Doctor Who: The Visitation (9 page)

'He isn't here to harm us.'

'How can you be so sure?'

'If he were, we would be dead already.'

Although unable to speak, the android made it very clear that they should follow him.

Slowly Mace walked towards the hole.

There were raised voices in the stable. Someone shouted, 'Quickly! The warlocks are escaping.'

Rapidly the bolts were drawn and the harness-room door thrown open. Expecting to see the Doctor and Mace, the villagers were greeted instead by the android, his massive body filling the doorframe.

'Death!' screamed the man in the smock. 'The warlocks have summoned up Death.'

The villagers turned and fled from the stable, screaming, tripping, scrambling, falling over themselves in their panic.

Thankful to have escaped the bloodthirsty villagers, it was nevertheless with heavy hearts that the Doctor and Richard Mace fol owed the android out of the stable.

The walk through the woods should have been enjoyable. The late afternoon sun was still pleasant and warm. Smoke from the purification fires hung in the trees, as though undecided where to go next. Birds sang, as a very slight breeze rustled their feathers. It was as though Nature had decided to show herself at her best, to convince those who had time to consider such things that she was capable of creating more than plague, fear and violent death. But the Doctor and Richard Mace were among those too preoccupied to appreciate the gesture.

They trudged on, supervised by the android, through undergrowth, along paths and across small clearings, until they finally came to the Terileptil's escape pod. Then on through the side gate, across the lawn and up the crunchy, gravel path. But they did not go to the front door. Instead they were directed around the west side of the house, then right again, to the tradesmen's entrance, where the miller's wagon was waiting.

The long corridor that led to the cellar was dark after the sunlit wood. It also smelt of Soliton gas. Their journey was almost over.

In the cellar Tegan continued to pack the last of the ampoules into a reinforced carrying case, the bracelet on her wrist pulsing in rhythm with her heart. She did not even look up, her concentration fixed solidly on her task, when the cellar door opened and Mace and the Doctor stumbled in.

'Tegan!' shouted the Doctor, relieved to see she was safe.

She turned towards him as he descended the stairs, her expression blank, as though her personality, her very essence, had been drained out of her.

'Yes?' she said.

The Doctor was almost alongside her. 'Concentrate,' he shouted. 'You can over-ride the effect of the bracelet. Concentrate hard!' He reached out and started to shake her. 'Get back to the TARDIS and tell Nyssa what's happened.'

Her empty face stared back.

'You must concentrate on what I'm saying.' Her eyelids started to flicker, but whether she had understood, the Doctor was not to find out, as the android gently but firmly pushed him on.

As they approached the far end of the cellar, the camouflaged energy barrier dissolved, revealing the Terileptil's laboratory beyond. Richard Mace stared at the hole, his desire to understand and exploit the illusion but a distant memory. How could so much happen in one day? he thought.

'You'd better prepare yourself for a shock,' the Doctor whispered.

Horrified, Mace turned to the Doctor.

'Now what?' he croaked.

'I don't think you'll have seen anything quite like a Terileptil before.'

The Doctor was right.' The Terileptil Leader stood just over seven feet tall, with the immediate appearance of a massive bipedal reptile. His head was not unlike that of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, only smaller and with a shorter snout. But any thought of the head containing a dinosaur's pea-size brain would have been dispel ed by one glimpse of the lively, intelligent, magenta eyes. Instead of hair, the crown of the head was covered with tiny, flat orange fins, which continued down the back of his neck, where they grew thicker, swelling out where they met the finely scaled epidermis like a ruff. Although everything was totally alien about the Terileptil, there was a strange beauty about him.

His lean, graceful features were arrogant and proud. Even to Richard Mace's tired, bewildered mind, the Terileptil carried himself with great authority and dignity, which made him appear overwhelming rather than terrifying.

'Are you all right?' whispered the Doctor. Mace nodded as the Terileptil strutted up to them. 'How do you do? I'm the Doctor,' he said affecting a totally false note of confidence. 'Are you in charge here?'

'You will remain silent,' hissed the Leader.

'Sorry. It's just that I'm rather concerned about a couple of friends I had to leave here,'

the Doctor continued, trying to sound chatty. 'I've just seen Tegan, but I would like to know that the boy Adric is safe.'

'I have no interest in your friends.'

'That's unfortunate. Because our original purpose in coming here was to help you.'

'Help?' the Terileptil's voice was harsh and disbelieving. 'You would help a Terileptil?'

'To get back to his home planet, yes.'

The Leader let out a long, loud hissing roar. Simple reflex response to the sound propelled Mace one step backwards.

'You must think me a fool,' said the Leader.

'Not at all.'

'Look at me, Doctor.' The Terileptil lowered his own head as he pulled the Doctor towards him. 'Do you see this?'

Up until that moment the Leader had allowed no more than a three-quarter view of his face. He now turned to reveal, on the left side, a large carbuncle-like growth and heavy scarring that covered his whole cheek.

'This disfigurement is not natural to my physiognomy,' said the Leader.

'There is only one place in the universe I could have received such scarring: the Tinclavic Mines of Raaga. And to be sentenced to Raaga is always to be sentenced for life.'

He released the Doctor and pushed him back.

'Ah,' said the Doctor awkwardly. 'I should have guessed. But Terileptian law was never my strong point.'

'But you understand now? I am a fugitive, Doctor. The last place I wish to go is home.'

The Terileptil strutted away.

