That took even the Doctor by surprise.
‘Why didn’t you tell us this yourself, Doctor?’ asked Lhe Pilot.
‘Ola didn’t give him a chance,’ went on Medok.
‘My dear fellow...’ began the Doctor.
‘Pack it in, Doctor,’ interrupted Medok. ‘You did your best. Better this way.’
The Doctor nodded slowly. Perhaps it would be better, but he would have liked to have been able to thank the man.
‘Take him away,’ said the Pilot, and Ola went out with his prisoner.
‘What will happen to him?’ asked the Doctor.
‘He goes back to the Hospital of Correction for another course of treatment. When he comes back he’ll be a changed man. He’ll fit in with everyone else, just like he used to.’
‘I see. Conformity is the watchword here?’
‘For your information, Doctor, this Colony was founded by our forebears centuries ago. They came from the planet Earth, as I believe do your three friends. They believed in the virtues of work, health and happiness. We have tried to keep these ideais alive. Sometimes it is necessary to protect our Colony from within. Then we use any means – including force.’
He pressed a button on his desk and said, ‘The Doctor is returning to his quarters.’
As the Doctor left, the screen lit up and the Controller viewed the Pilot thoughtfully. ‘The Doctor and his friends are to have all the help we can give. High-powered adaptation. At once. They are to be as happy and useful as others in the Colony. Transfer them to Deep Sleep and uncritical thinking patterns. We cannot have discord amongst us. Begin the process immediately.’
The Pilot picked up his transmitter. ‘Top priority. Emergency from Control. Special Rest Cubicles to be connected to Deep Sleep circuits.’
The Controller continued, ‘Programme One: Control must always be believed and obeyed. Programme Two: There is no such thing as Macra men. No such thing as Macra men. No such thing as Macra men...’
Polly slept soundly. She had become very tired: perhaps the events of the day had caught up with her. And as she was overcome with sleep, she was not aware of a faint sound in her room – a gentle hiss of escaping air... or gas.
It was difficult to know where the Voice came from. It was gentle, insidious, soft and persistent – imprinting its message on her passive mind.
Relax... and sleep,
the Voice whispered.
Relax... and sleep. A deep, deep sleep... Listen and believe... Everything in this Colony is good and beautiful. You must accept without question... all you are told. Obey orders from Control. It is for your own good. For the good of this fortunate Colony. The leaders know best... They always know best.
Polly breathed steadily and deeply. Her expression was one of peace and content, like a child, confident in the protection of some all-powerful parent.
And in a cubicle close by, Ben lay with the same idyllic look on his face. It was a relief to feel all responsibilities lifted from one’s shoulders. He even smiled as he slept. The Voice was even softer, seemingly very close:
In the morning you will wake up and be given some work. It is good to play one’s part in the community. Good to repay for what you receive. You will do this work unquestioningly. Glad to obey.
In the next bunk Jamie stirred uneasily. Was this a nightmare? This Voice sounding somewhere in his head? Alien to his conscience, whispering convincingly,
You will question nothing... oppose nothing...
It was more than he could stomach. Jamie sat upright, startled by something he couldn’t understand.
Ben was sleeping a few feet away. Had he heard nothing?
‘Ben... Ben!’
Ben struggled out of oblivion. ‘What is it?’ he asked.
‘Did you hear something?’
‘No.’
‘There was a voice.’
‘You’re always imagining things!’
‘I’ve never heard anything like it before.’
‘I don’t doubt it.’ Ben pulled the sheet over his head.
‘Ben!’
‘Good night, Jamie.’
‘There was something evil about it... Although it was very soft... very gentle... And... I nearly believed what it said.’
‘Oh, mate!’ said Ben. ‘Get some sleep. We’ve got a long day’s work ahead of us.’
Jamie looked at him sharply. ‘Why do you say that?’
‘Because we’ve got to do something to help the Colony. We can’t just sit on our backsides and do nothing. It we eat their nosh we’ve got to help out.’ It seemed obvious.
‘You sound just like the Voice,’ said Jamie.
‘I don’t know what you’re on about. It wouldn’t be too bad to work in a place like this.’
‘Since when did you think it was so great to work?’ asked jamie.
‘Since now.’ Ben closed his eyes.
Jamie lay staring into the dark.
