Chapter CVII

Doctor

Tchan, the chief-scientist had greeted them in the science-department. Well, not actually greeted, merely looked up from his work and only interrupted it as he saw his commander and Mira. Tchan was humanoid, almost 7ft tall and very, very skinny. His bold head was long and pointed at the crone, and he was red-eyed and pale-skinned. Apart from that he had an air of arrogance and impatience around him which definitely didn't make him the most likeable person ever. And - most annoying to himself - whilst Tchan did speak English, he couldn't really be bothered until receiving an explicit and direct order from Tamar to do so.

Apart from speaking English there seemed to be a lot of things he didn't bother to do, like properly introducing himself to strangers from another universe, so Mira had whispered in his ear that Tchan was an Ara from the planet Aralon – a species related to the Mehandor, who described themselves as galactic merchants, seen by the rest of the galaxy as smugglers and mostly interested in their own profit, who were descendants from the Arkons, and so, even though Arkons and Humans originated at one point from the same species, were considered non-human.

But kindly, and not without another direct and explicit order from Tamar, Tchan had provided him with some documents about the mechanics of linear-flight, as he couldn't be bothered explaining it. Mira had offered to do so, but he could read faster through it than her telling him.

So the linear-drive was actually a passive drive – it didn't accelerate a ship, it was merely creating a six-dimensional field around it, pretty much like a deflector-shield, neutralising and compensating influences from the fourth- and fifth-dimensional space. Energy from the ship's fission reactors was transformed into hyper-impulses and used to create said field around the ship, allowing it to enter a space between the normal universe and the hyperspace, allowing it to keep its physical form in opposite to jumping or transmitting through hyperspace. No entity belonging to the fourth-dimensional universe could stay solid in hyperspace, which was why they were flying through a space were technically the fifth coordinate defining hyperspace did exist but was zero. Once in linear-space, the ship was moving with the conventional drive, which was itself affected by the six-dimensional field from the linear converters, allowing a speed much faster than the speed of light – over a million times faster, in fact.

It was a fascinating concept and it might just work in this universe, but the equations were totally off. Almost all factors, including something they called hyper-impedance, was off in a way that it almost physically hurt him to look at the numbers.

At least now he could roughly understand how the HECATE had ended up here. The weapon must have interacted with the six-dimensional field – or rather with the still active converters of the linear-drive, as the field itself had collapsed at this point - in a way that, when leaving the shielded area in hyperspace they had materialised in his universe instead of their own.

"My thoughts exactly," Mira said after he had told her. "The impact of the shot must have pushed the ship back into hyperspace and then they got deflected to this universe here. So it might be reproducible and even revertible if we'd only know the specifications of that gun."

"Oh," Tchan said who had overheard them. "There I thought you could tell us something we don't already know."

"Maybe after you've showed us the readings of that ship," Mira replied before he could let Tchan know of his very own opinion about his behaviour in general and his limited scientific horizon in particular.

"Fine," Tchan said. "Though we've already analysed them. There's hardly anything useful."

"Let's see for ourself," Mira replied and Tchan switched on a large screen on one of the walls, and after he pressed a few more buttons, a blurry image appeared, almost unrecognisable due to interferences.

What he could see was a huge, empty plane, almost like the surface of a planet – empty as far as he could tell, and what appeared to be the sky was filled with red, fluid looking clouds and lightnings. Hyperspace. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a round shape appeared in the distance, sending out a beam of energy – and the screen went black.

"That's all?" he asked.

"That's enough," Mira said gravely. "Can you show me that ship again? And zoom in a bit."

Tchan did as she asked, and this time a still frame of the ship was on the screen, slightly enlarged and even more blurry. It was a sphere, just as the HECATE, but the engine-beading was missing.

"You recognise it?" Tamar asked.

"Yes," Mira said quietly, arms crossed, slightly paler than usual in her face. "It's a Dolan. Seems you've found one of their arsenals in hyperspace."

"A Dolan? That's ridiculous," Tchan said. "They haven't been around for- how long? Four-hundred years? So-"

"Ridiculous?" Mira said angrily. "I can see only one being ridiculous here, and that's certainly not me." Tchan slowly closed his mouth and stared at her with a priceless expression of indignation on his face. Obviously it had been a long time since someone has last talked to him like that. "You continue to demonstrate an awful lack of perspective, and-" Mira continued but Tamar interrupted her before things could escalate.

