Doctor Who_ Head Games Part 28

There are forces of evil at work against Him.' The ugly little man picked his head up and rose cautiously. The cultists, though alert, made no move against him. He beckoned the leading figure towards a monitor and she watched as he operated a keypad to bring up an alarming graphic.

'But that means -'

The Security Chief concluded for her. 'There are intruders on Enros's Miracle! They obviously intend to tarnish his glory. But 215 fear not, I have dealt with such situation before.'

The cultist lowered her knife, beginning to see that he was telling the truth. Her fellows hung back, just in case, The Security Chief's hands hovered over the controls. a.s.sume I have permission to instigate my prepared defences?'

The cubicle glowed red and reality faded to white.

An instant later, Mortannis and his six comrades were two hundred and fifty thousand miles away. It took a moment to adjust to the jerking sensation of matter trans. mission and the fact that they were now standing on the most revered object of their culture, apparently open to s.p.a.ce. Only after that did Mort register the presence of the blue box and of the strangers beyond it.

There were three of them: a blond-haired young man in black jacket and shorts, an older, shorter man in a cream suit and a hard-faced woman in a short-sleeved shirt and dark gla.s.ses. It was she who turned and saw them first. 'h.e.l.l!' she shouted.

'Natives!'

She swung up a blaster with incredible speed and fired at the still-disoriented newcomers. One fell, and Mort leap into action, only a nanoseg after his giant comrade, Angh'enna. Darnak had been right: these people meant no good!

'No, Ace!' The Doctor grabbed Ace's blaster, but she resisted him. A second later, she was wrenched away by a ma.s.s of hurtling muscle. The five other men who remained standing leapt into battle also. The Doctor tried to shout something about the futility of war, to explain what he had come here for; but a double a.s.sault from both sides left him winded and when he tried again, his open mouth was rudely filled by knuckles.

He crumpled and felt the crystal's surface sc.r.a.ping his, back.

Four Detrians bore down upon him and he twisted and squirmed from under them, leaving them in an interlocking heap. Of their two fellows, the larger man had be felled by Ace, but she had lost her gun in the struggle. She was wrestling now with a square-jawed, heroic type and neither combatant was giving an inch.

Jason had retreated a short way and was watching, unregarded 216 by all. The Doctor used the time he had bought to shout to him: 'Use your powers. Imprison them so we can talk!'

Jason's mouth worked silently. Two of the Doctor's erstwhile attackers had managed to disentangle themselves: one went for the Time Lord whilst the other thundered towards Jason, who turned tail and ran. Ace threw her foe, who landed on his back and was winded. As she closed in to finish him off, somebody yelled: 'Mortannis!' and two more Detrians seized her arms.

'Fancy your luck then?' Ace hissed.

The Doctor crossed his wrists to ward of punches. There was no time to talk to Jason, but theoretically, any one should be able to use the fictional forces here.

He staggered as a blow penetrated his attempt at shielding.

On his back again, the Doctor closed his eyes and focused his mind on the task of moulding reality. He sensed rather than saw the hurricane which blew his attacker of his feet. He landed, bemused, and the Doctor tried to form a cage around him. But the leader, Mortannis, was up again and springing for him. The Doctor reacted with instinct alone and a battering ram appeared from nowhere, its end cushioned to spare its victim undue harm.

As it shot towards Mortannis, he shrank back in fear . . . and the ram became riddled with rust and disintegrated.

The Doctor and Mortannis stared, each one as surprised as the other. Then the Detrian gave a smile through clenched teeth and snapped his fingers and suddenly there was a cannon between them, a flame sparking along its short fuse.

When the explosion came, it was all the Doctor could do to mentally resist a steel ball impact which was intended to be fatal. He was down for the third time and almost out, his brain aching from effort, cursing himself for being thrown off by Mortannis's manipulation of the Miracle's energies.

Then Mortannis's head tilted back, alarmed, and the Doctor became aware of the roaring of a starship drive, The Detrian gave a warning shout: 'The Morningstar Morningstar!' and threw himself to the ground, an arm curled over his head in a futilely protective gesture. The Doctor, face up, had a perfect view of the battleship's underside as it screeched overhead on a 217 dangerously low pa.s.s, blowing his hair back and searing his eyeb.a.l.l.s.

Above the racket, he could hear Ace screaming: 'Who the h.e.l.l thought up that thing?!'

'Why didn't you tell me this before?' asked Thruskarr.

'I don't know,' said Kat. 'I was . . . embarra.s.sed, I suppose.

That humans made the Miracle to discriminate against lizards.'

