Part 37 (1/2)

Ben

Tovel really puts us through our paces, fixing up the light-wires for the life support. We're grabbing this, tracing that back...

'Whoever done this knew what they were doing,' we mutter to Creben.

He nods. 'They did. They certainly did.' Then he takes my latest bundle of laser spaghetti and buries them somewhere lower down in the grid. The red links flare brighter and then the lines merge.

'This should be the last of the links,' he says.

'Good news, my friends.' The Doctor's whisper starts up from somewhere deep in our head. 'Polly and Shade have the crystals. We can reset the coordinates and steer ourselves far from Morphiea's noisome influence.'

We want to yell and cheer. But the Doctor's shus.h.i.+ng us, frantically.

'We should not make this known to all in our network,' he says, his voice low and urgent.

'As we saw the Schirr through Roba's eyes,' Creben says, 'you think they can see through his?'

'And Tovel, and Frog, too, are no longer dependable,'

mutters the Doctor.

We want to protest. But we remember the change in them, their bloated, twisted bodies, and we just nod. One sensible thing our old man used to say: careless talk costs lives.

'I think we were allowed to complete these repairs,' Creben says. 'Denni could have sent a hundred angels to take us here. She's been waiting for something... Just keeping us busy...'

'Perhaps so. But Denni won't have expected us to find those crystals. Hidden most ingeniously, most ingeniously, yes.' He chuckles. 'Those little gems may yet give us the advantage in this struggle. Once you've finished here, head for the control room. Be on your guard. I shall join you.' With that, the Doctor breaks radio contact.

Creben stands back from the glowing red maze, pleased with himself.

'All done and dusted?' We can't believe it. Life support's fixed up, and we've got back the crystals. Maybe, just maybe, we stand a chance of getting out of this.

Creben nods.

'Let's get back to the control room, meet the others.'

'Yes, I think we -'

Before he can say anything else, the other voice comes booming out at us all. Sounds like a woman... but with some edge to it we can't place...

To switch to Polly's viewpoint, select section 19 on page 229 To switch to Shade's viewpoint, select section 26 on page 241 To switch to Tovel's viewpoint, select section 23 on page 235

To witness these events from Creben's viewpoint, select section 15 on page 223

Or you may withdraw from the neural net - but only after experiencing Frog's perspective. Select section 27 on page 241 experiencing Frog's perspective. Select section 27 on page 241

11.

Haunt

'You can discard those tools,' the Doctor tells us. 'They won't be needed.'

We shrug. He knows what he's talking about, we've worked that much out about him. We drop the tool kit to the cold ground.

Goal one will be achieved - to get life support back on line.

Provided Tovel and the Doctor can make sense of the Schirr systems, that is. The Doctor says he can. We see he's resolved to win out here, just like us.

At the point we're standing in, the tunnels cross. We catch movement up ahead. Something swift and stealthy, dodging past.

'Did you see that?' the Doctor's asking. He's sharp, pointing ahead into the gloom.

'I saw it,' we say. We start in pursuit, run off along the tunnel. The fleas flick off our bare face and hands as we go.

'I will wait for you here,' the Doctor calls.

We're sprinting away. We reach the intersection and take the left.

It's there. The figure. Not running anymore. Shrouded in murky shadows from the ember-glow of the ceiling, facing us.

Denni. Can you glimpse her there in the dark?

A hand slaps down on our shoulder. Heavy as stone. We turn, catch a glimpse of one of the cherubim, standing behind us.