‘His torch!’ she said triumphantly.
‘The sonic screwdriver?’
‘He used it to keep them back when we were attacked before.’
For a second, Martha felt a pang of jealousy. Whilst she’d been out cold, the Doctor had been running around having adventures with this woman. She pushed her silly feelings aside.
‘Good,’ Martha said, snatching it from Ty. ‘What setting did he have it on?’
‘What what?’
‘Setting,’ repeated Martha, waving the screwdriver in her face. ‘It’s got about five billion of them. Use the wrong one and we could blow up half the town. Has he used it since then? Has anyone?’
Ty frowned but shook her head.
‘Well,’ said Martha, ‘we’ll just have to hope that it’s been left on the same one.’
She advanced towards the door, the sonic screwdriver held out gingerly in front of her.
‘You can’t go out there on your own,’ Ty said.
‘I can move faster on my own,’ Martha said, seeing the nervous faces around her. ‘No offence. And I need you lot to look after the Doctor – right?’
Ty nodded. There was no argument from the others.
Martha looked at the doctor who stood with one hand on the end of the drip stand. It rattled as the otters battered against the door, and she could hear the sounds of scratching. ‘On three,’ she said in a low voice. ‘One… two… three!’
Martha pressed the button as she reached ‘two’, and the tip of the screwdriver lit up with its reassuring blue glow. A high-pitched, teeth-irritating whine filled the room and the sound of scrabbling at the door abruptly ceased.
And on ‘three’, the nervous young doctor slid back the stand that held the doors shut.
Nothing happened – the doors shook slightly, but the expected inrush of otters didn’t happen. Martha stepped forward, still holding the screwdriver out in front of her, and pushed tentatively at one of the doors with her foot. It moved out a few inches before hitting something, and then it was pushed back at her. There was the sound of squeaking and pattering feet from the corridor, and Martha pushed the door again, harder this time. It moved further and swung back without hitting anything.
She glanced back at the Doctor and then at Ty.
‘Take care of him,’ she said. ‘I’m trusting you, yeah?’
‘You can,’ replied Ty as if Martha’s words had been a challenge.
‘Which one’s the zoo lab?’
‘Back to the square and then diagonally across to the right. The light’ll be on and there’s a sign by the door. The tranqs are in the white cabinet in the corner. There’ll be a tranq gun with them.’
Martha took another look at the Doctor. With a brief nod and the tightest of smiles, she held out the sonic screwdriver in front of her and stepped into the corridor.
Ty, the doctor and the receptionist, barricaded the door the moment Martha had gone, and Ty dropped heavily into the chair by the Doctor’s bed. She picked up a cloth from the table and wiped his sweaty forehead. In his sleep, he gave a guttural moan and his lips formed into a toothy sneer.
‘She’s got guts,’ Ty said. ‘I’ll give her that. I can see why you’re… such good friends.’
She shook her head and squeezed the Doctor’s hand.
‘You idiot,’ she hissed. ‘You stupid, stupid idiot. What are you playing at, eh? What if this stuff… what if it kills you? What then? Then we’re all in the—’
‘Hello,’ interrupted the doctor thoughtfully, staring up at the screen over the bed. ‘Look at that.’
Ty looked.
‘What’s happening?’
‘His temperature’s dropping. And his…’ the doctor frowned. ‘Well, whatever he has in his blood that are doing the job of white blood cells. The count’s falling like crazy.’
Ty’s heart raced.
She gave a little yelp as the Doctor’s hand suddenly gripped hers painfully, crushing her fingers. She looked down as his eyes flicked open. They were dark, like pools of tar. A cruel smile crossed his face again.
‘Marthaaaaaaa,’ he hissed, glaring up at her. She tried to pull away but his grip was too strong. He let out a low groan, lips curling ferally back from his teeth.
‘It’s Ty, sweetheart,’ she said softly. ‘Martha’s gone to—’
‘So much need,’ he said. ‘So much…’ He paused and stared into her eyes. ‘So bright.’
