Part 4 (1/2)
”There's something very unwholesome going on somewhere in the Earth's past. And if we don't stop it, then there might not be an Earth as you know it. It'll just be dust blowing in the cosmic winds.”
As he fiddled with the controls, Ace tried to take it in. ”But - I'm from the Earth, Professor,” she objected. ”If it's destroyed in the past . . . ” ”You may very well cease to exist,” he agreed, concentrating on the settings. ”Or your Earth will be confined to a sliver of the Universe, cut off from the rest. So we'll have a sort of barometer to see if what we're doing will work. If you vanish, we've made a mistake.”
”Somehow that's not very comforting, Professor.”
He glared at her again. ”Must you address me like that, Ace? I knew I should have edited that out of your memory while I had the chance.” He sighed. ”Ace, there are times when there is no comfort in time travel. This may be one of them. We seem to be heading for a crisis of unimaginable proportions here something that could unravel the fabric of the Universe.”
”But . . . but how could something change the past?” Ace persisted. ”I mean, it's already happened, hasn't it? Didn't you once tell me that we can't change the way history's written?” ”You can't change your past,” he agreed, mulling over his settings. ”But a Time Lord could. As far as I'm concerned it hasn't happened yet, and Time Lords have much more power to call on than any human being. And so do some other races. Any being powerful enough to alter the course of human history is a force to be reckoned with indeed.”
”You're giving me the s.h.i.+vers,” Ace complained in a quiet voice.
”I'm giving myself the s.h.i.+vers,” he replied. As he watched, all of his settings began to change. Ace stared at the controls. ”The TARDIS is taking over the flight plan herself,” he informed her. ”She knows what she's doing.” He patted the console, and smiled thinly. ”Let's only hope that we know what we're doing when we arrive.”
Ace couldn't make much sense of the readings beyond the basic code for the Earth. ”Any idea where we're going to turn up?” ”Oh, yes: Mesopotamia, 2700 BC.”
He looked thoughtful. ”A crucial point in human history, Ace. The first walled cities were being built. Irrigation was transforming your people from nomadic gatherers and hunters into city-dwellers. Writing had just been invented, and the system of a warrior aristocracy. An exciting period of time, and a very vulnerable one. If this experiment had failed, the human race might have remained in a state of primitive savagery for thousands more years.”
”Is that what we've got to prevent?” Ace asked.
The Doctor shook his head. ”I doubt it. I have a feeling it's something much worse than that . . .
Ace stared at the time rotor as it rose and fell. ”Great . . .” she muttered, without much conviction.
”I told you I had a bad feeling about this,” Enkidu complained. Grabbing one of the attackers by the throat, he used the hapless man as a living s.h.i.+eld to fend off the sword-blows aimed at him.
”Oh, shut up,” was the best Gilgamesh could manage. He ducked the first blows aimed at him, and then succeeded in getting his hands on his axe.
There wasn't room for much of a swing, but he managed well enough to spill the guts of the next man that came at him. Screaming and clutching at his stomach, the soldier fell backwards into the path of his companions.
With this brief respite Enkidu managed to grasp his war club. He swung out at the nearest attacker. A solid thunk stove in the man's brains, and he collapsed soundlessly to the ground.
Enkidu glanced around. Three of the men from his patrol were already dead, their blood irrigating the earth. The fourth and fifth men were injured.
Only he and Gilgamesh remained unscathed as yet, and there were at least twenty Kis.h.i.+tes about them. In the open, that would be good odds, but here there wasn't room to swing a solid blow.
The captain of the attackers gestured with his sword. ”At them!” he yelled.
”Gilgamesh is to be taken alive, remember, but the ape can be laughtered.”
”Ape?” Enkidu yelled, furious. ”Come here and repeat that!” He made his club whistle above his head.
”You're too touchy,” Gilgamesh laughed. he was puzzled by the order to take him alive, but he had no intention of being taken at all. The problem was that the advantages were all with their attackers. This time, he couldn't see a way out.
”Lugulbanda,” he grunted in prayer to his personal G.o.d, ”This would be a pretty good time to get off your backside and do something for a change.”
There was a moment of eerie silence. Swords were stilled in mid-air, spears halted in mid-thrust. Then, growing like a roll of thunder, an earsplitting roaring sound filled the air. It sounded almost like an elephant hunt - the sound the dying behemoth made when it was being slaughtered.
Rising and falling, the noise seemed to be coming from the air itself, because there was certainly nothing visible.
Enkidu seized his opportunity. With a fierce roar of his own, he jumped into battle with the closest of their foes. Gilgamesh was right behind him. The noise that had shocked everyone stopped, and then there was a tall, blue box standing in the circle of trees. On its top, a small fire burned without consuming anything.
Enkidu laughed in pleasure as his club shattered another skull. Flinging the dead man from him, he paused long enough to see a young woman walk out of the box. He blinked and shook his head. From the expression on her face, she had not been expecting to step into the middle of a battle.
