24.

Proof he TARDIS hung motionless in the middle of the great spherical chamber.

T As it was stabilized for the moment as a police box, the Doctor had increased the output of its lamp so that it radiated steadily with the candlepower of a lighthouse, throwing the inner framework of the sphere into sharp relief, and picking out the tracery of conduits, transmitters and light fittings that lined its walls. Sarah, peering out through the TARDIS door's force curtain, imagined how magnificently it would echo if there had been any air to carry the sound, of course. A tether ran past her through the door and out to where Max floated, his head turning slowly from side to side. They could hear his voice over the radio and the Doctor at the console could monitor the images Max's optical system was recording.

Harry was watching over his shoulder. 'It looked a jolly sight more impressive from the outside, didn't it?' he said.

'That's the whole idea, Harry,' the Doctor replied.

Ch.e.l.l'lak and Tramour'des looked on intently, but said nothing.

'Is that what you require, Doctor?' Max asked.

'Yes, thank you, Max. Come back in and we'll move to the next location.'

Max turned and hauled himself back to the TARDIS, pa.s.sing through the shimmering forcefield that acted as an airlock for the s.p.a.ce-time ship. The door closed behind him and Sarah unclipped the line from his side and coiled it up neatly. The Doctor set the new coordinates and the TARDIS

dematerialized smoothly.

'Sarah,' said Max. 'May I ask you a question?'

'Of course, Max,' she said, stowing the line away.

'When you were trapped by the sliding plate in the shaft between the levels in Deepcity, did you wish we had killed the patrol we encountered in the cloud trench earlier?'

She blinked. 'Why should I?'

'Logically, had they been eliminated, their bodies could have been placed in the condensation river. The second section of the patrol would have been unable to find them and so would have remained ignorant of our presence. Further time would have been spent searching for them, which would have delayed the sounding of the alarm inside the complex.'

'And so saved me from almost being sliced in two,' Sarah concluded. 'Do you a.n.a.lyse everything like that?'

'It is the only method I have of gaining understanding.

Before my battle damage I followed my programming without question or awareness. Now I am conscious of many things for which I have no pre-set responses. I must create a new matrix to accommodate them, so that I may continue to function at maximum efficiency.'

'I see. Would you have killed them, Max?'

'I have safeguards against inflicting unnecessary injuries to living beings except to specified targets under battlefield conditions. I observe that organic beings have similar but less defined limitations which are inconsistently applied. My response parameters are precise, but can be overridden by the correct command codes. If ordered to I would have killed them.'

'Well, I'm glad you didn't, and I don't want to know what those codes are. If anybody ever orders you to kill somebody in cold blood, tell them to take a running jump, because it probably means they're too cowardly to do it themselves, or it's the wrong thing to do. Taking a life is the last resort, when everything else has failed. You must never make it too easy.'

'I believe I understand the substance of your advice, although some of the symbolism is unfamiliar.'

Sarah smiled. 'We do have rules, Max, but we also learn for ourselves by experience which is just what you're doing, I suppose. But it's very complicated, so don't worry about not getting it right first time.'

The TARDIS began to materialize.

'Next stop,' called out the Doctor.

It was a nightmare jumble of rocks, dust drifts and blasted earth, rolling away into the gloom under a leaden sky. A baking wind howled and moaned constantly, throwing up innumerable dust devils and the dried and brittle remains of what might once have been the stalks of plants. Through this orange-tinted haze could be seen the silhouette of a dome-shaped structure, with a heavily braced aerial tower and dish antennae rising from its apex.

The Doctor scanned the readings and shook his head.

'Temperature at upper limits of tolerance, elevated background radiation, traces of chemicals, fragments of synthetic biological constructs. Max should go alone.'

'No, I want to see this for myself,' Sarah insisted.

'And so do we,' said Ch.e.l.l. 'We shall have the visual record, but I must be able to vouch for its authenticity from personal experience.'

And so shortly afterwards they accompanied Max out onto the surface. They wore isolation suits and respirators provided, with a speed and efficiency Sarah could see the Doctor disapproved of, by the new TARDIS's fabricator system.

Beside the dome was a structure that Sarah thought resembled the gas tank for a domestic heating system: essentially a large cylinder with hemispherical ends laid on its side and mounted on blocks. Heavily armoured cabling ran across from it to the dome.

'Get some close-up shots of that please, Max,' the Doctor requested. 'Especially any markings or serial numbers.'

'What is it, Doctor?' said Harry, tapping the side of the cylinder curiously.

'A high yield fusion bomb, I should think.'

Harry's tapping finger froze in the air and was carefully withdrawn. They crossed to the door set in the side of the dome. It unlatched and opened easily.

'Not locked?' said Sarah in surprise.

'They weren't expecting casual visitors,' said the Doctor.

A second door at the end of a short corridor opened into the interior of the dome proper. Sarah gave a slight start, even though it was what she had been expecting. Banks of computers and communication equipment of an alien but half-familiar design. Within a gla.s.s-walled cubical, a camera and lighting system was arranged before a chair with an inanimate but familiar figure at its centre.

'This is him, is it?' Harry asked her.

'That's him.'

'Hmm. Unsavoury specimen.' He turned to Ch.e.l.l. 'He looks convincing, doesn't he, sir?'

'Totally,' said Ch.e.l.l. 'A face I never thought to see this close without wanting to...never mind. I'm too late for revenge now.'

'By many years, I'm afraid,' said the Doctor.

'But somebody shall pay for this.'

