036 - Doctor Who and the Invisible Enemy

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A mysterious cloud drifts menacingly through space...

A sudden energy flash and the Doctor is infected with the

Nucleus of a malignant Virus that threatens to destroy his

mind.

Meanwhile, on Titan, human slaves prepare the Hive from

which the Virus will swarm out and infect the universe.

In search of a cure, Leela takes the Doctor to the

Foundation where they make an incredible journey into

the Doctor's brain in an attempt to destroy the Nucleus.

But can the Doctor free himself from the Nucleus in time

to reach Titan and destroy the Hive? Luckily he has help -

in the strangely dog-like shape of a mobile computer

called K9...

ISBN 0 426 20054 3

DOCTOR WHO

AND THE

INVISIBLE ENEMY

Based on the BBC television serial The Invisible Enemy by Bob

Baker and Dave Martin by arrangement with the British Broadcasting

Corporation

TERRANCE DICKS

published by

The Paperback Division of

W. H. Allen & Co. Ltd

A Target Book

Published in 1979

by the Paperback Division of W. H. Allen & Co. Ltd.

A Howard & Wyndham Company

44 Hill Street, London W1X 8LB

Corporation

Printed in Great Britain by

Richard Clay (The Chauncer Press) Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk

ISBN 0 426 20054 3

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of

trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated

without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or

cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar

condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent

purchaser.

CONTENTS

1 Contact

2 The Host

3 Death Sentence

4 Foundation

5 Counter-Attack

6 The Clones

7 Mind Hunt

8 Interface

9 Nucleus

10 The Antidote

11 The Hive

12 Inferno

Contact

Something was waiting out in space.

It drifted between the stars, formless, shapeless, a hazy, drifting

cloud, waiting patiently, as it had waited for millennia. It was

helpless since it lacked physical form, yet potentially it was all-

powerful. Apparently inert, it was filled with life and a fierce, driving

purpose. It was waiting for a host.

The space shuttle nosed its way through the asteroid belt,

altering course to avoid the larger ones, deflecting the smaller with its

energy shields. Inside the little control cabin, the bored three-man

crew waited for the long voyage to end.

Meeker was at the controls, staring moodily at the instrument

panels. Behind him the captain, Safran, and Silvey, the other crew

member, lay on their acceleration couches. Safran was dozing, his

worn features relaxed in sleep. Silvey, young and fresh-faced, was

awake and restless.

Technically, Meeker was on duty, though in reality he had

nothing to do. A steady, self-satisfied instrument-beep announced

that the ship's computer was really in charge. It had brought the ship

from Earth, soon it would land it safely on Titan, one of the ten

moons that circled the giant planet Saturn, 1,430 million kilometres

from Earth's sun. This was the paradox of space travel. You selected

the brightest, the most determined from thousands of candidates and

trained them to a peak of mental and physical skill. Then you

surrounded them with computer technology so that only in some

million-to-one emergency would their skills ever be needed.

The space radar screen was filled with the blips that marked the

track of the asteroids. A particularly large one appeared; the ship

tilted in an emergency course-correction.

Meeker decided to stage his own little rebellion. His hands

moved over the controls. Silvey looked up. 'What are you doing?'

'Going over to manual.'

'What for?'

'Why not? If I'm going to be banged around, I'd sooner do it

myself!' Meeker flicked on the forward scanner and began steering a

course through the asteroids, throwing the little ship about in his

enthusiasm.

Silvey yawned. 'It's still telling you what to do...'

'Yes, but at least I'm doing it!'

A sudden lurch nearly sent Silvey from his acceleration couch.

'Oh, come on, Meeker...'

A second, and even more violent lurch produced a steady,

reproachful beep from the watchful computer. Captain Safran opened

one eye. 'You're off course, Meeker.'

Meeker wrestled with the controls. 'Sorry, Skipper.'

'Put it back on automatic, Meeker—please.'

Still struggling to complete his course correction, Meeker

muttered, 'I can't...' He felt a sudden flare of panic as the computer

failed to respond. It was as if something had distracted its attention.

Safran got to his feet, leaned over the console and stabbed

rapidly at the controls. The alarm signal ceased, there was a musical

beep, and the controls locked back on to automatic.

Safran said, 'Titan shuttle captain to computer.'

A musical tone acknowledged his self-identification. 'New

course for Titan, please.'

A beep of assent. Lights flashed on the keyboard,.and the

shuttle adjusted its course.

Safran put a hand on Meeker's shoulder. 'All right, Meeker,

that's enough. You're off watch. At once, please.'

Meeker took Safran's place on the couch, while Safran slid

easily into the command chair. Automatically he began checking his

instruments.

The shuttle was almost through the asteroid belt by now, and

the drifting cloud was waiting. As the shuttle approached, the cloud

flickered with energy, as if it sensed the presence of approaching life.

It thickened, condensed, and began moving purposefully towards the

shuttle.

Safran said reproachfully, 'You've lost us three minutes,

Meeker!'

'So? Going to be there six months, aren't we?'

'That's not the point! '

'Sorry, Skipper. The thought of six months on Titan...'

'What's wrong with it?' asked Silvey cheerfully. 'Routine

duties, easy life...'

