by Doctor Who
‘You’re young, fit. You’ll recover from this in no time.’ She smiled and looked suddenly much younger. ‘You must have been through much worse, living alone among aliens.’
Rez shrugged. ‘I never really thought about it,’ he said. The professor raised a quizzical eyebrow. ‘Never?’ she asked, not really believing him. ‘Are you telling me you never stop and think about where you came from? You realise you must have family somewhere. . . ’
‘Maybe not never,’ he confessed. ‘But what’s the point? My life is here. Whatever world I came from before I was sent here. . . it’s lost to me for ever.’
Not now, thought the professor, but she kept the thought to herself as Rez jumped down from the examination table he had been perched on.
‘Am I OK to go?’ he asked.
The professor nodded. ‘Sure. Let’s get on the trail of your shaman.’
In the forest Brother Hugan was running like the wind, driven by the voice in his head. Laylora was calling to him. She needed him to act.
The humans were killing her with their very presence, only Brother Hugan could help her. That’s why she had chosen him to take the form of the Witiku. And why he had been chosen again to do her bidding.
Ignoring the branches and ferns that whipped his body as he ran recklessly through the trees, Brother Hugan felt an enormous joy. At last his studies had been justified. The ancient Laylorans had known their own world well and that wisdom had been all but lost. Brother Hugan alone had kept the sacred flame of that knowledge alight and now, at last, he had been rewarded for this loyalty. He knew what he had to do. He had to rouse his people and lead them in battle against the enemy. The aliens and their stinking, dirty technology must be removed from the planet by force. Laylora must be cleansed.
113
Oblivious to anything else, Brother Hugan ran on, a man possessed.
The Doctor was following the trail of the escaping shaman.
‘It looks like he’s heading in the same direction we are,’ he observed.
‘But aren’t the tribe at the temple?’ asked Rose. ‘We took shelter there from the Witiku attack.’
‘They will have returned to the village by now,’ Rez told her. ‘Life must go on.’
‘But surely the creatures could attack again? They could take more of you off and create more Witiku. Another couple of nights like last night and there will be more of the creatures than there are villagers.’
The Doctor shook his head, dismissing Rose’s analysis. ‘No, that won’t happen. I won’t let it.’
Rose knew that tone in his voice. It was calm and cool but hard as iron. No second chances.
The four of them hurried on through the forest, Rez leading the way, followed by Rose and then the Doctor and Professor Shulough bringing up the rear. The Doctor dropped back to fall into step alongside the professor.
‘What’s it all about, then, this quest of yours?’ he asked, without preamble.
She looked at him sideways with a degree of suspicion.
‘You know what it’s about. I’ve been searching for the Paradise Planet,’ she replied.
‘Oh, I know what you’ve been doing,’ he went on cheerfully, ‘but I want to know why.’
‘Why does anyone do anything?’
‘The usual reasons: fame, money, love. . . But you’ve spent years on this quest, and a fair bit of cash too, I’d say, although I’d steer clear of whoever sold you that ship in the future – I reckon the mileage clock’s been reset on that one, if you know what I mean. . . But my point is. . . ’ He trailed off, having taken himself down a cul-de-sac for once.
‘What is my point?’ He pondered for a moment and then continued with renewed vigour: ‘Oh yes, you. And your quest. Because that’s what it is, isn’t it? A good old-fashioned quest.’
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The professor shrugged. ‘I suppose so.’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘Nah, come off it. You can’t fool me.
This is something big, isn’t it? Like a grail quest. . . Hold on, that’s it, isn’t it? It’s not the object of the classic quest that matters, it’s the journey itself that’s important.’
Pleased with himself, the Doctor was almost bouncing along the path. The professor, meanwhile, just regarded him with cold eyes.
‘What kind of doctor are you? Some kind of shrink? I don’t need a psychiatrist,’ she told him firmly.
‘I’m just interested, that’s all.’
