Doctor Who - The Colony Of Lies Part 22

That"s not why I joined up. I"m going to try to stop this before it"s too late. Are you coming?

Zoe didn"t have to be asked twice. They hurried to the fighter craft and were airborne moments later.

From the window of his office Administrator Greene watched the s.h.i.+p take off. He returned to his desk and activated his communicator. "Major Cartor, Greene here .Your first officer is on her way back. She was just in here making some wild claims about the legitimacy of our current plan of action. I trust I can rely on you to put her right about a few things?"

He waited patiently for an answer, knowing that Cartor hated taking orders from him.

Finally it came. "Copy that," confirmed Carter"s voice, evidently speaking through clenched teeth.

"I"m sorry, Major, did I hear you right?"

"I said "Copy that", sir," repeated Carter, almost spitting the final word out. Greene smiled. As long as the chain of command was respected, he was happy.

The Doctor was frustrated; the fight had started, but with the ma.s.s of Tyrenian bodies between him and the action it was impossible for him to see how Jamie was doing. He fingered the small crystal that Kirann had given him - certain that it was an important piece of the jigsaw but not sure what puzzle he was doing. Something about the Tyrenians perhaps? There was something distinctly wrong about them; if only he could put his finger on it. The Doctor noticed that his guard was also paying attention to the fight - perhaps now would be a good time to make a bid for freedom. The lock securing the door of the cage didn"t look very complicated but it resisted all attempts to have the sonic screwdriver used on it. The Doctor searched through his voluminous pockets for an alternative. His fingers alighted on a hairpin, which, once bent into shape, made quick work of the lock. Keeping his eyes on the backs of the Tyrenian spectators, the Doctor slipped out of the cage, closed the door behind him and sneaked out of the hold.

Once in the corridor he relaxed. It was obvious that all the Tyrenians were watching the big fight. The Doctor was torn: should he try to help Jamie or take the chance to investigate the crystal at last? With a slightly heavy heart, he decided that Jamie would have to fend for himself for a moment - he really had had to get some answers from the crystal. He started to explore and quickly came across a room of computer consoles. Inside he saw a couple of boxes of the now familiar-looking crystals. He pulled the one Kirann had given him from his pocket again. It was a perfect match. A glance at the computer consoles confirmed that there was a slot into which the crystals could be placed. to get some answers from the crystal. He started to explore and quickly came across a room of computer consoles. Inside he saw a couple of boxes of the now familiar-looking crystals. He pulled the one Kirann had given him from his pocket again. It was a perfect match. A glance at the computer consoles confirmed that there was a slot into which the crystals could be placed.

The Doctor sat at a console, slipped his data crystal into the reader and began to access the data. "Oh my...," he said to himself as the information poured out of the tiny crystal on to his screen. "Oh my goodness me..."

Both Jamie and his Tyrenian opponent, who had been introduced to him as Gorhay, were beginning to tire now, and from the sounds of the crowd, some of the audience were too.

What should have been quick and clean was proving to be much more complicated. Zenig, despite himself, was impressed. The human had conducted himself well and matched Gorhay in every move. Both gladiators were carrying small cuts and numerous bruises but both, although a little unsteady, were still on their feet. Zenig wondered if there was any honour in declaring the battle void. A quick glance at the crowd of Tyrenian warriors cheering on Gorhay soon put Zenig straight. They had all been loyal to Lorvalan and had been shocked to hear of his death when they had been revived in the last few hours; they needed to see this through to the end.

Jamie staggered and ducked under another vicious swing from his opponent. Both combatants had lost their swords now: the Tyrenian"s had spun off into the crowd Jamie"s still lay tantalisingly out of reach just beyond the line between two of the beacons. A few moments ago Jamie had forced his opponent into the force field and he had been horrified at the sight of the alien shaking in the electrical current. Now, if what he had been told was true, the force field was primed to kill. His opponent had clearly been thinking along the same lines and the fight had become more of a wrestling match, with each of the fighters trying to force the other into the deadly force field. Again, the two of them grappled with each other. The alien had the advantage of height but Jamie had the greater lower body strength. He managed to roll with the pressure, spinning away from his opponent and kicking him behind the knee. Whatever the alien"s physiognomy it was similar enough to Jamie"s own for him to know it would have the desired effect. The alien sprawled forward. For a moment neither of them moved. And then they both saw it at the same time - Jamie"s sword was lying just a foot or so from the alien"s outstretched hand. Both of them knew the risk but if they could endure the pain of the force field for just a split second - long enough to retrieve the sword - they might just get themselves the advantage they needed.

