THE WEB OF THE MIND

by W.J. Ramsden

Chapter Two: MERGE

"Now you die!" The alien swung the sword down towards the comatose Gallifreyan, and Robert lunged forward, even as he did so aware that he could never reach them in time. However, as he moved forward, the Doctor’s arm suddenly shot up, thumb and forefinger seizing the flat of the blade in a clamp like grip. The alien, its momentum suddenly forestalled, staggered, weakening its grip on the sword. The Doctor lashed out with his feet, kicking the man like thing sideways even as he seized the sword hilt in his left hand and struck the creature a tremendous blow to the side of the head with the flat. The alien went down. Robert could have cheered.
"That was brilliant!"
"Hmm?" The Doctor’s attention was now fixed on the creature he had just stunned.
"How did you steal his sword like that?"
"Hmm? Oh, Newton taught me that. We were fighting over an apple or something… or was that earlier? Most fascinating creature, this…"
"Looks fairly humanoid to me."
"With vestigial gills? No. No. No, no, no no…. hmm…" the alien groaned. "Ah-ha! Well, that’ll teach you to try to cancel me, my friend. Are you all right?"
"I… what… I… no!" The man started to scramble away, but the Doctor gripped his shoulder firmly.
"A-a-ah. One would prefer it si vous me donnez un peu d’information avant que vous partiez."
"What?"
"Oh dear… the ignorance of my friends astounds even me. It happens to be French. A Terran language. Do forgive Mr Falcon, my little xenobiological entity, he can’t help being a moron. Now… why did you attack us?"
"You… "
"Yes… me ‘you’, you ‘me’, he ‘fool’, this ‘ground.’ Alternatively, we can use names. The stupid one answers to Robert… unless he’s sulking." The Doctor beamed beatifically at his companion, who looked the other way. "I am the Doctor." A pause. "Yes, you see… the idea is that we tell you our names, and you return the favour."
"Tark’shovarek."
"Bless you. Now, why did you attack us?" The alien looked at him, expression wavering between fear, confusion, and a single, uncomprehending hope.
"You are not… of the Mind?"
"The… Mind?"
"But.. surely you know?" He glanced to Robert for confirmation. Robert shook his head.
"We’re aliens. We’ve only just arrived here." The alien blinked at that, then nodded slowly, digesting the information. It spoke again, its cracked, wheezing voice full of bitterness.
"From… another world? You poor creatures!"
"Why?" The Doctor was staring intently at the thing now. "What is this ‘mind’, precisely?"
"You do not know?" The Time Lord rolled his eyes, approaching another dramatic tirade on the statement of the obvious. Robert stood on his foot.
"This world was once a great place… an incredible civilisation existed here for centuries." The alien sighed. "We had solved all the basic problems of survival, legislated to protect the other species of our world… but still we found uncounted serpents in our paradise."
"A reference to an Earth myth" breathed the Doctor softly. "This must be an old Terran colony…"
"For each great and inspired leader there was a tyrant to replace him, or a businessman to undermine and take real power away from him. We had to find an ideal system of government… if was all that stood between ourselves and absolute perfection." The Doctor snorted. "You may mock, but our lives were good then… when we still had lives. Now…" He shook his head sadly.
"What happened?" There was a gentleness in the Doctor’s voice that surprised Robert.
