"And instead you"ve been stuck here for 2,000." The Doctor whistled. "I"m sorry. I really am. No offence, but as scientists and master planners you lot make very good artists."
"It is for our art we have done this," came the dry old voice. "Our planet is home to a binding force, an energy the wellspring of our creativity."
"Yes, I know."
"And away from the homelands, we cannot create," the voice went on. "We have no art. No function, no purpose. Our most ancient and valuable masterworks are hidden away in vaults here, and we wait with them. Until the day we can return to create new and better works."
"Return?" The Doctor stared at the bodies on their thrones. "So. You wanted to look like Wurms so you could fit in back home. . . "
"They infest our world but cannot destroy the binding force. It waits there for us. It calls to us." A pause. "We are so little without it. We fought so hard and for so long to preserve it. Now, if the only way we are able to commune with it is to live among our conquerors in secret, then so be it."
"Only it"s all gone wrong, hasn"t it?" said the Doctor.
""Cause here you are, all arms and legs. After all those centuries, the Wurms didn"t make it to the bogus deactivation plaque first, did they?"
He shook his head sadly at the gleaming, stylised figures. "Solomon did!"
As she stared down the barrels of two dozen cannons, Adiel knew she should have been terrified. But there were too many questions crowding her head. How had her parents felt, looking back at the end of their lives? How afraid had they been? What had even happened to them? She"d spent so long clinging to the same questions, and with all she"d found out she was still no nearer an answer. And now, as she faced the taking of her own life, she realised that it didn"t matter. The 164 answers to those questions would change nothing. She would never stop missing her mum and dad, never stop loving them, never stop wanting to make them proud.
And as the guns finished clicking into position, fear finally bit at her. And in its teeth came the certainty that her mum and dad would have fought to stay alive, done anything, tried tried anything. She would fight too. anything. She would fight too.
"Any last words, Faltato?" the Wurm king enquired mockingly.
"None come to mind," said Faltato faintly. "Oh, hang on. . . "
Adiel realised something was digging into her back. Something in Faltato"s breast pocket that Basel must have overlooked. A little jolt of hope went through her and she twisted in Faltato"s grip. "Don"t make me look at them!" she wailed, pressing herself up against him and dipping into the pocket. Her fingers closed on a slim tube.
"King Ottak," said Faltato wretchedly, "allow me to speak to my fellows at the Hadropilatic Fellowship. Let them double-check my findings and prove to you "
Discreetly she pulled out the tube, reached over and pressed it into Basel"s hand. He started, looked at her. Grinned and nodded. Ottak hissed like an air brake. "I tire of your final words, Faltato."
("Can you work it?" Adiel asked Basel.) "Let us revel in your final screams instead!"
("I can die trying," he whispered.) Faltato"s nerve finally broke and he launched into a desperate stumbling run, dragging his human shield with him.
"Aim your weapons!" Ottak roared to his troops.
Basel raised the thin little tube. A blue glow of power buzzed from its tip. Adiel waited, breath baited.
But all that happened was the Wurm on the stretcher yelped as his floating stretcher whizzed off as if jerked on a string and smashed into the cavern wall, before capsizing over the patient.
"Korr!" Ottak hissed. "Biped sc.u.m, your blood shall enrich my soil for this!"
Basel looked at Adiel helplessly then Faltato slipped and collapsed, 165 dragging them down with him. Adiel cringed as her face fell against his it was like nuzzling a big rotten vegetable.
"Destroy them all!" roared Ottak.
But then Adiel blinked as a skein of golden smoke drifted into sight right in front of them. Two gleaming figures began to form there.
"Golems!" shouted Basel.
Adiel closed her eyes. The Wurms opened fire.
The Doctor stared half-disgusted, half-pityingly at the blank faces of the Valnaxi-humans. "What a cods-up," he said. "Lying dormant all this time, you didn"t realise the humans had developed, that they"d been digging out the volcano and weakened the caverns exposing the plaque too soon. Solomon found it, touched it and your systems took his DNA, life essence and psychic energy. . . " He nodded, growing excited. "Maybe that"s why you didn"t see him as a threat till he brought the roof crashing down on the plaque and smashed it! And so now you can"t steal the Wurms" ident.i.ties. They"re gonna loot the place and push off and torch the whole planet, and while you may survive way down here, you"re stuck as humans and ohhhhh boy are you ever gonna stand out like sore thumbs on your home world looking like that that. . . "
He tailed off, expecting confirmation, or angry denial something something. But the throne room stayed silent. The smoke hung in an almost solid curtain just ahead of him. The male and the female watched him closely.
"Um, it"s good of you to tell me all this by the way," he said quickly.
"But call me paranoid, I"m suddenly wondering why. Why?"
The silence, the watching, went on. Then suddenly the magma guardian blazed threateningly into the throne room.
"Oh, I get it," said the Doctor. "You"ve been waiting for my cells to revert, haven"t you? So you can make me into one of your golems."
