[Sarah Jane Adventures 02] - Revenge of the Slitheen

by RUPERT LAIGHT

  Mr Blakeman and Mr Jeffrey stood side-by-side in the foyer surveying the dawdlers through the window.

  ‘Goodbye, repellent pubescents.’ The heads false smile turned into a very real frown. ‘Until tomorrow.’

  Jeffrey wriggled uncomfortably and rubbed his thighs. ‘This skin. It’s killing me round the legs.’ Blakeman ignored him. ‘Right. Time for a test run,’ he announced, rubbing his hands together with glee.

  ‘Now?’ queried his colleague. ‘What about the caretaker?’

  ‘I’ve taken care of the caretaker,’ the head replied, chuckling at his own cleverness. ‘At last, everything is ready. Come on!’

  A car pulled up outside number thirteen Bannerman Road. It was Sarah Jane’s car. Her passengers, Luke and Maria, got out, followed by Sarah herself.

  Then another car pulled up directly across the road at number twelve. It was Maria’s dad, Alan Jackson. He was back from work early.

  ‘I see you’ve cadged a lift,’ he called to Maria as he got out.

  Sarah Jane replied on her behalf. ‘I offered.’

  ‘I dunno,’ sighed Alan. ‘Lady Muck - getting the neighbours to chauffeur her about!’

  ‘Shut up, Dad!’ said Maria, jokingly.

  ‘So, how was your first day then?’ asked Alan.

  ‘Okay…’ But there was something Maria wanted to say. ‘It’s a bit weird though,’ she ventured. ‘The headmaster doesn’t seem to want to be there.’ She paused, wondering how her next words would sound. ‘And he keeps… farting.’

  ‘What - noisy, smelly ones?’ joked Alan. ‘Or silent-but-deadlies?’

  ‘Both. It was like he’d had three biryanis the night before.’

  ‘The place stinks of batteries, too,’ added Luke. ‘And the canteen food was off.’

  ‘I’ll make you a proper tea,’ said Sarah to the lad, and she gestured towards their front door.

  ‘Bye,’ called Luke, then went inside.

  ‘I want a proper tea, too,’ demanded Maria, with a playful smile.

  ‘Make it yourself,’ teased her dad. ‘Sarah Jane may be your chauffeur, but I’m not your cook!’

  ‘Dad!’ protested Maria, and she headed over the road to her own house. Sarah Jane and Alan were left alone.

  ‘Well, the school can’t be that bad. They just built this.’ She took out the local newspaper from her bag.

  On page three was an article about Park Vale, with a cheesy photo of Blakeman pointing at the new block - in case you might accidentally miss it.

  ‘This new technology centre was put up over the holidays,’ said Sarah. ‘Someone donated the money. Looks incredible.’

  Alan was thinking. ‘I did an IT job at a school. It was in a new block that looked exactly like that one.’ He paused. ‘Now I think about it, that placed smelt odd, too. Kind of electrical.’

  ‘Like batteries?’

  ‘Sort of. Plus, if you took sandwiches in, they’d be off by lunchtime.’

  Sarah Jane was studying the report. If her brain had been a clock, you would have heard the ticking speed up. She was making connections most of us would see as coincidence. ‘Was it built by Coldfire Construction?’

  Alan nodded.

  ‘Where was that?’

  ‘Other side of town. St Cheldon’s, in Upminster.’

  Maria stuck her head round the front door and called across to her dad. ‘What d’ya want for tea then?’

  ‘Forget it. We’ll phone for a curry. Can’t have you straining yourself after your long journey home.’ He gave her a knowing wink.

  ‘Think you’re so funny, don’t you?’ Maria stuck her tongue out playfully and disappeared back inside the house.

  Sarah Jane noted their easy relationship with one another. Though she’d chosen to look after Luke when he’d escaped the Bane, having had no kids of her own, she was unsure how it all worked. It was one of the few things in life she was unsure about.

  ‘How did you get like that - you and Maria?’ she asked, trying not to sound jealous.

  ‘It’s always been like this,’ he replied, shrugging. ‘Don’t really think about it.’

  Sarah Jane smiled sadly and went inside.

  In a concealed room within the new block at Park Vale School, Blakeman and Jeffrey were putting their twisted plan into action.

  In front of them was a control panel. But it was nothing like they’d ever seen before - not even on the latest mobile phone, or the most up-to-date computer. It was comfortably old-fashioned, as if everything had been made easy to use, with levers and knobs instead of flashing lights and touch-operated displays. Yet it was also incredibly high-tech.

