The tall man, clearly the leader, raised his automatic weapon at the Doctor in warning. "We went into the grounds of your unit, but the door"s locked. We came down here looking for another way to get inside." He grinned. "Looks like we found it."
The Doctor sighed wearily. "You wanna know how much time we have for this?"
"Give us trouble, we waste all of you." The teen gripped hold of Basel"s arm. "We don"t need you none of you. Our men are still down there. They"ll force that door open in the end."
Solomon closed his eyes. "So they can take all the food they like and murder anyone who gets in their way?"
"If they have to." The leader shrugged. "What do we owe state-lovers like you?"
""Scuse me," the Doctor piped up. "Little matter of killer alien blob coming down the tunnel behind us "
The leader swung his gun up into the Doctor"s face. "Another word out of you and "
"Ohi Ta very much," said the Doctor, whipping the weapon away.
"But I don"t think that"ll be much use blocking this hole." He chucked it casually through the split in the stone. "Nope, no use at all."
The teen gawped at what the Doctor had done and Solomon grabbed hold of his gun barrel. As the two of them wrestled with the machine gun, it went off, firing up at the rocky ceiling. The noise was incredible, a hundred times nastier than the muted rattle you heard in films or on the news. Rose"s ears rang as stinging shards of shrapnel burst from the stone like hail from a storm cloud, sending everyone staggering back.
"Shut that up!" the Doctor yelled at the third man, yanking the 82 gun away and shoving it brusquely into Solomon"s arms. "Keep them covered. I can"t hear myself think!" He had the sonic screwdriver in his hand. "Honestly! We"ve got to seal up that hole have you any idea how difficult it is to resonate sound frequencies through rock this thick when. . . "
"Look out!" Rose shouted as the roof began to fall down.
"Oh," said the Doctor, springing back from the downpour of pebbles and dust. "Well, I suppose firing forty rounds a second into a fault line and starting a rock fall might also do the job."
Rose grabbed him by the hand and pulled him clear as the main tunnel caved in and the opening vanished behind tons of rock. As the echoes crashed round the pa.s.sageway like explosions, Rose covered her head and hoped for the best.
The best actually turned out to be being knocked off her feet by what felt like a miniature earthquake and ending up on the ground with her head squashed between Basel"s legs. She pulled herself free and found the Doctor just beside her, staring urgently back down the dust-clouded pa.s.sage. The three men had scrambled away along the tunnel, their frightened shouts carrying in loose, hollow echoes. The Doctor beamed. "Well, that seems to have worked out OK!"
"Yeah?" Rose pointed ahead of them.
Through the thick, spiralling dust, maybe five metres away, dozens of tiny glowing lights were crawling sluggishly towards them like drunken fireflies.
"That guardian creature"s squeezed through the rock fall in globules." The Doctor was already scrambling to his feet. "But it"s gonna coalesce. Quick, before it pulls itself together."
"Me," Solomon murmured, staring at the pulsing little lights like he was hypnotised. "It wants me me."
"Don"t get big-headed, now," the Doctor chided, ushering all of them back. "It"ll settle for any or all of us."
"Where can we go?" Basel asked, backing away still further. "That cave-in didn"t just block the side tunnel. There"s no way back to the agri-unit."
83.Solomon stirred at the news, swung round, his face unreadable. "No way of getting any more food for the village."
Rose felt a chill go through her as the little points of light on the cave floor began to merge into one. "Doctor, where are we gonna go?"
"Can"t make for the village," said Basel grimly. "Them with the guns could be getting reinforcements. Or waiting to take us out."
"Ooh! Nice trip to the pictures? Lovely." The Doctor had pulled a small monitor screen from his trouser pocket. "Luckily I brought my AZ with me. Guide to the whole lava-tube network and its contents. It"s how we found you." He nodded proudly. "Oh yeah, it"s all here, you know points of historical interest and artistic merit, secret treasure troves from distant planets that place we were in was one of at least three adjoining caverns chock-full of Valnaxi artworks. . . " He smiled at Rose as if they were about to take a stroll in a country garden.
"Turns out that these caves are regular Aladdin"s. . . um, caves."
The guardian was still a few metres away, but it was pulsing now with a deep golden light, like a metallic heart thumping away on the floor.
"Wherever we"re going, how about we get started?" Basel shouted.
"We"ll have to take a new route." The Doctor was staring at the screen. "Keep cutting through the chambers until we find a way back outside and see what clues we can pick up on the way."
"Clues?" said Solomon, frowning.
"Don"t you wanna know what"s going on round here?" the Doctor asked, looking genuinely surprised. "I mean, funny-looking alien, ancient treasures hidden under a mountain, golden blobs blobbing all over the place and s.p.a.ceship exhaust fumes in the upper atmosphere. . . Dunno about you, but my interest is piqued."
