Part 1 (1/2)

DOCTOR WHO.

SNAKEDANCE.

by TERRANCE d.i.c.kS.

1

Nightmare

On a rocky hillside between two great jagged stones sat Dojjen the Snakedancer.

A gaunt, white-haired old man, he wore simple leather garments as sun-bleached and serviceable as his own wrinkled brown skin. He sat cross-legged, quite motionless, staring wide-eyed into infinity. Thrust into the ground at his side was his forked Snakedancer's stick. A live snake was coiled around its head, emerald eyes glinting, forked tongue flickering in and out. Around Dojjen's neck hung a gem-stone pendant, the blue crystal of the Snakedancers.

The crystal glowed.

'We are not where we are supposed to be!'

Nyssa came into the control room in time to hear the Doctor's words.

She felt no great surprise. In Nyssa's experience, the TARDIS was very seldom where it was supposed to be.

Nyssa looked expectantly at the Doctor. Now in his fifth incarnation he was a slight, fair-haired youngish man with a pleasant, open face. He was dressed in the fawn frock-coat and striped trousers of an Edwardian cricketer, and there was a fresh sprig of celery in his b.u.t.tonhole.

At the moment, it wasn't the Doctor's appearance but Nyssa's own which concerned her. She was awaiting the Doctor's reaction to her new outfit, a blue-and-white striped top with a white collar, and rainbow-striped skirt.

'Well?' she asked.

The Doctor gave her a distracted glance. The effect of the new outfit was both colourful and striking but it didn't make the slightest impression on him. 'We're not where we're supposed to be,' he repeated.

Nyssa gave him a 'what's-the-use' look. 'Where are we, then?'

'I don't know.' The Doctor studied the instruments. 'It's not a navigational malfunction.'

'Shall I wake Tegan?'

Tegan was their other companion, now sound asleep in her room.

'No need, there isn't any danger. It's puzzling, though. Very puzzling.'

Nyssa came to join him at the console and punched up navigational data on a read-out screen. 'Let's see where we are'. She read out the data. 'Planet G 139901 Kb in the Scrampus System. Local name: Ma.n.u.ssa. Type 314S. Inhabited. Atmosphere, 98% Terran normal.

Gravity, 96% Terran normal.'

'Well at least we can breathe the air, that's something.' He looked accusingly at her. 'You look different.'

'Yes, Doctor.'

'The question is, how did we get here?'

'There's more data. Third planet in Federation System. Status Colony.

Former Homeworld Ma.n.u.ssan Empire: Destroyed. Former Homeworld Sumaran Empire: Destroyed. Present Economy: Subsistence Agriculture and Tourism!'

'Former Homeworld?' interrupted the Doctor.

'Ma.n.u.ssan Empire.'

'No, the other one.'

'Former Homeworld: Sumaran Empire.'

Strange that one insignificant planet should be the homeworld for two mighty empires, thought Nyssa. And stranger still that both empires should be swallowed up in barbarism.

The Doctor was checking instruments. 'This is serious, Nyssa.

Someone's been playing about. Who set these co-ordinates?'

'You did.'

'No, no, no! You remember, I was trying to teach you and Tegan to read the star charts. One of you actually read out the co-ordinates for me to set. Who was it?'

Nyssa remembered quite clearly. She could see Tegan reading out the long string of co-ordinate numbers. But the Doctor was clearly put out by the error. Somehow it seemed unsporting to get her sleeping friend into trouble. 'I can't really remember, Doctor.'

'I can. It was Tegan!'

Tegan slept. She stirred a little. Her face twisted and she muttered incoherently. Tegan was dreaming.

In her dream, she stood before a cave. The area around the cave had been carved to resemble the head of a snake. The mouth of the snake formed the cave entrance. It loomed very large, and Tegan felt small, alone and afraid. Slowly and reluctantly she began walking towards the cave mouth, drawn by some irresistible power. She pa.s.sed inside, looked up, and gave a gasp of horror. There, looming over her, was the skull of a giant snake. Somehow the skull was hideously alive, eyes glowing red, bony jaws opening and closing angrily. The snake skull grew immense, filling the entire cave.

Tegan screamed.

Wrapping the scarlet lounging-robe about his body, the Lord Lon strolled out of his bedchamber and stood gazing disdainfully around him. He was occupying the finest guest suite in the Palace of Ma.n.u.ssa.

The room was luxuriously, even opulently furnished in a bewildering variety of styles. There were fur rugs, wall-hangings, tapestries, reclining couches, low tables and chairs and an astonis.h.i.+ng variety of art objects from all periods of the planet's long and colourful history.

Ma.n.u.ssa had been the ruling planet of two great star-empires, and it was now a colony planet of the all-powerful Federation of Three Worlds. The planet and its people were a melting-pot, a jumble of innumerable cultural influences. Most of them, thought Lon, were reflected in this very room.

Lon yawned and stretched, still querulous and disorientated by the journey from Federation Homeworld. He was a tall, handsome young man, with the sleek, well-fed look of one born to wealth and privilege - not surprisingly, since Lon was the favoured son of the Federator of the Three Worlds. He strolled indolently across the room, and sank down onto a couch. On a table close by stood a statuette. He reached out and picked it up.

Beautifully carved from crystalline rock by some ancient, long-dead craftsman, the statuette was in the form of a coiled snake with a jewel in its mouth. Lon examined it with languid interest. It was primitive of course, but the workmans.h.i.+p was good . . .

Lon lay back on the couch, turning the statuette over in his hands. There was something strangely fascinating about it.

Tegan's scream sent the Doctor and Nyssa running to her room. They found her sitting upright in bed, wide-eyed with terror.

'Tegan, what's the matter? What happened?' asked Nyssa.