The Taking of Chelsea 426

by Doctor Who

  Behind Mr Carstairs, more of the prisoners now came forward; tentatively at first, but gradually increasing in number, until the stricken guards were surrounded.

  Mr Carstairs looked over to the other side of the loading bay and saw his wife and a small group of residents making their way towards one of the exits. He broke free of the throng and ran to where his wife and the others had now gathered at the door.

  'Bess!' he said. 'Where are you going?'

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  'We're leaving,' said Mrs Carstairs quite calmly.

  'Leaving?' said Mr Carstairs. 'But where? We don't know what's happening yet.'

  It was now that he noticed that one of the residents at the exit was Mr Pemberton.

  The shopkeeper turned to him with a menacing glare.

  'We are leaving,' he said.

  Mr Pemberton turned to the locked door and reached out towards its security panel. There was a flash of light, and tiny bolts of electricity shot out from his finger tips, causing the security panel to fizz and spark.

  The door slid open.

  'What... ?' said Mr Carstairs. 'But how did you do that? What did you just do?'

  'We are leaving,' said Mrs Carstairs, and together she and the others walked out through the door and made their way into the colony.

  After a moment's pause, Mr Carstairs followed.

  All around him he saw warriors on their knees, wailing in agony. He had only enjoyed a moment's glory when it happened - that low rumbling, a sound that instantly rendered every Sontaran immobile. Every Sontaran except for Kade.

  He clawed his way along the ground on his hands and knees towards one end of the bridge, where soldiers lay rolling around in agony. He could hardly see; his vision

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  was blurring and warping, coloured dots dancing before his eyes.

  There was only one person in the colony who could have done this; one person who could have thought of a weakness and exploited it. The Doctor.

  However, Kade's thoughts were not of revenge. He was focused solely on stopping that sound, that crippling sound that seemed to tear through every fibre of his body.

  Using what little strength he had left, Kade dragged himself onto the wide metal platform and tore the rifle from the grasp of one of his soldiers. He looked up at the edges of the chamber and saw the large speakers from which the sound came. His hands still shaking and his head still filled with noise, he took aim and fired.

  One of the speakers exploded with a shower of sparks. He took aim at another, and fired again. He blasted the speakers apart, one by one, until, as suddenly as it had started, the noise stopped.

  The gathered Sontarans ceased their wailing and got to their feet. Kade surveyed his soldiers with disgust, then made his way to the chamber's exit. There was only one place that noise could have come from, one place where the Doctor could be. He had offered the Doctor a means to escape. The Doctor hadn't listened.

  He would have nobody to blame for his fate but himself.

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  'Oh... Not good,' said the Doctor.

  'What's not good?' asked Jake.

  The bank of monitors in the control room now showed a number of views of the colony. In one dimly lit corridor they saw General Kade, leading a procession of Sontarans away from the fusion candle.

  As they came to each new section of corridor, the General would take aim and blast apart the source of the noise that had deafened them.

  'Looks like the General's a bit miffed,' said the Doctor. Though that might be an understatement. I think he's coming this way.'

  Elsewhere in the colony, on walkways that had been deserted, passengers and residents now ran from the loading bays and out into the streets.

  'Well,' said the Doctor, 'at least it kind of worked.'

  'So what do we do now?' asked Wallace.

  'Right,' said the Doctor. 'First we have to get out of here before the General turns up. Then we have to get rid of all the ammonia. I mean, for one thing, it doesn't smell very nice, and for another, if we get rid of the ammonia we get rid of the Rutans.'

  He paused, and then smiled.

  'Rid of the Rutans. They're a very alliterative race, aren't they? Root out the Rutans... Rid of the Rutans...

  Around the ragged rock the ragged Rutan ran...'

  'Doctor,' said Vienna impatiently. 'The Sontarans...?

  Are coming this way...?'

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  'Oh, yeah,' said the Doctor, leaving the control room.