"Well, don"t pique too soon," Rose warned him, backing away as the guardian lurched towards them, rolling like a big glowing football.
"Looks like that thing"s getting its act together."
"Right then!" He crouched down and started feeling around the rock on the right of the pa.s.sage.
"Better move it, Doctor," whispered Basel.
84.A rustling, chittering, scrabbling noise had started up behind them, slowly swelling in volume.
"Bats," Rose breathed.
A chorus of screams went up and she shuddered. Sounded like the rebels had found a way out of sorts. A golden glow was starting to creep in the dark stretch of tunnel.
The Doctor fiddled with the sonic screwdriver. With a thundering roar, a split zigzagged up through the dark rock. "Everyone through!"
he cried. "C"mon!"
Adiel shrieked as the lumpy, deformed image of Kanjuchi came pelting towards them.
"Hang on!" Fynn shouted. He stamped on the accelerator. With a frightened squeal of tyres, the jeep lunged forwards and mounted the paved area.
"Can we run the main gates?" Adiel wondered. "If we can get up enough speed, ram them head on. . . "
As they pa.s.sed the entrance to the eastern network, she saw with a sick feeling that the door was standing wide open.
"Solomon and the Doctor," said Fynn, slewing to a stop. "They must have got out."
"Transport!" screamed a stranger"s voice. "Quick!" Suddenly two men in filthy, stained fatigues came out from the mouth of the doorway, carrying a third man between them whose body looked to be solid gold.
"They think they can save him," Adiel realised.
"Who the h.e.l.l are they?" Fynn roared.
But before Adiel could answer, a fourth figure appeared from the mouth of the tunnels and aimed a rifle at them.
"Get out!"
he screamed. "We need your transport!"
Fynn stuck the jeep into first gear and floored the accelerator.
"Down, Adiell" he shouted as the jeep skidded away and as the rebel opened fire.
85.
[image]
Solomonstaredroundathissurroundingsintrepidation,stillclutching the guerrilla"s gun tight in his sweating hands. He, Basel and the girl had followed the Doctor into another large, vaulted chamber like the one Faltato had forced them to open only this one was filled with even more abstract, unfathomable objects in stone and metal. The Doctor was over at the far wall, tapping the rock with his screwdriver thing. "Try to block off the entrance," he shouted. Basel stared at him hopelessly. "What with?"
"One of the paintings or something."
"But the bats can fly in over it!" Solomon protested. The Doctor didn"t look up. "So make it a big painting." Basel made straight for the largest canvas he could find and Rose rushed over to give him a hand. Solomon went up to one of the paintings himself and found it wasn"t canvas at all it was something sticky, like spider"s webs squashed together, and showed some skinny thing with wide, wide burning wings, surrounded by curvy white squiggles. Modern art, he supposed.
Yeah. Modern art over 2,000 years old.
"This is too flimsy," said Basel despairingly. They"ll just tear through it."
87.Rose shook her head. They"re guarding this stuff, yeah? They won"t want to damage it. That"d be. . . I dunno, against their programming or something."
Basel looked at her. "You hope."
Solomon watched, nerves gnawing his stomach as together they put the painting in position. But it didn"t cover the whole of the split. The rush and flutter of the bats was loud and still rising. It was almost like it was inside his head. Solomon shut his eyes, wished he could just hide somewhere. Somewhere safe.
"What we gonna do?" Basel shouted.
Solomon opened his eyes and hoped his mouth would follow suit, that wise, calming words would magically come.
But the only things coming were the bats, and when Solomon"s mouth did open, it was to scream. The misshapen creatures swooped into the ma.s.sive chamber, burning fiery bright. Rose and Basel clung on to each other, then sprinted to join the Doctor. Without hesitation, the bats bunched together like a heavy golden cloud over Solomon.
"No!" he screamed, and opened fire with the battered gun. The recoil nearly twisted the weapon from his hands. He gripped it as if he was trying to throttle it, gasped as the red blasts of light pumped from the barrel. Some of the bats jerked in mid-air, smashed together as they took direct hits. One spiralled down, out of control, taking the top off a weird, looping stone sculpture. Its agonised screech rose above the raucous racket, as if the damage done to the art was a hundred times worse than anything a bullet could do. Then the gun jerked dead in Solomon"s hands. "I"m out of bullets!"
he yelled as the bats finally swooped down on him. He felt the gun beaten from his hands by jostling wings and claws, felt the weight of their burning gold bodies pressing in, smothering. He fell to his knees. His ears rang with their inhuman screeching as claws sc.r.a.ped against his eyes, wings gouged at his skin, twitching heads pushed into his mouth. . .
As dark alien thoughts scorched away his own.
