Doctor Who_ The Dalek Factor Part 9

'It's all right,' I tell him. 'I'm not letting go.''Thank you. I don't think many would have risked their own lives for a madman like me, would they now?'

'Please... Just try and pull yourself up.'

With a better grip, he manages to haul himself out of the pit.

'I don't know how stable this surface is,' I tell him. 'Move over to the incline there behind me. That appears to be solid.'

'It's not stable at all,' he pants. 'Run!'He scrambles to his feet. I grab the gun and sprint back for the incline. Glancing back, I see a whole section of ground where I hauled the man out is now sagging. With a soft roar it collapses inward into the hole. Moments later, I hear a ma.s.sive thud as it crashes down onto the floor of the pit.

'Close one.' He throws himself down onto the ground; there he rests on his back, catching his breath. During this interval, I take the opportunity to tell him about the death of Tar'ant (he grimaces in sympathy), then I describe my clash with the Dalek in the jungle.

He nods at the gun. 'You fired first, I take it?'

'Not first, but more accurately.'

'Good shot.' Then his eyes stray back to the pit. 'Thanks again, Jomi.'

Pulling off my helmet, I sit down beside him with a grateful sigh. 'Don't mention. It's all part of my duties.'

'Above and beyond, I'd say. My goodness. Just look at that.' He's gazing up at the grey tubes that snake across the sky. 'Like Christmas bunting' He shoots me a sudden grin. 'But you don't know anything about Christmas, do you? Christmas trees, streamers, decorations, Yule logs, mince pies by the truckload and carol singers; silent night, holy night.' He hums the notes of a song.

'Happy memories?' I ask.'Yes, they must be. I can picture friendly people in paper hats. They're all smiling... Makes me want to smile, too.'

'You're remembering more?'

He nods.

'Your name?'

He shakes his head.

'Do you know why you're here on this planet?'

'Brought.'

'Why?

He shrugs.

'And you've always been here alone? No companions?'

He holds up a finger as if remembering, then begins to speak. 'There was... was. No, it's gone.' He shakes his head in frustration. 'That happens. I see a face in my mind's eye. I know the face. I know, moreover, I can put a name to it, then...' He clicks his fingers. Thinks again for a moment. Just when I antic.i.p.ate more memories are revealing themselves to him, he exclaims: 'What a remarkable world! Those buildings. Extraordinarily ancient. The aerial tube network. Clearly some rapid transit system. Defunct now, of course. Decay... retrogression... entropy... They've made pedestrians of you and me both, hmm?' Abruptly he sits up on the gra.s.s. 'Of course, there's life in this old dog yet. The fabric of the metropolis has the ability to dissolve sections of itself then reseal them an ability that caused our spectacular fall to earth.' He jerks his head toward the tubes. 'But that can't be a random effect, can it?'

'You mean someone intended us to drop from the tube right here?''It seems so, doesn't it?' His voice quickens. 'Look up, Jomi. What do you see?'

'Grey tubes. Blue sky.'

'What don't you see?'

'The sun.'

'Absolutely. That's no more blue sky than I am. In truth we must be deep, deep underground.'

'But the size of the place. And there was a viable Dalek here I don't understand, Professor. Our scouts should have found all this when they ran a scan on the planetary system.'

'Then the shielding is effective.'

'That's what makes me so unhappy.'

'Oh?'

'The Daleks must value this place very, very highly to bury their fortress here, then shield it so effectively. They've channelled a lot of resources into this.'

'They have, haven't they. Then they've let it go to ruin. Ah, what do I spy here?' The Professor climbs to his feet, dusts away sc.r.a.ps of leaf from his clothes, then bounds to a clump of plants. Seizing them, he begins tearing them away, flinging them behind himself in a flurry of green. 'Come here and see this, Jomi.'

I see that he is exposing what appears to be an array of vertical control panels. All are corroded.'Sophisticated electronic systems,' he tells me. 'All permitted to become weed infested.' He uses a thumbnail to sc.r.a.pe lichen from a dial. 'What kind of ode to this ruin would Sh.e.l.ley have composed?' He stands there, feet apart, both hands on his hips as he surveys the landscape. 'If you could sweep all the vegetation away, you would see machinery of all sorts. Fabulous structures! A city of machines! What would that be? A technopolis? Electropolis? A citadel of machines to serve machines.'

'Daleks?''Why not? These beings you call Dalek might well be responsible. But why create all this, then surrender it to trees and insects?'

I don my helmet. 'Those questions aren't for me to answer, Professor. No doubt my commanders will carry out a thorough investigation. My priority now is to find my platoon. And Kye.'

'But I can't help wanting to dig a little deeper here. There are so many fascinating things. Look...' He taps a toppled block of hardware with his foot. 'That detects the fluctuation in the gravitational field of a cosmic body. So sensitive it can even determine the gravitational pull of a grain of sand floating out in s.p.a.ce.'

