Doctor Who: Timelash (9 page)

‘It flashes back to you, Doctor,’ declared Herbert triumphantly.

‘That’s what it’s supposed to do,’ said the Doctor.

‘Haven’t put one of these together since time school on Gallifrey.’

Katz and Sezon drew closer to see the ultimate experiment. Adjusting the base of the crystal chain, the Doctor sat perfectly still. Then Mykros and Herbert jumped a mile when they were nudged by some unseen force. Katz moved to touch the Doctor in his trance-like state, only to see her hand pass right through him. Then his image stood up and thrust his hand towards Mykros and Herbert. Returning to his seat he turned off the Kontron device. The Doctor was well pleased.

‘Come on, Doctor,’ said Vena, quite taken with what she’d witnessed. ‘What was that about?’

‘A ten second rime loop,’ he declared triumphantly. ‘I can send my image ten seconds back in time, leaving my real self totally undetected.’

‘Fantastical!’ raved Herbert, scribbling furiously. ‘It’s science -’ He paused. ‘Yet fiction.’

‘Highly factual,’ huffed the Doctor who moved on to the hand-weapon he had constructed.

‘But how will all this help us, Doctor?’ complained Sezon, whose rather brash down-to-earth manner began to raise its ugly head again.

‘The Kontron gun we’ll use against the first android that comes in here. Perhaps the effect will put off others from moving in. And we’ve got enough blasters to put a fair fight.’

Katz then had a thought: ‘That Kontron gun, Doctor, what will it do to its target?’

‘Ignite it by pure energy and send it back in time by about one hour, though I can’t vouch for the location yet.’

Katz’s spine tingled. She turned to Sezon, who smiled with the same notion. ‘The burning android when we rescued Peri from the Morlox,’ he beamed.

The Doctor raised one eyebrow. ‘Nice to know that it will actually work.’

A burst of time-energy began to eat a hole in the giant doors of the Inner Sanctum Chamber. The rebels darted for cover pointing their weapons towards the disintegrating portals. The Doctor rapidly put his Kontron gun together and set it up as the first wave of guardoliers entered to take a burst of blaster fire. Several were hit in the crossfire, including one of Sezon’s team. A heated struggled ensued, the Doctor biding his time despite the pleas of Herbert to fire on the advancing Citadel troops.

Below the fury, deep in the recesses of the Borad’s vault, the ruler of Karfel too had spotted the group of Bandril battle cruisers approaching the planet, preparing to destroy the Karfelon inhabitants.

‘Excellent,’ he wheezed. ‘Soon the only living things on this planet will be the Morloxes and myself.’

8

‘
Fire!
’ bellowed Herbert in a state of frenzy as he saw an android enter the beseiged chamber. Calmly the Doctor primed the Kontron gun and pointed it directly at the robotic shape. A bolt of light shot out of the Kontron gun finding its strike position deep within the fabricated chest of the Borad’s slave. Instantaneously the artificial shell of the android burned vigorously, causing the entire unit to disintegrate. Within seconds, it had dematerialised.

Peri screamed her lungs out as she was roughly manacled once more, this time to a post in front of a Morlox cave.

The penetrating roar of the creature could be heard within, and quite soon the Doctor’s assistant would again be face to face with salivating jaws and the fiersome flared nostrils of a carnivore.

The fighting continued, and Sezon was hit by a ricochet shot, though not too seriously. A further blast hit a spot just above the Doctor’s head, sending plaster in every direction. Underneath a mural could be seen a painting of the Doctor in a previous incarnation - a white-haired figure sporting a frilly shirt and a fine velvet jacket.

Herbert looked puzzled, but the Doctor had no time to go into the laws of regeneration.

‘I wonder,’ posed the Time Lord, scratching at another piece of the crumbling wall still under crossfire.

‘What?’ yapped Herbert, with his head crouched low.

‘Not now, I’ve got to get to the Borad.’

‘But what about the invasion force?’

‘Borad first, them a close second.’

With that, the Doctor called to Katz and Mykros for cover, and took his chance, darting out of the chamber. As usual, Herbert wasn’t far behind, and the pair headed for the vault below the Citadel.

The Borad was busy taking stock of things. Before him stood Tekker and Kendron, summoned because of their failure to contain the rebels. The loss of a prize android was also a matter not be taken lightly.

