Chapter 5

“Ann, you’re awake,” said Rachel as she slowly stepped towards her, she was unaware of the pain and confusion that Ann was feeling, her head felt as

though it was going to explode and she was definitely going to throw up.           

  “You stay away from me,” screamed Ann as she stumbled back against the wall next to Rachel’s old gramophone. “Ann it’s alright, I’m here to help.”

“I don’t know you, or that weird machine,” Ann gestured towards Andrew; she then clutched her head in pain with both hands, she could hear her heartbeat pounding inside her, she slowly fell forwards to collapse on the sofa. She then swung her head off the arm rest and began to regurgitate onto the floor. When she had finished she sank back into the sofa, her headache slowly began to fade away as Rachel sat down beside her.

  “Andrew get some aspirin,” ordered Rachel, the droid then quickly trudged out of the room. “Who are you,” asked Ann, it was hard to speak through the amount of saliva filling up inside her mouth. “My names Rachel Anderson, the Doctor bought you here with Drast, the two of them went out for a bit.”

“Where?”

“I’m not sure, they’ll be back soon,” Rachel was quickly interrupted as Andrew entered the room with a small grey container clutched in its metal hand. “What is that,” asked Ann.

“Andrew, my droid,” the robot handed Ann the container, she took it and noticed something rattling inside, she opened it to find a few white tablets of aspirin.

  “Pleasure to meet you Ann,” said Andrew.

“Thanks,” said Ann, she found it hard to talk to a machine. Ann quickly swallowed the pills, the one thing they didn’t do was help her taste buds.

  “Where am I, the last thing I remember was being in a field of snow, there was a blizzard, and then, I can’t remember.”

“Your body wasn’t able to cope with the temperatures on the surface; if Drast hadn’t saved you you’d most definitely be dead. Listen, why don’t I make you a cup of tea?”

“I’d like that,” said Ann, her stomach was slowly settling. As Rachel left the room, Ann began to get quite uncomfortable with Andrew staring at her with its light bulb eyes.

  Rachel walked through the archway and into the quite chilly kitchen, the central heating had been on the blink for nearly a week, tomorrow an expert was coming round to fix it.

  As she reached one of the work surfaces where the electric kettle stood, she noticed a small piece of folded paper, written in black ink was her name as well as Ann’s. She immediately grabbed it and walked out the kitchen into the living room. “Ann, look at this,” said Rachel as she seated her self next to Ann, the stench of vomit was thick in the air, Rachel held back her feelings about the smell. Ann looked at the piece of paper in Rachel’s hand as she unfolded it. Rachel began to read aloud what was written on the paper; “dear Rachel or Ann, Drast and I think that the distress call is coming from the ice mountain, gone out to check, back soon,” the Doctor’s signature was scribbled underneath.

  “That idiot, he thinks he can leave me lost on an alien planet while he goes off hiking!” Ann’s face began to go red with rage, at that moment she just realized that she wasn’t wearing her glasses, she reached into her right hand pocket and produced the thick framed lenses and placed them over her eyes.                     

  “The ice mountain, how I envy them,” mumbled Rachel.

“Pardon?”

“Never mind,” Rachel was interrupted as a loud ringing sound echoed throughout the room, it was the door bell. Rachel marched out into the hallway; Andrew quickly followed her since he was the one that always answered the door.

  She saw small wet patches on the floor as she entered the hallway; these were melted patches of snow walked in by the Doctor and Drast. Rachel’s presence by the door caused it to immediately slide open and reveal Chris and Sareena in their thermal coats.

  “What are you doing here,” asked Rachel. “Well we’re ready to leave, the snowmobile’s just parked outside,” said Sareena, Chris still had a look of fury in his eyes when he looked at Rachel. “Perfect timing, I’ve got a friend with me, is it alright if she comes?”

“Fine,” said Chris in a slightly angry and sarcastic way.

“Be just a second,” said Rachel as she raced through the hallway and into the living room to find Ann sitting on the sofa still annoyed by the Doctor’s note.

  “Ann, I’ve managed to get us a lift to the ice mountain, are you OK to come?”

