Doctor Who: Dragonfire (8 page)

Most of these old vehicles now floated in junk orbits round small, barren planets. But a few still survived, either conscientiously maintained by careful owners, or bought cheaply by teenagers who couldn't afford the flashy new models.

The Nosferatu was an old Nightcruiser Pacific. Glitz had picked two of them up cheaply twelve years ago, and used spares from one engine to overhaul the other. The cannibalised craft was then involved in a 'tragic'

fire, which netted slightly more for Glitz in insurance compensation than he had originally paid for both craft together. Since then, Glitz and the Nosferatu had never been apart. His crewmen came and went -

mostly went -but the Nosferatu stayed loyally with Glitz. It was not only his transport for getting from place to place, it had also become his home, with his cabin transformed into a

kind of small bachelor pad used for entertaining.

The Nosferatu interior glowed dimly on auxiliary power, as Glitz hurried towards the Flight Cabin. The Doctor would only be able to keep the guard occupied in conversation for a couple of minutes more, and Glitz didn't want to risk being found by the guard if he decided to search the craft.

'Soon be light years away from this place,' he chuckled to himself as he slipped into his seat, and clipped the security belt on.

'I wouldn't touch those controls, if I were you.'

Glitz felt the cold muzzle of Belazs's hand-gun press against his temple.

Glitz froze, and tried to squint sideways at Belazs.

'I thought I gave you seventy-two hours to repay the money you owe? I do hope you're not trying to leave without paying your debts.'

'No. Absolutely not. I just... I just came back here for some necessary equipment. I've got a plan, you see...'

Belazs started to laugh. 'You and your "plans", Glitz! You're an endless source of amusement - do you know that?'

'Well, I try my best.' Glitz joined in the laughter, hoping that Belazs might take her gun away.

Belazs suddenly stopped laughing. 'But you're not being very amusing now! This spacecraft is mine!'

'Here, hang about! The seventy-two hours isn't up yet. You said, if I could get hold of the jumbo, I could have the Nosferatu back.'

'In that case, I shall just have to make sure you don't manage to find the money in time.' Her finger tightened on the trigger of her gun. 'I shall have to make very sure.' She levelled the gun more carefully, and Glitz stiffened.

'Hello! Not interrupting anything, am I?' The Doctor's voice interrupted cheerfully from the hatchway of the Flight Cabin.

Belazs spun round to point the gun at him. 'What are you doing here?' she demanded.

'A very difficult philosophical question. Why is everyone around here so preoccupied with metaphysics? I've just persuaded your friend outside that experience is causal and existence doubtful. He's probably turned himself into a puff of blue smoke by now. But do carry on... don't let me interrupt.' The Doctor gaily waved Belazs back to whatever it was she was about to do with the hand-gun when he came in.

'I think she's going to kill us,' said Glitz nervously.

The Doctor looked at the gun again. 'Ah, an existentialist...'

'Quiet!' commanded Belazs. 'Only one of us can escape from Svartos and Iceworld aboard the Nosferatu -and that's going to be me?

'What about the boss - Mr Kane?' asked Glitz. 'Does he know about this little enterprise of yours?'

'Kane and I are finished. All I'm waiting for is the opportunity.'

'Doesn't strike me as the kind of gent who'll let you run off without so much as an au revoir.'

Belazs turned angrily on Glitz. 'Kane doesn't own me!'

'Oh, I think he does,' disagreed the Doctor, drawing her attention away from Glitz. 'I think he bought you just like he buys everything in Iceworld.'

'What do you know about it?' cried Betezs angrily, as Glitz cautiously began to unfasten his seat belt.

The Doctor saw Glitz, and continued to distract Belazs. 'I think he bought you a long time ago. He paid seventeen crowns each for Glitz's crew. How much did he pay for you?' He saw that Belazs was about to lose her temper, and continued to provoke her. 'How much did you sell yourself for? Was it worth it? Were you worth it?'

Belazs was too angry to notice that Glitz had slipped out of his seat belt as she furiously thrust her palm up at

the Doctor, brandishing the scar. 'That's what I sold myself for! Kane's mark! I should cut my hand off for doing it!'

Glitz seized his moment and threw himself on Belazs. She saw him come at her and tried to turn her gun on him, but he had the edge and pinned her arm down. He wrenched the gun out of her hand, and once he had it secure in his own grasp, he pushed her away. She fell to the ground. Glitz covered her with the gun.