'They will,' promised the Doctor. 'Are you recording everything, Max?'

'Yes, Doctor.'

'There are more of them over here,' Tramour'des said, indicating a row of identical machines which were standing motionless in a cubbyhole. 'Reserve and maintenance units, I suppose.'

The Doctor had been examining the computers. He adjusted a control and a chatter of many overlaid conversations in an alien language filled the air, together with a miscellany of electronic beeps and trills.

'What's that racket for?' Harry asked.

'Just to make the place seem alive,' said the Doctor, turning down the volume again. 'There are probably several emitter stations like this and many more bombs.'

'Doctor, can't we shut this all down right now?' Sarah asked.

'I'm sorry, Sarah. I understand your impatience, but we can't show our hand just yet.' He nodded to the machines.

'As long as we don't interfere they won't raise the alarm and we must do this in the proper order.'

Sarah sighed. 'I know. But please let's get a move on then.

Got enough shots now, Max?'

'Yes, Sarah.'

The TARDIS dematerialized. As they flitted through the contorted dimensions of the s.p.a.ce-time vortex towards their final destination, Sarah returned to her discussion with Max.

Harry looked on with interest.

'It's all a question of responsibility, I suppose,' she said.

'For instance, you're very similar to those synthoid guards that ran the a.s.sembly camp. But I soon realized that although they were pretty smart machines, they were just following orders.

There was nothing inside them: no spark of life. So there was no point in getting seriously angry with them because they were only tools, and tools don't have responsibility for how they're used.' She looked at him intently. 'But I think you've become something different. I think you know you exist and are not just responding with cleverly programmed answers.'

'I think I am aware,' said Max hesitantly. 'Though I have no past experience to base that a.s.sumption on.'

' Cogito, ergo sum Cogito, ergo sum, as old Descartes put it,' Harry said.

'Don't worry, old chap. It's the only proof any of us can offer when you get down to it.'

'But if you're no longer a tool,' Sarah continued, 'then you have to take responsibility for your own actions when they affect others. You make conscious choices and have to justify them and accept the penalties if they are wrong. It hurts sometimes, but that's what being human well, humanoid is about. I don't suppose being silicon-based makes it much different.'

'I believe I am experiencing that sense of disorder already,'

Max admitted. 'My projections for the outcome of our mission suggest it will bring suffering to many innocent beings even if all goes to plan.'

'We know it might,' said Sarah. 'But we're balancing that against a longer term benefit for a greater number.'

'I understand that reasoning, Sarah. But it seems remarkable that organic beings such as yourselves, with your inherent frailties and inconsistencies, can ever make such judgements,' Max observed without malice.

'I think we've just been put in our place,' said Harry.

The descending tones of materialization began to pulse through the TARDIS.

The Doctor, with what Sarah saw was evident reluctance, allowed the TARDIS's chameleon circuit to function properly.

Consequently it materialized in the form of a small tree with a swelling stubby bole like a pine cone sprouting a fountain of waxen-leaved branches from its tapering point, amidst a clump of similar growths. They emerged from the door concealed in the trunk. The air was fresh and the sunlight, falling in dapples through the interlaced branches overhead, was clear and bright. In the distance they could hear voices. Cautiously they made their way to the edge of the tiny wood. Beyond was a rolling parkland of blue-green close-cropped gra.s.s, dotted with people walking and children and pets playing. From somewhere came the sound of cheerful melodious music, suggesting that an open air concert was in progress. The far side of the open ground was fringed by a line of trees, over which rose a line of graceful towers and fluted spires, linked by an aerial network of tubeways and sky bridges.

'Well, this is all very peaceful,' Harry remarked. 'You wouldn't think there was a war on.'

'Naturally. Here there isn't a war,' said the Doctor in brittle tones. 'One of only two places in the Adelphine cl.u.s.ter where that is strictly true. A curious symmetry, don't you think?'

'It reminds me of Jand as it was,' said Ch.e.l.l. 'Yet looking on it I feel sickened at the same time. All these years of deception.'

'I understand,' said the Doctor gently. 'Perhaps you and Max should go back to the TARDIS now anyway, once he's recorded enough. I don't see any synthoids out there and we can be pretty certain there are no Jand.' He pulled a small bra.s.s telescope from his pocket, extended it and put it to his eye. 'We'll just see what the local fashions are like and join you in a minute.'

Ch.e.l.l and Max disappeared back into the trees.

'Even if it's the right planet,' said Sarah, 'is it the right city?'

'I set the controls to home in on the greatest concentration of structures, energy emissions and communications links on the planet,' said the Doctor. 'Of course the war may have changed it, but a capital city has tremendous inertia and is rarely abandoned.'

'We don't even know if our man survived the war,' Harry pointed out.

'No, but it's worth the effort in case he did,' the Doctor said firmly. 'He would be absolute convincing proof. His presence might even save some lives.'

A little later, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry walked across the park to the edge of the city. Even the Doctor had briefly forsaken his normal bohemian costume for facsimilies of the loose pantaloons and puff-sleeved tops which seemed to be the predominant local fashion. This Sarah took to be an indication of how unusually serious the situation was and a reminder that, however pleasant their surroundings seemed, they were in enemy territory and could not afford to be found out.

Fortunately, a little way along the park's perimeter pathway was a large board displaying a map of the city, presumably for the benefit of tourists. Close beside it was a cl.u.s.ter of visiphone booths. They exchanged hopeful glances.

'We know his name and profession,' the Doctor said. 'Let's see if he's in the local equivalent of a telephone directory.'