He got to his feet and started trying to squeeze the floor tile between the frame and the door. Both had been edged with some kind of rubber padding to prevent noise and to limit wear and tear, so the flexible floor tile was able to make some headway. Patiently the Doctor fed the tile through as much as he could, then he began to pull it away from the frame. The door began to move, only fractionally at first, but enough for the professor to slip her fingers into the gap. She began to pull and the Doctor joined her. Now there was a clear gap of a couple of centimetres between the frame and the door. Together the Doctor and Professor Shulough forced the door open. From the room beyond came the sound of something burning and acrid smoke began to a.s.sault their nostrils. With a final joint effort the door sprang fully back and they could see into the room. Not that there was much to see. Clouds of noxious smoke poured out into the corridor. The Doctor clasped a handkerchief over his nose and mouth and pushed his way through the smoke into the room. The professor followed him as best she could.
"Something must have shorted,"
she hazarded, seeing the environmental-control panels ablaze.
She looked around for the fire extinguisher but the cradle was empty. The reason soon became clear as the Doctor unleashed a jet of fire-killing chemical foam, which quickly did its job. As the fire spluttered and died and the smoke cleared, they both became aware of a third figure in the room, lying p.r.o.ne on the floor to one side of the console that had caught alight. It was a crew member and he appeared to be dead.
The Doctor gave the body a quick examination, but he quickly realised that nothing could be done for the poor man. 66 "I"m sorry," he said finally, and he meant it. In his long life he"d seen too much death and it always hurt.
"No need to apologise," came the casual reply from the professor, who seemed more interested in picking apart the remains of the console. "You put the fire out, didn"t you?"
The Doctor"s eyes narrowed. "I was talking about your crew member. He"s dead," the Doctor told her coolly. Then he got to his feet and joined the professor, a dangerous look playing across his face.
"According to his uniform tag, his name is Collins."
Perhaps feeling the intensity of the Doctor"s gaze, the professor turned and looked over in the direction of the body. She nodded.
"Jae Collins. How sad." But to the Doctor"s ears, sadness was the last thing she was feeling. He"d met Cybermen with more sympathy than this woman. Either she had a real problem expressing emotion or she was a real monster. For the moment the Doctor was prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt.
"Still, he didn"t have any vital duties. His loss shouldn"t affect our mission."
"Vital duties!" The Doctor was almost beside himself with fury. "A man"s just lost his life!"
The professor still looked unconcerned. "He knew the risks. Deeps.p.a.ce travel is always dangerous." And with that the professor turned back to examining the damage to the environmental controls. The Doctor shook his head sadly, but before he could say anything else Kendle arrived. He shot a suspicious look at the Doctor and pulled out his hand weapon. "Was this anything to do with you?"
"Hardly," replied the Doctor, raising his hands as a precaution. "I was still locked up when this started."
"It was thanks to the Doctor that the fire was extinguished as quickly as it was and before it could spread any further," explained the professor. Kendle"s brows furrowed but he nodded and lowered his weapon.
"In that case I guess I owe you an apology. And my thanks."
"Anything to be of service," said the Doctor lightly, and stepped 67 smartly out of the way, allowing Kendle to see Collins"s body for the first time.
If it was a test Kendle pa.s.sed with flying colours. "Collins! Is he. . . What what happened?" The words tumbled out as the older man hurried over to see for himself. He looked at the professor and then at the Doctor for an explanation.
"Smoke inhalation," said the Doctor simply. "There was nothing anyone could have done."
"But what was he doing in here?" asked Kendle.
"Judging from his position, I think he was trying to use the manual override to reset the sprinkler system," the Doctor suggested, waving a hand in the direction of the ceiling, which, like most in the s.p.a.ceship, was decorated with tiny emergency sprinkler taps. "I guess the heat sensors are among the systems that are still off-line."
Kendle nodded an acknowledgement. "A lot of what we thought were non-essential systems were kept off-line after the crash, so we could run other computers." He inclined his head in the direction of the professor but stopped short of actually blaming her directly. The moment was not lost on the Doctor, who made a mental note to find out later exactly how much the two disagreed about what was and what was not essential.
