The Unnamed Feeling, 4.

[Fitz Kreiner]

4
Welcome Home (Sanitarium).

“You were saying?” Tom asked sardonically as the scream finished echoing around the dome. “You may as well have said ‘nothing can possibly go wrong’.”

“Gods, you really are Mr. Pessimistic today.” Jess said, loosening her grim on Toms arm. She had involuntarily gripped harder as the scream rang out. “We don’t know what that scream was.”

“It could have just been someone trapping their hand, but somehow I doubt that.”

The Doctor’s voice made both Jess and Tom start. “What do you mean?” Jess asked.

“There’s something else going on here, other than the power outages.” The Doctor replied. “Something Doctor Miles hasn’t told us about yet.”

“And you said I was pessimistic,” Tom said sullenly. “So what do you think it is?”

“That was a scream of abject terror,” the Doctor said quietly, “not just fear of the dark, as though someone was already terrified about something. And if memory serves, it came from the sickbay.”

“And which way is that?” Jess asked, looking into the darkness.
The Doctor raised his arm and pointed into the darkness as the lighting flashed back on, causing everyone in the control room to close their eyes against the bright new light levels. “That way,” he said, continuing as though he hadn’t noticed the changing of the light levels.

“What the hell happened then?” Miles shouted at the nearest technician who was blinking rapidly at their computer terminal.

Spurred into action by Miles’ shout, the technician started tapping away furiously at the keypad before them. “No idea, chief,” he replied with a thick German accent. “All solar generators are fully operational and there has been no disconnection.”

“It sounds to me then, Doctor Miles,” the Doctor said, sidling up to the tall man, “as though your power is being affected by an outside influence.”

Miles almost started at the voice just beside him and spun to face the Time Lord. “What do you mean, Doctor?” he asked.

“I’d have thought that was obvious.” The Doctor replied returning to the probe. Fishing in his pockets, he pulled out a coil of copper wire and his sonic screwdriver and reached into the access panel in the probe.

“Well?” Miles asked walking over having received no reply.

“What was that scream?” Jess asked, stepping up to Miles.

“I don’t know,” the tall man replied glancing over to the far side of the room. “Doctor, will you please answer me?”

“Hmm, yes?” the Doctor replied as though he wasn’t listening as he now produced a yoyo from his pocket and unravelled the string. “Sorry about this, old thing.” He said to the yoyo as he tugged hard, pulling the string out. Turning back to the probe, he reached into the workings with the string.

Miles sighed and turned to Jess and Tom. “Is he always like this?” he asked.

“Most of the time, yeah,” Jess replied, “especially when he gets something in his head or goes into repair mode.”

Shaking his head, Miles turned back to the room. Van Weesenbeek and the repair crew were stood just back, watching the Doctor as he worked at the probe.

“Yes!” the Doctor cried stepping back as the background hum of the Gravitron filled the room, making everyone look up. “There you go, Patrick,” he said turning to the tall Welshman. “That should hold the old thing until you get the necessary spares sent up from Earth.”

Miles was astounded. “How did you know we didn’t have the spares in store?” he asked.

“Simple,” the Doctor replied walking from the dome and heading across the control room. “If you had, then you would have repaired it before now. Now, that scream, sickbay is this way isn’t it?”

Flabbergasted, Miles watched as the Time Lord wound his way around the desks towards the doors to the sickbay. Taking one last look back at the probe, he set off after the Doctor at a jog. By the time he had caught the shorter man up, Miles found him in the sickbay, crouched next to his wife, looking at a crumpled heap on the floor. It took him a couple of seconds to recognise it as Doctor Carlo Ricci.

“What the hell happened here?” he asked.

“No idea,” Christina replied getting to her feet and stepping over to Miles. “Who the hell is that?” she asked, indicating the Doctor.

“Massive electro static shock,” the Time Lord was muttering. “Projected high energy.”

“I’m not too sure,” Miles replied quietly. “He and two other appeared on the surface about twenty minutes ago, we brought them in and he’s already fixed the problem in the probe.” Miles looked back at the Doctor who had picked Ricci up and was laying him on one of the medibeds.

“He’ll be alright in time, he’s just had a bit of a shock that’s numbed his motor functions.” The Doctor said, turning back to Miles. “Tell me, have you any equipment on the base that could do that to someone?”

“The Carpet Baggers?” Christina suggested. “Who knows what they’re doing in their labs?”

“Carpet Baggers?” the Doctor asked, cocking his head to one side at the term.

