"Sincro: wyxchari" "Doctor..." "Jamie... hurry." "Victoria!" "Victoria, where are you!" "?" "Victoria!" "No!" "In here!" "Gas!" "Doctor!" "What happened?" "Deep breath... take deep breaths" "What's going on here?" "Who let you three out of the cabin?" "Mr Robson, in here, it's gas!" "Check it then." "Find out what it is" "Oh, Doctor... a horrible creature." "Creature?" "Didn't you see it?" "It was over in there." "It came straight towards me... covered with seaweed and foam and this horrible hissing sound... and then I screamed..." "All right, Victoria." "Creature?" "!" "The girl's hysterical." "Mr Robson, they're empty." "The seals are broken." "Why were you in there?" "I..." "I was hiding." "I heard someone coming, so I went in." "This door is always kept locked." "You broke in!" "You emptied those cylinders, didn't you?" "Oh, no, no." "It was open and someone locked it behind me." "She's telling the truth." "The door was locked from the outside." "Yes it was locked." "This room wasn't full of oxygen when we came in here." "It was another gas of a toxic composition." "All right, if it was a poison gas, where did it come from?" "What about up there?" "The ventilator's open." "Did you open the ventilator?" "No, it opened by itself." "Then, whoever locked you in must have opened it." "But how?" "From here." "What is it, love?" "I don't know..." "I feel so dazed... my hand..." "Let me see." "It looks all right." "What happened?" "I don't... remember." "You said you were stung or something." "Did I?" "Why, yes... yes, yes it must have been." "I went to get the file you asked for." "I put my hand inside and then... it was seaweed." "All right, my love lie still and rest." "Shall I get you some food, a glass of milk or something?" "Honey... you couldn't even boil an egg." "You shouldn't have married a scientist then." "Maggie!" "Darling... darling... darling..." "Maggie!" "What is it, love?" "What's the matter?" "I still don't know..." "I just feel..." "I better get you a doctor." "I'll go back and see if Dr Paterson's returned yet from Rig D. Will you be all right?" "I think so." "Well if he isn't back, there's this other doctor, he might be able to help." "I won't be long." "So what's the panic?" "It's the pump, sir!" "The revs have dropped." "The pump is slowing down?" "Yes, she's not holding steady even now." "I don't understand it." "Well don't stand there thinking about it, man, do a complete check." "Excuse me, may I say something?" "When I was in the pipe room, a short while ago, I'm sure I heard a movement coming from inside the pipe." "What kind of movement?" "Well, the same as I heard on the beach, a sort of thumping sound." "But that's what they heard out at the rigs." "What you heard, and what everybody else heard, was a mechanical fault somewhere along the line." "Then why did they hear it out at the rig?" "Because, my friend, underneath this impeller shaft is a vast sealed gasometer buried in the earth." "It acts like an echo chamber." "It'll make the sound of a pin dropping sound like that of a thunder clap." "It travels along the pipes." "Oh, this wasn't a mechanical sound." "All right then, suppose there is something in the pipe, a fish or something." "What do you want me to do about it?" "Turn off the gas flow." "At least until you've had a chance to investigate." "That's out of the question." "Mr Robson, if there is something in the pipeline..." "We do not turn off the flow, and that is final." "Mr Robson, sir." "Yes?" "Down another half." "It must be a mechanical fault." "Get a couple of men and check, man, check." "If you allow the pressure to build up in the pipeline, you'll blow the whole rig sky-high." "And blow us with it." "All because you're too stubborn to turn off the gas." "All right, what do you think it is?" "One of these creatures the hysterical girl thought she saw." "Well who knows." "You mean to say that this place supplies all the gas for the whole of the south of England?" "And the whole of Wales." "What are all those lights for?" "Well that's a plan of the entire compound, and each of those lights represents a remote control camera that I can switch through to this screen, if I want to look at any particular area." "Like this." "Oh." "Where are all these 'rigs' people talk about?" "Well, they're out at sea of course, but that plan over there shows you the relative position of all the rigs under our command." "What's the big one in the middle?" "Well that's the central Control Rig complex, the sort of the nerve centre of the whole thing." "The other rigs feed her with gas, and she in turn pumps it to us via the main pipeline, see." "How awful to have to live out at sea." "And lonely." "Oh, I don't know." "Mr Robson once spent four years on one of the early rigs without ever going ashore." "Aye, that would account for quite a lot." "Hey you!" "Come in here and give a hand." "Doesn't that man ever call anyone by their name?" "Well they'd probably be in trouble if he does." "No, he's all right, is Robson." "Certainly knows all there is to know about rigs, anyway." "Price!" "Has Doctor