"I have need of you, you see," he went on. And suddenly she was free of her blank prison and moving through some weird, angular s.p.a.ce like a set from Barbarella Barbarella had the director been a German expressionist. She found herself grateful for Kalic.u.m"s guiding hand she couldn"t perceive distance here, could barely keep her balance as she tried to take in the extruded corners, the strange slant of the floor, this disorientating lighting. had the director been a German expressionist. She found herself grateful for Kalic.u.m"s guiding hand she couldn"t perceive distance here, could barely keep her balance as she tried to take in the extruded corners, the strange slant of the floor, this disorientating lighting.
"Don"t be alarmed," Kalic.u.m told her, easing her on to the shadow of a couch she couldn"t see. "I designed this place. To perceive it properly requires greater senses than you possess."
Trix stared round in a daze. You didn"t need superhuman senses to know that the place stank of sterility, like an operating theatre.
Guy was beside her, his shirtsleeves rolled up to above his elbow. She felt a snip in her bare wrist and suddenly the two of them were connected by something she couldn"t see. She couldn"t drag her arm away. Panic threatened to cloud the little judgement she had left. And then she took in the pile of diamonds between them.
"What are you doing to us?" she murmured in a fragile voice.
"To you, nothing. You are merely keeping the human"s physiognomy stable while his body adjusts to the trauma of carrying its new payload."
The pile of diamonds glowed more brightly. The stones seemed to scatter, to float lazily into the air about her like glittering little bees leaving their hive.
Then Trix felt a tug on her arm and she was drawn into Guy"s darkness, some private place he"d retreated to. All she could hear were his screams.
Anji had guessed she"d find the boardroom of Timeless inside the tree but it didn"t make it seem any less bizarre. And whereas before the room had been a cool, safe haven from the attack of the wraith creatures, now it shook like it wanted to break apart. She found actually forcing herself inside the room hurt more than entering Kalic.u.m"s capsule chamber.
"The dimensions are shifting," the Doctor shouted back at her. "Come on, you two, get through or you"ll be repelled into the vortex!"
"Doctor, it"s no good!" yelled Fitz, crowding behind Anji. She saw Sabbath safely inside, looking at her struggles emotionlessly. His ape stared round the rumbling room, growing more and more agitated.
"Chloe!" cried the Doctor. "Wait!"
"Jamais is taking us away," she shouted back.
"I"ve extended the forcefield of my TARDIS to surround yours," he called. "But it can"t travel to where you"re going unless you let it! Unless you work with me, Chloe!"
"Please!" Anji screamed.
Chloe squealed at the sound of her voice. "Mum!"
And instantly, the juddering of the room lessened. Anji was able to force her way inside, and Fitz tumbled out of a split in the wall behind her, pale and sweaty. The ape narrowed its eyes at him and his pallor whitened still further. But with a click of his fingers, Sabbath brought the beast back under control. The big man"s eyes were on the Doctor, who was racing over to where Chloe lay imprisoned in a metal net. The links glowed a spooky shade of blue.
Anji went after him. She held out her hand to Chloe, who grasped her fingers through the mesh like a lifeline. Jamais nibbled her knuckle and gave her a s...o...b..ry lick, then sat back weakly, watching her, his dark eyes unfathomable. The air was buzzing and rippling with repressed energy. Jamais was still poised to do his thing whatever the consequences.
"What"s happened here?" the Doctor asked, prodding the p.r.o.ne body of Erasmus as he studied the blue-glowing links in the net.
"He didn"t want to be with us any more," said Chloe sadly. "He ended his life."
Sabbath strolled over, his ape at his heels. "The net functions as an energy dampener. It suppresses the temporal powers of your people."
"A prison and torture chamber in one, hmm?" The Doctor looked up at him. "And designed specifically to keep Jamais on a tight leash, I"d imagine."
"To limit and direct its energies," Sabbath agreed grudgingly. "The beast has no choice other than to go back to the Null Point."
"Then perhaps it"s a good thing Erasmus took his own life," said the Doctor brusquely. "His sacrifice wasn"t in vain after all. His own life force has been removed from the mesh"s power equations. So while we can"t change Jamais"s course, he can at least take up the energy shortfall and extend the range of his time field." He looked at Chloe. "Help him. He must take my TARDIS back to the start alongside your own."
"We understand," Chloe said softly.
"And go back as far as you can, Jamais," the Doctor urged the shivering black bundle. "Give me as much time as you can manage."
Jamais looked into the Doctor"s eyes as if hypnotised.
"Thank you," whispered Anji, and the beast broke off to look at her fondly. She grinned at him and squeezed Chloe"s hand back tightly.