“Perfect,” said Ann, it was only a moment before she shot up and walked into the hallway. “Andrew, you’re coming to,” said Rachel as she grabbed her fur coat from off the armchair. Andrew trudged along after Ann into the hallway and out onto the street.

  Ann got a small shock a breeze of cold air swept at her body, she then pulled up the hood on her coat. Her boots were beginning to freeze to the pavement as she looked at the street, all the houses were metal and joined together in line, she looked into the distance to see that all the tall buildings and shops were in the centre of the metal city, it seemed rather dull for an alien planet, except something was wrong, something was amiss. She couldn’t understand what it was, but there was something unnatural about the city, her mind suddenly struck it. Her head shot up to see that there was no sky, a city without a sky; she was slightly frightened by this. If there was no sky how could light illuminate the city, how could she leave the planet if there was a large roof of solid ice blocking her way?

  Andrew’s wheels made their usual annoying rattle as he glided up next to Ann. “Where’s the sky,” she asked as her heart raced with nervousness. “The sky is above your head,” said Andrew, Ann was getting more annoyed. “I mean where is the sky, why is there an ice roof!”

“The colony is situated in an underground ice cavern; you cannot see the sky because the cave roof is blocking your roof.”

  Andrew then turned his robotic head to see Chris and Sareena climbing into the front seats of a snowmobile on the opposite side of the road. The machine then trudged towards them looking left and right before crossing.        

  The front door snapped shut behind Ann as Rachel typed in a small security code on the lock panel which set up a small burglar alarm. “What is it,” asked Rachel, she was intrigued by Ann’s fixated gaze at the roof of the ice cavern; she eventually shook her head and returned to reality. “Nothing,” she said.

“Come on,” Rachel tugged at her arm and took her across the road towards a large snowmobile where Chris and Sareena sat, Andrew stood outside the vehicle, he was considerably large to fit inside the transportation. This was a thought echoing throughout Rachel’s mind. “How do we get Andrew in,” asked Ann, she realized that he was unable to sit on the actual seats.

Drast felt as though he was about to faint from the previous experience, he could no longer feel the cold since gallons of sweat were pouring over his body, he had to unzip his thermal coat to cool down. His eyes began to strain as layers of lights flashed around the walls as the lift slowly rose.

  The Doctor was examining the tracking device he had produced earlier, the tiny bleeping noise that emanated from the tool got louder and more erratic. “The signal is definitely coming from the ice mountain, but what anyone could be doing in there; it might be that Genetic Industries base you mentioned earlier.”

“Or Rachel’s father, but how he could have survived these past three weeks is a mystery,” said Drast, it was then that he realized that his hands had not left the steering wheel since they had escaped the security guards. He slowly removed them from the rubber coated wheel; the sweat on his palms caused them to stick slightly.

  “Yes, tell me about Rachel’s father, what was his name?”

“Arthur Anderson, he heard about the stories of Genetic Industries setting up a scientific base somewhere on the planet,” said Drast, the conversation was thankfully taking his mind of the current situation. “That’s another thing, what is the name of this planet?”

“Theta 5, you say that you just pick up a distress call not knowing where or even when it’s coming from?”

“Yes, we’re in the Virgo system aren’t we?”

“Of course, well anyway, Arthur complained to the Galactic Police Department, said that tampering with human nature is wrong.”

“How right he is, or was, so what did the police say?”

“They had no proof that any scientific base was on the planet, they’d checked for miles over the land. Eventually Arthur decided to check the Ice Mountain thinking that the base was in there. Now his body is probably lying frozen under mounds of snow.”

“So you don’t think the scientific base exists and that Drast never found it?”

“No, it was just a rumor some drunk man made up in a pub.”

“I disagree, perhaps Arthur did find it, perhaps he died because of something he found out,” said the Doctor, a long pause of silence filled the air.

  “Oh come on, we should have reached the surface by now,” said Drast in an attempt to break the eerie silence.

