by Stephen Cole
‘The energy they’ve expended in beginning the joining has to go somewhere,’ wheezed the Doctor. ‘If our friend over there is any example, it will travel back into the Schirr themselves.’ He gave a brief, malicious chuckle. ‘With unpleasant results.’
Ben wanted to cheer, but didn’t dare even smile in case the Doctor was wrong.
The head of the stone angel swivelled round to face them.
‘What about them things?’ Ben cried.
‘Give me your wrist. Quickly.’ The Doctor grabbed Shade’s sleeve and held it to his lips. ‘Creben, Polly, are you there?’
There was only static.
‘It’s no good,’ the Doctor fussed, ‘there’s too much interference here.’
The construct took a step towards them.
‘Let’s run for it before that stone thing gets us,’ Ben urged him. ‘It’s not gonna be happy, is it?’
‘I would never make it,’ the Doctor puffed miserably. ‘No, there must be another way. Before the network breaks down completely…’
The Doctor shut his eyes, put his hands to his temples. Ben and Shade swapped nervous glances as two more angels lurched out of the billowing brightness.
VI
Pressure roared in Polly’s head as Tovel’s hands pressed harder and harder down on her throat. Distantly she heard the Doctor’s voice, but she couldn’t grasp the words. Her sight was dimming, blackness tunnelling in from the edges of her vision. She wouldn’t be sorry when the hideous face snarling into her own faded for the last time. After all she’d lived through, this final blackness would almost be a relief.
Then something metallic caught the light, twinkled into the haze falling over her eyes. A knife slashed down and wedged into the back of Tovel’s thick wrist. He roared and snatched his hands away, pulling at the hilt of the dagger, trying to dislodge the blade.
She fell back gasping against Creben. He’d finally managed to pull himself upright.
But Tovel had yanked the blade free. Now he slowly advanced on them again, the knife in an outstretched hand, staring down at the blood that spilled from his wrist. His eyes were filled with the same hatred as the frozen Schirr around them.
Polly turned away in terror, just as she heard a heart-rending moan of pain from below her.
It was Roba. Curled up and still shaking all over, his hands covered his mouth. When he pulled them away, Polly saw there was something clamped between his teeth, a sweet or…
She struggled to work the alien tongue in her mouth. ‘No, Roba!’
He bit down.
Polly shut her eyes, but the ghastly splitting noise as the force mattress expanded would stay with her forever.
‘That’s really done it,’ Creben muttered. ‘Nothing can put that back together. The ritual can’t be completed now. Look.’
As Tovel shook and spasmed uncontrollably, the Schirr around him were shrivelling up like old balloons. Their eyes glazed over, they howled with frustration as they began to convulse. Then the old wounds, huge and gaping, opened up and blossomed again over their bodies, caked with dried blood. Stomachs gaped open. Heads burst. They stood shakily as if in bad imitation of their gory poses on the platform, then collapsed to the floor, bloodless sacks of old flesh.
Polly’s head swam dizzily, and then the Doctor’s voice was back, booming in her head, muffled by static.
‘Quickly, child,’ he ordered, ‘look at the panel.’ She hesitated. ‘The control panel, look at it!’
She tottered forwards on legs she could no longer feel. Her vision was blurred, but she tried to focus on the various levers, switches and displays.
‘Creben, you must help her,’ the Doctor instructed. ‘Let me see, let me see…’ She wondered which of them he was speaking to, or if he’d lapsed back into speaking to himself. ‘Creben. The far switch, yes, that one. Depress it while Polly instigates the reverse thrusters.’
‘While I what?’ she gasped, panicking.
‘I will direct you,’ he snapped. ‘Now, concentrate, child! You must concentrate!’
VII
‘What’s he doing?’ Shade whispered.
‘I don’t know,’ said Ben helplessly, as the stone angels drew nearer. ‘But whatever it is, we’ve got to let him get on with it!’
‘And what about them?’ Shade and Ben fell into shadow as the angels’ massive bulk blotted out the blistering light in the glass cylinder. ‘They might not be so understanding!’
Ben squared up to the three angels that towered over them. If he could shield the Doctor for just a few seconds longer, maybe that would be enough. ‘Just leave us alone!’ he yelled in frustration. ‘Ain’t you done enough to us? Leave us alone!’
