by Nick Walters
‘There’s something below the surface of this planet,’
whispered Aline. ‘something ancient, something wonderful.’
‘Yeah, the Doctor mentioned it. Can’t be that wonderful if it did that to you.’
She felt Aline glance sideways at her. ‘You wouldn’t understand.’
Peri was about to give the woman a verbal lashing but she figured that as she was dying she’d let her off. By now the golden glow was all around them, consuming the walls of the tunnel, and Peri had to squint to stop her eyes from hurting.
Suddenly they emerged into a seemingly limitless space filled with golden light. In the centre was an enormous strand of matter, like a giant thread of candlewax.
‘Wow,’ said Peri. ‘So that’s what it’s all about, huh?’
Aline looked even more alien in the strange light. ‘Yes. Help me to it.’
Peri took a tentative step into the golden void. It didn’t seem to have any floor, but Peri could feel something underfoot, as hard and unyielding as stone. As they drew nearer the strand she thought she could hear voices muttering in her mind. ‘So that thing is the presence you sensed? Is it alive?’
‘Not in any sense you’d understand.’
‘Don’t patronise me,’ said Peri, for the moment forgetting how ill Aline was. What made this woman think she was so superior? Soon they were close enough to the strand for Peri’s liking. She had hold of Aline’s hand and could feel the woman trembling like a sick animal.
Aline turned to face Peri and she saw the fear in the woman’s silver-white eyes.
‘So, what do we do now?’
Aline’s lips parted in a half-grimace, half-grin. ‘Now we say goodbye.’
‘Huh?’
Aline let go of Peri’s hand and gave her a little wave.
‘Goodbye, Peri. Give my love to the Doctor.’
Aline stepped towards the strand. Its surface seemed to contain wisps of smoky matter, which writhed and churned like dark ghosts.
Peri suddenly realised what Aline meant. ‘You’re not going in there?’
Aline nodded. ‘I’ve done so before, and I’m dying anyway. What have I got to lose?’ She took hold of Peri’s hand. ‘Believe me, it’s the only way. It’s my destiny.’
Peri had no idea what the woman was babbling about. ‘But why?’
Aline let go of Peri’s hand and stood back, swaying slightly.
‘You’ll see.’
The leather jacket seemed to hang loosely on her body like a shell. Peri fought down a perverse desire to ask for it back, and said instead, ‘Look, this is nuts. Whatever it is you’re gonna do it’s probably dangerous - why don’t we wait until we can find the Doctor?’
But Aline just shook her head and smiled. Her eyes were drawn towards the strand. Part of its surface was bulging outwards, a distended stomach of syrup-gold matter, elongating towards Aline.
‘See - it knows. It wants me.’ Aline turned away from Peri to face the advancing mass of matter.
Peri backed away. Although she didn’t particularly like Aline, the prospect of another death was almost too much. Apart from herself and the Doctor, everyone had died. Everyone human, that is. ‘Pity we never got the chance to know each other better,’
she found herself saying, as Aline walked towards the bulging strand.
But Aline hadn’t heard her.
Peri watched aghast as she stepped into the belly of matter.
There wasn’t even any sound as the golden stuff closed around her and the bulge sank back into the main mass.
Peri was left alone in a golden void, whispering voices tantalising her mind.
She folded her arms and stared up at the column of alien matter. ‘What the hell happens now?’
Veek stood victorious before the hunters. Her body registered pain from the multitude of cuts and blows she had received, but it felt good to her. Her flesh sang with victory. She could see Trenex’s eyes glinting with lust as he observed her nakedness. Maybe she’d take him as her new mate. He certainly seemed lithe and strong, and his eyes shone with an intelligence Flayoun had lacked all the way to his inglorious end.
Veek felt giddy with power. The Gods were dead, the Great Mission over - more, it had never stood any chance of success -so now they could all go home.