  The Doctor’s face was quickly stricken by an ominous thought. “The security guards, they’re taking us down!” The Doctor quickly kicked open the door and ran out onto the lift floor, he saw a small control panel on a stand in the right hand corner, he immediately raced towards it and examined the controls, the panel was covered in small switches and levers. A small red light bulb was flashing, underneath it were the words: manual operation, in bold black letters.

  The Doctor quickly dived his hand into his pocket and pulled out the familiar sonic screwdriver, in each corner of the panel were small metal screws. He aimed the tool over one of the screws and pulled the trigger, it slowly began to unscrew itself until it rolled off the side of the panel.

  Drast slowly leaned over the passenger seat and poked his head out of the open door. “Doctor, what are you doing?”

“The security guards are manually bringing down the lift,” he had just removed the third screw, “this panel is used for when the lift breaks down, hopefully I can override the manual control system and take us back up.” The Doctor finally removed the last screw; it rolled off and hit the ground making a small tingling sound as it touched the metal floor.

  The Doctor hastily tore off the cover of the panel where all the levers and switches were fixed on, underneath was a large maze of wires and computer chips. The Doctor then took his sonic screwdriver and turned the bottom half, this caused the setting to change. He then aimed it at a small red rubber coated wire and pulled back the trigger, suddenly an invisible force cut through the wire until it was spilt in half. He then carried out the same operation on a similar blue wire. He was distracted as Drast’s voice filled his head.

  “Doctor we’ve only got a few seconds before we reach the guards!”

“I know Drast I know,” the Doctor grabbed one of the split halves of the red wire and one of the blue wires, “let’s hope these are the right ones.” The Doctor quickly rammed the two wires together and a large flash of light covered the Doctor and the control panel for a split second.

  Drast, now sweating even more, was relieved to feel a sudden jolt as the lift changed direction and began to rise up. The Doctor, not saying a word, dropped the wires and flung the sonic screwdriver into his pocket as he slowly walked towards the snowmobile.

  Drast leaned back into his seat as the Doctor climbed back into the vehicle. “Doctor?”

“Yes?”

“You could have been electrocuted.”

“Yes, all part of a days work.”  

Ann rested her head against the glass window; it wasn’t very comfortable and might probably break because of the pressure. She looked through the transparent sheet of glass and onto the streets of the alien city, she saw people hurrying to work, never meeting eye contact with other people, not talking, just occasionally looking at their watches. It reminded her of home, but it wasn’t, at home people didn’t live in metal houses, at home people didn’t have to dress up like Eskimos so they didn’t freeze to death, at home people didn’t live underground, back home, people were normal.

  She then pushed her face away from the window and rested back in her seat, she was rather huddled into the corner because of Andrews’s size taking up most of the space. The middle seat of the snowmobile could be taken out to fit in any droid.

  During their journey Rachel had told Ann about her father and the scientific base although she didn’t really care. All Ann cared about was finding the Doctor; he was her ticket off this planet.

  She was pushed forward slightly as Chris slammed down the brakes, she peered out the window and saw what was some kind of lift terminal, there were a number of guards in large blue armor standing around, they were sticking a large yellow tape across the side of the lift saying: POLICE LINE, DO NOT CROSS; in a bold font.

  One of the guards approached the vehicle slowly in a slightly menacing walk. “What’s going on,” asked Ann, she found it easier to talk now her sickness had passed. “Looks like trouble with the lift,” said Sareena as Chris began to wind down the window. The guard had now reached the snowmobile and poked his face through the window; he wore a blue helmet which had a large black eye shield hanging down that reached to the middle of the man’s nose.

  “What’s the problem officer,” asked Chris.

“Lift trouble, two men sabotaged a security droid and have got up to the surface, for the time being you’ll have to use lift 4,” said the guard, Ann judged that he was in his late forties. She peered out the window again to see that the lift in front of them was labeled as lift 9.

  “Thank you,” said Sareena, Chris then proceeded to wind up the window and started the snowmobile up again. “That must be the Doctor and Drast, what on earth have they been doing,” said Rachel, Ann began to feel the danger of the situation.