Meeker nearly exploded. 'I qualified for exploration eight years

ago, and what am I? Glorified garage attendant on a planetary filling

station!'

Silvey grinned sympathetically. Actually there was some point

to Meeker's complaint. But Space Service rules were strict. Everyone

had to accept his share of the routine duties, as well as the more

exciting and glamorous assignments.

'Your turn'll come,' said Safran consolingly. 'And you'll be glad

enough of refuelling bases then.'

Meeker refused to be consoled. 'All I'm saying is why take a

real space pilot and—'

An alarm-beep from the computer interrupted him.

'Unidentified organism approaching,' said the computer.

'Changing course to avoid.'

The shuttle veered away from the approaching space cloud. But

as it brushed the edge, something within the nebulous mass flared

into life, and sent out a fiery tentacle. Lightning flickered around the

shuttle for a moment, then died away.

The shuttle moved on, and the cloud began drifting away

through space...

Safran stared at the empty radar screen. 'What was all that

about? There's nothing there... Titan shuttle captain. Report please.'

In a slurred, dragging voice the computer said, 'Contact has

been made...'

Safran looked at his two crew members. 'Contact?' he said

wonderingly. 'What does that mean?' No one answered him.

Meanwhile another craft was on its way to the same remote

edge of the solar system, travelling through the vortex, that

mysterious region where space and time are one. It was called the

TARDIS and the outside of it resembled an old blue police-box. The

inside was a very different matter. The TARDIS was dimensionally

transcendental—bigger on the inside than the outside. How much

bigger was difficult to say, but an astonishing number of rooms were

tucked away inside.

A very tall man with a mop of curly hair marched into one of

the control rooms and stood gazing around with an expression of

mild displeasure. He was dressed with a kind of casual Bohemian

elegance in a long, loose jacket, gaily checked waistcoat and tweed

trousers. The outfit was topped with a broad-brimmed soft hat, and an

incredibly long multi-coloured scarf dangled round his neck.

The girl who followed him into the control room wore a brief

outfit made from animal skins. She moved with panther-like grace

and her hand was never far from the knife in her belt. Leela had been

brought up as a fighting warrior in a tribe that had regressed from

technological civilisation to primitive savagery. She had been the

Doctor's companion for some time, and she should have been used to

scientific marvels by now—but the TARDIS could still surprise her.

Leela gazed wonderingly around the control room.

It seemed very like the TARDIS control room she was used to,

the same many-sided console in the centre. But there was one major

difference. This control room was all in gleaming white. Leela looked

at the Doctor. 'We've never been here before.'

'You've never been here before,' said the Doctor moodily. He

crossed to the console, removed a side-panel and began checking

something inside.

'Where are we?' asked Leela curiously.

'Number two control room. It's been closed for redecoration.'

The Doctor glared at the console. 'I don't like the colour,' he said

accusingly.

'White isn't a colour,' objected Leela.

The Doctor said, 'That's the trouble with computers, always

thinking in black and white. No aquamarines, no blues. No

imagination!'

Leela gathered that the TARDIS had the power to redecorate

itself on its own initiative. She was about to ask the Doctor why he

didn't just order the redecoration to be changed, when the control

room gave a sudden lurch. 'Have we stopped?'

'No, we haven't stopped.'

'Have we materialised?'

'Yes.' The Doctor flicked on the scanner. Somewhere in the

distance a huge planet hung in space. It was surrounded by a shining

ring, a kind of halo.

Leela looked at the screen. 'Where are we, Doctor?'

The Doctor studied instrument-readings. 'The edge of Earth's

solar system, somewhere near Saturn... about 5,000 AD.' He looked

at Leela. '5,000 AD, Leela! We're in the time of your ancestors.'

'Ancestors?' Leela's tribe, the Sevateem, were the descendants

of a planetary survey team who had been stranded on a hostile planet.

''That's right. That was the time of the great break-out!'

'The great what?'

The Doctor stared abstractedly at the ringed planet on the

scanner. 'The time when your forefathers went leapfrogging across

the solar system on their way to the stars. The asteroid belt's probably

teeming with them by now. Frontiersmen, pioneers, waiting to spread

across the galaxy like a tidal wave—or a disease...'

'Why a disease—I thought you liked humanity?'

'I do, I do,' protested the Doctor. 'Some of my best friends are

human. But when they get together in great numbers, other life-forms

sometimes suffer...'

Saturn is a giant of a planet, an immense globe of gas seven

hundred and fifty times the volume of Earth. Besides its famous

'rings', formed by countless icy particles reflecting the dim sunlight,

Saturn is celebrated for the number of its moons. There are ten in all,

and the largest, Titan, is the biggest satellite in the solar system.

Larger than the planet Mercury, it has its own cloudy atmosphere of

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摘要：

Amysteriousclouddriftsmenacinglythroughspace...AsuddenenergyflashandtheDoctorisinfectedwiththeNucleusofamalignantVirusthatthreatenstodestroyhismind.Meanwhile,onTitan,humanslavespreparetheHivefromwhichtheViruswillswarmoutandinfecttheuniverse.Insearchofacure,LeelatakestheDoctortotheFoundationwherethey...

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036 - Doctor Who and the Invisible Enemy

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