‘I will now speak freely the thoughts that have been gathering in my mind throughout this Great Mission. The Gods are dead - accept it. I have seen proof of this. The Great Mission has reduced us all to a state of mindless slavery. Our ancestors, Azreske’s cubs and vixens, were cunning, inventive
- they survived the wrath of the Gods and rebuilt Valeth Skettra. It was a folly to go leaping across space to try to find and destroy the Gods. It has been over a thousand years since we left Valeth Skettra and it’s time we returned. Are any of you with me?’
There was silence. They were all staring at her.
Hunter Trenex stepped forward. He was blinking quickly, tongue lolling from his mouth. ‘Hunt Marshal Veek,’ he growled.
He licked his lips and made as if to speak again, but then his gaze shifted over Veek’s shoulder and he snapped his jaws shut.
All the hunters’ eyes followed the line of his gaze. Veek swung round.
The crowd had parted to reveal Vale Commander Kikker, the Doctor held in a tight grip at his side. In his other hand was a blaster, and it was pointing at her.
‘Stirring words, vixen,’ he spat. He shoved the Doctor down to the ground. ‘Take him!’
Two hunters sprang forward and hauled the Doctor to his feet.
Veek looked around for a gap in the crowd, but she could see nowhere to run. Now the exertion of her fight and the wounds she’d sustained began to throb with a new pain, the strength-sapping ache of defeat.
Kikker strode up to her, blaster in one hand, spike-knife in the other. Though he kept his eyes on her he raised his voice so all the hunters could hear.
‘The Gods are dead,’ he cried, ‘but we still have the means to complete the Great Mission.’
Veek glanced beyond Kikker to the Doctor, held tightly by two snarling hunters. His head hung in defeat and realisation dawned.
Veek groaned.
Kikker was now standing before her, teeth bared, eyes alight with bloodlust. ‘But before we do, I will eviscerate this heretic!’
Aline found herself, as before, floating in a thick, syrupy mass. She could feel it all around her body, fuzzy and tingling. Somehow she could breathe, and to move around all she had to do was think. She looked down at her body and wondered how much longer she would need it.
She could see Peri through the surface of the strand, a dark, shadow against the glare. She should have told the girl what she planned, but she hadn’t wanted to breathe a word of it in case Peri had stopped her. It occurred to Aline that Peri might also die, and she wished she could tell her to try to make for the TARDIS. Well, she still could. She struggled back towards the surface of the strand, but it was no good. Its currents had snared her.
She fell deep within its golden core, to the thing that lived within. Somehow, one of the Khorlthochloi had been able to project a telepathic message to the strand before it died, programming it to warn all other higher evolutionaries of the dangers of transcending the physical plane.
But the strand was much more than a mere recorded message. It controlled the Garden, regulated the seasons, fed the Gardeners with nutrients, performed a thousand million tasks. Furthermore, it was a massive store of energy, an untapped potential ready for the Khorlthochloi to use when they returned, an event that would never happen now.
The energy remained locked within the strand, ready for release. All it needed was a little mental nudge...
Aline drew near the centre and, as before, it’s terrifying beauty took her breath away. It was a coil of dark matter, like fused metal and stone, arranged in a double-spiral. Its size was impossible to guess. Along the length of the spiral was threaded the core of the plasma strand, a line of pure light, pu
re power.
Aline floated down towards the spiral. She knew what she wanted from it, but would it understand? Would it recognise her as a higher evolutionary, as it had done before, and obey her commands?
She felt as light as a feather, her body was almost an afterthought. She closed her eyes, delving deep within her mind, projecting her thoughts at the core of the strand.
Aline felt something stirring within her as the parts of her that had been touched by her Encounter began to wake. It had happened the first time she’d entered the strand and she was prepared for it now - she wouldn’t let it swamp her own being as it had before.
She smiled with gratification as the immense spiral began to turn, and the column of light began to pulse in time with her heartbeat.
Peri was beginning to realise that Aline wasn’t coming back.
