8: Infinite Possibilities

'Pity,' Nesbitt said. He meant it. 'She was good.'

'Sir,' Phillipps adjusted a control and the image zoomed in on Miriam's body, lying lifeless by the fireplace.

Hartford's voice was coming from the laptop speakers now.

'I'll leave you to think things over. You have thirty minutes to tell me where the time*travel equipment is hidden. After that...' The threat hung in the crackling air.

Nesbitt sighed. 'Let me know if anything happens.'

'Sir.'

'I'll go and check on our patient.'

They had him hooked up to a portable heart monitor. The thick canvas of the tent kept out the worst of the snowy wind, but Nesbitt could still hear it howling round outside, like a huge animal. He shivered.

Bob Lansing was adjusting one of the controls on the monitor. 'We're losing him,' he said as his commanding officer pushed his way into the tent.

Nesbitt could see that he was right. The fiery line of the heartbeat was almost flat. The peaks were becoming fewer and further apart, less p.r.o.nounced. The box gave a plaintive 'ping' whenever it peaked. The volume seemed to reduce with each blip.

'Nothing more you can do?'

Lansing shrugged. 'Not with this kit. Poor beggar should be dead already by rights. His readings are right up the creek. Even his temperature says he's dead already. I mean, look at his clothes.'

Ping*ping. So faint.

'What?' Lansing turned back. 'That's odd.'

'An echo?' Nesbitt suggested.

They both stared closely at the screen. The line was barely lifting as it detected a weak beat of the heart. But when it did, it was producing it double*peak. Lansing adjusted another control.

It was more apparent now. The second peak of each beat was slightly higher, gaining in strength. Ping*PING. Ping*PING.

Then gradually, the weaker beat began to pick up as well. The gap between them lengthened and now it was apparent that there were two distinct beats.

'His heart's beating very fast,' Nesbitt said. 'That's all. Maybe he's recovering?'

But Lansing shook his head. 'No, the amplitude is different the readings should match up. Maybe it's picking up one of us somehow. Atmospherics, maybe.' He didn't sound at all convinced. 'Because this is saying that each of those sets of beats is coming from a different heart.'

A steady tone. Suddenly the machine flat*lined. An abrupt end to the discussion as both men gaped. Then as one they turned to look at the body on the bed at the dead man.

Except that the bed was empty. The conductive pads of the heart monitor lay abandoned on the survival blanket. It was only as they stared that Nesbitt gradually became aware that there was someone standing beside him.

'All systems go, it seems,' the Doctor said. 'Yes, it's nice to be back to normal.'

'We saw what was happening on the feed from the camera implanted in your friend's neck,' Nesbitt explained. 'Not that we believed it. But when that thing came through the ice window or whatever it is, I sent a team to see what was really going on. To the ice cavern, and then to the window thing.'

'And they found me?' The Doctor nodded appreciatively. He had not sat down, or even stopped moving, since he had woken up. He was pacing up and down the command tent, pausing only to bounce on the b.a.l.l.s of his feet or swing his arms in exaggerated gestures to punctuate his words. 'I'm very grateful.'

'They managed to drive that creature off. It went back through the window.'

'Back home,' the Doctor said thoughtfully. 'The bullet broke the ice as it were. But it also released the potential energy trapped in the interface. An exothermic release that broke the surface tension and allowed the portal between the worlds to open. It won't last thankfully. Without another release the energy will dissipate.'

'So no more monsters?' Lansing said.

The Doctor paused in mid*step, his eyes shadowed and dark. 'There are always monsters,' he said grimly. 'But hopefully there won't be any more coming at us from that particular direction. Who are you and what are you doing here?' His grim tone had not altered as he changed subject.

Nesbitt sucked in his cheeks as he considered how to answer. There was something about this Doctor that inspired confidence. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed to Nesbitt that he should tell him the truth. He was certain the Doctor would know if he lied.

'Captain Nesbitt, SAS,' Nesbitt said. 'Someone in Whitehall was rather worried about what was happening at the Naryshkin Inst.i.tute.'

'And what is happening there?'

'Gravity waves, I believe.'

'That figures. And whoever it is that's worried thinks they might be making a weapon of some sort?'

'They believe the technology has that potential, yes.'

The Doctor blew out a long, disappointed breath. 'And so you were out here to get hold of that weapon.'

'Not quite.'

'Oh? What then?'

Nesbitt smiled tightly. 'It was suggested that if we could detect the gravity waves, so could other people. There are all sorts of legitimate reasons for research into gravity waves, apparently. We're not interested in what they're doing. We're interested in who else is interested in what they're doing.'

'You didn't trust the Russian soldiers there to protect the scientists?'

'Some of those scientists are British.'

'Some of those scientists are dead,' the Doctor said quietly. 'What are you doing about that?'

'We weren't expecting the Yanks,' Lansing told him. 'Our rules of engagement take account of possible incursions from enemy powers, non*aligned countries, friendly powers with an axe to grind even the French, trying to get one over on NATO.'

'But not US special forces,' Nesbitt said.

'You're sure that's who they are?'

'They have standard equipment, clothing, transport. They act and move by the book.'

The Doctor considered this. 'Do you act by the book, Captain Nesbitt?'

'That depends on who else has read the book.'

In the corner of the tent, the screen linked to the camera in Anji's neck showed the body of Miriam Dewes, still lying on the floor of the Great Hall. 'Is that by the book?' the Doctor asked, quietly.

'What do you suggest, Doctor?' Nesbitt asked.

'I'd suggest that Hartford and his team are extremely dangerous to say the least. I'd suggest that Hartford is losing control in every sense. And as he does so he becomes even more dangerous. I'd suggest that we need to take command of the situation before more innocent people die. Before the world is plunged into chaos and darkness.'

