Part 7 (1/2)

'Must just be me, then,' muttered Hespell, getting to his feet. He felt an urgent need to change the subject. Looking around the MedLab, he realised that the Doctor wasn't around. His brown coat was slung over the back of a chair, but other than that there was no sign of him.

'Where is the Doctor?' he asked Baker.

'With his other patient,' Ania told him. Hespell looked a bit confused. Baker fixed him with a sharp look. 'It wasn't just us out there, was it?'

Hespell found the Doctor and the 'other patient' in the cargo bay, which had been adjudged the best place to act as a holding cell. Hespell had refused the suggestion of using his cabin again but it had never really been a possibility; this new prisoner was rather larger than the Doctor.

The Doctor looked up as he heard the doors open and was pleased to see that it was the young trainee pilot. Both the professor and Kendle were hopelessly fixed in their worldviews but Hespell showed signs of having some imagination, and he approved of that. He nodded a greeting at Hespell and returned to examining the unconscious creature. 88 'Is there any possibility of getting these off?' he asked, gesturing at the heavy metal chains that were wrapped around the creature, which lay sprawled on its back in the middle of the floor. Hespell looked at the chains, which were fixed to points on the walls that had originally been intended to support shelving units. They were stretched tight, pinning the creature securely to the floor. It looked, and probably was, painful.

'I'm sorry Doctor, but the professor says this thing has to be restrained.' He could see the sadness in the Doctor's eyes and felt guilty, but he dared not disobey a direct order.

'I don't think he's dangerous,' explained the Doctor, 'I really don't.'

'Tell that to Baker,' muttered Hespell.

'Baker went out there and started shooting at them. You all did. They only wanted to stop you from poisoning the planet. Once this ' the Doctor waved an arm in the general direction of the wrecked generator 'this obscenity was destroyed they just left, didn't they?'

Hespell had to admit that the Doctor had a point.

'What are they?' he wondered.

The Doctor shrugged. 'I don't know. But there's more to them than meets the eye, I'm sure of that.'

Hespell came closer, intrigued. Even asleep, the creature looked fearsome. 'What do you mean?' he asked, bending and reaching out a curious hand to touch the alien fur.

'Well, they attacked as a group. There wasn't much sign of individuality, was there?' The Doctor looked to Hespell for confirmation.

'I er, I suppose you're right,' he replied, not having thought about it much.

The Doctor continued with his theory. 'So that would suggest some kind of an animal that wasn't highly developed.'

Hespell nodded again.

'And yet,' said the Doctor, 'they knew exactly what they needed to do, which demonstrates a certain degree of intelligence.'

Hespell began to see what the Doctor was driving at. 'You mean they displayed characteristics of simple animals and more complex life forms at the same time?' he said.

89.To his delight, the Doctor broke into a broad smile. 'Good lad!

You're using your brain!'

The Doctor gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder, which threatened to knock him off balance and send him tumbling into the creature. The Doctor then reached over to pick at something on the monster's chest.

'So, now you've warmed up your noggin, what do you make of this?'

Hespell studied what the Doctor was holding. It was a necklace, decorated with colourful stones and crystals, threaded on to some kind of vine. The centrepiece was one enormous fist-sized yellow crystal. He gasped. 'Is that trisilicate?'

'Looks like it, doesn't it?' the Doctor agreed.

'Wow!'

'Which raises some rather interesting questions,' the Doctor announced, getting to his feet. 'For a start, when was the last time you saw a great big hairy monster like this wearing bling quite like that?'

The atmosphere in the temple crypt was chilly and Rose s.h.i.+vered. She had discovered that it was far more than a simple room. Just as Rez had told her earlier, there was an absolute warren of interconnected cellars and tunnels down here that seemed to go on for kilometres. It was dark, cold and creepy, but fascinating at the same time. Rose found other images on the walls. They were fairly crude but clearly represented a range of ancient Layloran activities. They were even sketchier than the carvings the Doctor had been so fascinated by, the ones that decorated the exterior of the temple. In fact, now she thought about it, some of these tunnels and chambers seemed much older than the building above, as if perhaps the great temple had been built on top of an earlier, more primitive sacred place. A repeated image depicted the Witiku. However, there was more to this underground area than just wall paintings. There were stores of grain and jinnen beans, and other materials too. Rose looked into one room and gasped in surprise. It was filled with a huge pile of crystals. Except, on closer examination, she found that what she had taken to be crystals were some kind of hard jewel, like yellow diamonds. And 90 there were thousands of them. She picked one up to examine it more closely.

'Pretty, aren't they?'

Rose nearly jumped out of her skin. She whirled around to see who had crept up on her, but she already had an idea from the voice.

'Sister Kaylen!' The not-girlfriend. Terrific.

Rose had been aware of the girl shooting her dark looks all evening. She was clearly very fond of her stepbrother and Rose had halfexpected her to join them for their 'date', but she'd stayed away. Rose stood up, dropping the jewel she'd just picked up. Although she had done nothing wrong, she still felt guilty.

'I wasn't going to take it!' she insisted, getting in her defence first. Kaylen just shrugged. 'Take as many as you like. They're everywhere.'

Rose couldn't quite believe her ears. 'You don't value these things?'

She picked one up and felt its weight. It would make a lovely necklace, she thought. The Layloran looked bemused. 'Value? What do you mean? They're pretty and we use them in our jewellery,' she continued, 'but they're ever so common. In the fields we find them all the time. It's a pain.'

A pain! Rose had to stop herself from laughing. Fields full of free jewellery and they think it's a problem!

'Were you looking for me?' Rose asked, wondering what she was doing there.

Kaylen nodded. 'I'm doing a head count,' she explained. Suddenly the seriousness of what had happened last night came flooding back to Rose. She let Kaylen lead her back towards the staircase going up to the surface, all thoughts of the crystals forgotten.

'Are there many people missing?' she asked.

Kaylen nodded, a grim expression on her face. 'Eight, we think.'

Eight! The raid had been more successful than Rose had thought.

'Any sign of Brother Hugan?' Kaylen shook her head sadly.

'No.'

91.Back on the surface, Rose and Kaylen found most of the adults gathered in an informal crisis meeting, discussing their options. As she had feared, an all-out attack on the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p was a popular choice, but not all the Laylorans were in favour. Mother Jaelette, for example, wanted to wait rather than rush into some foolish action that might just lead to more loss of life and she made her point forcibly. Rose could see that both sides of the argument had their supporters, but neither commanded a majority. The one thing they all agreed on, though, was that what had happened was connected in some way with the crashed sky boat. She cleared her throat and tried to interrupt the debate, which was beginning to get a little heated.

'Excuse me,' she began, but her voice was drowned out. She tried again. 'Oi!' she cried, much louder, and this time she got their attention.

'Look, it's no good just shouting at each other.'

'You're an outsider what do you know about this?' retorted one of the more belligerent elders.

Rose bristled but kept her cool. Losing her temper wouldn't help the situation at all.

'The people in that s.h.i.+p are human, like me. Like Rez here.'

Rez shot her an unhappy look, not pleased to be singled out like this.

'Perhaps I can talk to them, find out what they know. They may be able to help find your missing people.'