"Doctor!" shouted Fitz from across the room.
He was pointing to Sabbath, swiftly scaling the rungs that striped the steel circ.u.mference of the Jonah Jonah. The gorilla had bounded across the room ahead of him, and screeched in triumph as it opened the hatch on the stubby conning tower. In its free hand it carried a rifle, clearly swiped from Fitz.
"Sabbath, wait," cried the Doctor.
"This is my ship," he called back down, the long tails of his greatcoat flapping in the breeze that seemed to be building in the room. "I intend to reclaim it."
"I"m coming too."
"I think not." As Sabbath reached the deck of the Jonah Jonah he whirled round to show he held a rifle too, pointed at the Doctor"s chest. he whirled round to show he held a rifle too, pointed at the Doctor"s chest.
Anji felt for her own rifle slung over her shoulder then realised she was looking at it. She swore at her own stupidity in leaving her back turned to Sabbath for a moment.
The Doctor made for the side of the Jonah Jonah and Sabbath fired a warning shot over his head. The Doctor"s curls danced in the slipstream and he froze. Sabbath nodded with satisfaction, then followed his ape down through the hatch. and Sabbath fired a warning shot over his head. The Doctor"s curls danced in the slipstream and he froze. Sabbath nodded with satisfaction, then followed his ape down through the hatch.
Fitz had staggered over to join them. "What do you call a gorilla with a rifle?" he said miserably. "Apart from, "Sir"?"
"b.l.o.o.d.y terrifying," she said quietly, and he nodded.
The weird breeze grew stronger, swiping through the room. A pressure was building in Anji"s ears.
"What"s happening?" she shouted.
"Jamais is making the jump back," the Doctor shouted over the sound of the gathering storm. "Could be a rough trip. I doubt he"s used to taking so much extra baggage along for the ride."
Suddenly Jamais saw Chloe"s doll and snapped at her, almost biting off her dumpy plastic leg. The Doctor s.n.a.t.c.hed the doll away, right out of Chloe"s hands. He looked deeply into the animal"s eyes, as if cautioning it.
"No distractions," he said, waving the doll. "Now. I"m going to try to reach Trix and Guy."
Fitz stared. "You"re going in there after him?"
The Doctor had crossed to the portable control panel parked in the Jonah Jonah"s shadow. "This is another matter transporter."
"Like the one in the capsule chamber," Anji realised.
"Exactly. I hope it will take me there just as it did Kalic.u.m."
"What about us?" asked Fitz plaintively. "What can we do?"
"Watch through the windows," he said, waving at the three round portholes in the wall. They were flickering with bright energies. "Give us something practical to do!" moaned Anji.
"Would you settle for practically impossible?" He tapped out a brief one-handed tattoo on the controls. "Anji, that casket will be expelled from the Jonah Jonah the moment Kalic.u.m is ready. You must get it open and get Guy out of there if you can. Understand?" the moment Kalic.u.m is ready. You must get it open and get Guy out of there if you can. Understand?"
She and Fitz nodded.
"Of course, you don"t understand the dangers," he added brightly, "but it"s probably best that you don"t." With that, he faded from sight. Chloe"s doll still clutched tightly in one hand as if for comfort.
Anji looked at Fitz. The energies built up more and more fiercely in the large room, like flames rising ever higher.
After what seemed like an age hemmed in by thick darkness, Trix was dragged back to the light by the sensation of Kalic.u.m"s long cold fingers worrying away at her wrist.
"The procedure is ended," he hissed in her ear. "Your work is over."
"What did you do to me?" she murmured indistinctly, her tongue too thick and dry to get round the words.
"Your human essence has kept him stable, his new nature in balance. Now he must be placed in the casket." He stroked her cheek and whispered, "Be patient only a little while longer, feeble one. Then you shall sleep and know peace."
With a roar Trix brought her fist up against Kalic.u.m"s pointed chin with all her strength. His big head rocked back on his neck and locked at right angles to his spine. Then he tottered and collapsed on the tiles.
"Feeble, my a.r.s.e," muttered Trix. "There"s peace for you."
She got up from the air-chair and stumbled over to where Guy lay suspended in s.p.a.ce. Aside from an angry-looking cut on his face there was no obvious sign that Kalic.u.m"s procedure had damaged him; he was still fully clothed for G.o.d"s sake. She frowned to see a lump in his trouser pocket. She prodded it with a fingernail it was hard as gla.s.s.
"Pardon my curiosity," she told him, and reached into his pocket.
He"d been carrying round a half-empty bottle of what looked like moisturiser.