There was no time for further gawping. Another soldier thrust at him, but Enkidu twisted aside. The sword pa.s.sed by his left arm, narrowly missing him. Enkidu smashed down on the arm that held the sword, and heard the pleasing sound of shattering bone. The attacker screamed, and dropped his sword. Enkidu smashed the man's face and kicked the body backwards.
Gilgamesh was likewise in the midst of his battle frenzy. His war-axe whirled, clearing men from about him rapidly - they either moved back or died.
The captain of the Kis.h.i.+te soldiers didn't like the way the tide had turned.
He nodded to two of his archers. ”Kill the ape, but only wound Gilgamesh,”
he ordered. The men dropped to their knees, and aimed past their companions.
Ace wasn't sure which side she should be supporting, but she couldn't simply wait for one or other side to win. Apart from the fact that there was no telling how they'd react to her, it simply wasn't in her nature to back out of a fight. Feeling in the backpack she'd slung over her shoulder on leaving the TARDIS, she grabbed a can of her invaluable nitro-nine. She primed it, tossed it into the air, and threw herself to the ground.
For the fighters it was as if a new sun had suddenly appeared in the sky.
With a terrible roar of sound, flames lit the entire oasis. The archers, taking careful aim, were blinded by the sudden light and then knocked flying by the blast. The men standing were thrown aside like leaves in. a gale and slammed into trees. Gilgamesh and Enkidu, too, felt the explosion above them, as if mighty hands were pressing them down to the ground.
With their ears ringing and their eyes seeing flas.h.i.+ng lights, the two warriors of Uruk gathered their wits and weapons, but the attack was broken. The remaining soldiers were picking themselves up and fleeing back to Kish. It was bad enough fighting the king of Uruk, but this new event had shattered their hearing and their confidence alike. With satisfaction, Gilgamesh noted that less than half of the attackers were crawling home, and none of them uninjured. Staggering back to his feet, he looked around the corpse-strewn pond. Of his patrol, only he and Enkidu remained alive. Both had nicks and scratches, but no real wounds.
His eyes lit on the strange girl, who stood staring back defiantly at him. So this was the answer to his irreverent prayer! Well, if Lugulbanda was going to answer this promptly in the future, maybe it was time he got a little more of that old religious feeling back! He looked over the girl with a professional eye.
A bit on the skinny side, and very pale, but otherwise a healthy looking wench. But - was she a human being or a G.o.d? ”Who are you?” he asked her, with respect, just in case.
”Ace.” Ace in her turn stared at the half-naked man facing her. His chest was heaving, his muscles dripping sweat. His hairy face wasn't unhandsome, but she wasn't certain she like the look of that calculated gleam in his eye.
”Aya?” he repeated. The G.o.ddess of the dawn herself? Well, that would explain the bright light and the noise she had somehow created. True, the G.o.ds weren't much noted for walking amongst men, but he had, after all, seen Ishtar herself only a few weeks ago. There seemed to be a veritable plague of G.o.ds hereabouts! The door of the strange box opened again, and another figure came out. This was a man, obviously, but like none that he had ever seen before. He was dressed in strange clothes, and carried something in his hand that was certainly not a formidable club.
”And I'm the Doctor,” this newcomer said brightly. ”I do hope we've not dropped in at an inconvenient time?” Enkidu's wits had come back to him now, and he looked from the Doctor to Ace in stupefaction. ”Where did you come from?” he asked.
Gilgamesh laughed. ”Enkidu, you fool, these are G.o.ds! I prayed to Lugulbanda, and the old reprobate actually answered me for once. The pretty one is Aya, G.o.ddess of the dawn. And the weird one must be Shamash, the G.o.d of the sun. Though he hardly looks the part of a warrior G.o.d, to be honest.”
”I'm not a warrior of any kind, really,” the Doctor said, quickly. ”I'm a student, a scholar, a man of learning.”
”Ah!” Gilgamesh grinned at this. ”Ea! G.o.d of wisdom. By the holies, Lugulbanda really answered my prayers, didn't he? You two are just what I need to complete my mission. Light and knowledge!” ”What are you -” Ace began, but the Doctor nudged her in the ribs, and stepped forwards.
”Well,” he said, cautiously, ”If you were to tell us a little bit more about your mission, maybe we might be able to help you.”
Enkidu had had enough of the talking, and he set about salvaging whatever was useful from the bodies lying around the oasis. Gilgamesh laughed, and clapped an arm in comradely fas.h.i.+on about the Doctor's shoulders. The Doctor tried not to wince in pain.
”My companion in arms Enkidu and I were just off into Kish to check out the state of things. We've heard some disturbing stories of strange happenings there of late.”
”Strange happenings?” the Doctor echoed, with wide-eyed innocence.
”Really? Well, I happen to be a bit of an expert in the realm of strange happenings. Maybe Ace and I will pop into Kish with you for a little look, eh?” He lowered his voice in conspiratorial tones. ”There wouldn't happen to be a temple in this city, would there?” ”There are many temples, Ea,”