Invasion Of The Cat-People Part 11

Simon nodded. 'Yeah. I guess so.'

They were about to go looking for the Doctor when Carfrae had called for quiet. Through the door they could hear the Doctor's voice.

'What have you done?' The Doctor sounded very distraught. 'By what right did you do that?'

'Quiet, anthropoid.' That was a strange voice none of them recognized.

'I'm not just an anthropoid.' The Doctor again.

'Does it really matter?' Thorsuun. No doubting her sneering voice. Then Peter had pulled open the door and Carfrae had screamed.

Lying on the stairway, eyes wide open but a large portion of his chest apparently melted on to the steps, was Kerbe.

91.With a brief flash of dispa.s.sion Simon noted he was clearly dead, although his right hand, the gun clutched tightly in it, was still twitching autonomically. Simon turned his head to trace the stranger's voice and blinked. Somewhere from deep within his subconscious an order flashed into his brain.

His mouth formed the words, and his throat twitched and gurgled out a barely decipherable 'Quick! Run!' and he slammed the door shut, trapping the three of them in the Ex-Room.

'Simon!' It was the Doctor. 'Use the Ex-Area -' He was cut off by a swift thwack of something and a yelp of pain followed.

'It . . . it was a cat!' was all Carfrae could manage.

Ever practical, Peter, ignoring the pain from his arm, began activating their equipment. 'C'mon, guys. Let's get this up and running!' He waved at their equipment.

'But the Doctor -' Simon watched as Carfrae bolted the door.

'He said to use the Ex-Area. What else can we do?'

Simon felt like kicking himself. The other two were thinking, doing, acting and being. He was just standing there, trying to convince himself that, like Peter, he could accept alien Doctors, dead Kerbes and six-foot cats with guns and red leather flying suits.

'Simon! Please!' That was Carfrae again.

'Yeah. Right. OK, guys, let's get to it.'

One second later the door was blasted off its hinges and two Cat-People stood framed there, guns brought up.

Then there was a thud - the Doctor had thrown the larger of his two weird books into the Ex-Area. Simon bent down as the larger Cat-Person - a white one with a grey spot covering its left eye he noted rather pointlessly - brought its gun up to cover them.

'Leave the RTC,' it purred.

'Activate!' yelled the Doctor from behind and Simon saw Peter switch their machinery on.

The Cat-People suddenly seemed to shimmer and distort as if there were a ma.s.sive heat wave in front of them. It 92 reminded Simon of summer schooldays, lying on playground Tarmac and staring at the horizon, trying to see the heat haze create a sort of mirage. All around them everything in the room looked as if it were a mirage.

'And what good does the book do?' muttered Peter.

'I don't know,' said Carfrae, 'but the Doctor obviously thought it was important. We'd better leave it alone.'

'Those Cat-People have given up and gone,' Peter said, pointing. 'But I can't see outside this room.'

'Good.' Simon sat on the floor and looked up at the others.

'Anyone brought a pack of cards with them? I could do with a round of whist.'

'No! Don't kill me!'

'Why not?' spat Lotuss. 'You'd suit me dead.'

Thorsuun waited as the Doctor thought about this for a moment. 'I could be very useful to you and your queen.

Your litter would find me exceptionally clever. And I know lots about this planet, its people and how it works. I could act as an intermediary for you.' Thorsuun grunted humourlessly.

'Why?' That was Chosan.

'Ah . . . well, because . . . because I want to live and it's far better to serve you and live than fight you and die. I know far more ways to help you than Thorsuun does.'

'Oh, nice try, Doctor.' Thorsuun tapped Lotuss on the shoulder. 'I thought I told you to kill him, litter-runt.'

There was a moment's pause before Lotuss turned to look at Thorsuun. 'I obey Queen Aysha. My mother. Not you, quisling.' Lotuss was about to move away, when she raised her scarred left arm. 'By the way, Thorgarsuunela, I hope I don't have to remind you again: the term "litter-runt" is not appreciated. Use it again and I will kill you - regardless of my mother's wishes.' Lotuss signalled to the white Cat-Person with the grey eye-spot, Jayde, and Chosan. 'Let us take these animals with us. Have Aall prepare to use the transporter to take the object that Queen Aysha indicated 93 earlier up to the battle-cruiser. Get the Coates-tom. He can look after Thorgarsuunela and the Doctor-tom.'

Jayde mewed acquiescence and left through the front door. Thorsuun wondered what was coming next. And what object had Aysha found?

Chosan looked at Lotuss and then their captives. 'Queen Aysha has decreed that you will live for a while.'

'Well, I'm relieved to hear that, at least,' the Doctor said.

'If, however, you cause any trouble, you will be killed. Is that understood?'

Thorsuun tried one last tack. 'First-sired Chosan, I am your ally, not some second-rate anthropoid. I insist -'

Chosan's blaster was pressed against her chin in a second.

'I expect that your Kerbe-tom thought he was useful to you, but you proved him wrong.'

Lotuss joined in. 'I enjoyed destroying him. To be honest, I'd enjoy destroying you even more.'

Thorsuun shut up. She just looked at the Doctor who was breathing on a coat b.u.t.ton and polishing it with his sleeve.