  This way, kids.'

  'Where are we going?' asked Jake.

  "The Oxygen Gardens.'

  'Hang on,' said Jake. That's where those plants are.

  The evil ones, I mean.'

  That's true,' said the Doctor. 'Not trying to tell me you're scared of a few overgrown dandelions, are you?'

  Jake huffed, as if he found the Doctor's words insulting.

  'I didn't say I was scared of dandelions,' he said.

  'Mm,' said the Doctor, with mock sympathy.

  'Petrified by pansies?'

  'No!' said Jake. 'But those plants... they're different.'

  'Yeah,' said the Doctor. 'But this time they'll have you guys to contend with, won't they?'

  The teenagers looked at one another, puzzled, and then back at the Doctor.

  'Oh, come on!' said the Doctor. 'What's with the glum faces? In an hour's time, you three will have defeated an alien race and saved the colony. And all in time for tea.'

  Jake, Vienna and Wallace laughed.

  'You're serious?' asked Vienna.

  'Oh yes,' said the Doctor.

  'How can you be so sure?'

  'Because I'm the Doctor.'

  That's it? Because you're the Doctor?'

  The Doctor nodded, standing now beside the 196

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  opening in the ventilation shaft through which they'd entered the studio.

  'Women and children first,' he said, beaming.

  'You're weird,' said Vienna, laughing as she climbed into the vent, followed quickly by Jake and Wallace.

  'Oh yes,' said the Doctor, checking that the coast was clear before joining them. 'But I'm also right.'

  'Where are you going?' asked Mr Carstairs, though he realised the question was futile. They wouldn't answer.

  The others were several paces ahead, walking with such speed and purpose that he struggled to keep up.

  'I really think we should have stayed back in the Docks,' he continued, instantly aware of how hopeless and pathetic he sounded. 'Safety in numbers and all the rest of it.'

  They came to the end of the narrow tunnel linking the Western Docks with Miramont Gardens. As they descended the metal staircase into the square itself they saw, lined up shoulder to shoulder on the other side, the Sontarans.

  'Halt!' barked the unit's group leader.

  The small group of residents stopped in their tracks.

  'Return to the Docks at once!' The Sontaran continued. 'You are prisoners of the Fourth Sontaran Intelligence Division!'

  Mr Pemberton stepped forward, walking calmly towards the Sontarans without a trace of fear.

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  'Halt!' the group leader shouted once more, but either Mr Pemberton didn't hear him, or he didn't care.

  He walked straight out into the centre of the square and stood alone before the wall of Sontaran soldiers.

  'Sontarans, prepare weapons!' bellowed the group leader.

  The long line of Sontarans lifted their rifles and took aim.

  Mr Carstairs pushed past the others in the group and held his wife by the arm.

  'Bess... Come on, Bess, we need to go back. They have guns, Bess...'

  Mrs Carstairs did not respond. She, and the others in the group, were staring blankly ahead at the Sontarans.

  'Sontarans... Fire!'
<
br />   As the muzzles of the Sontaran rifles flared red, Mr Pemberton held up the palm of his hand. The laser beams came forth in an almost blinding arc but exploded in mid air before they had a chance to reach their targets.

  Mr Pemberton's hand curled up into a fist which he threw forward, as if punching an invisible foe. One by one, the Sontarans' rifles fizzed and crackled in their hands, sparks jumping out of each weapon's inner mechanisms.

  The Sontarans dropped their guns to the ground and lifted up their batons. With an almighty battle cry they charged forward, but the residents, with the 198

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  exception of Mr Carstairs, stayed exactly where they were, unflinching.

  As one, they repeated Mr Pemberton's gesture, lifting up the palms of their hands and then flinging them forward. A visible wave of energy pulsed from one side of the square to the other, knocking back the Sontarans with the force of a hurricane.