‘I am pleased to say I know how the rebels managed to put up a fight, Borad.’

‘Indeed?’ he retorted crossly.

‘Kendron,’ Tekker gesticulated to the councillor at his side. ‘He betrayed us by helping the rebels and the Doctor.

I’m sorry it has taken so long to flush him out, but he has been unbelievably cunning.’

Kendron stammered in his own defence, but could not utter enough to save his life. A merciless beam of time-accelerated energy tore into the Karfelon’s body, invigorating his inner cells to grow old rapidly. Kendron aged to senility and beyond, to a skeletal shape and further on, finally falling to the floor in a pile of smouldering dust.

Tekker exhaled with relief. He has escaped the wrath of his leader, and lived to fawn again.

The Borad turned his attention to a large screen where Peri faced a chained Morlox. He fingered the ‘release’

control on the arm of his chair, then restrained his temptation to use it.

‘The Doctor should be here soon, there’s time enough.’

Tekker was far from clear about the girl’s fate and the significance of his master’s words, but he didn’t question.

Instead he took his position in the half-light to welcome the Time Lord on arrival.

The Doctor was far from pleased. ‘Herbert, in your next life you’d make a wonderful golden retriever.’

‘Sorry, Doctor, just thought I could help.’

‘I’m sure you think this is one big adventure to be savoured and enjoyed.’

Herbert was tempted to answer ‘yes’ but thought better of it.

‘Well, it’s not. The highlight of your visit to Karfel could be a burial in space - with you playing the central part.’

Herbert took the hint, and began to walk back to the Inner Sanctum, but he was stopped.

‘Come on, I’m sure I can find something to keep you occupied. I don’t want you picked up by guardoliers - it’s bad enough losing Peri.’ Herbert wanted to smile broadly, but contented himself with a camouflaged grin. He paced on behind his hero, only too pleased to be part of events.

Finally the pair found themselves outside a large double door without a guard.

‘Funny,’ remarked the Doctor. ‘Why no resistance? It’s as if I’m being given an open invitation.’

As Herbert turned to make notes, the Borad’s vault opened to allow the visitor to enter, and then shut fast. Not wanting to be totally left out, Herbert climbed a ladder at the corner of the corridor. To his delight it led to a tiny gantry where he could look down and actually see the Doctor inside the vault. But what was in the high-backed chair on the other side of the darkened room?

The Time Lord knew instinctively that his life was now very definitely at risk. He became curious all the same and spotted a grey cylinder left on a table near the doors.

Sniffing the top nozzle, he immediately identified the contents of the canister.

Tekker crept out to confront his adversary, but the Doctor showed little interest in him. ‘Still lurking in other people’s shadows, Tekker? How very typical.’

Tekker pointed his hand-blaster at the Borad’s visitor in order to emphasise his advantage, and the Doctor’s disadvantage. ‘Welcome, Doctor.’

A strong sickly aroma clung to the vault like honey, a point immediately picked up by the Time Lord. Tekker noticed the Doctor’s senses working on the smell, and gave him the answer he was trying to recall: ‘Morlox.’

‘Of course – the creatures of the tunnels. I remember them from my last visit. So your leader is a Morlox?’

Tekker showed scorn of the Doctor’s dry wit.

‘Where is he then? The one who calls himself the Borad?’ said the Time Lord.

A deep satanic voice echoed from one corner of the dark chamber as the mechanical chair rolled into view. The profile of the occupant was far from handsome, but there was the rugged features of a somewhat obese Karfelon -

nothing like the old man often seen on the Citadel screens.

Slowly the chair moved even further forward, beginning to turn, and as it did so the face of the Karfelon altered dramatically. For the first time Tekker and the Doctor were about to glimpse the real creature in total control of the giant planet.

Peri realised that a chain held the horrific monster back, but even so, she could not take much more of the terror that seared through every bone of her body. The thought of the Morlox breaking free was too awful to contemplate.

Her thoughts rested on another rescue from Sezon perhaps, or the Doctor, if he was still alive.

Back in the Inner Sanctum Mykros tried to make contact with the flagship of the Bandril invasion force, but without any success. The planet’s fate was sealed. Doom was but a short while away.

