Doctor Who - The Colony Of Lies Part 21

They didn"t have to wait long. A few minutes later the airlock appeared in mid-air above the lake. The Doctor wasn"t at all surprised but Jamie was gob-smacked. "Oh, Doctor, you could have warned me!" he complained.

"And missed that look on your face? Hardly," the Doctor laughed. As Jamie watched, now in total amazement, the gangway extended itself from the mostly invisible ship. As soon as the base of the walkway touched the ground the Doctor hopped on to it and began climbing towards the airlock. Jamie hurried after him.

As the Doctor reached the top of the path, the outer airlock door hissed open and he disappeared inside. Jamie had to jump to join him as the doors began to close immediately.

Moments later they were totally enclosed inside the airlock.

Jamie looked around him nervously. They appeared to be in a rather tiny enclosed s.p.a.ce. The Doctor had said that there was a further pair of doors to open opposite the point that they had entered but, as yet, there was no sign of any movement.

"Doctor, do you no" think this might be a trap?" he asked.

"A trap? Oh I shouldn"t think so, Jamie. They must have seen our white flag."

Jamie coughed. The air in the small room had an odd flavour to it; it tickled his throat.

"Aye, but how do you know that they know what it means, eh?" demanded Jamie between further coughs.

The Doctor"s confident expression faded quickly. "Oh my, that is a thought..." he began. As he had done before the Doctor started to work on the sensors but Zenig had obviously done a spot of reprogramming himself. The invisible gas that had been silently pumping into the airlock on Zenig"s orders did its work and the Doctor fell unconscious. The Doctor and Jamie both succ.u.mbed at the same time and tumbled to the floor. The gas continued to pump into the room. The doors remained fixed shut. Neither the Doctor nor Jamie appeared to be breathing any longer.

"You seem to be taking all this very well," commented Zoe, sipping the steaming mug of hot chocolate that Dee had just made for her. The Loyalist medic had asked Zoe to help her identify some of the mysterious medical equipment in her medicentre. Zoe was no expert in medical technology but she had agreed to help as much as possible. For a couple of hours they had examined some of the machines that Dee had always ignored before now. They had managed to uncover and deduce the function of a couple of diagnostic tools: a digital thermometer and some kind of bone scanner. Dee had been amazed at the things that had been to hand that might have helped her (or Max before her) save lives. Although, as she confessed to Zoe, she suspected that Max might just have used some of this himself in secret. Some of these things do look as if they"ve seen some use," agreed Zoe, "but not recently. How long is it since Max left?"

"Four years, three months, two days," Dee told her with sadness. Dee had suggested that they stop for refreshments and promised to tell Zoe how the split had happened. She explained that she and Max had been a couple for years, solid as a rock. All they lacked was a wedding ceremony and a family. The thing was, the wedding kept getting put off.

"It was always next year, and then next year would roll around, and first it was too d.a.m.n cold to get anything arranged, and then it was the planting season, then the hot season, harvest time..." she sighed again. "There was always a reason to postpone but no one ever doubted that we would marry eventually."

"And have children?"

Dee nodded sadly. "Then I got pregnant and everything changed. Pregnancies are rare on Axista Four. No one knows quite why - maybe there"s something in the air or in the water, who knows? Maybe someone will find out now but back then we just shrugged and accepted it as our lot. So it was a minor miracle that I fell pregnant and, although we tried to keep it a secret... well, it"s not such a big place and walls have ears if you know what I mean. Soon everyone knew. Which made it so much harder when..."

Dee broke off, sobbing, tears rolling down her face.

"What is it?" asked Zoe, concerned.

"I"m sorry. It"s been five years now and I still can"t get over it. My baby died inside me before I could even give birth to him. Max did everything he could, but it just wasn"t meant to be."

"I"m so sorry," said Zoe, meaning every word. In her own time, birth and pregnancy had become so controlled and carefully monitored that anything like this was unheard of.

Zoe couldn"t imagine what it must have been like for Dee - and for Max. Zoe said as much and Dee gave out a sharp bitter laugh.

"Max? Who knows how he felt about it. We never spoke about it."

"You never spoke about the fact that your son had died?"