Without raising his head, his green eyes stared hard at Thorsuun. Green eyes which, she suddenly realized, looked just like cat's eyes.

'h.e.l.lo. Who are you?'

'I-I'm not entirely sure. Where am I?'

'I'm afraid I don't know. My name is Simms. Nate Simms.

From Parramatta, Sydney.'

'Y-you don't sound very Australian.'

'Oh, I'm not actually. I'm from Loughborough originally but I moved to Sydney about two years ago.'

'It's very. . . white here. I can't see the walls.'

Nate Simms shrugged. 'I don't think we're in a room, actually. Every so often I feel a bit of a breeze and earlier I saw some movement over thataway. It was a couple of people but I couldn't see them properly. Like watching through frosted gla.s.s - yes, that's what it was like!

Probably about thirty feet away, I think. I a.s.sume it was the people that brought us here.'

94.'Brought us. . . ? I-I don't remember being -'

Simms shook his head. 'No, I don't either. But I just appeared here, just like you did.'

'When?'

'When what? When did I get here? Oh, about two hours ago. My watch was in my bag - which I appear to have lost.'

'And me?'

'Just now. Literally. I was looking over there . . . or maybe over there and I turned round and there you were, Bingo. At least now we can use each other to give ourselves some bearings. With everything so white, it's been impossible even to know if I've been turning round or not.'

'Can't we just walk towards where you thought you saw something?'

'Ah. No. 'Fraid not. We're inside something. It tingles if you touch it. About three feet around us, in a circle. If anyone else just pops up like you did, we'll get a bit squished.' Simms shrugged again.

'There's nothing to hold on to, is there? Mentally I mean.

We can't describe anything, see anything, register it. T-that's rather unsettling.'

'No, you're right. Just as well we can't move I suppose; we'd get lost.'

'Of course, you might have walked for miles and not realized it. There's nothing to set bearings with.'

'Ah, but that invisible wall I mentioned. It won't let you out.'

'Yes, but how do you know it doesn't move with you? With nothing to get orientated with it might move as well. Fractionally slower, hence you're feeling it, but it could be moving.'

'That . . . that's silly.' Simms grinned. 'I mean, just daft.

How can a wall move?'

'Not as silly as standing in a phone box in a village near Whitehaven one second and being here the next.'

'You're beginning to remember things. It took me a while.'

95.'Bridgeman. Nicholas Bridgeman - that's my name.'

Simms held out his hand and Bridgeman clasped it.

'Pleased to meet you, Mr Bridgeman.'

'P-Professor. Professor Bridgeman of the University of Greenwich. I was in c.u.mbria with my students - there was an accident of sorts I think.'

'Were you hurt?' Simms gingerly touched Bridgeman's arm.

'No.' Bridgeman shook his head emphatically. 'No, not me. Peter Moore, one of the lads. He fell down the stairs of the Grange. I went for help and there were these two . . .

people. One in a wheelchair, the woman was dressed funnily . . .'

'Victorian-like? Yes, that's what I saw. You know, the people I mentioned. Looked like something out of Upstairs, Upstairs, Downstairs Downstairs, I think. I couldn't see them properly.'

'Y-yes, you said. How did you get here, Mr Simms?'

'Nate, please. My friends all call me Nate.'

Bridgeman smiled and nodded. 'All right, Nate, I'm Nicholas. Now, how did you get here?'

'I was climbing Mount Demi, in Queensland. D'you know Oz at all?'

Bridgeman shook his head.

'Oh well, I'm about fifty minutes north of Cairns. Quite near Port Douglas, climbing this mountain. It's quite a sacred Aboriginal site and so I was especially careful about the route I took up. You have to be careful to stick to grazed land rather than crashing through the shrubbery and things.

It's their country, you see - white man is just an invader really. Even in Australian schools they use the term "invasion" to describe Captain Cook's discovery rather than "colonization". Interesting semantics that - wouldn't have been the case in the seventies.' Simms stopped abruptly.

'Sorry, was I rambling?'

'In more ways than one, Nate. Y-you were up Mount. . .

Demi, was it?'

'Yeah, Demi. Like Bruce Willis's missus. Right, I was about three-quarters of an hour up when I saw a little cave.

96.Rock formations aren't unusual in rain forest areas - indeed when the Aboriginals first settled there, the whole of Oz was rain forest. Difficult to believe, isn't it? Now a majority of it is quite inhospitable desert. Anyway, I found this cave and began to explore it.'

Nate paused.

'And?' prompted Bridgeman.

'Oh, yeah. Sorry, I got distracted. I saw those two people again behind you. Blurred again. I wonder if my eyes are playing up. That light was very bright.'

'What light?'

'Oh, the light at the back of the cave. I was going towards it when it just . . . well, flared up. Really brightly. My eyes hurt and so did my head. And it was really warm. In fact, look at my pen.' Simms produced the remnants of what might have once been a silver Parker cartridge pen.

Bridgeman took it and rolled it around his palm. 'Melted.

Fused into a lump. But it didn't actually b-burn you?'

'Not at all. I only discovered my pen was like that a while back. I was going to poke at our invisible wall with it.'