Invasion Of The Cat-People Part 10

'Burying his dog or cat I think,' said Ben. look, there's some fur lying around here.'

'Pretty big cat, Ben. I mean -' Polly suddenly started.

'What's up, d.u.c.h.ess?'

She grabbed his arm. 'Ben, my dream. I saw a giant cat thing. Standing with a gun. A giant cat-person.' She pointed at the fur.

Ben smiled. 'Oh Pol, that was a nightmare. Cats don't carry guns. Look, Coates is out of sight now. Let's see what it was.'

'Oh Ben, it might be something dead.'

'Well, don't look then.'

'No, all right. But you dig.' She held her hands up. 'My nails . . .'

85.Ben nodded wryly and started pulling the fresh earth away with his fingers. After a few moments he felt something cold and soft. 'It's cloth I think.'

After a few moments longer Ben straightened up.

'Clothes. Coates was burying coats. Why?'

'Any idea whose?'

Ben shook his head. 'I'll try and get this one up.' He tugged and tugged and eventually it gave way. Too suddenly. The momentum caused Ben to lose his footing and he staggered back too quickly.

'Ben!' screamed Polly but it was too late. Ben was at the cliff's edge and his feet were still scrabbling for gravity. He fell back, his feet leaving ground and for a split second he was just hanging above nothing except sea and rocks below.

Then he stayed where he was. Polly stayed staring at him, her mouth contorted in a silent scream. There was no sound.

No wind, no bird song, just nothing.

And absolutely no movement.

The Doctor stood in the hallway having walked through the closed door. His feet occasionally sank beneath the floorboards and sometimes rose a few inches above. It was as if he were treading across a vat of jelly.

He stopped at the foot of the stairs and waited. He flicked through the diary, nodding at certain pa.s.sages and at one point stared upstairs. 'So, that's what she saw. How interesting.' After a few moments he closed the book and slipped it back into his pocket. 'Dangerous, Doctor, I know, but not as dangerous as leaving it visible.' He looked towards the kitchen area. 'Oh, do get a move on, Thorsuun, I object to waiting all eternity,' he called out.

Seconds later Thorsuun walked through the closed door of the kitchen, followed by Kerbe, his Mauser in his hand.

'Oh, very good,' the Doctor applauded. 'You must have some very powerful RTCs to manage both of you.'

Kerbe was astonished. 'How on Earth . . .'

86.The Doctor tried to look abashed. 'Er . . . not Earth actually, Herr Kerbe. Didn't you know your bursar was an alien?'

'Of course I do,' the German snapped back. 'Didn't know you were, though. That information was withheld from me.'

The last comment was directed at Thorsuun.

'Dissension in the ranks, Fraulein.'

Thorsuun just shrugged. 'You know how parochial humans are, Doctor. They are so inquisitive. It's really quite amusing considering how little information their pathetic minds can take before they close down. This one seemed better than most.'

'You mean his greed and aggression made him a better receptacle for your particular brand of mental persuasion.'

Thorsuun smiled a toothy smile. 'Oh, sweetheart, almost right. But it's nothing mental - it's all auditory.' She tapped her throat.

The Doctor jumped up and felt the ground beneath him shift slightly.

'Be careful, Doctor, the gravity fields take a bit of getting used to when time has been stopped.'

'Stopped? Or has the Earth just stopped rotating?'

'Oh, excellent, you spotted that. You're better than I thought.'

'Thank you. I thought you'd reveal yourself eventually.'

The Doctor straightened his tie, determined not to die and look dishevelled at the same time.

Thorsuun stared back impa.s.sively. 'So, what are you?'

'I was rather hoping you'd tell me about yourself actually.

You're Euterpian, aren't you?'

'A what?'

'Euterpian. A Hummer?'

'Probably. We don't have a race name. We know who we are.'

'Were. You died out a long time ago. Sorry.'

Thorsuun shrugged. 'I'm not surprised. We came a long way, Doctor. Across the three dimensions.'

'Three? s.p.a.ce and time and. . ?'

87.Thorsuun grinned. 'Oh, my precious, you cannot imagine.'

'Oh, I wouldn't say that.' The Doctor smiled back and tugged his frock-coat closer to him. 'You know, this part of England is rather pleasant. One day, I've always told myself, I'd buy myself a little house here. Somewhere to use as a home whenever I come to Earth.' He paused and then frowned. 'Or was that Kent? The Garden of England. It's so hard to remember.'

Thorsuun waved Kerbe nearer and he pointed his gun at the Doctor. Thorsuun leaned in closer. 'I think my ally will want to meet you.'

The Doctor clapped his hands together and laughed. 'Oh, good, I'd like to meet him.'

'Her.'

'Her. Large, is she? Furry? Feline-based perhaps?'

Thorsuun paused and then nodded reverently. 'You are very good, Doctor. I'm terribly impressed and I think she will be too.'

The Doctor stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets. 'I'm not a commodity, you know. Something to play show-and-tell with to impress your mistress.'

'Ally, Doctor. Queen Aysha is an ally. Equal partners and all that. Just so you know.'

'Of course. Mea culpa Mea culpa.' The Doctor turned away but then back again. 'Does she know that?'