  This was alien technology.

  Jeffrey pushed a lever away from him and, as he did so, a low hum began, like the sound of a fridge. However, this hum was gradually growing louder and louder…

  ‘That’s it,’ said Blakeman, light flashing across his bloated features. ‘Now synchronise the megawattage.’

  Jeffrey scanned the panel for the correct switch.

  ‘That one!’ boomed the headmaster.

  ‘Erm…’ Mr Jeffrey scratched his head.

  ‘Oh, I’ll do it myself!’

  Blakeman flicked a seemingly insignificant switch. The hum doubled in volume and climbed the scale to a high-pitched whine. Smoke started to fill the room. Sparks crackled around the edges of the machine.

  The capacitor was powering up…

  Sarah Jane’s study in the attic of thirteen Bannerman Road was a magical place. It was cluttered with bits and pieces of alien technology that its owner had gathered from her travels. Yet it still felt homely - a playroom for a grown-up. It was Sarah Jane’s den, her refuge, and the place in the world where she felt safest.

  On the shelves and tacked to the walls were photos from Sarah Jane’s travels - the Brigadier, whom she’d once worked with at UNIT. Harry Sullivan, another old friend of the Doctor’s. A sketch of a Dalek. A picture of her and K-9 at Morton Harewood. These were all things that no one but her closest friends were allowed to see.

  Sarah Jane was sat at her computer, scrolling through lists of results the search engine had spewed out. Her notebook was lying open on the table beside her. To an untrained eye her notes would have made no sense, but Sarah Jane had her own way of doing things.

  ‘I kept making social mistakes today.’ Luke had quietly entered the room.

  Sarah Jane carried on looking at the screen. ‘I think I made one too - driving you to school when it’s just round the corner. Then kissing you goodbye.’ Sarah Jane spoke to Luke like she would an adult. ‘We’re both new hands at this.’

  ‘I don’t know anybody except Maria and Clyde,’ explained Luke. ‘Maria’s in different classes to me most of the time. And Clyde thinks I’m uncool.’

  ‘Clyde’s not the only kid in the school.’

  ‘What if I make more mistakes?’

  ‘Then you’ll never make the same ones again.’ Sarah Jane felt she was starting to get the hang of this ‘mother’ thing. ‘Listen, anyone’s nervous starting a new school, a new job, a new…’ She stopped, remembering the time when she first travelled with the Doctor. But that wasn’t a good example.

  ‘I’ve never been a mum before,’ she offered instead.

  Luke sighed. ‘Do I have to go?’

  Sarah Jane gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile. ‘I could take you out of school and teach you myself. I considered it.’ She took Luke’s hand. ‘But you, Luke Smith, you’re going to live a normal life. As normal a life as I can give you.’ Deep down, however, Sarah Jane knew life would never be normal when she was around, but she had to reassure him somehow. ‘All the rules, making friends, reading the signals - it just happens.’

  ‘What if I get it wrong again?’ said Luke. ‘It makes me feel stupid.’

  ‘Remember,’ said Sarah Jane, and she looked her new-found son in the eye as she spoke, ‘you saved the world on the day you were born. Not many people can say that.’

  ‘Nobod
y else can say that.’ Luke looked away. ‘And that’s the problem. Nobody else is like me.’ Sarah Jane didn’t know what to say. She just smiled, then gently let go of his hand and turned back to the computer.

  ‘What are you looking for?’ Luke asked, his natural curiosity getting the better of him.

  ‘Checking up on the firm that built your new school block.’ Sarah Jane glanced at her notebook. ‘They’re called Coldhre Construction. They started expanding eighteen months ago. Contracts all round the world. Some odd things cropping up.’ She fell silent, her eyes narrowed in thought. ‘Now they’re putting up school buildings all round London.’ Sarah Jane chuckled to herself. ‘Makes a change for me. At least it’s not aliens!’

  But she couldn’t have been more wrong…

  Chapter Three

  ‘Lights out, London! ’

  ‘Only me!’ declared a loud voice.

  Marias mum, Chrissie, was a woman who liked to make her presence felt. ‘I’ve come for a gawp.’ She was also painfully honest.

  Alan was brushed to one side as his former wife barged her way through the front door and down the hallway.

