Authors: Glen McCoy

Tags: #Science-Fiction:Doctor Who

Doctor Who: Timelash (12 page)

BOOK: Doctor Who: Timelash

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‘Ah, well -’

Herbert didn’t want to hear any more. He walked briskly to the Time Lord and give him a firm handshake.

‘It was nice knowing you, Doctor. Really. If I have to sacrifice my life to save a planet’s population from extinction, then I am pleased to die by your side.’

The Doctor removed his fob watch, reading from the sweeping seconds-hand, then snapped it shut.

‘Three seconds,’ he announced grimly.

An almighty explosion turned the stratosphere in Karfel’s heavens a bright shade of pink. All present in the Inner Sanctum witnessed the event with surprise. Quite soon Katz saw the Bandril fleet stop their approach and she realised along with the others that the attack had been aborted. Mykros and Vena danced around the room as Sezon breathed an exaggerated sigh of relief. The frenzy spread as Peri too shook hands with one and all.

The repeated call signal from the diplomatic channel was eventually answered by a buoyant Mykros.

‘This is the Bandril ambassador.’

‘Hallo, Ambassador. Thank you for believing us and terminating your missile.

There was a pause.

‘We didn’t.’ A rapid silence replaced the joyous sounds that had filled the chamber. ‘It was the Doctor’s unselfish act that caused the missile to be deflected from its target, but I must tell you that it was a direct hit. Our trackers confirm this.’

Peri was stunned, tears welling up in her eyes and streaming down her cheeks.

‘May I suggest we send a diplomatic party down? There is much to discuss,’ continued the ambassador.

Mykros gave his instant agreement to the request, stabbing at the communication button. Katz and Vena rallied support and their commiserations to Peri, but she rejected all attempts at consolation, walking off into a corner to sit and pull herself together.

Sezon ordered a handful of his group to tidy themselves up to meet the Bandril diplomats. A reception with their neighbours was last entered into fourteen years ago, and history was about to be made.

Vena and Mykros were lost. So long had they accepted instructions that the prospect of sudden freedom and leadership took them by surprise. Mykros was the obvious choice for a temporary Maylin before democratic elections could be held once more, while Katz contented herself with the prospect of returning to her administrative job.

She had an inkling that the department she would return to would somehow be a little more challenging. Perhaps Karfel’s defence forces?

A stertorous cry, promptly muffled, originated from Peri’s corner. The others looked back to see Peri’s ugly predicament and Vena held a hand over her mouth in horror. Mykros instantly recognised the grotesque shape holding Peri at bay. It was the Borad.

‘Katz, quick, fetch me a blaster,’ he cried.

‘I wouldn’t bother,’ grated the yawping voice of the half-Karfelon mutant. ‘Not if you want Peri to stay alive.’

Peri squealed as the monstrosity tightened his iron grip across her mouth, forcing Mykros to warn the others not to move or interfere. ‘I thought you were dead, Borad.’

‘So did I.’ Everyone turned round. It was the Doctor. He bounced into the chamber full of life, to the enormous joy of everyone except Peri who was a little tied up with another matter. Mykros, delighted to see the Time Lord, stepped aside to let the Doctor through.

Double Trouble

Peri’s face reddened as she gasped for air. The Doctor paced gingerly forward until he did not dare go any further.

‘You have made a remarkable recovery, Borad,’ said the Doctor, evaluating the mutant threatening his assistant’s life.

‘The trouble with clones, Doctor, is that they never seem to enjoy the same mental attributes as their original counterparts,’ rasped the Borad.

The Time Lord smirked. ‘Your clone fell for the double bluff and my Kontron crystal remarkably easily, I must admit.’ The Doctor looked into the Borad’s evil eyes.

‘Though it says little for your courage, sending a clone in your place!’

Peri squealed in reaction to the Borad’s displeasure at the inferred statement being made.

‘Simply a ruse, Doctor, nothing more. Besides I am standing before you now.’

‘With the situation as it stands, I do believe you are, you miserable mutation.’ The Borad grunted at the Doctor’s change of attitude, and also became aggressive.

‘In two minutes the girl dies.’

‘Impossible, Borad. I can’t accept that.’

‘In two minutes the girl dies,’ he repeated.

The Doctor paced the floor. ‘After you tried to turn her into your female counterpart? Do you want her for your bride, or simply dead?’

‘I want you to destroy the diplomatic ship when it lands, or I will be agreeing to your latter question, Doctor.’

Mykros strode forward to confer with the Doctor. He stressed the consequences of such an act, but the Doctor knew only too well: a reversal of the situation and another bendalypse warhead targeted on the Karfel people.

‘It’s madness, Doctor,’ declared Katz, keeping her eyes on the creature as she edged forward. ‘Why have a war?

What’ll it achieve?’

The Time Lord backed off but resumed his attention to the Borad.

‘Let me tell you all, since I suspect your former ruler -

and I stress former - is too pompous to enlighten you himself. Firstly, the annihilation of all Karfelons gives this mad monster an empty land to rule. Secondly, this allows him to repopulate it with beings not dissimilar to himself.

Thirdly, he then has no reason to hide himself away.

Fourthly, his advances in time would give him power to beat the Bandrils and most other civilisations in this part of the galaxy. The thing is, he’ll never achieve any of it as long as he has a half-green snout and a tail between his legs.’

Vena announced the departure of the Bandril ship from its mother craft which was orbiting the planet. This was a cue for the Borad to demand action to his request. His plan was to charge the leading pad with explosives and set a trembler for auto-detonation as soon as the craft made contact with the landing jetty.

