Doctor Who: Fury From the Deep Read Free Page A

Victoria.
    'What are you going to do?' Victoria's eyes rolled from side to side in helpless panic, as Harris approached her with the cylinder mouth-piece. 'Keep away from me... no!'
    'It's all right, don't worry,' said Harris, flicking a lock of his unruly hair out of his eye. 'The U4 will soon bring you round.'
    'No!' Victoria's terrified yell of protest was instantly stifled by the mouth-piece. The same treatment was also given to the Doctor and Jamie, and the sound of hissing gas was heard immediately.
    It took just sixty seconds for the U4 to achieve its task. The first to feel its effect was Jamie, who suddenly felt life returning to his big toes. He quickly pushed off the mouth-piece, sat up, and yelled out triumphantly. 'I can move!'
    Seconds later, the Doctor and Victoria were also revived, and all three were soon on their feet again. At last, they were able to look around the extraordinary building they had been brought to. It was indeed a remarkable sight.
    They were standing in what seemed to be some kind of Communications Control Hall, the nerve-centre of a huge gas refinery. The Hall was completely circular, like the inside of a mosque, and it looked as though it had been built entirely of aluminium and perspex. The floor of the Hall was in fact a well, flanked all the way around by a narrow observation platform, which was reached by means of two or three perspex steps. The walls themselves were almost completely covered by a mass complex of snake-like pressure tubes, valves, gauges, wheels, handles and levers.
    The windows were portholes, placed at high angles to reveal nothing but the open sky.
    Dominating the Control Hall itself, however, was the massive aluminium pipeline, which curled overhead around the walls, out to the beach, and beyond, to the rigs in the North Sea. On the observation platform there was a transparent door, through which could be seen the Impeller Area. Here the giant piston thumped up and down relentlessly twenty-four hours a day, pumping natural gas through the main pipeline, out to receiving stations in Southern England.
    The main communications panel was a towering triangular shaped cone in the centre of the Hall. The cone contained at least ten video monitors, and a vast array of satellite computer systems, all linking the Refinery to its rigs and the outside world. And set on top of the cone was a huge illuminated panel, showing the actual position of the rigs out at sea, indicated by flashing coloured lights.
    The Control Hall was manned by a team of engineers and communication technicians, each of them wearing identical one-piece uniforms made of a shiny black plastic material with patches showing each crewman's name and job grading. Only the engineers wore helmets, and these were made out of reinforced transparent perspex.
    The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria stared in wonder at the vast complex of computerised equipment surrounding them. Lights flashing, buzzers buzzing, distorted voices calling from video monitors, sinister figures in black dashing back and forth in frenzied activity. And behind this, the constant throbbing sound of the giant piston pump, reverberating around the metallic walls.
    'You were on the beach by the pipeline in a restricted area!
    Why?' The Doctor, Victoria, and Jamie turned with a start as Robson's coarse voice cut through the atmosphere like a rifle shot.
    Robson was a crude man: there was no place in his life for moderation.
    'We were lost, that's all,' said Victoria timidly.
     
    Robson ignored her. His attention was fixed firmly on the Doctor. 'You were seen tampering with the emergency release valve remote controls. You're a saboteur!'
    'He's no such thing!' Victoria suddenly regained her fiery spirit.
    'He's a Doctor - well, sort of...'
    The Doctor's face creased up into its usual affable, innocent smile. 'I can assure you, sir, I was merely being inquisitive.'
    Harris tried to be logical. 'Mr Robson, I don't really see how these people could've had