Part 5 (2/2)

He knelt down in a carpet of leaves and probed the soil, but his investigation was curtailed as he felt that very soil stir beneath him.

Some sort of an earth tremor? No. Something was coming. He dropped down onto his side and pressed an ear to the ground.

The thing was seven tons at least, and thundering inexorably in his direction. And not far away, its approach was only hidden visually by the dense foliage.

Suddenly, the Doctor could hear trees falling about him - and, looming over the tops of the branches, was a huge, 47 reptilian creature, its skin brown and its great ovoid head split wide to reveal two rows of sharp teeth.

The Doctor felt his throat going dry. Despite the fact that this certainly wasn't Earth, he knew that the creature he faced was of Terran origin.

It was a tyrannosaurus.

And he certainly hadn't dreamed up that!

The TARDIS was in flight, the central column of its console rising and falling steadily. Its pilot was stooped over the control panels and Jason waited patiently to gain his attention.

'I think,' he said, once this had been achieved, 'that that was a very successful mission.' His face clouded. 'Despite that Superior b.i.t.c.h at the end. You can't please everyone though, I suppose.'

The other man glared at him. 'I don't blame her for her adverse reaction. Do you know how many people just died on Detrios?'

'Oh, come on!' protested Jason. 'We acted as fast as we could. You'd think they would be grateful if anything. Who got rid of their lizards for them?'

'That's not what I meant and you know it. Creating that monster was an extremely irresponsible act.'

'I was bored! Those other things didn't come near us, and when Darnak started going on about it being too easy -'

'And that's an excuse to waste lives, is it? I'm talking about real, human lives here, Jason - not just evil, slimy monsters like before. You caused the deaths of real people!'

'But mainly guards! They're supposed to die, aren't they?'

' Jason! Jason! ' '

The young man's eyes flashed hot with resentment. 'Well if you don't like it, then perhaps I should unmake you. I could always build a new friend!'

'And what good would that do you? I'm your creation, Jason.

I say what you want me to say - and right now, I'm acting as the voice of your conscience. You can't eliminate that, no matter how much you might want to.'

The momentary rage had pa.s.sed. He sighed, defeated. 'Okay, 48 Doc. It won't happen again.'

'I hope not. Now we can return to our main objective.'

'The henchmen?'

'That's right. My arch-enemy's five accomplices. Now them, you can do whatever you like with. I doubt if there's any more evil band of thugs in the entire cosmos.'

'And you know where they are?'

'I was never mistaken about it. The TARDIS showed that two of the villains were inside the crystal above Detrios. For some reason, it couldn't land within, so it diverted us to the planet itself. We'll have to wait for them to come out.'

'Can't we go after the others while we're waiting?'

'My intention precisely. The s.h.i.+p located two more of the five. The final one is still missing, unfortunately.'

'Where do we go?'

'Initially, to Avalone. It's a holiday resort, a good few thousand years into your future. We'll be there in ten minutes.'

'I'll just go and use the toilet then.' Jason headed towards the interior door (and, unseen by him, a figure slipped away from its far side and hurried down the corridor out of sight).

'By the way,' his companion called after him, 'I'd appreciate it if you didn't call me ”Doc”. You should address me as ”Doctor” and refer to to me by my full name.' me by my full name.'

'Whatever you say, Doctor.' Jason left the control room, his earlier disappointment forgotten. He whistled a jaunty tune as he went.

His face an uncanny mirror of the young man's own cheerful expression, Dr Who returned to his work.

49.

6.

A Bush In The Hand

The old man leaned back against the shale and took another swig of his empty bottle. He imagined it contained whisky this time. He looked again at the young woman, surprised to find that she was still there. Perhaps, he thought fuzzily, she was real.

She was barely a third of his age; early, perhaps mid-twenties.

Her red hair was cut short and she wore a shapeless, powder blue tracksuit. He had not seen her before. Which was odd.

'What . . . are you doing here?' he asked her, quite pleased that he remembered how to talk.

She turned and looked at him, as if she had not been aware of his presence before. Her features held an almost girlish prettiness. But it was scarred, weighed down by concerns belonging to someone much older than she.

'I'm admiring,' she said at last, 'the ”scintillating beauty of the Avalonian horizon”. If I'm lucky, I might get one last glimpse of ”its beautiful sky, which sparkles like a gem-encrusted eiderdown”.'

The old man frowned and wondered if she was mad.

'I can only see grey hills,' he said dolefully. 'And grey sky.'

'You're right,' she said, not disguising her bitterness. just wanted to remind myself of that in case I'm tempted to believe an Avalone tour brochure again.' She resumed her contemplation, looking wistfully towards the flat surface of the unkempt landing area below. A minute later, she muttered: 'I won't miss this place!' then turned to leave.

The old man felt a momentary wash of sadness at her departure. 'I don't even know your name,' he called, without having thought about it; reaching towards her.

50.'It's Melanie,' she said, without looking back. 'Mel Bush.'

She trudged back down the mound and towards the rotten buildings of the Suns.h.i.+ne Wing.

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