Doctor Who_ Night Of The Humans Part 8

The Doctor frowned. 'I'm sorry... What do you mean?'

'The Sittuun. The grey people from the sky. Messengers of the Bad. They came here and they 101.

told us the same. And do you know what I said to them?'

'No.'

'I said to them, "Prove it." I said, "If what you tell us is true - that we are all from some other place, and that this star is coming to destroy us - prove it." And they couldn't. They showed me images, pictures on a screen, and they spoke of numbers, but these things prove nothing. We have been here for thousands of years. Our stories are as old as the sky. How could they not be true? So I say to you, Doctor... If what you are saying is true... Prove it.'

'What? Now?'

'Yes, Doctor. Here and now, prove that we are from this other place.'

'Well... If you would let me into your tower, maybe I could find-'

'n.o.body goes into the tower.'

'Well, then... how am I supposed to pro-'

'Prove it here. And now.'

'But... that's just... Django, that's not possible. I can't prove it here and now, but if you just gave me the chance to-'

'Do you see?' said Django, grinning at Tuco and the other humans gathered in the chamber. 'See how the lies of the Bad are exposed! You heard him! You heard him say the words: "I can't prove it." He can't prove it. You can't prove it, Doctor, and neither could the Sittuun. They told us they had 102 come to destroy the Earth. To save it, they said. Yes... Save it, from the star they call "comet".'

'And they were right!' the Doctor shouted, allowing his frustration to show for the first time. 'They were telling you the truth, Django. They were trying to help you.'

Django shook his head, still smiling. 'No, Doctor. They weren't. And we killed them for their lies. The star is not "comet". These are the lies of the Bad. The star is Gobo.'

'What? What? Are you out of your mind?'

"The star is Gobo, Doctor. The star is here to take us from the Earth, to the land of El Paso.'

The Doctor sighed and closed his eyes, his shoulders slumping. He looked down at the ground. What could he do?

There were hundreds, maybe thousands of humans living in the city. Thousands of lives, and no matter how ignorant or savage they were, no matter how badly they had treated him, he couldn't bring himself to let those lives be extinguished because of one man's insanity.

'Please,' he said. 'Django, I am begging you... You have to listen to me. I have a s.h.i.+p... It's in the valley where your men found me. It can take you anywhere. There must be children here. At least let me save them. I can take them to another planet, somewhere safe. Or... or...'

He pulled at his hair, thoughts racing through 103 his mind at such a rate he struggled to keep up with them.

'Maybe I could... maybe there's some way we could use the TARDIS to...'

'They will be saved, Doctor! said Django, rising from his throne and glaring down at him. 'When Gobo has come, they will be saved.'

'No!' the Doctor cried. 'They will be killed. You will be killed. All of you.'

Django turned to Tuco. 'He is a heretic! he growled. "The penalty for heresy is death. Take him to Lake Mono.'

With a dismissive gesture of one hand, Django walked out of his throne room, a coterie of guards following closely behind. From the platform Tuco looked down at the Doctor and laughed.

'Ha ha...' he said tauntingly. 'No need to worry about "comet" now, Doctor. You are going to Lake Mono.'

The Doctor chewed his lip and gazed up at Tuco with a grimace.

'And I'm guessing that's not a good thing...'

Tuco shook his head, still smirking maliciously.

'Oh no! he cackled. 'Mono is a lake of acid, in which nothing can survive. Guards... Take him away.'

104.

Chapter.

10.

So this is it, thought Amy. I'm going to die here in this horrible place, and n.o.body will know. Everyone back home will just think I've run off to somewhere far away and exotic, like Thailand or South America, and the worst thing is, I won't be anywhere. Not for them. I won't be anywhere for another two hundred and fifty thousand years. I'll just be gone. Vanished. thought Amy. I'm going to die here in this horrible place, and n.o.body will know. Everyone back home will just think I've run off to somewhere far away and exotic, like Thailand or South America, and the worst thing is, I won't be anywhere. Not for them. I won't be anywhere for another two hundred and fifty thousand years. I'll just be gone. Vanished.

Her entire body ached, a throbbing pain that grew more intense with every pa.s.sing second. She had managed to wrap some of the vines around her arms and legs, but they were slippery with slime, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could hold on, or how much longer the vines would hold. All she knew was that she didn't want to let go.

Looking up she saw the comet, Schuler-Khan.

105.

It appeared even larger now than the last time she had looked at it.

Maybe, she thought, if I'm lucky, that thing will hit this place before I fall.

The thought made her shudder. Would that really be preferable? She hated thinking that way, but could see no other way out of this. What if she let go, and the canyon was even deeper than she could imagine? Deeper than any canyon on Earth? What if it was almost literally bottomless. She could fall for hours, days maybe. Her hands gripped the vine a little tighter than before, and another spasm of pain shot through her muscles.

But what was that? She could hear something, from above the canyon's gaping, crooked maw. A heavy whirring. Was it the buggy? No, it was a different sound, almost like a helicopter. Daring to open her eyes once more, she looked up.

The sound was getting louder.

She looked across to the far side of the canyon and saw something emerging from above the crest of a jagged plateau.

It looked almost like a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p of some sort, but it was smaller, perhaps no bigger than the buggy. The craft rose up high above the narrow, twisting gully through which they had travelled, and then dipped down towards the canyon, sweeping from side to side like a mechanical b.u.mblebee.

