Doctor Who_ Eye Of Heaven Part 26

The Doctor finished the incantation.

And the sun came out.

27.

Across the Sea of Night.

I gazed up at the sun. Normally dark and sullen, blotched with darker patches, now the sun was brighter, the light harsher. And it was smaller.

Shrinking as we watched.

I tore my eyes away from the dying sun, turning my gaze to the ground - where my friend Horace lay, his body entwined in death with the one who had killed him.

No - I looked again. There was movement. Horace groaned and managed to struggle up on to one elbow. Leela knelt beside him and gently examined him. ' You are injured.'

His voice was weak. 'She crept up on me... she went mad... stabbed me... she began to cry... then she took her own life. Why did she do that?

She took her own life... and she... spoke not a single word... the whole time.' With a groan, Horace collapsed again, his words draining the last of his dwindling energy.

Leela went to the Doctor, who was staring mesmerised up at the shrinking sun. 'Stockwood is dying.'

The Doctor seemed to ignore Leela. 'Suns don't do that. Not this fast.

Something's causing it. But what? Some kind of berserker probe... a fail-safe... a last weapon... in case they came back... But they haven't come back.'

Leela tugged the Doctor's sleeve impatiently. 'They have not come back but we have.' but we have.'

The Doctor slapped himself on the forehead. 'Of course. Any life would trigger it. Any movement, any activity.'

I shook my head. 'No. If the aggressor species left a last b.o.o.by trap for anyone returning here, it would have been tripped half a century ago - even before the islanders brought the plague here.'

The Doctor frowned. 'You're right. You're right. But then I don't understand... What could be making the sun go -'

Leela interrupted angrily, 'If we wait to work this out then not only this world will die but Stockwood will as well. We cannot save a sun. We can save a man.'

The Doctor suddenly jumped. 'What?' He turned his eyes to the ground. He saw Stockwood, gasping on the ground, Richards lying dead by her own hand beside him - and then he seemed to come to a realisation.

'I must be getting slow! It's not the aggressors - if they'd wanted to destroy the system by blowing up the sun they would simply have done it the first time round. No! Oh, it's still a trap, still responding to our presence, but it's the originator species who set it!' originator species who set it!' He thought for a second, then added, 'Yes, yes, of course, it all makes sense. If you send a million Einstein-Rosen Bridges out across the galaxy you don't want them to be used by just anybody. And if you're as paranoid as a large interstellar war would make anyone then I doubt you'd want your world to fall into the hands of the enemy. So you'd simply build a doomsday weapon and program it to detonate the sun if anyone not carrying dormant originator DNA returned through the wormhole.' He thought for a second, then added, 'Yes, yes, of course, it all makes sense. If you send a million Einstein-Rosen Bridges out across the galaxy you don't want them to be used by just anybody. And if you're as paranoid as a large interstellar war would make anyone then I doubt you'd want your world to fall into the hands of the enemy. So you'd simply build a doomsday weapon and program it to detonate the sun if anyone not carrying dormant originator DNA returned through the wormhole.'

He waited, evidently expecting questions. There were none.

Leela scooped Horace up from the ground. He groaned and lapsed into unconsciousness. 'If we take him back through the moai moai to Rapa Nui he will be healed - like Royston was healed.' It was not a question. to Rapa Nui he will be healed - like Royston was healed.' It was not a question.

'Yes. Yes, that's logical. At the same time, if we leave the system, then hopefully the b.o.o.by trap will recognise that and be able to return the sun to normality.' The Doctor spun round. We were faced with at least a hundred cl.u.s.ters of moai moai at various distances from the library. 'Do you remember the way? Can you retrace your steps?' at various distances from the library. 'Do you remember the way? Can you retrace your steps?'

'I am a hunter.'

'Then run, Leela, run for all our lives! And everyone else -' there was only me - 'be sure and keep up! Now,' he added in a tremendous shout whose echoes rolled to every horizon, and might possibly be the last sound this world would ever hear, ' "Further up and further in!" ' ' "Further up and further in!" '

And with that he scooped up Richards's dead body and together we ran for the first of the many gates in the sequence that would take us back to Rapa Nui and - hopefully - save not only Horace's life but an entire solar system as well.

28.

Stone Wining.

I was watching three stars burning in Anakena Bay and thinking how good it would feel to take the life of the man who had killed my brother when the moai moai walked. walked.

The stars were Peruvian ships under fire from Tweed Tweed and the captured pirate vessel. As I watched, one of the ships took a broadside at the waterline and burst spectacularly into flame. The magazine caught fire and it exploded, showering a rain of burning debris for many hundred yards around. A moment later the sound reached me, a concussion rolling like summer thunder across the scrubby hills of the island. I wondered if the ship was under Stuart's or DaBraisse's command. Not that it would make much difference now More shots were exchanged. and the captured pirate vessel. As I watched, one of the ships took a broadside at the waterline and burst spectacularly into flame. The magazine caught fire and it exploded, showering a rain of burning debris for many hundred yards around. A moment later the sound reached me, a concussion rolling like summer thunder across the scrubby hills of the island. I wondered if the ship was under Stuart's or DaBraisse's command. Not that it would make much difference now More shots were exchanged.