Just then there was a glow of light in the darkness beyond the distorted dimensions of the theatre. A dark shape shifted through the shadows towards her. Trix looked around in panic for somewhere to hide.
Then she found the Doctor standing beside her, looking at her wide-eyed with concern. "I could"ve died from old age waiting for you to show up," she grumbled.
"The make-up fooled him, I see," he said, gesturing to Kalic.u.m. "Well, we haven"t got long." The Doctor moved over to inspect Guy"s p.r.o.ne body, dropping a child"s doll on to the floor as he did so. "Sabbath will be here at any moment with his apes. They"re out for blood and probably not that fussy whose."
"What"s happened to Guy? All these diamonds seemed to just float inside him and "
"Oh no." He peered at a display which was all Greek to Trix. "I"m too late. The diamonds have been transferred inside... I"d hoped I could transfer them back out but they"re already hooked into his augmented genetic structure. They can"t survive outside of him." He looked up at her in dismay. "They"re changing him even as we speak."
"Then there"s nothing we can do for him," said Trix firmly. "We"ll just have to save ourselves."
"No. Well just have to carry him out of here. You take his feet."
Trix stared at him. "Doctor, that"s ridiculous "
"We can"t just leave him!" the Doctor implored her. She did as he asked, and helped the Doctor carry Guy off the couch. Together they squeezed round the side of the simple grey sarcophagus, but as they reached the doorway, she felt suddenly nauseous. Her vision started to blur.
And she felt the diamonds rippling and burning under the surface of Guy"s skin, stinging her hands. She let go with a shout of pain.
The Doctor gasped with pain. "The diamonds must be programmed not to leave the chamber," he said through clenched teeth. "Clever. Guy"s not leaving here except in that capsule. Help me get him back."
"Make up your mind, will you?" Cursing all the way, Trix helped him manoeuvre Guy over again to the couch. "Now don"t you think this dead horse is flogged enough? I"m sorry for Guy, of course I am, but I"m not going to die for him!"
The Doctor seemed not to hear her, staring at Guy as if mesmerised.
She grabbed him by the arm. "We have got to get out of here!"
He shook off her hand. "You go. Get out of here. But take this." He pressed a small metal dart into her hand. Frayed yellow fabric stuck out from the stock.
"What am I meant to do with this?" she enquired.
"Use your imagination. I found it in the hold, it"s tipped with tranquilliser, legacy of one of Fitz"s near misses. But be quick. Like I say, Sabbath is on his way here. Delay him for as long as you can. If you can lead him away from here altogether, still better."
She folded her arms. "Doctor, I"m not one of your tame stooges like "
"Do it, Trix," he thundered.
Something in his eyes that on-the-edge look pushed an icy shiver through her bones, but she was d.a.m.ned if she"d let him know that. She pressed the bottle of moisturiser into his hand. "It just so happens I needed the exercise in any case."
It was a relief to trade the weird wrongness of Kalic.u.m"s operating theatre for one with the more usual four walls, floor and ceiling. But something about the fat grey capsule that filled the room unsettled her as she squeezed past. There was something expectant about the way it sat gloatingly in the small s.p.a.ce. Waiting.
"What can I do?" she heard the Doctor mutter miserably as she left. "What can I salvage from this?"
And this time she couldn"t stop the shivers when they came.
Thirty-two The last, despairing try Trix moved as quietly as she could along the gloomy corridors of the Jonah Jonah, biting her lip. This was crazy. This wasn"t what she was about. She should never have let herself get in a situation like this.
Because now she had to find a way out of it. If she didn"t get the Doctor the time he needed, he"d probably die.
And then what would happen to her?
She should"ve just skipped town when Ralf and Susan Canonshire had finished their little charade. After all, she was a multi-millionaire now. It was easy to win the Lottery when you had the next week"s numbers written on the back of your hand.
Trix swore. She was going to b.l.o.o.d.y well live long enough to enjoy it. And that meant until her skin was as wrinkled and saggy as this stupid disguise.
"All right, Doctor," she muttered fiercely. "You"ll have your distraction."
And as she rounded a curve in the corridor, a light bulb lit up over her head bright enough to warm the way for a moment or two. "I"ll probably put my back out," she muttered, "but, a plan"s a plan!"
She set to work.
The Doctor stared anxiously at Guy. The couch he lay on was connected to the portable console. Clearly Guy was unable to walk to the capsule; he would be automatically transported there when whatever was inside him was good to go. And then, the capsule would transfer out into the void, ready to become as one with the fledgling universe.
For the first time in an age, the Doctor had truly no idea what he might do next. He felt crushed, defeated. Angrily, he threw Chloe"s dolly and the bottle of lotion to the floor.