There in the shadows of the vault, the Borad’s full face was revealed to Tekker and the Doctor, the latter showing interest while Tekker was visibly shocked.

The Borad, and ruler of Karfel, was a merged mutant, half-Karfelon, half-Morlox. One side bore the features of a once-handsome humanoid, but now he shared such looks with those of a Morlox - protruding eyes, nose and jaw, with a half set of carnivorous teeth. Similarly, the mutant had mixed combinations of arms and flippers, fingers and claws. In Tekker’s mind he was looking at a living nightmare, but, to the Doctor, there was something more sinister.

Herbert, who continued to observe the proceedings from far above, crossed himself in a nervous religious act.

For him, he was witnessing the devil - Satan himself.

‘And you said your leader wasn’t a Morlox.’

For once Tekker didn’t have a response. He continued to study the Borad.

‘So what went wrong, Borad? I can’t believe you look like this by choice,’ said the Doctor.

The Borad moved into an area of light, highlighting his gruesome features. ‘An agreeable mistake,’ he said.

The Doctor pointed to the cylindrical container:

‘Mustakozene 80. Don’t tell me you’ve been playing around with that?’ The Doctor turned to Tekker, who looked queasy. ‘M80 - the most unstable element in this galaxy.’

‘Right,’ agreed the Borad, eager to defend his appearance. ‘Yet it was such a happy transformation. I have the strength of many, and intelligence that outstrips the most intelligent Karfelon.’

‘But hardly the looks to match.’

‘Looks, Doctor? What are looks when I control all, and have longevity that will even outlive you and your countless regenerations?’

The Time Lord was curious about the Borad’s familiarity. ‘Do I know you?’

The mutant bid him to come closer. ‘Now look carefully. Think back to a scientist you befriended but eventually reported to the Inner Sanctum for unethical experimentation on Morlox creatures.’

Suddenly it was clear to the Doctor who this Karfelon was: Megelen, once known as mad Megelen.

A story unfolded as to how Megelen has been sprayed accidentally by M80 while using it experimentally on a Morlox. The creature broke free and partially ingested the scientist, forming a combined mutant, half-Karfelon and half-Morlox.

‘But what good is all this to you?’ the Doctor continued to reason, now near the truth. ‘You dare not ever show your face on the planet you rule. Instead we see the face of an old man, probably an android. Am I right?’

The Borad remembered the Doctor’s direct persuasive ways and retracted slightly.

The Time Lord reflected. He was determined to work out the details rather than have them handed to him on a plate. The invasion had something to do with it, though no civilisation and a barren planet made little sense.

‘No Karfelons, quite right. But barren? Not for long,’

said the Borad.

Tekker had come to a quick conclusion. He realised he had been working towards the destruction of his own race.

Despite his treacherous nature, that was something he could not support. Turning the blaster towards the Borad, he lingered a second too long before releasing his shot. A bright channel of accelerated time left the arm control of the Borad’s seat of power. Tekker froze, encapsulated by the force he could do little to stop. He aged rapidly, crumbling where he stood, until all that remained in his ashes were his amulet and blaster.

The Doctor applauded mockingly. ‘A time-acceleration beam. I don’t know whether to be impessed or disgusted.’

‘Enough, Doctor. Before I rid you from my vaults I’ll let you see my latest experiment, though fundamentally this one has already been tried and tested. Real evidence of the workability of a process to generate new life on this planet.’

The mutant responded to the Doctor’s puzzled look.

Activating the view-screen, the Borad showed Peri’s impending date with a female Morlox. Around her was a cylinder of M80.

‘You can’t be serious!’ the Time Lord gasped, horrified, obtaining a contorted chuckle in response.

‘Soon Peri and I will begin creating our own species. A glorious transformation for a new Karfel.’

The Doctor reached for the Kontron crystal around his neck. It was time to release Peri from the clutches of the evil ruler.

The Borad, sensing a move afoot, reached for the chain release to activate his controlled experiment.

‘No!’ warned the Doctor, knowing the awful consequences for his innocent assistant.

Turning the base of the Kontron crystal, the Time Lord raced to try and find the release button for Peri.

Immediately he was fired upon, though only his ten-second image was hit. Herbert, terrified, clutched the cross chain around his neck and prayed devoutly. He knew the Doctor had to survive or it would be the end of Peri, Karfel and all its inhabitants.