Jamie could almost see the thought going through the alien"s head and was not surprised when he lurched forward, stretching out his arm towards the sword. At the same moment, without Jamie being very aware of his actions, Jamie was also in motion, hurling himself forward, over the p.r.o.ne body of the alien. Like runners reaching for the finis.h.i.+ng tape both Jamie and the alien stretched out towards the force field and their fingers penetrated it at exactly the same time. Blue lighting flashed along their arms, more powerful than before and both Jamie and the alien warrior let out loud screams before tailing inert to the floor.

There was a moment of silence and then a voice breaking it with urgency.

"Let me through, let me through. You must stop this fight.

You must."

It was the Doctor, holding the data crystal up in one hand like a lighter at a rock concert ballad. The crowd parted for the human and the Doctor could see that he was too late; the fight was over and both gladiators were lying immobile.

"Oh my goodness, no..."

The Doctor hurried into the arena, pa.s.sing without harm through the force field that appeared to have burnt itself out.

"This is all so unnecessary and wrong," he announced.

Zenig climbed down from the watching platform to join him.

"What are you talking about, human?" he demanded.

"That"s just it," said the Doctor exasperated. He glanced around, checking that only Zenig would be able to hear his explanation. "You"re as human as he is," he whispered, pointing at Jamie. "There is no Tyrenian race!"

Veena was out of the pilot"s seat almost before her engines had died. As the hatch opened, she jumped down to the deck impatiently, not waiting for the automatic gantry to extend itself from the wall of the flight deck. Zoe quickly followed her, amused that she was, once again, back on Hannibal Hannibal in exactly the same spot that she had made her initial escape from. in exactly the same spot that she had made her initial escape from.

Veena led her through a maze of corridors, determined to reach the bridge in the shortest possible time. En route En route she located a workstation and gave Zoe the relevant clearance to access it. "See what you can do to countermand the orders to the battledroids. I a.s.sume you can find your way around a computer system?" she located a workstation and gave Zoe the relevant clearance to access it. "See what you can do to countermand the orders to the battledroids. I a.s.sume you can find your way around a computer system?"

Zoe smiled confidently."! should think so. Where are you going?"

"To speak to Cartor. If possible I"d prefer him to cancel the attack himself - I don"t like the idea of going behind the back of my commanding officer - but I cannot stand by and let an entire race be destroyed for no good reason. That would make us no better than the Daleks."

"Good luck!" Zoe called after Veena as she strode away.

Veena acknowledged her with a wave and disappeared around the corner. Zoe settled down to the workstation.

Thankfully, although state of the art, it had an old-fas.h.i.+oned touch-screen input system, which Zoe preferred rather than trying the sensor helmet device again. She started to spin through the core memory systems looking for something that would be useful.

While Zoe was getting into the computer system, Veena was walking on to the bridge. There she found Lieutenant Harvard in the captain"s chair. "The major?" she demanded brusquely.

"In his ready room, sir," Harvard responded, sitting up straight where a moment ago he had slouched. Veena headed straight for the door that led to the captain"s private office and waved her wrist at the ident panel. The door slid open.

"Sir?" The room was in semi-darkness. At first she couldn"t see Cartor at all and then she realised that he was sitting at the desk with his chair turned so that all she could see was the back of his head.

"Ah, Veena, I should have expected you to find me..."

"Sir? Are you okay?"

Veena was wrong-footed. She was all fired up for a pa.s.sionate argument and was surprised to find Cartor in such a subdued mood.

"A leader has to lead, Myles. You have to take the tough decisions, you have to know when to stand up for yourself, when to do the right thing."

"And you always have, sir," Veena told him, appalled at the level of self-doubt Cartor was suddenly experiencing.

"No. I"ve done what I was told. Always. The good soldier.

Point me at a target and fire. That"s what I am; part of the Federation military machine."

"No, sir, that"s not true."

The chair swung round.

"Myles, don"t bulls.h.i.+t me. I"ve been used..." Veena couldn"t make out what was wrong with what she was seeing. Cartor was slumped in his chair, but she couldn"t see why. Was he ill? His eyes flickered as if he was about to fall unconscious but somehow he rallied.