'I can see your point, but there are countless uninhabited planets where you could settle. You don't need to stay on Earth.'

'You imagine we would condemn ourselves to a primitive life without grace or beauty,'

the Leader hissed.

'You're highly intelligent. You have your android, your skills. Your way of life wouldn't be primitive for long.'

The Leader snorted, as though in contempt.

'I can take you anywhere you want,' the Doctor continued. 'A billion light years from your home planet. You'd never be found.'

'No, Doctor.' The Terileptil's magenta eyes stared down at him. 'A barren rock in space without a ship is not an acceptable alternative. Especially when offered by someone who is my prisoner and their ship is for the taking.'

'You didn't look after your own ship very well. I gather its break-up made a very impressive spectacle.'

Slowly the Terileptil turned on the Doctor, the fins on the back of his neck gently rippling. The Doctor had said the wrong thing. Even if he hadn't known the significance of the fins, the way they moved now said it all. The Leader was very angry.

'It cost the lives of all but myself and three comrades.'

'There are only four of you?' Although the Doctor's tone was basically one of surprise, the hint of relief was too strong for the Leader to leave it unchallenged.

'It will please you to learn that we are now but three,' he snarled. 'But it is enough!'

'Against the millions who already live here?' The Doctor's response was now urgent.

'You'll never be able to establish yourself on this planet.'

The Leader's fins began to settle as he crossed to the control-bracelet console. 'You are assuming we plan to coexist.'

There was a nasty pause.

'Genocide?' the Doctor said slowly.

Never having heard the word before, Mace turned to the Doctor confused.

'The primitives on this planet are too aggressive and wilful,' the Leader bel owed before Mace could speak. 'We have little need for them, especially now we have your TARDIS.'

'That won't help you!' said the Doctor angrily. 'And you'll find their elimination far more difficult than you think.'

The Doctor found he was wagging his finger at the Leader like an angry schoolteacher might at a difficult class of children. He felt silly and even more frustrated because he had been reduced to such a ridiculous gesture.

Richard Mace was less inhibited. 'This thing is talking of mass murder!' he shouted.

The Doctor grabbed the actor's arm as he started to move towards the Terileptil. 'This is not the time to become heroic,' he warned.

'Heroic!' Mace bellowed. 'Do not humour me, sir!' he said, breaking away from the Doctor.

The Leader stared down at Mace. 'Is he a primitive?' His question was directed towards the Doctor which only added to the actor's annoyance.

'Primitive! Primitive!' he shouted. 'There is nothing primitive about me, sir!'

Such was the dignity the actor managed to get into such a banal statement, the Doctor almost wanted to cheer.

'So much pride', the Terileptil said contemptuously, 'in something so stupid!'

The Leader reached for his blaster. 'I should destroy you now.'

'Let me see you try!' Mace shouted as he rushed at him. But his gesture was in vain.

Effortlessly he was flicked away with such force that he stumbled and fel on the floor in a crumpled heap.

'Fit the primitive with a bracelet,' the Leader said to his android. Instantly the order was obeyed.

'It won't all be as easy as that,' the Doctor said pointing to Mace. 'He is only one untrained man. What will you do when they send thousands of their soldiers against you?'

The Leader curled back his thick upper lip and exposed a row of beautifully even teeth.

'You are right, Doctor.' The Terileptil was, in fact, smiling. 'We cannot fight as warriors,'

he said triumphantly, 'but I have already devised a plan that will make that unnecessary.'

'How?'

'You will find out, Doctor... before you die!'

Nyssa tentatively attached a magnetic drone to the booster. She wasn't happy. She had already exceeded her knowledge and was now working blind. This wouldn't have concerned her so much if the successful completion of her work hadn't been so urgent.

Adric entered carrying a carbon rod. 'Is this what you want?'

'Yes.'

Nyssa took it from him, flicked open the drone and inserted the rod.

'Is that it?'

'No,' said Nyssa. 'There are several fine adjustments to make...' She paused, looking somewhat dejected. 'To be honest, I'm not sure how to make them.'

'I knew it!' Adric crossed to the door. 'I'm going to find him,' he said and disappeared into the corridor.

'Please Adric!' Nyssa ran after him. 'What happens if you get lost?'

Adric didn't answer as he pushed open the console-room door, crossed to the scanner-screen control and operated it.

'You say you're concerned about Tegan,' said Nyssa as she followed him into the room.

'We can't help her without the Doctor's knowledge. It's dangerous to try and do anything without consulting him first'

'So you keep saying. That's why I'm going to fetch him.'

Nyssa was beginning to get angry. 'No!'

Adric flicked a switch and watched as the image on the screen panned round.

The woods, bathed in a yellow glow from the setting sun were deceptively quiet and beautiful.

'Have you not considered', said Adric as the image came to rest, 'that the Doctor might be in trouble.' He looked pointedly at Nyssa. 'He has been gone a long time.'

'He is quite capable of looking after himself.'

Adric operated the door-opening mechanism. 'That's the impression he always likes to give.'

Nyssa continued to argue, explaining her fears, appealing to his reason with as many arguments as she could muster. Even the reminder that the woods were full of hostile villagers didn't deter him. At last she relented and said, 'Where will you go?'

'To the mill.'

'Then you'll need this.'

She removed a torch from her tool box and checked to see that it was in working order.

'Take care,' she said, handing it to him.

Adric smiled awkwardly and left.