of the tank. With a mighty heave, he used it to lever the Karakulian onto its side. Helplessly it toppled, crying, as the glass shattered, spilling its occupant onto the floor. Raina freed herself from Ace. Dropped to her knees, pressing hands against the Karakulian's sensor plates. Like before, she focused her anger and pain. Till the Karakulian no longer moved. Ace swung round. The first Karakulian Collector swung its tazer round on her. Beside it appeared the man. He pressed his sword into the ground. Using the weapon as a support, he planted both his booted feet into the creature's side. Shoved. Like a hockey puck the Karakulian hurtled across the room. Right in the path of the second Karakulian. For a minute the second Karakulian swerved. Before it could recover, the two collided. Both exploded on impact in a cascade of sparks. Silence was blissful.

"Callom! Is that you?" asked Raina.

Kilt swirling around his knees, he raced to her side. "Thank goodness yair okay!" he cried, throwing strong arms around her.

She hugged just as firmly. "My, how you've grown!" she exclaimed, drawing back for a second to look at him. All six-foot of solid muscle and bone, clad in warrior's clothes.

"Och, that's nae important nau," he said. His tears spattered her brown hair as she held him tight against herself. "I . . . jest could nae leave ye behind!"

"I hate to bust up this reunion," broke in Ace. "But those Karakulians will figure out what's up, and be swarming all over this place in minutes."

"Aye, we'd better get out of here then," said Callom. "I'll help Raina get away. You get going."

"See you there, sport," she said.

"Be careful, lass," he said, catching hold of her arm before she walked away. For a moment she looked him full in the face, newfound respect and sadness in her eyes. Innocence lost, as she had lost hers years before.

Her jaw trembled as she clenched her lips tightly. "Aren't I always," she snapped, forcing down the emotion betrayed in those brown eyes. Raina couldn't help but notice the nonverbal exchange.

***

No longer could the Doctor speak. Jaw muscles failed to receive the commands from his hazed brain. The drug was taking its full effect. With all the resources of his Time Lord brain he fought, to no avail.

"C-can't talk," he gasped, voice a mere croak of its former self. "N-not really fair. . . is it?"

Dispassionately the Karakulian brains ignored him. No longer was he an enemy, but a test subject. Like the colonists had been, and the Doctor's young Companions. Save Raina, who wasn't all that young. At least from what he knew about her species.

Funny. The Doctor claimed to be close to one thousand years old, and that was a mere fraction of the life spans of a Time Lord. Raina was a human, perhaps altered in some way by the Rani. How long could she hope to live, with the mutations? She claimed to be thirty-six, but what did that matter in the grand scheme of things?

Poor Callom. His life was snuffed out before he could taste the burdens of adulthood. Ace was a girl whose childhood should have been filled with safe happy family memories. All she could recall was the pain and anger toward parents she no longer considered hers. She hated her mother, who was an adorable baby just as Ace had once been. Callom's father, fearful of his son's budding powers, drank. Still the lad loved him.

Vitreum, the scientist who had died helping them escaping the Rani. Who was an outcast and slave in her culture? Because she chose to reject their ways and live without genetic enhancement. Without the comforts of her society on Genome. Forced to endure pain because she cared so much for a lost Scots lad.

How many had died, following him on his aimless wanderings? Adric, the gentle Alzarian with childlike innocence. Or hard edged Sara Kingdom, changing her loyalty after dispatching her own brother. Only to age to death. Katarina, the slave girl from ancient Greece who saved his life. A girl who'd never seen a spaceship, let alone an airlock. Or those countless UNIT men who could never go home after a conflict with aliens invading earth. Their wives would forever wonder why they'd not come home one night for dinner.

There were those whose lives were disrupted by traveling with him. Sarah- Jane the reporter, dumped in South Croyden. His own granddaughter Susan, living in Earth's future with a one-time freedom fighter. The Master stole Nyssa, whose father and home world from her. Or Peri, left to wed a king in a male-dominated society. Tegan, who never became an air hostess as she wanted to.

He realized they were sifting through his multiple lifetimes of memory. And he'd been drowning in the guilt, getting a high. There was no narcotic stronger to a Time Lord than a trip down Memory Lane. Somehow they'd tuned into his brain frequency. That's when he realized there was no drug in his system. If it had been, his Time Lord physiology could have metabolized it by now. Mental controls over physical processes were their hallmark. Somehow this affliction was dredging up the guilt and anger from his checked mind, and defeating him. They'd lock his mind in this cage. Force him to give up.

Desperately he fixed his thoughts on the accident in the TARDIS. Just what immobilized it and forced it to dematerialize in space? It would have to be a weapon that could reach into the fourth and fifth dimensions to immobilize a TARDIS. As he recalled, in this time, Karakulians had developed time travel. After all, the Karakulians managed to construct a device similar to the TARDIS, the same device used by two schoolteachers so long ago to get back to 1963.