“Science research station,” Miles replied. “Some of them are working on something called ‘Travel Mat’. A lot of us think it sounds like a flying carpet.”

The Doctor smiled knowingly at hearing the news before turning to the Medibed he was stood beside. “Did you know someone has recently gone from this bed?”

Christina looked immediately from the Doctor to Miles before rushing to the bed. “Oh God,” she sighed. “Wilks, the latest Space Madness,” trailing off, Christina looked at the Doctor who was staring at her intently.

“Go on,” he urged.

“Look, I’m sorry, but who are you?” Christina asked, putting her hands on her hips and cocking her head to one side, as she often did when annoyed.

“The Doctor,” the Doctor replied in a tone to suggest that it explained everything, “and when it comes to mental health issues, I’ve worked with the best of them; Freud, Jung, Lombardo, Ling, Sutton, you name them. Now, what’s this Space Madness?”

“Freud? Sorry, what?” Christina stumbled over the words, trying to understand what the Doctor was talking about.

“My friends and I are well travelled, and we’ve got quite the experience between us.” The Doctor replied, gripping the lapels of his bottle green velvet coat. “I’m sure that between us we can help sort out this Space Madness and Gravitron troubles.”

“So, aside from being a competent mechanic and engineer, you’re also a psychologist?” Miles asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’ve been a lot of things in my years,” the Doctor said, calmly as he walked round the Medibeds and to the doors. Pausing he turned back to the two doctors. “I think the pair of you could do with my assistance. There’s an atmosphere in the base here that I don’t like, and I think the two of you could tell me something valuable to help clear it.”

Christina and Miles stared after the Doctor for several seconds as he disappeared out of the sickbay.

“Who the hell is that man, and who the hell does he think he is?” Christina asked, turning to her husband.

“I’ve no idea,” Miles admitted. “I’ve no idea about a lot of things at the moment if I’m honest. But he fixed the Probe within five minutes of seeing the thing. If he’s anything like that with medical needs, he could help with the Space Madness.”

“How do you know we can trust him?” Christina pressed.

“I don’t,” Miles replied. “But why would he fix the Probe otherwise. There’s something about him. He knows more than he’s letting on. And I think we should find out what it is.”

“Well, you go ahead, I want to check on Carlo first,” Christina said, crossing the sickbay.

Nodding, Miles turned and walked from the sickbay, heading back to the control centre. He arrived to find the Doctor stood in the Dome with his two assistants, deep in conversation. The hum of the Gravitron was filling the room now; clearly the Doctor had done a good job on getting it to work again.

“Doctor,” Miles stood back at the edge of the dome, waiting for the stranger to reply.

“Yes, Patrick,” the Doctor smiled, turning around, “just the man. Tell me, is there somewhere my friends and I could get a quick drink and if possible bend your ear about this Space Madness.”

“On one condition, Doctor,” Miles countered, pointing a finger at the Time Lord, “That I get to bend your ear about who you are as well.”

“Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” the Doctor replied, almost waving the comment away.

*

Carlo Ricci groaned and tried to lift his head. It felt as though his skull was moving, but he brain was adamant to stay in the same place. This was the worst hang-over he’d had in a while. Cautiously, he opened his eyes, the light hurting at first but swiftly eased as his eyes opened further. He could see a blurry grey shape stood over him.

“Carlo? How are you?” the shape said.

Ricci recognised the voice; he just couldn’t place it right now.

“I’m never drinking again,” he muttered. In his head it sounded the perfect witty response, however his mouth didn’t seem to want to work and it came out as a mumbled groan. “Where am I?”

“You’re in sickbay, Carlo.” The voice belonged to Christina Miles, he recognised it now. And he could see the sickbay around him; he was lying on one of the Medibeds. “What happened?”

“I dunno,” Ricci said, struggling to a sitting position. “That black out; someone came in here, they did something that, I don’t know what they did. There was a bright flash and then, well, I woke up here.”

“You didn’t see anyone?” Christina asked.

“No, why?”

“Whoever it was took Wilks. Either that, or he’s run off somewhere.”

Ricci swung his legs off the bed and jumped down. “Wilks? Gone?” he asked. “Not another one.”

*

Jess was sat in what had been called the mess deck by Miles. To her, it looked for all the world like a small canteen; a galley on a ship. She was sat cradling a cup of strong coffee, that didn’t quite taste like coffee. Tom, she noted, was just sipping at a glass of water, which was slightly unusual for him, normally he’d have made a beeline direct for tea. The Doctor had a small cup of tea sat at his elbow, but was ignoring it as he spoke to both her and Tom, seemingly unaware of the look that Doctor Miles was giving him.