'What?'

'That you're equals. I mean the Cat-People have a reputation for, how can I put it, delusions of grandeur.'

'You know of the Cat-People? I'm impressed further.'

The Doctor suddenly screwed his face up in fury. 'Know of them? Of course I know of them. Hideous, murderous mercenaries. You can't trust them, Thorsuun. They'll knife you in the back before you can say Kit-e-Kat. They've plundered more planets than . . . than . . .' He stopped and steadily walked right up to her, casually pushing Kerbe's gun away and ignoring the Teutonic curse that followed as Kerbe, still unsteady on his feet, toppled over. 'What do they want here? With you? With Earth?'

88.Thorsuun lightly kissed the Doctor on the cheek. 'You lovely specimen. You can ask them yourself. They're right behind you.'

The Doctor spun round. Walking through the locked and bolted front door, clearly accustomed to marching on time-shifted surfaces, were seven Cat-People, clad in red leather.

A tortoisesh.e.l.l leader took a step further after waving her troops to a halt.

Kerbe staggered up. ' Mein Gott Mein Gott.'

' Ihr Alptraum Ihr Alptraum, Herr Kerbe, I think you'll find.' The Doctor again adjusted his collar and pulled his coat sleeves down.

He flicked a loose strand of hair out of his eyes, stretched out his arm and strode over to greet the mercenaries.

'How do you do, Your Majesty.'

The Queen ignored him. She turned to Thorsuun. 'My pride, Thorgarsuunela. First-sired Chosan is my executive officer.'

Thorsuun bowed slightly to the sleek black cat, whose weapon was aimed squarely at her chest.

'And this is my tactical officer, Lotuss.'

'The litter-runt. The fame of your . . . abilities to get your way on the battlefield are renowned.' Thorsuun again gave a slight bow.

Lotuss's single eye stared at her, and the hair on her neck and tail bristled slightly. 'Beware, anthropoid, I do not like the term "litter-runt". Do not use it again.'

Thorsuun nodded politely. 'I apologize.'

Queen Aysha surveyed the house. 'Why has time stopped? You did not warn us. Luckily it affected us seconds after the anthropoid helping froze. We were able to activate our shields and retrieve the RTC unit from our shuttle. That kind of action smells of betrayal.'

'It wasn't me, Your Majesty. If I were going to betray you, I'd hardly have given you my RTC unit to. . .' she waved a hand abstractedly, 'to modify for your own use. Remember, without it, I'm trapped here, ageing slowly again. Besides, I warned you that at least one other of my people survives into this century. I suspect it is his doing.'

89.'Oh. And why should he do this? Perhaps I should conduct my business with him.'

Lotuss stepped forward. 'An anthropoid-tom? It has enough power?'

'On this primitive planet, tactician, you will find the males just as dominant as the females.'

The surrounding Cat-People hissed their displeasure at this news. 'They should be neutered at birth,' spat Chosan.

'Well, the humans wouldn't last very long, Chosan, would they.' Aysha bared her incisor teeth to Thorsuun. 'My pride is not very fond of males, Thorgarsuunela. Keep yours away from them, and they may avoid sterilization.'

Thorsuun shrugged. 'As you suggest, Your Majesty. By the way, this little thing is Marten Kerbe, the human who has a.s.sisted me in setting up this landing site. He helped me find the marker buoy as well.'

'And this one?'

'Oh, this darling little creature is the Doctor. He's not human either. I'm not sure where he's from but he's exceptionally well-read.'

'Thank you,' murmured the Doctor.

'You were not given permission to mew,' Aysha hissed.

Thorsuun smiled. 'Indeed he was not. Well, that's the introductions over. Shall we talk?'

Aysha agreed and Thorsuun walked into the pride and stood beside the Queen, looking just a little dwarfed. 'Oh, Lotuss, would you like to keep your trigger finger supple?'

She pointed towards the Doctor. 'Kill him, would you be a dear?'

With a purr of pleasure, Lotuss swung her gun up and opened fire, blasting Kerbe back against the stairs.

The Doctor stared at the body, and back at Lotuss and Thorsuun.

'Whoops, wrong one,' said Thorsuun. 'Try again!'

Lotuss aimed her rifle-blaster once more . . .

90.

Episode Three

Carfrae screamed. In itself, this was not a very surprising reaction, thought Simon, but nevertheless, it was unusual.

Carfrae Morgan was not exactly known for overt emotional expressions and apart from the odd four-letter expletive yelled at someone at college, hearing her scream was almost enough to distract Simon from what had caused her reaction.

But not quite, as he was busy quelling a similar reaction himself. Ghosts, ghoulies and things that go b.u.mp in the night he could cope with - indeed, since ganging up with Professor Bridgeman, he had been antic.i.p.ating them. But harsh reality was something completely new, unexpected and rather horrific.

It had all started when the Doctor was explaining about Mrs Wilding's diary. And had simply vanished in front of their eyes. For a moment the three students had just stared at each other, daring someone else to speak first. It was Peter Moore who had broken the silence.

'h.e.l.l, if I believe time-distorting books, alien bursars and a self-repairing jacket I can believe people can just vanish into thin air.'