Part 34 (2/2)

'I offered Hatch a solution.'

'And now?' The Doctor's questioning, though softly spoken, was relentless.

'Hatch has ceased to exist. What you see before you is a hybrid.'

'Of what?'

'A human being and Jack. To be in my presence is to taste my madness. You have entered Jack's domain.'

The Doctor looked around him. The void was ever-changing, sparkling with light and skewed images. Can't say I approve of the decor. Anyway, I don't suppose ”Jack” is your real name. How should I address you?'

'Lord Jack i' the Green will suffice,' said Hatch, imperiously. 'Or G.o.d. Pleased to meet you...'

The Doctor laughed. 'You're a machine, an organic robot.

Like the Malus: a simple vehicle, no more worthy of respect than the car that brought me here.'

'You know of the Malus?'

'Know it?' The Doctor's eyes narrowed. 'I destroyed destroyed it. As I shall destroy you.' it. As I shall destroy you.'

Hatch laughed, and the dark abode crackled with purple and blood-red splashes of light. 'You shall not,' said Hatch, with sure finality. 'You have no idea where to begin. You know nothing.' nothing.'

'I know that you were built by the people of Hakol, and that you followed the Malus to Earth.'

Hatch nodded. 'Jerak is an experimental battle vehicle.'

'Jerak - Jack i' the Green.' The Doctor nodded.

'Fascinating. And you landed here in, what, the 1680s?'

'The year of our Lord 1685,' came a voice from behind the Doctor. A tall man strode through the turbulent mental landscape. His tunic and leather boots were caked with mud.

'And you are?' queried the Doctor.

'John Ballam, blacksmith.'

'What happened when Jack came?' asked the Doctor.

The black vista behind Ballam peeled back to reveal a view of the village green. Not that there was much greenery to speak of. The entire area had been excavated, laboriously, by hand. The pit was dark with muddy water and blood. And filled with bodies.

Ballam pointed to the scene, as if that were explanation enough.

'Who was responsible for that?' queried the Doctor, his voice numb with outrage.

'Baron Jeffreys of Wem,' said John Ballam, his voice hushed. 'Or so we believed.'

The Doctor spun back to face Hatch. 'Well?'

'Oh, come,' said Hatch. 'These vermin can be of no concern.

I had travelled long and far to this world. I needed replenishment.'

'So you corrupted Jeffreys, and fed off the mental energy of the terrified villagers?'

'Jeffreys needed little corrupting,' said Ballam, under his breath.

Hatch licked his lips at the memory. 'The meal was adequate. I drained what I could. From what was left, I fas.h.i.+oned my first followers. My limbs, in a world I was still not strong enough to dominate.'

'The scarecrows,' said the Doctor. 'You searched the psyches of all those dead people, and found something that you could defile.

Legends of wicker men and corn dollies, of pagan sacrifices to nature and the seasons. You based your reign of terror on mere stickmen to scare away birds!'

Hatch clicked his fingers, and John Ballam vanished from sight with a scream, the vista behind him folding up like a map. 'I am am Hexen Bridge,' said Hatch. 'They are Hexen Bridge,' said Hatch. 'They are all all my children, and they owe their survival to me. Any father can do as he wills to his children.' my children, and they owe their survival to me. Any father can do as he wills to his children.'

'No,' said the Doctor. 'Children will always have their independence.'

'Not the children of Jack,' said Hatch. 'We are all together.'

'Yes, the taint of infertility ensured their dependence, didn't it?' said the Doctor. 'They could only reproduce if they stayed in the area. You expelled the unruly and the exceptionally gifted, so that you would remain undiscovered. You controlled the population that remained, harvesting individuals here and there...'

'They slaked my thirst. And now that thirst, that hunger, is all-consuming.'

'But why the experiments to counteract the taint?'

'Can you not guess?' Hatch smiled. 'There is a flaw even in the psychic technology of the Hakolians.'

'You mean the sterility is... an accidental side effect?'

Hatch nodded. 'There is no civilisation in the galaxy that can better the Hakolians' grasp of the psychic sciences. But, like all technologies, there are flaws. And sterility, though allowing me dominion over the village, is a by-product, a deficiency inherent in the mind-manipulation process.'

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