“The Gravitron was set up back in the 2050s and run by a European crew, Europe which soon became the Eurozone and came into a cold war with the United States. It nearly heated up several times in the 2080s, but five years ago President Cole Winters of the US and Prime Minister J.T. Silowzki formally started negotiations to end the hostilities and work together for the good of humanity. Solar power was fast becoming the prime source of power for the world with the fossil fuels running down. Space was becoming the next frontier again and to get over the rocket problem, space elevators were finally brought to the fore.

“They were space platforms in geostationary orbit, fully solar powered, with long tensile cables that allowed for the elevator platforms to go up and down. From there, shuttles were built allowing for ease of access to the moon.”

The Doctor paused and glanced over at Miles, who was still looking like he was wondering why the Doctor was giving a quick lowdown on what every school child must know in this time.

“Unfortunately, Earth will soon become hugely dependant on something they’re already working up here called T-Mat, and that will all happen within three years. But that’s just a hiccup, like the mini-disc wave that hit in the late twentieth and early twenty first century; meant to be the next big thing but never really took off. T-Mat will take a back burner and Earth will get back into space and the space elevators will remain fully functional until the Dalek invasion in another sixty years or so.”

“What are you talking about now?” Miles finally cut in; the talk of the future was baffling him.

“Nothing, just forget that I said all that,” the Doctor replied, before turning back to Jess and Tom with a wink. “Now, could you please tell us about this ‘Space Madness’?”

The sound of the term made Jess look up suddenly, her eyes wide. She shot a cursory glance over towards Tom. The young Time Lord was seemingly oblivious to the conversation that the Doctor was having with Miles, sat, as he was, staring at the glass of water.

“It started about two weeks ago,” Miles was saying, “just small things like absent mindedness and small cases of anxiety. But it soon escalated. We had people collapsing with severe anxiety disorders, at least that’s what my wife – what Doctor Miles – said. These crewmen then developed severe depression symptoms. Some seem to think that there are people or something hunting them in the base. Paranoid delusions, Chrissy said.”

Miles paused and looked at the Doctor. He was sat with his elbows on the tables, his fingers locked together, bar his index fingers, which were extended and placed together, taping his lower lip as he stared ahead listening to every word.

“But then, something even more bizarre has been happening.” Miles admitted. “Some of those people who have been suffering from the Space Madness seem to have disappeared; completely from the base. We don’t yet know whether they’ve taken the link down to Armstrong absently, but we’re sure that it wasn’t purposeful desertion.”

The Doctor was now pursing his lips as he listened. His tapping of his lower lip had stopped and he had a faraway look in his eyes. “Has there been anything out of the ordinary about the base the past few weeks?” He asked eventually.

“Out of the ordinary?” Miles asked, almost incredulously. “The whole thing is out of the ordinary.”

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” the Doctor said, waving Miles into silence with his hand as he turned to face him. “But before all that: anything suspicious? What about the science department your wife mentioned; the Carpet Baggers was it?”

“I don’t think even they know what it is they’re doing half the time.” Miles shrugged. “They uprooted from Earth to come up here; working on this T-Mat thing you mentioned, and prosthesis, medical technology and God knows what else.”

“Well,” the Doctor said cheerfully clapping his hands. “I think it’s high time we went and had a natter with them, don’t you?”

“You don’t think it’s something that they’ve been up to that could have caused all this?” Miles asked. He was fast developing a healthy respect for the Doctor. Sure, he was strange as hell, but he seemed to be on the ball.

“Until I’ve seen all their projects, Patrick, I don’t know,” the Doctor admitted. “But whatever it is, I am adamant that it is not going to become a danger to Earth or that this so called madness doesn’t turn something so vital to the Earth into something resembling a Lunar Lunatic asylum.” The Doctor stopped and looked at Miles, his face set.

“The Lunar Lunatic Asylum,” Jess chuckled. “Hey, I like the sound of that. It kinda rhymes.”

The Doctor nodded. “Years ago, people believed that madness was linked to the lunar cycle, hence the term ‘lunatic’, however, what’s going on here, I somehow doubt is related to that. It’s something much more sinister and alien.”

“Alien?” Miles seemed astounded. “You’re joking now, yeah?”

“I wish I was, Patrick,” the Doctor replied looking around. “I’ve got this feeling. Where’s Tom?”

Jess looked around, her heart almost skipping a beat when she realised that Tom was nowhere to be seen in the mess deck.