Doctor Who_ Ten Little Aliens Part 27

'We are near a source of great power. A power great enough to distort your perceptions.'

'Quiet down,' Ben complained.

'It wants you to approach with your defences down,' the old man insisted. 'I am sure of it, this place is some kind of trap.'

'Well shut yours then, for starters.' Ben couldn't stay angry for long with a view as gorgeous as this. Just across the sea there was some kind of island, dark filtered through the moonlight. Grainy sand, spiky palms, the perfect desert island. He'd always kidded with the boys on the Teazer Teazer he'd go AWOL the moment it came along. Now all he had to do was float over and see it for himself. Decide if he wanted to stay. he'd go AWOL the moment it came along. Now all he had to do was float over and see it for himself. Decide if he wanted to stay.

Ben imagined it was paradise there.

'It is using your memories, your imagination, to reel you in close enough to strike!' Ben felt himself spun round. A craggy old face leaned into his own. 'Think of Lindey, and Denni.

Pulled away into the darkness. Pulled apart by winged statues.'

Ben pushed the old man away. 'Leave me alone!' His arms felt dead. The rest of him felt dead drunk. The sky was spinning above him, streaked with stars.

'Think of Polly, alone, back in that room with the sick and the dying!' The old man was back again, back in his face.

'There is evil, here, Ben. Evil that we must defeat if we are to survive. Do you understand me now, hmm?' Ben felt bony fingers digging into his shoulders. 'Do you understand?' 'Do you understand?'

'Yes!' screamed Ben.

He stood shaking, trembling, at the edge of the precipice.

The spell was broken, the rushing static noise in his head reduced to a whisper. As he turned, he saw that the shadowy island was some kind of machinery housed across the divide.

And while Creben stood just a few feet away with his hands pressed against his ears, face twisted in pain as if he was trying to shut out some terrible sound, Joiks, Roba and Tovel had actually walked off the lip of rock into the chasm. Ben stared, woozily, half-expecting the lot of them to look down at any second and, actually realising realising they were walking in mid-air, plummet to the ground like the coyote did in the cartoons. But they didn't. they were walking in mid-air, plummet to the ground like the coyote did in the cartoons. But they didn't.

'Some kind of force bridge, I suppose. Now quickly, Ben, while I deal with Creben, go after them. They must be stopped! None of us know what's waiting for them!'

While the Doctor started shouting at Creben - an easier conversion it seemed, since he was already trying to fight off the influence in the first place - Ben sprinted to the edge of the precipice. With a deep breath, he stepped out into thin blue air. It gave slightly beneath him, but held. He took another cautious step, then broke into a run. Tovel, Roba and Joiks had almost reached the shadowy cylindrical ma.s.s Ben had seen as an island. It looked now more like a couple of giant gla.s.s cotton reels stacked on top of each other in a rocky alcove. A dark liquid seemed to swirl inside, carried he supposed by the confused junction of pipes coiled all around the structure, disappearing into floor and ceiling.

'Oi, you lot!' he yelled, wondering what each of them was seeing now. 'It ain't safe! It ain't what you think it is!' They ignored him. Soon they would've crossed to the other side.

Then inspiration struck.

'Blimey, here comes Haunt!' Ben shouted. 'She don't look too happy at the state of you lot!'

The three men paused on the slate grey sh.o.r.e of the weird machine's peninsula. They turned, almost as one person.

Tovel and Roba looked like someone had thrown a bucket of water over them, stared round in surprise.

But Joiks's face clouded over again. He turned back to the gla.s.s cylinder.

'Terrific,' Ben muttered. He sprinted past Roba and Tovel, and brought Joiks crashing down in a rugby tackle. The big man made no attempt to break his fall, and landed like a brick. The shock seemed to bring him round. He rolled on to his back, and looked about him in a daze.

'Hope that didn't hurt too much, Joiks,' Ben said, hiding a smile. That one had been for Frog.

He turned to find the others, the Doctor and Creben included, were standing round him in a semi-circle. Roba hoisted Joiks to his feet.

The Doctor was puffing for breath. 'Well done, Ben, my boy.'

Ben nodded vaguely. He was looking back at the gla.s.s tank, and the inky liquid vortex inside. There were occasional flashes of energy from within. Even the air seemed to carry some sort of charge.

'Well, Doctor?' asked Tovel. 'Is that thing part of the drive systems?'

'Part of them? Yes, I believe so.' He drew himself up to his full height. 'We must be very careful.'

Cautiously they advanced. The gla.s.s crackled and spat light at them, as if warning them away.

'How is it powering this thing?' Creben wondered. 'The fuel required for a chunk of rock this size...'

'Hey, what's that?' Roba gestured to a sc.r.a.p of dirty fabric caught on the rough slate of the wall beside coils of piping.

Ben skirted the gla.s.s cylinder to see. The material had been white once, but now it was filthy with grime and rusty stains.

'Could be blood, I suppose.'

Creben took the sc.r.a.p from him. 'It is is blood.' He turned to the others. 'It's from one of the Schirr.' blood.' He turned to the others. 'It's from one of the Schirr.'

''Ere, wait a minute.' In one of the gla.s.s cylinder's more vivid sparks Ben caught sight of something gleaming, pressed into a crack in the rock. 'There's something else down here.'

