Doctor Who_ The Blue Angel Part 12

Iris looked back at the country ahead and gasped once more.

She gasped at the snapped s.h.i.+ning pinnacles, the shattered gla.s.s turrets of Valcea.

And then there was an explosion that buffeted them and made the air around them, even this high up, shudder and distort.

Some distance away from the city there was a searing light.

She could pick out a trail of fuel and a scorch mark on the night sky.

And in the frozen tundra there was a pall of smoke, a wad of black fuel and drear steam.

Something had crashed straight on to the fields of ice.

'What was that?' she yelled across to Fitz as the owls made their determined way down to Valcea, beating their powerful wings against the turbulence.

Fitz looked shaken. 'It was the Nepotist Nepotist!' he cried. 'Didn't you see it? It fell out of the sky...!'

The Doctor had stumbled out of the bus and started gabbling almost immediately.

The a.s.sembled party gazed at him in amazement, seeming unable to ignore him or get on with what they were doing.

The Doctor took everything in his stride. The Ghillighast and the creature who appeared to be their leader or Priestess, and the prostrate, defeated Daedalus. He paused when he saw the Gla.s.s Man Marn and recognised in the globular, astonished eyes of the giant squid the stricken expression of the erstwhile Belinda. He rallied himself and decided to make the most of having everyone's attention. There was still time to save the day.

'I'm always doing this. I'm sorry. I'm interrupting again. It's funny, though. It seems that whenever I'm in Iris's bus, the old thing drops me in the most hectic and embarra.s.sing spots. Nothing like my own s.h.i.+p, which makes a habit of landing me on the outskirts of things, so that I usually have a long walk to get to where the action is. It must be that Iris is terribly lazy or impatient or something. But anyway, here I am again, back in the thick of things. And goodness! It seems like I've got some catching up to do!'

At this he gazed up at the distraught serpent that Belinda had become. 'h.e.l.lo, Belinda, old thing,' he grinned. 'You've grown a bit!'

She flailed around at this. He patted one tentacle to calm her and winked. 'I'll sort it out. Don't you worry.'

He whirled on one heel, saw that Daedalus was about to be executed and rushed over.

'Oh, am I in time to watch a decapitation? I've never cared much for that kind of thing. I've always thought there were more interesting methods of dealing with people like this.' With that he s.n.a.t.c.hed the silver blades out of the hands of every one of the Ghillighast guards. It was one single, easy movement and the bats were hardly aware he had done it until he was absently stowing their weapons away in his capacious pockets.

'Mind you,' he said, 'when I say "people like this", you realise of course I really mean "villainous sc.u.m". Because that's exactly what I think of you, Daedalus.'

The others jumped back then, as the elephant opened both eyes and fixed the Time Lord with the most vicious of looks.

'Yes,' said the Doctor. 'You can give me the evil eye all you want, but I still think you're a... well, you're a... swine!'

'And who are you?' a voice asked imperiously.

The Doctor turned to face the Priestess. 'I might be any number of things. And who, exactly, are you?'

Meisha's eyes blazed with fury. 'This is not how our new history is supposed to be.'

A single shot rang out then, and everyone turned to see Compa.s.sion, standing by the bus and brandis.h.i.+ng her weapon.

'n.o.body move,' she said in a steely tone. 'Anyone makes a move towards the Doctor, and they're dead.'

He clapped a hand to his head. 'Compa.s.sion, that really isn't necessary. I'm really doing fine without '

At this point there was another new arrival.

The tall twin doors into the throne room crashed inward and teetered on their ancient hinges before dropping to the floor.

Everyone turned to stare at the Steigertrude tank as it lumbered up to the end of the room.

The Ghillighast Priestess seemed completely lost by now 'And what is this?' she asked.

Daedalus himself seemed shocked by this apparition. He stood up, stiffly, groaning, casting off his shackles with almost no effort.

There was something strange in his look.

As if something were happening that he hadn't counted on.

He spoke hoa.r.s.ely as the Steigertrude engine drew to an arthritic halt.

'It is my son! My son has come for me!'

Even the Doctor was baffled now. 'Who?'

Chapter Thirty-Eight.

He Was Astonished To Find...

He was astonished to find himself alive.

But Blandish had always known his was to be a glorious destiny.

