Doctor Who_ Amorality Tale Part 9

'The giant's me driver. He's gone back home in case you tried any funny business. He'll pick me up soon, once I've removed you from the picture.'

Callum shook his head. 'You don't get it, do you? Your time is past, old man.' He gestured at the surrounding area. 'Soon this place will be swarming with my kind. You're looking at the future.'

'I don't think so, sonny. Your gang of boys is only just out of short trousers. You might scare a few shopkeepers, but you're no match for the Ramsey Mob.' Tommy clicked his fingers.

As one his men reached into their suits and each pulled out a pistol, taking careful aim at the youths standing opposite.

Callum's men looked less than pleased at this development. Billy and Charlie exchanged a worried glance but stood their ground.

Callum raised an eyebrow. 'Brought your pea-shooters, have you? They must make you feel like big men.'

'I'm losing patience with your cheek. Either you and your boys take off, or my men will take you out here and now,'

Tommy snarled. 'And that's a promise.'

'But where's your gun, Tommy? Or were you planning to bore me to death with your razor-sharp wit?'

'No,' Tommy replied, drawing his sword from the scabbard.

'I let me paperknife here do all the talking.'

'STOP!' Father Simmons shouted at the two men as he ran out of the Doctor's shop. 'You mustn't do this!'

Callum and Tommy both glanced at the priest as he approached.

'Friend of yours?' Callum asked.

'Hardly. I thought it was your big brother, come to save you,' Tommy sneered.

'You mustn't do this!' Father Simmons stepped between the two men, placing a hand on both their chests to keep them apart.

'Violence is wrong, don't you understand that? It doesn't solve anything.'

'That's where you're wrong, Father,' Callum said. 'Violence is the way of this world. You of all people should know that.'

Tommy looked perplexed. 'What are you on about?'

'Xavier Simmons killed a man on the steps of St Luke's Church six years ago. That's when he saw the light. Isn't that right, Father?' Callum asked.

'I was a different man then. I begged for the Saviour's forgiveness. I'm paying for my sins by doing the Saviour's work,'

the priest insisted. 'Please, my son don't make the same mistake I did!'

Callum pushed the priest's hand aside. 'I'm not your son, Father. I make my own decisions keep out of this!'

Tommy looked round at Jack, who just shrugged his shoulders at this turn of events. Father Simmons reached out to Callum, pleading with him.

'Don't do this, I'm begging you. All my work '

'It's all about you, isn't it. What about me? I've waited long enough!'

'Please, you don't understand '

Callum punched the priest in the face, knocking Simmons to the ground. 'Keep out of this. It's between me and the monkey here,' he said, pointing at Tommy. The gangland boss was infuriated by the comment.

'Who you calling monkey?' Tommy demanded, slashing downwards at Callum with his sword. The razor-sharp blade sliced cleanly through Callum's left arm. The severed limb fell to the ground, one finger still pointing towards Tommy and his men.

Callum glanced down at it and started laughing.

The priest began to scream.

Callum continued laughing, but as he did his body floated up off the ground. It hovered at head height, slowly revolving in the air.

As Callum turned, his appearance began to change. His body seemed to mutate, the skin starting to glow with an unearthly radiance.

The Doctor watched this transformation from the doorway of his shop. Callum's glowering appearance had been replaced by a creature of light and darkness, terrifying to behold. His humanoid features were blurred but distinctly alien, glowing tendrils in place of hair, a hundred tiny eyes where two had been.

There was no mouth, but when the creature spoke its voice vibrated in the minds of all those around.

'No need for disguise anymore I can finally purge myself of your form. Just as I intend to purge this place of you, humans.

Your time is over. Soon the Xhinn shall control this world, just as we control so many others!'

The thing that had been Callum pulsated with intense radiance, forcing the astonished onlookers to shield their eyes.

When they looked back, a new limb had replaced the one severed by Tommy. The alien creature raised this new arm and pointed it at Tommy. Blue light formed at its end, growing ever brighter like some savage flame.

On the ground Father Simmons had been cowering before the Xhinn. Now he reacted while the others stood gaping. The priest threw himself at Tommy, just before a bolt of blue light spat from the alien's arm. The two men tumbled to the ground, just evading the energy discharge.

