The Romance Of Crime Part 31

'Pardon me for saying so, but you've gone a very funny way about that,' said the Doctor.

'You are a symptom of the social malaise, Doctor. You would not understand. It was necessary for somebody to take a stand. If I had not become Sentinel, the law would have crumbled and crime would have run amok.' He tightened his grip on Stokes. 'Permissiveness and licence have allowed degenerates like this repulsive creature to flourish. With helicon, keyed to my personality, I intend to return this system to order. Forever.'

A crazed glint had entered his eyes. 'I am the natural leader. Without me, our society will turn to dust in less than a generation, I promise you. I must have I will have ultimate, eternal control if we are to survive.'

'I thought it would be something like that,' said the Doctor.

'Unfortunately, I fear you are labouring under a ma.s.sive misapprehension.' He inclined his head slightly. 'You see, I've given it some thought, and I don't think helicon can be used by anybody but Xais. She can't work some formula on your behalf. That would be quite impossible. The transfer process is based on her personality, her soul if you like, travelling along a telepathic wavelength. Unless you share her psi-powers, such a transfer would be impossible to duplicate.'

'You're bluffing,' said Pyerpoint. 'Xais demonstrated the process for me, four years ago. At our first meeting. She activated helicon and gave it my personality. I spoke to myself!'

The voice of Xais came from the microphone still clutched in the Doctor's hand. 'The Doctor tells the truth, Pyerpoint.

The demonstration was faked. There is no formula to recreate the process.'

Pyerpoint released Stokes, who fell panting to the floor, red-faced. He grabbed the microphone from the Doctor and yelled into it, 'No, Xais. I spoke to myself!'

'You spoke to a computer projection,' she replied. 'You were so easy to manipulate. So desperate to believe. In the end, whatever you planned, I knew I could always better you.

You are a Normal.'

Pyerpoint's legs shook. 'This is... this is...'

The Doctor put a restraining hand on his shoulder. 'Steady on, old chap.'

Pyperpoint knocked the Doctor aside and spoke into the microphone.

'Sentinel,' he said. His eyes were rolling. 'Activate.

Destroy intruders.'

Xais turned as a clicking noise came from the white wall behind her. An entire section of it slid out slowly. The white block unfolded with incredible speed. Its appendages a long, vibrating knife, a whirring saw, and a spiked mace at the end of a chain were revealed at the same time as the circular base inflated and detatched itself from the wall.

The huge mining robot bore down on Xais.

She was startled for a second, but the speed of her reflexes allowed her to duck under the nearest block as it crashed into the hopper behind her. The robot turned to finish her off, but she rolled herself nimbly under it.

She stood facing the hoppers. The helicon inside was now ready for activation. This could be her only chance. The robot whirred and turned, struggling to orientate itself.

Xais gathered all her energies. She closed her eyes, concentrated, and then opened them again.

A glittering yellow haze cascaded from her eyes like a shower of golden stars. The energy cloud was attracted to the helicon and slipped through the gla.s.s fronts of the hoppers.

The reaction was immediate. The helicon roared. Xais screamed with pleasure.

Disorientated, the robot's sensors swung from the hoppers back to Xais. It advanced again, extending its vibrating knife with a view to impaling her.

Xais backed away and stumbled into a corner. In her exultation she dismissed the deal she had made with the Doctor. What did it matter now that her own existence was absolute and indelible? This host was unimportant, anyway.

There were other Normals to be used, nearby. Pyerpoint would be a fitting host.

Romana had been conserving her energies. With an enormous effort of will, she forced Xais to raise her hand and throw off the mask and suddenly found herself pressed into a corner with a robot bearing down on her. She took advantage of its lumbering movements to slip around its side.

She was tired and disorientated, but she realized instantly that she had no time to collect her wits. The robot turned again, its mace swinging for her and missing her by inches.

The temperature gauges on the hoppers shattered with successive tinkles of gla.s.s. Freezing steam poured from emergency vents, almost blinding her and confusing the robot.

K9 had almost cut through the s.h.i.+eld. The Doctor, now freed from the chair, paced up and down, desperate to know what was going on on the other side. The microphone had relayed a confusing variety of sounds. 'Come on, K9, come on!'

'Estimate success in twenty-four seconds,' said K9. The red ray was now angled downward, carving out the outline of a man-sized arch.

Pyerpoint was slumped against a wall, giggling to himself.

'I will have control soon,' he said. 'Helicon will give me control!'

Stokes, who had picked himself up and dusted himself down, huffed. 'Madman.'

The ground started to shake and the lights flickered. 'What the h.e.l.l is going on behind there?' cried Spiggot.

K9 shot back from the s.h.i.+eld as the section he had carved out fell backwards into the corridor with a clang that all but deafened the Doctor, who was standing closest. A cloud of dust and smoke was released from the storage chamber beyond.

'Romana!' The Doctor covered his nose and mouth with the ends of his scarf and leapt through the hole. Romana staggered into his arms and he pulled her back.

Pyerpoint brushed past them. He dashed into the storage chamber and looked about at the hoppers. Each of them looked as if it was about to burst open and release the straining helicon inside. The robot, thoroughly confused, was spinning around wildly.

'Xais!' cried Pyerpoint. 'Xais!' He strayed too near a steam vent and scalded his good hand, which dropped the laser pistol. He screamed.

'I am here,' said the voice of Xais. 'I am here, Pyerpoint.'

His foot touched something. It was the mask. The lips moved. 'Pyerpoint. You must wear my face. Wear it! I will give you the activation formula. I was lying to the Doctor, of course!'

