The Taking of Chelsea 426

by Doctor Who

  'See?' said Jake, smarmily. 'I told you we could trust him.'

  The Doctor smiled at Jake, and then looked down at where the Major lay. He took a deep breath, and then faced the children once more.

  'Right,' he said. 'Now all we need to do is sort out the rest of the Rutans, rescue your parents and send the Sontarans back to Sontar. Who's with me?'

  Jake stuck his hand up in the air as high as he could reach. Vienna followed suit seconds later, which left only Wallace.

  'I'm sorry,' he asked, 'but what's a Sontaran?'

  162

  FIFTEEN

  It was the first time in two years that Mr Carstairs had seen the Western Docks. It was there that he and his family had first arrived, travelling from Earth on a liner bound for the Kuiper Belt. Their worldly, and indeed otherworldly, possessions had been packed away in a crate no more than a metre deep.

  On arrival, they had all, even the children, been interviewed individually by check-in officials and made to present their transfer papers and the legal documents proving their authority to manage the Grand Hotel. The first few months had seen them treated very much as Newcomers by the other residents, but soon enough their neighbours and acquaintances had realised that they were Chelsea 426

  people through and through.

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  Only the children had seemed to have any difficulty fitting in. Their peers on Chelsea 426 were so different from the children on Earth. Less boisterous, less mischievous, less noisy. They dressed less like teenagers and more like miniaturised versions of their parents and grandparents, not something either Jake or Vienna had ever done.

  As a result, neither of them had made many friends, but that had caused Mr and Mrs Carstairs little concern. Having fewer acquaintances here on the colony meant they were less likely to get into trouble, not that there seemed to be much trouble for them to get into.

  Mr Carstairs couldn't help but think of those first days on the colony as he and his wife were pushed into the loading bay at gunpoint by the Sontarans. The vast hall was crowded with familiar faces and strangers alike. Many of them were silent, sitting in small huddles looking lost and forlorn. Some were crying, their sobs echoing around the bay.

  'You will wait here until further notice,' said one of the Sontarans.

  When Mr Carstairs turned and glared at him aggressively, the Sontaran lifted his baton as a warning.

  'Come along, dear,' said Mr Carstairs, holding his wife by the hand and leading her into the crowd.

  He thought of the children now, travelling in that curious blue spaceship with a complete stranger. He hoped with every shred of emotion he had left that they 164

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  were safe, and that the Doctor, whoever he might be, was true to his word.

  As he led his wife further into the crowd, he felt her pull gently on his hand. She had stopped walking.

  'What is it?' he asked.

  'I won't be long,' she replied, gazing over at the far side of the loading bay.

  'What do you mean?' he asked. 'Where are you going?'

  'I won't be long,' she said once more, letting go of his hand and walking away, to where a small group of colony residents had gathered in one corner.

  He was about to follow her when a voice said,

  'Excuse me, but do you live here?'

  Mr Carstairs turned to see a young couple, neither of them any older than 25. They were dressed in evening wear, though neither of them looked particularly used to wearing such clothes.

  'Er, yes...' he replied, distantly.

  'I'm Zack,' said the man, holding out his hand, which Mr Carstairs duly shook. 'And this is my girlf—'

  He turned to the young woman at his side and they smiled at one another.

  This is my wife,' the young man corrected himself.

  'Jenny.'

  'Pleased... pleased to meet you...' said Mr Carstairs.

  'I'm Mr Carstairs.'

  The young couple frowned at him quizzically. Even 165

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  if they hadn't been dressed as if they had been dragged straight from one of the pleasure cruisers, Mr Carstairs could have guessed they were Newcomers just from the informality of their introduction.

  'My name's Brian,' he said, after a pause. 'Brian Carstairs.'

  'Well,’ said Zack, 'pleased to meet you, Brian.'

  Mr Carstairs couldn't remember the last time somebody had called him by his first name. Not even Mrs Carstairs had called him by his first name in such a very long time. It was always 'dear', or even 'Dad', particularly in front of the children.