It flashed into Tommy's men, searing a round hole through the stomach of Gilmore. He collapsed to the ground, hands twitching in shock. The fist-sized hole did not bleed, the energy having cauterised the wound as it pa.s.sed through his body. Blue light continued to dance around Gilmore's body. The fluorescence winked in the air, then was gone the body disappearing with it. But the air was still filled with the smell of roasted pork. Several of the Ramsey Mob began to vomit involuntarily. They had all seen death before, but none had seen a man simultaneously gutted and cooked alive.

The rest of the men opened fire, shooting repeatedly at the alien. Their bullets flew towards it but seemed to melt away as they neared the floating figure. It replied with more of the unstoppable blasts of blue light, indiscriminately scything down both Tommy's men and what had been Callum's gang.

Billy and Charlie stood their ground at first, but bolted when the alien cut down the teenager standing behind them. Better off staying alive to fight another day than be fried alive by that thing.

The rest of the gang followed their lead and tried to escape.

Several of the stragglers were cut down by the Xhinn.

PC Hodge was running late. He had planned to be outside St Luke's Church by midday, hoping to stop the simmering gang war turning to violence. But a dispute between two female neighbours had delayed him by several minutes. Apparently one of the women had dared to say the other's children were dirty.

By the time Hodge arrived, the two women were rolling around on the footpath, pulling each other's hair and shouting obscenities that made the young constable blush. He managed to pull them apart but it had taken nearly half an hour to get the warring women to shake hands.

He began running towards St Luke's when he heard a nearby clock chime twelve. Minutes later he saw a cl.u.s.ter of ashen-faced youths running towards him. Hodge called for them to stop but they did not even slacken their pace. He managed to grab hold of one of the lads as they pa.s.sed him, running away from Old Street.

'What's going on? What's happening?' the constable demanded.

'You wouldn't believe me even if I told you,' the youth replied. He shoved Hodge to the ground and then ran after his friends. The policeman considered chasing the youth but decided he was better finding the cause of this hysteria. Hodge resumed running towards Old Street, quickening his pace when he heard a sickening sound. Just before he came within sight of St Luke's, the constable recognised the noise it was men screaming.

Then he saw what was making them scream.

'Run! Run while you still can!' the Doctor yelled. Tommy and Father Simmons were still lying on the ground. They stared up at the inhuman creature. It had forgotten them for the moment, but that could soon change.

Glancing around, Tommy saw the severed limb from what had been Callum, still twitching its fingers. Tommy grabbed the arm and his sword. He had to get his men to safety. Crouching low, he ran away from the creature.

'Move! Move! Everybody, back to the house! Now!'

Tommy's words seemed to galvanise Jack and many of the men into action. They turned and ran for their lives. But others stayed, reloading their pistols and firing repeatedly at the alien.

The Xhinn slowly floated towards them, pa.s.sing over the prostrate figure of Father Simmons, who was praying with his eyes closed.

The Doctor saw his chance and ran forward into the melee.

He grabbed the priest by the arm and began dragging Simmons towards the steps of St Luke's. After agonising moments the priest got to his feet and followed the Doctor into the safety of the church. He collapsed into a pew, sobbing.

'I tried to stop them. I begged them not to fight,' he cried in anguish.

The Doctor was watching the horrific slaughter on the street outside through a crack in the doorway. 'They wouldn't listen, and now they're paying the price.'

Father Simmons wiped the tears from his face. 'What was that that thing out there? It called itself the Gin...'

'Xhinn. It's called the Xhinn,' the Doctor replied, correcting the priest's p.r.o.nunciation. 'I've heard of them but never encountered one before. I had hoped I never would.'

'Who is it? What is it?'

'The Xhinn is a much feared species that colonises other worlds. They strip a planet of all its natural resources and either subjugate or exterminate the native species. All to fuel the colonisation and plunder of more worlds. A never-ending cycle of pillaging and destruction.'

Hodge stood outside Fixing Time, rooted to the spot. A floating monster was destroying the Ramsey Mob, firing bolts of blue light from its arms. The light would shoot through the men, then engulf them. Finally, while they still lay screaming for mercy, the men simply winked out of existence.

Hodge could not understand what was happening, could hardly believe the evidence of his own senses. It was like some nightmare made real. As a boy he had enjoyed novels by writers like H.G.Wells, fantastic tales of Martian invaders who attacked places like Leatherhead. He had even looked for Leatherhead in his atlas of the world, where so many countries were shown as pink part of the mighty British Empire. It was his father who pointed out that Leatherhead was near London.

