"Sincro: wyxchari" "On Red band emergency frequency come in please." "Come in please." "Station Three to Silver Carrier, Station Three to Silver Carrier, On Red band emergency frequency come in please." "All ready Leo?" "Yes sir, it's locked on now!" "That's good." "You don't get much fun, better get used to it." "Make a change from blasting meteorites would it?" "Jarvis?" "Hold on a minute." "Tanya, can we take a visual recording of it?" "Yes sir, can do." "Still no movement or radio signals sir." "Put up the anti-magnetic shield Leo when I give you the word." "Right." "Still going to plan, sir." "Good, I do an announcement of our operations." "Before you do that Jarvis, can I have a word, it's important." "More bogeys!" "All systems on green stand-by!" "I don't know what you are grinning about." "Neither do I." "It isn't funny Leo." "The Controller's like a kid with a new toy." "Oh, don't tell me you are going to be a old stick in the mud too?" "If you are referring to Dr. Corwyn, she is known, she is no stick in the mud." "She is perfectly right to be cautious." "Come on, Tanya." "It's off course about eighty million miles - there can't possibly be anyone alive on that thing." "Yes, I know all that Jarvis." "But we still can't be absolutely certain." "Gemma, one thing that I beg of you" " Don't subject me to psychoanalysis." "You think I'm having a wail of a time don't you?" "All kids again - bang, bang, blow up the balloon!" "You wrong, you know." "Am I?" "Say what you like, the Silver Carrier is a menace to the Wheel." "Now surely you can see that?" "If you equate menace with automatic power drive, I don't." "What else?" "You want me to believe that some emergency happened on the Silver Carrier." "The pilot switched to automatic and then tragedy." "Right." "And all the crew died?" "Right again." "Where was the Carrier bound for, Jarvis?" "Servicing Station Five." "I told you." "Then, isn't it be reasonable to assume that the automatic would take it to Station Five?" "Yes." "That's a good reason." "But you are forgetting the emergency." "That could have damaged the control sensors." "In fact, it must have done, which is why the rocket is so far off course." "Assumption again, guess work." "It would be so easy to check." "We can't risk that rocket turning in on us." "Don't you see?" "It would blast right through us!" "What the matter?" "!" "Noise!" "Fantastic noise through my headphones." "Leo!" "The approach indicators are all at red!" "Of course it is!" "The green system's gone crazy!" "Tanya, get Dr. Corwyn." "Check emergency system yellow!" "Emergency yellow negative." "Tell them I take over the telecommunications myself." "Bill!" "Yo!" "Will you lie down there?" "Ea, Ea, Ea, I don't want to do that again." "Hey, listen!" "Don't argue with me Gemma!" "The decision is mine!" "This station and the people in it are my responsibility." "Rudkin hurt!" "What happened?" "Colossal static pulses." "It's swamping the detectors." "It's the rocket." "I knew that it was a menace." "All right Tanya, get back to the complex, see if you can pin this static down." "Vallance, Casali, here." "Well?" "Bad." "Can you move him?" "Yes." "Right." "You two, take him to the Medical Bay." "Gently with him now." "Your attention." "That rocket is giving us enough trouble." "Bill, knock it out." "Right." "Controller!" "Yes, what is it?" "The static, there is a signal on it!" "There can't be!" "You're right Tanya." "Get me a fix on that." "If I can." "It's not any code that I've ever heard before, but there is definitely a repetitive order to it." "It's no good using Radio or Radar." "We will have to use Mini micro-form waves." "You think that it is coming from the rocket?" "Just want to make sure that it's not coming from anywhere else." "The rocket." "It is." "You're sure?" "Certain." "I was fixed on it anyway." "There's no doubt." "Then somebody is on board." "Phil!" "Sir." "I want two men to cross over." "Organise it will you?" "Right sir." "Eighteen million miles off course." "If there is life on board, it must be in a pretty bad way." "Quick, I have somebody injured in here." "Voyager five, codesign K-1 to 10-Q, confirm please, Station 3." "Receiving you, Station 3." "Hello, Hello." "Light to medium meteorite storm cross your planned route between 13:00 and 14:00 hours." "Co-ordinates:" "A-ALPHA 2710.4, B-BETA 4.7." "Do you receive Voyager Five?" "Yes, thank you for the information Station 3." "We have computed an alternative route for you Voyager Five." "Stand by for instructions." "How are the guests?" "Dr. Corwyn's examining the older one now." "They are both slightly in shock anyway." "What's the story?" "I don't know." "Quite a mystery isn't it." "Jarvis won't like that." "What's that on green system three Chang?" "Very odd sir." "Been getting one or two funny signs here and there, all the time." "Soon as you check them out, they vanished." "Put them in the log." "OK?" "Yes sir." "It's as if a number of magnets was touching the outer skin of the wheel and then letting go." "Argh, localised field effects, that's all." "All detector fields are checked out sir." "Can't be anything serious." "Keep a log and let me know." "Right sir." "More mysteries?" "I know." "Something else worrying you, Tanya?" "What about those sudden drops in air pressure levels?" "They were small enough and soon adjust themselves but..." "I didn't like