"With all due respect, Mira, but you're certain?" he said. "Tchan is right, there hasn't been any confirmed sighting of a Dolan since... then, and I thought they've all been destroyed. I mean, the picture is really not good, there's hardly anything recognisable apart from the shape, so-"

"I am sure," Mira said flatly. "I've identified them on pictures worse than this one. Trust me, that's nothing you ever forget. That arsenal would have normally been filled with them. I guess most of them were part of the attack on Earth and the Solar System."

"So, then we know what we're looking for?" Jack said.

"If it followed us," Tchan replied. "We're not sure of that yet. But, if we assume for a moment it followed us, then yes, we're looking for it. As soon as we can analyse the weapon it used we can reverse this whole process and get back to our universe. I- I assume you will support our efforts?" He asked Mira, suddenly quite enthusiastic and even polite – but just because he wanted something from her. "I've read all about your and Doctor Kalup's work about the Hyperinmestron. Fascinating, really fascinating. If there's some time left later would probably care to elaborate a few things, I would-"

"No," Mira interrupted him quietly and so finally that Tchan immediately dropped the topic and went back to whatever he had been working on previously.

"Hyperinmestron?" he asked her quietly.

"Andromeda galaxy," she just replied.

There was no need for more words, he knew what it was about and why she didn't want to go further into that topic with Tchan.

Meanwhile Tamar had stepped away and listened to his wrist-com – he was able to hear the quietly spoken words, but couldn't understand a single one of them.

"You were right," Tamar said finally, speaking English again, and looked up. "Seems we found your Dolan."


Mira

She had landed the Shift in some distance to the Dolan. It was lying there on the side, broken but still dark and threatening with its black, dull, organic hull. Images taken by scout-drones had revealed that it had crashed, not intentionally landed on the opposite side of the planet - an ugly wound gaped in its side where it had slid over some sharp rocks, obviously too damaged to grow landing legs out of its main body.

A way for us to get in.

It was suffering, dying; she could feel it. And yet, despite feeling its pain almost as if it was her own; despite the fact that the Dolans, those living ships, were the least responsible for the attack on Earth as they were only semi-conscious and had no choice but to obey their pilots, she found it hard to feel sorry for it. Too vivid were the memories of thousands of these ships targeting Earth, shooting down evacuation ships. The sight of Terrania after the attack forever imprinted into her memories. Once the most beautiful city mankind had built and now nothing but smoking ruins and partially completely levelled – impact sites of fusion bombs, where sand from the ground, steel from the buildings and what – or who – ever else had been there at this very moment were melted together to ash-grey glass, solidified again in weirdly fluid, almost organic looking waves. She could almost smell the smoke, feel the horror again she had felt when trying to grasp how many millions of lives had been taken that day – dead and burned corpses, many beyond recognition, too many people marked as missing in battle instead of dead as no-one was able to identify them.

Even the creaking sound of dried leaves under her team member's feet reminded her of the sound of the burned and melted ground – it had been impossible to tell if she was walking over burned plants, plastics, or human remains.

She let her eyes slide over her companions – the Doctor and Jack were with her, even though she had told them to stay behind. It was dangerous and she wasn't willing to risk their lives here. Had it been for her she would have gone on her own, but Tamar had insisted to send some of his men as well. Jas and Ben had volunteered, and a handful of other men and women were waiting with two more shifts and a space-jet a bit further away. Tamar had also positioned some Corvettes high above them, just in case the Dolan would make for an escape, but she doubted that this thing would ever fly again.

The Dolan wasn't what was worrying her though – it was its pilot who might still be around. Judging from how tough the Second-Conditioned were that was a distinct possibility. She had spent enough time with her old friend the Halutian Icho Tolot to know that there was hardly anything that could kill him – and the Ulebs, as she used to call them – even though technically Uleb was another name for the First-Conditioned which had created the Second-Conditioned and were almost but not quite identical to them – were similar to but even tougher than Halutians. They were over thirteen feet tall, roughly humanoid with two legs and two pairs of arms – one pair growing out of the shoulders and one pair on the middle of their chest which were also called run-arms. They were able to reach a speed of eighty miles when using that second pair of arms, moving like four-legged creatures. They had three incredible sharp eyes and a brain as capable as a small positronic. Actually rather two brains working together. They were also able to transform the molecular structure of their bodies to become as hard as terkonit. They could survive in the vacuum of space for hours and their stomachs were able to deal with almost everything, working like a converter. They could eat stones, grinding them with teeth hard as terkonit, and she had actually seen Icho Tolot doing just that on multiple occasions. As if that wasn't enough, the Uleb were living with a symbiont, wrapped around their neck like a collar, allowing them to see into the future. Just a tenth of a second, but that was enough to render most tactics and surprise attacks useless.

