Nyssa felt a stab of fear the moment she saw the darkness. She felt as though she was standing on the brink of terror, but even as she swallowed down the cold lump of dread in her chest and opened her mouth to warn them, the Doctor had already followed Bunny through the opening.

'Too late,' said Vega Jaal again.

'This is getting to be a habit,' Bunny joked.

'Careful,' the Doctor warned him. 'More stairs.' Their shadows, cast in front of them by the light of the laboratory, ran down the short flight of steps like liquid.

They reached a large circular chamber where the air seemed frozen solid, as though something was waiting for them down here, holding its breath. There was a strange smell, dry and leathery, but the cold made it elusive.

'Another lab?' Bunny guessed, his deep voice echoing loudly.

'Or a morgue,' said the Doctor quietly. 'Look at this.'

His torch had found a bundle of rags on the floor; or at least it looked to Bunny like a bundle of rags. Then he realised with a jolt that they had found a body.

It was humanoid, emaciated and skeletal, its hands curled into claws across its chest. The skin was thin and withered, so much so that the eyes were simply empty holes in the skull and the teeth had been exposed in a hideous, hysterical grin.

The Doctor's torch beam roved across the floor, picking out yet more bodies; corpse after corpse strewn across the chamber.

Chapter Seven.

The first body to be examined in any detail was a human adult male, and little more than a dried-out husk. A thick layer of dust had settled on the brittle skin, indicating that the corpse had lain here on the floor of the lower chamber for some time, possibly many years. The slightest touch caused the desiccated tissue to crumble into a brown, flaky powder.

Lamps were brought down into the chamber so that all the bodies could be examined properly. There were five in total, lying in the centre of the room, which appeared to have been carved out of the solid rock. The Doctor was conducting brief in situ in situ post-mortems, kneeling on the stone floor and peering at each cadaver in turn through a pair of antiquated half-moon spectacles. Closer examination involved the use of a magnifying gla.s.s and occasional murmurs of 'interesting' post-mortems, kneeling on the stone floor and peering at each cadaver in turn through a pair of antiquated half-moon spectacles. Closer examination involved the use of a magnifying gla.s.s and occasional murmurs of 'interesting'

and 'hmm...' and 'oh dear'.

'Well?' Stoker prompted eventually, tired of being a spectator. 'What's the verdict?' She slipped a cigar between her teeth and flicked open her lighter.

'Death by chronic blood loss,' said the Doctor, standing up. 'Each of these poor fellows has been completely dried out. There is advanced calcification of all muscle, tissue and skin. I can't say for sure without conducting full autopsies, but I'd be willing to bet that all the internal organs are in a similar state of dehydration.'

Stoker nudged one of the corpses with the toe of her boot. The whole body moved with a dry, rustling noise. He was as light as a feather. 'Do you want to do a full autopsy?'

The Doctor carefully folded his gla.s.ses and put them away. 'Not unless I have to, no.'

'Do you think they locked themselves down here all those years ago and just... dried?'

She was rewarded with the briefest of smiles. 'It's impossible to say I doubt it. If we can access the computer records upstairs, we might be able to find out more.'

'Maybe they had some kind of disease,' Bunny Cheung realised nervously. 'You said this place looked like a research lab. Maybe they were researching into an infectious disease or something. Bacteriological weapons, even. They made a mistake, something toxic leaked. Wiped them all out.'

'If there was any biohazard down here, then we will already have been exposed and contaminated.'

'You're a real comfort, you know that?'

'For what it's worth, Bunny, I don't believe that these people died as a result of any disease. It's difficult to say, but it looks to me as though they were simply... sucked dry.'

'Sucked dry?' repeated Stoker.

'Whatever happened to them happened very quickly. The result was practically instant mummification. The level of decay in the remains is almost negligible.'

Stoker let her breath out slowly through her teeth. She felt very tired. 'So what do we do now?'

'This has to be reported to the relevant authorities,'

Bunny said.

Stoker snorted. 'Yeah, right. Blow our whole lexium claim out of s.p.a.ce, why don't you?'

Jyl, we have dead bodies here. It needs to be investigated.'

'Can't we let sleeping dogs lie? No one's missed them for a hundred odd years. Why stir it all up now?'

Nyssa was sitting with Vega Jaal in the main laboratory The Vegan was rocking slowly back and forth, staring straight into nothing. 'This is only the beginning,' he said.

'I don't understand,' Nyssa said.

'The beginning of what?' Tegan asked bluntly.

'Think about it,' Vega Jaal said. 'Every door leads down into darkness. The door in the cave lead into the antechamber. The second door lead into here, where it was also dark. That door over there...' he nodded at the rectangular hole in the wall where the Doctor, Stoker and Bunny had gone earlier, 'the same again. Only this time we find dead bodies. Each time we find a door, we go further down. Nearer the darkness.'

Tegan folded her arms. 'So?'

'There is another door to come,' Jaal said quietly. 'But we will not find the darkness beyond it. The darkness will find us.' us.'