And then his eyes snapped shut and he sagged back onto the bed.
‘What was that?’ asked the doctor, checking the Doctor’s readings again.
Ty shook her head. She had no idea. So much of what had happened in the last day or so was beyond her. Here she was – a nurse turned vet – and, just at the moment, she was of use to neither human nor beast.
Suddenly there was a banging and a hammering on the door.
‘Who’s in there?’ shouted someone.
The receptionist rushed to the door, her face pale.
‘Who’s that?’
‘Henig,’ came a gruff voice. ‘Henig Olssen.’
‘Where are the otters?’
‘They’ve gone,’ Henig said.
Mariel was already sliding the pole out of the door handles. In rushed Henig with a couple of the other settlers, armed with spades.
‘Everyone’s gathering in the square – c’mon.’
‘I’m not leaving him,’ Ty said, glancing at the Doctor.
‘Go on,’ Lee urged her gently. ‘I’ll keep an eye on him. He’ll be fine now.’
Reluctantly, Ty gave in, and followed Henig and the receptionist out into the crisp night air.
The orange-lit square was filling up with people – crying and shaking people.
‘What’s happened?’ asked Ty, looking around in fear, although she thought she already knew the answer.
It was like the night of the flood, all over again. Ty watched the receptionist run to find her boyfriend and saw her swallowed up by the crowd. There was no one left for Ty to run to.
No one seemed to know exactly what had happened, although one thing was very quickly clear.
Twenty people had completely and utterly vanished.
And Martha Jones was amongst them.
ELEVEN
More than anything, Ty felt she’d let the Doctor down. Back in the bio lab, sitting beside his bed, mopping his forehead and listening to him muttering in his sleep, a tiny, tiny part of her hoped he wouldn’t wake up yet. Not until she’d worked out what she was going to say to him.
‘Well it’s like this…’
‘I couldn’t stop her…’
‘She just ran off…’
No matter how she worded it, she’d let him down. She’d let his best friend run off into the night with nothing more than a high-tech screwdriver.
Reports came back to her about the events of the night before. Doors and walls all around the square were covered with long scratches, and the grass between the buildings bore numerous scuff and drag marks, scattered with clods of turf torn up by frantic, panicking hands. The whole of the Council had disappeared, along with eight others – including Martha. And there were smears of blood on the floor and walls of the hallway to the Council chamber.
Then, as if to hammer the final nail into the coffin of her fears about Martha, someone had found the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver at the edge of the square, squashed down into the mud. And no one had seen Col or Candy since earlier the previous day, although Janis said that Candy had come looking for Col round about lunchtime. The only assumption they could make was that they’d been taken by the otters as well.
The flood had cut the settlers’ numbers in half; and the otters were whittling down the survivors. At this rate, when the second wave of colonists arrived – if they ever bothered – there would be no one here to greet them. Just a rotting, crumbling settlement and a lot of skeletons.
Ty wanted to cry, but she didn’t even have the energy for that. All she could do was sit by the Doctor
’s bedside and hold his hand.
‘Professor Benson…?’
Ty jerked awake suddenly. Candy was standing in the doorway. She was filthy, her face spattered and streaked with mud and crusty green slime. She looked exhausted and, as Ty stood up, she almost collapsed in her arms. Ty manoeuvred her into the chair by the Doctor’s bed, and she all but fell into it.
‘Where have you been?’ she asked, her voice equal parts anger and worry.
Candy was shaking, her eyes wide. Ty pulled a blanket from the foot of the Doctor’s bed and wrapped it around her before shouting out into the corridor that she wanted a cuppa for her. She crouched down beside the girl and took her hand, holding it tight.
‘Where were you? We were worried. The otters—’ she began, but Candy was already nodding.
‘I know,’ she said simply. ‘I saw them.’
‘You saw them?’
Candy nodded, fixing Ty with her eyes.
And then, shakily, she began to tell Ty all about her trip to the One Small Step.
