June grabbed the Doctor’s arm and dragged him back from the high heap of sandbags. ‘We’ve got to get out of here,’ she said.
‘Nah,’ he said. ‘It’s not going to explode. Trust me. All that energy is being focused into the stones.’
The heap of sandbags began to shift with pink steam, and the stalagmites started to glow. June tried to drag the Doctor back from whatever was happening, but he looked on in fascination. Pink steam poured from the sandbags, enveloping the tall stones. Slowly the light faded from the tiny sphere and the pink steam dispersed into the air.
‘Oh,’ said the Doctor with disappointment. ‘I thought it would be more exciting.’
He took a step forward and knocked his knuckles against the first of the stalagmites. The stone creaked like leather and then collapsed in small pieces, revealing the thing hidden inside.
Mamps stood there, her green flesh glistening wet, pink steam curling from her long talons.
‘Thought so,’ beamed the Doctor.
‘They survived,’ said June in horror.
‘Oh yeah,’ said the Doctor. ‘Slitheen are pretty hard-wearing. They just calcified over time. Maybe they can do it on purpose, or it’s just a sign of old age. But their soft tissues harden, mineral deposits build up. And slowly they turn to stone. Some enterprising soul thought they were statues and sent them to Athens, because it’s hot on sculpture. And the Athenians thought they were ugly and stored them in the cellar. Something like that, I expect.’
‘They were never rescued by their siblings,’ said June.
‘No,’ said the Doctor. ‘They’ve been stuck here for thousands of years. Buried under drips of limestone. Until we reversed the process.’
He tapped his knuckles on the other two stalagmites, which collapsed to reveal Cosmo and Leeb. They stood, eyes closed, not even breathing, pink steam curling from their wet flesh.
‘Um,’ said June. ‘Do you think that’s a good idea?’
‘What?’ said the Doctor. ‘They’re not going to be any trouble. And I’ve unlocked the space police, too. Not that they seem to have noticed. Oh well, they’ll all be a bit slow and confused to begin with. Like anyone after a long sleep.’
But as he spoke the words, June saw Mamps’s face twitch into a cruel smile. The Doctor turned to see, and Mamps’s huge black eyes gazed back at him.
‘Good morning,’ said the Doctor, kindly.
‘Yeah,’ gurgled Mamps, sounding very awake. ‘It will be.’
And she and the other two Slitheen pounced.
TWENTY-FOUR
THE DOCTOR GRABBED June just in time, yanking her out of the way of Mamps’s claws. Mamps, Cosmo and Leeb smacked hard into the rock wall of the cave and fell back, stunned. For a moment, June thought they’d knocked themselves unconscious, but then they began to stir. The Doctor grabbed her hand.
‘Quick,’ he said. ‘We don’t have much of a head start.’
They ran hand in hand up the gravel pathway, out into the daylight. June felt a stab of pain in her guts, her stitches straining with the effort.
‘What are we going to do?’ she said.
‘Easy,’ said the Doctor, and then vanished in a green blur. He and Mamps tumbled down the ruins of the ancient theatre towards where the TARDIS stood waiting. The Doctor kicked and fought, giving as good as he got. Mamps wailed with surprise and pain.
June could do nothing to help. She turned to see Leeb and Cosmo emerging from the cave. They tottered uneasily, not fully awake. But when they spied her, Leeb smiled cruelly.
‘Breakfast,’ he gurgled.
June turned and ran as fast as she could, clutching her aching sides.
Leeb and Cosmo’s footsteps slapped the dry ground behind her. June’s first thought was to run down the theatre to the Doctor and the TARDIS, but Leeb leapt in front of her, blocking her path. She twisted, racing back up the ruined steps and following the path that led round the side of the Acropolis. Up above them, she heard the noisy tourists cry out at the strange sight. Then there came the clicks of cameras capturing the image of June running for her life.
She half-ran, half-slid down the steep path, unsteady in the shoes the Doctor had found her in some cupboard of the TARDIS. As she heaved her legs up the steep facing slope, she heard a crash behind her. Leeb and Cosmo had taken the hill with too much speed and come crashing down. She didn’t stop, using the slight advantage to gain some distance.