Whatever she’d planned clearly wasn’t happening. She turned back, intending to head for the tunnels and find the Doctor. But she couldn’t see the way out - there was nothing to see around her except this shimmering golden void.
‘Hey!’ she turned back to the strand, raising a fist as if to batter upon its surface, but hesitated. She didn’t want to touch the stuff, end up like Aline. ‘Hey, Aline!’ she called, feeling slightly foolish. ‘There’s no way out!’
No answer came, not that she expected any.
Then she glimpsed something deep within the golden matter. Nodes of white light were forming in its amber depths, like stars. And they were getting bigger. As they grew, the muttering in Peri’s mind grew in volume until her head was filled with screams.
Peri screamed too, but she couldn’t hear her own voice. She sank to the invisible floor, hands clasped over her ears, and watched as the nodes of light grew bigger, and bigger, until all Peri could see was their dazzling, shimmering forms.
And then with a roar of energy, they burst from the surface of the strand.
Kikker drew his knife-hand back, ready to plunge it into Veek’s guts.
Veek closed her eyes.
Through the purple mist behind her eyelids she pictured rains of Valeth Skettra for the last time.
Then she heard a voice. A human voice. ‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you.’
The Doctor’s voice.
Veek snapped her eyes open.
The Doctor had struggled free of his captors and was approaching Kikker, hands held behind his back. He looked so unconcerned that Veek had to fight down a bark of laughter.
Kikker swung round with a hiss. ‘Give me one good reason why I should spare the life of this heretic!’
‘One good reason,’ said the Doctor brightly, his eyes glittering, ‘is that I will refuse to show you how to operate the TARDIS if you harm Veek. There’s also the question of Peri and Aline,’ said the Doctor, looking round. ‘Where are they?
You haven’t killed them, have you? Because if you have we’re going nowhere.’
While the Doctor spoke a growl had been building up within Kikker’s chest, his whole body trembling with anger. He let out a screech of rage and raised his blaster. ‘I will work out how to operate the TARDIS myself! Give me the key!’
With a look of resignation, the Doctor held out the key.
With a triumphant sneer Kikker snatched it from his hands and turned towards the TARDIS, which was only a short run away at the edge of the cavern.
At that moment a ball of white energy crackled from a tunnel mouth on the far side of the cavern. The size of a short-range skirmisher, it was like a miniature sun, and it hurt Veek’s eyes to look at it. The whole cavern was lit silver-white,
the
green
phosphorescence
totally
overwhelmed.
Everyone turned to look at the manifestation, and many hunters screamed, falling to their knees in terror, shrieking that the Gods had arrived to destroy them.
The mini-sun paused at the edge of the cavern as if watching them, and then it swooped forwards, crackling and hissing, on to the hunters nearby. Veek could see them twist and burn, their death-screeches echoing round the cavern.
Another ball of energy followed it. And then another.
Veek realised that no one had hold of her any more. The terrified hunters were fleeing for their lives.
Veek dived for the floor as the ball of energy crackled above her, landing by the Doctor. Sounds of incineration and the screeches of the dying were everywhere.
The Doctor was injured: blood poured from a wound on his forehead. He was shouting something but she could hear nothing, her ears full of the sizzling roar of the mini-suns.
Booted feet stumbled into her as blinded hunters tried desperately to escape.
The Doctor put his mouth to her ear and yelled. ‘Don’t look at it. Stay low. Make for the TARDIS!’
He scrambled to his feet and shoved his way through the hunters, Veek following close behind. Despite the Doctor’s words she wanted to look behind her but kept her eyes front, on the silver-lit walls of the cavern, on the TARDIS, dwarfed by the stalactites -
And Vale Commander Kikker standing in front of it, key in the lock, gun aimed straight at the Doctor.
Veek slid to a halt and ducked down behind an outcrop of rock, hoping that Kikker hadn’t seen her. She risked a quick look behind; the mini-suns were streaking about the cavern like trapped meteors, bouncing off the walls and roof, causing great chunks of rock to break off. Those that weren’t incinerated by the white-hot energy were crushed beneath the falling slabs.