'Go on, then. Kill me!' she cried, through tears of anger and bitterness.

Glitz turned to the Doctor. 'Come on, Doctor. We've got the Nosferatu.

Let's get away from here.'

'No, Glitz. You'd be exactly like her then. Forever in Kane's debt.

Forever wondering if the movement you think you just saw in the shadows is Kane, come to recover his dues. Pay Kane his money. Even if it costs a thousand crowns. Even ten thousand. Pay off the debt.' The Doctor turned to Belazs. 'Your debt to Kane, I don't think you can ever pay off...'

The Doctor turned and left.

Glitz followed. He felt slightly sorry for the woman they left weeping bitterly on the floor.

The mindless crewmen and women descended the Ice Face without slowing down. Where Mel and Ace had struggled with ropes, and Glitz and the Doctor had inched their way from foothold to foothold, their pursuers climbed down as though the Ice Face were a secure ladder.

Wherever they placed their feet, there was a foothold. Wherever they reached their arms, there was a handhold. The razor-sharp ice cut deep into them, but their cold flesh didn't bleed. Like corpses, they staggered onwards. They knew that they were close to the living creatures they must kill.

Ace and Mel were trudging through the gloom of the Ice Passages, but Ace was cheerful. 'My head feels as though I was out on a real bender last night!' she laughed.

'You had a very lucky escape with that nitro,' cautioned Mel.

Ace shrugged. 'You make your own luck in this life.'

Suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks.

'What's the matter?'

'Shh!'

Mel stopped as well.

'Did you hear that?' whispered Ace.

Mel looked round nervously. 'Hear what?'

Ace peered back into the darkness behind them. 'I'm sure I heard something behind us.'

Mel shivered. 'What kind of something?'

'I don't know. Can you see anything?' Ace turned to look into the darkness ahead of them. As she did so, one of the dead-faced crewmen lurched out of one of the side passages behind them. Mel saw it with horror.

'Look out!' she shrieked.

Ace turned to see the huge abomination. Then another one emerged.

Then another one. 'Gordon Bennett!'

Still more crewmen emerged. Mel screamed, but the zombies appeared not to hear. They staggered on down the passage towards Mel and Ace, with murder in their eyes.

Ace looked round wildly. The only escape was forward down the passage. 'Come on, Mel - run!' She pulled Mel's arm, and they both raced off into the dark. The crewmen and women stumbled after them.

Mel and Ace scrambled over the ice boulders as fast as they could.

Behind them, they could hear their pursuers striding over the ice like unstoppable giants. 'They're still behind us! We can't get away!' cried Mel.

Ace felt down to her belt. 'Let's see if they want to argue with a can of deodorant that registers nine on the Richter scale!' But the canisters of nitro were missing. 'The nitro! You've got the nitro, Mel! Throw it!'

The two canisters of nitro were secure in Mel's belt. She pulled them out, and turned back to face the huge crewmen and women. 'Right -

cover your ears!' She pulled the nozzle off one of the cans, as she'd seen Ace do in the Upper Docking Bays, then she tossed it down the passage.

It bounced on the ground and came to rest. The crewmen and women strode towards it with dead faces.

The explosion rocked the passage, and the blast of air knocked Mel and Ace to the ground. Ace's eyes lit up with excitement. 'Mega!' she cried in a whoop of delight. 'Go on, Doughnut - throw the other one!'

Mel was really getting the feel of this now. She pulled the nozzle of the second can off with her teeth, like she'd seen them do with hand grenades in old war movies, and with a broad smile she lobbed it after the first. There was a second huge explosion, which knocked the two women backwards. 'Yeah! Go for it, Doughnut!' shrieked Ace, flat on her back. She rolled onto her side and looked down the passage.

Amidst a cloud of dust, the crewmen and women were lying buried beneath a mound of ice boulders. Smiling, Ace turned to Mel. 'That was well brill!'

Mel was looking down the passage. 'I don't think we're safe yet.' Ace turned to look.

Back down the passage, the crewmen and women were beginning to stir beneath the rubble. Ace couldn't believe it. 'They can't be. Not after two cans of nitro. Throw the rest, Mel! Throw everything!'

