But the shield generator wasn’t working, and this was what the Doctor had to get to the bottom of. Obviously a ship had come through and Aleena had been taken before she could get the generators back up and running. So whoever had taken her was probably a scouting party. The rest of the them were surely going to be appearing soon.
He sighed and scrambled out from under the console, coughing and brushing dust from his jacket. This place hadn’t been cleaned for ages. Aleena had been so obsessed with watching him on her time monitors that she had neglected to keep up with the housework.
He got to his feet and stood with his hands on his hips, looking down at the equipment. He had to get this thing working. There was no way he could let anybody get a hold of this sort of technology.
He turned and looked out of the curved window. The last time he had been here Aleena had shown him the other moon - Titaniux - rise in the east sky. The red sky had darkened and the pale moon had risen and bathed the entire room in a white light. That seemed like such a long time ago now.
He felt a twinge of pain in his left heart and put a hand to his chest.
Composing himself, he walked around the inside of the window and looked down at his TARDIS in the distance. Down there, in cryogenic stasis, was Matthew Cole - a future echo of himself. He had come to Equinox in the vain hope that Aleena might be able to piece the two of them together. He knew that if she succeeded then he’d finally regenerate, but he was living on borrowed time now.
He shook his head, annoyed at the situation he found himself in with this ancient body of his, and returned to the console underneath the cylinder.
Caroline and Danny had scrambled down the rocky crater and had finally reached the side of the ship. It was quite big and looked as though it could carry a sizeable crew.
“What do we do?” asked Caroline. “Knock?”
Danny edged around a crop of bushes and walked over to the ship. He put his hand on the cold, grey metal. “The whole thing looks dead.”
“There must me a door somewhere,” said Caroline, her eyes frantically searching around for an entrance.
“Let’s try round here,” said Danny.
They made their way along the outside of the hull until the reached a slight alcove set into the side of the ship.
“This is it,” continued Danny.
“Wait!” said Caroline, putting a hand on her friends shoulder.
“What is it?” asked Danny, following his gaze to…
Emblazoned across the door in the alcove was a large, green outline of an eyeball, partly scorched when the ship had presumably entered the atmosphere.
“You are kidding me?” asked Danny, to himself more than anything.
“It’s Eyeglass isn’t it?”
Danny nodded. “It’s gotta be. What was their motto? For the good of the Human race or something?”
Caroline nodded, remembering their encounter with the Eyeglass agent Magnus Blackmore back on Trixatin and then later at Manchester Airport. “Something along those lines, yeah. So they came to Equinox to grab the time equipment. Bloody typical, isn’t it? Wherever we go they tend to pop up.”
“So where are they now?” asked Danny. “This place look’s deserted.”
“We need to go in and check,” said Caroline, grabbing a small, iron lever fixed to the door and turning it. There was a loud clunk and the door was released from it’s locking position. It swung open causing Danny and Caroline to step back.
“After you?” offered Caroline.
“I was afraid you’d say that,” said Danny, stepping into the dark spaceship’s interior.
Once inside what they found didn’t exactly urge them to continue on their quest. All around dead human beings in black combat suits lay strewn across the floor. One had even gotten himself trapped halfway in and halfway out of a doorway. Another had gone head first into a flickering console.
“This is grim,” said Caroline, stepping over a young, dead girl who couldn’t have been much older than eighteen.
“What do you reckon happened?” asked Danny.
“Well they obviously crashed,” said Caroline.
“But there are no survivors? Where’s Aleena and the ones who took her?”
“Maybe they’re still around here somewhere.”
“Or maybe they’re out there somewhere,” said Danny, jabbing a finger towards the exit.
“Well wherever they are, we need to find them,” said Caroline.
Not too far away just outside of the nebula, four, huge starships were waiting. Waiting for new orders. They each had huge front sections, elliptical in design, and the rears of them narrowed into more of a tube-like shape. Each of the front sections had two long, hyper-engines stretching from the front to the rear. On the front sections of each of the ships was a green Eyeglass logo.
In the largest of the ships - named the Haven - various people were milling around the control centre of the ship. They were in a round, circular room with it’s walls adorned with hi-tech computer consoles. In the centre of the room there was a large, console-like table showing various holographic images of this sector of space. Four people were gathered around the console, dressed in black combat suits, each with a green eye attached to the left breast pockets.
One of them was a man who looked to be in his late 40’s. He had brown, swept back hair, but it was greying. His face was long, serious and it looked like he hadn’t cracked a smile in years. This was Henry Otto.
The second person was a young, dark-haired woman in her twenties. She had twinkling green eyes, and seemed to blink a lot. Her name was Elizabeth Jameson.
The third person was a dark-skinned man, in his 30’s with a kindly face. He was tall and muscular. His name was Nathan Redcar.
The fourth and final person around the console was a woman in her mid-40’s. She was plump and had her hair tied into a bun, giving a severe look to her. This was Corporal June Caster - recently promoted right up to captain after she had completed a successful machine back in time at Manchester Airport.