He had always known, from his earliest years in the Federation training corps, that his was to be one of those names that would stick in the annals of starfaring history.

And so he was alive to fight another day.

The room was on a slant.

He was lying on the moist corpse of the Sahmbekart commander.

He struggled to his feet in the dark and kicked the body for good measure.

Good. But there might be others around. He had to be on his guard.

Who else was alive? 'Garrett?' he hissed. Timon?'

Timon spoke up and, as the captain's eyes became accustomed to the new, rather dreary light coming in from somewhere, he saw Timon struggling through the heaped dead and unconscious bodies towards him.

'We made it,' said Timon quietly. 'But who else did?'

They found Garrett then, his head split open, lying face down over the desk.

His own expensive brains were spilled all over his captain's paperwork.

'Anyone else?' asked Blandish hoa.r.s.ely.

Timon hunted around for a moment, but he knew it was hopeless. 'It's only us.'

'I thought...' said Blandish, and covered himself. Made his tone hard again. 'I thought so.'

He began to pick his way out of the slanted room, back towards the bridge.

Timon followed and it seemed this was where the light was coming from.

The translucent ceiling of the bridge was cracked completely asunder and the frosty light of Valcea was peering through. They could climb out and on to the surface.

'You thought a lot of Garrett, I know, sir,' said Timon, as he watched his captain gaze up at the crack in the ceiling.

Blandish dragged his command chair over so it was under the hole.

'More than that, Mr Timon. We never spoke of this. No one realised this in all these years. We never talked about it much. But Garrett and I were lovers from our first a.s.signment on this s.h.i.+p.'

Timon's jaw dropped.

Blandish seemed to be controlling himself by an immense effort of will.

'Shocked, are you, boy? You shouldn't be.'

He braced the chair with the fallen body of one of the ma.s.sive lizard warriors, and prepared to hoist himself up through the ceiling and outside.

'We loved each other. We may not have shown it publicly. Not like you and Belinda. But we did. And now he's gone.' For a second Blandish seemed to lose control. 'We were supposed to die in battle together.'

He was up on the surface of the s.h.i.+p now, and reached down to give Timon a hand.

'So, you see, I've got nothing to lose now.'

Timon struggled up through the cracked hull of the Nepotist Nepotist. 'I see, sir.'

Then they were both out in the night sky, overlooking the s.h.i.+ning miles of ice.

Blandish pointed at the ruined gla.s.s city, a mile or two distant.

'We caused that. And because of it, because of us, there is bound to be war. What say we go and deal with Daedalus once and for all, eh?'

The Doctor stood back and let others take centre stage.

He was as baffled as Belinda, and Marn, and the Priestess by the appearance of the trio that stepped out of the Steigertrude tank.

There was an old woman, pulling her wig and hat straight, bundled up in a sheepskin coat.

A younger woman in gla.s.ses, and a rather beautiful boy with livid blue wings stretching out around him and his chest bare.

It was the boy that the room was staring at.

It was the boy that the suddenly restored Daedalus addressed: 'You came back to me, after all.'

'I received the call,' said Icarus.

'You were on the Earth?'

Icarus nodded. 'This woman took care of me. She treated me as her own.'

Daedalus looked at Maddy. 'Then she shall be rewarded.'

Big Sue and Maddy were both staring at Daedalus.

They could hardly believe what they were seeing. They were struck dumb.

'Have you nothing to say, Earth woman?' Daedalus asked.

'But...' Big Sue stammered. 'It's a b.l.o.o.d.y elephant!'

Icarus interceded. 'I promised these women that, if they brought me here, Father, to you, they would be rewarded with their youth again. It is what they most desire. Another chance.'

Daedalus grunted in amus.e.m.e.nt. 'Don't we all?'

Then he clenched and unclenched the talons of both hands.

They s.h.i.+mmered and glowed with light.

Big Sue and Maddy found themselves doing precisely the same thing.

Sue turned on Maddy: 'What is he doing to '

'Of course,' said Daedalus mildly. 'Their minds will be wiped. They will recall nothing.'

And then, standing where the two women had been, was a single figure.

It was Maddy thirty years younger.

She was fifteen. She was dressed as Maddy still, but she looked like a whole other person.