  As the noise died down, the Sontarans got to their feet. They recovered their batons and once again charged forward, but had advanced by no more than three paces when a second wave of energy, more powerful than the last, struck them to the ground like skittles.

  Mr Carstairs looked from the fallen Sontarans to the residents. He could scarcely believe what he was seeing, but had little time to take it in. He looked at the complete lack of emotion in his wife's expression and knew right then that everything the Doctor had told him was true. He let out a brief and desperate gasp of horror, as sure as he could be that he'd lost his wife, his Bess, for good.

  As Mr Carstairs collapsed to his knees and wept, and the Sontarans got to their feet once more, Mr Pemberton, Mrs Carstairs and the others moved forward, marching silently toward their enemy with terrifying intent.

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  Thesmellofburntplantswasoverpowering.Onlya few hours earlier, the Doctor, Jake and Vienna had stood in gardens extravagantly decorated for the Flower Show; the towering plants rising up from their flowerbeds, enormous banners welcoming the guests, and the stage on the far side flanked by enormous video screens.

  Now they were in ruins. The video screens were shattered, the banners hanging in shreds, and the plants were scorched and pulped.

  'It stinks!' said Jake.

  'Yeah,' said the Doctor, sniffing the air and grimacing. 'Looks like the Sontarans got here before us. You don't need to worry about the dandelions after all, Jake.'

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  'I told you, I'm not scared of dandelions.'

  'Course not.' The Doctor looked at Jake with a cheeky grin and winked.

  They walked across the main chamber, doing their best to step around the vile black sludge that covered the whole floor from one end of the room to the other.

  'Looks like the Flower Show's over, then,' said Wallace, looking down at the smouldering flowerbeds.

  'Yeah, I reckon,' said the Doctor. 'Can't say they'll be having another one next year...'

  When they came to the corridor on the other side of the gardens, the Doctor stopped to read a large board fixed to one of the walls.

  'Right,' he said. 'Research centre... Labs... Ah! There it is! Climate Control. Come on, kids. Onwards and upwards.'

  They walked a little further down the corridor until they came to a darkened staircase.

  'I'm not going up there,' said Vienna.

  'Oh, all right, then,' said the Doctor. 'Me, Jake and Wallace here will go up, and you can stay down here with all the evil alien plants. Sound like a plan?'

  'But the plants are dead, Doctor.

  'Yeah, but that's the thing with evil alien plants, y'see. They might look dead, but.

  'All right, all right, I'll go,' said Vienna, rolling her eyes.

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  General Kade and his most senior officers stood in the deserted television studio. The control room fizzed and sparked in the aftermath of an assault that had lasted seconds. The source of that terrible sound had been destroyed, but there was no sign of the Doctor.

  Kade was about to order their return to the civic centre, in preparation for their next move, when the broken studio door creaked open and a soldier entered the room.

  'General Kade,' he said. The Rutans... They're free, sir.'

  'I thought as much,' said Kade. 'Have you engaged with them, soldier? In combat?'

  'We did, sir, but they were too strong. They have their powers, sir. Our weapons are no match for them—'

  'No match?' Kade bellowed. 'What do you mean, no match?'

  'Our rifles, sir. They exploded in our hands. There were only a few of them, but everything we tried failed.'

  'Failure is not the way of Sontar!' roared Kade.

  'But, sir...'

  The General lifted up his baton, high above the soldier's head, but did not strike. If their rifles had failed and the Rutans were now in full possession of their powers what could they do?

  There was only one option left.

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  Mr Carstairs followed them, though for the life of him he wasn't sure why.

  He had seen his wife's face as she marched towards the Sontarans, and he had seen her slaughter them without mercy. Any glimmer of hope he'd had was evaporated in that moment.

  He had wondered whether he should return to the Docks, but he couldn't go back. Not without her. He had to remind himself that it wasn't her; it wasn't his wife. But if it wasn't his wife, who was it? What was it?

  If he returned to the Docks, what would he do when he got there?