The nearest angel reached out both stone-cold hands and gripped Ben either side of his head. He laughed at the monster. Through the accretions of thick Schirr flesh he could barely feel a thing.
The stone hands pressed hard together. Ben knew they could crack his skull like a monkey nut. His mouth sagged open as the pain bit in. All he could hear was DeCaster, screaming and screaming.
From the corner of his eye he saw Shade flung aside like a paper dolly. The Doctor crouched alone on the floor with his eyes closed, unaware and defenceless as the two stone giants bore down on him, hooked hands reaching down to rip him apart.
VIII
‘Now, Polly,’ the Doctor said, a crackling ancient gramophone voice. ‘As soon as you have input those three codes…’
His voice became scrambled with static, then cut out altogether.
‘Say again, Doctor,’ she implored him. But there was only silence.
‘What do you think he said?’ she asked Creben.
He shrugged helplessly. Then he pointed over her shoulder, eyes wide in alarm. Tovel had stopped shaking. He thundered over to the console, knife raised, trampling fallen Schirr bodies as he came. The low rumbling in his throat built to a roar.
At the last minute, Creben yanked Polly aside. Tovel was going too fast to stop, he smashed heavily against the console and stared down at the winking displays. He turned to Polly and Creben, then back to the controls. He raised the knife, ready to plunge it into the controls and wipe out their handiwork.
‘Don’t!’ Polly screamed helplessly.
He looked at her. Then down at the shattered remains of Roba.
His other hand inched stiffly over to the controls. Pressed one, two, three buttons.
The knife clattered to the ground.
Polly watched as Tovel grasped a small silver lever and pulled.
IX
Ben heard a crunching noise from inside his ears as the angel squeezed his skull still harder.
Then he fell to the ground, abruptly released, reeling from the pressure pounding at his temples.
It took several moments for his sight to clear.
He was sitting in a cloud of grey fleas. The stone angels had vanished.
‘What happened?’ Ben croaked.
Shade, flat out on the floor, laughed in disbelief. ‘They’re gone.’
Ben stared at him. ‘What did we do?’
Shade shrugged, and Ben turned back to the Doctor in time to see his eyes snap wide open. He looked about at the thick carpet of fleas before him, baffled, like he’d dozed off and woken somewhere unfamiliar.
Then he jabbed a bony finger past Ben at DeCaster.
The Schirr was stooped and pitiful, slumped back against the glass. He reached out to them as if seeking their help.
‘Quickly,’ gasped the Doctor. ‘Go to him.’
‘Help him, after all he’s done?’ Ben asked in disbelief.
The Doctor stared at him, then shook his head crossly. ‘He will help us. Push him through the glass,’ he thundered. ‘Feed him to the engines!’
Ben stared at him, not sure he’d heard the Doctor right. But Shade set off straight away at a stumbling run for DeCaster. Ben limped after him.
‘You, my little Shadow?’ DeCaster hissed, with a crumpled smile. ‘Come to kill me?’ He choked, a liq
uid sound at the back of his throat. ‘You’re funny.’
Shade kicked the creature in the chest with all his strength.
DeCaster crashed back against the cylinder. The thick glass sparked and glowed and seemed to part around him, and the screaming tornado of light sucked him inside.
On instinct, Ben threw himself to the ground before the deafening thundercrack could knock him there.
Then it was lights out.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CURTAIN
I
‘HE’S LOOKING MUCH better.’
Ben’s head felt swollen and sore. Wasn’t that Polly’s voice? He tried to open his eyes. Golden light from up high shone in his eyes. He was back in the control room.
‘Gently, my boy. I’m afraid you were caught in the backblast.’
That was the Doctor. Ben opened his eyes on the second attempt and found Polly looking down at him.
‘He’s come through it,’ she said. ‘He’s going to be all right!’
She beamed down at him. And it really was Polly, barely a trace of Schirr about her now. She looked just as gorgeous as she had done the day they’d met. Her hair was a mess, her face was speckled with burst blood vessels, but it was her.
‘You still reckon I’m a dog person, Pol?’ croaked Ben. ‘Got the lives of a cat, ain’t I?’
‘Looks like we both have,’ she said.