Zoe didn"t understand.

"We just never spoke. The thing is, grief affects people in different ways. For Max it was just the last straw, the final push he needed to come out and say what he felt about Back Back to Basics. to Basics. I never saw any of the public meetings he held but I was told about them. Apparently he was brilliant, pa.s.sionate, logical, commanding. When he said he wanted to leave and start afresh, people were pushing each other out of the way to volunteer. Of course, she helped." I never saw any of the public meetings he held but I was told about them. Apparently he was brilliant, pa.s.sionate, logical, commanding. When he said he wanted to leave and start afresh, people were pushing each other out of the way to volunteer. Of course, she helped."

"Hali?"

Dee nodded, the tears having dried up now.

"She was a neighbour"s daughter. Always a livewire, always getting into the No-Go Zone and coming back with little things from the colony ship. She was just a kid. "Least I thought she was. Turns out, when I wasn"t looking, she"d grown up into quite a woman. And while I was in here "recovering" she was giving Max the support he needed. And when they went - to a "Real" future, as they put it - she went with them."

Zoe thought she understood now. "He left you to be with Hali!"

"Sometimes," Dee confessed, "sometimes I even wonder if the whole breaking away was a means to an end, a way to ditch me without having to face me every day." She laughed bitterly. "How arrogant is that?"

"Stranger things have happened because of love," Zoe told her, and then blushed. For all her book-knowledge she had little personal experience of that kind of pa.s.sion. Perhaps one day, she thought, when I"ve had enough of travelling with the Doctor. Not for a long time yet, though, she added to herself.

Dee pulled herself together and drained her mug of chocolate. "So that"s my version of how the Great Split occurred."

She smiled self-deprecatingly and added, "...how the colony split in two as well!"

"And now - if the two groups merge again how will you feel about that?" asked Zoe.

"The same way I"ve always felt," answered Dee staring out at the red-drenched sunset. "I"ve never stopped loving Max, he just stopped loving me." She looked up into the darkening sky, searching for a glimpse of the bright new star that was the ECSV "I just hope they manage to save him. For Hali"s sake and mine."

"This really isn"t necessary, you know," complained the Doctor but the Tyrenian warriors who were manhandling him paid him no attention. "We just want to talk..." The Doctor trailed off as he and Jamie were thrown into a st.u.r.dy-looking cage, about ten feet square. The door was slammed shut and some kind of lock put on it. "I don"t think they want to talk, Doctor,"

said Jamie, but as if to prove him wrong one of their jailers turned and addressed them.

"Commander Zenig will see you shortly," he said, before walking off.

The Doctor and Jamie had recovered consciousness quite quickly and had awoken to find themselves surrounded by a horde of the doglike aliens, all pointing weapons directly at them. With gestures more than words, the Tyrenians had made the Doctor and Jamie stand and had then pushed them roughly to the teleport chamber. They"d made the jump back to the Tyrenian bunker and had been bundled into a dark and cavernous storage area, where the cage had been waiting for them.

Jamie looked around with interest. The cage seemed to have been constructed in some kind of hold; large numbers of Tyrenians were systematically unpacking boxes of weapons.

"That"s odd," commented the Doctor, watching the aliens at work. "Don"t those energy weapons look familiar to you, Jamie?"

Jamie looked. Most of the weapons in the future looked the same to him but the Doctor was right about these: they did ring bells. "They look the same sort of thing that the marines have," he realised finally. "Mebbe they use the same armourer," he suggested, trying to explain the coincidence.

"I don"t think so, Jamie. No, there"s something else." The Doctor brooded for a moment, continuing to observe the Tyrenians carefully. "Does anything else strike you as odd about our hosts?" he asked carefully.

Jamie shrugged. "Odd? Well they are walking, talking doggies if that"s what you mean?"

"Yes, they seem to be, don"t they? But look at the way they walk, the way they carry themselves. And look at those hands with the opposable thumbs."

"Aye, what about them?"

The Doctor"s face was contorted into a grimace as he struggled to make sense of what he was seeing. "It"s just not very canine," was all he could say.

Before he could take the thought any further, they were interrupted by the arrival of Zenig.

