Doctor Who: The Visitation (5 page)

'Nectar,' he whispered joyously.

Adric watched him. 'What does that stuff taste like?'

'Ambrosia!'

Adric thought for a moment. 'And what does that taste like?'

Mace scowled. Foolish boy, he thought.

While the Doctor and Nyssa continued their inspection of the Soliton machine, Tegan wandered about the cellar. As she drew near to the tiny cages, she heard squeaking.

'Doctor,' she said. 'These cages are full of rats.'

'Don't touch anything,' said the Doctor as he walked over to look.

Tegan screwed up her face in disgust. 'You must be joking. I feel itchy just looking at them.'

Silently and unnoticed, the android descended the stairs, wearing the mask of a grotesque death's-head. Draped in his heavy black cloak, all that it required was a scythe to complete the impersonation of Death, the Great Reaper.

Tegan moved away from the cages to the wine rack, where Richard Mace was struggling to remove the cork from a bottle. As she approached, he turned, proudly displaying his prize, his face covered with a large, silly grin.

Tegan chuckled. 'Don't get too drunk.'

Mace didn't reply. Instead his expression turned to one of horror as he saw the black shape over Tegan's shoulder. Tegan turned to see what had scared him, while the actor started to scream.

'Don't!' the Doctor shouted, seeing Mace draw his pistols. But he was too late. The loud report of the discharged pistols echoed around the room.

The android, undamaged, lifted his hand as though to point. Blind with fear, Mace fled across the cellar and up the steps.

The android turned, his direction and range-finder locked onto the fleeing actor. Just as he fired, Adric leapt onto the android's back, causing the beam of energy to miss its target, but it hit Tegan instead, who immediately collapsed.

'Nyssa, run!' shouted the Doctor.

Confused and uncertain, she hesitated to move. 'What about you?'

'Just get out of here!'

Nyssa ran to the steps while a struggling Adric was effortlessly flicked from the android's back. The boy screamed as he rolled over in the air and struck the stone slabs of the floor. The android then turned towards the Doctor, who was sprinting across the cellar towards the Soliton machine. Again he raised his index finger and prepared to fire as the Doctor flung himself onto the gas unit and groped wildly for the controls.

The android paused as a loud hiss emitted from the machine.

'I don't know if you can understand me,' said the Doctor, climbing down from the Soliton unit, 'but I would like to point out how inflammable Soliton becomes when mixed freely with oxygen.'

Quickly he moved away from the machine and across the floor to Tegan.

Lifting her arm, he felt her pulse: it was erratic. 'If you fire that beam of yours,' he continued, you'll turn this house into an inferno.'

The android lowered his hand and started to move towards the Doctor, forcing him to abandon Tegan and retreat to the cellar steps. Although his trick had worked, the android was still capable of crushing the Doctor in his steel fingers.

Reluctantly the Doctor backed up the stairs, but instead of following, the android side-stepped to the Soliton machine and readjusted the controls. It would take but thirty seconds before the Soliton level dropped sufficiently for the android to use his blaster.

Adric seemed to be recovering. 'I'll be back as soon as I can.' the Doctor shouted. But Adric didn't hear anything as he slipped back into oblivion.

Richard Mace charged into the main hall, wide-eyed with fear and panic. Thrusting his pistols into his waistband, he stumbled across the room, his only thought to get out of the house and as far away as possible.

'Wait,' shouted a breathless voice, but Mace didn't falter. 'Please wait.'

A panting Nyssa tumbled into the room. 'We must help the Doctor.'

'Your Doctor is a dead man!' The actor fumbled with the handle of the door which led to the hallway. 'Did you not see who was in the cellar?' He threw the door open. 'It was Death, the Great Reaper!'

'That's what you're supposed to think.'

'Then what was it?' Mace was not keen to argue with a fool.

'An android, a mechanical man, a machine.'

'Perfectly correct,' said the Doctor, appearing at the landing door behind them.

Mace slowly turned, his terror renewed. 'You are supposed to be dead, sir,' he said, feeling for the reassuring shape of the crucifix under his shirt.

'Not this time.'

'Then your mind is addled! It was Death. You saw the effect my pistols had on him.'

'It takes more than a pair of flintlocks to damage an android.'

'Then there is no place in this house for me.' Mace disappeared into the hallway.

'Let him go, Doctor.'

'We need all the help we can get,' he said, crossing the room. 'Adric and Tegan are hurt.'

But Mace's only interest was getting the front door open.

'Death has them now,' he said over his shoulder. 'There is nothing I can do.' With the bolts released, the heavy door swung open and Mace stepped out into the sunlight.

Nyssa and the Doctor followed.

'If it hadn't been for Adric, you would still be in that cel ar.'

'I am grateful to the boy. But trying to rescue him would be nothing more than a futile gesture.'

Gravel spat from beneath the Doctor's boots as he angrily caught up with Mace and grabbed him by the neck of his leather jerkin, spinning him round.

'Now listen to me!'

'That isn't the way, Doctor,' said Nyssa.

He released the actor. 'I'm sorry,' he said a little awkwardly. 'I didn't mean to do that.'

Mace tugged at his jerkin, attempting to restore both its shape and his dignity. 'I realise how you feel about the boy,' he said at last. 'But I would rather be sealed up in a plague house than go back into that cellar.'

The Doctor ran his fingers nervously through his hair. 'Let me start again,' he said. 'The android, like the ornament around your neck, is not from this planet.'

Mace fingered the trinket. 'But I found it in the barn.'