But the Karakulians now were not those of the twenty-seventh century. At best the Doctor guessed time relative to Earth was twenty second century, judging from the space ship they'd encountered. These Karakulians had developed rudimentary space travel, and had driven the Ehrweyls from the planet. By now, the Ehrweyls must be cowering on some moon far away in space as they struggled to survive. Nagging him foremost was the question, "Why are the Karakulians using a Growth Accelerator developed by humans?"

But the Rani had led them to him. And perhaps had told them about the experimental growth accelerator. Most devices used enzymes to speed up growth of living matter. This was entirely different from bringing alive something inorganic like a volcano or a star. If a being based their system on temporal energy, any rate could be accelerated. Age could be stopped or started. Even time itself could be controlled. At a large energy cost.

That's what made this device different. The Karakulian growth accelerator did work on a temporal principle. But uncontrolled use could lead to rips in the fabric of space time. That's why they secured a device that stimulated cell division by bombarding DNA sequences with a special radiation. The DNA sequences that regulated the end of cell division were targeted. Certain key sequences could be destroyed or stimulated to replicate, thus accelerating cell division through increased protein replication. All without the need for temporal mechanics. At this realization, the Doctor smiled. Despite the drug in his system. At last he was getting somewhere. Of what good was this knowledge though, when he was tied down like Frankenstein in a B-movie?

Somehow the Karakulians must desperately need the regenerative factor in his bloodstream. It escaped him as to why they didn't realize he had it before. Of all the times he'd been captured and plastered to a slab for scientific examination, they'd never suspected his regenerative power, at a cellular level. But it was a factor that depended upon the Time Lord mental control of physical processes. A genetic factor that was impressed into every Time Lord when they underwent the Change at graduation. Well the Doctor could remember that fateful day when he stepped through the Psinapsifier arch, the symbolic right of passage for every Time Lord. When each Junior was hurled into the void of the Vortex. A time when the transformation to complete Time Lord forever altered their cellular structure. Black hair plastered to the sides of his temples. With all his might he struggled once more against the drug in his system. Now he knew it was a device, which was stimulating the fear and doubt centers of his brain, he could fight it. Coupled with a depressant, it pushed back his guards. How much deadlier the Karakulians would be if they were telepathic. Any more power and they could burn out his brain.

***
Arms around Callom's sturdy shoulders, Raina limped to safety. At last her body was beginning to heal the horrid burn. She had feared the damage to the muscle was permanent. Even her newfound genetic manipulation courtesy of the Rani's bioengineering power to cope with new environments was taxed to its limits. Tissues were forming into new myosin filaments to replace the burned muscle. Unlike humans, she recalled Vitreum saying that Mantissans could regenerate whole entire organs, not just tissues. In time the muscle would be totally replaced.

Or so she hoped. It was a miracle the gun had not exterminated her. Or that her leg was not broken. "I just hope Ace ken get the Doctor out o' wherever he's trapped."

"She doesn't know . . . where he is," she gasped.

"She had some nasty ideas. Said they were going to drain his mind."

"If they had a ray that could drive people to kill each other, they could very well convince him to shut his own mind off."

"I dinnae ken. I jest remember that those Karakulians had him in some lab, strapped to a table."

"Do you suppose those Karakulians know about him being a Time Lord?"

"Why do ye ask?"

"I was wondering if this whole thing was an elaborate trap, for the Doctor."

"Ace said that the Karakulians and the Doctor were auld enemies."

"Ace! I almost forgot about her," gasped Raina. "Stop right here."

"What?"

"We've got to go back, Callom."

"Dinna be crazy," he said.

"But I just realized. Ace needs your help."

"I cannae jest leave ye here alone."

"I realize I'm not much good with a lame leg, but I'm not totally defenseless." Throughout this adventure she felt she'd been a bigger liability than an asset. Ever since she woke up lying helplessly on that floor she felt sorry for herself. Now was time to stop being rescued, and start taking back her life. "I'm sick of being a liability. I want to fight back."

Those hazel eyes glanced at her anxiously. Every ounce of him struggled with some decision. His lower lip twitched, and his eyes darted. Soft brown eyes read right into his thoughts, even though she no longer sensed his emotions. "You're worried about her," Raina guessed. "And me. The conflict is tearing you apart."

He flinched. "How can ye tell? Yer nae psychic like me."

"I know you, Callom. I can tell when you're disturbed."

Still looking at his boots, he said, "She does nae have a chance. But neither will ye if I dinnae take ye back to the TARDIS."