‘Yes, the power surge has taken the asteroid to the fringes of the Morphiean Quadrant, well out of range.’ Things must be on the up, thought Ben, the Doctor was back to his old self, confident and assured. ‘With the ritual unfulfilled, and away from the Morphiean influence, the damage to the cells is being undone, and the native DNA maps redrawn. The further we drift, the more the Schirr effect will diminish.’
Ben found he was afraid to sit up, to look round. He might have nine lives, but had the rest of them? He stayed flat on his back.
‘What happened to those angels?’
‘Retribution.’ The Doctor nodded gravely. ‘Yes, I think so. Those Morphiean dissidents presumed to attack their ruling mindforce, under the protection of the amplified neural network. When that protection failed…’
‘The mindforce could get at them,’ Ben finished. ‘And all the angels went to heaven. Good riddance.’ He paused. ‘You all right, Doctor?’
‘Oh, yes, quite well, my boy,’ the Doctor said as he turned and pottered away. ‘Soon I shall feel a new person…’
Ben felt his face. His fingers rubbed against his cheekbones, eyebrows and his hair, damp with perspiration. They felt almost normal. It was really him. ‘How do I look?’ he croaked to Polly.
‘Horrible,’ she said with a beautiful big smile. She was crying. A tear plonked from the end of her nose onto his forehead.
‘Clever move.’ Tovel leant over Ben, squinting through rheumy eyes. He looked like his face had taken a right kicking. ‘Shade chucks some Schirr in the propulsion units to get those blue energy waves really flowing, and you dive head first into them.’
‘Glad you made it, Tovel,’ Ben said with a grin. ‘Honest I am.’
‘Reckon those angels did him some brain damage.’ That was Shade’s voice.
‘Ha bleedin’ ha.’
‘He’s all right,’ Polly said protectively.
‘Yeah,’ Tovel said, ‘Ben’s all right.’
‘Likewise, mate,’ Ben murmured.
‘Well,’ the Doctor declared, as he walked back into earshot. ‘I believe I’ve succeeded in rigging some of the equipment in here so it should transmit a rudimentary distress signal. Presumably one of you is acquainted with some universally recognised emergency code we can program into the circuits, hmm?’
‘I’ll go,’ said Shade.
‘Far, I imagine,’ said Polly softly, ‘now all the Shadows are blown away.’
Shade looked at her, gave her a strange smile. Ben saw his face was still a little puffy, but his complexion was clear. The black markings beneath the skin had entirely vanished.
‘They won’t be calling him a shadow no more,’ Ben remarked.
‘Another life begins today,’ said Polly. ‘Good luck to him.’
Ben was too tired to quiz her on what she meant. He pushed himself into a sitting position and grimaced as the world took a few seconds to catch up with him.
The first thing he saw was a body bag.
He looked at Polly.
‘Roba,’ she said quietly. ‘He killed himself. The final straw that broke the back of that horrible ritual.’
‘Then at least it wasn’t for nothing,’ Ben murmured.
‘When I saw him there… saw what he’d done… I had to hold on.’ Tovel straightened up, his voice hardening. ‘We’ll make sure he gets full military honours, of course. Lindey and Denni too.’ He paused. ‘And Joiks.’
Ben nodded. ‘Suppose his story checks out now we know the angels got Denni.’ He looked around dismally. ‘So what about the others? Creben?’
‘Creben’s fine,’ said Tovel. ‘As usual. Checking the life-support repairs are holding. This place could be home for some time.’
Ben hesitated. ‘And Frog?’
Tovel shook his head dolefully. ‘I’m sorry…’
Ben looked away.
‘I’m very sorry, but her new voice is here to stay,’ Tovel went on, a smile spreading over his face. ‘And Jeez, don’t we all know about it.’
‘War is hell,’ grinned Ben, relieved.
‘Miss me, did ya?’ Frog yelled as she bounced in through the doorway. ‘I’ve looked all around. You were right, Doctor. Not a sign of them stone things nowhere. Just the fleas, and I’m gonna torch them all. Just in case anything else feels like making a big deal out of ’em.’ She launched into a tuneless set of musical scales.
‘You couldn’t sing before and you can’t sing now,’ Shade shouted over from beside the Doctor. ‘So shut it.’