  Once in the living room, Chrissie fell silent - which didn’t happen often - coolly appraising the decor and furnishings. ‘Well, you’ve got it looking kind of all right,’ she admitted, begrudgingly.

  ‘Thanks. I really value your opinion,’ added Alan, sarcastically.

  Chrissie ignored him. ‘Maria upstairs?’

  ‘Yeah. It seemed to go okay for her today.’

  ‘What went okay?’

  ‘Her first day - at a new school.’

  For a moment, Alan had forgotten how thoughtless Chrissie could be, but this brought it all back. How could he ever have believed their marriage would work?

  ‘Was that today?’ she asked. ‘My mind’s been all over the place. Stress you would not believe - ’ Chrissie would have gone on, but Alan cut in. ‘So why did you come round?’

  ‘To see my daughter, Alan,’ she replied, sharply. ‘Do I need any other reason? Though now I think, you were gonna give me that double duvet.’ She headed out into the hall. ‘You don’t need it, you’ve got the single.’

  Alan sighed. Did he have a choice?

  ‘Maria, love!’ she called. ‘It’s your mum!’

  Mr Jeffrey and Mr Blakeman stared at the light coming from their machinery. As they did so, the sound that had once been a hum was becoming a loud, intense rumbling. The sparks and smoke the equipment was emitting increased in ferocity.

  Jeffrey threw another lever on the control panel. ‘There!’ he said, triumphant.

  Blakeman let out a sinister, self-satisfied laugh. ‘Lights out, London!’ he said.

  Chrissie, Alan and Maria were sitting in the lounge.

  ‘The school can’t be that bad,’ Chrissie told Maria. ‘This is a better catchment area.’ She looked at her watch. ‘I can’t stop long. Ivan’s taking me to the pub. It’s opera night. The waiters sing while you’re eating.’

  Now she lived with her dad, Maria hardly saw her mum. It wasn’t just that they now lived quite far apart, it was also due to the fact that Ivan had come onto the scene. Ivan was Chrissie’s boyfriend.

  Maria was just about to ask her mum to stay on a little longer, when every light at number twelve Bannerman Road suddenly went out.

  ‘Great,’ said Alan, frowning.

  ‘There’s a torch,’ offered Maria, and she fetched it from the sideboard. She pushed the ‘on’ switch. For a moment it lit up, but quickly faded to blackness.

  ‘With a flat battery,’ said Chrissie, unhelpfully.

  Alan sighed.

  ‘I’m not saying anything,’ huffed Chrissie.

  ‘I’ll get the candles,’ he said.

  Over the road, number thirteen was dark too. Sarah Jane was searching through a drawer.

  ‘Power cut?’ Luke asked.

  Sarah Jane nodded. The computer went pffft, and guess who forgot to save her work…’

  She found what she was looking for. A torch. But when she turned it on, it went straight off again.

  ‘Oh, great,’ said Sarah Jane. Then she remembered, and glanced at her watch. But it wasn’t the time she was interested in.

  She flipped open the face to reveal her scanner. The Doctor had given it to her. He’d assembled it using technology from beyond the stars. It could help detect aliens and do all sorts of things a normal watch couldn’t.

  ‘I’ll see how long it’s gonna be,’ continued Sarah Jane. ‘I can check the local power grid on my…’ But she trailed off. The scanner watch was dead. Sarah Jane was flabbergasted. ‘That’s impossible. It never loses power.’ She paused, staring at Luke. ‘It can’t lose power.’

  Alan brought the candles through from the kitchen. ‘There we go,’ he said.

  Chrissie was looking out the window into the darkened street. There wasn’t a glimmer of man-made light to be seen. For once, you could appreciate the stars in their full glory.

  ‘Goes as far as I can see,’ she noted. ‘Used to happen all the time when I was a kid. And always when there was something good on the telly.’ She smiled to herself. ‘Went off right in the middle of Manimal once. I was distraught.’

  Alan lit the candle, but it too went out - as if it was powered by electricity and the plug had been pulled out. His jaw dropped in astonishment.

  He tried another, just in case. The same thing happened.

  ‘That’s so weird,’ said Maria, perplexed. ‘Why’s that happening? Are they wet?’

  ‘No,’ replied her dad.

  ‘Give ’em here!’ demanded Chrissie, snatching the box from Alan. If anyone could force a candle to light, it was her!

  What was that?’ asked Jeffrey.

