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was lashing wildly to and fro on its stalk. There was hysteria in the
whispering voice. 'Emergency, emergency! Nutrition cycle has been
activated prematurely. Immediate recovery of the Axonite sample is
essential, essential, essential...' The voice rose to a scream that
echoed round the ship...
His golden form now disintegrated into a many-tentacled mass,
the Axon leader ran from the area.
In the Nuton Complex, alarm bells were ringing loudly.
Captain 'Harker's first thought was that his prisoners must have
escaped. He ran along to the guest suite, relieved to find the sentry
still outside the door. 'Are the prisoners in there?'
'Far as I know, sir... unless they've broken out by a window...'
'We'd better check.'
The sentry opened the door, and Captain Harker ran inside
straight into an uppercut from the Brigadier that dropped him to the
carpet, out cold. The astonished Filer acted by reflex, chopping down
the sentry as he followed Harker into the room. Filer turned to the
Brigadier, who was rubbing his knuckles. 'Hey, what's going on? Are
we pulling a break-out?'
'Sudden impulse,' explained the Brigadier crisply. 'All at once I
got very tired of being locked up. Now I must get a message through
to the U.N. You two go and find the Doctor. I'll join you later.'
Stepping over the two prone bodies, the Brigadier marched
briskly out of the room. Filer shrugged. 'Well, I guess we'd better do
as he says. Where is the Doc?'
'I suppose he's still in the laboratory,' answered Jo. 'Let's go
and see, shall we?'
Despite the clanging alarm bells, no one tried to stop them as
they ran to the laboratory. They found the Doctor in front of the
throbbing Particle Accelerator, staring in total absorption at a
pulsating blob of Axonite which had already grown enormously in
size. Jo grabbed his arm, raising her voice above the whine of the
machinery. 'What's going on, Doctor?'
He didn't seem in the least surprised to see her. 'Just a little
test, Jo. Look at the Axonite! It's now taking the entire output of
Reactor One and absorbing it. Absorbing the whole lot, and using it
to grow... Marvellous!'
There was a clatter of footsteps as Winser ran down the steps
from the main control room. He didn't seem to share the Doctor's
enthusiasm. In fact he was almost hysterical with rage. 'What's going
on here?' With the strength of anger he flung the Doctor away from
the controls. 'Get away from my equipment, you idiot. You're
wrecking the whole apparatus!'
Slamming the power-lever back to close-down he ran to the
transparent doors.
'Winser, don't,' yelled the Doctor. 'That's live Axonite in there!'
He was too late. Winser flung open the doors and the ever-growing
blob of Axonite sucked him in and engulfed him. He vanished at
once, totally absorbed by its seething mass.
Jo screamed and turned away in horror. The Doctor leaped to
the transparent doors, and slammed them shut. Fascinated. he stood
staring at the huge mass of Axonite swelling before them still
growing, despite the shut-down in power.
The Doctor spoke softly, almost to himself. 'It's just as I feared.
The Axons, their ship, this Axonite. They're all the same thing!'
Filer looked at him in disbelief. 'I don't get it, Doc.'
'We're dealing with a single living creature. The copy of you,
Filer, the Axon you saw forming, Jo, this Axonite here all part of
the same organism. Axonite is just the dormant state.' The Doctor
looked again at the still-growing mass. 'Was the dormant state until
I activated it!'
The seething mass of Axonite began slamming itself against
the doors. Filer whispered, 'Can't you stop it, Doc?'
'I've got to or it could consume the whole planet. I only hope
it's not too late...'
With a shattering crash, the huge blob of Axonite burst open
the heavy plastic doors and rolled slowly towards them like a giant
boulder, They backed rapidly away. Jo looked behind them and
screamed. Filling the laboratory door was the writhing, many-
tentacled form of an Axon monster.
Filer acted by sheer instinct. With lunatic courage he shoulder-
charged the monster, yelling, 'Doc, run. Get Jo out of here!'
Filer's sacrifice was in vain. One of the monster's tentacles
slashed across his body, there was a fierce crackle of energy and
Filer was hurled clear across the lab. Jo and the Doctor backed away
as the monster bore down on them. The last thing they heard was the
Voice of Axos. 'De-energise them!' Immediately the monster's
tentacles lashed out and they were stunned into unconsciousness. The
tentacles of the monster dragged them both away.
In Hardiman's empty office the Brigadier was on the
telephone. In a stunned voice he was saying, 'And you're absolutely
sure? I see. Yes, of course, I'll take over at once.' Slowly he put down
the phone, his mind reeling under the impact of shattering news.
Some time ago a message had gone out from UNIT H.Q., not only to
the U.N. Security Council, but to every Government and every news
agency in the world. The message told of the Axon landing in
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