More cannon fired.

And then, all around me in the darkness, I felt a storm of energy gathering. My hair p.r.i.c.kled. My skin itched. Above, the stars seemed to ripple as cloud drifted inward from every horizon to gather above the island. And then I heard noises. The chanting of islanders. Singing voices.

Screams and cries and the sounds of pistol fire and clash of steel were an ugly counterpoint to this primitive but somehow stirring noise.

And then I heard the relentless grind of stone upon stone.

I felt the ground shake. I wondered if the volcanoes here were going to erupt. Then something moved along the cliff top. A wall of stone drifted past me, its pa.s.sing leaving no trace in the earth. I saw earth and small creatures dragged from the ground and seemingly sucked into its surface. I felt the pressure of wind tugging at me and fought against it. I caught a glimpse of monolithic features in the dim starlight and then it was gone.

But its presence lingered. I fell to the ground shaking. This could not be happening! Stone could not walk. Stone did not walk! Stone did not walk!

But I had seen it. And the moai moai had been moving. I had not been dreaming, though the Lord alone knew I had suffered enough shocks to see an army of scientists to their graves. had been moving. I had not been dreaming, though the Lord alone knew I had suffered enough shocks to see an army of scientists to their graves.

But I was here. I had seen it. Stockwood was right. The moai moai had walked. had walked.

I blinked. The feeling of expectation, of electricity, gathered around me, pulling in the night like a smothering blanket. The very air I breathed seemed charged with energy. I sensed, then saw, other movement about the island. Great shapes moving with purpose in the darkness. Above me clouds had whirled into a vortex, thickening to form an impenetrable ceiling which roofed over the island. Lightning flashed within the cloud.

And then, as one, the movement of stone upon the island halted - as if each monolithic monument had its own place and had now reached it, as if some sleeping giant had awoken briefly from his slumber and turned once beneath the earth before returning to full wakefulness.

The feeling of energy grew. The cloud gathered. Lightning cracked. I felt the air pressing tightly about me.

And then I could not breathe. Everything was moving again, this time in a way I could not describe, let alone understand. It was as if everything on the island - every piece of rock, every animal, every human, every part part of every rock, animal, and human - was at once splitting apart and rushing together in a colossal explosion of light and noise. of every rock, animal, and human - was at once splitting apart and rushing together in a colossal explosion of light and noise.

And then - for a moment in the cloud-darkened night - the sun came out.

It was huge, dark and sullen, hovering low to the ground above the volcanic crater of Ranu Raraku. There were two moons. I saw clouds drifting in front of them, clouds from another sky, an impossible world, somehow superimposed upon the real world; alien from the world in which I had been born and lived.

The vision was too much. I felt on the very edge of madness, as if walking a slippery cliff from which one wrong step would send me plummeting into an uncertain future. I screamed but heard no voice. I did not even feel the pa.s.sage of air in my throat which would have signified making a sound. Everything was suddenly motionless. The light, the clouds above, the fighting, the smoke from cannon in the bay, frozen as if by a painter's eye, and transcribed on to canvas.

In that moment I remembered ice dripping from ferns at the edge of a pond where I had played with my brother as a child, the only movement his excited form skittering across the frozen surface on wellington boots three sizes too large to avoid cracking the ice.

Jenny, hurry, come and look at this! See how the ice remains frozen, the movement stilled? A perfect encapsulation of a particle frozen, the movement stilled? A perfect encapsulation of a particle of time! of time!

I remembered his arms waving excitedly, his hands blue with cold as he touched the frozen ferns. I remember his voice, how it shook, the joy of discovery in it; the moment of dawning when he knew the path his life would follow, and I suddenly burst into tears. He was gone. My brother was gone! gone! Thirty years I had grieved when I could have come here at any time and brought him home, and all it would have cost was money. And now it was too late. Because of Stockwood. Thirty years I had grieved when I could have come here at any time and brought him home, and all it would have cost was money. And now it was too late. Because of Stockwood.

I vowed to kill the man who had brought my brother to his ruin - and in that moment the sun went out, taking its impossible world with it into storm-tossed oblivion.

The island was dark again. Above, the clouds shredded as if torn apart by a giant's breath. I could breathe. I could scream. I could hear gunfire and shouts and people there were people coming up the cliffpath and people there were people coming up the cliffpath and there were pirates. DaBraisse and his men. Come to take us all to perdition. there were pirates. DaBraisse and his men. Come to take us all to perdition.