‘Well, find a new hobby to take up!’ she spat back at him, and with that she extended her stride and moved ahead of the Doctor, curtailing any further conversation.
The Doctor watched as she strode ahead purposefully, trying to figure her out. There was something there. Underneath all the bluster and hardness there was a human heart beating inside that woman, he was sure of it. He’d seen the way she had reacted to Rez. Something about the orphan’s story had touched her, he was sure of it.
At first glance when they reached the village everything looked normal, but then Rose realised that everyone was busy repairing torn tents or cleaning up debris. The Witiku attack had come before they’d had a chance to fully recover from the earth tremor, so there was plenty to be done. All the villagers who had escaped to the temple ruins last night seemed to have returned and they appeared determined to get back to normality as quickly as possible.
Mother Jaelette and Kaylen were the first to greet them, welcoming Rez home with big hugs. They were polite but less enthusiastic in their greetings to Rose and her companions. Rose introduced the Doctor and the professor and told the Laylorans that they had both come to help. Rose was giving the professor the benefit of the doubt here, but hoped she wouldn’t be proved wrong. Rez began to tell them about Brother Hugan but they stopped him.
‘We already know,’ Kaylen told him. ‘He’s in his tent. He came back a little while ago.’
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‘How is he?’ demanded the Doctor.
Mother Jaelette looked worried. ‘He was babbling incoherently, making no sense at all. We tried to calm him down and get him to talk to us, but he just collapsed. We’ve put him in his tent and given him water, but he’s no better.’
The Doctor asked to be taken to see him, explaining that he needed urgent medical attention. Kaylen and Rez accompanied him immediately, leaving Rose and the professor with Mother Jaelette.
The two older women regarded each other with suspicion. Rose felt that Friday night feeling, the one you get when somebody knocks over a drink or calls the wrong girl something unpleasant and you just know there’ll be a nasty silence that can only end in a fight.
‘Well, this is nice,’ she said brightly, hoping to defuse the moment without the need for violence.
‘Your sky boat landed in our forest,’ said Mother Jaelette eventually.
‘A forced landing,’ replied the professor. ‘The damage was limited.’
‘Not to the forest!’
‘I meant to the ship,’ stated the professor, cool as ever.
‘The forest is more important than your sky boat,’ Mother Jaelette threw back at her.
Rose knew she had to break this apart. She was sure this wasn’t the way first contact was meant to go.
‘Look, we can see you’ve got a lot on right now,’ she started, addressing the tribeswoman. ‘Why don’t we –’ she gestured at the professor inclusively – ‘have a wander round, get out of your hair, eh?’
It seemed for a moment as if Mother Jaelette wanted to do something a little more permanent than removing the human from her hair, but she took the opportunity Rose was offering her and withdrew.
‘I do have things to do,’ she conceded. ‘Try not to get in anyone’s way.’ And then she was gone.
Rose let out a sigh of relief. ‘That wasn’t a barrel of laughs, was it?’ she said, but the professor just shrugged and moved off. Rose hurried after her. Somebody had to try and keep the moody cow out of trouble and it looked as if Rose had been volunteered for the task.
116
‘Fascinating jewellery,’ observed the professor after they had been walking around the village for a short while.
‘Yeah, amazing, isn’t it?’ said Rose, glad to hear something approaching enthusiasm in the woman’s voice for once.
‘Can those really be trisilicate crystals?’
‘I dunno. Here, have a look at one.’
Rose fished the crystal she’d picked up at the temple out of her jeans pocket and tossed it at the professor, who weighed it in her hands, then produced a pocket magnifying glass and started to examine it in more detail.
‘This is incredible. It’s perfect.’
‘Yeah,’ said Rose, affecting a casual attitude. ‘Apparently they’re a real problem for the natives, mucking up their fields and all that.’
‘They’re abundant?’ asked the professor, matching Rose for casualness now.
‘You can say that again!’ Rose grinned. ‘They’ve got a pile in one room under that ruined temple place. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.’
