Doctor Who - The Colony Of Lies Part 14

"Rules can sometimes be broken," suggested the Doctor sadly.

The mood in the room was tense. If these dog creatures really did have a prior claim to the planet then Stewart Ransom"s dream was over; the colony had been built on a lie.

When the Federation heard of this their tenure would be revoked.

Freedom broke the silence. "For all we know this Tyrenian is alone, there may be no others..."

"Or there may be thousands of them out there somewhere..." Dee speculated.

Freedom considered. "We have to know the truth. We need to know what our people really found here when they landed."

"But it"s a hundred years since it all happened - what do you propose we do? Build a machine capable of travelling in time?" retorted Dee.

The Doctor allowed himself a small smile. If only the TARDIS wasn"t so difficult to control. But then again, he thought to himself, if it weren"t for the erratic pa.s.sage of his little craft throughout the highways and byways of all time and s.p.a.ce They They would have managed to locate him years ago, and he didn"t want that, did he? would have managed to locate him years ago, and he didn"t want that, did he?

"That won"t be necessary; there must be plenty of evidence in the colony s.h.i.+p about the state of the planet when we first arrived. Automatic scans will have been recorded, everything that went on when The Big Bang The Big Bang arrived in orbit around Axista Four will have been logged," said Kirann. arrived in orbit around Axista Four will have been logged," said Kirann.

"Do you think so?" asked the Doctor.

Kirann raised an eyebrow. "My father didn"t bring five thousand colonists halfway across known s.p.a.ce on a whim.

Everything was worked out in advance. Every possibility was allowed for. We worked for years to make sure this colony was founded well."

The Doctor nodded, acknowledging the point. Nevertheless,"

he began, his eyes twinkling dangerously, "the s.h.i.+p did manage to crash. I wonder how that came about..."

He looked up and caught Kirann"s steely eyes. Although he liked the woman, instinctively he was still suspicious of her, or, to be more precise, of the advance information his future self had given her. What had he (would he) been (be) thinking?

"There"s only one way to find out," she declared. "Come with me back to the wreck and we"ll examine the records together."

She looked over at Freedom and Dee. "If that"s okay with you?" she added.

Freedom waved a hand. "Sure, go ahead." He began fumbling inside a pocket and produced the sheriffs badge. He reached out to pin it on Kirann"s blouse. "Only room for one sheriff in any town," he muttered. "Reckon that"s you now..."

Kirann glanced down at the s.h.i.+ny star and smiled, accepting the rank. "In that case, Mr Freedom, if you can arrange us some transport, the Doctor and I had better get started."

Freedom hurried out to fetch fresh horses for them, leaving Dee with the Doctor and Kirann. She frowned and voiced her concern. "What shall we tell Major Cartor when he next appears?" she asked.

"The soldier from the support s.h.i.+p?"

"I think they consider themselves to be a little bit more than a support s.h.i.+p." Dee couldn"t help correcting the younger (or should that be older?) woman.

"If he asks tell him nothing. Leave my return as a surprise we can spring on him later," she grinned. "Nothing irritates the military mind quite so much as the totally unexpected.

Don"t you agree, Doctor?"

"Quite so," answered the Doctor, still wondering just how much this woman knew about him.

Veena was lost for a moment in the sheer pleasure of flight.

As First Officer aboard the Hannibal Hannibal she rarely got the chance to pilot anything, one of the so-called privileges of rank being that other people did those menial tasks for you. she rarely got the chance to pilot anything, one of the so-called privileges of rank being that other people did those menial tasks for you.

But Veena was a s.p.a.ce kid: born in s.p.a.ce, grew up in s.p.a.ce and she"d been flying s.p.a.cecraft of one sort or another since she was eight years old. And this was what she was born to do. A small fighter craft like this was like an extension of her body as she swooped towards the planet. As she skimmed the atmosphere, heat flares danced up and down her wing.

She soared like an eagle, relis.h.i.+ng the freedom of flight.

