Doctor Who: Molten Heart

by Una McCormack

  “What happened?” said Ryan.

  “They hit an unexpected gas pocket in the mantle,” said the Doctor. “Dozens were killed.”

  “Killed?” Ryan frowned. “But we’ve been breathing the same air they were…?”

  “And we’re still here. It’s dispersed over time. Or maybe to us it’s not fatal at all.” The Doctor shrugged. “In any case, it seems that nobody was willing to go back down, not even to get the bodies.”

  “So they left?” Ryan looked round. “After all this construction and investment?”

  “Maybe they decided it wasn’t worth carrying on. Maybe the company went bust.”

  “Maybe a politician decided to close all the mines,” said Ryan.

  “Whatever the reason, the project stopped – but the drilling didn’t. And now the whole planet’s on the brink of destruction.” The Doctor frowned. “I’d like a word with these people. You can’t go around littering planets, dumping your machines on them and leaving them to do all sorts of damage.”

  “So what do we do?”

  “First thing, we turn everything off.”

  “Won’t that attract attention?” said Ryan. “If we start messing around with things, someone might come to find out what’s going on.”

  The Doctor started working at the controls. “Then they can come here and they can talk to me. I have plenty to say to them. Besides, we’re running out of time. Basalt and his people can’t keep that fissure sealed for much longer—”

  “Doctor!” hissed Ryan. “Quiet! Listen!”

  They both stopped to listen.

  There were footsteps, in the corridor, heading towards them.

  Nine

  After the connection with Basalt faded, Onyx turned to the others. “We need to get Basalt’s work away from here.”

  Graham looked around at the chaos. “What, all of it?”

  “As much as we can,” said Onyx. “You heard what Basalt said. Emerald might be able to follow those messages to the source. If she comes here…”

  Yaz surveyed the room, full of treasures.

  “I don’t believe she’d destroy all this,” said Quartz.

  “Believe it, Quartz,” said Onyx. “Now, are you going to help me?”

  They got to work. Quartz worked quickly through the library, determining with Onyx which projects were most useful, and what crystals or other paraphernalia needed to be saved. Yaz, hunting around, found two large bags, made from the strong fibre that she had seen elsewhere, and she and Graham packed these up with the materials Onyx passed to them. When the bags were full, Onyx tested their weight. They were heavy, but he seemed to think he could manage carrying them.

  Graham looked around the study, which was still heaving with Basalt’s collections. “We’ve barely scraped the surface,” he said, with a sigh.

  “Have a look round for a cellar,” said Onyx. “There might be somewhere we can hide more. Meanwhile… I should take all this away. To somewhere safe,” he said, with a smile. He turned to Quartz. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  Quartz nodded. “I’ll work out what we need to take to Basalt, and where we can find it without attracting Emerald’s attention.”

  “I’ll find some people willing to help,” Onyx said. He headed towards the door. Yaz followed him, and Onyx turned to her. “Next time you see me, Yaz, I might seem unfriendly.”

  She frowned. “Unfriendly?”

  “But please trust me.”

  He went off through the door, back into the tunnel that led to the surface. Graham, still rootling around the study, called Yaz over. “Hey, I think there’s something under here!”

  Graham had found a large stone on the floor that was loose, and seemed to be covering something. When they moved it, they found steps down into a tiny cellar, barely tall enough for them both to stand up in. But it was space, and it was hidden.

  “Excellent poking around, Graham!” said Yaz. Under Quartz’s instructions, they bundled up more of Basalt’s work and stashed it in the hideaway. It was tiring work, and after a while, Graham stopped.

  “I’m wiped out,” he said. “We should rest. We’ve got a journey ahead of us, if we’re going to find Basalt.”

  Yaz nodded. Graham found some hammocks, made from the tough fibre that the rock-people liked to use, and he slung these up, and they both lay down. Yaz couldn’t rest. She was aware of Quartz, on the other side of the room, still busy working out materials they needed, and routes to smuggle them out of the City and up to Basalt. Yaz sighed. She liked to be in the thick of action, making decisions, making things happen, making things change. Waiting for others was not in Yaz’s nature.

