by Dan Abnett
‘It is either that,’ Jack Duggat scoffed, ‘or we wait for a miracle!’
Laughter, little of it warm, rolled around the assembly.
‘I think a miracle is what we might have found,’ said Sol Farrow, speaking from the back of the hall. Everyone turned. He had just come in, bringing snow with him.
‘A small one, at any rate,’ he said, ‘but it gives us hope.’
He turned and beckoned. Two people came in out of the night.
‘Oh good Guide,’ murmured Bill Groan. ‘Vesta Flurrish?’
‘I found her coming in from the edge of the woods, Elect,’ said Sol.
‘I am unhurt, Elect,’ Vesta said. Her cold cheeks had flushed in the heat of the assembly room. She indicated the man next to her. ‘This is Rory,’ she said.
‘Um, hello,’ said Rory.
The Doctor picked up one of the dead rats by the tail and peered at it. It was heavy, and it swung slightly in his grip. ‘Nasty,’ he remarked. ‘And purpose built.’
‘What?’ asked Amy. Her hearing was returning, but the world was still sounding muffled. ‘Did you say purpose built?’
‘Manufactured,’ the Doctor said. He reached in and peeled back the dead rat’s lips to reveal its metal teeth. ‘It’s a rat,’ he said. ‘Definitely a rat. Genetically, a rat. From Earth. But it’s been modified. Customised. Enhanced. And on an industrial scale, given the numbers of them.’
‘It hasn’t got eyes,’ said Amy.
‘No, because the designers didn’t think it needed them. These are sophisticated motion sensors.’ He pointed to the foam-like filler that packed the area where an ordinary rat would have had eyes.
‘Motion?’
‘In space, particularly interstellar space, it’s cold and often very, very dark. So motion is a much more sensible format to base your sensory function on. There are some fairly advanced acoustic sensors there too.’
‘Wait,’ said Amy, shaking her head and frowning. She knew it wasn’t possible and she knew it wouldn’t do any good, but she really wanted a cotton bud. Her ears felt like they were gummed up with glue. ‘Start again. We’re not in space.’
‘No,’ agreed the Doctor, lifting his arm so he could study the suspended rat from below. ‘We’re in the terraformer. That’s one of the very big machines that the original Morphans constructed to change Hereafter from Earth-esque to properly Earth-like.’
‘You mean the Firmers?’ asked Arabel. ‘The Terra Firmers?’
‘The three mountains that aren’t mountains?’ asked Amy.
The Doctor smiled and nodded. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I think we’re in Firmer Number Two, if I’ve been listening to Arabel correctly and my sense of direction is unerring.’ He looked at Amy. ‘And it is,’ he grinned.
‘We’re underneath the mountain?’ asked Samewell.
‘This is what a Firmer looks like inside. Well, part of it.’
‘And that factory noise?’ asked Amy.
‘The vast engines of the Firmer at work,’ said the Doctor. ‘Atmospheric processors, geo-seismic actuators, meteorological generators, seeding pumps. It’s a world factory. It’s changing the world. And it’s been doing it for twenty-seven generations. It’s an extraordinary piece of large-scale engineering performing an even more extraordinary and even more mind-bogglingly large-scale piece of engineering.’
‘So returning to my original question,’ said Amy, pointing. ‘“Blind space rats? Huh?”’
‘Transrats is a better term,’ said the Doctor. ‘Like Transhumans. Re-engineering both genetically and biologically to be more rat than rat. A living tool, if you like.’
‘I’ve met more than one of those,’ said Amy.
‘During the great Diaspora Era,’ said the Doctor, ‘when mankind was spreading out from Earth, they were quite common on bulk generation starships or hibernation arks. Those vessels are huge, like small countries in space. And they travelled for many lifetimes to reach their destinations. The human passengers would spend thousands of years in suspended animation, ready to wake when they arrived at their final colonial destination, or else they would live out lives during the travel time. Whole civilisations could rise and fall on a generation starship in the time it took to reach another star.’
‘Seriously?’ asked Amy.
The Doctor nodded. ‘And eco-systems would develop in the ship interiors in the meantime. Pests, lice, dirt, rodents. Mankind quickly learned that the best way to keep a generation starship clean was to keep them purged. Rats eat anything. So mankind engineered rats that could survive in almost any conditions and could eat anything. Transrats lived in the dark corners of the ships, basically eating anything that wasn’t supposed to be there.’