"Ah," said the Doctor, beaming. "You must be in charge."

"I am Commander Zenig and you are an enemy of the Tyrenian race," announced Zenig with cold simplicity.

"Well, I won"t argue with the former but I do take issue with the latter," began the Doctor. "You see we"re here on behalf of the human colonists "The human killers," interrupted Zenig, "who destroyed our settlement and stole our planet."

The Doctor realised that this was not going to go as well as he had hoped.

"There has been some... misunderstanding in the past," he concurred. "But the humans want peace not war. This planet is big enough for all of you. No one else has to die."

Zenig looked as if he was listening and considering the Doctor"s words but then he shook his head.

"I hear what you"re saying but I cannot let my commander"s death go unanswered. It would be... dishonourable."

"What would be honourable?" asked the Doctor. "What price must we pay? More death?"

"A duel. Ritual combat. A human champion against a Tyrenian. That would be honourable," Zenig answered carefully.

"Well, if it"s a fight you"re after..." Jamie interspersed.

"No, Jamie," said the Doctor hurriedly in a low voice, "I really don"t think -"

"You accept the challenge?" Zenig cut through, addressing Jamie directly.

"Aye, if it will get us out of this cage. Fair fight and when I knock your best man off his feet, you promise to listen to the Doctor. Deal?"

Zenig regarded Jamie and his outstretched hand with suspicion before grasping it and shaking it.

"Deal," he agreed. He turned to one of his lieutenants. "Make the arrangements. We are to have a Blood Duel."

The Doctor looked somewhat worried as the cage was opened and Jamie was taken out. "Don"t worry, Doctor, I can take one of these things," Jamie told him confidently as he was pulled away. "I"ll see you later." And then Jamie was gone.

"I doubt that you will," commented the Tyrenian guard as he re-secured the lock on the cage.

"Why"s that? What is this Blood Duel, then?" asked the Doctor, concerned.

"What does it sound like? It"s a fight," explained the Tyrenian as if to a child.

"Until blood is spilled, I suppose?" guessed the Doctor.

"Until death!" replied the alien, grinning broadly, revealing his sharp teeth.

It was the noise that alerted them. The inhabitants of Plymouth Hope had never heard anything like it. They spilled from their homes looking towards the source - the colony ship - wondering what new horror was about to engulf them.

Was the ship finally collapsing after all these years?

It was impossible to see exactly what it was making the noise at first. There was a mechanical precision to it and the sound of movement of heavy objects. It was the sound of long-sealed doors rising: of dormant technology reactivating.

And then they began to see them. Moving in precise lines, like some kind of optical illusion, line after line of battledroids, inactive since the warfare that had occurred and been forgotten at Planet Fall. A thousand walking, thinking, killing machines emerged from the most secret, untouched cargo vaults of the colony ship and marched out of the wreckage.

And watching them, from one of the Hannibal's Hannibal's shuttlecraft, was the man who had reactivated them. Major Jonn Cartor. He issued the droids with new commands. shuttlecraft, was the man who had reactivated them. Major Jonn Cartor. He issued the droids with new commands.

Locate and destroy the Tyrenians. Maximum Force.

Chapter Eighteen.

It didn"t look like much of an arena, thought Jamie, as he was directed into the area where the ritual combat was going to take place. There were about half a dozen one-metre-high beacons marking a rough circle, but nothing to secure them together. A symbolic border rather than a functional one. Not that there was any chance of escape. Word had spread about the human willing to fight one-to-one with a Tyrenian and the rest of the hold was so full of spectators that Jamie could no longer see the cage holding the Doctor.

Jamie weighed up the short sword that he had been given.

It looked sharp enough and moved well through the air when he essayed a couple of moves. In addition to the sword, he had been given two other items: a small round shield and a piece of body armour that protected his chest and torso, but at the price of slightly reducing his mobility. It was made of some kind of plastic but felt tougher. Jamie remembered the time the Doctor had taken him to Ancient Rome. They had visited a gladiatorial spectacle and, recalling what he"d seen then - before Victoria, appalled at the crowd"s blood-l.u.s.t, had insisted that they leave - Jamie felt a shudder of deja vu. deja vu.