I turned to run, found another figure behind me, this one made of flesh and blood and righteous anger but still as impressive as any . .

'Give me the rongo-rongo; rongo-rongo; said the Doctor. said the Doctor.

'I can't do that.'

' "The sun will come out at night. The dead will live again." Your brother knew the truth.'

'And died for it!'

'And how many more must die because of you? I understand your grief.

I understand your anger. You have to let them go. There are larger issues at stake.'

I laughed contemptuously, remembering Alex's words as he left with Stockwood so many years ago, remembering Stockwood's words when he returned without my brother. 'I do not care about scientific truth. I do not care about alien cultures. I do not care about destiny. I want to kill Stockwood. That is all. After that my life has no meaning.'

'He's gone: The bridge exists. You saw it. You saw the sun come out at night. You saw the sky of another world!'

'Ridiculous!'

'Give me the tablet! The inscription we have is incomplete. With the tablet the islanders can fulfil their destiny. Rejoin their ancestors. Become Become their ancestors.' their ancestors.'

Before I could answer, a man's voice said, 'The time for games is over, Doctor.' DaBraisse. 'Miss Richards, you will give the rongo-rongo rongo-rongo to me.' to me.'

Half a dozen men bearing cutla.s.ses and pistols emerged on to the cliff above Anakena Bay. They stood behind their leader, weapons drawn, faces set in violent antic.i.p.ation. The newly reappeared stars painted them with a cold, inhuman light.

I ran to stand beside DaBraisse.

The Doctor looked at me. Compa.s.sion. Pity. Curiosity. I shrugged off the look. I did not care what he thought, what anyone thought.

DaBraisse would get me what I wanted. He would kill Stockwood and anyone else who got between us. I did not care if everyone on the island was slaughtered so long as Stockwood died. If the rongo-rongo rongo-rongo was the price of that cooperation I would not hesitate to pay it. 'Your friend Leela gave me some good advice. I have now taken it.' was the price of that cooperation I would not hesitate to pay it. 'Your friend Leela gave me some good advice. I have now taken it.'

'And sold out to the enemy.'

'I am not your enemy, Doctor.' DaBraisse's voice was soft but it carried easily on the cool night air.

'That's an odd way of describing a man who tried to make me walk the plank.'

The pirate laughed. 'I am your death!' He drew his cutla.s.s and advanced towards the Doctor.

The Doctor jumped backwards. 'You would attack an unarmed man?'

DaBraisse laughed. 'Oh, you English, you are so parochial. Of course I would attack an unarmed man. And now I will.' Sword arm extended, he leapt forward.

The Doctor whirled, looped his scarf around a jut of rock and leapt out from the cliff. He spun out over the bay, so far below, whirled around DaBraisse and landed lightly behind the pirate on the cliff path. The other men were too astonished to react. Before they could so much as even gasp in surprise, the Doctor had grasped a cutla.s.s from the belt of one and jumped again from the path, where he swung, suspended again over three hundred feet of empty air, before landing back on the other side of DaBraisse, just as the pirate finished turning around to face his men.

'Here I am, DaBraisse! You want to play games? Very well. I say let us play catch as catch can!' The Doctor ran backwards along the cliff path. I waited for him to fall. He did not. I cursed Stump's inability to kill the man in Portsmouth: DaBraisse, he is playing with you! All my gold if you kill him!'

DaBraisse glanced back at me just once. I had a moment to realise my mistake as he spoke, 'Your gold is in England or on the boat. Either way I do not need you.' To the men he added, 'Kill her!'

In a moment I was held. I had no time to scream. I felt a freezing pain pierce my side. A knife. I sank to the path. I could not breathe. I could not scream. I could not see.

I waited to die. I waited for the blow or shot that would finish me.

Neither came.

I felt the rocks writhe underneath me - no, it was I who was writhing, jerking with the need to live, the body's reaction to the shock of the wound I knew must be mortal.

I heard voices. Islanders. Screams. I felt hands lift me, burning where they touched so that I gasped. My vision cleared for a moment as I rose, parting like clouds just long enough to see the duel between the Doctor and DaBraisse, which I had started, come to its inevitable conclusion.

I surrendered to the pain of death, knowing at last that with DaBraisse's long fall from the cliff top had gone my last chance to see Stockwood dead. The Doctor lived. And now I would die. I watched him approach. He took me from the islanders.

His voice echoed as if from a long way away. 'The Cave of the Sun's Inclination. We must take her there. Now.'

A voice I recognised dimly through the pain as Topeno said, 'Her life is not important.'

The Doctor's voice was furious. 'Every life is important, Topeno. Do you hear me? Every life!' Every life!'

And holding that life - my life - in his hands, he began to run.

Epilogue.

The Eye Which Sees Heaven

December 1902