  There were so many questions and so few answers.

  Nothing made sense any more, and so he followed them. He followed them across Miramont Gardens, as the Sontarans beat a hasty retreat, and down the deserted thoroughfares towards the botanical gardens.

  Why were they going there? What did they expect to find when they got there? More and more questions, with still fewer answers.

  From distant pods in the colony he heard the sounds of battle: short electric bursts of rifle fire often followed, very quickly, by the boom of another shockwave. His wife, Mr Pemberton and the others were not the only ones, it seemed.

  A platoon of Sontarans ran past them, perhaps gathering themselves for a counter-attack, but paid them no heed. They might as well have been invisible.

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  When they eventually got to the Oxygen Gardens they found the entire area filled with acrid smoke. Mr Carstairs sensed that they were growing increasingly anxious. At least he took it to be anxiety; their expressions were so impassive they were almost impossible to read. They certainly seemed restless and, on entering the main chamber and discovering the plants there ruined, they collectively gasped.

  'Destroyed,' said Mr Pemberton, his voice low and filled with threat. 'All of them destroyed.'

  The Sontarans...' said Mrs Carstairs.

  'What's happening?' asked Vienna, peering over the Doctor's shoulder.

  'Nothing,' said the Doctor, putting on his glasses and squinting at the screen.

  'What do you mean, "nothing"?'

  They've locked this thing. Some sort of code. Typical Rutans. If the Sontarans had done this their password would have been "Sontar", I can guarantee it. But the Rutans... They're crafty little gelatinous blobs when they want to be.'

  The colony's Climate Control Centre was a small room above the Oxygen Gardens, a room filled with buttons, blinking lights, and dozens of monitors, each showing a different view of Chelsea 426.

  As the Doctor toiled at one of the computers and Vienna watched him, Jake and Wallace looked up at the

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  large wall of video screens, wide-eyed with wonder.

  The Sontarans are running away...' said Jake.

  'What's happening?'

  That'll be the Rutans,' said the Doctor. 'No more messing about for them. I've given them a golden opport
unity. The Sontarans are switching to Plan B, most likely, whatever Plan B is. Now how do I unlock this thing?'

  Vienna leaned in closer to the screen.

  'Have you tried bypassing the file membrane with a logan key?'

  The Doctor turned to her and took off his glasses.

  'What?'

  The file membrane. If you upload a logan key from the user matrix, you can bypass the file membrane.'

  'Are you still speaking English?'

  Vienna rolled her eyes.

  'Here,' she said. 'Let me do it.'

  Vienna nudged the Doctor out of the way and began tapping at keys and moving objects around the touch-screen with her fingertips.

  'What are you doing?' asked the Doctor.

  'Like I said, I'm uploading a logan key so that we can bypass the file membrane.'

  'Wait,' said the Doctor. 'Wait a minute. How come I didn't know how to do that?'

  'You don't know how to do this?'

  'No!'

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  Vienna laughed.

  'It's something you learn in school. When you're, like, 8 or something. I mean, obviously I'm not meant to be doing it on this computer, and normally there'd be people here to stop me doing this sort of thing on this computer, but... you know... they're not here. So I'm doing it.'

  'But how come I don't know how to do that?'

  'It's probably because you're old. Or because you're probably an alien. Or just because you're weird.'

  'But I know everything!'

  'Well,' said Vienna, 'clearly you don't.'

  She stepped back from the computer.

  There," she said. 'All yours.'

  The Doctor nodded, still frowning, and put his glasses back on. Sure enough, the Climate Control Centre was now at his command. Laughing gently to himself, he went about turning on the filtration units that were spread throughout the colony, instructing them to remove every last trace of ammonia from Chelsea 426.

  'Vienna!' shouted Jake, still facing the wall of video screens.

  Vienna turned from the Doctor and the console to her brother. He was pointing up at one particular screen showing an image of the Oxygen Gardens below.