"There's none left! That's all there was.'

'Come on, then - let's shift!'

They scrambled to their feet and ran.

The ice was slippery beneath their feet, and they kept crashing to the ground, picking themselves up again, and hurling themselves forward once more. Always they heard the steady crunch of feet following behind, never dropping any further into the distance. Mel turned briefly to see where their pursuers were. As she did so, her feet flew away from under her, and her head smashed against the side wall. She didn't feel any pain. She just saw everything disappear into black - and then nothing...

Ace quickly realised that Mel was no longer running alongside her. She stopped and looked back, and saw Mel lying inert on the ground.

'Doughnut!' She ran back to Mel and dropped down beside her. Blood was running down the side of Mel's head, but she was still breathing.

'Come on! Wake up!' Ace shook Mel. 'Come onV The monotonous crunch of heavy footsteps grew closer in the darkness further up the passage.

Ace looked round in desperation. There were no side passages to hide down - just forwards and backwards. The heavy foosteps crunched closer.

Ace looked frantically up the side walls. About two metres up one of the walls was a deep horizontal crack. Ace didn't know whether it was deep enough to hide in, but there was no alternative. She dragged Mel to the foot of the wall, and tried to haul her to her feet. Mel was petite, but she was still heavy to manhandle. Ace pushed her up the wall, and then kneeled down to get underneath her. She pushed upwards, and slowly Mel's floppy body slid towards the opening. The heavy footsteps grew nearer.

Mel's shoulders over the edge and into the crack. Then she heaved upward and shoved the rest of Mel's body over the edge. Mel herself was out of sight now, but Ace was still visible. Frantically, she looked round for a way of climbing up to the crack herself.

The Doctor's brolly!

She grabbed it out of her shoulder bag, and reached upwards with the handle to a protruding spike of ice. She hooked the handle over the spike and tested her weight on it. It held firm. The murderous crewmen and women were just about visible in the gloom. Ace heaved on the brolly and swung her legs upwards. She kicked her feet into the crack, and threw herself over the edge into darkness. She could see the crewmen and women now. She hurriedly grabbed the brolly and pulled her shoulder bag in with her, then crawled down alongside Mel.

The crewmen and women trudged down the Ice Passage - Ace could see them as she peered over the edge. Closer they lurched. Ace held her breath. They'd reached the point where Mel had fallen, and the first one looked down at the fresh blood on the ground. They were only three metres away from her.

'Doctor...' Mel moaned. The first crewman looked round, uncertain.

Mel began to move.

Ace put her arm tight round Mel's body. She tried to rock Mel silently -

rock her back to sleep.

The crewmen and women shuffled in the passage below. Ace could see the tops of their heads. She held Mel tight in the darkness. Her cheek was pressed against Mel's. She could feel her gentle breathing.

Finally, the crewmen and women lurched on down the passage. Ace watched them as they moved away into the darkness. She listened to their footsteps die away. It seemed to take for ever. When she looked back at Mel's face, Mel had her eyes open.

'What happened?' she asked weakly.

'It's all right, Doughnut,' replied Ace softly in the CHAPTER EIGHT

The Doctor and Glitz found their way blocked by an old bulkhead door midway down one of the Ice Passages. It wasn't sealed closed, but it was stiff from many years' disuse, and the Doctor and Glitz had to heave on it in unison to prise it open. The passage was darker on the other side. The Doctor peered through and then consulted the map. 'I think we go straight on.' He turned the map round the other way.

'Either that, or...' - he turned the map on its side - 'or. we don't.' Glitz cautioned the Doctor to be quiet. The Doctor listened. From the far side of the door, there came a strange sound - a heavy, rasping sound, like the breathing of some kind of giant. Glitz edged forward.

Silently, they stepped through the open bulkhead, and crept down the passage. The rasping sound grew louder. Glitz pulled out the hand-gun he had taken from Belazs and continued to edge forward. They reached a side passage. Glitz peered cautiously round it. There was nothing there. The strange sound was coming from the passage opposite. Glitz threw himself round the corner of the second passage.

Standing directly in front of him was the Creature -huge and terrifying, like the skeleton of a deformed monster. Its jaws seemed to glisten like steel razors, as it reared up and turned on Glitz, and two beams of fire streaked from its glowing red eyes towards him.