Doctor Who_ Amorality Tale Part 19

The Xhinn halted the torture, giving the Doctor a brief respite in which to answer. 'No. No more killing.'

'Your logic is flawed.'

'You ask for the killing to cease.'

'Yet you would kill the Xhinn.'

The Doctor got to his feet again. 'Alright. You win. How can I help you?'

It was dusk by the time Bette Mills finally died, her gasps for breath slowly fading to nothing. Mary pulled the blanket up over her daughter's lifeless face. Jean and Rita were sobbing in a corner, the elder girl trying to comfort her inconsolable sister.

Sarah got up and turned on the overhead light.

'Sun's gone down, though you'd hardly know it in this weather,' she said. 'This smog it's killing thousands of people.'

'I don't care about thousands of people!' Mary spat angrily. 'I care about my daughter! Who's going to bring her back?' She threw herself over the body, hugging her youngest child.

Sarah felt hollow inside. When she had first read about the deaths of thousands of Londoners, it had seemed like a mystery to solve, an intriguing adventure to lure the Doctor from his inactivity. That idea seemed trivial and unworthy now. The people who died they were just an abstract statistic, a number on a page. It was hard to care about someone dying if you had never known them, never shared their hopes and dreams and aspirations.

But the death of this child made it all too real for Sarah. She knew this grim reality was being repeated across London. She had read all the reports, her dispa.s.sionate journalistic att.i.tude keeping her at arm's length from the horror and the tragedy of it.

Not anymore, she vowed. Something had to be done, somebody had to stop this killing mist and its murderous instigators.

Sarah approached Mary, pulling the distraught mother away from her dead child. 'Mary, you've got to listen to me. Mary!'

The grieving woman looked up. 'Yes, Sarah what is it?'

'I've got to go now. I have a friend, he may be able to stop this smog. He says he can and I believe him. I've got to help him however I can.'

Mary nodded.

'The police are evacuating residents from the East End,'

Sarah continued. 'They say it's for your protection, to take you away from the smog. Whatever you do, don't go with them!'

'Why not?'

'The police I think they are being controlled by some other force. I saw them beating an old man who wouldn't leave his home. There's something very wrong happening. So whatever you do, don't let them in.' Sarah shook Mary to get her attention.

'Do you understand me?'

'Yes, I understand.' Mary beckoned her two surviving daughters over and hugged them both. 'Bette's gone, but I've still got these two. Don't worry the police won't get them.'

Sarah smiled. 'Goodbye, Mary.'

'Goodbye, Sarah. And good luck.'

'To us all.' Sarah walked out of the house, closing the door carefully behind her. Only after she was outside did the tears come.

The Doctor listened to the demands of the Xhinn triumvirate.

'You will tell us the truth.'

'Are you a Time Lord?'

'Yes,' he replied.

'You travel in s.p.a.ce and time?'

'Yes.'

'How? The Xhinn would value such technology.'

'So you can plunder the past and future, as well as the present? Do you believe I would willingly give you such capability?'

'You said you would help us.'

'Give us this and we would spare this world.'

'The Xhinn will abandon all plans for its colonisation.'

'How do I know I can trust you?' the Doctor asked.

'You have no choice.'

'You must believe in the Xhinn.'

'You must believe.'

'Alright, I agree to your terms,' the Doctor said. 'My time ship is not far from your own vessel. I will take one of the triumvirate with me to see it.'

The three Xhinn consulted silently before nodding their agreement. One of them broke from formation and floated down to hover by the Doctor. 'Prepare yourself for matter transmission. Many species find this unpleasant.'

'I've had quite enough of being scrambled by your trans-mat systems for one day.' The Doctor folded his arms stubbornly. 'I will walk out of here. You can show me the way. Lead on!'

The Xhinn hovered indecisively then moved off into the darkness, its pulsating blue energy illuminating a path for the Doctor. He followed the creature as it left the vast chamber.

Hodge was still stripping clothes from corpses when he noticed a familiar face standing beside him. It was Sergeant Diggle, who had inserted himself into the line of policemen working at the conveyor belt.

'Hodge! Can you hear me? If you can, don't look around.

Just nod.'

The constable gave an almost imperceptible nod of his head.

'Good. I don't know what this horror show is, but I came to my senses a few minutes ago. I think our minds were being controlled, but whatever is doing it has been distracted by something. G.o.d only knows what we've been doing. I can't seem to remember,' Diggle whispered.

'I can,' Hodge said. 'I just wish I couldn't.'

The sergeant leaned a little closer. 'Me and some of the lads are going to try and break out of here. Are you with us?'

'Yes!'

'We go in two minutes. Be ready. We don't know where we are or how to get out, but we're d.a.m.n well going to try.'

'I'd rather die trying to escape than stay here, doing this,'

Hodge said.

'Good lad. Watch for my signal.' The sergeant shuffled away, moving further along the conveyor belt. All through their conversation Hodge had continued to work, tearing the clothes off the bodies pa.s.sing in front of him. He closed his eyes, trying to block out the sickening scene pa.s.sing before him.