‘After Col… after he died,’ said Candy, ‘I tried to drag his body out of the ship. I don’t know why. He was dead. There was nothing I could have done. The thing, the tentacle or whatever it was, that had been in his head. It pulled out of the ship. I could hear it slithering and banging down the outside of the ship. When I realised it was pointless, I gave up and started to leave the ship. But there were otters, outside. They looked sort of weird, doped. But I didn’t want to risk it, so I made my way back down the ship and managed to get out through one of the rear emergency exits. I hung around though, just to see what they were up to.’
‘You should have come straight back,’ Ty said.
Candy nodded guiltily.
‘I know. But after what had happened to Col, after what I saw… I thought I might be able to find something out.’ She gave a half-hearted shrug. ‘But I didn’t. I watched them moving around the ship for a bit but it was too dark to be able to see much, so I thought I should come back.
‘But as I was heading back through the forest, I heard the otters behind me so I hid in a tree and watched them. There were dozens of them – dozens! I let them go past and then started following them. They were heading for the city, for here. I knew I’d never catch them up. By the time I got here…’ She broke off again, and Ty felt her squeeze her fingers tightly. ‘It was too late – they were herding the Councillors back through the forest. Like sheep. Nipping at their legs and feet. Dory Chan was swearing at them like a trooper,’ she grinned. ‘But they just kept going, forcing them back out into the forest. I hid up a tree. Again.’ The poor girl looked as miserable as Ty had ever seen her look. She almost didn’t want to ask her next question, but she knew she had to.
‘Did you see Martha? We found the Doctor’s sonic thing. Martha had taken it with her. No one’s seen her since.’
Candy shook her head. ‘It was dark, so I might have missed her. But I don’t think so.’
Ty didn’t know whether this was more or less worrying. If Martha hadn’t been taken by the otters, then where was she?
Had Ty but known it, Martha had been almost as confused as her.
She’d stood in the darkness, sonic screwdriver in hand, and watched as a confused and shifting mass of darkness moved across the other side of the square. It took her a few moments to realise what it was: people. A crowd of people. Their movements were odd and jerky, and only when Martha saw the shadows skipping and jumping along the ground did she work out that the crowd of people was being herded by otters.
Martha gritted her teeth and made sure she had a firm grip on the screwdriver. This’d see ’em off.
Only Martha had never got as far as seeing ’em off. Barely had she taken two steps in the direction of the rapidly departing crowd than her feet managed to catch on something. With a loud ooof! she went sprawling, full length. Reflexively, her arms shot out to stop herself, and she felt warm fur, slipping and sliding under her hands. Hands that no longer held the Doctor’s beloved sonic. In panic, she reached for the ground beneath her, hoping against hope that it would still be there, that she’d feel the comforting solidity of the little device. But all she felt were more otters.
Abandoning her search, fearful of being torn to shreds by their teeth and claws, Martha rolled over onto her side, away from the furry bodies that bounced and jiggled against her. She couldn’t tell how many there were – half a dozen? Ten? In seconds she was back on her feet. She raised her hands, defensively – and, to her amazement, the little semicircle of otters backed away from her.
‘Keep back,’ Martha warned, knowing full well that they wouldn’t understand her words, but hoping that, like with wild animals, the tone of her voice would speak volumes.
One of the otters squeaked at her.
At least…
‘What?’ exclaimed Martha.
‘Not,’ squeaked the otter again, ‘hurt.’
‘You can talk?’
The otters just stared up at her in the near-darkness.
‘Not hurt,’ the otter repeated, its voice so high-pitched and squeaky that Martha wondered whether she wasn’t just hearing something that wasn’t there. ‘Help us. Help you.’
That clinched it.
‘I’ve got to get back to the Doc—’
‘Come,’ said a different otter.
‘I need to—’
‘Come now!’
