Doctor Who: The Devil Goblins From Neptune (34 page)

All right, Doctor,' shouted the Brigadier. 'Let's get going.'

The Doctor turned and ran towards the plane. The Brigadier gave some covering fire, but even so the Doctor ducked instinctively just as a Waro flew overhead, screeching. He collapsed gratefully into the comparative safety of the transport plane, the Brigadier slamming shut the door just as another group of Waro came flapping in their direction.

Then he turned, a worried look crossing his face. 'I don't suppose anyone can fly this thing?'

'But surely that controls the ailerons?'

'My dear Professor, I have flown more aircraft than you've had hot dinners. It's obviously the tail rudder. Anyway, I didn't think you liked flying.'

'That's not the point, and -'

'Now, look here, those controls are clearly labelled

"flaps". I may not have a thousand and one university degrees, but surely -'

'Shut up, all of you!' exploded Liz. She didn't know what was more painful, her throbbing ankle and gashed head, or watching Trainor, the Doctor, and the Brigadier squabbling over the controls of the plane. 'Can we please leave it to the Nedenah? They seem to know what they're doing.'

Silently the Nedenah had moved around the arguing people, flicking switches, correcting their mistakes, and, as far as Liz could see, basically preparing the plane for take-off.

Now they were ready.

The Brigadier looked shamefaced. 'Yes, of course, Dr Shaw. You're quite right. I think I'd be more useful back there with you.'

'Thank you, Brigadier. And, Doctor, hadn't you better protect this plane against the Waro's heat weapons? It would be unfortunate to have come all this way, only to fall at the last hurdle.'

'I was just about to attend to that.' said the Doctor quietly, moving to busy himself with the aircraft's hull. 'Professor?

Can you use my machine, just as I was showing you a moment ago?'

'Of course.' said Trainor, smiling eagerly. 'Ah, here we go.' A Waro landed on the glass of the cockpit, a bomb in one hand. The professor switched on the Doctor's machine, waved it in the general direction of the Waro, and immediately it flew off into the distance, exploding with a muffled bang. 'Let's just hope this gadget doesn't interfere with the controls of the plane, eh, Doctor?'

'My dear fellow... ' began the Doctor, but Liz glared at him, and he lapsed into silence.

Trainor flicked a few switches on the case containing the Doctor's jamming device, which threw a protective blanket around the entire aircraft. Meanwhile the Nedenah expertly steered the Cargo master through the hangar doors, and towards the main runway.

'Looks a trifle damaged.' observed Yates.

'Maybe so, Captain,' said the Brigadier, helping Liz and Shuskin with the Nedenah canister, but landing will be a bonus. Let's just get up there in one piece, and deal with these Waro things.'

'There.' said Liz at last. 'The cylinder is in place. Give me a few minutes, and this plane will be the biggest crop sprayer in the history of aviation.'

Trainor cried out in terror as the Cargo master bounced along the runway, the Nedenah swerving it from side to side to avoid the larger craters.

'You all right, old chap?' queried the Doctor.

Trainor smiled wealdy suppose I ought to be grateful. At least this plane isn't invisible.' He turned as a group of Waro pitched on to the nose of the Cargo master, then flew off again just as quickly.

The aeroplane lurched into the air at a steep angle, and Liz had to push against the cylinder to stop it rolling around in the hold.

Then the plane levelled, and she returned to rigging up the tubes needed to spray the chemical over the Waro.

'How are you doing?' said the Doctor, having again used his sonic screwdriver to protect them from the Waro's heat weapons.

'We're just about ready.'

'Perhaps the Brigadier would like to do the honours?' The Doctor pointed to the valve at the end of the canister of genetic material.

'With pleasure.' said Lethbridge-Stewart.

The C-133 pulled higher into the sky, reaching the top of the cloud of flapping Waro. A fine spray fell from the plane, and its effect on the goblin creatures was almost instantaneous.

Well-ordered ranks fell into squabbling and screaming chaos, and tens, then hundreds, of Waro tumbled from the skies, torn to shreds by their fellows.

The Waro screamed with delight as their old, unfettered bloodlust returned.

'The substance is taking effect.' noted Liz.

'It's like a plague,' observed the Brigadier, his face impassive as he stared out of one of the plane's windows.