Alarmingly, the professor took her arm, like they were old friends or something. ‘Can you show me?’ she asked, moving her mouth into an unfamiliar shape.
Rose realised with a start that the woman was trying to smile! She looked over in the direction of the shaman’s tent but there was no sign of the Doctor.
‘Don’t worry about them. We won’t be long,’ the professor urged her.
‘I should just tell him where we’re going,’ Rose insisted.
The professor sighed and nodded. ‘OK, then, if you have to.’
Inside the shaman’s brightly decorated tent the Doctor and Rez were with Brother Hugan. That is, they were inside the tent with the old man, but to what extent he was actually there was open to debate.
He was rolling back and forth on his sleeping blankets, sweating and shivering in equal measure. And all the time he was muttering about Laylora.
117
‘Laylora demands. . . Laylora needs cleansing. . . ’ The words kept tumbling out, hardly audible.
Rez looked to the Doctor, willing him to do something, but the stranger in the brown coat just stuffed his hands into his pockets and shuffled around, looking concerned.
‘I think the poor bloke’s lost his mind,’ he speculated. ‘A side effect of becoming a Witiku.’
‘So will this happen to the rest of the missing, when we find them and give them the cure?’ Rez asked, alarmed.
The Doctor didn’t meet his eyes when he replied. ‘I really don’t know. Not necessarily. I hope.’ And behind his back he crossed his fingers.
The tent flap was pushed open and Kaylen appeared with a steaming cup of jinnera.
‘Are you sure this is a good idea?’ she asked as she handed the cup to the Doctor.
The Doctor shrugged. ‘You said you used this stuff to help you relax, didn’t you? I think that’s just what this poor bloke needs to do right now.’
Rez still looked doubtful. ‘But the last time he went near the stuff he didn’t exactly relax, did he?’ he said, remembering what he had seen earlier that day.
‘But he was a Witiku then. Now he’s back in his own natural form.
And to you Laylorans, this is the original Horlicks, right?’
He winked at Kaylen, who had no idea what he was talking about.
She took a hasty step back, as if worried that the twitch in his eye might be catching.
The Doctor bent down by the side of the shaman. ‘Here, help me get him into a sitting position,’ he said.
Rez hurried across and a moment later the Doctor was able to raise the cup of jinnera to the old man’s lips. He drank and almost choked in his enthusiasm.
‘Steady on, old fella. There’s no rush,’ muttered the Doctor, but a moment later the man lurched violently backwards and then forward again, spitting out all of the liquid he’d swallowed.
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The Doctor and Rez both jumped backwards instinctively, giving the shaman the opportunity to leap up and push them both back on their heels. Brother Hugan then rushed towards the tent flap. Kaylen made a half-hearted attempt to stop him, but he just tossed her to one side, back into the path of the Doctor and Rez. In a moment he was out of the tent and away.
By the time the Doctor, Rez and Kaylen had disentangled themselves from the pile of arms and legs they had collapsed into, the shaman was long gone. They rushed out of the tent and tried to see which way he had gone, but there was no sign of him. He had disappeared completely.
They were still frantically looking a moment or two later when Rose and the professor joined them. Rose began to tell the Doctor about wanting to take the professor to the temple.
The Doctor suddenly clicked his fingers. ‘The temple! Of course, that’s where he’ll be heading.’
‘Rose and I can go and look for him,’ the professor said quickly, to everyone’s surprise. ‘You need to get the jinnen back to the ship to make up a batch of Witiku cure, don’t you? While you do that, we can find the shaman.’
‘I’ll go with them,’ volunteered Rez.
The professor shook her head. ‘You should be careful with that head wound of yours,’ she said. ‘You need rest.’
Rez insisted that he was fine now, but the Doctor, who had been considering the situation for a moment, decided he wanted Rez to help him.
‘Rose can look after the professor, can’t you, Rose?’ he said, looking Rose in the eye. She was about to argue, but the Doctor gave her a sly wink – he needed her to do this for him. ‘But take care,’ he added,
‘Brother Hugan’s not himself and the rest of the Witiku must be round here somewhere.’
