by Doctor Who
When the Doctor caught up with the crew they had fanned out from the airlock doors and found cover as best they could in the clearing.
So far they were having some success in holding back the creatures, but despite the superiority of their firepower they were clearly outnumbered.
Kendle, leading from the front, was the furthest away from the spaceship, while Hespell and Baker had found positions at either side of the airlock. Professor Shulough was looking out from the edge of the doorway.
‘It’s too dark out there,’ she complained.
The Doctor’s eyes had already adjusted to the lack of light. ‘This isn’t a random attack, you realise. They want something.’
‘Yes. Us.’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘Something else.’ There was a noise from above, a metallic clanging. ‘They’re on the hull!’ he exclaimed, but it was too late.
Two of the creatures dropped down from above, directly in front of them. The professor raised her weapon, but the Doctor pulled her back before she could use it. He pinned both her arms to her side. ‘Let them in. Find out what they want.’
The woman struggled in his grip. ‘Let go of me, you idiot. They’ll kill us.’
‘No, I don’t think so,’ the Doctor insisted, and, as if to prove him right, the two giants moved straight past the pair of them and disappeared into the ship.
The Doctor let go of the professor, who was looking open-mouthed in the direction the creatures had taken. The Doctor called out into the dark, ‘Hold your fire. Let them pass!’
When he turned back, he found that the professor had already set off after the invaders. The Doctor was torn between helping the crew 81
outside and chasing after her. A moment later he was running back down the ship’s corridors. He had a good idea where they would be going and headed directly for the cargo bay. He quickly caught up with the professor, who was waiting outside the double doors.
‘They’re in there,’ she told him.
‘I thought they might be,’ he said, trying not to sound smug. ‘I think you’ve just been invaded by radical environmentalists.’
Awful crashing sounds of destruction could be heard from within.
‘They’re smashing the generator. . . ’ The Professor couldn’t believe it.
‘I told you,’ the Doctor reminded her. ‘It was polluting the planet.’
Suddenly the lights in the corridor went out. The power was off again. The double doors were pulled open by force and the two creatures came lumbering out. Behind them the generator had been completely taken apart. The creatures ignored the Doctor and the professor and headed back towards the airlock.
They followed the monsters at a discreet distance. Outside they found the gunfire had died down. The battle seemed to be over for now, but it hadn’t been without casualties. Kendle was attending to the female crew member, Baker, who had a nasty-looking wound across her shoulder.
Hespell was peering out into the darkness. ‘They just suddenly went,’ he told the professor.
The Doctor nodded. ‘They found what they came for.’
‘Let’s get inside and secure the ship,’ ordered Professor Shulough, without giving the injured woman a second look.
The Doctor watched the professor with cool eyes. She didn’t seem to feel anything. Could she really be that heartless, or was this lack of empathy a mask she wore?
‘Here, let me help,’ he said, bending to look at Baker’s wound.
‘You’re a medical doctor, then?’ asked Kendle, interested.
‘I’m a doctor of many things,’ the Doctor told him without a trace of arrogance. ‘Did the creatures suffer any casualties?’ he asked as 82
he gently picked up the now unconscious Baker and started walking back towards the ship.
‘Just the one,’ answered Kendle. ‘Stunned, not dead.’
The Doctor met his eyes – perhaps his request to temper the level of violence had been heeded after all. ‘We’d better bring him inside too,’ suggested the Doctor. ‘Put him somewhere secure, of course,’ he added, seeing the alarm in Kendle’s face. ‘Just to be on the safe side.’
Kendle and Hespell went off into the darkness and reappeared a moment or two later with the heavy bulk of the unconscious monster between them. Even in this condition, it was still terrifying.
83
Afteralltheexcitement,Rosefounditeasiertosleepthanshewould have expected. As soon as she put her head down, on the rolled-up blanket Rez had given her to use as a pillow, she was asleep. It seemed like only moments later that she was stretching and opening her eyes again, but she felt so refreshed it was as if she’d been asleep for hours.