"The droids. They"ve been programmed to wipe them out."

"The aliens? I know."

"No, not just the aliens. All of them. The Loyalists, the Realists, the whole d.a.m.n lot. They used to call it scorched earth. Burn it down and start again. Clean slate for the refugees. And nothing left of what came before..." He flagged again and Veena was suddenly aware of some movement at her feet. She looked down and saw something liquid. Thick and red.

"Computer. First Officer Myles override. Lights up," she ordered. And as the light level rose she realised the true horror of what Cartor had done to himself. A ragged red scar slashed across both wrists and across his chest, his life-blood was pooling beneath the desk. Instinctively she knew that it was too late to do anything for him. He had made his decision and taken his own life. If she was to save the lives of everyone on the planet she would have to hurry.

Jamie"s head hurt. Actually a lot more of him hurt than that but right now it was his head that was at the top of the list.

He blinked his eyes experimentally, shocked to find that he was still alive. "What happened to the other fellow?" he managed to ask.

"Jamie!" It was the Doctor, delighted to see his young friend regain consciousness.

"Aye, well, it takes more than a spot of that electricity stuff to get rid of a McCrimmon, you know."

"Well, I should know that," smiled the Doctor.

"Doctor - you promised an explanation?"

Jamie looked over and saw that Zenig was with them. They were in a smaller room, a medical centre, he guessed, from the half-dozen beds that filled the room.

"Yes, yes, of course. I just wanted to make sure that Jamie and your lad -"

"Gorhay."

"Had survived their little tussle..."

"Gorhay is fine. As is the youth. So please - you promised me some answers."

The Doctor nodded and produced the data crystal. "Why don"t I let the man speak for himself?" he suggested and loaded the crystal into the reader of a computer. On the screen a human figure appeared.

"Stewart Ransom," said the Doctor helpfully. The figure on the screen began to talk.

"There are things that need to be recorded that I"m not proud of. Things I"ve been..." The man paused, searching for the right word. "Things I"ve been a.s.sociated with that I have to get off my chest. There is intelligent life already existent on our target planet - human life. To be precise, enhanced humans. They call themselves Tyrenians and believe themselves to be the last survivors of a star-travelling warrior race but they are not. Their memory, their history, everything that they believe to be true about themselves is fiction. Their unique appearance is a result of DNA splicing."

The Doctor glanced sideways at Zenig, who was watching the screen with a shocked expression on his face. Ransom continued his tale. He explained about a man called Gustav Tyren, a brilliant geneticist employed at a company controlled by Ransom to develop a product for the Federation military.

They wanted "super-soldiers", humans with enhanced fighting capabilities, a new species that could be developed and cloned and used as front line troops. Tyren had always been fascinated by dogs and found a way to program certain canine attributes. He had only been partially successful. His work took time, however, and the Federation decided to pursue other options, specifically battledroids with reprogrammable specifications for different terrains and battlefields. Finally, the Federation had withdrawn the funding and ordered the destruction of all specimens. Tyren had refused to stop his work and, for a while, the younger Ransom had continued to sign the cheques, but eventually the money drain was too much. Reluctantly Ransom had told Tyren that the project would have to be terminated. Tyren was devastated and begged Ransom to change his mind.

"So I compromised," Ransom explained, a haunted expression on his face. "You have to remember this was years ago; I was so much younger then. I arranged for the Tyrenians to "escape" from the s.p.a.ce-station laboratory that they had been created in. They stole a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, one that I had made sure would be available to steal, and disappeared.

There was a delay in alerting the authorities," Ransom allowed himself a small smile. "A communications problem.

By the time they had been told about it, the Tyrenians were long gone."

On the screen, Ransom ran his hands through his hair and glanced off-camera to one side, as if checking something.

When he continued it was with a new urgency.

"I - and my company - were fined of course, heavily, and Tyren lost his research licence but that was the limit of the Federation"s ability to punish us. Life went on. The Tyrenians were all but forgotten. Certainly I forgot them - until many, many years later when I was persuaded by my wonderful daughter to make some changes to my life, and I embarked on this current project. The survey data I used to select our target planet was the same date I had installed into the s.h.i.+p the Tyrenians had stolen. Perhaps at some subconscious level I knew that; who knows what tricks our minds can play on us? Maybe it was just fate. Whatever it was, when a fresh survey drone checked out the Axista system anew it found evidence of the Tyrenians. Unfortunately it was a Federation survey drone and the Federation officials were adamant that they had to be dealt with. That kind of DNA splicing was now illegal throughout known s.p.a.ce, and the Federation was one of the major bodies signed up to the treaties banning such activity. The Tyrenians were an embarra.s.sing leftover from a less enlightened time. A loose end that had to be dealt with."