'You think Hartford is that much of a problem?' Lansing said.

The Doctor shook his head. 'Hartford is a detail. An inconvenience. The real threat is far more serious, believe me.'

'What do you want us to do?' Nesbitt asked.

'I want you to take control of the Inst.i.tute. Preferably with the utmost speed, and the least possible loss of life. Then perhaps I can find a way to contain things.'

'You still haven't told us what you are so worried about, Doctor.'

The Doctor slumped down in one of the folding chairs. He raised his two hands, index fingers extended as if there was a string between them. 'Gravity waves,' he said. 'Not easy things to detect because they affect the world around them. So what do you do? You dig a tunnel. A very long tunnel. Long as you can, in fact. Let's not worry about the curvature of the Earth for the moment, or how you focus the monitor to detect the source of the waves... But just imagine if you will that you have a completely flat tunnel perhaps, what, fifty miles long?'

'Fifty miles?' Nesbitt was wondering where this was leading.

'More if you can manage it. Then you set up a big laser and shine it along your tunnel. The clever thing now is that you've put a mirror at the other end. A perfect mirror, of course flat, no blemishes, atomically accurate. What happens?' He snapped his fingers and pointed at Lansing.

The Corporal blinked. 'The laser gets reflected back.'

'Exactly. Along the self*same line. And of course you've set it up so that the waves of light exactly match. The length of the tunnel from laser*tip to mirror is a perfect multiple of the wavelength of the laser light. Which means?' The Doctor rippled his fingers, as if drawing the answer out of Lansing.

'Well, it means the laser exactly matches up with itself.'

'Good. Excellent.' The Doctor leaned forward. 'Now along comes a gravity wave. They're very small. And because they change the size of the ruler as well as the thing you're measuring, you can't detect them. But...' He paused and raised his finger, lecture*style. 'But what happens to the tunnel?' He waited for a couple of seconds before his expression betrayed his disappointment at the lack of an answer. 'The tunnel changes length,' he told them. 'Just very slightly. The greater the gravity wave, the greater the distortion. And that means?'

'Well...' Lansing looked as Nesbitt, who shrugged.

'Think about the laser,' the Doctor prompted. 'Its waves exactly match, remember. But if the tunnel changes length...?'

'They no longer match!'

'Exactly right. Light's wavelength isn't affected by the gravity wave, so the two waves the original and the reflected light get ever so slightly out of synch. Bounce the light up and down the tunnel a few times, or even a few hundred times, and you'll see the difference even more clearly. Or rather you won't as it's still so small. But you can detect it.' He smiled up at them. 'like watching twin heartbeats on the monitor,' he said softly. 'So how big are the gravity waves your chums in Whitehall have detected?'

'They're talking in nanometres,' Lansing said. 'Except...'

'That's quite big,' the Doctor admitted.

'Except,' Lansing went on, 'they said the last one was off the scale.'

'Did they now?' The Doctor stood up and stretched. 'And would I be right in guessing that they detected this increase in intensity here just after I arrived?'

'Yes Doctor,' Nesbitt said. 'But that still doesn't explain why we should go in now.'

The Doctor was pacing again, seemingly deep in thought. 'You went to the ice cave, you said?'

'That's right. Corporal Beauchamp took a couple of guys in.'

The Doctor nodded. 'Good, because there's something in there I'd like you to bring along. I'm a.s.suming too,' he went on, 'that Corporal Beauchamp brought out a sample of the ice.'

Lansing and Nesbitt exchanged glances. 'Yes,' Nesbitt admitted, 'he did.'

Two minutes later, the Doctor was holding the ice up so they could clearly see the tiny flames flickering within. It was the tip of a stalact.i.te.

'You know what it is?' Nesbitt asked him. 'What's so special about the ice?'

The Doctor dropped the ice into a plastic mug. 'Now all I need is some hot water. Do you have a kettle to hand by any chance?'

Phillipps brought in a thermos of hot water in reply to Nesbitt's shout across to the next tent.

'What are you going to do now, Doctor?' Nesbitt wanted to know.

'Melt the ice, of course.'

'Is that safe?' Phillipps asked.

But the Doctor was already pouring steaming water into the mug. The section of stalact.i.te listed to one side, then began to sink slowly into the hot water. The Doctor swilled the liquid round, hastening the process. Once the ice had melted completely, he pa.s.sed the mug to Nesbitt.

'The flames are gone,' Nesbitt said.

'But the water's still hot, you'll notice. The energy has to go somewhere.' The Doctor took back the mug and stood it on the tables beside one of the laptops. 'Ever heard of o-regions o-regions?'

Nesbitt shook his head. 'You?' he asked Lansing and Phillipps. Neither of them had.

'Pity.' The Doctor dipped his finger tentatively into the mug, s.n.a.t.c.hing it away almost immediately. 'An o-region is a part of s.p.a.ce that is so far out, so isolated from everywhere else that its light hasn't yet reached the rest of the universe. They're big,' he went on. 'And being isolated, they are in effect mini*universes in their own right. If you can conceive of a mini*universe.'

'Is that like alternative realities? Quantum theory and all that?' Phillipps asked.

'No. You're thinking of universes parallel to our own, split off at some decision point in the past.'

'Like the world through the window?' Nesbitt asked.

'Exactly.'

'So what about these o-regions?'

'I think,' the Doctor said, again testing the water gingerly with the tip of his finger, 'that the flames in the ice are light from an o-region. The first light to reach Earth from another region of the universe. Except that this light, the light in the ice, is slowed down.'

'And what does that mean?'

'Well it means they knew about us before we knew about them, I suppose.'