Creben drew a short-bladed knife and prised out a metal band. 'Webset,' he muttered. He worked more urgently with the blade, forcing the headband out. 'I've found a webset!' he yelled. 'And another beneath it.'

'Right little treasure trove, ain't it?' Ben commented.

'Lindey's and Denni's, they must be!' Creben shouted to the others.

'Why would anyone hide their websets down here?' asked Tovel.

'I say dump them,' Joiks said quickly.

Creben frowned at him. 'What?'

'Come on, who needs them?'

'They must've been hidden here for some reason,' said Tovel.

Then there was a hiss and a crackle like fat on a flame, and then the sound of something heavy slamming into the gla.s.s.

Ben whirled round in time to see a huge hunk of flesh smeared against the inside of the cylinder, just for a few seconds, until the relentless swirl of inky fluid swept it back into the maelstrom.

It looked to be someone's back.

Ben gagged, turned away.

'Lindey,' whispered Roba. 'That's got to be Lindey. That's why her set's here.'

The Doctor stared at them gravely. 'The secrets of the propulsion system?'

Creben looked properly downcast for the first time Ben could recall. 'It all comes back to the body, doesn't it.

Lindey's and Denni's they use for fuel. Frog's is no good so they start turning her into something else.'

'Meat.' Joiks started giggling. 'That's all we are now. Meat.'

Ben turned to the Doctor. 'They're really using human flesh and blood as fuel?'

'For the rituals,' Roba added. 'They're using it for the rituals.'

The Doctor looked down at the floor. 'As a basic material in the energy conversion process, yes, it's possible.'

'Not just human remains.' Tovel pointed to the cylinder.

Pressed up against the gla.s.s, along with a mess of dark-brown chunks that looked like dog food, was a b.l.o.o.d.y medallion of glistening pink flesh. It bore a brand, a rectangle crossed through with a diagonal line.

'Schirr,' he breathed. 'There's Schirr bodies in this thing as well.'

'The Morphieans,' said Creben. 'They're taking back what's theirs.'

'And dealing most conclusively with their enemies,' the Doctor agreed. 'I imagine this centrifuge is where the Schirr bodies on the platform were conjured to.'

'There's six of them left,' Ben said with a frown. 'So why turn Frog into a Schirr too?'

'To maintain some secret balance?' the Doctor wondered.

'Or because Schirr flesh gives a higher yield? Perhaps we will all become Schirr before too long, the impurities driven from our flesh so that it may be changed...'

'And we'll all wind up in there,' said Tovel quietly, transfixed by the cylinder.

'Great,' said Roba. His dark skin was covered in sweat, and he kept licking his lips every few seconds. 'So, how do we stop this thing?'

'Stop it?' Joiks spluttered. 'You want we should get in that thing and pull out the plug?'

'These pipes and stuff. We could pull them out, we could -'

'Young man,' the Doctor said sternly, 'you can see the powers at work there. We dare not disturb that balance without a fuller knowledge of how the processes work.'

'So get learning, old old man,' Roba growled menacingly. man,' Roba growled menacingly.

The Doctor sighed. 'I confess I was hoping to find a more conventional means of propulsion. If I only had more time to-'

'All this time you been shooting off a mouth as big as one of these tunnels,' Roba hissed. 'And now you don't know nothing?'

'All right, quiet, all of you,' snapped Tovel. 'You talk about learning, Roba. We're learning more all the time. We know where the Schirr went, we know where Lindey and Denni went.' He grabbed the websets from Creben. 'And we got these. Denni was still recording when she was killed. Maybe we'll learn some more from watching that back.'

'So, how about we get get back, then?' chimed Ben. 'Check up on Polly and the others. This place gives me the creeps.' back, then?' chimed Ben. 'Check up on Polly and the others. This place gives me the creeps.'

Joiks suddenly lunged for the websets.

Tovel recoiled instinctively, kept them out of reach. 'What the h.e.l.l are you playing at, Joiks?'

'What we gonna learn from watching them die? I say we should dump them.'

Roba scowled at him. 'That don't make no sense, Joiks.'

'Don't make no sense to rake over the past, neither.' Joiks laughed nervously. 'What are you people, sick?'

'Something happened down there, didn't it, Joiks?' Creben said. 'When Denni got taken.'

Joiks backed away. 'You're crazy, Creben.'

'Oh, really?' Creben shook his head. 'I think you know something you're not telling us.'

Tovel grabbed hold of Joiks's shoulder. 'We're talking to you.'

'It's nothing!' Joiks pulled himself free of Tovel's grip.

'Denni was saying stuff about Haunt. Didn't think she was fit to lead us on a live ammo shoot when she gets so worked up by the Schirr and all that. She wanted me to log a complaint or something, I dunno.'

'And did you agree?' demanded the Doctor.

'I told her she was crazy.' Joiks paused. When he spoke again, his voice had lost its c.o.c.kiness. 'But then, you know...

she wants something from me, I'm maybe thinking, how 'bout I get something in return?'

Tovel snorted. 'You're filth, Joiks.'

'Look, I didn't do nothing! It was dark, when the sets don't pick much stuff up. I put an arm round her waist, sounded her out a little... But she was grabbed right from out of my arms, and that's the truth!' Joiks's voice grew whinier, less confident. 'I tried to hold on to her -'