It took her a moment to get her bearings. She was always the same in a strange bed; she’d wake up thinking she was at home, expecting her mum to knock on the door any moment with a nice cup of tea.
In all the travelling she had done with the Doctor, she’d had to grab sleep in quite a few odd places, but she still hadn’t got any better at the waking-up bit. Some people are morning people and some people aren’t, that’s what her mum always said, and Rose just wasn’t a morning person.
Of course, the Doctor was something else again. Rose had seen him apparently snatching the odd nap, but she wasn’t convinced he ever actually went to bed.
This morning, however, Rose came to her senses remarkably quickly and felt alert straight away. Perhaps it was the adrenalin still running high in her blood after the events of the previous night. She was in 85
a makeshift dormitory in one of the smaller buildings near the main temple. A couple of dozen Laylorans lay sleeping round her, a number of whom were gently snoring. Taking care not to make too much noise, she got to her feet and made her way to the door.
In the next room, a couple of jugs of water and some cups had been left out and there was a small fire over which a pot was bubbling with a now familiar smell. Jinnera. OK, thought Rose. While her preference would have been tea, or even coffee at a push, beggars couldn’t be choosers. She helped herself to a cup of the brew and felt much better for it. Hadn’t Rez said it was a feel-good drink? Rose decided he’d undersold it. A great pick-me-up and a weapon to use against monsters to boot!
Thinking back to her close encounter, it had been odd the way the creature had reacted to the drink, but Rose was sure she hadn’t imagined it. They must be allergic to the stuff, she decided. One-nil to her!
Feeling even more alert now, Rose set about exploring her surroundings. It was dawn and, in stark contrast to the horrors of the previous night, the forest looked as peaceful and beautiful as it had when she and the Doctor had first arrived.
The sun was shining and birdsong filled the air. Rose couldn’t help but smile; it was impossible not to. Despite everything that had happened, she felt good. She looked for Rez among the sleepers but, when she failed to find him, she decided to take the opportunity to explore the site alone.
Walking around the ruins of the ancient Layloran temple complex, Rose realised that it was more extensive than she and the Doctor had originally thought. The outer buildings had mostly fallen into ruin and the forest had crept back around them over the years. Between the trees what seemed to be moss-covered ridges were actually bits of walls. In time, no doubt the rest of the site would go the same way.
She remembered her recent visit to ancient Rome and how odd it had been to see whole buildings that in her own time were just piles of old stone. All a matter of perspective, she concluded.
Rose found herself heading back towards the main temple, keen 86
to see inside it. The heavy wooden door, decorated with intricate carvings, wasn’t easy to shift, but she planted her feet and put her back into it and, eventually, the door moved. She stepped in without even bothering to try and close the door behind her.
No one could have doubted the purpose of the building. It was like every church she had ever been in – a large cavernous place, full of religious iconography and with an atmosphere that some
how demanded reverence and filled the observer with a sense of peace.
Rose moved forward with careful steps, not wanting to make any unnecessary noise. Around the walls were a number of massive statues, many of a woman, presumably the human form of the planet herself. Other statues were of more familiar creatures – the Witiku, as she now knew them. Above the figures were galleries – like boxes at a theatre – that would have allowed the ancient Laylorans a bird’s-eye view of the ceremonies. And at the end of the room there was a stone slab that could only have been an altar. She noted with some disgust that the stone was marked with a number of dark stains. She swallowed hard and moved on. In an alcove to one side she found some steps leading down to a lower level. Grabbing a flaming torch from a wall bracket, Rose began the descent.
When Hespell woke, the first thing he did, after washing and dressing, was to go to the MedLab to check on Ania Baker. He found her lying in her bed, looking pale but a good deal happier than when he’d last seen her. The medical scanners were humming quietly, indicating that all was well. With the ‘dirty’ back-up generator out of commission, they were relying on the ship’s nearly empty emergency batteries, but the Doctor had constructed a device from odds and ends that was functioning as a regulator, helping to eke out the remaining power. Professor Shulough was confident that they would find the trisilicate they needed for the main engines before they ran out of power completely.