Long story short, she had seen Halutians dealing with small armies of battle robots and having fun whilst doing so – and for that, dealing with a Uleb was definitely not on top of the list of things she liked to do. Actually, she had hoped to never ever see one of them again.

She just hoped it wasn't around anymore – and it was indeed the right pronoun, as they were unisexual or even actual hermaphrodites like the Halutians (no one knew for sure and they kept quite to themselves in this regard), but, unlike them, also sterile. But if it was still around, the only chance they had was hunting it down in open terrain with the big guns of the shifts and space-jet.

"Okay," she said and looked at her team again. They were all dressed in battle suits which could also be used in space and armed with heavy combo-blasters – well, apart from hers, which was a slightly lighter version. And apart from the Doctor, who was completely unarmed – but at least she had been able to convince him to wear a battle suit as well, equipped with defensive shields and a small impulse and antigravity-aggregate. It had either been that or staying behind as she didn't intend to walk nor forgo the advantage of deflective shields which would allow them to approach the ship hidden from eyes and some sensors.

"Shields up," she said. "We approach the ship flying. No direct line, not too close to each other. If they open fire, continue approach. We won't retreat. There should be only one Uleb on board, and we need the calibration data of its weapon."

"Yes Ma'am," Ben and Jas said, and Jack saluted lazily.

Her eyes fell on the Doctor. She had already told him, but she did it again. "Don't try anything. Ulebs don't negotiate. And for all planets, just don't tell them you're a Time Lord."

That had been how it all had started. Being collectively and irrationally paranoid of someone travelling back in time and preventing their creation, the Ulebs and the Second-Conditioned had tried to wipe out everyone who had started to experiment with time-travel. And, in case of Earth, they had almost succeeded. But she knew he would try it anyway. Try to talk to the Uleb and find a peaceful solution. There was none. Ulebs were created to fight, and that was their one and only purpose. She waited for him to say something, but he was only staring at her out of huge, dark, accusing eyes, making her feel slightly guilty of not even considering a peaceful solution.

"The Dolan is dying," she added, forcing herself to break eye-contact with the Doctor. "But expect resistance. Especially if the Uleb is still alive. And don't even try to outsmart it. Remember that it can see a tenth of a second into the future if it still carries its symbiont around its neck."

She knew she was repeating herself, but she would tell them a hundred times more if needed, as none of them had even seen a Halutian in action. Jas and Ben at least knew in theory, and the Doctor and Jack had gotten an crash training about Dolans as well as the technology and use of the battle suits and the weapons, but she doubted that they could imagine a thirteen feet tall organic battle machine, able to break through every single inner wall of the HECATE with a bit of run-up and, if transforming their molecular structure, withstanding heavy ship's guns for a decent amount of time.


Jack

Had he ever had any doubts about Mira being who she claimed to be, the last hours had completely cleared them up. It was not only the fact that everyone on board the ship knew her, but also her whole demeanour, which had changed since discovering the HECATE. Slightly and yet considerably and very distinctive in parts. It was clear who was calling the shots now, casually and with an ease as if doing just that for ages – and no, for once it wasn't the Doctor, who wasn't quite agreeing with it and indeed looking slightly miserable and grumpy. Oh well, apart from when he had had a look at the schematics of the ship's engines and when Mira had given their little party more details about the Dolans. All the science stuff had sparked the Doctor's interest, but he was still visibly uncomfortable with the whole situation. Good looking uncomfortable though, with the rather tight battle-suit.

He could see figures of the others on the display projected on the inner side of his helmet, as they were all invisible now and only the internal sensors of the battle-suite could detect them, being calibrated on the correct frequency patterns.

Fascinating piece of equipment he thought as they all lifted up in the air and started to approach the crashed Dolan. He wondered if he could manage to bring some of it back to Torchwood. Of course, he would not only have to hide it from Mira – after getting it off the ship somehow – but also from he Doctor. But it certainly was worth a try.

They reached the opening in the hull uninterrupted – he still liked to avoid thinking about what this opening actually was – and they just grouped up to enter, as a black shadow suddenly shot out of there and past them. It had been so fast that his eyes couldn't make out details, and next thing he heard Mira's voice over radio telling them to take off again and avoid the ground. Then, as he was still trying to sort out what just had happened, she called for the Shifts and the Corvettes to descent and suddenly there was all sort of chattering over the speakers, most of it in Intercosmo.