"We had to find our ideal government. For decades our philosophers searched our historical records. The loss of freedom of a dictatorship could not be permitted, nor the disorganised chaos of a communist unit."
"It works perfectly well if you’re an insect," the Doctor murmured. "Unfortunately, not all that many political philosophers are. Mammals and reptiles are far too ambitious for communism to function."
"The Empire our world had belonged to had shown us the evils of capitalism all too well. The rule of the one, or the rule of the many? If one rules, then how can it be ensured that the one who rules rules for the ruled, and not for himself. If many, then there is no leadership."
"I see where this is going." a bleak look flashed across the Time Lord’s face.
"In the end, we saw that we must make one who was the many. We pooled our intellects, spent three generations educating ourselves in the furtherance and training of our telepathic abilities, and created… a group mind."
"A collective intelligence? The Doctor wagged a finger at him. "Oh, tut-tut-tut-tut." The alien looked up angrily.
"The horror we had created swamped us… until all individuality had gone. Then it took the minds of the animals, no less sentient than ourselves, the cells of the plants, even the particles of the unliving rock… all one great… horror…" He began to weep. The Doctor raised a critical eyebrow.
"You shouldn’t start a speech with the same term you intend to finish it with. Terribly sloppy."
"Just shut up!" spat Robert. "What happened then? What about you?"
"At first, those without telepathic abilities were left out of the matrix… allowed to breed with others in the hope that their offspring would be telepathic, but themselves still free. Some remained independent long enough to see the Mind for what it truly is… we are hunted animals. The Mind’s power is great enough now for it to take any being, no matter how weak that one’s telepathic ability."
"Why would it want to? Why is it after us?" Robert asked.
"But that is obvious… it wishes to absorb… to absorb…" his voice tailed off, a distracted expression flowing across his face. The Doctor grabbed its wrist, searching for a pulse, then looked angrily into the creatures eyes.
"Get out of his mind."
"Do… do not rebel. This creature is necessary. It has brain cells. Additional intelligence."
"Nothing but a giant incorporeal parasite! That’s all you are. An awareness dedicated to nothing more than the absorption of more awarenesses."
"Your assessment is coloured by irrational prejudices, but the basic judgements are sound." The alien stood up, the Mind continuing to address them. "We must spread peace and order. All must become one."
"No. What is the value of peace without individuality."
"What is the value of individuality? An individual dies, his thoughts, his feelings, his dreams, his ideas are all lost, all nothing more than biomass. I am all things. I cannot die." The Doctor’s eyes narrowed, a cat-like smile flitting briefly across his face. Then it was replaced by a determined glower.
"I am a Time Lord. I order you to stop this immediately."
"You will be one."
"I already am. My own. Private and confidential. No timeshare schemes with sinister alien intelligences." Robert turned to face him… something was wrong… screening him out from…
"You can’t attack Robert. Not while I’m here. Not anymore."
MERGE. MERGE. MERGE.
"Shut up. ‘Bye." He turned. "Come along, Robert." Robert followed, slowly, sluggishly, waves of confusion crashing across his mind. The alien followed them.
"You cannot resist."
MERGE MERGE MERGE
Stronger now, no longer a plea but a demand, thoughts pounding upon them