  Graham was already asleep. Yaz looked over at him, eyes shut, breathing deeply, and wished she could switch off for a little while too.

  Instead, she got up and wandered round the study. The room felt barer now, although there was still a great deal that they hadn’t been able to hide. She looked up. There was a skylight in the roof above, and she looked up into the dark of the night cycle. The white streaks – the cracks – looked even bigger. She sighed, and resumed pacing. When she passed Graham’s way again, he opened one eye and said, “I’m never going to get any sleep with you marching about.”

  “Sorry.”

  Graham sighed. “Ah well,” he said. “No sleep for the wicked.” He stood up, and followed her over to the skylight, then frowned. “Is it me, or are there more of those cracks?”

  “Lots more,” said Yaz. “Graham, we need the TARDIS. If we can only get inside, it would make a perfect shelter.”

  “The whole population would be safe and sound in there… if we can open the doors.” He nodded decisively. “Got to be worth a try.”

  They went over to Quartz. He looked up in surprise; he’d been deep in his plans for some time.

  “We want to get back to the TARDIS,” said Yaz.

  “The blue box,” Graham explained. “If those cracks in the sky get any bigger, your people are gonna need a proper roof over their heads.”

  Quartz shook his head, troubled. “I don’t know what to suggest. Onyx knows where the blue box is, but I don’t. We should wait for him to come back—”

  “You can wait,” Yaz said shortly, “but we’re—”

  From the far side of the room, a humming sound began.

  “What’s that?” whispered Graham.

  Quartz gathered himself first. “The crystals. Someone is trying to speak to us.” He headed over to where the crystals still stood in a line. “Perhaps it’s Basalt?”

  “Or Emerald!” said Yaz.

  Quartz’s hand hesitated for a moment. Then he picked up the crystal.

  In the control centre on the planet’s surface, Ryan looked around wildly. “Doctor,” he whispered, “there’s someone coming!”

  There was nowhere to hide – the Doctor looked steely, and held the sonic out in front of her.

  The footsteps stopped. Everything went very quiet. The Doctor put the sonic away.

  “All right,” she called out, “we know you’re there. Whoever you are – we’re not here to harm anyone. All we want to do is talk.”

  A figure came through the door.

  Ryan breathed a sigh of relief. “Ash! How did you get here?”

  She stared at him with wide, glassy eyes, like someone in shock. “There’s… there’s more than one lift, remember?”

  “I’m guessing your first steps on the surface are something you’ll never forget.” The Doctor grinned. “How’d you like it?”

  “The openness, the space, the taste of the air, the far nothingness of the sky. It’s—”

  “Amazing, yeah?” said Ryan.

  “Frightening.” She gave a small smile. “But illuminating.” Though Ash didn’t say as much, Ryan guessed she was glad for the roof over her head as she surveyed the gently humming workstations. “What are they? What is this place?”

  “It’s a control centre for a mining operation,” said the Doctor.

  A
sh blinked. “None of that made sense,” she said. “What’s mining?”

  “You know,” Ryan said, “digging precious stones and metals up from the ground…” He thought about Ash’s world, and the sheer abundance of stones and metals lying to hand. “Don’t you dig, then?”

  “No,” she said. “We harvest.”

  “Other places, other worlds, they don’t have the same resources as you do here. They don’t have all these gems and stones and everything.”

  “Exactly the opposite in some places,” said the Doctor. “Or maybe they’ve used up what they had. That could make a world like yours very attractive.”

  “So they’d take what we have?” Ash’s eyes widened in shock.

  “Nobody is taking anything from anyone as long as I’m here,” said the Doctor quietly, “believe me.”

  Ryan shivered a little. The Doctor was almost entirely fun, almost all of the time – and then she’d do or say something, and you remembered that while this was a mate, she was also an alien with amazing powers that he knew hardly anything about. He’d seen the Doctor at work. He absolutely believed that she could topple empires as if they were a tower built of dominoes.

  “Ash, what’s that crystal you’re holding?” the Doctor asked brightly.