The Doctor tried to make conversation while the Xhinn led him through its vessel. They were getting closer to the surface. The Doctor could feel the acrid stench of the smog growing stronger in the air. 'So, whatever happened to Callum? I imagine he caused you a few problems with that little display in front of the church.'

'That advance scout was neutralised. All energy and knowledge were reabsorbed into the triumvirate.'

'Yes, I noticed the energy spike. Hardly inconspicuous, was it? Must have put quite a kink in your master plan.'

'The missionary work continues. When the rest of the Xhinnships arrive, this world shall be joined with our quest.'

'Ah, yes, the divine journey of the mighty Xhinn. But where is it all going? Where does it lead? Or are you just doing what you've always done? What is the purpose of it all?' the Doctor asked. Ahead he could see the tunnel leading to the surface.

Smog billowed down from above into the vessel.

The Xhinn gestured at a group of policemen approaching from one side. 'Already our subjugation of this species is well advanced. A simple chemical solution controls their actions.

They do our bidding so easily.'

The Doctor looked at the policemen. He had seen other groups moving around the vessel, but those were like puppets, jerkily moving to the command of unseen controllers. This group seemed far more purposeful. 'Really? I do think you may be mistaken about that, old man.'

The policemen began running at the Xhinn. The group of twenty men were screaming and yelling, their faces riven with hatred. The leader had the insignia of a sergeant on his uniform.

'd.a.m.n you, monsters! d.a.m.n you for using us!' Sergeant Diggle threw himself at the Xhinn. The alien was so surprised it did not have time to power up its killing arm. The policeman knocked the creature to the ground and began flailing at it with his fists. 'They can fall! They can be beaten!'

The rest of the mob joined Diggle in attacking the Xhinn.

The Doctor knew this was his chance. He joined the policemen, striking at the Xhinn with the deadliest blows known in Venusian Aiki-Do. But the element of surprise pa.s.sed in seconds and the Xhinn recovered enough to start blasting at the men.

Diggle died first, projected up into the air by a bolt of blue energy. He twisted and screamed in its grasp before blinking out of existence. More and more of the policemen were forced back by the Xhinn weapon.

The Doctor yelled for the others to follow him and ran towards the exit. But they could not hear him over their own shouting and cries of anguish. As he reached the foot of the tunnel, the Doctor looked back. There was nothing more he could do for these unwilling slaves of the Xhinn. He had to escape if Earth was to have any chance against this remorseless alien enemy.

The Xhinn floated back up into the air, out of its attackers'

reach. The surviving policemen cowered before its presence, Hodge among them. He prayed for death but it had eluded him.

Instead he felt the chill grip of the Xhinn taking hold of his mind again.

'You shall suffer for this attack. Suffer!'

Sarah walked into the kitchen at 15 Tabernacle Street. Mrs Ramsey was cooking a huge pot of stew for Tommy and all his men. Sarah sank down into a chair and put her head in her hands.

'You alright, love? You look like you've seen a ghost,' Mrs Ramsey said, humming away happily to herself.

'Mary Mills, one of her daughters just died.'

'Oh, that's terrible! Still, those that stray from the path of the righteous shall suffer more than most.'

Sarah looked at the little old woman with shock. 'How can you say that? A child has just died because of this smog and you're saying it's G.o.d's will?'

'Well, Mary was always a little trollop. None of those children have been baptised you know. That poor little mite will rot in h.e.l.l now.' Mrs Ramsey said this as if she were discussing everyday subjects like the price of potatoes.

'That's not a very Christian att.i.tude,' Sarah commented.

'But it's the truth, my dear. None of us can escape that.'

Sarah got up from her chair. 'I think I'll go upstairs, if you don't mind. I seem to have lost my taste for home-spun philosophy.'

'Well, if you say so,' Mrs Ramsey replied, unconcerned. She called up the stairs after Sarah. 'Father Simmons is holding a special service tomorrow to say prayers for this fog to lift. Could you take me along?'

She got no reply but the sound of Sarah's feet stamping furiously up the stairs. Mrs Ramsey went back to her stew. 'Oh well, have it your own way.'

The Doctor emerged from the tunnel, still running. He dug in his pockets and pulled out the small torch. Night had fallen and the smog was now thicker than ever. The Doctor stood silently, getting his bearings. He could still remember the path which had led him to the tunnel. Now he just had to retrace his steps. That would take him past St Luke's Church.

'Time to pay a visit to Father Simmons.'

Down inside the Xhinn vessel, Hodge and the surviving rebels had been returned to their grim tasks. Their bodies moved at the command of the captors, even though the policemen were willing themselves to resist. The constable remembered a sc.r.a.p of prayer from his childhood, long forgotten but now dredged up from the depths of his memory.

'Forgive me father, for I have sinned.' He repeated it over and over again in his mind, his lips moving in time with his thoughts. It was the only way he could block out the reality of what he was doing. 'Forgive me father, for I have sinned.

Forgive me father, for I have sinned...'

The triumvirate was reformed now the third Xhinn had returned to their chamber. It reported the attack by the prisoners and the Doctor's escape.

'He is of no importance.'

'A man of empty threats.'