the rain, pounding upon the dome. Hawk looks up, worried.
"It will hold, won’t it?" Robert asks.
"Yes, of course," the leader replies, stroking his umbrella nervously. "The rain can’t get in."


Pounding, harder and harder


the Renegade weapons, burning into the hull. Falcon crawls over to the Imperial Slavemaster, looks up into its one gold eye.
"It will hold, won’t it?"
"Yes. Do not question Imperial Dalek technology," he croaks. "The enemy will not penetrate."


Pounding, harder still


the Dalek interceptor squad, breaking into the locked cell. Robert looks over at the Doctor, who is watching the door nervously, turning his panama hat over and over again in his hands.
"It will hold, won’t it?" The door comes away, starts to slide into the room. Robert and Vandriede rush to push it back into place, a long metal arm slides through the gap, the Doctor forcing it back, but more and more come, and for each they push back two more take its place and it isn’t going to hold and its going to get in and they’ll all be taken out and they’ll never be who they were again and the Doctor is there and it is not the old Doctor or the new Doctor but someone else entirely someone wrapped in a long black cloak and his face is shrouded in shadow and his voice is like thunder

YOU WILL NOT BREAK THROUGH


*

The alien staggered backwards, and the Doctor seized Robert’s hand.
"Come on- run!" They run, run as fast as they can, run away from the alien, away from the pounding and the terrible terrible force. Finally they collapsed to the ground, exhausted, and Robert looked up into the Doctor’s face.
"I saw…"
"A mental illusion. The Mind was trying to break through our defences. I included you in my own protection."
"But…?"
"It tried to take over my mind my the telepathic equivalent of brute force." The Doctor sounded rather amused. "There are some things which you just can’t do to one of my kind."
"Then we’re safe?"
"Brute force. This thing can alter our thoughts, if we let it. It tried that with you earlier. I can resist a direct attack, but if it changes my thoughts, finds some way to get at me… makes me want to merge with it…"
"Could it?"
"I’m not infallible, Mr Falcon."
"Sorry. Actually… you seem… well…"
"More stable? Yes… that would be a logical conclusion to draw, would it not, mon brave? Hmm… quite possibly an effect of the confrontation… drawing my mind in in order to fight that thing… Eureka!"
"Couldn’t you sort of… keep it drawn in?"
"Certainly not, most uncomfortable… anyway, let’s keep our eyes, ears and noses open, shall we?" He grinned, stretching one nostril with his fingers.
"What for?"
"What for?!?! What for? Well… it may have escaped your notice, but friend Mind does happen to be a collective intelligence…. so why he’s after you is open to debate, but anyway, you will find that there will be a lot of him about."


*
Individuals. Tiny thoughts flickering on the edge of sentience. Great knowledge available. Who is the being designated ‘Doctor’? Unknown. Individual identity is no longer relevant. Only knowledge is of value. Knowledge will further knowledge. Individuals die, the pattern changes, only knowledge goes on. Soon this ‘Doctor’’s brain, and all it’s knowledge, will be ours.


*
"We shouldn’t just have left him!"
"Left whom?"
"That alien." Robert glared stubbornly at the Doctor. "I feel fairly rotten about it."
"You look it, too. Strictly speaking of course, he isn’t an alien. We are." The Doctor’s eyes widened. "Swan!" He dropped flat to the ground. Robert half turned, realised what he meant, and followed suit. The alien was stalking through the valley, not looking to left or right, blank faced, like the walking dead itself.
"That’s horrific." Robert looked to the Doctor. "How did they think it would ever be for the best to do that to themselves?"
"I don’t know…" the Doctor rubbed his lower lip and raised an eyebrow. "I’ve always been more than a little suspicious of collective intelligensia, but they don’t usually produce armies of zombies."
"Armies? I’ve only seen one man."
"And a hawk. Interesting. I wonder what happened to the rest of them."
The alien walked past. As he passed them, Robert felt a peculiar sensation of coldness dart along his spine. He shivered.
"Now what?"
"Now…" the Time Lord murmured, drawing his cloak about himself as if he too felt cold, "let’s see where he’s going."


*
Robert’s grasp of the word stealth, whilst perfectly adequate for sneaking up on cream coloured pepperpots in corridors, seems not to take account of certain important factors of the real world. Twigs, for example. Still, our alien friend seems too preoccupied to notice us. One could argue that he is too busy communing with the rest of the Mind… one could argue that if warp fold event fish cloak kill jelly baby time cat truth light soft happy Again! I drop to my knees, searing agony boiling through my nervous system. Something is wrong. Instability is to be expected, but this… this? Blank dark
Why am I kneeling down?
"Come on Robert." Idiotic fusspot, hovering over me in that silly way. I just tripped on a twig, that’s all. Anyway, one could argue for an innocent explanation if one were extremely gullible. Robert doesn’t suspect a thing, does he? Quelle surprise. It’s a trap. I’m disappointed that a planet wide alien intelligence can’t think of a rather better trap than soft cold burning change flow spider fall dark