‘I’m gonna learn,’ Frog promised. ‘And I’m gonna learn languages too. Learn ’em and speak ’em, loadsa languages.’
‘You might start with English,’ suggested the Doctor, with a malicious chuckle.
Ben gave Frog the once-over. The swelling round her face and neck would go down if the Doctor was right. And the scars that had train-tracked her face were barely noticeable. Shoot her in soft-focus and you’d probably never notice. He was glad for her. ’Course, she wouldn’t win no contests – she still had a face like a bulldog licking tar off a nettle – but she looked a lot better as a Frog than she did as a Schirr.
Creben entered the room. His face was red and covered in sores. Ben nodded to him. Creben smiled and nodded back. Quite a show of affection, Ben decided as he got unsteadily to his feet.
‘So – now you’ve done the training… gonna go Elite are you?’
Tovel shrugged. ‘I guess. That’s what I joined up to do.’
‘There’ll be other wars to fight,’ Shade agreed. He looked at Polly and smiled.
‘Yes,’ said the Doctor sadly. ‘Yes, you’ve won a decisive battle here today, it is true, but I suppose the war you began with the Schirr will continue.’
‘The Ten-strong were heroes to the Schirr dissidents. Meant to be indestructible.’ Tovel grinned. ‘We’ve taken them. We can take the rest.’
The Doctor looked disappointed with him. ‘Can you not take understanding away with you from your experiences here? Compassion for those whose plight seems desperate? Go to your leaders. Urge them to speak with the Schirr, to take this opportunity to negotiate a peace. You may prevent similar atrocities in the future, hmm?’
‘The future,’ Ben heard Frog whisper dreamily. ‘We’ve actually got one. Whatever it holds.’ She smiled slyly. ‘And it might just hold a lot of cash.’
Tovel looked at her doubtfully. ‘Oh yeah?’
‘We’ve still got Shel floating round somewhere in these websets,’ she reminded him. ‘All that top-secret AI stuff… Reckon Pent Central would pay quite a bit to get him back, don’t you?’
‘
I think we’ll pretend we didn’t hear that,’ Tovel said with a smile.
Frog shrugged. ‘It was just a thought…’ She looked furtively at Ben and winked. ‘Well if I can’t make a mint off Shel, maybe I’ll ask old Principal Cellmek if Haunt’s job’s up for grabs. Active service will seem pretty tame after all this.’ She did a fair impersonation of Haunt’s voice: ‘Today you’re all school kids and I’m your teacher. So what did we take away from today’s lesson, children?’
‘Don’t judge by appearances?’ Shade suggested.
Creben shook his head, actually joining in with the others. ‘How about, don’t follow orders blindly?’
‘Who’s got a disk?’ Shade called. ‘Play him that back when he’s the big man in Intelligence…’
As the relaxed banter continued to fly, the Doctor caught Ben’s eye. He indicated the TARDIS, steepled his fingers and smiled.
Ben nudged Polly and started to head towards the blue box. Its door stood ajar now, waiting for them.
‘Come on then, dolly rocker Duchess,’ he murmured. ‘Time to go.’
‘Hey, I know,’ Tovel cried. ‘I know what we’ve learned: Believe in magic. After all we’ve seen today…’
Shade agreed. ‘Magic, must be. Just the fact that any of us are here at all – let alone so pretty.’
Frog laughed and even Creben raised an eyebrow. But the Doctor cut across them sternly as he walked up to his precious ship. ‘No, no, dear me, no,’ he fussed. ‘Believing in magic is easy, the reaction of a cowardly mind to explain away any phenomenon that vexes the intellect. But finding magic in the realities of existence… seeking out some hidden truth to cling to from every painful experience we endure… that is never easy.’ He looked at each of them in turn. ‘That takes courage.’
Tovel cleared his throat. ‘Yeah, well, I was actually joking about the magic stuff, Doctor, but… whatever.’
The Doctor looked aghast for a moment. Then his expression softened into a smile. ‘Joking, yes, of course. I suppose… Well, it has been an extremely taxing day for us all.’
With that, shaking his head, he walked into the TARDIS.
‘What’re the three of you gonna do in there?’ Frog called. ‘And are you gonna sell tickets?’