‘So… these came here on the Morphans’ original ship?’ asked Amy.
‘Well, yes and no,’ said the Doctor. ‘The idea of them did, the technology. But they wouldn’t have lasted for twenty-seven generations. They’re not immortal, and they don’t breed. These were manufactured recently.’
‘Meaning?’
The Doctor exhaled thoughtfully. ‘Meaning there’s an automated manufacturing plant for this kind of thing here somewhere, and also a genetic stockpile containing rat DNA that it could access in order to breed new rats for conversion.’
‘A rat factory?’ asked Amy. ‘Making easy-to-build rats?’
‘Flat-pack rats,’ the Doctor agreed. He swung the rat he was holding around by the tail like it was a bolas. ‘Easy to build. Disposable.’
‘But why?’ asked Amy.
‘Presumably because there’s something wrong,’ said the Doctor. He stopped spinning the rat, realising it was pretty undignified for both of them.
‘The terraformer system has detected a loss of efficiency or some other defect,’ he said, ‘and it’s automatically starting diagnostic procedures to address it. Transrats would be a first step. Build some, release them into the systems, clean out any dirt, or clutter, or infestation, or glitches.’
‘Glitches, huh?’ said Amy. She looked at the rat-thing the Doctor was holding. ‘They seemed really hungry.’
‘Because they’re not the solution to the problem afflicting the terraformers,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s not a problem you can eat.’
‘But if they got out,’ said Bel. ‘They’d attack sheep… goats…’
‘They might,’ the Doctor agreed. ‘Hungry, and outside the system control of the terraformer, they could go on a frenzy. That would explain the livestock kills.’
‘So the Ice Men haven’t been killing and devouring sheep, then?’ asked Amy. ‘Warriors. I meant Warriors.’
‘No,’ said the Doctor, ‘which sorts out one of my original problems. I suspected Ice Warriors from the start. The moment I realised that something was trying to manipulate an entire planet’s climate and make it colder, I immediately thought of Ice Warriors.’
‘Well, who wouldn’t?’ asked Amy.
‘Quite,’ said the Doctor.
‘That was your hunch? The hunch you said you’d got?’
‘Yes,’ replied the Doctor. ‘It fitted the modus operandi of the Ice Warriors, except for one small detail. They’re herbivorous.’
‘So they wouldn’t be eating livestock,’ said Amy, ‘but these rats would.’
The Doctor swung the dead rat by the tail like a conker on a string. ‘Yes, if they got out. But the terraforming system should be sealed enough to prevent them escaping into the wild.’
‘You reckon the Ice Warriors broke into the terrafirmer and did something to sabotage it,’ said Amy, ‘and you also reckon the terrafirmer detected that sabotage as a problem and built the transrats to deal with it. Makes sense that the transrats would have got out through whatever hole the Ice Warriors made to get in. That’s how they got out and started eating sheep.’
‘Nice deduction, Pond,’ said the Doctor.
‘Why would these Ice Warrior things attack the Firmers, though?’ asked Arabel.
‘Because they want an Earth-like
planet too, but their idea of Earth-like is colder not warmer,’ replied the Doctor.
Arabel shook her head. ‘I don’t…’ she began.
‘Your ancestors,’ said the Doctor, ‘the original Morphans, were looking for a planet like Earth.’
‘Like Earth before?’ asked Samewell.
‘Yes, like Earth before. But the chances of them finding a world that was exactly like Earth before were slim. I mean, the variables are huge. The best chance they had was to find a planet that was sufficiently like Earth—’
‘Earth-esque,’ said Amy.
‘Precisely right,’ said the Doctor. ‘If they could find a planet that was sufficiently Earth-esque, then they could use the sophisticated terramorphing systems they had on their colony ark ship to tweak the climate and make it perfect. That’s what you’ve been doing for twenty-seven generations. You’ve been watching over things while the terrafirmers tweak and fine-tune Hereafter to make it just right.’
‘And these charming Ice Warrior blokes,’ said Amy, ‘have a very different concept of just right.’