'That just proves those books you read are rubbish. As if creatures from another planet would attack London! What nonsense!' his father said.

Now Hodge was confronted with just that situation and all he could think about were his father's words. Brandishing his truncheon, the constable took a deep breath and stepped towards the creature.

'Stop in the name of the law!' he shouted.

The floating apparition slowly revolved to face him. It had no mouth, but Hodge could hear a voice inside his head.

'Or else what? You'll arrest me?' The voice began laughing.

Hodge took off his helmet and put his hands over his ears, trying to block the noise.

The creature glared at him with a hundred tiny eyes. 'Run!' it commanded. 'Run!'

Hodge realised the apparition was pointing at him. The glowing limb was burning ever brighter it was going to fire one of its death rays at him! The policeman turned and fled into Whitecross Street. To his immense relief there was a Police Call Box standing just around the corner. He pulled a key from his pocket and tried to push it into the lock. But there was something wrong with the mechanism. His key wouldn't fit.

Hodge was aware of a crackling noise behind him and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. The creature must be right behind him! He hammered at the door but it would not be forced. Finally, he noticed the sign across the door: Out Of Order. The constable slowly turned around. The apparition was within inches of his face. Hodge could feel his cheeks beginning to glow, as if he'd been lying in the sun too long. The voice sounded in his head again.

'Run!'

Hodge dropped his policeman's helmet and ran away from Old Street as far as he could. Every moment he expected to feel the searing heat of one of those blue bolts blasting through his body. His mind was filled with the sound of alien laughter.

'Run for your life! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!'

Father Simmons was baffled. 'Where do the Xhinn come from?'

'n.o.body knows. According to legend, they were created from fire millions of years before mankind. They rebelled against their maker and were cast into this universe for their pride,' the Doctor explained. He turned away from the sickening scenes outside and sat wearily beside the priest.

'Like fallen angels,' Simmons said, struggling to understand.

'If you like.'

'Then they can still be saved!' the priest gasped, rising from his seat. He started walking towards the doors. 'They can be made to love the Saviour again and be returned to his mercy!'

The Doctor grabbed Simmons and forced him to sit back down. 'If you go outside now you'll be murdered like all those others. Don't throw your life away like that!' The Doctor began to pace in front of the pew, rubbing his index finger thoughtfully across his bottom lip.

'We can't take on the Xhinn single-handedly, without weapons or a plan. From all I've heard the Xhinn are a methodical species who see themselves as fulfilling some divine quest. What just happened seems wrong, far too precipitous. It could be a single Xhinn, or a rogue element I don't know. I just don't know...'

He made up his mind. 'If Earth is the Xhinn's next target for colonisation, there may still be time to stop them. I need to get back to the TARDIS.' The Doctor looked at Father Simmons, who was shaking his head in bewilderment. 'Will you be alright here?'

'I don't know. I don't know anything anymore...'

'Well, you just stay here, there's a good chap,' the Doctor said soothingly. He opened the church doors and peered outside.

Old Street was empty again. There was no sign of the Xhinn or anybody else. The Doctor closed the doors behind him and then ran across the road into Whitecross Street, where the TARDIS was stood. A discarded policeman's helmet was lying beside the door. The Doctor hoped its owner had escaped unharmed.

Billy and Charlie were the first ones to make it back to Ironmonger Row. The brothers could hardly believe what they had witnessed.

'It had to be some sort of trick,' Charlie decided. 'Callum was trying to fool Tommy Ramsey and it worked.'

'That was no trick. I don't know what it was but Callum ain't human. He's some kind of monster,' Billy insisted. 'Gives me the creeps just thinking about it. We was here with him all that time...'

Two more of the gang returned to the condemned house.

They were pale and shaking, unable to speak. The brothers tried to convince them to stay but the youths just collected their things and ran off.

'Go on then, run home to your Mums!' Billy shouted after them.

Charlie was deep in thought, still trying to get his head round what had taken place. 'n.o.body's ever gonna believe this happened, you know. We can never tell anybody about this they'll think we're off our nuts.'

'I know somebody who'll believe us Tommy Ramsey,' Billy said. 'He saw it all too. I reckon we throw our lot in with him.'

'Why?'