"Hey. What the h.e.l.l is that?" Basel was pointing to a glowing blue light, higher up in the crags, a few hundred metres away. The glow became green as they watched.
The Doctor stared. "Sub-orbital landing beacon, by the look of it."
"Thought so," said Rose, deadpan. "What does it do?"
"It guides down s.p.a.ceships." The Doctor was already setting off towards it. That"s what the golems are waiting for. Trouble is coming down from the sky. Big trouble."
"Trouble, Doctor?" Faltato came clattering over the lip of the crag, rubbing his pincers together, his five eyes glinting silver in the moonlight. "You don"t know the meaning of the word."
"Not him again," said Basel, shrinking back. Rose took his hand and squeezed it.
"So what are you doing?" the Doctor enquired. "Bringing down your getaway vehicle, ready to stash the loot?"
"As if you"re not after the treasures yourself!" Faltato retorted.
"He"s not!" said Rose.
"Why else would you be right here, right now, unless you"d been following our progress from warren to warren?" Faltato sneered. "Each Valnaxi art warren contains coded directions to find the next and I have decrypted those pointing the way to the final warren correctly!"
He clapped his pincers together. "All those great works the Lona Venus Lona Venus, The Flight of the Valwing The Flight of the Valwing, The Shriek The Shriek. . . Lost for thousands of years and located by me."102.
"How many Valnaxi strongholds have you raided?" the Doctor demanded.
"Does it matter?" Faltato said airily.
"They lost the war, their planet, their spirit. Their eternal muse, the key to their artistry shattered by their enemies and turned into a rancid squat."
"They lost everything," agreed Faltato. "Their holdings and acquisitions are forfeit along with their existence."
"But you"ve opened a proper little Pandora"s box, haven"t you?" The Doctor stabbed a finger down at the gathered golems. "The Valnaxi defences have been triggered. People have died died, animals have "
"Oh, don"t be foolish." The creature"s legs brushed and bristled together as he gave a theatrical shrug. "I hardly designed the defence mechanism, did I? Anyway, there"ll be a lot more dead by the time my sponsors are finished here."
"Sponsors?"
The Doctor pulled out the sonic screwdriver and wielded it like a weapon. "Who"s in that s.p.a.ceship? Who"s coming?"
"You"ll see." Faltato slapped out his tongue and lashed the sonic from the Doctor"s hand. "They"ll want to meet you, I"m sure."
"Give that back!"
"They take a dim view of tomb robbers trying to steal their treasures."
"Theirs?" The Doctor gaped. "Theirs by what right?"
"By right of conquest!" Faltato snapped, slipping the screwdriver into the pocket of his immaculate suit jacket.
"Oh. My. G.o.d." Rose felt her blood run cold. A dark undulating shape had resolved itself from out of the starry indigo overhead. It was like staring up at the vast, fleshy underbelly of some huge, segmented creature that had come crawling out of the crevices of deepest s.p.a.ce. And it was plummeting to earth at an alarming rate. "What is that?"
"It"s a s.p.a.ceship," said the Doctor.
"This ain"t even happening," said Basel in a small voice. "No way."
Rose wished she could agree. "Never seen a s.p.a.ceship like that before."103.
"I have." The Doctor looked at Faltato, pursed his lips. "So they"re your sponsors? Suppose it makes sense. Not happy with wiping out the Valnaxi, they"re coming to crush whatever was left behind."
"Who are?" Rose asked, frowning. But suddenly huge, puckering mouths opened up in the quivering base of the thing. They spat out thick, foul-smelling muck at an incredible rate, and Rose and Basel almost gagged. In a matter of seconds, two entire crop fields were buried beneath a mountain of the stuff. "The TARDIS," she breathed.
"Doctor, the TARDIS is under there!"
The strange ship squelched down, using the muck mountain to cushion its impact. A shudder pa.s.sed through the ranks of the golems. Rose stared transfixed as the sides of the muck-mountain began to shake. Piles of manure were knocked clear and crumbled down the stinking slopes.
Then suddenly the mud was alive with dozens of huge, monstrous shapes, squirming, writhing, forcing their way through. Each was the size of a baby elephant, with a pale, glistening, segmented body like a giant earthworm Rose couldn"t tell where the neck ended and the head began, there were no discernible features. They wore strange suits of crumbling white armour round their Wiggling torsos, with special attachments on their stubby arms. As they coiled and slithered down the mudslide, she could see no legs, only the fat, muscular lower body, raw pink segments rippling.
"What are those things?" Basel croaked.
"They"re called Wurms," said the Doctor. "Fought the Valnaxi across seventeen star systems."
Rose shook her head. "Just for that one planet?"