  'You were on one of the ships?' he asked, gesturing toward the enormous doors of the loading bay.

  'Yeah,' said Jenny, still managing to smile. 'We're on our honeymoon.'

  'Oh,' said Mr Carstairs. 'Oh... Congratulations.'

  Thanks.'

  There was a moment's silence between them. Mr Carstairs had turned his attention once more to the corner of the loading bay, where his wife now stood, talking to the small group of colony residents. He recognised many of them but he couldn't say he knew all of them by name.

  How could she know them?

  'Do you think they'll let us go?' asked Zack.

  Mr Carstairs turned back to face the young newlyweds.

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  'What's that?' he asked.

  These Sontarans. Do you think they'll let us go?'

  He wasn't sure how much of an authority on the matter they expected him to be, but they were looking at him now with so much hope that he couldn't bear to shatter their illusions.

  'Yes, I'm sure they will,' he replied. 'Just a few more hours, maybe, and then this will all be over.'

  'I just want to go home," said Jenny, her smile crumpling and a fresh tear rolling down one cheek.

  Zack put his arms around her, holding her head to his chest and stroking her hair.

  'You heard the man,' he said. 'It's gonna be fine.'

  Suddenly the crowd beside them was split in two by a procession of Sontarans, marching toward them, their batons held in the air.

  'You two!' one of them barked, pointing at Zack and Jenny with his baton. 'Come with us. You are to be questioned.'

  'No!' sobbed Jenny. 'No, I don't want to go... No...

  Please, Zack... I don't want to go...'

  Zack tried at first to hold them off, but it was no use.

  The Sontarans had them both turned and cuffed in a matter of seconds.

  'Wait!' said Mr Carstairs, following them. 'Where are you taking them? What are you going to do to them?'

  One of the Sontarans turned and held him back.

  That is no business of yours,' he growled.

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  The small group of Sontarans was nearing one of the exits when a voice cried out, 'Wait! Don't take them, take me!'

  The unit stopped in its tracks, two of the soldiers holding Zack and Jenny still, and turned around to face the crowd. A man was pushing his way out past the others and into the open space between the crowd and the exits. It was Riley Smalls.

  'Wait!' he said. 'I know where there are Rutans!'

  The Sontarans looked at each other with expressions that Mr Carstairs could only read as puzzled. One of them let go of Jenny's shoulder.

  'Is this true?' the unit leader barked at Smalls.

  'Yes,' he replied. 'I know where there are Rutans. I can take you there. There are dozens of them.'

  The unit leader turned to his group, eyeing Jenny and Zack in turn with a derisive sneer.

  'Put them back with the others,' he said. 'We can interrogate them later.' He gestured at Smalls. 'Seize him.'

  The cuffs were removed from Zack and Jenny's wrists, and they were pushed back towards the other residents and visitors.

  The rest of the unit now surrounded Riley Smalls and walked him out through the doors. Only a handful of Sontarans
stayed behind, each guarding an exit, but none in the crowd dared make a move.

  Zack and Jenny walked back to where Mr Carstairs 168

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  was standing. Jenny was crying almost uncontrollably.

  Zack's jaw trembled, and he closed his eyes tight as if he were fighting back tears of his own.

  'Are you OK?' said Mr Carstairs.

  'Why is this happening to us?' asked Jenny. 'Why?'

  They were in an elevator now, rising up above the Western Docks to a tier of exclusive luxury apartment pods.

  'Where are you taking us, human?' asked one of the Sontarans.

  Riley Smalls stood at the front of the elevator, facing the doors. He was glad they couldn't see his face, or his fear.

  'My apartment,' he said, taking in a deep breath.

  There are Rutans there. They forced their way in, last night. They said it would be a good place to hide.'

  The group leader grunted.

  'And how do we know you aren't a Rutan?'