Again, Ransom glanced off-camera. He seemed to be under some considerable stress. "For my part," he continued, "they were an inconvenience. With them on Axista Four we would not be allowed to colonise the planet and, in every other regard, climate, size, rotation, everything was perfect. But I also felt a responsibility for the Tyrenians. They had been made in one of my own labs by a man working for me. I was torn, unable to talk about this to anyone, especially Kirann."

Again the man looked away and then back at the camera.

He looked guiltier than ever now.

"In the end, I agreed to go along with the Federation"s plan.

They would secretly install an offensive force of battledroids on my s.h.i.+p, which would be activated when we arrived on Axista Four. The Tyrenians would be wiped out but I could claim I had no knowledge of the action. My colony would get its chance to live and grow, and the Tyrenian mistake would be forgotten."

Zenig growled: a low angry sound in his throat.

"And now we"re here and it seems the Tyrenians still have some surprises for us. Their defensive satellites have attacked and wounded us; we"re going to crash. If we survive the impact, the battledroids will activate and attack the Tyrenians. I guess you might say that I deserve this. I should have spoken up against the Federation"s ideas. The Tyrenians have as much right to life as anyone. And that"s what this colony is meant to be about. Hope and life, not death and despair."

The camera shook and the picture broke up for a moment.

In the background an alarm began to sound.

"I may not live to see it but I hope that some of us survive whatever is about to happen: human and and Tyrenian. Is it too much to hope that some survivors of both groups might make a success of this colony together? I sincerely hope so. I have to go now. Kirann, if you ever get to hear this, I"m sorry to have let you down like this. I changed but not soon enough, and the legacy of my earlier follies has been my downfall. But I love you and I"m proud of you. Goodbye." Tyrenian. Is it too much to hope that some survivors of both groups might make a success of this colony together? I sincerely hope so. I have to go now. Kirann, if you ever get to hear this, I"m sorry to have let you down like this. I changed but not soon enough, and the legacy of my earlier follies has been my downfall. But I love you and I"m proud of you. Goodbye."

With that the man got to his feet, reached forward and the screen went black.

Zenig turned to look at the Doctor. "We are human?!"

"Apparently. But it"s not too late to realise Ransom"s vision..."

Before the Doctor could elaborate a Tyrenian rushed into the room.

"Sir, the humans" battledroids are surrounding the s.h.i.+p."

Zenig was still reeling from discovering the truth about his so-called "race". "Completely surrounded?"

The warrior nodded.

"Then we must defend ourselves," Zenig announced.

The Doctor jumped in between them. "No wait. Why keep fighting? Let them come in, I have an idea..."

There was a limit to the amount of information even Zoe could absorb. Her head was beginning to ache and her eyes were finding it hard to focus. She let her head fall on to her arms and closed her eyes for a moment. It was at that precise moment that Veena reappeared. Zoe didn"t know what had happened to her in the last few minutes but there was a definite change in Veena; she looked paler, older and was carrying herself with a new authority somehow.

"Have you found a way to stop the droids?" she asked.

With a start Zoe sat up, rubbing her eyes. "It"s no use," she confessed. "I can"t do it. Not like this." Zoe"s eyes flickered in the direction of the sensor hat and then away again but not before Veena had noticed.

"You need direct hook-up," said Veena with a sudden insight.

"I can"t do that," Zoe insisted urgently. "Not again."

Veena grabbed her by the wrists and looked directly into her eyes.

"You have to. We must stop those droids before they kill everyone on the planet."

"Everyone?"

"Everyone. Including the Doctor and Jamie. You have to try, Zoe. I know the thought of it is traumatic but the fact that you were hooked up to a similar set-up recently will be an advantage. Zoe, you"re the only person who can save them."

Zoe could feel tears rolling down her cheeks. It wasn"t meant to happen like this. The Doctor was meant to deal with the last-minute rescues. She swallowed hard, making her decision, the only one she could make.

She reached out for the sensor helmet.