The chaos was visibly spreading through the ranks of flying Waro.

'The second stage of the process will begin soon.' said one of the Nedenah. 'The metabolism of the Waro will increase. Their pulse rates will double, then triple.'

The Doctor turned away from the window. don't enjoy being a witness to Armageddon, Brigadier. But the Waro have only themselves to blame. They found a way of controlling their self-destructiveness, but only used that to externalise their rage.'

Liz was surprised. 'In Siberia you said that the Waro were born violent - that they could no more change their behaviour than I could change the number of arms I have.'

The Doctor looked down sadly. 'Perhaps I was being simplistic. Perhaps we all have our choices to make - and enough bad choices become ingrained as character. But a bad character is much more difficult to redeem than a single bad decision.'

Liz couldn't help but glance at Trainor, still breathing heavily from all the excitement, wrapped up in his own thoughts.

Whatever, I must say the destruction of the Waro force here on Earth brings me little satisfaction.' the Doctor continued.

'But the Earth is safe.' said Yates.

The Doctor nodded. 'Of course, and I'm -'

There was a loud explosion towards the rear of the Cargo master, and the plane began to nose-dive. As the Doctor, Liz, and the others clung on as well as they could, a Nedenah made its way carefully out of the cockpit. 'One of the Waro penetrated the Doctor's shielding.' The voice carried no hint of panic. 'A suicide mission. It carried a large bomb. Most of the tail section is gone.'

'Then we're done for!' moaned Trainor.

'Perhaps.' said the Nedenah, smiling.

The C-133 came down steeply, belching fire from the tail section. The undercarriage was jammed, and the blunted nose took the brunt of the impact, thudding into sand and then rock.

The plane skidded across the desert for some seconds, burrowing its fuselage deeper and deeper until eventually it could no longer withstand the pressure, and the entire craft split in two. There was another explosion, a flower of brightness in the desert, as one of the fuel tanks ruptured.

Above the wrecked plane, the sky was at last beginning to clear.

The Brigadier pulled himself painfully to his feet. One eye refused to open, and when he put his hand to his head, it came away sticky with blood.

He saw a huddled body, curled beneath a protective pillar of metal.

'Well, Professor,' said Lethbridge-Stewart, walldng over.

Two crashes in one day should be statistically impossible, so the chances of anything happening on the flight home are -'

The Brigadier stopped. Something was wrong.

'Dr Shaw!' he shouted.

Liz hobbled over, saw Trainor's body, and dropped to her knees. She checked for a pulse at his wrist and his neck, placed a hand over his grey lips, listened to his chest.

When she looked up, her eyes were streaked with tears.

'He's had a heart attack.' she said in a quiet voice. 'Even with the right equipment, I'm not sure I could do anything.'

The Brigadier rested a hand on her shoulder. 'I'm sorry.

Had it not been for -'

Suddenly Liz grabbed Trainor's lapels and screamed into his dead face. 'Why did you have to go now? Why did you have to go when I hate you!' She collapsed, sobbing, on top of the corpse. 'You stupid, selfish bastard.'

Thanks to the skill of the Nedenah, the other occupants of the Cargo master were able to pull themselves from the wreckage and walk away.

The Brigadier, Shuskin and Yates stood with the surviving UNIT soldiers close to Trainor's body, watching as the dark cloud overhead began to fade.

Liz and the Doctor sat on a small rise, their back to the wrecked plane. While the Nedenah walked calmly through sand in the direction of their own craft, the Doctor spoke in shocked whispers, his words only just audible above the screams of the dying Waro.

An hour later, the desert was silent.

FIRST EPILOGUE:

NO WIN SITUATION

'I hear the South American situation is worsening,' said the Brigadier gravely. He turned to the Doctor, and found him absentmindedly throwing bread to the ducks in the lake. said

-'

'Yes.' said the Doctor, looking up. 'And I suspect it will get worse before it gets any better. Much worse.'

A walk in the park had seemed a ridiculous idea at first, but Lethbridge-Stewart felt curiously liberated, the horror of recent events beginning to fade. There were worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon off duty. 'I don't know what the world's coming to.' he said with a resigned grin.

