Part 15 (1/2)

114.

She wasn't expendable. Chris knew that he would sooner die than have her harmed. The strength of that resolution scared him. His throat dried and he felt the cold more keenly than before: The cloaked figures swept across the theatre to converge upon him. The others backed out of their path; they valued their lives too much to risk all for an offworlder.

He was running out of options.

'I hope I don't see what I think I see.' Bernice squeezed between the Doctor and Roslyn, in a way which Roz found annoyingly distracting. The screen was monitoring the TARDIS's progress and it was to this image that Benny drew attention.

The Doctor stiffened as he saw it too. Then he pushed Roz to one side, gripped the joystick and pulled it hard left. She was about to protest when the s.h.i.+p was buffeted. A front view showed twin blaster beams crackling into the distance. They had pa.s.sed too close for comfort, grazing the hull.

'They're trying to shoot us down,' she observed in disbelief.

'Don't tell me you've added weapons to the TARDIS!' Mel said, disgusted.

'We haven't,' the Doctor growled. 'But Jason has.' Roz switched back to a rear view. She could see them now: stubby protuberances on each side of the box. As she watched, red fire flashed in their muzzles.

'Hold on!' she shouted, throwing them down and right. The s.h.i.+p rocked again as the bolts ripped by.

'Three minutes to landing,' the Doctor reported.

'How long can you keep this up?' Mel bleated.

'As long as I have to,' said Roz grimly.

She concentrated on the scene behind them, alert for the next shot.

The two smart bolts sped towards the surface of Detrios. Then, as their creator had determined, they swerved up and round and screamed back towards the stolen shuttle and the fleeing criminals within. They hit square and hard and, oblivious to the 115 vacuum as Jason had imagined they would be, sent furious sound waves rippling out to all those close enough to hear. The s.h.i.+p's innards blossomed into a fiery orange and showered the pursuing vessel with a fine spray of burning plastic shreds.

When it was all over, there was nothing left - only the victorious TARDIS and the vacuum, silent once again.

The enemies of Dr Who had met their deserved fates.

116.

13.

Salvation

Chris woke from his worst dream yet and cried out as white light stabbed into his tender retinas. For a second, he thought of the Security Chief's interrogation and he kicked instinctively.

His feet were free and his boot met flesh. His senses were returning piecemeal and he heard a yelp and felt ropes chafing at his wrists (hands tied behind his back?). Unwilling muscles reacted to commands (got to get out of here!) and he lurched to his feet and back across a room he couldn't see. The memory of Kat's face clouded his vision: her bald head, graphite skin and strangely appealing eyes; her expression of concern as he woke in the cell, a stranger in trouble. He had to save her. He knew it was too late.

Two figures were coming for him, red blurs on a yellow background. He couldn't make out words, just the muted buzz of conversation. But, as they came closer, he recognized the shorter man.

'Doctor,' Chris rasped (throat too dry), 'where . . .?'

'Take it easy, boy.' (Why does he have those question marks on his pullover? Chris thought as his focus sharpened.) 'You're in the TARDIS. I rescued you from that horrible planet and now we can blow the whole place up.'

Chris swayed as the figures moved closer. All at once, the Doctor's words sank in and he remembered the mission he'd been sent on, the consequences he had not been warned of and Kat's face, laughing as she played with his hair.

'You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!' Chris yelled, the effort extreme as he wrenched the words out hoa.r.s.ely. He lunged at the man who had betrayed him, but his arms provided, a. painful reminder of the ropes which bound them. Chris lost his balance, tumbled 117 into the Time Lord and hit the floor with no way of cus.h.i.+oning his fall.

His last thought was of Kat's face again: her expression of hopelessness as the cultists dragged her away to die. But the image was washed out with light and Chris took refuge beneath a shroud of memories.

Enros was the most unpleasant of those hazy recollections. The sight of him had triggered revulsion in Chris's stomach. But that was later. The first time, the cult leader had been hidden by shadows: a hypnotic voice drifting out from a jewel-encrusted alcove, a vague shape cowering on a recessed throne at the top end of the opulent Great Hall. 'I have been awaiting the pleasure of your company.'

'What do you want with us?' asked Chris.

'I hoped you might have heard of me already.'

'I have. But -'

Enros seized on that. 'You see?' He addressed his followers, who stood behind and to each side of the captive pair. 'My Word has spread throughout the cosmos.'

'Blessed be,' the cultists answered in unison. Chris s.h.i.+vered at their thoughtless dedication (like his to the Doctor? Was he as blind in his own way?).

'I a.s.sume, then, that you have travelled to Detrios in order to pay homage to my greatness.' Chris opened his mouth to reply, but Enros continued: 'Or are you, perhaps, an alien emissary of darkness come to wage Holy War?'

'Well neither, actually.'

'Be warned. Those who displease me must perish. This very morning, the heathen lizards of Detrios were struck down in retribution for their G.o.dless ways. Be sure that you are not next.'

'What do you want exactly?' asked Kat.

'I require you to serve me. You, the alien, will tell the ma.s.ses how I am revered beyond this world. You, the rebel, will instruct your followers to lay down their weapons and join my cause.'

Chris bristled. 'And suppose,' he said, 'we happen to think - 118.

just a hypothetical question, this - that you're a spineless worm hiding behind an army of idiots?'

He heard Kat sucking air in through her teeth, but he was sure that he was on safe ground. They were too valuable for Enros to risk losing yet.

'You are required to show respect!' the cult leader spat. 'I have lived for many centuries on this planet and it is through my continuing existence that the universe endures. Should I decide it is no longer worth the effort of maintaining reality, then reality will die alongside me.'

'Prove it!' Kat challenged, emboldened by Chris's defiance.

Enros's voice remained controlled, but Chris detected a measure of disdain. 'Remove these non-believers.' The robed figures closed in obediently and, given the force of numbers against them, Chris felt it was unwise to resist.

'You will spend three segments in custody,' Enros p.r.o.nounced as Kat and Chris were taken away, 'during which time you will reconsider your beliefs. If you decide to serve me, then you will be welcome additions to my flock. If not . . . well, then you will be equally welcome additions to my compost heap.'

This time, there were no bars. They sat on the stone floor of a dirty alcove, the traitor Ryallen standing guard in the doorway.

Kat regarded him with loathing. 'Why did you betray us?'

'I received a Higher Calling,' he said without emotion.

'What, from that egotistical moron out there?'