He touched her cheek softly. 'I cannot blame a whole race for the actions of a handful, Kat. It is because of such att.i.tudes that your Superior has so long persecuted my people.'

'But do you see now why we have to stop Rokk?'

Thruskarr looked blank. Kat sagged. 'No, I don't suppose you would. I've only just worked it out myself. But think of it: if the Miracle does exist because of our beliefs, then what happens if ninety per cent of the people on this planet all believe at once that the planet is going to die?'

Thruskarr was beginning to understand. 'You mean that, if Enros is killed -'

'Then almost everyone will think that the universe is about to go with him! Most will have doubts, at least.'

'And you think the Miracle will disappear?'

'If enough believe it will, yes.'

Thruskarr mulled that over. 'That might not be such a bad thing,' he said finally.

Kat stared at him aghast. 'Look, I know it's not perfect, but it is the only power source we have!'

'We can do better,' Thruskarr said firmly. 'But that's not the issue, is it?'

'It isn't?'

'If the Miracle dies with Enros, then that will be seen by many as final proof of his holiness. He may be gone, but his High Priests will no doubt take over with majority support. And there will be no way of proving that they are mistaken!'

'You mean you agree with me? That we have to do something?'

'I agree,' Thruskarr confirmed. He peered myopically down the dark street which led deeper into Enros's domain, and he 218 spoke gloomily. 'We have to prevent the "Undying One's"

death - although it will mean our own capture and execution.'

Those who would face the most immediate consequences, should the Miracle vanish, were occupied by other concerns.

Ace was left breathless by the pa.s.sage of the Morningstar Morningstar.

But she was used to ignoring the demands of a combat-battered body. She scrambled and reached her gun, then rolled up onto one knee and began to pick of the rising Detrians, like military range target. One, two . . . then the Doctor's body hit and flattened her and, as Ace tried to protest, her eardrums informed her that the ship had circled and was on a second run.

'We're sitting ducks if it fires!'

'It won't,' the Doctor shouted over its engines. 'This is just to frighten us. The Detrians won't risk harming the crystal. Not, at least, while they think their soldiers have a chance.'

He whooped almost comically and held onto his hat as the air above them sizzled and a hole was blown out of the Miracle, two feet to their right. Ace thought she heard him mutter 'Wrong again', but with all the noise and Panic, she couldn't be sure. She did know that, if she didn't present a moving target, she might end up on the receiving end of the next beam. But, as she and the Doc-tor separated, Ace realized that moving in the blast zone of the ship's incredible downdraft was as difficult as it looked.

The Security Chief was hunched over the communications console in his office. The invading cultists were gathered behind him, convinced of his integrity by the images which the Morningstar Morningstar relayed to his commu-screen. They still didn't wholly trust him, though. As he leaned forward to give the order to fire again, the female leader of the group clasped a firm hand over the voice grille. 'You must not harm the Miracle.' relayed to his commu-screen. They still didn't wholly trust him, though. As he leaned forward to give the order to fire again, the female leader of the group clasped a firm hand over the voice grille. 'You must not harm the Miracle.'

'I've no choice!' A fanatical glint lit the Chief's eye. He indicated the screen and its panoramic view of the crystal's surface. 'Only two of the rebel sc.u.m are left standing. But they did give us time to get the Morningstar Morningstar there. We have to use it to kill the heathen offworlders! The Undying One will ensure 219 there. We have to use it to kill the heathen offworlders! The Undying One will ensure 219 that our good intentions do not do his creation harm.'

The cultists, he could see, were not convinced. He took a tight hold on the woman's wrist. 'They're trying to destroy the Miracle,' he intoned, lending equal gravity to each syllable.

'This is the only way to stop them!'

She allowed him to move her hand aside, although she didn't step back. The Security Chief smiled tightly. 'Recommence firing,' he spoke into the grille. 'Aim for the girl - she's the only one armed!'

The screen flared white as the shipboard camera tried to cope with an influx of blast radiation. When its picture rea.s.sembled, the Chief cursed to see that the alien had escaped incineration, albeit by inches, and that another smoking hole had marked Enros's gift to his planet.

'Keep on her!' The camera zoomed in closer. The woman had given up running and had rolled onto her back, her gun aimed upwards and directly at the screen. 'in Enros's name, what is she trying to do?'

'Perhaps she is desperate,' said the cultist doubtfully.

Ace was was desperate. desperate.

She had seen many films in her time in which great flying dreadnoughts had been brought down by one carefully placed blast up an exhaust port or some other such convenient weak spot. In practice, she knew that that was a pretty slim option.