it." "How small?" "Only a few millimetres." "One degree sometimes one and a half." "Hmm... some fault in the air supply unit." "Or the pumps." "In so many different parts of the Wheel." "Did you tell Jarvis?" "Of course." "He bit my head off." "Have you tell... told Gemma Corwyn yet?" "No, she was busy with the new arrivals." "I didn't want to disturb her." "Well, if I was you Tanya, I'd start a check on the whole air supply unit." "That's what I thought." "Leo?" "Hmm." "None of these things - your system showing temporary faults, the air pressure levels." "Well they all started with the rocket didn't they?" "What, do you think that there are little green men on board, do you?" "Well, the two that they bought back weren't exactly normal were they?" "Well, I tell you what, hey." "If you get scared, I'll let you hold my hand, OK?" "I'm serious." "So am I." "Breathe in again" "Out." "And again please." "Out." "Now, I want you to take a deep breath and exhale as slowly as you can." "Good." "You can dress now." "How about the Doctor?" "Concussion certainly." "I am waiting for the X-Rays to see if there is any fracture." "What were you both up to?" "Hey?" "Fancy dress or something." "Your clothes?" "Look, have you ever thought what you look like walking down the street in those things." "People would think you were a wee bit strange as well." "I dare say." "But I don't understand the analogy." "We're both in space." "It's you and your friend who aren't conforming to custom." "How about the medical; do I pass?" "You'll do." "If it's any comfort to you, you are in fine physical shape." "Can you give me your full name please?" "James Robert McCrimmon." "Jamie." "Thank you." "And your friend?" "Err." "The Doctor." "I can't put that down." "Err..." "John Smith." "Really?" "Aye." "Dr. John Smith." "They must be a lot of them about." "I dare say." "You were passengers aboard the Silver Carrier, were you?" "Err." "Do you think that I can have a drink of water please?" "What happened to the crew?" "I don't know." "Could you go further than that?" "Well, I was... in the cabin you see." "Terrible fever." "Raving for days." "Well, when I came to, the door was closed against us, the Doctor was hurt and your people came." "All the communicating doors were closed against you?" "Aye." "And your friend didn't tell you what happened?" "No." "All right Jamie." "That would do for the present." "The Controller will want to have a chat with you." "We have to get you home somehow." "Ah, that would be the day." "Oh, of course." "There should be another ship passing through in a week or two." "Oh, can I go now?" "You didn't drink your water." "No." "That's all right." "Wait a moment." "What?" "Would you like to see over the Wheel?" "I could arrange it for you if you like." "Oh yes." "There's nothing else to do." "Well, if you go along the corridor, you will see a door marked Parapsychology Library." "Para... what?" "It's on the other side of the wheel complex." "About eight sections on." "I'll tell Zoe to show you round." "Zoe?" "She's our..." "Well the best way to describe her would be to call her our librarian." "Zoe, you say?" "That's right." "Oh, you will tell me what happens to the Doctor." "Yes, of course." "Thank you." "Parapsychology library." "Dr. Corwyn calling." "Parapsychology library." "What reference do you require, Dr. Corwyn?" "No reference thank you Zoe." "I need your help in another way." "Oh?" "One of the people retrieved from the rogue spaceship is coming to your section." "I'd like you to show him over the Wheel and observe him." "Observe him?" "Discreetly of course." "Do you want these observations recorded?" "Yes please." "Hmm, should be interesting." "Any facts known?" "Yes." "He is a nice lad." "His name's Jam..." "Just a minute." "Sorry, I was halfway through a REA analysis when you came on." "Right..." "With the exception of the Hercules clusters." "Confirmation of the information received that one of the stars in the Messa 13 group is entering the nova phase." "This would be a repetition of the phenomenon observed in the Perseus cluster last week." "Information of the gamma radiation level is available." "Sorry." "You must be..." "Hey, what are you laughing at?" "Your clothes." "You're wearing female garments." "Female?" "!" "Look I have you know this is a kilt." "Have you never seen it before?" "Kilt?" "Kilt." "A barbaric form of garment as worn by a kiltie!" "Are you of Scandinavian origin?" "Danish?" "No I am not." "I am a true bred Scot!" "And I just stand..." "Oh, a Scot!" "Scotland, of course." "Pre-century history isn't my field you see." "Aye, maybe not, but just you watch you lip, or I'll put you across my knee and larrup you." "This is going to be fun!" "I shall learn a lot from you." "Come on James Robert McCrimmon, do you know anything about interstellar flora?" "Hey?" "And this is my little kingdom." "Here, how do you like the Greenhouse?" "Oh, do you collect these?" "No, they're floating seeds." "The only place they flourish is down here in the power room." "Of course, the old man kicked up a mad dust storm at first, but now Doc Corwyn said they was good psychology or something." "Anyway, I just like flowers." "Hey..." "That one comes all the way from Venus." "Imagine that." "All that millions of miles away." "24,564,000 miles at perihelion and 161,350,000 miles at aphelion." "Oh, I was dying to know that." "And