I raise an eyebrow, which the man interprets clearly enough.'Yes, I recognise the device and know its capabilities, but I still don't know my own name. Hmm, I guess I will be calling myself Professor for a long time, don't you? Now!' He hurries to another clump of broadleaf plants. 'What do you suppose we have here?'

'Professor. I need to move on. I can't delay here any longer.'He rips handfuls of green stuff from a hitherto concealed structure. 'Fascinating. Uh, what evil smelling plants.'

'Professor. I'm going. Professor?'He doesn't appear to hear me. Instead he tugs away huge swathes of greenery. Stalks, leaves, vines and blossom petals fly back over his shoulder. The man's energy is phenomenal. And his enthusiasm to explore is nothing less than incandescent. He mutters to himself as he searches.

'Professor?' Still he doesn't listen. OK, I tell myself, no more delays. You've got to walk to the fortress. You must find Captain Vay and the rest. 'See you around, Professor.'

The man shouts: 'Jomi! Here!'I glance back. So what this time? Another gravity sensor? A device to sequence molecules in a dewdrop? A gauge to define the parameters of postponing what you must do now until tomorrow?

'Jomi. Quickly.'It's his tone that does it. I run across to him where he stands still, frozen in the act of tearing away a swathe of vines that masks the hardware.

Then I see what he's staring at. 'Monitors. They're working?'

'Yes. But what do they reveal?'

There are perhaps twenty monitors, probably a little larger than my outstretched hand. Through the ma.s.s of vines I see that they are lit and display moving shapes. Only the leaves of the plants obscure my clear view. With a single movement, I sweep the plants away.

'It's Captain Vay!' I'm stunned. 'What's happening to him?' I glance at the monitors. Each reveals a different scene. Now I see that they show

my comrades from the platoon. But what are they doing?

The Professor tugs more of the green stuff away from the bank of screens. 'They're held prisoner,' he tells me. 'See? They're restricted in their movements. It appears to be a small cell of sorts. Each soldier in separate confinement.'

Dread rushes through me in waves as I watch. 'They seem to be under attack. What's in there with them?' I see the way their eyes dart into every corner of the room. They're alert to some danger; a number of the rangers react to something that is off camera.

'Daleks!' My hands bunch into fists. 'Daleks are torturing them!'

'But are they? Look... Watch this screen the one with Captain Vay.'

The Captain crouches in a corner, clutching a steel bar part of a chair? As I watch, a dark shape with long limbs darts furiously at him. Captain Vay beats it back with the bar, then retreats to the corner again, panting. His face is grim. I realise he's been fighting his attacker off for some time. The creature must be trying to wear him down. I scan the other monitors. One shows Pup kicking away insects that crawl across the floor toward him. On another screen, Rain is shouting at the figure of a man in uniform. To my astonishment, I see it is me. A second later she throws herself at it, pushing it back against a wall. It explodes into a swarm of insects. That 'me' was one of the walking hives that have such a sinister habit of shape-changing. My eyes flick from one screen to another as my friends fight their solitary battles. Once more, the longlimbed simian beast launches an attack at Captain Vay. Once more, my commanding officer beats it back. Only this time I see blood running from a cut in his cheek. How much more of this can he take?

'There!' The Professor taps another screen just above eye level. I see Kye in a cell. And what happens next occurs with staggering speed. One moment she is standing in the centre of the room, her helmet gone, her gun in her hands, looking up at the ceiling. Then she tilts her head as if hearing a strange sound (the Professor and I hear nothing; we have only visuals, not sound), and all of a sudden she flinches back. We watch, not even breathing. Suddenly a deluge of liquid floods into the cell. It swirls around Kye; she struggles to keep to her feet. The liquid surface quickly rises up the walls of the cell. Then it closes over Kye's head. With the liquid reaching the ceiling of the cell, Kye can't break through the surface to breathe. I realise I'm going to have to stand there and watch her drown before my eyes. Now the camera reveals the cell as it is under water. Kye is suspended in its centre. Bubbles escape from her mouth. She's looking round, trying to find some way out.

'No,' I breathe. 'Please, no... 'The coldest sensation I've ever known creeps into my stomach. I'm going to stand here and watch my friend die. As I look on, Kye's movements slow. She hangs there suspended in the liquid. Then, suddenly, she grabs hold of the gun, raises the muzzle with one hand and finds the trigger with the other. She fires from the hip. The shot carves out a steaming tunnel in the water that instantly collapses into a cloud of bubbles.

I let out a terrific whoop. Before I know it, I'm slapping the Professor on the back so hard he nearly loses his balance. 'See what she's done! See it, Professor! She's only gone and blown a hole right through the wall!'