“So we lost the Dagger,” said Otto, pointing towards the holographic image of Equinox, suspended in the nebula. “One of our best ships and we lose it.”
“But we managed to transmat Gates and Peppers out with the prisoner at least,” said a hopeful sounding Jameson.
“Liz,” said June, “we only just got them back.”
“So it’s not advisable to transmat again,” said Redcar with a slight disappointed twinge in his voice.
“No,” said June. “Not at all. The nebula is that washed with interference and distortions that we may lose the pattern of anyone who transports again.”
“Then we have to take the ships in again,” said Otto. “We’re going to have to risk it.”
June sighed. “The whole reason for the lighthouse is so that passing ships can be warned that there is a dangerous nebula ahead. If the ship has to travel through it then the lighthouse can guide it through the safest part. But the lighthouses guiding system hasn’t worked in years,” said June, pulling up a holographic, 3D image of the lighthouse, which rotated in the centre of the console. “If the guidance system had been working then we would have been able to guide the Dagger down safely and take control of the facility. Instead we ended up crashing. We were lucky we had survivors who were able to grab the lighthouse resident and transmat her back here.”
“I don’t understand why they didn’t try and fix the guidance system,” growled Otto.
“We’ve been through this,” snapped June. “the guidance system was destroyed beyond repair.”
“Then what do we do?” asked Jameson, leaning closer to the holographic image and making the image flicker with her finger.
“The prisoner will know the safest path,” said June.
“She’s not giving us anything,” said Redcar. “Paragrim’s with her now.”
“Then he’s got to try harder,” said June. “She’s not human. She’s just an alien. This is for the good of the human race.”
“For the good of the human race,” repeated the other three in unison.
Somewhere in the rear of the ship was a cold and dark, metal room. It was small and had just one, small exit. Tied to a metal chair in the centre of the room was the blue-skinned Aleena. Her blonde hair was tied back behind her head and she had a cut to her lip. Her khaki-green top was covered in green blood and she looked physically and mentally exhausted. Attached to her temples were two needles, embedded within her skin leading to wires which snaked along the floor and to a portable, computer unit set up against the wall.
The door opened and a huge, seven-foot man stepped in. Except he wasn’t a normal looking man. He wasn’t even human. He wore dark blue armour. The armour didn’t cover his entire body, however, and left parts of him - such as sections of his arms and legs - exposed. The white skin underneath rippled with muscles. Strapped to a belt around his middle were various items and weaponry - a blaster, a dagger, a sword - and his fingers slowly opened and closed in his brown-leather gloves.
It was his face which was the most terrifying. He wore a dark, blue hood, but underneath was a bald-white head, almost skull-like, with the flesh stretched over the bones. Parts of his face were augmented with cybernetic technology. His eyes were like small, pinpricks of yellow light. He had no nose, but his mouth was wide and full of fangs.
He stepped into the room and crossed over to Aleena, bending over slightly and looking at her curiously.
“Good morning,” said Aleena, tiredly.
“Feeling ready to talk yet?” asked Paragrim in a low, growling voice.
“I’ll talk about most things,” said Aleena, “but I like to do it over breakfast.”
“No breakfast for you,” said Paragrim sadly.
“Bugger,” said Aleena, with a sigh.
“If we gave you breakfast would you tell us the safest way to the lighthouse?”
Aleena smiled and then shook her head. “Nah.”
Paragrim growled and grabbed her throat, his hand large enough to clamp around her entire neck. “Do not test us.”
He released Aleena and she coughed and spluttered.
“We will break you.”
“You’ll have to kill me first,” said Aleena, hoping against all hopes that it wouldn’t come to that.
“That’s….not on the agenda,” said Paragrim. “I can torture you to within an inch of your life, but I’ll make sure you don’t die.”
“Gonna be a bit of a boring day for you then,” said Aleena. “I’m not telling you anything. Another long, hard days torture and nothing to show at the end of it.”
Paragrim laughed. “At least I’ll get some kind of enjoyment from it.” He leaned in closer to Aleena again. “It’s not such a hard job for me.”
Aleena looked genuinely concerned and tried to wrestle her hands free from being tied behind her back, but it was no use. That was steel-lined rope and she wasn’t going to be escaping any time soon.
She considered for a moment giving him the information, but that was something she could never do. The Eyeglass had a bad reputation. They were a private company fleet from Earth operating off their own back. They considered anything alien to be beneath them and would hunt the cosmos for technology to use for what they considered was the better of the human race. Most human’s from Earth were fine with aliens and other planets, but Eyeglass just wanted everything for themselves. The Earth’s government had always opposed them, but she found it strangely odd that they hadn’t done anything to stop them, and she had a nagging feeling that, although the Eyeglass were operating on their own, as an independent force, that secretly the Earth government were quite happy to let them go about their business.
They also had spies. They were known to have one of the biggest and best networks of undercover ops in the entire galaxy. And that frightened Aleena. They seemed to be more rooted in other cultures and species than anyone really realised.
A thought occurred to Aleena.
“If Eyeglass hate other species so much, what are you doing here?”