Heart hammering, gut almost on fire, she staggered along the pathway and up past the ticket kiosk. The queue of customers stared at her in amazement as she ran past. As she caught sight of the good-looking guard on the gate, she heard the tourists scream out in terror behind her. And the gurgling delight of the Slitheen as they tore through the crowd.
The guard ran forward to help, but June grabbed his hand and dragged him through the gate and up the steps onto the high rock. ‘What are those things?’ he asked in horror, but she didn’t have the breath left to answer.
At the top of the steps, she dared to glance back. The two Slitheen were still hard on her heels. Leeb leered up at her. ‘There’s no escape,’ he said.
June let go of the guard’s hand and sprinted round the side of the ruin of the Parthenon, her feet scrunching on the bright gravel. The noisy tourists parted around her, then screamed at the two Slitheen bearing down on them. June didn’t look back, she raced to the far end of the Acropolis, where it looked down to the theatre.
The TARDIS stood there, just as she’d left it, tiny from so far above. But she could not see the Doctor or Mamps.
Gravel scrunched behind her and she turned to see Leeb and Cosmo trotting easily towards her. They extended their talons towards her, both wearing the same evil grin.
‘You don’t have to do this,’ she told them, barely able to get the words out.
‘You and your friend didn’t have to ruin our business,’ said Leeb.
‘And anyway,’ said Cosmo. ‘We’re hungry.’
He pounced. Leeb pounced too. And just before their talons touched her, June threw herself down onto the gravel. The Slitheen cried out, realising too late what she’d done. Leeb grabbed for the safety rail as he flew over it, but his great claws clattered on the metal and could not get purchase. He and Cosmo disappeared over the edge of the high rock with a wail of despair.
June struggled to her feet, her whole body aching. She carefully leant over the railing, just in time to see the two Slitheen smack into the steps of the theatre. They rolled clumsily down to the bottom, arms and legs waggling, crashing hard into the TARDIS. She watched them lying there, still on the stone floor, feeling nothing but horror. Her gut ached with the exertion, but her stitches remained in place. She needed to sit down.
Other tourists approached her, leaning over the railing to gaze down on the two Slitheen. June ignored their questions. She needed to see what had happened to the Doctor. But as she stood up again the tourists cried out in excitement. June pushed past them to look over the railing again.
The Slitheen were getting to their feet. They dusted each other down, shaking their heads to clear their senses. Then they looked up at the high rock, looked right up at June, and grinned their wicked grins.
She shuddered with fear, knowing she had nothing left to give, not even able to run away. The Slitheen blinked up at her. And then they threw up their claws.
June followed their gaze, up the slope of the theatre, to where a group of figures stood. Mamps had her claws behind her back, prisoner of the grey blobby aliens who were wielding some kind of ray guns. The Doctor stood with them, looking dishevelled from the fight but otherwise OK. He supervised the blobby aliens as they cuffed Leeb and Cosmo. But as the aliens led their prisoners back up to the cave, the Doctor remained by the TARDIS.
She wanted to call out to him, but couldn’t with all the tourists around her. And he’d said he didn’t like goodbyes . . .
Then a hand clamped down on her shoulder. She turned with a start to see the good-looking guard,
some Greek policemen just behind him.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘But you’ll need to answer some questions.’
She denied everything. They sat her under the shade of the Parthenon and brought a cup of tea, but she couldn’t explain any of what had happened. Partly, she knew they wouldn’t understand. And partly she didn’t have the vocabulary. They kept using the word kostaumi – they must think the Slitheen had been men in costume.
With a pang of loss, she realised the Doctor must have gone, that she no longer shared his magic ability to understand any language. He had brought her back, just as he’d promised. But she felt awful at not being able to have thanked him for everything she’d seen. Because despite all the horror and exhaustion, she had loved being with him.
The police eventually decided she couldn’t help them and agreed to let her go. Knowing it was all over, June walked one last time round the high rock, allowing herself one quick glance down at the ruin of the theatre. The TARDIS still stood there.
June made her way quickly back to the exit, ignoring the good-looking guard as he tried to ask her for a drink. She made her way gingerly along the same path she had now followed so many times before. The last slope took the breath from her, but she would not have dreamt of stopping. She staggered down the uneven steps of the theatre, almost laughing out loud at the site of the blue police box stood there so incongruously. It trembled with strange power as she reached for the door. But it would not open.