"They"d already taken its neighbours. It was perfectly placed for the Wurms to expand their empire out into s.p.a.ce or for their opponents to land a bridgehead and expand into Wurm territory. They couldn"t just leave it alone in case someone else conquered it. . . " He shrugged.
"It was something like that, anyway. They probably forgot themselves after the first few centuries of war."
"The Wurms forget nothing," said Faltato. "They have crushed the Valnaxi"s last efforts to resist and now they will seize the final spoils."104.
At the sight of the Wurms, the golems pressed forwards, screeching, roaring and howling towards the enormous mud pile and the writhing invaders.
"So Africa becomes the final battleground," the Doctor murmured, as the carnage and chaos began.105.
[image]
Adiel stared out through the dusty window of the labourers" block, with Fynn and Guwe crouched beside her. She couldn"t believe her eyes and ears, and wished she didn"t have to believe her nose. It had been her idea to hide and shelter there, thinking they could barricade themselves inside if all else failed. But all else hadn"t just failed it had crashed and burned and gone crazy. s.p.a.ceships? Worms as big as a jeep?
Adiel kept pinching herself, desperately hoping she would wake up back in the common room and find Kanjuchi making his usual dreadful coffee. But she didn"t wake up. She only bruised.
The giant worms, caked in white, sticky mud, had a number of guns affixed to a sort of stumpy shoulder. One fired clod after clod of earth from its end with a buzzing, crackling sound. Thick muck splattered over the golems in a sticky wave.
Adiel was close enough to see one of the human golems take a load in the chest. For a few moments, he ignored it and carried on walking. But there were living things in that earth. Squirming, scuttling, hungry things. They started devouring the gleaming shield of magma, along with any flesh left beneath.107.
More gobs of mud fired from the giant earthworms" stubby cannons, seething with hungry life. The man-golem stopped still, his mouth hanging open in a piercing scream as the bugs ate their fill of him. Seconds later there was nothing left but a charred, misshapen skeleton. The same thing was happening again and again, the ranks of gleaming gold giving way to ash and mangled bone as the mud splattered through the golem ranks.
But the flying defenders the bats, the vultures, the sausage flies made harder targets and enjoyed more success. They swooped down on the giant worms, greedily tearing chunks from the pink, wrinkled flesh. One of the worms started flailing about in agony, a fluid like wallpaper paste gushing from its gashes. Another sprayed jets of dark liquid from its blind, glistening head." venom maybe, or perhaps it was simply spitting in contempt.
"This can"t be real," breathed Guwe as the noise of the conflict grew louder and louder. He turned and grabbed hold of Fynn by the throat.
"I don"t know what stunt you"re trying to pull here, Director, or how you managed to. . . to drug me or hypnotise me or whatever you"ve done "
"You think you"re hallucinating all this?" Fynn knocked his arm away. Then go outside, don"t let me stop you."
"Shut up!" Guwe shoved Fynn back against the wall, punched him in the guts, karate chopped him on the back of the neck.
"Stop it!" Adiel shouted.
"I"ll teach you to mess with my head," Guwe hissed, raising his gun, "by blowing off yours."
Rose felt her insides churn as the battle got messier, more violent, more and more desperate.
The Doctor surveyed the scene sadly. "So much for worms being the farmer"s friend. I know that they"re supposed to turn the soil, but this is taking things a bit too far."
"It"s ruined," breathed Basel. The whole agri-unit. Messed up for ever."
"What"s with the mud-guns?" said Rose.108.
"An established Wurm method of controlling the guardians" converted servants," Faltato explained. "The mud is teeming with insects specially reared to feed on the magma and whatever flesh it is controlling."
"You"ve seen battles like this before, then?"
"He"s started them," said the Doctor coldly.
"My job is simply to identify that the warren is genuine and not a b.o.o.by-trapped decoy, as so many are," Faltato retorted. "The Valnaxi laid many false trails. Rumour has it that centuries into the conflict, once their race finally accepted they stood no chance of winning, the Valnaxi Council built one final stronghold to house the last and greatest of their race"s treasures. This is the place."
"Oh, so that"s what you are," the Doctor murmured, his eyes wide and dark. "Not a thief. An expert. An antiques antiques expert. The David d.i.c.kinson of interstellar art." expert. The David d.i.c.kinson of interstellar art."
Faltato clacked his pincers. "I, sir, am a member of the Hadropilatic Fellowship, and an authority on "
"hard times, I would guess, since you"ve hired yourself out to a race as pathologically unstable as the Wurms," the Doctor went on, casually, but Rose could see the anger creeping into his bland, boyish expression. "What"s your cut, then? What bunce do you get that makes slaughter like this devastation devastation like this acceptable to you, Faltato?" like this acceptable to you, Faltato?"
