Doctor Who: BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures [032] - The Fall of Yquatine by Nick Walters

Author:Nick Walters
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780563555940
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 2000-05-14T22:00:00+00:00

Interlude 1

Cloudbusting

The black cloud was very old and had travelled immeasurable distances, but it hadn’t lost sight of its objective. It knew what it had to do. It knew little else. Each one of the particles in its enormous, moon-sized volume vibrated with the purpose its Masters had programmed into it. Some particles were there to shield from any type of radiation the spores that the cloud harboured in its dense central mass. Others were there to ensure the cloud remained undetected by even the most advanced of technologies, or to maintain the jet-black coloration of the particles, which absorbed light and emitted nothing. Others were there to catch the solar winds from the suns of the systems the cloud passed through, sailing it through the starless chasms between them. Others were there to reach out into space, to scan for radio emissions, certain types of radiation, the presence of life.

When it had entered this particular system, the scanning particles had almost overloaded with information. There was so much life here that the cloud – or rather those particles within it that performed the function of mind – didn’t know where to go first. It hung there, invisible in space, overwhelmed. It had eventually decided to set off in a more or less random direction towards the centre of the system. It was bound to bump into something sooner or later. There was no hurry: it had waited for millions of years already and a little longer wouldn’t hurt. Besides which, the fulfilment of its objective would mean the end of its cloud-based existence, and, over the countless years, it had perhaps come to develop particles that enjoyed this state of being.

And so it drifted slowly on towards the centre of the system, its movements leisurely, invisible, inevitable.

Soon enough, it found what it was looking for. Life, encased in an artificial shell, travelling through space at an incredible speed, more or less in the cloud’s direction.

The cloud slowed, halted, positioned itself in the path of the oncoming object, its scanning particles busy. Its sentient particles recognised the sleek, smooth object as a ‘spaceship’, a machine used to ferry organic life between planets. At the speed it was travelling the ship would pass through the cloud in a flash, so it would have only one chance. It was confident. It knew it would succeed. It was what it was programmed for.

The cloud made itself denser, thicker, and activated the spore particles within. They became aroused, potent. As the ship drew nearer they rushed to the point in the cloud through which it would pass.

The ship streaked through the cloud like a bullet through paper. Contact was brief, but it was enough. The spore particles had adhered to the nose of the ship, and, as it sped on its way, they altered the molecules of the ceramic hull, integrating with the basic molecular structure, working their way in a chain reaction towards the interior. Only a few would make it to the artificial atmosphere inside, but it would be enough.

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