June slapped her hands against the wood panels. ‘Doctor!’ she called. ‘Doctor!’
She almost fell in on him when the door creaked open.
‘Hello,’ he said. ‘You took your time.’
‘I had to answer some questions.’
He sighed. ‘Me too. Had to pop back to the year Arlene-plus-22 and fill in loads of forms. Turns out Cecrops was right. His family has taken the Slitheen business to pieces and got them on all sorts of charges. They couldn’t send anyone back to rescue Mamps and the others because the time bus got impounded.’
‘So the blobby aliens wanted to arrest Mamps and the others,’ she said.
‘Yeah,’ said the Doctor, awkwardly. ‘I sort of got the wrong end of the stick. Nearly ended up with a charge of obstructing justice.’
‘But if you hadn’t,’ said June, ‘you wouldn’t have met me, we wouldn’t have gone back in time, and we wouldn’t have stopped the Slitheen in the first place.
‘That’s what I told them,’ said the Doctor. ‘Let me off with a warning. I suppose that’s OK.’
June grinned at him. ‘So it’s all worked out,’ she said.
But the Doctor looked away into the distance. ‘I think so,’ he said. ‘But at what cost.’
She nodded sadly. ‘All those people who died,’ she said.
The Doctor looked back at her. ‘And you’ll have missed your train home.’
She gaped at him for a moment, then quickly checked her watch. Her train would have left more than half an hour before. And the next would miss her connection, so she’d never get back to St Pancras. After everything she’d been through, she wanted to laugh.
‘What am I going to do?’ she said.
‘Well,’ said the Doctor. ‘I came back because I’ve still got your rucksack. You’ll need your passport to book another train.’ His eyes twinkled. ‘Or . . .’
‘Or?’ she said, already knowing what he was going to ask her.
‘Or I could give you a lift.’
She looked him up and down. ‘Straight home to Birmingham. No detours.’
‘Scout’s honour.’
‘No answering distress signals? Nothing dangerous or mad?’
‘Of course not,’ he said. And then he smiled at her. His dark eyes twinkled with mischief.
Laughing, June followed him inside.
Acknowledgements
I’ve pillaged history and lots of people’s hard work to cobble together this story. Cecrops, Aglauros and several other of the characters appear in The Greek Myths, as retold by Robert Graves. I used Louise Schofield’s The Mycenaeans as a guide to 1500 BC, and Mary Beard’s The Parthenon and Ian Jenkins’ The Parthenon Sculptures to find my way round the site now and as it was in its heyday.
Ken Dowden’s The Uses of Greek Mythology explores how the ancient stories have been spun and adapted to suit the needs of each new generation. Three of Dowden’s former students – Debbie Challis, Xanna Eve Chown and Scott Handcock – made comments on various bits of this book, catching my more embarrassing errors. Debbie also marched me round the Acropolis telling me clever things and pointed me in the direction of the ancient Greek bits in the British Museum.
Russell T Davies, Rob Francis, Rupert Laight, Gareth Roberts and Gary Russell also spared time to answer questions on the finer points of Slitheen history and culture.
Thanks also to Robert Dick, Amanda Lindsay and Manpreet Sidhu for their assistance. Lastly, thanks to Justin for letting me write the thing, Steve for correcting my spelling, Lee for another amazing cover, and everyone at BBC Books.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Epub ISBN: 9781409070221
Version 1.0
www.randomhouse.co.uk
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Published in 2009 by BBC Books, an imprint of Ebury Publishing. Ebury Publishing is a division of the Random House Group Ltd.
© Simon Guerrier, 2009
Simon Guerrier has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.
Doctor Who is a BBC Wales production for BBC One
Executive Producers: Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner
Original series broadcast on BBC Television. Format © BBC 1963.
‘Doctor Who’, ‘TARDIS’ and the Doctor Who logo are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence.
Slitheen created by Russell T Davies.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
The Random House Group Ltd Reg. No. 954009.
Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at www.randomhouse.co.uk.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 846 07640 4
The Slitheen Excursion Page 17