"Even if you could get me back to the TARDIS, we can't take off without the Doctor. He's the only one who can truly operate the TARDIS anyway. And besides, he saved my life. I feel I need to do all I can to fight to save his life."

"Aye. But you'd be in danger too."

"Perhaps. But I know I can fight them, Callom. I was thinking about what happened in the cell."

"Ye somehow stopped the Karakulian, I remember."

"Right. I may not a psychic, but I immobilized the Karakulian, by brute strength. I had to get close enough though. And rip it to shreds."

"But if ye cannae run, you could get hit! If ye say, ye need to touch the monster to stop it. By tearing it apart!"

"I don't want to go down without a fight," she snapped. Gripped his shoulder suddenly. "Those Karakulians stole my leg, and I want to pay them back for it!"

"But if you shuild die . . ." he said. "What will I do then?"

"I would rather die, knowing I helped to save you, and then live knowing that I could have made a difference," she told him. "To survive is one thing. But to die knowing I made a difference . . ."

"Aye," he said grimly. "We'll go back. Together, or no at all."

"What happened, when you said a ray was fired at you," Raina asked Callom, as they teleported throughout the complex.

"A ray was fired at me, yes. It must've been the Growth Accelerator."

"Do you remember where that lab was?"

"I think . . . I ken remember. Aboot three miles . . . northeast by northwest. On the third level."

"Good. Take me there."

"What?"

"If I can use it to accelerate the healing of the cells in my leg, I may give myself a fighting chance."

"What aboot Ace?"

Callom pictured the lab where the strange ray had been fired. A switch fell closed in his mind. Glands oozed compounds. Brief grayness, then they were elsewhere. Raina pushed the haze out of her mind. "That wasn't bad at all," she said.

"Ye dinnae feel sick, do ye?"

"Not at all. In fact, that was invigorating."

Both ducked behind a lab counter as Raina spotted a Karakulian scientist. Almost noiselessly it glided In its transparent tank into the room. Back and forth it arced, as it scanned for anyone.

"Alien presence detected. Query."

Callom gripped the Karakulian from behind. Raina scrambled out, reaching her fingertips toward the base plate of the tank.

"Alert! Alert! Alien female pre-sent!"

Hatred flooded in her mind at the sound of the grating voice. She forced anger and pain into every cell and fiber of muscle. Grabbing her ice asked she smashed the tank repeatedly into cold lifeless metal sensors.

"Must . . . stop you!" she gritted. “Die you piece of shit!”

"Immobilizing . . . Alert . . . systemsmallllfunctiiiiiiiin" groaned the Karakulian. Like an unwound music box its sound retarded, before the tank toppled over and shattered its contents on the floor. Again and again the fury exploded, causing her to drive the improvised weapon into sparking circuits.

"Och that's enau!" gasped Callom. Whining squeaks were the only sounds the Karakulian could make. Its tentacles flopped helplessly in the puddle of nutrient fluid spreading into a film on the floor around its shattered casing.

"I don't think so," gasped Raina, hand to her head. "I just stopped it from moving."

"Too bad ye have t' be on top of the blasted things to stop them."

Slowly they searched the laboratory. Callom shivered as he spotted the Growth Acceleration ray. It was mounted on a tripod at one end of the small metal room. Lining metal walls were rows of shelves. Upon many of these shelves were glass dishes, with flat bottoms. Each dish was as big around as a saucer, but transparent with raised sides. Clumps of flesh floated in each container.

"Tissue samples," explained Raina. Flat sections of skin lined the bottoms of three dishes. Next to the skin cultures were placed four or five vertical stacks of red bottomed containers. Callom thought their pancake coatings looked like round pieces of meat.

"Begorra," he gasped, and pointed to other beakers filled with green liquid. Tubes ran into them from strange electronic computer panels. Bubbles issued from the tube tips immersed in the beakers. Peering through the beaker, the room was distorted into an odd curve. From behind, Callom's eyes looked larger. Horrified, he glanced through many beakers of the disembodied chunks of flesh. "I hate dead things floating in jars," he gasped, clutching his stomach. Faintly his skin flushed green.

"I remember them taking scraping from my skin. These must be tissue samples subjected to the Growth Accelerator."

"Looks like they've been busy," said Callom, with his hands over his eyes. Even though he'd grown up overnight, the young Scot felt extremely young and frightened. Becoming taller and stronger didn't help him face sudden revulsion.

"Better get going. Try to find Ace. I'll manage here."

Swallowing his nausea, he embraced Raina. For a moment he drank in the reassurance of her calmed mind. She seemed so resolved. Silently Callom wished he had that same composure as the geologist. Inside, he was scared to death. In a burst of light, he winked into another dimension. Hand on her ice axe, Raina limped over to the tripod. "Time to use this device for a constructive purpose," she said.
**