Paterson returned from Rig D yet?" "No, sir." "Where's your friend, the Doctor?" "In there..." "Doctor!" "Doctor, I need your help." "It's my wife." "She's very ill." "Well I'm not sure that I..." "You must come." "He will not go with you." "This is an emergency, it's my wife." "These people are in my custody, until I decide what to do with them." "But my wife!" "Don't bring your domestic affairs into the refinery, Harris." "That goes for the rest of you." "Mr Robson, my wife is ill." "If anything happens to her, I'll..." "All right, one hour." "Come with me." "Mrs Harris?" "Yes." "We are maintenance controllers, madam." "I wonder if we might have a few words with your husband?" "Oh, my husband isn't here, He's at the compound." "Oh dear, that does make it rather difficult." "We've come to carry out an inspection." "Inspection?" "In the Kitchen." "Your husband didn't tell you?" "No." "Couldn't it wait until another day?" "I'm..." "I'm not feeling very well." "I'm sorry, madam, it has to be carried out without delay." "Chief Robson's instructions." "That man never stops giving instructions, does he?" "Oh, I suppose you better come in then." "Thank you." "My name is Mr Oak and this is my colleague, Mr Quill." "Yes, well, please be quick." "I'm really not very well." "Of course, madam." "Now don't you worry about us, Mrs Harris, you won't even know that we're here." "Will she?" "The bag, Mr Quill." "Mr Van Lutyens." "What is it?" "Feed line from the Control Rig." "An excessive pressure build up in the pipeline." "She's almost up to capacity." "She'll blow herself wide open." "So there's a build up in the pressure coming in from the rigs and a drop in the pressure of the flow going out to the receiving stations." "There must be something interfering with the impeller itself." "Mr Robson, sir." "Yes." "This is from Control Rig, sir." "They say there's a pressure build up in their feed line, sir." "Right, ask them how much, will you." "Almost up to danger level, Mr Robson." "Shall I give the order to turn off the gas?" "You will not, Mr Van Lutyens." "There'll be an explosion any minute." "There will not be an explosion." "There must be, if you don't turn off the gas." "Open release valve, Section D, full pressure, will you?" "What are you doing, man?" "It's too late for that." "You can't possibly release enough gas in time." "You want to bet, Mr Van Lutyens?" "What are you doing in here?" "Is there something that you want?" "It's down." "The pressure in the pipeline, it's back to normal." "I wouldn't have thought you could possibly have done it in the time." "When you have too much gas in the tube, you release it." "Didn't they teach you that much back at evening classes in the Hague, Mr Van Lutyens?" "Contact Chief Baxter, Control Rig, will you?" "Tell him the immediate crisis is over." "Oh, and a... contact the other rig chiefs." "Right." "But the feed out to the receiving stations is still dropping." "The impeller is still slowing down..." "What's the matter with you, Van Lutyens?" "You've been trying to teach me my job ever since you came here." "I've been drilling for gas in the North Sea for most of my life." "I don't need people like you or Harris to teach me how to do it." "Mr Robson, sir." "It's C Rig, sir." "Can't raise them, no response at all." "So, the immediate crisis is over, yeah." "Maggie, I've brought the Doctor." "Oh no it's the same..." "I smell gas!" "There's gas in this house!" "It's coming from in here." "The Window, Jamie!" "Jamie, the window!" "Quickly!" "Quickly!" "Maggie..." "I'm sorry, sir, I can't raise them." "There, are you pleased with what you've done?" "I'm warning you, Van Lutyens." "And I warned you, but you are too, too stubborn to listen." "Look at the facts, man." "The fact that we lose contact with two rigs." "Have unprecedented, inexplicable pressure variations for over three weeks." "So that's it." "You've been talking with Harris, eh?" "Yeah, Mr Harris did show me his figures." "Only because you refused to listen to him." "That's why I went out to the Control Rig, to see if there was an explanation out there." "And what did you find?" "Nothing." "I'll tell you why. 'Cause there's nothing to find!" "All the same, Mr Harris' figures..." "Are bunk!" "And the rest of his upply-tapey tin-pot ideas." "He's still a school kid with his bits of paper and his graph and his... slide rule." "You think I'm going to take any notice of him?" "I know every nut and bolt on every one of those rigs out there!" "All right!" "So your prejudice prevents you from accepting Mr Harris' calculations." "But what about me?" "Do you treat my opinion with as much contempt?" "You?" "You are here to offer me your expert advice, but I'm not obliged to take it." "I run this outfit the way I think fit." "Is that understood?" "Mr Robson, the impeller." "Quick, two men." "She's down to 140 revs." "Something must be jamming it at the base." "Well, Mr Robson, where do we go from here?" "Come on, now, you have all the answers, don't you?" "Wait a minute, quiet!" "What is it?" "I think I can here