Only as it drew closer could Amy see the pilot in its c.o.c.kpit.

106.

It was Charlie.

The tiny flying craft came down into the canyon, its small body kept aloft by twin blades. The canopy swung open on hinges, and Charlie leaned out.

'Amy!' he shouted. 'I'm going to come in close, but I'll need you to jump. Can you do that?'

Though she knew she shouldn't, Amy looked down into the abyss once more and felt a lurching sensation in her stomach. She looked up at Charlie and nodded.

'Right... OK...'said Charlie.

With the canopy still open, he pulled the joystick just a fraction of an inch. The flying craft drew closer, turning in mid air so that it was now only a few metres away. Amy could feel the downdraft of wind from its rotors. Her arms and legs were in agony now, and her hands were numb. Charlie was reaching for her from the c.o.c.kpit, but the distance between them could have been miles as far as she was concerned.

'OK, this is as close as I can get,' said Charlie. 'You have to jump. On the count of three. OK? One...'

Amy closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

'Two...'

She opened them again and nodded.

'Three!'

Amy jumped, and for just a fraction of a second she was neither clinging to the pipe nor safe inside 107 the c.o.c.kpit, but floating, floating above the black void of the canyon. A single thought raced through her mind, but it was a thought built on so many others.

I can't believe this is actually happening.

Just seven words, in all, but each one loaded with meaning.

She couldn't believe she had jumped. She couldn't believe she was jumping onto some kind of s.p.a.cecraft. She couldn't believe she was jumping onto some kind of s.p.a.cecraft on an alien world light years from Earth, at some point in the very distant future.

That was what she was really thinking, when she thought those seven words and so, when she landed in Charlie's arms, and he held on to her tight, her first instinct was to laugh. Charlie closed the canopy and steered them up out of the canyon's jaws, and they were flying now over the swamp of swaying plastic tubes. Looking down, Amy saw Sollogs, perhaps hundreds of them, scuttling through the swamp. It was then that she started to cry.

Charlie brought them down a little way past the swamp, on the edge of the great salt flats.

'We can't fly much further, or we'll be spotted,' he said.

The c.o.c.kpit was cramped with the two of them, its confines clearly designed for just a single pilot and no pa.s.sengers, but Amy didn't mind. It felt 108.

like she had spent an eternity clinging to that pipe, staring down into an infinite s.p.a.ce. The experience had left her far from claustrophobic.

'What happened?' asked Charlie. 'Where are Slipstream and Ahmed?'

Amy wiped the tears from her eyes.

'Ahmed's dead! she said. 'And Slipstream... Slipstream just left us there.'

'I'm not surprised! he said. 'There's a lot Slipstream didn't tell us.'

Charlie looked out through the window at the glittering white desert before them and closed his eyes.

'Ahmed's dead?' he asked.

'Yes. I'm sorry.'

Charlie took a deep breath and then sighed.

'We have to go back! he said. 'My father is setting off the Nan.o.bomb. He's going to take Slipstream's s.h.i.+p.'

'What? But we can't... The Doctor.. !

Charlie hunched over in the pilot's seat with his head in his hands. 'I knew you were going to say that.'

'Well I'm not going without him. He's my only way home.

No... It's more than that, actually. He's my friend. I'm not leaving him here.'

Charlie sighed. 'OK. Look... The Nan.o.bomb's detonation sequence lasts one hour. It's designed to allow you time to get to a safe distance. If we go 109.

now, we might just have time to go to the human city and get him.'

'Really?'

Charlie nodded, but now he was looking back across the salt flats at the towering black hulk on the horizon. Amy followed his gaze and saw the flickering orange lights in the watchtowers.

'Only trouble is! said Charlie, 'we have to find a way in. But I think I have an idea...'

110.

Chapter.

11.

Without a doubt, the Gyre was the ugliest world he had ever visited. Gyre was the ugliest world he had ever visited.

He had seen the manure oceans of Caranexos and the living, breathing, continent of Mrag on h.e.l.lion D, but nothing compared to this.

Everything about it was aesthetically distasteful. The landscape was a barren wasteland of twisted metal and spilled chemicals. The plant life consisted largely of spiky green shrubs and things with thorns. And as for the wildlife...

Dirk Slipstream's once immaculate silver s.p.a.cesuit was now soiled, from his collar down to his ankles, with the viscous remains of almost every Sollog he had vanquished in the swamp. Those disgusting creatures had insisted on bursting almost every time he shot them, showering him in 111 a green slime with the consistency of tar. Still, once he had killed the first six, the others had learned their lesson and run away.

The buggy had taken quite a beating, pa.s.sing through the swamp. The towering plastic tubes had played havoc with its cha.s.sis, and one of the rear wheels had been punctured. Still, it was in good enough condition to get him across the salt plain, and that was what mattered.

The only problem was, he hadn't quite figured out a way to get back when he was finished, but he cast this moment's doubt to the back of his mind. Dirk Slipstream always found a way.

After all, he'd found a way out of Volag-Noc after six years of imprisonment there, and the judge at his trial had told him it was inescapable. He had found a way to steal the Golden Bough from its rightful owner. He had found his way to the Gyre with only hours to spare.

Yes. Dirk Slipstream would find a way.