Then he saw it. It was matching Mira's description and the few pictures he had seen on the ship perfectly, but reality added an element of panic inducing threat to it which no picture and no description, however accurate it was, could capture.

It was massive, dressed in a dark green space-suite, its three eyes glowing red, the mouth which reached halfway around the massive, half-spheric shaped, black head was open, showing massive, sharp teeth. It was crouching, the hands of the two arms growing out of the chest resting on the ground, ready to leap forwards. It was searching for them.

"Don't let it get back into the ship!" Mira commanded. "Ben, Jas, standard-positions! Doctor, stay away from it! Doesn't look as if it feels like talking."

Her last words got drowned in the sonic booms of two Corvettes decelerating from supersonic speed as they descended from their waiting-positions, now hovering above his head as dark shadows against the sun. He wondered just how precise their target recognition was as they were clearly not just here for observation.

Suddenly a figure became visible, about fifty feet away from the Uleb. It was the Doctor's tall, skinny frame. He couldn't listen for once, could he?

The Uleb had spotted him as well, slowly turning around, lurking, getting ready to jump at him. Time seemed to stretch, making what couldn't be more than a few seconds seemingly last forever – the Doctor, his hands stretched out, palms up, and the Uleb, staring back at him, personifying the very opposite of the Doctor's peaceful appearance. He hadn't switched off his shield completely, had he? He was sure that some of the readings on the display would tell him just that, but there had only been time to explain the most important features to them, so most of the sensor readings were a mystery to him.

Then the Uleb leaped forward, soon reaching an incredible speed. Almost at the same moment the Doctor became invisible again as another figure – Mira, so much he could make of the readings – tried to pull him out of the Uleb's way. He couldn't tell if she was covering the Doctor with her shield or had activated his again.

Just then Jas and Ben opened fire, but the Uleb was protected by an energy shield causing the beams – bright as the sun – to flow around the huge frame, shrouding it in an aurora of light so bright the helmet automatically darkened to protect his eyes.

It didn't stop the Uleb though, but at least now it was heading towards where the fire was coming from. Then it suddenly sidestepped, just before the ground in front of it got melted, as if it had sensed it. Of course he thought, that must be the symbiont Mira had mentioned. One of the Shifts had fired at it with its heavy impulse-gun. Then it changed direction again as a beam of energy coming from the sky hit the ground where it had been a moment ago. One of the Corvettes must have opened fire. It was at this very moment he realised the full extent of the horror of having to fight an army of this creatures heading for Earth. There wasn't much time to contemplate the full implications of this as the Uleb was now heading in his direction. Of course he could always go further up, but then again, the black giant might have an antigrav as well. Apart from that, this couldn't go on forever. He aimed but before he could fire a single shot the Uleb stopped so suddenly that it slid a few feet, carried along by the momentum from the speed it had moved at. For a long moment it just stood there as if frozen, then, slowly, it began to fall over. The ground shook with the impact as it landed face first and then there was nothing but silence.

"What happened?" he asked. "Did we kill it?"

"If its dead, it wasn't us," Mira replied dryly and became visible, still standing close to the Doctor.

Jas and Ben appeared again as well, their weapons still pointing at the giant.

"But it is dead, isn't it?" Ben asked sceptically. "Can't get any brainwave readings."

"Can't get anything either," Mira said, "But that doesn't need to mean anything. It's an Uleb. If it changed its molecular structure it could still be alive."

She slowly walked over to it, followed by Ben and Jas, the Doctor at her side. Then something weird was happening, and at first he thought it was just his eyes playing tricks. But as he got closer he could see it was indeed happening. The huge body was shrinking. Slowly at first, but then faster and faster, the space-suit sinking in on the now too small body. It was like a time-laps film of something drying out, shrinking, getting mummified.

"What's that now?" Ben asked.

"Its ageing," the Doctor replied. "Well, it was ageing. Its dead now. Poor thing died of old age as it seems. So you were right Mira. You didn't kill it. And whatever caused it to age is continuing."

"Is that supposed to happen with them?" Jas asked and kneeled next to the body which now looked as if it would dissolve into dust any moment.

"No," Mira replied, shaking her head. "No, that's not supposed to happen when they die."


OneWhoReadsTooMuch, djmegamouth, NicoleR85, time-twilight, E-man-dy-S, bored411, unknown guest: Thanks for reading&leaving a review :-)