The guard watched as the snowmobile quickly trudged off back onto the streets of the city. His back began to ache from the weight of the machine gun on his back; it was the latest edition firing two hundred rounds a minute, he had two more magazines attached to his belt, along with a torch, communicator and hunting knife.

  He saw that frost was beginning to cover is name label; he raised his armored hand and wiped it off to reveal the name: Drimacus Sutton.   

  Drimacus was the squadron leader; it had been his usual morning at the security tower when suddenly he was sent on a mission to investigate the sabotage on a security droid, he was sent with five other guards, two of whom he knew and trusted. These were Greg Mills and Elgin Shaw, both were fit and healthy ready to cope with any situation, this was soon to be put to the test.

  Drimacus was 43, married at 27 and divorced at 35. He had led a depressing life, the only thing he enjoyed and had to look forward to was seeing his five year old daughter Elli, when his wife Jan had become pregnant the bills became higher and he was forced to turn to alcoholism, this would cause beating his wife, moments of anger and waking up every day, lonely and depressed. Drimacus’ alcoholism ended their marriage, he was given time to think and get back on track.

  What better way to get back to normal by joining at the police department at the security tower.

  His old academy friends Greg and Elgin were there to help him through alcoholism, they eventually helped him quit and Drimacus had not stopped thanking them since.

  Drimacus quickly returned to the current situation and returned over to his squadron who were barring off the lift. “Have you got them down yet,” asked Drimacus, Greg and Elgin were standing at a small control panel by the entrance to the lift. “Sorry Drimacus, they managed to override the system, they’ll definitely be on the surface now,” said Elgin, his voice was at a strange pitch caused by his present cold.

“Damn, what are conditions like on the surface?”

“The blizzards started up again, it’ll be hard to find them,” said Greg, he was the main expert on computer systems and had taken a course three years ago; unfortunately his skills weren’t good enough to get the lift down.

  “We’ll go up ourselves then.”

“I just called for a snowmobile,” said Elgin.

“Good, I’ll inform base of our plans. If all goes well we’ll have them arrested by lunchtime,” said Drimacus, unfortunately Elgin, Greg and himself were unaware of events to come.

The dust and dirt was quickly swept off onto the floor by Ann’s handkerchief, she did not press hard against her lenses, when she was finished she pocketed the cloth and put her glasses back on, the familiar jolt of the snowmobile breaking greeted her once again.

  “Why have we stopped this time,” asked Rachel. Ann pressed her face against the glass and could see a lift entrance in the distance, identical to the one she had saw earlier but this time it was labeled as lift 4. “It’s time for our plan to get past security,” said Chris, Ann noticed that guarding the lift entrance was a robot similar to Andrew but bigger and armed with a kind of weapon.

  “Hold tight,” said Sareena, she leaned forwards and flicked a small metal switch situated between the radio and heating system. Suddenly a large metal panel slid down from the ceiling, it sealed Ann, Andrew and Rachel off from Sareena and Chris. Three other metal plates slid down over the two side and back windows.

  “What’s happening,” asked Ann, slightly confused by the situation.

“Lead screening, the security droid wont be able to detect us,” said Rachel, rather amused by Chris and Sareena’s ingenious plan. Ann felt the snowmobile move forward. “What now?”

“We hope not to get arrested,” said Rachel.

“As a droid I am not able to gulp loudly as a sign to show my fear of the approaching situation,” said Andrew.

The Doctor sat watching the blizzard throw small crystals of snow against the window glass; he gazed in amazement as they meshed together forming a wall of snow. “As a boy I always wondered what worlds live inside a snowflake,” mumbled the Doctor turning away from the window.

“What was that?”

“Nothing, luckily the blizzard should hide us from the guards,” said the Doctor as he lowered his hand into his right hand pocket and produced the tracker again.

  He switched it on and the familiar bleeping sound was extremely erratic and sounded as though it was going to explode. “We’re not far from the ice mountain now.” The Doctor then switched off the tracking device and retreated it back into his pocket.

  “Will you be all right without a thermal coat, you might freeze to death,” said Drast, not taking his eyes off the wind screen. “If only you knew the biology of a Time Lord.”

“Pardon?”