  Tm not,' said Smalls. 'But I'll take you to them.

  They're plotting against you as we speak.'

  The Sontarans now murmured to one another in what he could only imagine was their equivalent of excited chattering. They seemed genuinely ecstatic at the prospect of engaging the Rutans in conflict.

  Smalls took another deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then breathed out as slowly as he could, for fear that they might hear his nervousness.

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  The elevator stopped, and a synthesized human voice said, 'Level Five. Please confirm identity.'

  Smalls placed his hand over a glowing screen above the elevator's control panel. A thin beam of light passed from top to bottom, the doors opened, and he led the Sontarans into his apartment.

  It was a vast living space decorated sparsely with modern, minimalist furniture. There was a sunken seating area and a dining space, above which a circular, O-shaped fish tank was suspended from the ceiling. The apartment seemed almost too big for one person, yet there was nobody else to be seen.

  'Where are they?' said the group leader, as they following him into the apartment, the doors closing behind them.

  I’ll show you,' said Smalls.

  He walked past the seating area, crossing over to the fish tank, stopping there for a moment to gaze up through its glass bottom at the fish inside.

  'Hello there,' he said, tapping gently at the glass.

  'Daddy's home. Not hungry yet, are we?'

  Inside the tank, the fish darted around the artificial plants, weaving in and out of ceramic boots and miniature castles.

  'Where are they?' the Sontaran grunted again, more forcefully this time.

  'Oh yes,' said Smalls, turning to the Sontarans and smiling.

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  He left the dining area and made his way to the far wall, beside the large viewing window that gave him a view of the colony's enormous suspension disks and the clouds of Saturn stretching off into the distance.

  The wall itself was hidden behind two curtains, which Smalls set about opening, revealing a large round door, next to which there was a bright red lever.

  This way,' he said.

  The Sontarans crossed the apartment, their guns charged and ready.

  'What are you waiting for?' said the group leader.

  'Open the door.'

  Smalls nodded. The Sontaran's belligerent order had made this so much easier for him. There was no going back now.

  He took a deep breath, swallowed, and pulled the lever.

  All at once the lights in the room went out and were replaced with a dim red glow. Another synthesized voice spoke, coming to them from every corner of the apartment.

  'Emergency exit activated. Emergency doors opening in ten...'

  The Sontarans looked to one another, and then at Smalls.

  'You betrayed us!' The group leader roared, as he and his men turned and bolted for the elevator doors.

  'Nine... Eight... Seven... Six... Five...'

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  Together the soldiers tried to prise the doors apart, but it was no use. They were shut tight and airlocked.

  'Four... Three... Two..."

  The group leader turned to Smalls, and saw the human laughing, tears streaming from his eyes.

  'One.'

  With a thunderous crash, the circular emergency door was wrenched free and flung out into space like an enormous discus. The apartment was filled with a deafening roar as everything not bolted down was wrenched up and jettisoned with the force of a hurricane. Swinging back and forth on its chains, the fish tank shuddered and shook before breaking free, shattering as it caught the edge of the airlock, its contents flung out into the void like a shower of diamonds.

  Smalls braced himself against the wall, deafened by the noise. The Sontarans clawed desperately at anything they could grasp, but it was no use. One by one they were picked up and thrown out through the airlock like rag dolls tossed aside by monstrous, unseen hands.

  Smalls was losing strength. The air in the apartment was all but gone, the noise dying away into an unsettling silence, the temperature plunging lower and lower until his hands were numb and he felt even the moisture in his mouth begin to freeze. He had lost all consciousness when he too was finally launched out into the black and barren sky.

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  The Doctor couldn't help thinking it wasn't the best place to leave him, but it would have to do for now.

  He drew the blanket up until it covered the Major's face, and for a moment he sat there, his head hung low.

  He wondered whether the Major had a family, and if so where they might be. Back on Earth, perhaps, or spread out across the galaxy on a dozen different colonies. It was hardly a fitting place to leave him, and hardly a fitting end to a life. He had to finish this, and soon.