‘They need an Earth-like planet too,’ said the Doctor, ‘but their idea of Earth-like is not like your idea of Earth-like, it’s like—’
‘Way too many likes there, Doctor,’ said Amy.
‘OK, in broad terms you’re both looking for the same sort of world, but their ideal environmental baseline is between fifty and seventy-five degrees cooler than humanity’s.’
‘So they’re fighting against us?’ asked Arabel.
‘I’ve known them sabotage biomes before,’ said the Doctor grimly. ‘I’ve seen them doing their own terraforming. I even saw them try it on Earth once. On Earth before, before Earth before was lost. I’ve never seen them hijack someone else’s terraforming system and recalibrate it. Typical Ice Warrior pragmatism.’
‘How did you stop the rats?’ Samewell asked. He copied the Doctor and picked up one of the dead rats by the tail.
The Doctor put down the rat he was dangling. He fished his sonic screwdriver out of his jacket pocket. ‘I noticed the enhanced acoustic sensors,’ he said. ‘I guessed they’d be particularly sensitive to sonic attack. I hoped a little high-frequency burst would be enough to zap them or drive them off.’
‘And deafen me,’ said Amy.
‘I trusted your ears wouldn’t be quite as sensitive as theirs,’ said the Doctor.
‘Well, I’ll take earache over being eaten alive by rats any day,’ Amy started to say.
Samewell let out a screech of alarm. The transrat he’d picked up wasn’t dead. It suddenly shivered, twitched, and woke from the fugue state the Doctor had blasted it into. Its huge jaws opened like a spring trap. Massive steel-veneered teeth gleamed in the half-light. Swinging itself by its tail, the rat started to snap and gnash at Samewell.
‘Put it down!’ Bel yelled.
‘Don’t put it down! Keep it at arm’s length!’ Amy shouted.
‘Aaaaaaaaaahhhh!’ Samewell observed.
The Doctor clicked open his screwdriver and calmly aimed it at the aggressive creature. Nothing happened. ‘Ooops,’ he said.
‘Doctor!’
He fiddled with the screwdriver.
‘I’ve asked too much of it today already,’ he said, ‘what with noise-cancelling the Ice Warriors and zapping the transrats, it’s really drained. It’s gone into sleep mode.’
‘Doctor!’
Amy lunged and grabbed the rat’s tail out of Samewell’s grip. He was still yelping in alarm. The transrat snapped at her repeatedly, trying to chomp her arm or her face.
‘Yeah, yeah,’ Amy snarled and swung it by the tail hard into the tunnel wall. It went limp and she dropped it. ‘Worked last time,’ she said.
‘Who is this Rory?’ asked Bill Groan.
‘He’s my friend, Elect,’ replied Vesta. ‘We met in the woods. We were both threatened. He looked out for me.’
‘I see,’ said Bill Groan.
‘I may have hit him on the head with a mallet too,’ Vesta admitted.
‘But that’s totally not important,’ said Rory.
‘He’s a stranger,’ said Chaunce Plowrite.
‘Yes,’ said Vesta.
‘Another stranger,’ said Old Winnowner. ‘That’s three today.’
A hush had fallen on the assembly. Everyone was staring at Vesta and Rory. Rory felt pretty uncomfortable. In the solamp light, the faces around him were stern and unforgiving. They seemed to be searching for answers, as though they might peel back or melt away his skin to find the secrets they were looking for. There was pent-up emotion in the hall. These were people who had lived hard lives and, no matter how hard they worked, they did not expect those lives to change. Something profound mattered to them, something that threatened what little comfort and solace they had in their lives, and they wanted answers.
Despite sensing that, Rory could not help asking the question.
‘These other strangers, the other two? Were they… a girl with long red hair and a tall bloke?’
Everyone around him started muttering and chattering.
‘He admits to knowing them,’ said Old Winnowner.
‘Are they here?’ asked Rory.
‘They were here,’ said Bill Groan. ‘They escaped.’
‘How could they escape?’ asked Rory. ‘What did they escape from? Why did they need to escape?’
‘They were found to be unguidely and discovered in the practice of conjury,’ said Old Winnowner. ‘We placed them in the compter.’
‘You locked them up?’ asked Rory. ‘You locked the Doctor and Amy up? That’s a really bad idea.’