  Their machine was making a terrifying grinding sound and producing so much smoke it was hard to see Blakeman through the fug. It was straining at the very limit of its capacity. Something would blow at any moment.

  ‘It’s destabilised!’ cried the headmaster, losing his cool.

  ‘Switch it off!’ screamed his colleague. ‘Switch it off!’

  Blakeman reversed the lever…

  All of a sudden, Sarah Jane’s watch came back to life. And as it did, the attic was once again lit up, the computer started to reboot and the torch switched itself on.

  Chrissie had snatched the candle from Alan and was lighting it. This one stayed lit.

  ‘There!’ she said, triumphant.

  Just then the other candles that Alan had attempted to light flickered into a steady flame - like those birthday candles that can’t be blown out.

  Maria gasped. This was so bizarre.

  ‘Weird,’ said Sarah Jane, looking at her watch.

  ‘It must be faulty,’ offered Luke.

  Sarah Jane shook her head. She wasn’t convinced. The watch had never let her down before. There was more to this than met the eye. Then she had a brainwave. ‘Or the same thing that cut the electric off, and cut the torch off…’

  ‘Cut your watch off.’ Luke was making the connection, too.

  ‘Fantastic!’ said Jeffrey, as they headed down the shiny white corridor of the new block. ‘Finally, every station in the loop is working.’ Fie frowned. ‘But the stabiliser cuts out.’

  ‘I’ll work out how to fix it,’ reassured Blakeman.

  But Jeffrey was cross with his colleague. ‘You bought those plans off that Wallarian,’ he complained. You took his word it worked.’

  ‘I just need to sort out the storage problem. Then it’ll stabilise.’

  ‘And until then I’m stuck here in this!’ snorted Jeffrey, indicating his clumsy human form. ‘Teaching science on Planet Thick! They still haven’t worked out String Theory!’

  ‘Can it!’ barked Blakeman, sick of Jeffrey’s complaints. ‘Don’t you get it? We’re nearly there!’ He turned, folded his arms and smiled. ‘One more step - and then we will destroy this planet!’

  Chapter Four

  The offending chip butty
>
  Sarah Jane looked up at the sky. It was Tuesday morning and overcast. Heavy grey clouds gave the day a sinister, foreboding feel, and there was a distinct chill in the air.

  She searched in her handbag, for the car keys. Then she paused and looked across the road at number twelve - an idea forming…

  ‘Science is my first class today,’ said a despondent Luke, closing the front door behind him. He was neatly dressed in his school uniform. ‘Lab 2A, with Mr Jeffrey.’

  Sarah Jane tried to sound casual. She didn’t want to make a bigger deal out of it than was necessary. ‘You’ll be fine,’ she said, and headed over the road. ‘See you later.’

  Luke stared after her. What was she up to? Then he shrugged and started off for school.

  Sarah Jane made her way down the side of the house and into the back garden. Alan was digging a flowerbed.

  ‘Hi there,’ she said. ‘Not interrupting, am I?’

  ‘No,’ replied Alan, and he dug the fork into the soil, dusted off his hands and smiled at his neighbour. ‘Just making a start. Used to have a much bigger garden. Back at the old house.’

  ‘Do you miss it?’ asked Sarah Jane, always the inquisitive journalist.

  ‘Well, needs must,’ said Alan, clearly attempting to sound cheerful. ‘New life and all that.’ He smiled thinly. ‘I had all sorts of plans for that old garden. Just didn’t plan on my wife running off with a judo instructor.’ He paused. ‘Ever been married?’

  ‘No,’ said Sarah Jane, shaking her head. ‘Never found the time.’

  ‘Wise move. Anyway, sorry. You were saying?’

  ‘Yes…’ Her eyes narrowed in thought. ‘I was just wondering. That school you mentioned. In Upminster. St Cheldon’s?’

  Alan nodded.

  ‘Do you have any paperwork or plans of the new block they built?’

  ‘I think so,’ he said. ‘Follow me.’ And he led Sarah Jane in through the back door. ‘I won’t be a sec.’

  Alan disappeared off down the hallway leaving Sarah Jane to examine the kitchen, which was dominated by an enormous stack of dirty plates, and boxes of pans and crockery that had yet to be unpacked.

  A few minutes later he returned with a brown folder filled with pieces of paper. ‘Here we go.’ He teased out a folded sheet and opened it on the counter. It was an architect’s drawing of the block. ‘Cost a fortune. They had broadband installed, the works.’