Pyerpoint, desperate to believe, picked up the mask.

Slowly, he brought it down on his face.

In the moment that followed, Xais and Pyerpoint exchanged the horror and the sickness of their personalities. Each struggled to take control.

The robot advanced and pushed its vibrating knife up through Pyerpoint's ribcage. He coughed and choked. The robot withdrew and ambled off.

Pyerpoint's body collapsed. The mask clung on, its host's blood dribbling through its lips. 'No!' it cried. 'No, Pyerpoint!

You must not die! You cannot die! I need you! You are to be my new host! Without a living mind, I cannot stabilize the helicon! You must live!'

He died.

Xais felt his soul recede and then disappear.

'No!' she cried. 'Doctor Doctor, help me! You must help me, Doctor!'

The robot lurched through the gap in the s.h.i.+eld and advanced on the Doctor. He bundled Romana into Stokes's arms and shouted, 'K9!'

The dog rolled forward slowly. 'Reserves exhausted, Master...' He ground to a halt.

'Oh dear,' said the Doctor. The robot's whirring saw slashed out, slicing one of the ends of the Doctor's scarf.

Spiggot dashed forward. He lunged for the concealed control panel under the robot's flailing arms and fumbled for the activator b.u.t.ton.

The saw halted an inch from the Doctor's face.

He stepped around it cautiously and shook Spiggot's hand.

'Do you know,' he told the policeman, 'I think your entire life has been leading up to that moment.'

'Doctor!' Xais called from the storage chamber.

The Doctor shook himself, nipped through the hole in the s.h.i.+eld again, and answered his enemy. He had to shout over the rumble of the helicon. 'Yes?'

The mask, still attached to the dead body of Pyerpoint, pleaded with him. 'Please, Doctor. You must wear my face. I was able only to activate the helicon, to prepare it. I need a host to complete the transfer. The helicon is dangerous, aware but mindless. Without my direction it will consume the planet.'

'I'm sorry, Xais. If I give you what you ask, I condemn millions of innocent people to suffering.'

'You will obey me!' shrieked the mask. 'I order you! I will consume you! You will wear my face! Doctor!'

Romana came to stand beside the Doctor. 'We'd better leave, Doctor.'

'I know.' He took a final look at the hate-filled features of the snarling mask and followed Romana through the s.h.i.+eld.

'Then die, Doctor!' Xais called after him. 'Die! The helicon will consume you, but I shall live forever!'

The hoppers exploded.

'The TARDIS, now!' cried the Doctor. He picked up the inert K9 and set off down the corridor at a furious pace.

Spiggot hurried after him, with Romana and Stokes bringing up the rear.

A wave of expanding silver burst from the hoppers, filling the storage chamber and swallowing up the robot, the body of Pyerpoint and the protesting mask of Xais in seconds. It flowed down the corridor and into the mine, roaring and moaning, a formless ma.s.s, sentient but with no soul.

Guided by a powerful homing instinct, the Doctor bounded into the repair bay. Spiggot, Stokes and Romana followed seconds later. The mine vibrated as the roaring tide of expanding helicon poured along its corridors.

The Doctor was ferreting in his pocket with his free hand.

'Come on, Doctor!' cried Romana. 'Let us in.'

'I can't find the key!' he shouted back. 'And we can't use K9, he's dead to the world.'

The helicon swallowed up the corridor outside the repair bay.

'When we were interrogated, back up on the Rock,' the Doctor said desperately. 'I didn't leave it up there, did I?'

'No,' said Romana as coolly as she could. 'I remember you picking it up.'

Stokes pounded his fists on the door of the TARDIS. 'Let us in, let us in!'

Spiggot glanced over his shoulder. 'Oh, no!'

The helicon was flowing into the repair bay.

'Got it!' The Doctor held the key aloft. He jammed it in the lock, opened the door, and pushed the others inside.

He waved at the gus.h.i.+ng helicon. 'Goodbye!' Then he threw himself inside the TARDIS. A moment later it dematerialized.

The helicon consumed the repair bay and went on to swallow the mine. Unsated, it burst open the walls confining it and splashed out onto the surface of Planet Eleven.

It spread in all directions at unbelievable speed. The highest peaks of the Jilharro mountain range were buried in less than five minutes.

The gobbling ma.s.s continued to expand, absorbing the thick gases in the atmosphere, seeping down and damping its tiny core, and covering the surface of the small planet.

15.

Farewells.

With some deft handling of the controls, and some help W from Romana, the Doctor brought the TARDIS into a hovering orbit at a safe distance from the rapidly altering Planet Eleven. The police box materialized soundlessly.

Aboard the craft, Spiggot and Stokes were slumped against a wall of the control room. Stokes had decided merely to accept the impossible dimensions of the interior. His concern from the very start of this deplorable business had been to escape, and it would be ill-mannered to complain about the means. And he was quite simply beyond gaping.

'D'you know,' said Spiggot, 'if there's one thing this affair has taught me, it's this.'

Stokes raised a sarcastic eyebrow. 'Never doubt the word of a time-travelling robot dog?'

Spiggot ignored the quip. 'It's shown me that when it really comes down to it, when your life's on the line and the odds are against you, well, perhaps there's something more important than just staying alive.' He nodded. 'Soon as I get back to Five, I'm going after Angie and the kids. I'll find them, no matter how long it takes.'

Stokes frowned. 'I don't understand. Surely you'll find them where you left them?'

'Er, well, I didn't actually leave them,' Spiggot confessed.