something..." "No, no, no." "No." "Look, what's the matter with her?" "Well she's in some sort of coma." "Possibly because of this gas - it was toxic." "It isn't possible there could have been a gas leak in the flat." "Besides, natural gas isn't toxic." "Well this isn't natural gas." "This is the gas we found when Victoria was locked in the Oxygen Room." "But where could it have come from?" "I don't know." "What was the matter with her before this happened?" "Well, she said she'd been stung by some... seaweed or something." "Seaweed?" "I asked her to get a file from my study, and she found the seaweed inside it." "Did you put it there?" "Well no, of course not." "There's no marks or abrasions." "No." "Doctor?" "Um." "What's this?" "What." "Oh!" "A bit of seaweed." "What's it doing in here?" "It's still wet." "Perhaps it's the same sort that Maggie was talking about." "No!" "Don't touch it." "Why?" "Well, in the first place you don't want to get stung like your wife, do you?" "And in the second place, whoever put it in your file meant you to touch it." "But that's ridiculous." "Wait a minute!" "I was sure I put that file in my briefcase this morning, but it wasn't there when I went to get it." "I was on my way home... when I met Maggie." "But why?" "Why should anyone want me to get stung by a piece of seaweed?" "Well I hate the stuff." "It's so slimy and horrid." "Och, well you've seen seaweed before, haven't you?" "There was loads of it down by the pipeline this morning." "By the pipeline?" "Aye, the place is overrun with it." "Well not like that, it didn't move." "Move?" "I want them all checked, every remote control release valve on the line." "And check and double check all those circuits." "Excuse me, Chief, could I have a word with you please?" "Yes of course." "The impeller is still not functioning, eh?" "No it's not." "And that sound we heard, have you heard it again?" "No." "As Mr Robson says, it's probably just a mechanical fault." "You believe that?" "Well it's really not my job to..." "Ah!" "Come on, man, you're the chief engineer, the impeller is your responsibility." "It's not my job to formulate theories, it's Mr Robson's." "Robson!" "Robson, what's the matter with you?" "Are you frightened of him or something?" "No, Mr Van Lutyens, I just respect his judgement." "Well I'm sorry Chief." "Could I have a word with you in private?" "Well I..." "It's important." "Check the feed valves!" "I've been looking at the installation plan, and the ah... impeller intake is rather particular." "I think I know where the blockage may be." "All right." "Well this valve is at the base of the main shaft and leads directly to the intake, yeah?" "Uhum." "Well as far as I can see there is no point between that valve and the..." "Control Rig where a blockage could occur big enough to stop the impeller." "Apart from the undersea emergency valve." "But you've got remote control observation on those and they're free." "Um." "So the impeller intake must be at fault." "It's possible." "Possible, man, it's the only answer!" "What we have to do is to go down and free that valve." "I'll have to check with Mr Robson." "Robson!" "Robson!" "What's the matter with you?" "Are you children?" "Can't you do anything on your own initiative?" "Look, I can't send men down there without his approval." "Can you not also blow your nose without approval?" "Now listen to me, Mr Van Lutyens." "I've worked with Mr Robson a long time." "We were out there on those rigs together in the early days." "You may think he's wrong to run this place in the way he does, but I trust him." "And I take orders from him purely because I trust his judgement." "No other reason." "I'm sorry, Chief, I shouldn't have said that." "You forgive me, yeah?" "Now what I would like you to do is to go to Mr Robson and say you think we know where the blockage is, and get official permission to inspect the bass of the shaft." "Listen, if that's your theory, that's not mine." "It's the only possibility." "Anyway, that sound you heard, it must have come from the bass of the shaft." "If the main valve was open it could be an echo from any one of those rigs." "If it is open!" "But you do not know that it is open, and you will not know until you go down and check." "Well, I suppose I could put it to him." "You're not going to tell me that that is a mechanical fault." "I'll go and see him." "He's in his cabin." "Chief!" "What's the matter?" "Mr Robson, that noise in the impeller, it's started again." "I think we should go down and check the main valve." "Oh, you do, do you?" "It's right where we think the blockage is." "We?" "Well, Mr Van Luty..." "Mr Van Lutyens." "I thought he'd get his nose in." "Come on!" "You lot get back to work!" "Van Lutyens, I want to talk to you." "Mr Robson, there is something alive in the pipeline." "You're out of your mind, there's nothing down there." "I promise you, sir, I did hear something." "You've been unnerving my crew." "Now you, get out!" "Listen!" "That's it!" "Did you hear what I said?" "Shut up and listen will you!" "Down there... in the darkness... waiting..."