  She started. “Oh! This is my whole reason for coming here. Something my father was working on. It means we can speak at distance to each other.”

  She held out the crystal, and the Doctor took it. “A communicator! I’ve said it before, but he really is clever, your dad! What’s the range on this?”

  “We spoke to Quartz,” Ash said. “And Graham and Yaz.”

  “Are they OK?” said Ryan.

  “They’re fine! My father and I thought you should speak to them, Doctor. But it can’t be for long. Emerald knows about these crystals. She might know how to trace the transmissions.”

  Ash activated the crystal. And there, miraculously, on the wall opposite, Ryan saw his granddad’s face.

  Graham’s expression turned from worry into joy. “Ryan! Good to see ya! And you, Doc – don’t want to leave you out!”

  Quickly, they brought Yaz and Graham up to speed about what had been happening. Yaz was jealous. “Lavasharks! Dangerous mines! Spooky forests! All we’ve had is running along tunnels and another dungeon. Your standard stuff.”

  “On the downside,” said Ryan. “I’ll never be able to look at a mushroom in the same way again.”

  “So what’s the surface like?” said Graham.

  “Looks like Yorkshire,” said Ryan.

  “Typical,” said Graham. “You come all this way, and you may as well have stayed at home.”

  “Anyway – you know the mine, and all these buildings, right?” said Ryan. “Built by robots.”

  “Nanobots,” said the Doctor.

  “Tiny robots,” said Ryan.

  “The mining has been causing all the cracks,” said Yaz, urgently. “Doctor, they’re getting so much worse. I want to find the TARDIS.”

  “I don’t want you putting yourselves in danger,” the Doctor said.

  “We’re in danger anyway!” said Yaz.

  The Doctor sighed. “All right,” she said. “Meanwhile, we’ll see if anyone turns up—”

  She stopped speaking. In the background, where Yaz and Graham were, there was a lot of noise, as if more people had entered the room. Ryan heard Quartz, from off, say, “How dare you come in here without permission!”

  Yaz hissed, “Doctor, it’s the Greenwatch!”

  The picture on the wall flickered, and was gone.

  “Yaz!” Ryan turned to the Doctor. “Tell me the communicator is broken?” She shook her head, and Ryan thumped his hand against the console. He wanted to be there, to help, but it was impossible. He was the depth of a planet away.

  “I’ll tell you what, Ryan,” said the Doctor. There was a steely look in her eye. “I think I’m ready to talk to Emerald now.”

  Yaz and Graham looked around desperately for somewhere to hide, as Quartz held the Greenwatch at bay at the door to the tunnel. “What about the cellar?” Graham whispered. “Where we’ve hidden Basalt’s library?”

  Yaz shook her head. “Not big enough,” she said. “Besides – if they find us, I don’t want them finding more of Basalt’s work at the same time.”

  Quartz was shouting now. “Don’t you know who I am?” he said. “This is my private property! There’ll be consequences for this—”

  “Things are changing, Quartz,” replied one of the people at the door. He didn’t sound particularly upset, Yaz thought. Maybe he was glad to be able to speak his mind to Quartz at last. “This is an emergency. Emerald believes that whatever Basalt was doing here has been causing the cracks in the roof of the world—”

  “Oh,” whispered Graham. “That’s a new one.”

  “The work done here is what will save us!” Quartz shot back.

  Graham pulled Yaz back towards the alcove where Basalt’s library had been hanging. “This will hardly hide us for long—”

  “No,” he said. “But look at this.”

  Yaz looked over at the wall. “A door!”

  “This whole planet seems to be made of secret tunnels,” said Graham, yanking the door open. Behind was a narrow passageway, running upwards. Yaz was about to step inside, when a sudden thought sent her dashing back into the study. She ran to the table and lifted the dome from over the ruby rat. It gave her the evil eye, and then jumped off the table. “Go on, little guy, run for the hills,” she murmured, as it fled.

  “What did you do that for?” Graham whispered, as Yaz hurried back to join him.

  She shrugged. “I felt bad for it,” she said. “And the Doctor wanted it to go free. So.”