"We"ll have to take his body home for burial. His family will want us to," Kendle told the professor, getting to his feet. The professor waved him away. "Make whatever arrangements you need to make," she told him, "and send young Hespell up here to help me get this fixed." With a last, slightly embarra.s.sed look in the direction of the Doctor, Kendle left.
"Perhaps I can help?" offered the Doctor. "I don"t like to blow my own trumpet, but I am exceedingly good at this techy stuff." He was giving her the full charm offensive, but getting very little back in return. Professor Shulough considered him for a long moment with her cold, dark eyes. "How can I refuse an offer like that?" she said finally, and stepped aside to let the Doctor get at the blackened panel.
68.They seemed to have been talking for hours. When Rose poked her head outside the tent she saw that most of the other fires had already been extinguished. The rest of the tribe must have gone to sleep ages ago. She realised that it had been a long time since she"d done anything as normal as this. Just spending a few hours with someone she"d just met had been really fun. Not crazy fun, like being with the Doctor, but a normal kind of fun, down to earth, more like spending an evening with Mickey, eating chips and putting the world to rights. The thought of Mickey made Rose aware of what it was she was finding so attractive in Rez. It was his Mickeyness: his youthful energy and relentless cheerfulness.
Rez was back at the fire, mixing up a hot drink in another pot.
"What happens now?" asked Rose a little shyly.
"Now? Now we have a nice cup of jinnera," replied Rez with a broad smile.
Rose had no idea what jinnera was, but she hoped it was something not too different from tea. It was one of the few things that her mother and the Doctor had in common they did both like a good cup of tea. And so did Rose. Trouble was, on board the TARDIS the Doctor had such a collection of exotic teas that Rose never got to have a good oldfashioned normal cuppa. Was it too much to hope that this jinnera tasted like PG Tips?
Apparently it was. Jinnera turned out to be more of a coffee-style drink, but with a hint of chocolate to it. It was, Rose had to admit, rather tasty. So much so that she quickly drained the cup she had been given.
"Any chance of another?" she asked cheekily.
Rez went to make her a fresh cup. "Two is the limit, though. You can have too much of a good thing."
Rose pulled a face. "Not when something is as good as this!" she insisted.
Rez shook his head firmly. "In this case, no. Overdose on the jinnen bean and you"ll sleep for ever. It makes you feel good, but too much relaxes you so much that your heart just stops."
69.Rose hesitated, her hand in mid-air, about to take back her refilled cup.
"Don"t worry," Rez a.s.sured her. "Two won"t kill you."
After only a slight pause, she accepted the proffered drink.
"So, you think Brother Hugan"s on to something, then, do you? With all his talk of the old ways. . . "
"I don"t know. I"m sure the ancients weren"t fools, though. You"ve seen the remains of their temple."
Rose frowned and realised what it was that had been bugging her.
"How come you live in these tents and not buildings?"
"People change. We live nomadic lives now, closer to nature. No one"s lived in buildings for hundreds of years."
"Maybe they were scared off by those Witiku," joked Rose, but disappointingly Rez didn"t laugh. Instead he took her comment at face value. "Perhaps they were," he admitted.
Rose was surprised. "You think there really was some kind of creature like that suit you were wearing?"
Rez looked her straight in the eyes. "Yes, I do. I"ve seen too much at the temple and around it. Murals, paintings, statues. I"m sure the Witiku were real once."
Seeing Rose"s face, Rez hurriedly rea.s.sured her. "But that was all a long time ago. I don"t think we"re going to be seeing a Witiku any time soon," he promised her.
And at that precise moment, a fist of razor-sharp talons ripped through the wall of the tent, missing Rose by centimetres. 70 [image]
Rose jumped to her feet and dived forward. Behind her the savage talons sliced again and again through the fabric of the tent. But there was a more unpleasant sound as well, an animalistic grunting and roaring, plus, from slightly further away, more ripping and screaming. Where, a moment ago, there had been a solid wall of leather there was now a ma.s.s of thin shreds, like the plastic strips her nan used to have on her back door in the summer. Stepping through this new entrance was a creature that Rose recognised instantly as a Witiku.