The female looked at him almost sadly. "Yes."
He pulled a face. "And. . . I"m guessing my immunity"s worn off?"
The male nodded.
"Whoops," said the Doctor, as the magma form surged towards him. 166 [image]
Eyes tight shut, Adiel listened to the squelch of the Wurm cannons, blast after blast, and wondered how come she was still alive. But only when she felt human hands gripping her own did she open her eyes.
Solomon was crouching protectively over her, no longer golden, just the same as he had always been.
"I I thought you were dead," she stammered.
"There"s still time," he said grimly, dragging her up. "Come on. Move."
Adiel saw in a moment that Faltato was no longer prime target, with or without his human shield. The Wurms had opened fire on the storm of bats and vultures that had soundlessly swooped into the chamber to attack, and the packs of misshapen dogs and hyenas that now came snapping and howling to join the fray. The Wurm guarding the jagged entrance to the next chamber had left his post to take part in the fighting, and Adiel realised that Rose was leading Basel to shelter there. Faltato was already disappearing through the slit in the stone.
"Where did you appear from?" Adiel shouted over another deafening volley of shots as they pushed through into the next chamber. 167 "Out of thin air, I think," said Rose. She looked pale and woozy, trying to hold Basel upright while holding it together herself. Adiel took him off her hands and they all collapsed behind an enormous Valnaxi sculpture where Faltato was waiting.
"Out of thin air, indeed." Faltato sniffed. "You were sent through a matter transporter."
"It was amazing," said Basel, kissing Rose before throwing his arms round Solomon. "They came through this smoky yellow light, all gold and golem-y then it just wore off and they were normal."
"We weren"t regular golems," said Rose, eyes closed, fingers pressing against her face. "We were, like, golems deluxe."
"They wanted something else from us," Solomon agreed. "And I guess they must have taken it."
Faltato clearly wasn"t impressed. "From the timing, I"d say they sent you through to distract Ottak"s forces while their guardian drones attacked from the rear. Though I don"t see why the drones were playing dead. . . "
"Something the Doctor did," said Rose. "He was down there, blocking their golem control."
The alien groaned. "I might have known he"d be behind it."
"I could see you all," said Solomon distantly. "The moment I was taken, it was like I was part of some greater mind. . . Like that mind was listening to me me. I did my best to keep those golden creatures away from you. But when I knew whatever was holding me needed a female for study, I. . . " He looked between Adiel and Rose, awkward and shamefaced. "I couldn"t let Adiel. . . "
"It"s OK," Rose said kindly. "She"s your mate. You only just met me."
"Listen to me." Faltato"s five eyes narrowed at Solomon and Rose.
"You"ve been held in a hidden Valnaxi stronghold, haven"t you? How many Valnaxi are there?"
"I dunno," said Rose. "It all gets blurry. There were these voices in my head. . . eyes inside my body." She frowned, rubbing at her arm.
"The Doctor got us back. He must still be down there. They"ve got him!"
"Excellent," Faltato declared triumphantly. "Not just a hidden Valnaxi 168 stronghold, but a populated one! What better to get a thug-king like Ottak back onside than the chance to personally slaughter the last of his bitterest enemies?"
"The gunfire"s stopped," Solomon hissed.
"But I"m I"m just getting started." Before anyone could react, Faltato jumped up, grabbed hold of Rose and half-dragged, half-carried her over towards the entrance to the Wurm-infested cavern. just getting started." Before anyone could react, Faltato jumped up, grabbed hold of Rose and half-dragged, half-carried her over towards the entrance to the Wurm-infested cavern.
"No need to stop the chat," said the Doctor, springing aside as the magma form lashed out a molten tendril. "Tell me why you had to kidnap Solomon if you already had his genetic material from the plaque?"
No answer. The incandescent blob came rolling towards him again.
"All right, let"s see if I can guess." He took a running jump up and over the guardian, felt the heat of its flickering form through the soles of his sneakers. "Obvious answer, you didn"t get enough enough material from him. He probably barely touched your silly plaque. It"s not like he was trying to deactivate anything, was it?" He backed away through the stinging curtain of smoke, tried not to choke. "So you needed a proper study it"s not ideal, but if this is the form you"re gonna be stuck in, you want to make the best of things. You don"t want to be lumbering about all misshapen like your mutant golems up there it"s fine for the cannon fodder, but not very pretty, not very material from him. He probably barely touched your silly plaque. It"s not like he was trying to deactivate anything, was it?" He backed away through the stinging curtain of smoke, tried not to choke. "So you needed a proper study it"s not ideal, but if this is the form you"re gonna be stuck in, you want to make the best of things. You don"t want to be lumbering about all misshapen like your mutant golems up there it"s fine for the cannon fodder, but not very pretty, not very artistic artistic. . . "
The male and the female advanced on him.
"But you had Solomon, so why take Rose too?" The Doctor leapt lightly up on to one of the throne-perches, careful not to crush the ancient, burnished body underfoot. "And why do you want me so badly you can"t just kill me?"