He's seen all right. In the cell wall, on screen, is a hole that you could thrust your two fists through. Immediately the water rushes through it, no doubt flooding some other area of the jail. The currents of the outrush swirl Kye around like she's a doll there in the water. Her limbs wave, her hair swirls round her head. For a moment I think the evacuation of water from the cell will take too long. That Kye will have been immersed for longer than she can hold her breath. Then I see the level of the fluid drop beneath the lens of the camera. In seconds, Kye raises her head above the surface and is breathing huge lungfuls of air. All the while, the water level drops, until soon she's standing knee deep with the gunshot hole now exposed in the wall. But even as we watch, a shadowy mist forms in the hole, then hardens into a black seal.

My heart plunges, because I know what will happen next. Sure enough, just minutes later the water gushes in again with a force that knocks Kye off her feet. She is submerged. She blasts a hole in the wall. Out rushes the water again. In moments she's standing panting, knee deep in water.

'That's going to repeat itself, isn't it?'

The man nods. 'I'm afraid it will. Your friends all have their own recurring challenges.'

Captain Vay battles with the simian creature. Pup swats away poison insects. Rain is confronted again and again by the hive of parasites that can take on human form my human form. human form. Fellebe is the only one not under direct attack. But I see she watches a hole that has appeared in the floor in the corner of her cell. The hole is growing larger. It's slow yet relentless. Fellebe goes to peer into it. From her expression, I can tell the drop is a long one. And not one that can be used as a means of escape. If anything, it is the weapon of her execution. All she can do is watch the deadly slow creep of the lip of the pit toward her. At some point, it will consume the entire floor of the cell. The only ranger I don't see is Dissari. I hope he escaped the initial attack. Fellebe is the only one not under direct attack. But I see she watches a hole that has appeared in the floor in the corner of her cell. The hole is growing larger. It's slow yet relentless. Fellebe goes to peer into it. From her expression, I can tell the drop is a long one. And not one that can be used as a means of escape. If anything, it is the weapon of her execution. All she can do is watch the deadly slow creep of the lip of the pit toward her. At some point, it will consume the entire floor of the cell. The only ranger I don't see is Dissari. I hope he escaped the initial attack.

'It's the Daleks,' I tell the Professor. 'They're doing this.'

'Then we must find your friends.'

I turn, ready to run toward the fortress.

'One moment,' he shouts. 'I think a little more has just come back to me.'

'I can't wait, Professor.''It won't take long... Now if I do remember correctly, this should... Ah.' He grips a corner of one of the screens between finger and thumb, then pulls. It peels away. Now it's as flexible and as thin as a sheet of paper; he folds it, then slips it into his pocket. 'I think it should prove useful to have one of these, don't you?'We hurry down the slope, past the pit that nearly claimed the Professor's life. Then we pause. A dense swathe of forest lies between us and the cliff face ramp that rises up to the fortress. That jungle forms a forbidding barrier between us and our goal.

'Now,' the man murmurs, 'which is the best way through?'As I glance at him, I find my attention caught by something beyond him. I touch his arm and nod at what I've seen. There, a hundred paces away, is a green mound. Standing on it is the figure of a man an old man with long, white hair, wearing clothes in a style similar to the Professor's. He's facing us; watching us intently.

The Professor's eyes fix on him. 'My word,' he whispers, awed.

'It's nothing. Just one of the walking hives.'

'Yes, I know that... but even so...' Tentative, he runs his fingers over his own face as if trying to map out his features. 'Only I'm sure I knew that man once.'

'Professor, we can't waste any more time.''Time? No, never waste time. Never...' He's distracted by the whitehaired figure on the mound. 'An old, old man. I knew him long ago.'

'Come on, Professor. We've got to try and figure a way through that jungle.'

The old man hasn't moved at all since I first noticed him. Only now he does move. With a slow, deliberate action that is strangely graceful, he raises one arm.. He lifts it until the hand is level with the shoulder; the arm extended so it's straight out to the side. Never once does he break eye contact with us.

I shake my head. 'Am I seeing things? Or is he it really pointing?'

'He's pointing all right. He's showing us the way.'

'Professor, it's just a swarm of insects. We can't trust them.'

'We can at least take a look for ourselves, Jomi. I mean, looking won't bury us, will it? Hmm? Come on.'

We run diagonally down the slope. Within fifty paces, we realise that man-shaped cl.u.s.ter of insects hasn't deceived us. There, almost hidden from view by two large bushes, is a paved way into the jungle. It looks little more than a tunnel through the greenery, but it's enough.

'We should really thank our helpful guide every last thousand of his insectile self,' the Professor says. 'Uh, where'd he go?'

I look back at the mound. The old man has vanished.

TWENTY-ONE.