*
"Argh!" The Doctor dropped to his knees again. Robert hesitated. The last attack had been brief enough, and the Time Lord had looked on him with indignant fury when he’d offered his help, but this seemed more serious. None the less, the Doctor climbed shakily to his feet again. "Normal service will be presumed as soon as impossible."
"Do you think I should follow him alone? I know you can’t help it, but if you’re going to keep having these attacks…"
"Attacks? You make me sound like someone’s hysterical maiden aunt, Mr Falcon." The Doctor looked up proudly. "I am in the peak of my condition which is…" he trailed off, banging the side of his head with his hand, as if trying to shake some component into place. "Come on."
They followed the alien, at a safer distance, although the Doctor’s rebellious brain seemed to have accepted the rule of law for the time being. At the end of the valley, the creature stepped out on to a large, rock strewn plain. Robert surveyed it, impressed.
"Very alien."
"Very unrealistic. This is tropical subdesert land. Why is there no vegetation?" It was almost a complaint. "We’re in a temperate climate. All this should be heathland like the rest. Something’s been playing." He grinned, uprooting a little weed from the edge of the heath- the vegetation ended in an almost mathematically straight line, and dropped it on to the arid soil ahead.
"How are we going to hide from him on that?" The alien was still striding out across the bleak landscape, avoiding the few rocky crevasses with robotic blankness, marching stiffly, unaware of the world about himself. The Doctor watched him, and flexed his eyebrows.
"We wait, until he has gone to where it is that he is going. Then, like good little flies, we follow." He pointed out towards the middle of the plain, towards what looked like a wide black disc.
"What’s that?"
"A hole."
"Well…"
"Unlikely. I should think the water table would be wrong…"
"Well where does it lead!"
"Robert, how would I know?" Robert turned away, disgustedly. The Doctor narrowed his eyes, peering out after the slowly advancing figure. His lips twitched, soundlessly.
"But I have some rather unpleasant theories."

Time passed, as it is wont to do in these situations, and the distant figure reached the hole and started to descend. The Doctor got up with a start and stretched his back.
"Come along then."
"You realise this could be a trap." The Doctor gave Robert a sharp look, raising both eyebrows.
"Intellectual thought. I’m impressed. Yes, it could be a trap, but let’s walk into it, shall we. More fun that way."


*
Individuals are approaching the cave. They will merge. They will merge. They will merge.


*
"Deep, isn’t it?" Robert picked up a stone and held it over the edge. The Doctor pulled him away.
"You don’t want to knock him unconscious, do you? Yes, it is deep. Dark too… but not really dark enough." He peered down into the gloom. Flaring torches lit the endless spiral stair but down, at the bottom of the open central shaft, a dim red glow flickered. The Doctor grimaced. "Egomaniac."
"Eh?"
"You’ll see." He started down the staircase, then stopped, looking nervously down the shaft.
"You aren’t frightened of falling?" Robert sounded afraid himself, not of the fall, but that his Doctor could have been reduced to this. The Doctor’s face broke in to a beaming grin.
"No, just of hitting the bottom." Robert smiled.
"Go on before I push you!" A look passed between them. Understanding, concern, and forgiveness. Robert nodded to himself quietly as the Doctor began to descend the stair.
Strange hollow booming sounds echoed up the shaft as they climbed, unreal shadows projecting upon the walls. The Doctor glanced back at Robert, eyes glinting in the torch light, face like an excited child. Falcon expected him to start shouting to the echo at any moment. As they descended the air grew rank, the red light brighter, a harsh smell filled the air.
"What is this?"
"Wait and see." The Doctor rubbed his calves ruefully. They had been going down for over two hours now, going deeper and deeper into the Earth. Robert looked up, dizzily. The surface wasn’t even a point of light now; the smokey air obscured even that from them. They were alone in this subterranean vertical world.
It would be easy to believe here that nothing else existed, that nothing else ever had, or indeed ever could exist, that the Doctor and he had spent the whole of eternity going ever downward, walking on into the dark. He had nearly an hour ago found himself falling into a kind of reverie, just climbing down, down, down, down…
The next step felt strange, not as great a step as it should. He tried again. The next step didn’t seem to exist at all. It was just a continuation of the previous one. He shuffled out, trying to find an end to this strange, long step. The Doctor grabbed his arm.
"We’re here."
They were in a small chamber of roughly hewn rock. The heat seemed unbearable and the now intense red light came from a small hole, about large enough to admit a man on hands and knees, against one wall of the cavern. The Doctor indicated this, already bending down. He turned his head back to face Robert.
"Well, shall we go in?"

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