‘How are you this morning?’ Hespell asked, sitting gingerly on the side of Baker’s bed..
‘It hurts,’ she confessed, ‘but thanks to you I think I’m going to be OK.’
87
‘Me?’ Hespell blushed.
‘You stunned the creature that got me. If you hadn’t acted when you did, his next blow would have disembowelled me. So thanks.’
Hespell tried to look nonchalant. ‘I’d have done the same for anyone,’ he told her.
Ania reached out a hand and touched his arm. ‘But you did it for me. And that’s what counts.’
She smiled at him with a new warmth and he felt himself turning an even deeper shade of red.
‘Is it me or is it hot in here?’ he muttered, pulling at his uniform around the neckline.
Baker shook her head gently. ‘I don’t think so.’ She grinned, amused at his discomfort. It was rather endearing, she thought.
‘Must just be me, then,’ muttered Hespell, getting to his feet.
He felt an urgent need to change the subject. Looking around the MedLab, he realised that the Doctor wasn’t around. His brown coat was slung over the back of a chair, but other than that there was no sign of him.
‘Where is the Doctor?’ he asked Baker.
‘With his other patient,’ Ania told him. Hespell looked a bit confused.
Baker fixed him with a sharp look. ‘It wasn’t just us out there, was it?’
Hespell found the Doctor and the ‘other patient’ in the cargo bay, which had been adjudged the best place to act as a holding cell. Hespell had refused the suggestion of using his cabin again but it had never really been a possibility; this new prisoner was rather larger than the Doctor.
The Doctor looked up as he heard the doors open and was pleased to see that it was the young trainee pilot. Both the professor and Kendle were hopelessly fixed in their worldviews but Hespell showed signs of having some imagination, and he approved of that. He nodded a greeting at Hespell and returned to examining the unconscious creature.
88
‘Is there any possibility of getting these off?’ he asked, gesturing at the heavy metal chains that were wrapped around the creature, which lay sprawled on its back in the middle of the floor.
Hespell looked at the chains, which were fixed to points on the walls that had originally been intended to support shelving units. They were stretched tight, pinning the creature securely to the floor. It looked, and probably was, painful.
‘I’m sorry Doctor, but the professor says this thing has to be re-strained.’ He could see the sadness in the Doctor’s eyes and felt guilty, but he dared not disobey a direct order.
‘I don’t think he’s dangerous,’ explained the Doctor, ‘I really don’t.’
‘Tell that to Baker,’ muttered Hespell.
‘Baker went out there and started shooting at them. You all did.
They only wanted to stop you from poisoning the planet. Once this –
’ the Doctor waved an arm in the general direction of the wrecked generator – ‘this obscenity was destroyed they just left, didn’t they?’
Hespell had to admit that the Doctor had a point.
‘What are they?’ he wondered.
The Doctor shrugged. ‘I don’t know. But there’s more to them than meets the eye, I’m sure of that.’
Hespell came closer, intrigued. Even asleep, the creature looked fearsome. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked, bending and reaching out a curious hand to touch the alien fur.
‘Well, they attacked as a group. There wasn’t much sign of individuality, was there?’ The Doctor looked to Hespell for confirmation.
‘I – er, I suppose you’re right,’ he replied, not having thought about it much.
The Doctor continued with his theory. ‘So that would suggest some kind of an animal that wasn’t highly developed.’
Hespell nodded again.
‘And yet,’ said the Doctor, ‘they knew exactly what they needed to do, which demonstrates a certain degree of intelligence.’
Hespell began to see what the Doctor was driving at. ‘You mean they displayed characteristics of simple animals and more complex life forms at the same time?’ he said.
