Part 47 (1/2)

Then he became aware of something else.

Someone else, hidden there in the dark. else, hidden there in the dark.

'It's you, is it not?' the Doctor heard himself whisper. 'Shel?

Can you hear me?'

There was a sluggish s.h.i.+fting of sensation. The Doctor gritted his teeth. 'Shel, a trace of you remains. Reach out to me.'

He could feel Shel's presence hovering close by, a still point in the storm as skin and spirit began to pare away.

'Join me here. Stand with me.' The Doctor steeled himself for one last, despairing try. 'Stand with me against them'. them'.

Shel let himself be found.

DeCaster felt it at the same moment. He choked on the hisses and clicks of his incantation, and started to scream.

IV.

The Schirr's face filled Polly's vision. Its big hands cradled the back of her head as it opened its mouth, ready to devour her.

But something was wrong. It froze in front of her. Polly got the distinct impression it was trying to close its mouth again but couldn't. Now it was the one paralysed, and she, she she could move again. Her body was stiff and slow, but she could move. could move again. Her body was stiff and slow, but she could move.

The Schirr that had been crouched over Creben was frozen too. Creben had toppled back against the console. Though his neat features had started to warp into those of a Schirr, his eyes were still brown and human. Slowly, painfully slowly, he struggled to grip on to the console and pull himself to his feet.

'Tovel,' Polly gasped, turning to face him. 'Quickly, we must finish what we started. What else do we need to...'

He wasn't listening to her. There was little of Tovel left now.

His eyes had grown pink and large, fleshy white jelly dripping off them like thick tears. The expression on his broad face slowly s.h.i.+fted into anger, and his hands gripped Polly's throat.

V.

The stone angel had upped and gone, and Ben could move again. His arms and legs had cramped up like he'd just swum the Channel, but still he crawled painfully down the pa.s.sageway, into the light towards the Doctor. The Schirr behind him made no effort to follow him. It still crouched there, s.h.i.+vering so violently Ben thought it might shake itself apart.

He hunted through the rolling indigo swell for any sign of the Doctor. There was DeCaster, spreadeagled against the gla.s.s cylinder like it was sucking him in. He writhed in agony, screamed out as glittering blue lightning crackled out from the gla.s.s to shake his colossal bulk. The stone angel was peering at him, as if trying to understand what was wrong, as the room began to darken to a stormy grey.

Ben cowered back instinctively as a dark shape detached itself from the pitching shadows. But it was friend, not foe.

'Doctor!' he yelled. 'Doctor, what's happening?'

'Something our friend DeCaster did not allow for,' the Doctor shouted back triumphantly. 'A tenth soul in his black little ritual.'

'Tenth?' Ben didn't understand.

'Shel, my boy!' the Doctor yelled, his words nearly lost over a deafening blast of what sounded like thunder. 'As an artificial intelligence his interface with the webset was far more comprehensive. His outward form was a carrying case only - the real flesh of him is the scripting in his circuitry.

His presence in the network is as real as yours or mine.'

'Course it is,' Ben yelled, still puzzled, but enjoying the barmy smile on the old boy's face.

There were footsteps behind him. Ben spun round, ready to fight, but it was only Shade. He looked completely lost.

As he opened his mouth to speak, Ben shushed him and pointed at the Doctor. 'He's your bloke. Maybe you can get some sense out of him.'

'Don't you see?' The Doctor staggered over to join them. He looked a little bruised but was apparently untouched in any other way by the Schirr infection. 'The mere presence of Shel's personality in the neural network DeCaster had a.s.sembled was enough to create an imbalance. The ritual could not be completed. It's coming undone, I only hope it's not too late.'

'And what about the Schirr?' asked Shade. He pointed at DeCaster who was bellowing back against the gla.s.s. He shook like current was running through him.

'The energy they've expended in beginning the joining has to go somewhere,' wheezed the Doctor. 'If our friend over there is any example, it will travel back into the Schirr themselves.' He gave a brief, malicious chuckle. 'With unpleasant results.'

Ben wanted to cheer, but didn't dare even smile in case the Doctor was wrong.

The head of the stone angel swivelled round to face them.

'What about them things?' Ben cried.

Give me your wrist. Quickly.' The Doctor grabbed Shade's sleeve and held it to his lips. 'Creben, Polly, are you there?'

There was only static.

'It's no good,' the Doctor fussed, 'there's too much interference here.'

The construct took a step towards them.

'Let's run for it before that stone thing gets us,' Ben urged him. 'It's not gonna be happy, is it?'

'I would never make it,' the Doctor puffed miserably. 'No, there must be another way. Before the network breaks down completely...'