Nyssa felt herself beginning to perspire again. 'How would we know if this... darkness had already found us?'

Jaal stared at her. 'We'd be dead.'

'Are you OK, Nyssa?' Tegan asked. 'You don't look well.

You shouldn't let this guy get to you.'

Vega Jaal smiled humourlessly at this. 'It is not me you should fear.'

'I'm talking to my friend,' Tegan told him. 'Nyssa, do you want me to fetch the Doctor?'

'No, I'm fine, honestly,' she lied. 'I just feel... I just feel as though we're being watched. It's probably my imagination.'

Tegan nodded. 'This place is getting pretty spooky.'

At that moment the Doctor stepped through the hole in the wall. Stoker and Bunny Cheung followed him out looking pale and drawn. Stoker sat down heavily in one of the lab chairs and closed her eyes.

'What have you found?' asked Vega Jaal.

The Doctor sighed and stuck his hands in his trouser pockets. 'At the moment I haven't the slightest idea.'

Vega Jaal turned and stared intently at the doorway to the lower chamber.

'If only we knew who those poor people were,' said Nyssa.

'The overalls they wore all have name tags. I've jotted them down' The Doctor took out his his notepad and tore off a sheet of paper, handing it to Tegan. 'We know notepad and tore off a sheet of paper, handing it to Tegan. 'We know who who they were... we really need to know what they were doing.' they were... we really need to know what they were doing.'

'Do you think the answer might lie in these old computer banks?' Nyssa asked, indicating the various workstations around the room.

'Capital idea!' The Doctor inspected the nearest VDU.

'Shouldn't be too much trouble to get them working... there's power running through them, after all.' He tapped a small LED glowing on the side of the computer. 'It's simply a question of finding the correct start-up procedure.' He began to stab experimentally at the keyboard.

Stoker watched the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa crowd around the computer. Those girls hung on his every word, she thought. Oddly, she didn't find it all that surprising. He was a strangely inspirational figure. If anyone could get to the bottom of all this, then Stoker was sure he could. The only question was whether she really wanted to get to the bottom of all this. A huge cloud of doubt was now gathering over her claim to mining rights on this moon.

There was a loud bang from across the room as the Doctor whacked the computer with the flat of his hand. The VDU flickered reluctantly into life.

Tegan laughed. 'When in doubt give it a thump, as my Aunt Vanessa used to say.'

'I'm not .sure that's the best way of dealing with advanced technology,' said Nyssa prissily.

'Tried-and-tested methods are usually best, Nyssa,' the Doctor smiled.

Time for a smoke, Stoker decided, and took out her cigar. She looked up just as Bunny Cheung stepped into her light.

'We need to talk,' Bunny said. He stood like a pillar of rock, his hands forming giant fists. 'There are dead people here. Jyl, we have to do something.'

Stoker paused before lighting her cigar. 'What do you suggest, Bunny?'

'Pack up and leave, for one thing.'

'What?'

Bunny sat down next to her. 'This isn't anything to do with us, Jyl. We can't go on with the claim knowing that all this has... happened. We should leave it to the experts.

Leave it to the Doctor and Tegan and Nyssa if you like. But don't involve us.'

'We already are involved.'

'Our interest is with the mineral exploitation of this moon.

Nothing else.'

'Are you forgetting the lexium?'

'Of course not' Bunny looked uncomfortable. 'But what can we do? We can't make a claim now.'

Stoker sat forward, teeth clenched. 'We are sitting on a fortune here, Bunny. How are you going to explain it to the others if we have to back off?'

Bunny took a deep breath. 'It could be dangerous here, Jyl. We don't know what killed those people down there. I think the men will value their own skins more than the chance of a share of the lex.'

Stoker smiled faintly. 'That's rubbish and you know it.

This is a a chance in a lifetime for all of us. You and I could afford to retire after this claim.' chance in a lifetime for all of us. You and I could afford to retire after this claim.'

'It's pointless, Jyl. We can't go on'

'I am not sitting back on a sodding technicality only to let some Consortium stooge sail right in and get the lex! No way.'

'There's more than securing mining rights at stake here,'

Bunny argued. 'You have to consider the personal safety of your team'

'You mean your your personal safety.' Stoker poked a finger into Bunny's broad chest. 'You're only concerned about getting back to your precious family, Bunny.' personal safety.' Stoker poked a finger into Bunny's broad chest. 'You're only concerned about getting back to your precious family, Bunny.'

'I'm not ashamed of that.'

'Well some of us don't have families to get back to'

Stoker's jaw tightened with suppressed fury as she finished speaking. 'Besides which, until our ship arrives we're stuck here, Bunny. So we may as as well make the best fist of it we can.' well make the best fist of it we can.'

Bunny Cheung sat back with a growl.

Stoker finally lit her cigar and took a long drag. 'I thought that if we could help the Doctor with his investigation, we might still find a way to secure the claim.'