The costume that Rez had been wearing earlier didn"t do justice to the real thing. For a start it was huge. It was similar to a werewolf, but Rose knew this was no wolf. It had a distinct smell, a strong animal odour of sweat and zoos. The creature was covered with a dense coat of coa.r.s.e dark hair, which made it hard to see in the dark. For a moment time seemed to stand still. Rose realised with a shudder of fear that there were actually four sets of talons as the terrifying creature had two extra arms. The head, thrown back as it roared angrily, was an ugly ma.s.s of hair and fangs, with wild red eyes that showed no sign of intelligence. This was pure animal, wild and majestic. Around its 71 neck something shiny and glittery caught the light, but Rose couldn"t make out what it was.
As luck would have it, she"d jumped the wrong way. Another Witiku had now appeared, cutting off her path to the main exit of the tent. Rose tried to stay calm, knowing that fear and panic would only put her in more danger. She looked around, desperately, for something anything she could use as a weapon. Her eyes alighted on the steaming-hot cup of jinnera. Shame to waste a good cuppa, she thought, but needs must. She grabbed the cup and threw the contents in the direction of the nearest creature"s face. To her surprise, it squealed and retreated, clearly in pain. Rose was amazed. Surely the jinnera hadn"t been that hot? But whatever the reason for its success, her makeshift weapon was certainly having a devastating effect. The creature fell to its knees and was clutching at its face with two of its hands, while the other two waved wildly. The talons were retractable, Rose noted, and the creature seemed to be trying to sc.r.a.pe every drop of jinnera off its coat with its threefingered hands.
"Rose, quick!"
It was Rez, at the tent flap, beckoning to her. Taking care to keep clear of the floundering lower arms, which still had the talons fully exposed, Rose ducked around the creature she had brought to its knees and joined Rez. The blond boy grabbed her hand so like the Doctor, thought Rose again and pulled her out into the night. The village was in pandemonium. People were screaming and panicking, running in all directions. One or two of them had burning torches, but most of the Laylorans were, quite literally, in the dark. It was impossible to see how many of the creatures were attacking them.
The one that Rose had thrown her drink at staggered out of Rez"s tent, all but bringing it down around him. Rez urged Rose to follow him.
At the edge of the village they found Brother Hugan, shouting and gesticulating. At first Rose thought the witch doctor had lost his mind, 72 but then she realised that he was actually trying to herd the frightened villagers away from danger.
"We need to get to the temple," he was calling. "Don"t panic, just hurry. . . "
Rez and Rose tried to help. A small child had managed to lose her mother and sister and was sitting by an extinguished fire, crying and obviously terrified. Rose picked her up and carried her towards the line of people now disappearing into the dark forest, in the direction of the temple. Rez recognised the child and helped Rose find her mother.
Rose felt an odd shudder of empathy when she saw the look on the Layloran mother"s face as she was reunited with her little girl. It was the look she saw on her mum"s face every time the Doctor took her home to the Powell Estate for a visit.
The screams were less frequent now and there was no immediate sign of the attackers. Further back in the darkness of the village they could still be heard, though, crashing through the tents as if looking for victims.
"What do they want?" Rose asked out loud.
"I didn"t fancy stopping to ask them," confessed Rez. Somewhere out in the forest they could hear Brother Hugan urging the refugees on towards safety. Rez and Rose seemed to be the last people left at the village"s edge. Rose looked back, as one of the creatures appeared, with an unconscious villager on his shoulder.
"They"re taking people!" she cried.
"If you don"t come now, you"ll be next." Rez insisted, and Rose allowed him to lead her away. The forest was much less idyllic at night, Rose discovered. A pair of glowing moons in the star-speckled sky gave some light, but it was all filtered through the canopy of trees, making life at ground level rather murky. The floor of the forest was treacherous, what with creepers and tree roots, and more than once Rose fell and had to be helped up by the nimble-footed Rez. She was surprised how at home the human boy seemed to be here, making his way through with the ease that Rose had when navigating Oxford Street on a shopping trip. He 73 seemed to be able to sense obstructions, leaping over fallen trees before she had even registered them. So, she thought with a grin, not only Superman but Tarzan as well!