A groan from behind her brought her back to reality. She adjusted her angle of descent to minimise the heat build-up, and flicked the autopilot on. Then she swung her chair around to check on her guest. As she had expected, Zoe was stirring. Veena fetched the girl a drink from a stowaway cabinet. Zoe accepted the pouch with a grateful smile and took a swig. The energy drink did its job, sending a shock of adrenalin through Zoe"s system and blowing away the cobwebs with a bit of a kick.

"What was that - pure caffeine?" she managed to ask.

Veena smiled. "Something not too dissimilar," she confessed.

Zoe looked around. "I"m still on board that small fighter-craft?" It was more a statement of confusion than a direct question.

"You warmed it up for me and I was in a hurry," Veena explained glibly. Your friends are in trouble."

Zoe frowned, confused at the turn of events. "I rather thought I was too," she commented.

"You are, believe me, but first things first, eh?" said Veena, swinging her seat back to face the controls. "I"m Veena Myles, First Officer of the Earth Colony Support Vessel Hannibal. Hannibal.

And you...?"

"Zoe," added Zoe helpfully. "Zoe Heriot."

"You, Zoe Heriot," concluded Veena, "are my prisoner. Try not to forget that. I"m hoping to get promoted to my own command one of these days..."

Despite her harsh words, Zoe was sure she could discern some underlying warmth to Veena Myles. Perhaps her escape effort hadn"t been such a disaster after all.

This time, the journey to the colony s.h.i.+p seemed a much quicker affair. The Doctor had often noticed this as a phenomenon of conventional methods of travel; the more you did the same journey, the more quickly it seemed to pa.s.s. Of course journeys in the TARDIS were something else again, which was another reason he tried not to go back to the same place and time too often. Except for Earth, naturally. He and the TARDIS had a strange affinity for Earth. One day he really ought to look into why. He would bet one thing, though: that smart-alecky future self with the silly hat would probably have all the answers; so sad that one day he was fated to regenerate into such a smug know-it-all.

Once they had reached the wreck, Kirann had taken the lead with complete authority. Unlike Freedom or Dee, Kirann"s knowledge of the s.h.i.+p was total and organic. She had watched its development from the first designs, as her father had worked with his team to plan his great expedition.

She could remember watching it being built, the first time she had seen it in the s.p.a.ce dock - a wire-frame model made from girders thicker than her waist. Week by week it had grown, almost like a living thing: taking on more form, more bulk, more presence. And then, when the sh.e.l.l had been completed, she had been there while it was fitted out, helping her father design the living s.p.a.ces and working, with his department heads, to iron out exactly what would and wouldn"t be included on the manifest.

Val Freedom and Dee Willoughby had only ever known The The Big Bang Big Bang as a wreck, a shadow of its former self, intact in places but elsewhere completely destroyed. Kirann, by contrast, knew it intimately, every nook and cranny, as familiar to her as her own body. as a wreck, a shadow of its former self, intact in places but elsewhere completely destroyed. Kirann, by contrast, knew it intimately, every nook and cranny, as familiar to her as her own body.

The Doctor watched her carefully as she picked her way through one of the debris-filled corridors in what was now the "ground level" of the s.h.i.+p. "This used to be crew quarters,"

she told him, as they pa.s.sed room after room crushed out of shape. Odd bits and pieces lined the corridor - personal effects, framed photos of parents and children, books, knick-knacks and souvenirs from lives long over.

"Where are we heading?" he asked.

"The bridge is long gone," Kirann answered, "and with it the main computer interface, but the computer core - the memory as it were - was distributed to various hubs around the s.h.i.+p." She glanced back ruefully. "In case of any systems failure, or meteorite impact, something like that..."

"Each hub a duplicate of the main memory?" asked the Doctor.

"Exactly," replied the new sheriff. "All we have to do is locate one intact."

She reached a service duct and waved the Doctor forward.

"And there should be one about four storeys up there. Would you care to go first?"

The Doctor looked up into the darkness. A drop of water fell onto his upturned face. "If you insist," he said doubtfully and began to climb.