She looked back at Kikker and the Doctor. It wouldn’t be long before the mini-suns ricocheted into their corner, and that would be it. Fortunately, Kikker hadn’t seen her and was screaming at the Doctor, his voice inaudible.
Veek calculated the distance between them and leapt, propelling her body at the Vale Commander.
Kikker saw her at the last moment and turned, eyes widening in surprise. He swung his blaster round - too late.
Veek slammed into him and they both fell. He still had the blaster in one hand and the golden TARDIS key-chain in the other.
A flash of energy to her left. She didn’t have time for an honourable kill.
As Kikker struggled beneath her, she drew his own spike-knife from his belt and thrust it into the soft flesh beneath his jaw, up through the roof of his mouth and into his brain.
The Vale Commander died instantly. Veek smelled and tasted his final breath, his body arched into a bow-shape and she tumbled off. She reached for the key-chain - but it had gone -
in their struggle Kikker had flung it into the cavern.
It lay several metres away, directly in the path of a speeding ball of energy. There was no time to reach it. She heard a yell from behind her, stood and turned - to see the Doctor at the TARDIS door, face a mask of blood - and the TARDIS door was open!
Not understanding how this was possible, Veek leapt at the Doctor and bore him and herself into the bright, white interior of the TARDIS.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Final Destiny
Veek and the Doctor fell together in a heap on the floor of the console room. The doors closed behind them, cutting out the sounds of screaming and the sizzling of the mini-suns.
They extricated themselves from each other, both panting heavily.
Their eyes met.
‘You saved my life,’ said Veek, at the same moment the Doctor said the exact same words.
She helped the Doctor to his feet and he all but fell on to the console.
‘That has to be the closest escape yet.’ he gasped.
‘How did you open the door without the key?’
‘I didn’t.’ He held up the small golden object, smiling triumphantly. ‘You intervened just in time - it was already in the lock; must have snapped off the chain.’ He operated a control and the scanner screen came to life.
It showed a cavern full of fleeing hunters, pursued by blinding white spheres of energy.
The Doctor’s face was a mask of pain. ‘I do hope
Peri and Aline are well out of the way of that lot.’ He moved around the console, operating more controls. ‘Now I wonder where it’s coming from?’
Veek stared at the screen. She saw Trenex running towards the TARDIS, and was about to ask the Doctor to open the doors when a ball of energy descended upon him, frying him in an instant. Now she’d never know if he was on her side.
Never have the chance to mate with him. All the hunters were dying, and there was nothing she could do about it.
‘Can’t we help them?’ she said. ‘What is that strange energy?’
‘The last defences of the Garden?’ muttered the Doctor.
‘There’s nothing we can do. The only safe place is here in the TARDIS.’ Veek looked helplessly at the screen. Few hunters remained alive. Was this the price they paid for the folly of the Great Mission? Was her survival her reward for staying true to her nature?
The Doctor operated a lever and the column in the centre of the console began to rise and fall.
‘Where are we going?’
The Doctor mopped his forehead with the once-white cloth.
‘To the source.’ He frowned as he looked at the cloth, his own red blood mingling with the dried stains of the blood of the insect Veek had killed. ‘I’ve got a disturbing idea about what’s causing all this.’
Peri curled into a ball, trying to block out the screaming maelstrom of light. Whatever Aline had planned, it had gone horribly wrong. Peri expected at any second to be fried by the whirling spheres of energy. A hot wind tore about her, like the aftermath of a nuclear explosion, she imagined. She peered between her fingers now and then, but all she could see was a whiteness that hurt her eyes. Why wasn’t she being harmed?
Then inside the howling wall of sound, she became aware of another noise. A grating, trumpeting sound, somewhere off to her left.
She sat up and squinted through her fingers. There, in the middle of the gale of light, a familiar shape was forming.