'Wish I could help you, old chap, really I do.' replied the Doctor, brushing crumbs from his trousers. 'But the future's as much of a mystery to me as it is to you. One of the things my people took from my memory, along with how to get off this planet of yours!'

The anger in the Doctor's voice surprised the Brigadier.

It's not that bad, surely?'

The Doctor paused for a long time. 'No.' he said finally. 'It isn't. The planet has potential. If only you humans wouldn't go around killing each other so much.'

The Brigadier walked along the path surrounding the small boating lake. On the opposite bank a child was riding his bicycle, supported on either side by proud parents. The Brigadier noticed the Doctor watching the scene with detached curiosity. always thought you said this was your favourite planet.' he observed.

The Doctor nodded, plunging his hands deep into the pockets of his voluminous coat. July was proving cold and strangely bitter. 'But there must be a better way for humanity to conduct its affairs.' he said. On the opposite side of the lake, the boy's bike wobbled alarmingly as his parents took their hands from his back for a second, then stabilised as they steadied him again.

'We've been saying that for years.' said the Brigadier.

'My point in a nutshell. Things must change.'

They walked back towards the main road, passing a group of boys playing football, their jumpers thrown down as goal posts. Another set of children, by the wrought-iron railings, were in the middle of a game of British Bulldog. The Brigadier looked at them fondly. It was all so simple back then.

'How was your meeting with the Prime Minister?' asked the Doctor.

'Went very well! The Brigadier laughed. 'You know, he's not a bad chap, for a Liberal.'

'And the UN investigation of UNIT?'

'Just started. Hayes is refusing to talk, but some of the traitors have already been identified. US HQ is moving to Washington DC, and most of the Geneva paperwork has been recovered. But the CIA aren't saying a dickie bird. The Americans are protecting them, pretending nothing happened.'

'Somebody is protecting the CIA.' the Doctor noted. 'But there's more going on there than meets the eye.' He glanced at the Brigadier, but the veiled warning seemed to have gone unnoticed.

'I must say,' said the Brigadier, 'Those Nedenah fellows were very thorough. The American military combed the desert around the air force base, and didn't find a scrap of alien technology.'

'Do you think they'd admit anything to you if they had?'

'Well.' said the Brigadier, determined not to swamped by the Doctor's pessimism 'I still say they did jolly well. Surprised to see them disappearing like that, at the end, but I don't suppose you can blame them. And the Waro were defeated.

That's the most important thing.'

It's a hollow victory for UNIT,' said the Doctor. 'There are still spies to be found. Still games to be played.'

The Brigadier reached down to pick up a discarded crisp packet, which he rolled into a ball thoughtfully. 'You know, I still don't understand what Rose hoped to achieve. The CIA are just idiots who think they're at war with the rest of the world. Hayes was misguided. Trainor was simply duped. But Rose? It seems he knew what was going to happen.'

'Indeed.' said the Doctor. 'Never underestimate people's desire for change. Rose was so disillusioned with humankind that he wanted Earth wiped clean, so that life could begin again. The Waro were his instruments.'

'Doctor,' said the Brigadier suddenly, dropping the crisp packet into a plastic rubbish bin near the park entrance, know an excellent Chinese restaurant just a couple of miles from here. Would you do me the honour of allowing me to take you to lunch?'

'Yes,' said the Doctor, brightening at last. 'I'll even let you pay.'

Yates, Benton, and Shuskin sat in the lounge of the Barley Mow, drinking pints of Newcastle Brown and saying little.

Shuskin was to return to her regiment the next day, and it had been revealed that Hayes had been behind the decision to place her in charge of UNIT Of course, the return of the Brigadier had rendered that decision null and void, but Mike Yates was relieved to hear that the command that had so angered him was, in itself, tainted by the conspiracy.

'Curious weather we are having.' Shuskin said to no one in particular.

'Yes.' replied Benton. 'Brass monkey's, isn't it? That was the English summer, that was. A week and a bit in June!'

Yates grunted something noncommittal into his pint and stared out of the window.

Benton stood. If you'll excuse me, sirs, I must see a man about a dog, if you know what I mean.'

Once he was gone a moody silence settled over the table. 'I think that you dislike me intensely,' said Shuskin eventually. 'I'm sorry?'