He bellowed with rage: " What? What? " "
"One per cent of the value of the haul, and the credit for identifying the final Valnaxi art warren," said the creature calmly. "Once news of that that gets around, my reputation will be re-established and the phone won"t stop ringing." gets around, my reputation will be re-established and the phone won"t stop ringing."
Rose stared out dismally over the fighting, then turned to the Doctor. "Are we just gonna stand around up here and let that happen?"
"No," said Faltato, "you are coming with me. The beacon"s function is fulfilled. Our means of deliverance is already approaching."
"What"s that?" said Basel distantly. "Looks like a bubble. Big white bubble."
"Sort of coc.o.o.n, I think, actually," said the Doctor. "Or is it an egg sac? Yeah, an air-thrust egg sac! Adaptive technology Wurms are 109 all for adaptive technology, I read that somewhere. Well, that"s lovely, that"ll hold us good and strong." The Doctor looked at Rose. "I think we"ll be off."
"Stay here," Faltato snapped. His tongue lashed out, slapping itself around the Doctor"s neck with a horrible slurping sound.
"You were right, Rose," the Doctor gasped. "Very gifted in the tongue department."
"Get off him!" Rose shouted.
Basel cried out as another tongue, string-thin, flicked out like a fishing line to hook him round the waist.
"My flossing tongue," Faltato explained, baring a set of unexpectedly sharp and dazzling teeth as a third tongue splashed out like a long grey eel. "And this is the tongue I eat with. . . "
It came within a centimetre of touching her arm but the Doctor dived to the ground, yanking on the tongue so hard it spoiled Faltato"s aim. The monster hissed and tightened its s...o...b..ring grip on his neck.
"Run for it Rose!" the Doctor panted.
"What about you?" she shouted. But Faltato"s tongue was already snaking towards her and while she was free, at least there was a chance that she could do something. Something apart from slipping and falling to her death down the steep foothills, she reflected, and staggered and stumbled down as fast as she could. Her bad ankle burned, like a warning to slow down. Yesterday when she"d done this there had been only a glowing blob to outrun, and for a moment she actually felt nostalgic at the thought.
Because now she was heading down into a war zone. And the fighting was coming her way. Adiel watched Guwe standing over Fynn"s body, frightened, fuming, one finger curled round the trigger of his gun. "You can"t trick me," he snarled, gold teeth glinting in his grimace.
"He"s unconscious, can"t you see that?" she told him. "What good will killing him do?"
Guwe turned on her, a murderous look in his dark eyes. "Maybe you you can explain for him." can explain for him."110.
She felt tears rising. "I can"t explain a d.a.m.n thing."
He advanced on her, started to smile. Then the smile froze. He jerked up the gun so it pointed at her head.
Before Adiel could react, there was a loud slamming sound behind her, the sound of cracking gla.s.s. She whirled round, saw a batcreature twitching, pressed up against the fractured pane. As she watched, tiny red and white millipedes squirmed over it, reducing it to a tiny, smoking corpse in just a matter of seconds. Adiel pressed her knuckles against her mouth as the skull stayed lodged gruesomely in the centre of the radial cracks while the rest of the body fell away. Guwe stared through the window, clutching hold of the gun as if he was afraid it might flyaway, shaking his head in disbelief. Then, silently, he stormed over to the door.
"Go out there and you"re dead," Adiel warned him.
"I"m not dying here so he can run his sick experiments on my corpse,"
Guwe snarled.
She stared. "What did you say?"
"I"ll find a way out. I always do." He slammed the door shut behind him.
Trembling, Adiel stared down at Fynn. He looked like he was sleeping, looked peaceful and innocent. Experiments. Corpse. Regards from Isako. Experiments. Corpse. Regards from Isako.
She got to her feet, threw open the door. "I said, what did you say!" Blood roaring through her temples, she chased after him. "Wait!"
she shouted, throwing open the door to the prefab building. But she could barely hear herself over the crackle of the worms" cannons, the screeching of the bats and birds, the yells and whines of dying golems.
"What experiments? Answer me!"
Guwe spared her the briefest of glances back. "Let me put you out of your misery," he said casually, raising his gun to shoot her.
"Look out!" screamed a voice from the darkness, as if Adiel hadn"t noticed the danger. The same second she ducked down behind the door, she heard a loud, sizzling crackle. Then something kicked the door open, knocked her flying backwards and dived for cover beside her.111.
It was Rose Tyler.
Adiel"s jaw dropped. "You. . . "
"Me," she agreed, a hard look in her eyes. "Sorry about your friend out there."
"He wasn"t my friend."