Part 48 (1/2)

He looked at her. Then down at the shattered remains of Roba.

His other hand inched stiffly over to the controls. Pressed one, two, three b.u.t.tons.

The knife clattered to the ground.

Polly watched as Tovel grasped a small silver lever and pulled.

IX.

Ben heard a crunching noise from inside his ears as the angel squeezed his skull still harder.

Then he fell to the ground, abruptly released, reeling from the pressure pounding at his temples.

It took several moments for his sight to clear.

He was sitting in a cloud of grey fleas. The stone angels had vanished.

'What happened?' Ben croaked.

Shade, flat out on the floor, laughed in disbelief. 'They're gone.'

Ben stared at him. 'What did we do?'

Shade shrugged, and Ben turned back to the Doctor in time to see his eyes snap wide open. He looked about at the thick carpet of fleas before him, baffled, like he'd dozed off and woken somewhere unfamiliar.

Then he jabbed a bony finger past Ben at DeCaster.

The Schirr was stooped and pitiful, slumped back against the gla.s.s. He reached out to them as if seeking their help.

'Quickly,' gasped the Doctor. 'Go to him.'

'Help him, after all he's done?' Ben asked in disbelief.

The Doctor stared at him, then shook his head crossly. 'He will help us. Push him through the gla.s.s,' he thundered.

'Feed him to the engines!'

Ben stared at him, not sure he'd heard the Doctor right.

But Shade set off straight away at a stumbling run for DeCaster. Ben limped after him.

'You, my little Shadow?' DeCaster hissed, with a crumpled smile.

'Come to kill me?' He choked, a liquid sound at the back of his throat. 'You're funny.'

Shade kicked the creature in the chest with all his strength.

DeCaster crashed back against the cylinder. The thick gla.s.s sparked and glowed and seemed to part around him, and the screaming tornado of light sucked him inside.

On instinct, Ben threw himself to the ground before the deafening thundercrack could knock him there.

Then it was lights out.

Chapter Eighteen.

Curtain

I.

'He's looking much better.'

Ben's head felt swollen and sore. Wasn't that Polly's voice?

He tried to open his eyes. Golden light from up high shone in his eyes. He was back in the control room.

'Gently, my boy. I'm afraid you were caught in the backblast.'

That was the Doctor. Ben opened his eyes on the second attempt and found Polly looking down at him.

'He's come through it,' she said. 'He's going to be all right!'

She beamed down at him. And it really was was Polly, barely a trace of Schirr about her now. She looked just as gorgeous as she had done the day they'd met. Her hair was a mess, her face was speckled with burst blood vessels, but it was Polly, barely a trace of Schirr about her now. She looked just as gorgeous as she had done the day they'd met. Her hair was a mess, her face was speckled with burst blood vessels, but it was her. her.

'You still reckon I'm a dog person, Pol?' croaked Ben. 'Got the lives of a cat, ain't I?'

'Looks like we both have,' she said.

'Yes, the power surge has taken the asteroid to the fringes of the Morphiean Quadrant, well out of range.' Things must be on the up, thought Ben, the Doctor was back to his old self, confident and a.s.sured. 'With the ritual unfulfilled, and away from the Morphiean influence, the damage to the cells is being undone, and the native DNA maps redrawn. The further we drift, the more the Schirr effect will diminish.'

Ben found he was afraid to sit up, to look round. He might have nine lives, but had the rest of them? He stayed flat on his back.

'What happened to those angels?'

'Retribution.' The Doctor nodded gravely. 'Yes, I think so.

Those Morphiean dissidents presumed to attack their ruling mindforce, under the protection of the amplified neural network. When that protection failed...'