  He looked down at the Major's body one last time.

  'Little ears,' he said, smiling sadly, 'and little noises.

  You're a genius, Major.'

  He got up from the hotel bed and walked back into the TARDIS, where the three teenagers were now sat around the console. The high spirits following Wallace's recovery had now mellowed and been replaced by a sombre melancholy.

  'So,' said Jake, looking up at the Doctor, 'what's the plan?'

  The Doctor took a deep breath and smiled.

  'Glad you asked,' he said, walking up to the console.

  'Right... Now... Who knows who Francis Galton was?'

  Jake, Vienna and Wallace frowned at him.

  'Anybody? Anybody? No? Right... Francis Galton was the inventor of the dog whistle. You must know what a dog whistle is. No...?'

  They shook their heads in unison.

  'OK... A dog whistle is a whistle that only dogs can 173

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  hear. You see, a dog can hear anything from 16,000 to 22,000 Hertz. You must know what Hertz means...

  Right?'

  'We kind of did it in school...' said Jake.

  'Molto bene! said the Doctor. 'OK... So dogs can hear anything up to 22,000 Hertz, but humans, you see, can only hear up to 20,000. Are you with me so far?'

  They nodded, still looking at him with eyebrows raised in wonder as if they didn't really understand a word of it.

  'So a dog whistle,' the Doctor continued, 'makes a sound that's over 20,000 Hertz. Comprende?

  'Comprende,' the teenagers mumbled.

  'Great stuff! Now...' The Doctor started turning dials and flicking switches on the console, 'if I do this...'

  Suddenly the TARDIS was filled with a single, near-deafeningly shrill note. Jake, Vienna and Wallace covered their ears with their hands, and then the noise ended as abruptly as it had begun.

  'Horrible, wasn't it?' said the Doctor, grinning fiendishly.

  'Ow!' said Vienna. 'Why did you do that?'

  Th
at,' said the Doctor, 'was kind of like a human dog whistle. It's a frequency that drives humans mad! If I'd tweaked it just a teensy bit more you'd have all gone blind and keeled over.'

  'You're mad!' said Wallace. 'Why would you want to do that?'

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  'OK, Wallace,’ said the Doctor. 'I know this is all a bit new and weird for you, but you're going to have to bear with me on this one, OK? Right...'

  He turned to the console once more, turning another dial and flicking another switch.

  'Now how about this?'

  The Doctor held out his hands as if he were demonstrating something sensational, but the TARDIS

  was almost silent.

  'I can't hear anything,’ said Jake.

  'No,’ said the Doctor. You can't. But to a Sontaran...'

  The teenagers looked at one another, still puzzled for a moment, until one by one the penny dropped and they looked back at him, grinning.

  'You mean...?' said Vienna.

  'Oh yes!' said the Doctor. The only thing is, I don't really fancy inviting all the Sontarans round for tea and biscuits just so I can deafen them.'

  'So what can we do?' asked Jake.

  'We,’ said the Doctor, 'need to find somewhere that we can play that noise to the whole of the colony,’

  He began pacing around the console and then, in a sudden fit of inspiration, darted out into the hotel room. The children followed, and found him staring down at the video screen in the corner of the room.

  'Oh yes,’ said the Doctor. 'Brilliant, just... brilliant,’

  175

  SIXTEEN

  The plants were now little more than a disintegrated

  mulch, a foot deep in places, that swamped the floor of the Oxygen Gardens. Sarg had only had to remind the unit that each plant contained millions and possibly billions of spores, each one capable of transforming another living being into the Rutan Host. Then, as they opened fire upon the plants with their rifles, they had taken to the task with relish.

  Now the gardens were silent, the main chamber filled with the rancid odour of burnt vegetation. The Rutan plot had been foiled, their plans destroyed. All that was left to do was to execute those humans that the Rutans had already taken.