The Doctor carefully examined the items in Polly’s room. She slept heavily as he checked lights, switches, furniture, puzzled that he could find nothing.
All the time he was conscious of a faint humming. The Doctor could make nothing of it, but in Polly’s ear it sounded clearly and distinctly:
You will not resist the sleeping gas. Breathe deeply... In the morning you will wake and obey.
The Doctor had a further thought. He pressed his ear to the walls, moving slowly over each panel.
Listen and relax,
said the Voice in Polly’s ear.
Control is looking after you. You will be given work. No matter how hard or dangerous, you will be happy to do it... at all cost... at all cost... even at the risk of your life.
‘Aha...’ said the Doctor softly. He had located something at last – on the wall and almost invisible. There was a pin amongst Polly’s things by the bed. The Doctor took it carefully and pressed it into the wall. A tiny puff of smoke belched from the hole, and Polly awoke with a start.
‘Doctor! What are you doing?’
‘Scotching a rumour,’ said the Doctor with satisfaction.
‘What’s happened?’
‘I think you’ve been listening to some bad advice,’ said the Doctor.
‘I’ve been asleep.’ She was still puzzled.
‘I know you have. Sound asleep.
Very
sound asleep.’ He sniffed the air. ‘Do you smell something? A rather sweet perfume?’
‘No.’
‘Well, never mind. I suggest you forget everything you’ve been dreaming.’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘There’s a chance you might get a series of orders. You know, “Do this, do that”. Now, it’s my advice to you – don’t do anything! Never be blindly obedient. Always make up your own mind.’
He had been sitting on the end of her bed as he talked. Now he jumped to his feet. ‘What am I thinking about! Ben and Jamie!’ He hurried frorn the room.
When Ben awoke the Doctor was close by his bed, examining the wall with a piece of wire in his hand. Polly stood by, looking on.
‘Hello, Doc,’ he said. ‘Is it morning?’
‘Not yet,’ said the Doctor, ‘but it’s on its way.’ He pushed the wire into the fabric of the wall. Ben was suddenly wide awake.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ he demanded.
‘By my calculations,’ said the Doctor as he probbed the wall, ‘there should be a thin strand of wire, rather like a nerve tapping the subconscious of the human brain...’
‘Lay off, mate,’ said Ben sharply. ‘You could find yourself on a charge.’
The Doctor had reached a critical stage in his examination. ‘I should say... just about here...’
With great delicacy he manipulated the wire in his fingers, his ear to the wall, as though he were detecting the combination of a secret lock.
Ben scrambled from his bed. ‘Pack it in. Don’t muck about! You could do a lot of damage!’
‘Better a little damage than a great loss of willpower,’ said the Doctor.
‘What are you on about?’ scolded Ben. ‘That’s typical of you. A trouble-maker! Get out of it! It’s against the law!’
‘What law?’ asked the Doctor.
‘The law, of course.
This
law. The law of the Colony.’ Ben was very sure.
This time the puff of smoke was quite thick, and accompanied by a crackle of sparks.
Ben was appalled. ‘Now you’ve done it! You’ll get chucked in jail for that.’
Polly looked at him in amazement. It was so unlike the Ben she knew. ‘What’s the matter with you?’ she asked.
Ben swung round on her. ‘He thinks he knows best all the time. Well, he doesn’t. Not this time!’
Jamie lifted a sleepy head from his pillow. ‘What’s the row?’
‘Hello, Jamie. How did you sleep?’ asked the Doctor. ‘Not too well... I told Ben. I kept hearing these voices.’
The Doctor looked pleased. ‘That’s good. It shows you were aware of them. They haven’t been able to get deeply into your mind.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Then let me show you.’
The Doctor moved to the wall panei beside Jamie’s bed.
‘Watch.’ He put the thin strand of wire into the wall. The puff of smoke was immediate.
‘Very clever,’ snapped Ben. ‘You know what you’ve done?’
‘Tell us, Ben.’
‘You’ve ruined a lot of very valuable equipment. Someone’s going to pay for this!’
Polly tried to reassure him. ‘Listen, Ben. The Doctor’s told me what’s happened. This is a way to implant ideas into people’s minds... your mind, my mind... Things they want us to believe... They could make you believe black was white – you would be absolutely sure... You’d accept any rubbish...’