this is the capacitor bank for the x-ray lasers." "The what?" "Oh it controls the laser gun." "Without it the gun's useless." "What do you need a gun for up in space anyway?" "Self-defence." "We can blot out any attacker up to ten thousand miles in any one direction." "Good eh?" "Reassuring." "And there are the anti-magnetic field generators." "They can fend off even a medium-side meteorite up to 50 miles." "You know Bill the Doctor will love all this." "This Doctor friend of yours." "Is he a scientist?" "He is in a way I suppose, yes." "What's his speciality?" "His what?" "Well, is he a physicist, biochemist, astronomer, biometrician." "Yes, he is." "Well, he certainly sounds a interesting character, this Doctor friend of yours." "When is he going to be up and about?" "If he is just suffering from concussion, not too long." "Oh, it doesn't tell me much." "I want facts." "I don't blame you." "We've landed with a couple of strays." "Panic, mysteries from the crew." "The routine's getting shoddy and I don't like it." "What panics?" "Oh, nothing, nothing." "I'll tell you if it gets serious." "People are just... edgy." "Out in space, human beings have got to rely on routines, ordinariness." "Confuse them and you got trouble." "Yes." "I'm used to emergencies." "Trained in them." "But these things... oh, I don't know..." "What you call mysteries?" "Exactly, Exactly." "I don't want to know, Gemma." "I don't want to know." "Well..." "You better hear my preliminary report on the boy." "Yes, go ahead." "He's lying." "Not completely and apparently reluctantly." "He's very fit both mentally and physically, nice constructive personality." "His blood pressure suggests that he's not been in space very long." "Lies about what?" "He said that he had fever on the Silver Carrier but he hadn't." "His gamma globulins are normal." "Why would he lie about that?" "I asked him what happened to the crew." "Fever was his excuse for not knowing." "And then again he lied." "At least, I almost sure that he lied about his friend's name." "John Smith he called him." "Well, they do exist you know." "Yes, he had been looking at that thing for long enough." "Coincidence possibly." "Somehow I doubt it." "And then what's the most precious thing in deep space." "Air, water, take your pick." "Exactly." "In space training even for one journey travellers." "He asked me for a drink of water and then he left it." "He might have been on Earth." "That boy has no space travel training Jarvis." "He's probably a stowaway or he's maybe an agent." "Sabotage?" "Plenty of people on Earth think that we should suspend the space programme." "Some of them have forced their opinions already." "You think these two stowed away somehow, even disposed of the crew of the Silver Carrier." "Pretend to drift here helplessly, we take them in and they breaking things up!" "I don't go THAT far." "Of course, it fits!" "Everything fits!" "I only suggested it as a possibility, Jarvis." "There are others." "We'll talk about those later." "This could be serious." "Jarvis, wait, I..." "And this is the Operations and Communications room." "What does this Wheel thing do up here anyway?" "Well, it has varied functions, but mainly it's a radio/visual relay for Earth, a half-way house for deep space ships, a space research station, stellar early warning station for all types of space phenomena and..." "Aye and ask a silly question." "Not there." "That's the Controller's chair." "Hey, you are in for quite a treat." "I am?" "The old man going ahead then?" "Too right he is." "I thought that Gemma talked him out of it." "Only because she thought there might be somebody on board." "Just as well for you." "Aye, I'm sorry but I lost you in the first part." "The Controller, Jarvis Bennett, wanted to destroy the rocket." "And then we got your message." "Only minutes in it too." "The laser was all primed and ready to blast." "Has Jarvis given the go-ahead?" "Yes, I run a new co-ordinate fix." "Everything programmed and ready." "All we need now is the final signal." "Oh, you are not going to blow up the rocket." "Oh, it might hit us." "So on the safe side we blast it out of existence." "Jarvis asked me to make a visual recording of it, so I better re-position." "Zoe, help me do a quick mental calculation would you?" "You're quicker than me..." "It'll be great to see this at leisure." "It should be quite an explosion." "Right, Zoe." "Lineal reading is 198.42 metres at 23 degrees latitude." "190.03 metres. 24 degree latitude..." "But he was definitely here?" "Yes, he just vanished." "Bill, any ideas?" "No sir, he was here with us." "We were showing him around..." "Where?" "Well, the Power House..." "The Power House." "Yes sir." "Look Bill, not a word to the others." "Just follow me in a moment or two." "Zoe - not a word." "Right sir." "Don't look at me." "I don't know what's going on." "Problems?" "I don't know." "It's all in the mind Eric, It's all in the mind." "What was the Controller talking about, Zoe?" "Nothing important." "At least, I don't think so." "I don't know." "Does it matter?" "Hey, what's all the whispering about?" "I wish I knew." "Leo, did I ever tell you about my nose?" "Your nose?" "Yes." "It's like a barometer." "It never lets me down." "Oh." "I smell trouble!" "Can you pinpoint it?" "Hmm." "It's something to do with that rocket out there." "There's something sinister about it."