Paragrim laughed. “Eyeglass do things which better humanity,” he said, with a little disdain in his voice.
“But you’re a private hire. A bounty hunter.”
“So they hired me out to better their cause,” he said, moving over to the console.
“And you’re not concerned about what they’ll do to you when they no longer need you?”
Paragrim turned to her and smiled, his white teeth glistening with saliva. “Look at me, miss,” he said. “If they even attempt to stop me, I’ll wipe out their entire, pathetic fleet.”
“Ah, it’s good to know,” said Aleena.
“Now,” said Paragrim, “more torture, yes?”
He pulled a lever and electricity coursed through the machine and into Aleena’s temples. She screamed, and those screams echoed around the Haven for the next few hours.
Caroline and Danny had made their way back to the lighthouse and were just coming up to the main door when their was a buzzing sound. The two of them looked up and the top of the lighthouse was glowing green. And then the air fizzed and crackled and the buzzing stopped, although the green light remained on.
“Come on,” said Danny as they both rushed into the building.
They were just heading up the spiral staircase when they met the Doctor on his way down, his hands covered in oil and his blue shirt mucky with dirt.
“What was that?” asked Caroline. “There was some kind of buzzing sound outside.”
“I got the shields up,” beamed the Doctor. “Took a little bit of tinkering, but it worked!”
“Fantastic!” said Caroline. And then she thought. “Now what do we do?”
“Cup of coffee,” said the Doctor, skipping past them on the stairs on his way down.
He made his way into the kitchen, filled the kettle with water and switched it on.
“Cups,” he said, clicking his fingers.
Danny quickly searched the cupboards and found two mugs and a glass.
“The glass’ll do,” he said, popping some coffee granules in each of them.
The kettle clicked and the Doctor poured them all a coffee, adding milk and sugar to each.
“Right,” said Caroline, “now all that’s done. What next?”
The Doctor sat down at the table and interlocked his fingers, resting his chin on his hands. “What did you two find at the crash site?”
Caroline and Danny had almost forgotten.
“It’s a ship called the Dagger,” said Danny. “And it belongs to Eyeglass.”
The Doctor closed his eyes and sighed. He took a sip of his coffee and then leaned back in his chair. “I might have known they’d have been involved in this in some way.”
“You think they’ve come for the time technology?” asked Caroline.
“Definitely. But more for the surveillance. We know that Eyeglass aren’t too interested in time travel.”
“Then why not just take it? Why take Aleena?”
“My guess,” said the Doctor, “is that they crashed, unable to guide their ships safely here. So they scrambled and took Aleena and transmitted back. Very dangerous.”
“Dangerous why?” asked Danny, drinking his drink faster than was safe.
“Slow down,” said the Doctor, “that’s piping hot.”
“Tastes cool enough to me. How is it dangerous?” asked Danny again.
“Because their patterns might not have made it back to wherever the main ship is located.”
Caroline looked a little worried. “So Aleena could be dead?”
The Doctor looked extremely concerned. “It’s very, very possible, but I did some scans when I was up in the shield generator room. There are four large, starships just parked outside the nebula. So we can live in hope.”
“Why?”
The Doctor was becoming irritable with the constant questions. “I think they’ve got Aleena and are questioning her, trying to get her to tell them the correct route through so that they can make a proper landing down here.”
“But you’ve got the shields up now?”
“Exactly,” said the Doctor, “and it won’t take long for them to detect that, and that means that Aleena’s going to be in even more danger.”
Caroline nodded. “They’ll also want her to tell them how to take down the shields.”
“Exactly.”
“Then what do we do?” asked Danny, draining his mug of coffee.
The Doctor pondered for a moment, tapping his finger on the top of the table. “I’m going to have to take the TARDIS up to the ship and find some way of rescuing Aleena.”
“You can’t take the TARDIS up there,” said Caroline. “If you get caught they’ll take her and strip her down!”
“You’re right,” said the Doctor. He considered for a moment. “But we have more escape pods.”
Caroline suddenly went a little cold. The mention of escape pods had triggered the memory of her travelling in one to 1901. She had been trying her best to forget about it and concentrate on their latest predicament, but things would naturally keep coming back to haunt her.
“Can the escape pod get through the shields?”
“Nothing stops the TARDIS ergo nothing stops an extension of the TARDIS - the escape pods.”
“And if they take the escape pod and strip it down?”
“They can’t. I can shut down the inner dimensions so it just looks like a box. And then when I have Aleena I can switch them back on and we can make our escape.”
“Sounds like a plan!” said Danny, getting up and crossing over to the sink to wash his mug.
“We best get ready then,” said Caroline.
“No. I want you two to stay here.”
“Not again!” whined Danny.
“I’m not sidelining you,” said the Doctor, “but I need someone here who I can trust to keep an eye on things. We can’t have those shields going down. You need to keep your eyes on them.”
The Doctor grabbed his coat and pulled it back on.
“Be careful, Doctor,” said Caroline.
“I will be,” he said. “And I’ve got a little cover story if it doesn’t quite work.” He made for the exit. “Wish me luck!”
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