‘We can’t do this, Doctor,’ cried Mykros. ’As much as I like Peri, we are committing suicide if the diplomats are killed!’

The Bandril scout craft carrying the ambassador and three other diplomats could be seen as a speck in the sky from the landing pad. Sezon and his comrades packed the area with explosives, setting three trembler switches as instructed. Sezon reported back on his communicator that everything had been carried out as instructed.

In a few minutes the craft would be touching down.

The Doctor had to play the hand he was planning, though things were in a delicate state of equilibrium. The Time Lord knew too well that a squeeze of the Borad’s ugly claw could produce the effect of asphyxia in seconds.

‘So Borad, the charges are set. Now release Peri.’

‘I’m no fool, Doctor, despite what you may think, and I must remind you that you are not addressing a clone either.’

The Doctor swiftly picked up on that very remark. ‘Glad to hear it. This ensures the next point I make strikes the target it’s aimed at.’ Picking up a council chair, the Time Lord advanced with it.

‘No closer, Doctor. If you try and throw that at me, you may as well say goodbye to Peri right now ...’

Their task at the landing pad accomplished, Sezon and his colleagues had now entered the chamber and witnessed the events with concern. Holding the chair above his head with a bit of a struggle, the Doctor threw the object sideways, against the wall, where some of the plaster had been shot away by the previous battle. Sheets of wall-covering splintered and cascaded into hundreds of pieces, revealing a giant mirror that had been bricked up on the Borad’s own instructions.

The shock of the mutant seeing himself in the mirror as he really was allowed Peri to break free from his grasp, leaving the large mass of mixed origin cowering from his own reflection.

The Doctors signalled Mykros to activate the Timelash as the Time Lord approached the miserable creature.

‘Your reign of terror is over, Borad,’ taunted the Doctor, pushing the disfigured mass nearer and nearer to the vortex behind him. ‘Nobody loves you, nobody needs you, nobody cares!’ With his entire weight and strength, the Doctor rammed the Borad with all the might his body could muster, knocking his opponent off balance and sending him reeling into the Timelash itself.

A discordant yowl faded away as the time corridor consumed the repulsive malformed entity, never to be seen again.

The Doctor didn’t have to say a word to Mykros who opened the communication frequency to the descending Bandril ship. He warned the craft to land elsewhere and not use the pad, due to a malfunction. The Bandrils accepted the change of plan and made a new heading for a landing on the flat area on the other side of the Citadel.

‘We’ll send a welcome party to meet you, Ambassador,’

breathed Mykros, very relieved.

Peri rushed to the Doctor, a bright red mark still leaving its impression on her fair complexion around her mouth.

‘What was
that
, Doctor?’ she asked, rubbing her bruised neck.

‘An accident that I hope will never happen again.’ The Time Lord turned to Mykros. ‘Destroy the clones in the freeze-chambers by blasting a hole in the temperature control units.’

Mykros nodded and left to attend to it. Peri and the Doctor manned the Timelash controls. ‘Now to do what I have been itching to do since we first had the misfortune to bump into this infernal corridor.’

‘Is it held together by any specific material, Doctor?’

The Doctor and Peri turned to see Herbert filling the last page of his notebook. Too engrossed to reply, the Time Lord set the controls on overload, bidding everyone to take cover. A burst of sparks together with a small explosion wrecked the entire box of tricks, making the vortex inoperable.

‘I’m sure you’ll see it’s dismantled, Sezon.’

‘It’ll be a pleasure, Doctor.’

Peri could sense that it was time to move on. Things seemed tied up quite nicely, and it would be foolish to expect to stay and relax. Her thoughts however had been read for once. The Doctor invited her to enjoy a quiet holiday in the highlands of Scotland.

‘But isn’t that where you’ve sent the Borad, Doctor?’

‘Same place, different time. I wouldn’t worry about him.

He’s got a set of flippers and he does like water. He’ll not harm anyone either.’

Peri’s mind was working overtime. ‘Surely people will see him?’

The Doctor grinned wryly. ‘From time to time ...’

‘And tell me how you escaped being blasted by the missile, Doctor.’

At one point it seemed as if the Time Lord was going to hold back on his tale, but he eventually enlightened the curious Peri.

‘A neat trick. I turned the TARDIS’s polarity into a field of negative energy. So much so that the bendalypse warhead was attracted to us, not the planet.’

Peri’s question still remained.

‘The reason we survived is because Herbert and I time-slipped one hour. When the missile hit, we were simply not there. Since a bendalypse only kills life form, no damage was done on point of impact.’

Herbert was the next to make an announcement. He had decided, after a great deal of thought, that he should like to live on Karfel. Sidetracked by Vena, he wandered off to organise his new life, leaving the Doctor highly amused.

‘Will you let him stay, Doctor?’ asked Peri.

‘The waves of time wash us all clean.’

Peri nudged the Doctor who often infuriated her with his riddles. This time he was quick to explain, producing a calling card from his waistcoat pocket. He showed it to Peri, who could not believe her eyes.

‘Herbert dropped this just now, when we dived for cover.’

Peri beamed: ’You mean?’

‘The very same. Somehow, I feel that Herbert will be persuaded to return. He’s got such an exciting story to tell.’

‘I can see how he’ll do it too.’

Travelling with the Doctor would inevitably produce the odd surprise and sparkling reward. This time Peri had met someone really special. His card confirmed it.

She looked at it again:

HERBERT GEORGE WELLS.

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