But when you're pinned down on an artificial planetoid by the gravity thrusters of an enormous battleship which is using weapons more properly reserved for interplanetary war with the express intention of blasting you into boiling atoms, a slim chance is better than none.

She loosed shot after shot, but each one ricocheted off the hull of the Morningstar Morningstar without damage, as she had expected. There was still one trick to try, though: if that Detrian, Mortannis, could control the fictional energies here, then surely she could too? without damage, as she had expected. There was still one trick to try, though: if that Detrian, Mortannis, could control the fictional energies here, then surely she could too?

Ace concentrated, trying to envisage a simple, handy shaft, just above her head, leading straight into the most fragile part of the ship's core. The effort was far more than she had 220 antic.i.p.ated. Her head ached and she couldn't see for sweat, but she thought she could feel it . . .

The shaft was forming, the ship's metal skin receding before her brain power like an ice cube before a red hot poker.

Then she doubted for a second, and lost it.

She heard the clunk of the Morningstar Morningstar's guns recycling.

Ace had long since given up closing her eyes and making peace with her maker at moments like this. Instead, she closed her eyes and just hoped that the Doctor would be able to pull off his usual last-minute, split-second rescue.

She wasn't disappointed.

With a blast of hot air, the ship sped away, and Ace, coughing and blinking, recovered her vision in time to see an outboard propulsion unit attached to its stern and shooting it skywards at an impossible speed. The word 'ACME' was picked out in blue on the engine's front. She had been saved by Jason.

The young man was standing now, watching after the departing vessel, his features lit by a triumphant grin. So distracted, he failed to see that Mortannis was up and Wielding a heavy spanner which he had created himself. Before Ace even had time to shout, the Detrian cracked the implement down onto Jason's head and her saviour fell, unconscious before he hit the ground.

'There goes our most powerful weapon,' Ace grumbled.

There were three rebels left now, lined up against the Doctor and Ace. The Doctor and Mortannis could fight it out between them with their make-believe toys. That left her with the other two. But she felt unsteady and not at all sure that she would be able to handle them. She levelled her gun, but Mortannis reacted fast and tendrils of electricity closed about it, scorching her hands and making her drop the weapon.

For the second time, salvation came from an unexpected quarter. Bernice Summerfield appeared at the TARDIS door, blaster in hand, and shot down Mortannis before he even saw her. The Doctor moved in quickly and felled one of the others with a deceptively simple shoulder-grip. As Ace reached for her gun again, their final opponent risked all in a full frontal charge.

221.

She halted him with a stiff upper-cut to the chin, followed by a crack across the jaw. When that dazed but didn't topple the muscular youth, Ace grabbed the blaster anyway and brought it down on his skull.

'That's the last,' she reported as he sprawled at her feet.

'Thank you Benny,' said the Doctor graciously. 'A timely intervention.'

'It was nothing. We saw what was happening on the scanner and - '

'"We"?'

Benny looked over her shoulder, puzzled. Ace guessed what had happened. As, unfortunately, did the Doctor.

'I suppose I should be grateful that she didn't actually come out and fight against me,' he said with forced bravery. Ace could see that the rejection had left him feeling more miserable than he would dare admit. She tried to see Mel's side of it too: she was no doubt in the TARDIS, watching and wishing that she knew which side to be on. Ace had been through all that herself, in her own time.

The trio stood in silence now, amongst the unconscious bodies of their fellow fighters. Seven Detrians and one of their own side. 'Makes a change for me not to be down there,'

remarked Benny.

'What now?' asked Ace, more practically.

'Now,' the Doctor said, 'we wake up Jason. He can send our friends here back to their planet. Then we can all get on with our mission.'

222.

24.

The Day G.o.d Went Mad

Kat'lanna and Thruskarr had checked each one of the four large wooden doors which led into Enros's Great Hall. They were all guarded, of course, by larger than normal contingents. The two intruders crouched in darkness around the corner of a long street leading to the eastern entrance, at which only five robed figures stood sentry.

'Perhaps we were wrong,' whispered Thruskarr eventually.

'We've seen no sign of Rokk or the others.'

Kat shook her head. 'They would have come here. We must have missed them.'

'So what do you think?'

'I think they're in the Great Hall. It might be over already.'

'Then there's nothing we can do.'

Kat thought for a moment, then made to step out into the main pa.s.sage. Thruskarr jumped, startled, and pulled her back.

'I'm going to talk to them!' she protested.

'They'll kill you!'

'I'll say I've converted. I'm here to inform them of the rebel plot to murder Enros.'