Part 14 (1/2)

'It's not human?'

The ticket collector was getting bored. 'Yes. It's not human. It doesn't need a ticket. You, as a human like its owner, do need a ticket.'

Thorsuun smiled. 'Wrong.' She looked the ticket collector straight in the eye, and opened her mouth. 'Rrraaaaghhhh!!'

she shouted.

The ticket collector did not even hear the end of the noise as his clothes, flesh and blood were spread across the four seats opposite. Thorsuun looked at his skeleton, standing upright, feet firmly embedded in its boots. She looked around. The other six people in the compartment were similarly dead, the windows, seats and carpet layered with blood and liquefied flesh. Thorsuun wandered towards the cat case and noted with satisfaction that the cat was splattered across the insides of the cage, bits of it oozing through the wicker strands. 'I hate felines of any genus,' she said.

Seconds later the train pulled into Crewe and Thorsuun got off, carefully wiping her blooded shoes in a puddle. The train pulled away and dimly she heard a shriek as some hapless newcomer encountered the mess that used to be the people in coach G.

Thorsuun thought about what had happened. She crossed to an automatic ticket machine and used her Amex card to purchase a ticket to Whitehaven. The next train to Manchester Piccadilly, this one coming via Birmingham New Street, was in twenty minutes. A minor delay.

The inside of the Cat-People's shuttle, parked behind the Gatehouse and obscured by the trees, was utilitarian but striking. Decorated in the same shocking red as their uniforms, it contained a basic helm and navigation console - obviously scaled down from what Thorsuun a.s.sumed was on the bridge of their orbiting battles.h.i.+p. Six seats were 110 ranged three-abreast behind it and to the rear was a weaponry storage locker. In front of that was a solitary, softer seat, in which Aysha sat. The Doctor flopped down in the helm seat. 'Well, that was a pleasant little trot, wasn't it?'

Everyone ignored him.

Aysha pointed at him. 'You are lucky to be alive.'

The Doctor straightened his bow-tie and stared Aysha directly in the face. 'Yes, I am, I suppose. Of course, we'll never know whether or not Lotuss deliberately missed me or whether you'd already decided to ignore Fraulein Thorsuun's desires and shoot Kerbe anyway. But it's not really important.'

Thorsuun watched the Doctor carefully. Divide and conquer, eh? She looked back to Aysha, who did not respond to the Doctor's comment. Could she have been wrong? Was Aysha going to ignore her? Certainly her treatment at Lotuss's paws left something to be desired but the need to escape Earth frankly overrode a small amount of humiliation. Anyway, she did not trust Lotuss and believed she was perfectly capable of shooting her and claiming it was an accident later. 'Kerbe's use was at an end, Doctor,'

she said for good measure - just to let Aysha know there were no hard feelings.

'Yes, I'm sure it was.' The Doctor stared at the controls around him. 'Nice shuttle. Can I press a few b.u.t.tons? You know, play around a bit? Technology fascinates me, you see and -'

'Shut!' Lotuss brought her blaster up to the Doctor's chest.

'One more prattle and I'll drill your heart out.'

Thorsuun sighed and could not stop herself muttering, 'Oh, how very melodramatic.' She crossed to Aysha. 'Look, Your Majesty, let's sort out these beacons and I can be on my way. He,' she waved towards the Doctor, 'and the others on this planet will all die in the firestorms. Can we get on with it, please? Your Majesty?'

'What are you looking for? Perhaps I can help?' The Doctor was spinning his seat around, and Thorsuun sighed.

Did this man really want to die so soon?

111.

'When Atimkos and I left the southern hemisphere, we placed a series of beacons along our path,' Thorsuun began.

'Sort of find-your-way-home-again things?'

No. Sort of when-viewed-from-s.p.a.ce-there's-a-nice-ring-to-cut-through-and-release-the-planet's-energies thing actually.'

'Oh. Like join the dots?'

'Exactly, Doctor. When my people joined the dots on the various planets we encountered, we'd cut the crust open and the resultant magnetic energy that was released would power our s.h.i.+p for millennia.'

'Well, a while anyway,' said the Doctor. 'Allowing for your rhetoric I presume it didn't last for millennia otherwise you wouldn't need to keep doing it.'

Thorsuun sat down. 'You can be such a bore to tell stories to, Doctor. I bet you never believed in Father Christmas.'

'Where I came from, the children were busy learning the quality of life and how sacrosanct all living things were. A way of life such as the Euterpians' and the Cat-People's was abhorrent to us. Evil always is.' The Doctor looked very smug, Thorsuun decided.

'Well, I'm sorry we can't share or even appreciate your honour, Doctor. But we only deal in reality. Survival of the fittest and all that.'

The Doctor stopped moving and then spoke very quietly.

Thorsuun actually felt something of a s.h.i.+ver run through her. Those grey eyes of his could be very cold. But they were green earlier . . .

'Tell me about these beacons,' he asked.

'Atimkos and I walked a straight line from our crash site, placing the beacons every few thousand kilometres. With the right resonance and harmonics, they light up and show the path. It's very simple.'

'So what went wrong?'

Thorsuun frowned. 'What makes you think anything has gone wrong?'

'Because no Euterpian fleet has returned to split the planet in half and the beacons obviously aren't working or the Cat-112 People wouldn't be needing you to show them the way.

They'd see it and cut us up without any regard to you, me or the billions of people down here.'

'I've lost the exact path. I tried to light it up many times over the years - we wanted to return to G.o.dwanna, our leader, and the others, but perhaps the beacons have failed.

It's taken me this long to interest another species in the properties this planet has to offer and therefore have the resources to commence an operation of this scale.'

'I see. So, if you don't mind me asking, why the Grange?'

'Simple, Doctor. I recognize it. I know we were here once. I can feel it in the ground. There is a line of power running right underneath us as we speak. It's been there so long it's become part of the planet itself.'

The Doctor smiled at her. 'Ah, so you've found a ley line.

Indeed, you've created them. Very good.'

'But it doesn't work,' put in Aysha. 'We can trace it across into the nearest continent -'

'Europe,' Thorsuun added, feeling slightly put out that Aysha had interrupted.

Ignoring her, the Cat-People Queen continued: 'They appear intermittently but that is all. It is not enough. Yet.'

The Doctor got up and began to pace the s.h.i.+p, sucking the forefinger of his right hand. 'Well,' he mumbled between sucks, 'that's because, apparently, ley lines are cultural not geographical. England, France and parts of Germany have them, because of the Celtic influences. Scandinavia have similar but unconnected ones. And the Australian Aborigines have . . . the songlines! Of course!' He removed his finger and pointed it wetly at Thorsuun. 'That's where you landed, isn't it! You taught those early men, forty thousand years ago, to sing. They hum things to keep your beacons lit. That's where their legends and myths of the Dreamtime come from.'

'Yes, Doctor, and unlike every other culture Atimkos and I encountered, the Australian Aborigines have kept it going.

If I could reach G.o.dwanna and the others, they could force a ma.s.s songtime and the beacons would become alight. We 113 could then trace the path exactly. As it is, we only have guesswork to go on.'

'And where are your guesses taking you?'

'Back a few thousand years, before industry destroyed the culture we set up and find the links.'