  She went into the passageway, and Graham came in behind her, pulling the stone door back into place. They hurried along. The passage soon came back up to the surface. “Let’s hope there’s nobody up there,” whispered Yaz, as they clambered up onto open ground.

  For the moment, it seemed they were safe. They started to jog across the plain, and then there was a cry, and they knew that the Greenwatch had worked out what was happening.

  The chase was on.

  Yaz looked ahead. In the distance, heading their way, she saw a dark figure carrying a glimmering crystal rod and wearing a green stone. The figure started to lope towards them, to cut them off.

  “Oh dear,” said Graham. “We’re in trouble…”

  Yaz wasn’t so sure. The figure drew closer, and she saw that it was Onyx. “Oh!” she cried. “Glad to see you! We’re on the run!”

  They stopped in front of him, trying to catch their breath. “I’m done with all this running around,” gasped Graham. “Isn’t there a bus service?”

  Yaz turned to speak to Onyx, but he was looking behind her, as his colleagues from the Greenwatch drew closer. He spoke softly and urgently. “You need to trust me now.”

  Yaz understood. “Is everything safe?”

  He gave a small, barely perceptible nod. Then the Greenwatch arrived, and Quartz, not far behind. The other Greenwatch each pressed the flats of their knobbly hands against their green stones, which Yaz took to be a kind of salute. Onyx nodded back. Oh, she thought. He’s their boss. She glanced at him again, and, looking at his stern face, her nerve wavered. Was he really as friendly as he made out?

  “Onyx,” hissed Quartz.

  “Not a pleasant feeling to find yourself betrayed, is it, Quartz?” said Onyx. He turned to the others, and issued some quiet orders, which Yaz couldn’t quite catch. Two of them loped off, back in the direction of Basalt’s study, leaving two more, and Onyx, behind. If this was a performance, Yaz thought, it was very convincing. Onyx had not yet met her eye again. “Quartz,” he said, “you’re free to go.”

  Quartz was dumbstruck. “What?”

  “It’s just the strangers that Emerald wants,” Onyx said. “She’s grateful for your service so far, and as a mark of this, she’s prepared to let you go free.”
>
  “Look at Quartz’s face,” muttered Graham to Yaz. He chuckled. “Emerald has a bloomin’ cheek!”

  Quartz was quivering with anger. “How dare you!”

  “But you’re welcome to come along, if you’d prefer,” Onyx said.

  “Yes, I’ll be coming,” said Quartz. He turned to Yaz and Graham. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Sorry for the mistakes I’ve made. But I won’t leave you in the hands of this traitor.” He turned back to Onyx. “I want to speak to Emerald—”

  Coolly, Onyx said, “If she has time, I’m sure she’ll be willing to have a word or two.” He stopped, and looked back across to Basalt’s study. And then he nodded, as if satisfied.

  Yaz’s heart twisted in her chest. “What have you done?” she said to Onyx. “Those Greenwatch – what are they doing in there?”

  Onyx didn’t reply.

  “I imagine,” said Quartz, bitterly, “that they’re doing Emerald’s dirty work for her.”

  “There won’t be much left when they’ve finished,” Onyx agreed, in a calm voice.

  Yaz thought of that wonderful space, where Basalt had worked so hard, and made such wonderful discoveries and inventions, being reduced to a pile of broken stones and smashed crystals. They had hidden such a small part of it… She put her hand to her mouth. What had happened to everything Onyx had taken with him? Had that all gone the same way?

  “Oh no,” breathed Graham. He turned on Onyx. “I don’t know if you think this is clever, mate, but it’s not. It’s out of order. Downright wrong!”

  “Emerald said it was dangerous,” said Onyx, “and we can’t allow dangers, can we?” He sounded rather bored. “Come on,” he said. “There’s nothing to see here now.” Yaz felt utterly defeated, as if everything she had tried to do had been a failure. She had not learnt her lesson from Quartz, and instead had trusted Onyx, and it had been another mistake. And now she and Graham were captured, and Basalt’s work had been destroyed, and their plans to send him help had been found out.

  “Don’t beat yourself up, Yaz,” Graham whispered. “We did our best.”