89
To his delight, the Doctor broke into a broad smile. ‘Good lad!
You’re using your brain!’
The Doctor gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder, which threatened to knock him off balance and send him tumbling into the creature. The Doctor then reached over to pick at something on the monster’s chest.
‘So, now you’ve warmed up your noggin, what do you make of this?’
Hespell studied what the Doctor was holding. It was a necklace, decorated with colourful stones and crystals, threaded on to some kind of vine. The centrepiece was one enormous fist-sized yellow crystal. He gasped. ‘Is that trisilicate?’
‘Looks like it, doesn’t it?’ the Doctor agreed.
‘Wow!’
‘Which raises some rather interesting questions,’ the Doctor announced, getting to his feet. ‘For a start, when was the last time you saw a great big hairy monster like this wearing bling quite like that?’
The atmosphere in the temple crypt was chilly and Rose shivered.
She had discovered that it was far more than a simple room. Just as Rez had told her earlier, there was an absolute warren of intercon-nected cellars and tunnels down here that seemed to go on for kilometres. It was dark, cold and creepy, but fascinating at the same time.
Rose found other images on the walls. They were fairly crude but clearly represented a range of ancient Layloran activities. They were even sketchier than the carvings the Doctor had been so fascinated by, the ones that decorated the exterior of the temple. In fact, now she thought about it, some of these tunnels and chambers seemed much older than the building above, as if perhaps the great temple had been built on top of an earlier, more primitive sacred place.
A repeated image depicted the Witiku. However, there was more to this underground area than just wall paintings. There were stores of grain and jinnen beans, and other materials too. Rose looked into one room and gasped in surprise. It was filled with a huge pile of crystals.
Except, on closer examination, she found that what she had taken to be crystals were some kind of hard jewel, like yellow diamonds. And 90
there were thousands of them. She picked one up to examine it more closely.
‘Pretty, aren’t they?’
Rose nearly jumped out of her skin. She whirled around to see who had crept up on her, but she already had an idea
from the voice.
‘Sister Kaylen!’ The not-girlfriend. Terrific.
Rose had been aware of the girl shooting her dark looks all evening.
She was clearly very fond of her stepbrother and Rose had half-expected her to join them for their ‘date’, but she’d stayed away. Rose stood up, dropping the jewel she’d just picked up. Although she had done nothing wrong, she still felt guilty.
‘I wasn’t going to take it!’ she insisted, getting in her defence first.
Kaylen just shrugged. ‘Take as many as you like. They’re everywhere.’
Rose couldn’t quite believe her ears. ‘You don’t value these things?’
She picked one up and felt its weight. It would make a lovely necklace, she thought.
The Layloran looked bemused. ‘Value? What do you mean? They’re pretty and we use them in our jewellery,’ she continued, ‘but they’re ever so common. In the fields we find them all the time. It’s a pain.’
A pain! Rose had to stop herself from laughing. Fields full of free jewellery and they think it’s a problem!
‘Were you looking for me?’ Rose asked, wondering what she was doing there.
Kaylen nodded. ‘I’m doing a head count,’ she explained.
Suddenly the seriousness of what had happened last night came flooding back to Rose. She let Kaylen lead her back towards the staircase going up to the surface, all thoughts of the crystals forgotten.
‘Are there many people missing?’ she asked.
Kaylen nodded, a grim expression on her face. ‘Eight, we think.’
Eight! The raid had been more successful than Rose had thought.
‘Any sign of Brother Hugan?’ Kaylen shook her head sadly.
‘No.’
∗ ∗ ∗
91
Back on the surface, Rose and Kaylen found most of the adults gathered in an informal crisis meeting, discussing their options. As she had feared, an all-out attack on the spaceship was a popular choice, but not all the Laylorans were in favour. Mother Jaelette, for example, wanted to wait rather than rush into some foolish action that might just lead to more loss of life and she made her point forcibly.