‘They are his friends!’ Vesta broke in. ‘He was travelling with them. Travelling here to well-wish us at the time of festival!’
‘They were miscreants sent to—’ Winnowner began.
‘Travelling from where?’ asked Bill Groan, cutting her short.
‘Rory and his friends come from a plantnation that we have not heard of,’ said Vesta.
‘That’s not possible!’ said Bill Groan.
‘It’s unguidely!’ cried Winnowner.
‘It’s the truth!’ replied Vesta. The voices around the hall had become quite a hubbub. ‘What is your plantnation called again, Rory?’
‘Leadworth. It’s called Leadworth.’
‘This is nonsense and it is against Guide’s way!’ said Chaunce Plowrite.
‘Look, I don’t mean to cause trouble,’ said Rory, trying to impose some calm. ‘Where I come from doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that there’s something out there. Something in the woods. And it’s dangerous. You’ve got to prepare to defend yourselves.’
‘What thing?’ asked Jack Duggat.
‘I got separated from my friends, and it attacked me,’ said Rory.
‘It has red eyes!’ announced Vesta.
‘It has red eyes,’ Rory agreed. ‘It attacked Vesta too. It’s very dangerous. I ran away from it. I had to escape. That’s when I met Vesta.’
‘Why should we believe you?’ asked Chaunce Plowrite. Several members of the congregation echoed him.
‘Because it’s dangerous!’ said Rory. ‘I saw it attack some men. I think they were from here. It attacked them. It hurt them.’
‘What were their names?’ asked Winnowner.
‘I don’t know! We hadn’t been introduced.’
‘What did they look like?’ Ela Seed demanded.
‘I… I… They looked like they came from here.’
‘Was one of them my husband?’ asked Lane Cutter.
‘I don’t know!’
‘It hurt them, you say?’ asked Bill Groan.
‘Did it kill them?’ asked Ela Seed frantically. ‘Are they dead?’
The clamour was becoming quite intense. Morphans closed on Rory from all sides. They were angry and upset, reaching out to him.
‘Get back there!’ Sol Farrow told them. ‘Mind him! Get away!’
‘Leave him be!’ Vesta yelled.
&nb
sp; ‘Calm yourselves! Calm yourselves!’ Bill Groan shouted over the din, pushing his way through the milling crowd. ‘This is unseemly! Be calm now or I will have the assembly cleared! This will not do! Leave him be!’
The crowd would not be hushed. It was turning very ugly. People were pushing and shoving to get at Rory.
‘You should not treat him so!’ Vesta yelled at them. ‘He is our guest, and a friend! You should not treat a Nurse Elect in this manner!’
Bill Groan heard her over the row. ‘He’s what?’ Bill looked at Sol and Jack.
The two men nodded and grabbed Rory and Vesta. They began to bundle them through the angry, mobbing crowd, heading for the rear of the assembly hall. People started to protest. They threw punches and grabbed.
Old Winnowner was waiting at the back for them. She had taken out the key, which she wore on a ribbon around her neck, and used it to open the padlock to the back doors of the hall. Jack and Sol brought Rory and Vesta through, followed by Winnowner and Bill Groan. Bill and the old woman bolted the doors behind them to keep the mob back. Morphans started shouting and banging at the doors.
Rory look around. They’d come through into a large wooden antechamber behind the main hall. There were clerestory lights high up by the roof, and rush matting on the wooden floor. On the far side of the room was an ornate door made of what the Morphans called shipskin. It was set in a complex frame, and reminded Rory of some kind of futuristic airlock or submarine hatch.
‘We can be calm here for a moment,’ said Bill Groan.
‘Where is here?’ asked Rory, shaking off Sol’s grip.
‘It’s the outer room of Guide’s place,’ said Old Winnowner.
‘What’s that?’ asked Rory, pointing at the metal hatch.
‘That’s the door to the Incrypt,’ said Vesta. ‘That’s where Guide’s words live. Only the council go in there.’
‘Stop asking questions and answer some,’ said Bill to Rory. ‘She said you are a Nurse. Is that true? You are a Nurse Elect?’
‘Yes, I… yes. Yes, I am,’ said Rory.
‘Then I greet you, one Nurse Elect to another,’ said Bill Groan with touching formality.