Behind them she thought she could hear sounds of pursuit, but after a while these faded and she was pretty sure they were no longer being followed.
Short of breath, she stopped, bent over and placed her hands on her knees. Rez, ahead of her as always, skidded to a stop and doubled back to join her.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"I just need a minute," she gasped.
Rose seemed to do a lot of running in her adventures with the Doctor but somehow it was never enough for her to get used to doing this sort of thing effortlessly.
Suddenly Rez pulled her to the ground, rolling her into the cover of a large bush.
"Oil" she began. "You can cut that out!"
But he covered her mouth with his palm and hissed a "Sssh" into her ear. Something was moving nearby.
Rose gulped and nodded at Rez to indicate that it was safe to remove his hand. She wasn"t going to make a noise. At least not consciously. But she was all too aware of her heart thumping in her chest, surely loud enough to be heard above the sounds of the forest. The footsteps came nearer.
Rose squeezed her eyes shut and tried to shrink inside herself. Just go past, she thought, just go past. Suddenly the bush she was hiding under was pulled aside and something reached down towards her. It was Mother Jaelette.
"You nearly scared me half to death," she whispered at her angrily, but the Layloran woman didn"t seem particularly concerned about that.
"Quick. Come with me," she whispered back, dragging Rose out from her cover and forcing Rez to follow.
She began to lead them through the forest. Rose caught glimpses 74 of the temple buildings to her left and realised that they were walking around it.
"Did everyone get away?" Rez asked.
Mother Jaelette nodded. "Those that escaped are fine. But there are still some people unaccounted for. . . "
"And what about the creatures?" asked Rose.
Mother Jaelette turned to her and put a finger to her lips. "That"s what I want to show you," she whispered. "Look. . . "
She pulled back a curtain of vines and Rose and Rez were able to see them shuffling away in the distance. For a moment it looked like a school outing, with the creatures walking along in crocodile fashion, but then the moonlight caught the vicious claws and Rose remembered how deadly and dangerous they were.
"Where are they going?" she asked, but even as she spoke she had an idea of the answer. "That"s the direction of the crashed s.p.a.ceship, isn"t it?"
Rez nodded. "I think so."
Rose thought for a moment about what this meant. Were the creatures connected to the s.p.a.ceship somehow? But the Doctor had been taken away by men, not monsters. She was missing something, some connection. If only the Doctor were here.
"I have to get to that ship in the morning," she announced.
"But that"s where the creatures are going. . . " Rez pointed out.
"Which is why I have to go there," Rose replied determinedly. Rez could see that she wouldn"t change her mind. "Very well," he said. "I"ll take you at Saxik rise."
The last of the beasts had disappeared now. Mother Jaelette started to lead them back to the parts of the temple site that the tribe were using as a haven.
"Did you notice something odd about the Witiku?" she asked them as they walked carefully through the dark forest.
"Odd?" retorted Rose. "They"re two-metre-high hairy monsters with claws the size of skewers, how odd do they have to be?"
"How many Witiku attacked the village tonight?" asked Jaelette, ignoring her sarcasm.
75.Rose wasn"t sure she could answer that.
"A handful. . . Three or four," she estimated.
Rez had a much clearer idea. "There were three. The two that attacked us and one other."
Mother Jaelette stopped and turned to look at them. The moonlight hit her face and Rose could see the strain of what had happened etched there.
"Exactly," she said in a weary tone.
With a sudden rush of understanding Rose caught on to what she was getting at. "But just now. . . we saw a dozen of them or more, heading for the s.p.a.ceship." Mother Jaelette looked grim. "Brother Hugan was right. The Witiku army is growing. Another night like tonight and they will outnumber us."
Rose thought she had the answer.
"If Brother Hugan knows so much about the things, maybe he knows a way to stop them."
Jaelette shook her head sadly.
"You"re right that he knows more about the Witiku than any of us,"