'As we found this.' The Doctor removed one of the powerpacks from his pocket and held it up. 'That thing you're wearing isn't for adornment. It's part of what is called a control bracelet. A device used on prison planets to control difficult prisoners.'

Mace looked down on the ornament. 'How can this control anyone?'

The Doctor removed the ornament from Mace's neck and inserted the tongue of the powerpack into a small hole on the side of the design. Instantly the bracelet began to pulse. 'If that were on your wrist, you would have lost control of your mind by now.'

Mace laughed in a none-too-convincing way. 'A nonsense! The glow is a conjuring trick.

You forget, sir, I am a man of the theatre. I am not impressed with such trickery, however clever it may be.'

'A trick, eh?' The Doctor disconnected the powerpack and thrust the now harmless ornament into Mace's hand. Holding up the pack, he said, 'Well, this is a piece of conjuring you won't see done for many a year.'

The Doctor twisted the top of the cartridge, causing a massive bolt of electricity to zig-zag to the gravel driveway. Mace leapt backwards, disturbed and uncertain what to believe. 'That's what happens when you discharge a powerpack,' said the Doctor discarding the spent pack. The actor scratched the stubble on his chin.

'Do you still not believe the Doctor?' said Nyssa.

The problem was, Mace didn't trust or believe anyone. He had spent too many years as a confidence trickster himself, both on and off the stage, to believe anyone readily.

'How can that android, as you cal it,' he said at last, 'come from another world? There aren't any. Any fool knows that.'

'There are many worlds in many galaxies...' He paused, noticing Mace's blank expression. The Doctor let out a loud, frustrated groan. 'Why are Earth people so parochial?' He abandoned any hope of being able to reason with Mace. 'Come on, Nyssa, let's go.'

'What about Adric and Tegan?'

'There isn't anything we can do until we have dealt with the android. And as Mr Mace won't help us, we must return to the TARDIS first.'

'For what? We haven't any weapons.'

'We'll try to modify the sonic booster.' His voice lacked confidence. 'If we connect it to the frequency accelerator we may get a high enough pitch to shatter the android's balance cones. We might even vibrate him to pieces.'

Nyssa's expression was fierce. She understood precisely what the Doctor hoped to achieve. She also knew the dangers and the fact that androids were almost indestructible without the correct weapons.

'You cannot afford to improvise against an armed machine,' she shouted angrily.

'What other choice do we have?'

The Doctor turned to Richard Mace, and as a parting gesture, pointed at the ornament around his neck. 'If you meet anyone wearing a bracelet like that, keep well away from them. Especially if it's pulsating.'

'I will.' Mace extended his hand and the Doctor shook it. 'Good luck, Doctor.'

The actor turned and set off across the lawn to the small gate set in the perimeter wall.

Nyssa and the Doctor watched him for a moment.

'Will he be all right?' said Nyssa.

The Doctor nodded. 'Of that I have no doubt.'

Mace opened the gate and disappeared.

'If the sonic booster is to work,' said Nyssa, 'we'll have to get very close to the android.'

But before the Doctor could answer, the well-modulated plummy voice of Richard Mace boomed out from behind the wall. 'Doctor!' The old manor house picked up the urgency in the call and intensified it with a magnificent echo. 'Doctor! Come quickly!'

Tegan's eyelids fluttered as though she were dreaming. Then suddenly she opened them as a sense of contentment and well-being flowed through her body. Gradually her eyes focused. Whether it was seeing the android, or because he pressed the button on a console nearby, she didn't know, but her contentment was instantly replaced by a searing pain in the area of her chest, where the stun beam had hit her.

Tegan struggled to sit up, but found that her wrists and ankles were secured to the large couch on which she was lying. Next to her was Adric, pinioned in a similar fashion.

'Are you all right?' he whispered.

Tegan nodded. 'Where are we?'

'I don't know.'

Although it caused her neck and back to hurt, Tegan momentarily lifted her head, craning to see as much as she could. The glimpse she got suggested they were in a massive computer room. Along one wall was a bank of monitors, most of which displayed indecipherable alien script.

She lifted her head again and looked in another direction. This time she saw a massive console with a myriad of tiny lights winking and flashing.

Facing the console was a large, highback chair which completely hid its occupant. Next to the chair stood the android.

'Wel ?'

Tegan closed her eyes and concentrated on relaxing her neck muscles. 'We're not alone,' she said at last.

Adric struggled to look.

'Remain as you are,' a voice hissed.

'Who said that?' said Adric.

The voice didn't answer. Instead several strange beeping noises were heard and the purple light from the Vintaric crystals was lowered.

Tegan and Adric looked at each other in amazement as a hologram image formed in the air above their heads. As the picture settled, they could see it was the Doctor.

'Who is this man?' the voice hissed.

Adric told him.

'And where does this Doctor come from?' There was a pause. 'I know he is not of this planet,' the voice continued more forcefully.

'That's rubbish,' said Adric.

The voice hissed and wheezed as though already bored with asking questions.

'The Doctor has a sonic device that he used to dismantle the energy barrier. He also has an understanding of the gas known as Soliton.'

'We don't know anything about that,' said Adric.

'You are wearing synthetic garments manufactured by technology unknown on this planet.' The hiss was beginning to verge on a roar. 'I am asking you for the last time: where are you from! Answer or you die!' Such was the tone of voice, Adric and Tegan were left in no doubt that the speaker wasn't bluffing. 'Tell me about your mode of transport,' he roared. 'Tell me now!'