Rose nodded, accepting her mission, and set off with the professor.
The Doctor looked at Rez and Kaylen. ‘Come on, then. Where’s all this jinnen you promised me?’
119
It struck Rose that the days couldn’t be very long on Laylora because it was already getting dark as she and the professor set off from the village. Rez had given her instructions on how to find the temple and the ruins, but she was beginning to be able to recognise the path through the trees now. The professor had set off at a brisk walking pace but had soon slowed down in the heat of the late afternoon sun.
The forest was alive with life. Not just the plants, which were vibrant and sweet-smelling, but insects and animals too. There were little midges, but they were less irritating than any Rose had ever encountered before and didn’t seem interested in biting her. There were also some beautiful butterfly-like creatures that flitted about between the bushes and flowers. And above them was a canopy of leafy branches, through which the sun burst in mottled patterns. The air was filled with the songs of numerous birds. Rose couldn’t help but smile as they walked though this sensual delight.
The professor, striding alongside her, didn’t seem to be interested in her surroundings; she just wanted to get to the ruins of the ancient temple as quickly as possible. Couldn’t she appreciate the beauty of this place? In the end Rose asked the woman straight out.
‘Beauty fades,’ was the professor’s only reply.
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This made Rose study the woman’s lined face again. Had she once been beautiful herself? She had good cheekbones and perfectly balanced features – it was certainly possible that she’d been a looker when she was younger. Still could be, if she’d just chill a little and smile occasionally.
The professor looked up at the darkening sky. ‘Sun’s going down.
We should get a move on.’
Rose stepped forward to lead the way.
‘We’d better take care,
though,’ she warned. ‘We don’t want to frighten him.’
‘Who?’ asked the professor, confused.
‘Brother Hugan, of course.’ Rose was surprised. Had she forgotten the reason for their journey?
They moved on into the gathering shadows.
Petra Shulough glanced at the young woman beside her. She envied Rose her confidence – she s
eemed utterly devoid of doubt and fear.
One of the great freedoms of being young, she supposed. Just like the boy Rez.
As she followed Rose through the trees, the professor was aware of a strange feeling of emptiness coming over her. The trisilicate had been the final piece of the jigsaw; now there was no doubt that this was indeed the planet that Guillan had found. . . Guillan and her parents.
But somehow the knowledge that she had succeeded in her quest was not giving her the satisfaction that she had expected. Instead of joy she just felt numb.
Her mind kept going back to the teenage orphan. Like Petra, Rez had lost his parents at an early age, but he had never really known them. What must it have been like for him, abandoned as a baby and brought up by aliens? Had this been a paradise for him?
Elsewhere in the forest the Doctor, Rez and Kaylen were arriving back at the spaceship, each of them carrying bags of the heavy jinnen seed.
‘Shame you lot haven’t invented the wheelbarrow,’ muttered the Doctor as they came in sight of the crashed ship.
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To his delight, as they got closer Hespell came out of the airlock to give them a hand. With him was Ania Baker, who was now looking in much better health than when he had last seen her. She seemed to be over the shock of witnessing the Witiku’s transformation and back to her normal bubbly self.
‘Feeling better?’ asked the Doctor, pleased to see that his patient was out and about.
‘Much better,’ she said, returning his smile. ‘Thanks to you.’
The Doctor noted the way she was standing very close to the red-haired lad. He thought it was sweet; the long-limbed and slightly awkward Hespell and the tiny, precise Baker would make a nice couple. He hoped they’d have the chance to become one.
While Hespell and Baker started taking the jinnen to the lab, he Doctor sought out Kendle. As expected, the ex-marine was on the bridge, alone.
‘Did you get what you went for?’ he asked, as the Doctor joined him.
‘I think so. But have you managed to rig some suitable delivery systems? The solution will be no good as a cure if we can’t control the dosage.’