“Nothing, just park us as close as you can to the entrance of the mountain.”

  “Well, here we are,” said Drast as he began to turn the steering wheel towards the side of the ice mountain. While seated the Doctor managed to examine the texture of the mountain, it solid ice walls were jagged and misshapen with clusters of snow settling into every nook and cranny, a few feet away from where they were parked, the Doctor could make out the entrance.

  The same glow he had seen earlier was illuminating the entrance. “That light, what is it?”

“Lets see shall we,” said the Doctor. He gripped the door handle and climbed out, the cold immediately stabbed at his body. Snow hit his face and body while other snowflakes rested in his beard and hair. His feet trudged down five or six inches into the layers of snow, to prevent snow blowing into his eyes he had to shade them by saluting his hand against his eyebrows.        

  “Let’s get inside,” roared the Doctor to Drast who was standing the other side of the snowmobile. They began to trek through the sea of snow to get to the entrance, even though it was only a few feet away the landscape and weather slowed them down.

  They finally reached their destination; the light was slightly brighter now. “I’ll go first,” shouted the Doctor, even when raising his voice to be heard it was still muffled by the roaring wind.

  He began to step forward and entered what seemed to be some kind of small ice cave, no bigger than Rachel’s living room, Drast followed on afterwards. They walked towards the furthest wall and examined their surroundings. The two of them had now located the source of light, it seemed to be coming from out of the walls but no bulbs could be seen.     

  “Where’s the light coming from?” The Doctor touched one of the ice walls with his bare fingers and then sniffed them. “Seems to be a chemical lighting system, takes years to go out, very ingenious.”

“Well what now,” asked Drast, he and the Doctor were faced with a dilemma, in the small area they stood were two passages leading off into different directions.

  “Ah, this way,” said the Doctor as he pointed to the left passage, he then lead Drast into the tunnel of ice; the light was still covering the walls.

  The floor was covered in a small carpet of thin snow with roots of frost leading up the bases of the ice walls. The tunnel was slightly claustrophobic and seemed to slowly curve left. After a few moments the Doctor and Drast reached a sharp corner, as they turned the Doctor immediately froze still.    

  “Halt,” said the Doctor as he raised his right hand. Drast saw that it was a dead end. “Well then, back the other way,” said Drast, just as he began to turn around and leave the Doctor grabbed him by the shoulder preventing him from moving. “What is it?”

“There’s something not right, concentrate on the wall.”

“It’s just a wall,” said Drast, he then decided to go along with the Doctor.

  As he stared at the wall, it seemed to shimmer and blur, no matter how hard he tried he could not focus. Then something unexpected happened, the wall seemed to fuzz and crackle, like a television channel with bad reception. “What’s happening?”

“Optical illusion, I knew something was wrong,” murmured the Doctor as he proceeded to fish out his sonic screwdriver. He repeated the same operation he carried out earlier by changing the settings; he then raised it up and pointed the device towards the wall. With his thumb he pulled down the trigger and the sound of an alien vibration filled Drast’s ears, he watched in amazement as the wall seemed to fade away before his eyes. It was like looking through a window and seeing your own reflection while seeing what was beyond the glass.

  The Doctor then released the trigger and dug it back into his pocket. “What on earth was that,” said Drast as the wall returned to its normal state.

“Some kind of hologram, seems to have been here a while so it can get rather fuzzy,” said the Doctor, he then kicked the corner where the two walls joined. A loud crackling sound followed and the walls completely disappeared from sight to reveal another area of tunnel ending at a large frost covered door.

  It was obviously metal and several inches thick, a large wheel was situated in the middle to open the door but seemed to be frozen into position as icicles hung down from the eight handles on the rim of the wheel. The Doctor stepped forward and scanned the door, a moment later he produced a large white handkerchief from his right hand pocket, with it he brushed away the frost in the area above the wheel handle. When the door was clean it revealed letters engraved into the metal, they read: Genetic Industries Laboratory One. Both Drast and the Doctor were shocked by these inscriptions. “Well, this is a surprise,” said the Doctor as he pocketed the handkerchief.