"Wurms are capable of reproducing themselves independently by the hundreds," said the bitter, crackling voice. "Solomon is a male. Our study of male and female forms shows us that only the mature female of the species is equipped to grow offspring."
" Vive la difference Vive la difference, eh?" He vaulted over the high back of the throne as the blob surged up to get him. "Ever met the French, by the way? Never mind. So you tried to copy Rose, kept her and Solomon in 169 some kind of stasis so they wouldn"t mutate till you"d got your templates right. You"re getting closer, but still not quite there, are you?"
"Human reproduction is clumsy and inefficient," the voice went on.
"It would take centuries to grow enough bodies to sustain our sleeping people. But now we have a detailed genetic blueprint of the human form we can a.s.similate them without mutation, replace their minds with our own in a fraction of the time."
As the old voice spoke, the male appeared at the other end of the line of thrones, blocking the Doctor"s retreat. "That is why we must stop the Wurms destroying this planet. Why they must die here."
"We can improve humans," the voice went on. "Style them. Refashion them in this image."
"They"re not just bodies, clay for you to mould like you do your golems," the Doctor shouted. "They"re people. Individuals. Brilliant, wonderful individual individual individuals, leading lives of their own." individuals, leading lives of their own."
"We have sensed your intimate knowledge of this planet and its peoples," said the dry and dusty voice. "It will be of great a.s.sistance to us as we move to take control of Earth."
"We will rule over the surplus humans and make armies from them,"
said the male, "Armies that will finally drive out the Wurms from our home world."
"We are desperate," said the female softly, almost apologetic. "We must return. It has been so long "
"I"ll never help you," the Doctor swore. "I"ll stop stop you." you."
The seething magma form billowed over the top of the throne beside him, ready to engulf him. The Doctor flinched from the ferocity of the creature"s heat and his back slammed against the wall. With sudden inspiration he grabbed hold of one of the conduits snaking up to the machinery set high in the walls. As the male and the female rushed to get him, as the magma surged forwards, he hauled himself up and out of reach, scaling the rock like a seasoned climber.
"There can be no escape, Doctor," said the female. He glared down at the creatures gathering to get him, pressed his 170 head against the hot, barren rock-face and did his best to convince himself she wasn"t right.
Rose struggled desperately in Faltato"s grip. Her body felt like it had been put through a blender, every nerve and muscle was frayed, but no way was she giving up and hanging limp in the grip of the tonguemeister"s pincers.
"Get off her!" Basel shouted, and he, Adiel and Solomon began to follow.
But Faltato cracked out five tongues at once like whips. "Keep back!"
he warned them.
As he pushed Rose up against the split in the rock, she guessed by the smoking bones lying around that the Wurms had come out victorious against Golden Bambi"s evil animal army. The big Wurm wearing a crown had to be their king, and the others were gathered round him as he operated a dataget with the help of some robotic probes sticking out of his stumpy shoulders.
"Hear me, Ottak!" Faltato shouted. "There is a secret Valnaxi lair hidden somewhere close by, reachable only by teleport. That"s where you"ll find the masterworks and the last of the Valnaxi!"
King Ottak casually fired a laser bolt in their direction and Rose flinched as her face was peppered with shrapnel. "I witnessed the warp-hole opening with my own senses."
"They"ve been living on in secret all this time!" Faltato cried desperately. "I can help you get to them."
"I shall investigate without your aid." A large blue centipede crawled up the Wurrn"s muddy body and clung to the side of his head, as if it was whispering in an invisible ear. "My tech-bugs have recorded the warp-hole"s energy signature."
"But "
"Korr, with your stretcher"s motive systems damaged, you cannot accompany us," said Ottak. "Be revenged on Faltato and all his blithering bipeds instead, and welcome us upon our return."
"May your victory be wondrous, King Ottak," grunted Korr. Then he turned his attention to Faltato and Rose.171.
Rose felt sick as she watched him struggle towards them. He was only half the Wurm the others were, but no less terrifying like an enormous maggot whose body ended in an open wound, mechanical innards trailing from the severed flesh.
As Korr fired his gun at them, Faltato quickly ducked away from the split in the rock.
"Couldn"t keep your mouth shut, could you?" said Rose crossly, pulling herself free of his grip.
"There"s no way out," hissed Adiel. "Faltato blocked it off."
"How was I to know?" the monster moaned.
Rose crept back to the hole in the wall, peered out.
"Squad!" Ottak was commanding. "Set all comm-link implants to frequency seven-zero-nine-gamma and broadcast at volume ten. We will force the warp-hole to reopen."
Then she saw Korr slither back into view from behind the Wurm transporter. He fired his weapon and she ducked back inside as a bolt of energy missed her head by millimetres.
"It"s just him we"ve got to deal with," she said. "The others are gonna go through that teleport thing. I"ve got to get after them."
Basel frowned. "You"re crazy!"