Cartor walked purposefully down the corridor. The medics had just told him that the other patient from the colony had regained consciousness. A wave of his wrist at the entrance to the recovery room opened the doors and he entered to find that the man Kartryte was already on his feet and looking for his clothes. Despite being dressed in only a flimsy standard-issue gown, the man was an impressive sight. Old, but hardened with age like an ancient oak tree. He was arguing with the medical attendant, demanding that he return his clothes immediately.

"Mr Kartryte, isn"t it?" Cartor said, nodding at the medical attendant to leave them. Kartryte fixed him with a glare, his eyes still bright in his leathery face.

Major Cartor! Am I to take it I"m on board your shuttlecraft again?" he asked.

"No, this is the Earth Colony Support Vessel Hannibal. Hannibal.

Welcome."

"Colony Support?" Kartryte was instantly suspicious. "Come to tell us how we should be living?"

Cartor spread his arms wide in a gesture of innocence.

"Why would you think a thing like that?"

Kartryte scoffed and looked around. "I guess you patched me up?"

"Our medical teams did save your life, yes."

"And now you"re going to give me the bill, right?"

Cartor had to work hard to stop himself from laughing.

He"d met some difficult characters in his time but Kartryte was something else. Offloading 80,000 new colonists was not going to be something this man would take lightly.

"You don"t owe us anything," he said genially. "But a thank you wouldn"t come amiss."

Kartryte just glared at him, balefully.

The Doctor watched, fascinated, as Kirann cannibalised a couple of damaged consoles to make a new means of accessing the computer memory, which she had declared to be free from injury. "You trained as an engineer?" he asked.

"I trained as everything. Dad might have wanted us to live a simpler life on Axista Four, but he wanted us all to be capable of turning our hands to anything we might need to do to survive."

"So have the colonists got it wrong? Did your father really intend them to live life no differently from that of the settlers of the American West?"

Kirann stopped what she was doing for a moment and looked at the Doctor. "My father came to believe that we, mankind, had taken a blind alley. We were becoming slaves to our technology. We"d stopped evolving to suit our environment and instead we were changing environments to suit us. Or changing ourselves artificially, fiddling with our own DNA, to make us fit into alien environments. That"s what Back to Basics was against. Over-reliance on technology. He yearned for a simpler life and that"s why he set up this colony to run the way it did. But he expected it to grow and develop, not stagnate. It"s been a hundred years since this colony s.h.i.+p crashed. I think he"d have expected a bit more progress in that time. Not just a hick town stuck in a time warp." was against. Over-reliance on technology. He yearned for a simpler life and that"s why he set up this colony to run the way it did. But he expected it to grow and develop, not stagnate. It"s been a hundred years since this colony s.h.i.+p crashed. I think he"d have expected a bit more progress in that time. Not just a hick town stuck in a time warp."

While Kirann had been speaking the Doctor had taken out of his pocket the crystal she had given him earlier and was examining it again.

"Is there anything here that would read this?" he wondered.

Kirann shook her head. "There would have been readers all over the s.h.i.+p before the crash but I haven"t come across any intact so far."

The Doctor shrugged and returned the crystal to his pocket. "I"ll just have to be patient, then," he muttered.

Kirann turned back to her task and slotted a memory board into place. "There," she announced. "That should do it."

And with that she started accessing the records from the time when The Big Bang The Big Bang had still been an intact s.p.a.cecraft, from the time when it had first entered the solar system that housed Axista Four. had still been an intact s.p.a.cecraft, from the time when it had first entered the solar system that housed Axista Four.

Kirann and the Doctor spent the next three hours working through the logs and records, piecing together the tale of what had happened from half a dozen different sources. And at the end of it they had a pretty coherent picture of what had transpired a hundred years ago.

Kirann had been right in what she had said to Freedom and Dee: the first thing The Big Bang The Big Bang had done on reaching the planet was to scan for life signs or other indications of habitation. There had been none. Well, no active sign of habitation. In some of the southern landma.s.ses there were a few cities and towns, or the ruins of the same that suggested that there had once been some kind of intelligent life here, but geophysical scans had confirmed that these had not been inhabited for millennia. As it seemed clear that there was indeed no intelligent life on the planet, the decision was made to go for colonisation. had done on reaching the planet was to scan for life signs or other indications of habitation. There had been none. Well, no active sign of habitation. In some of the southern landma.s.ses there were a few cities and towns, or the ruins of the same that suggested that there had once been some kind of intelligent life here, but geophysical scans had confirmed that these had not been inhabited for millennia. As it seemed clear that there was indeed no intelligent life on the planet, the decision was made to go for colonisation.