Ben stared at her. ‘It’s
not
rubbish,’ he told her. ‘It’s true. Control
does
know best. They want us to cooperate. What’s wrong with that? We should be helping, not disrupting and destroying things.’
Polly had never heard him talk like that before. ‘Ben! What’s happened to you?’
‘We must learn to obey,’ said Ben loudly. ‘And he’s in trouble.’ He pointed at the Doctor as he headed for the door.
‘Where are you going?’ called Polly.
‘I’m turning him in,’ said Ben. He had the door open before Jamie had jumped up and grabbed him.
‘Let go, you fool!’ Ben struggied to pull free.
‘What’s wrong with him?’ Polly was close to tears.
‘I’m afraid I wasn’t quite in time to help Ben,’ said the Doctor.
‘Guard! Guard!’ Ben yelled down the corridor.
‘Let him go, Jamie.’
‘You know what he’ll do, Doctor?’ he said.
‘Nothing can be solved by force,’ said the Doctor.
Ben jerked free and raced down the corridor.
‘We’ll have to get out of here,’ said Polly.
The Doctor shook his head. ‘We can’t go and leave Ben like this.’
‘But he’s betraying you,’ pleaded Jamie.
‘Not Ben,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s not Ben who’s betraying us. At this moment he can’t do anything else. He isn’t in control of his actions.’
The door was thrown open and Ben burst in. He pointed to the Doctor, as Ola and his guards crowded behind him.
‘There he is,’ accused Ben. ‘He put the entire system out of action. It’s burnt through!’
‘This time,’ said Ola, ‘we have all the evidence we need, Doctor. And from one of your friends. And this time we will take no chances.’
As they began to push the Doctor towards the door, Jamie ran forward.
‘Get your hands off him!’
‘Right,’ said Ola. ‘You too, my friend. Out! Both of you!’
‘All right, Jamie,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’ll go with Captain Ola.’
‘You should stick him in that hospital of yours,’ urged Ben.
Jamie turned on him. ‘You traitor!’
The guards grabbed him and hustled him after the Doctor.
‘Move! Both of you!’ shouted Ola.
Ben stood at the door, shouting. ‘The hospital! He needs correction more than Medok does!’
He was still shouting as the guards and prisoners left the building.
Ola did not head towards the Hospital for Correction. He thought that, in all probability, that was where these two strangers would finish up. He had already seen Medok go there earlier, and had supervised while the demented fellow was strapped into a raised frame and exposed to a spinning beam, which played a fast-changing pattern of colours, light and dark, a dazing assault on the nervous system.
Ola had also watched the aural computers being directed onto Medok. The whine of the intermittent electronics could be faintly heard by all in the room, but they seemed to pierce Medok’s brain. He lay there writhing, watched closely by the Pilot, who viewed it all with detached, scientific interest. Surely this would help the poor fellow to disabuse his mind? The strength of this treatment would certainly drive all illusions from his troubled brain.
Ola had left the Pilot and his laboratory supervisor to continue their endeavours with Medok. Then they switched the program and a voice seemed to penetrate Medok’s soul:
You have seen nothing strange... There are no strange creatures... There are no such things as Macra... You will sleep and when you wake you will go back happily to your work.
Medok struggled, twisting his head from side to side. ‘I won’t listen! There
are
Macra! I shall tell everyone I have seen them... It’s the truth! That’s what’s important... the truth! The truth!’
The strength seemed to go out of Medok as he collapsed into silence.
The Pilot was thoughtful as he reduced the power.
‘A very difficult case,’ he said. ‘Perhaps too far gone to help. That would be very sad. We need all the youthful strength we have, to keep the Colony flowing with energy. But if there is nothing else for it, he must be sent to the pits to work for the rest of what will be his short life.’
The scientist nodded gravely.
Medok moaned swiftly. ‘You can’t hide the truth.’
The intercom flashed and the Pilot took the message. ‘Very well... The Doctor?... I shall be there.’
As the Pilot left he instructed the scientist to build up the power. ‘Once you have broken his resistance all will be well,’ he said. ‘It is merely willpower he is using. As with all men it is finite. Gradually you will find it possible to take over his mind. Then it is easy.’
The scientist was concerned to do his best, and switched on.
Medok clenched his teeth, as though fighting a physical battle; he was determined to hang on.