Here on this far-flung planet in his distant future he was about to recreate what he had seen in Ancient Rome. The Doctor had been right. There was something odd about this - even Jamie could sense it.

Before he could think about it any longer, there was a stirring in the crowd as the Tyrenians loudly welcomed their champion. Jamie swallowed. His opponent was a big specimen, the largest of the aliens he had seen so far, broad-shouldered and st.u.r.dy. The breastplate armour could not conceal the well-honed body beneath it. Suddenly, Jamie became aware of Zenig standing up to address the crowd.

"Let the contest begin," he said simply before stepping out of the arena and pressing something on one of the beacons.

Immediately each of the beacons lit up and started to emit a humming sound. Jamie"s confusion must have been evident on his face because his opponent enlightened him. "Force field," he said simply. "Hit it once, it will give you a nasty shock. A second time, it doubles the current. A third" - he paused and began to grin - "kills. But I wouldn"t worry about that possibility. I will kill you myself first."

And with that the alien lunged forward, jabbing his short sword toward Jamie"s arm. Only Jamie"s quick reflexes saved him from losing first blood. Jamie tried to put all thoughts out of his head, save for the fight. The alien was quick and clever but Jamie used his shield well and matched the speed of his opponent. The crowd roared their approval as the Tyrenian attacked again and again, pushing Jamie back on to the defensive. Then Jamie made his first offensive move, ducking down under a wide slashing move and coming up under the alien"s sword arm with the face of his shield. The Tyrenian fell backwards but managed to carry Jamie with him, using his feet to lift Jamie off the floor and toss him, flying head over heels, over his head into the force field. The air crackled with energy and blue lightning jumped all over Jamie"s body before he fell back into the arena with a heavy thud, dropping his sword.

The Tyrenian moved quickly in, not to attack but to kick the sword out of Jamie"s reach. It slid across the floor of the hold, bounced off a beacon and slid under the force field. The alien smiled with delight but in the split second he was looking in the direction of the sword rather than his opponent Jamie had got to his feet and jumped on his back.

To his horror Jamie realised that he could understand what the watching Tyrenians were chanting. "Kill, Kill, Kill!" they called wildly. Jamie held on as the beast tried to throw him again. He"d volunteered for this fight in order to give the Doctor a chance to do something. He just wished the Doctor would hurry up and do whatever it was he was going to do.

The battledroids were ma.s.sing at the edge of the forest. Zoe, Dee and some of the other Loyalists had come up from the town to see what was happening. The droids were linking up with each other, making more complex shapes from the combination of their individual parts.

"They"re transforming," said Zoe, amazed. "Look they"re forming some kind of aircraft."

Now Zoe had pointed it out Dee could see that she was right. The battledroids had formed into a small fleet of aircraft and in perfect unison the amalgamated droids were launching into the air. There were about two dozen of them, Dee estimated. Once airborne they a.s.sumed a precise formation and set off in the direction of the Tyrenian base.

"Where do you think they"re going?" Dee wondered but Zoe was already running back down towards the town.

Zoe had never run so fast in her life. Of course, spending any time with the Doctor involved a certain amount of running, usually away from some terrible monster or clanger, but it was far less common to be running towards something.

She had to do something about those droids. There could only be one target for them, the alien base - where the Doctor and Jamie were. She had to tell someone from the ECSV what was happening.

She hurtled into the Administrative Centre, hardly able to breathe as a result of her exertions. "Is Veena here?" she demanded. The cool figure of Mr Greene, the Federation Administrator, looked up from his desk as she entered. "I"m afraid not, Miss Heriot. But there"s no need to be alarmed, the taskforce is purely a precautionary measure."

Zoe gave the man a long look and decided not to waste her time any further talking to him. She hurried out again and was delighted to run into Veena who was heading for her fighter craft.

"Do you know what"s going on?" she demanded of the Federation officer.

Veena looked grim. No idea, but I intend to find out. The activation signal came from the Hannibal. Hannibal. If we"re to stop it we need to be up there." she said. If we"re to stop it we need to be up there." she said.

""We"?" asked Zoe.

"I"m not about to stand around and watch a genocide.