Now the order was given to revive the planet-fall crew, a hundred or so men and women who had been specially trained to be part of the initial landing party. They joined the two hundred regular crew in active service while the majority of the colonists, like Kirann herself, had remained in cryogenic suspended animation.

The Doctor was curious. "Why didn"t you take that training? I can"t imagine that someone as keen as you would want to miss out on those early hours of the planet-fall experience."

"I did have that training," Kirann sounded a bit upset. "I guess Dad decided to keep me safe in case something unexpected happened."

And according to the records something unexpected had happened. A meteor storm or something similar; some of the reports of this were a bit garbled. But the upshot of the storm was not in doubt: the colony s.h.i.+p had been damaged. Fatally damaged. Instead of the planet-fell team being dispatched in a shuttlecraft, the decision was made to take the entire colony s.h.i.+p down. Ransom had hesitated - the s.h.i.+p wasn"t really designed for atmospheric flight - but the consensus was that it would break up in orbit if they didn"t make landfall immediately.

The pilot had done her best. She got the s.h.i.+p down but large parts of it were destroyed in the effort. Many of the colonists in suspended animation had died. The colony got off to a poor start.

The Doctor and Kirann considered what they had learnt. A disaster had struck and the colonists had been lucky to survive at all. But there had been no mention of the aliens.

No sign of the Tyrenians at all.

"Perhaps they came along later," suggested the Doctor.

Kirann shook her head. "Did you see the damage to this s.h.i.+p?" The Doctor nodded. "Did that look like meteorite damage to you?"

The Doctor had to admit that it didn"t.

A determined look came into Kirann"s eyes. "This isn"t the full story," she declared. "There"s more to this, I know there is.

And I"m going to get to the bottom of it, whatever it takes."

Hali raised her Colt, steadied herself and then moved. She turned the corner, aimed, fired, dropped and rolled into cover behind the next building all in one smooth continuous action. Her target, a combat droid, was knocked from its tracks by the impact of her shot but it was self-righting and quickly reoriented itself.

"Nice shot," commented Max, as he helped her to her feet.

Hali shrugged off the compliment. "Not that it got us anywhere."

The droids had appeared suddenly in the past half hour, whether summoned to provide back-up or in response to some pre-programmed plan they had no idea. There had been four of them; squat metallic killing machines on caterpillar all-terrain tracks, loaded with offensive weapons. They"d managed to disable one of them but it had come at a price: Forstat had lost his life in the attempt. The battledroids were not the most sophisticated pieces of AI Hali had ever read about but they were perfectly adequate for the job in hand: preventing the Realists from getting near the building where the aliens were trapped.

Hali looked over at the entrance to the building. There were sounds of fighting coming from within, crashes and bangs rather than the unmistakable sound of weapon-fire. She wondered who was getting the upper hand - the aliens or the stranger called Jamie and the young Kartryte boy.

Billy Joe opened his eyes cautiously, a little surprised to find that he was still alive. His side ached from where he had impacted the wall but there were no sharp pains to suggest that he had actually broken anything. He felt something liquid and realised that he was lying in a pool of thick, red blood. A shudder of alarm pa.s.sed through him - was he bleeding to death? But then he realised that the blood was oozing from the body of the dog alien that was pinning him to the floor. Billy Joe braced himself against the floor and the wall, and tried to push the creature off. It was a dead weight - he couldn"t be sure whether that was a literal feet or whether the creature was merely unconscious - but Billy Joe was young, determined and strong. Nevertheless it required a desperate effort to s.h.i.+ft the alien.

Panting, Billy Joe got to his feet. Where were Jamie and the other creature? A loud crash nearby answered that one.