It was amazing how much urgency the little bear-faced creature could get into its voice. Three or four of the otters moved towards her, their mouths open. Martha could see their gleaming incisors, and suddenly wasn’t sure how much trust she could put in ‘Not hurt’. Another couple moved in, bumping their noses against her legs, as if urging her on. She flinched, half-expecting to feel teeth sinking softly into her shins.
‘OK, OK,’ she said, raising her hands and taking a step backwards. ‘Point taken.’
With one last look back at Sunday city, Martha let herself be led out into the darkness of the forest.
Ty had stayed with the Doctor for a little while longer. Candy had fallen asleep in the room next door. Half of Ty wanted to play the organiser, the let’s-get-things-done-er. The other half just wanted out, away from this hateful planet. It all seemed so pointless now. One catastrophe – a catastrophe wrought from the heavens by unthinking nature – was bad enough. They’d managed. They’d coped. But this…
Checking the Doctor was sleeping comfortably, Ty wandered miserably across the square to the zoo lab and started to tidy up. After this, she didn’t think she’d really want to work with the otters, no matter how things turned out. As she put the cages back in place along the back wall, she wondered whether she ought to go back to nursing. She’d been quite a good nurse, back on Earth, until she’d decided that humans were more than capable of looking after themselves. It was the animal kingdom, suffering at mankind’s hands, that needed help more. How the tables had turned, out here amongst the stars. She’d become a vet just a couple of years prior to deciding to come to Sunday – two of the best years of her life. The hardest part about leaving Earth had been finding homes for the menagerie she’d surrounded herself with in those two years – a host of injured and difficult-to-home dogs and cats and guinea pigs, along with two goats, a chinchilla and a cockatoo.
As she rattled the last of the cages into place, there was a noise behind her and she turned sharply to see Candy, standing in the doorway.
‘The Doctor’s awake,’ Candy said simply. ‘He’s in the bio lab with Orlo – and he wants to see you.’
She saw his spectacled face through the porthole in the door before she entered the darkened bio lab, illuminated by the flickering screens of the video. His eyes made contact with hers as she pushed against the double doors – and something in them drained the fire out of her in an instant.
‘Professor Benson,’ he said as she entered. ‘I owe you an apology.’
Ty said nothing, letting the doors swing to and fro behind her. Orlo was standin
g at the end of the table, his arms folded, weight shifted onto one leg. He looked tired and worried.
‘What for?’
‘Orlo here told me what happened to your people last night. I should have been here to stop it instead of turning myself into a My First Little Chemistry Set.’
She glanced at Orlo who gave her a rueful half-smile.
‘Well…’ began Ty.
She perched herself on the corner of the video table, hoping it was as strong as it looked.
‘How are you feeling?’ she asked.
‘Me? Oh, I’m fine – just fine.’ He tipped his head, pulled down one of his eyelids and leaned forwards for her to look. ‘That looks fine, doesn’t it?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. ‘Good! Only the word is that I turned into something of a green-eyed monster last night.’
‘More black than green, really,’ Ty said. ‘But the monster bit’s about right.’
‘Sorry I had to put you through all of that, but it was the only way.’
‘To find out what the alien proteins were for?’
He nodded.
‘Not something I fancy going through again in a hurry, I have to say. But as an intelligence-gathering exercise, it wasn’t totally unsuccessful.’ He took off his glasses, popped them in his jacket pocket and grinned.
‘Those slime-things, the beasties in the nests – I know what they want.’ He paused for dramatic effect. ‘Us!’ he whispered.
TWELVE
The further she was from the settlement, the more nervous Martha was becoming. She’d lost not only the sonic screwdriver, but also any sense of where she was or where the otters were taking her. After their initial ‘conversation’, they’d remained largely silent, whispering to each other in tiny squeaks. One or two of them would rush ahead, obviously scouting out the way, and then return. They’d confer with their fellows and then the whole group would move on again. The couple of times that Martha tried to find out where they were all going were met with silence, and she was beginning to wonder whether she’d imagined hearing words in amongst their squeaks.
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