88."We"ve got to help him." Rose gasped, watching as Solomon flailed around beneath the seething golden ma.s.s.
"Five more seconds." said the Doctor tersely.
Basel ran to his boss. He tried to scoop up the bats in his fists, throw them clear, but every time he dragged one away it flapped straight back to join the smothering ma.s.s. Rose pitched in, flailing at them with her fists. But one flapped straight into her face, golden teeth bared, and another started clawing at her hair, driving her back. She heard an ear-splitting clap as the Doctor"s work ripped open the rock. Then, as she turned, she saw the Doctor charging over, sonic raised, fiddling with the settings as he went. He waved it like a magic wand over the seething, glowing bustle of life and suddenly the creatures started falling away, shrieking and streaming up to the high ceiling. Solomon burst from the golden coc.o.o.n terrified, covered in welts and scratches but alive. Basel put an arm round him, helped to keep him standing as he started to shiver with shock.
"Why didn"t they kill him?" Rose asked.
"They were trying to," Basel argued.
The Doctor looked at Solomon almost accusingly. "Or else they want him for something."
"Couldn"t breathe," Solomon whispered, leaning on Basel for support. Rose looked up warily at the bats. "What did you do to them, Doctor?"
"Remember the way we gave the Krillitanes a headache in that school with the fire alarm?" He shrugged. There"s enough bat left in these poor little loves not to like ultra-high frequencies. Caught them by surprise." He ran over to the zigzag split he had made in the cavern wall. "But we may not be so lucky a second time, so shift! shift! " "
Rose helped Basel half-carry, half-drag Solomon through to what she hoped was safety. Not a chance. The cavern was near identical in size, but filled with a different type of art huge crystal display cases full of weird clay dishes and cups with loads of handles. Those bat things will just come straight through into here," sighed Basel, helping Solomon to sit down on the floor.
89."Rose, Basel, move a display case up against the split," the Doctor told them.
They did as he asked, for what it was worth. Then they helped Solomon over to join the Doctor, who was working at the right-hand wall. It gleamed in the red torchlight like a mirror of dark gla.s.sy rock.
"Can"t you use your magic stick to seal the rock back up again?"
Basel asked.
"It"s not a magic stick," said the Doctor, consulting his little screen.
"All it"s doing is opening the in-built doors. Valnaxi tools hollowed out these chambers when the lava tubes were fresh-formed, keeping them safe from further eruptions. And they left mechanisms behind in the rock so they could open them again some day." He started tapping the wall with his fingers. "Basel, stand sentry at the crack in the wall. Shout if you see anything we should know about."
Basel nodded, slunk away.
"And you, Solomon try to get your strength back, big feller." The Doctor nodded to himself. "I think you"re gonna need it."
Solomon sat down heavily, looking totally lost in this alien place. Rose sighed. "So each one of these caverns is like a safe, yeah?"
"A safe within a safe, within a safe. So you need a good alarm system, right? Something that can detect possible intruders at longrange. And how would you do that?"
"Sniff out s.p.a.ceship pollution in the atmosphere," Rose realised. " Faltato Faltato"s s.p.a.ceship."
"That woke it up, put it on stand-by," the Doctor agreed.
"And then Fynn"s boys excavating the tunnels was like a burglar going to work on the safe with dynamite," Rose realised. "Set off the alarms, woke up the magma."
"Nice a.n.a.logy. And I reckon we really do do have a burglar about have a burglar about Faltato." The Doctor scowled. "I get the feeling he knows something we don"t. I mean apart from what it"s like to wear pants with fifty leg-holes. He was observing the guardians, measuring their reflexes. What"s he up to? Eh?"
"Whatever, he must be happy we"re making our getaway through here," Rose remarked.
90.He frowned. "How d"you mean?"
"Well, we"re cracking all the safes for him, aren"t we?" As if to prove her point, the rock-face burst open with the now familiar but no less deafening CRUMP and they both choked on the thick dust. "Funny. Why isn"t he coming after us?"
"I"ll tell you something else that"s a bit odd," said the Doctor. "This is the deepest safe, the priciest stuff should be here makes sense, right? So how come there are no guardians sealed up with them, waiting to bite intruders on the leg?"
"It"s quiet out there," Basel called across, his voice echoing round the chamber. "Dead quiet."
"Why would they just give up?" Rose wondered, before inspiration struck. "Maybe you scared them. Or maybe they know you"re not the real bad guy in this I mean, it"s not like you"re really breaking in, is it? You"re using the sonic as a sort of spare key to let you in."
The Doctor didn"t sound convinced. "Or maybe the guardians are waiting working to some kind of a plan, like Faltato." He peered into the soupy gloom of the next cavern. "Question is, what?"