Doctor Who_ Amorality Tale Part 29

Now, where's Father Simmons? He's got a lot to answer for.'

'Gone. The Xhinn missionary force floats before you, in all its glory,' the Doctor said sarcastically.

'Well, I think they've overstayed their welcome. Time they went back where they came from.'

'Silence!'

'We lose patience with you, humans!'

'The Xhinn Triumvirate shall tolerate you no more!'

The three aliens unleashed an energy blast that nearly took Tommy's head off. He dived to the right behind a pew, while Brick went the other way. The Doctor pulled his companion behind a tall wooden pulpit, s.h.i.+elding them from the alien's line of sight.

'Sarah, I've got to get to the Time Bomb. Will you be alright here?'

She nodded, biting her bottom lip. 'Be careful Doctor!'

He smiled benignly at her. 'Always.'

Crouching low, he ran to one of the tall stone columns supporting the roof of the church. Peering around its edge, he could see Tommy and Brick were pinned down at the back of the church. The Xhinn Triumvirate were floating towards them, arms raised, ready to strike them down. The Doctor stepped out into the open.

'I thought it was me you wanted?' the Doctor shouted.

'That's why you had Mrs Ramsey bring Sarah here, as bait to trap me, wasn't it?'

A bolt of light sent him scurrying for cover. He looked for Tommy, caught the gangster's eye and nodded. 'Of course, I doubt the mighty Xhinn are ready for time travel. No flaming bottle, as Mr Ramsey so eloquently put it.'

Tommy fired at the Xhinn, getting their attention. They swivelled back towards him, ready to strike. Tommy reloaded and fired again, but still didn't hit any of the alien trio. The Xhinn were methodically vaporising Tommy's cover.

Behind the pulpit Sarah began to despair. Tommy might be top dog among the East End gangland, but he couldn't hit three glowing targets floating in the air. Her eyes followed the line of fire and she realised what was happening. Tommy wasn't shooting at the Xhinn. He was shooting past them.

The first gas lamp exploded with ear-splitting ferocity, sending a fireball pluming outwards from its wall mounting. It was quickly followed by a second explosion, as Tommy got his aim in. The next fireball skewed sideways, setting fire to the tapestry hanging nearby. The ancient fabric was ablaze in seconds, flames dancing up the wall.

'Now!' Tommy screamed. He ran around the side of the church, shooting and reloading. The Xhinn rotated slowly to follow his progress, blasting repeatedly at Tommy as he ducked and weaved his way around the church. It was only a matter of time before the triumvirate scythed him down.

The Doctor dropped to the floor and scuttled over to the pew where he had left the Time Bomb. It was still lying on the wooden bench, untouched and unnoticed for the moment. The Doctor stretched out a hand towards it but had to duck back down into shadow as one of the Xhinn floated overhead.

Brick emerged from behind his cover and ran down the main aisle, beneath the Xhinn. He joined Sarah behind the pulpit, a random energy blast searing past his head.

'Arthur, are you okay?' Sarah grabbed his hand.

'Yes, but I've got to get you out of here.'

'Doctor's orders, Arthur?'

'Something like that. Ready?'

She gave his fearsome fingers a squeeze of confirmation. Still holding hands, they ran out into the centre aisle. A Xhinn was waiting for them.

Tommy stopped behind a column, keeping the thick stone pillar between himself and the Xhinn. The aliens were getting closer with each attempt and his own shots were only creating minor chaos. He needed to strike a major blow to give the Doctor a chance to use his weapon against the Xhinn. Tommy glanced around and saw a copper tube running along the opposite wall of the church. It was the main pipe feeding gas to the many lamps.

'Get that and I'll cause some serious damage,' he said with satisfaction. Tommy took careful aim and fired. Moments later, the lamps began exploding along both sides of the church, one after another. As each lamp exploded, it sent a ma.s.sive fireball scorching out into the centre of the church. The Xhinn looming over Brick and Sarah was caught in a fireball, its flesh screaming as the flames incinerated the alien in seconds. The pair were thrown to the ground by the scorching heat of the flash fire.

The death of one of the triumvirate drove the other Xhinn into a frenzy. They began spinning like tops, firing randomly as they turned. Energy beams seemed to fill the air, like sparks from a Catherine wheel.

In the Xhinn vessel underground, the surviving policemen regained control of themselves. They looked around in wonder at the interior of the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p and in horror at the litter of corpses and colleagues. The zombie policemen collapsed to the ground, released at last from their reanimation.

PC Hodge stared at his blood-stained hands. For hours he had been working in the ga.s.sing chamber, herding the Xhinn's victims inside and then dragging the dead bodies back out again.

He had been willing himself to stop, to step aside from this butchery but his will was not strong enough to resist that of the Xhinn.

The worst thing had been witnessing what the monsters forced him to do, unable to resist. The stench of death had a.s.saulted his senses, filling his nostrils, sending his body into retching convulsions. Hodge decided to kill himself when this was over. It was the only way he could ever hope to block out the memories. But perhaps there was still some good he could do first.

One of Hodge's colleagues shouted to the others. 'Come on!

Something's happened we're free! We've got to get out of here!'

'No,' Hodge said, his voice strained and brittle. 'Remember what we've done here, the people who have died. Let's try and save those who are left!'

The Doctor got hold of the Time Bomb and hastily examined its two display units. The device was now fully charged and ready for use. It just needed to have a detonation countdown. The Doctor hunched over the device, punching numbers into a keypad. Beside him half the pew was destroyed by a random blast of alien energy, but he tried to ignore the melee around him. Get this wrong and he would live out all his remaining regenerations before he could get clear of the building.

Two numbers appeared on the digital display unit, with a blinking light beside them. The Doctor activated his sonic screwdriver, providing the final trigger for the Time Bomb. The countdown began.

25, 24, 23...

'Everybody get out!' the Doctor shouted. 'We've got less than half a minute.'

'Now he tells me,' Tommy said wryly. He was near the altar, at the furthest part of the church from the doors. The gangster starting running, shooting wildly into the air. Brick got to his feet and pulled Sarah upright. Pus.h.i.+ng her ahead of him, the big man started lumbering towards the exit. The Doctor watched them go past and then pushed the Time Bomb towards the two remaining Xhinn.

20, 19, 18...

The device slid to a halt beneath the aliens, who were still recovering from the demise of one third of the triumvirate. They looked down at the Time Bomb with dismay. The Doctor began running after Brick and Sarah. Tommy vaulted the altar and ran down the steps to the main aisle. The Xhinn turned away from each other. One faced the retreating trio running for the doors, while the other focused on Tommy, who was running towards the two aliens.

15, 14, 13...

Both Xhinn raised their arms and let loose deadly bolts of energy. Tommy dived to the floor, the beam just pa.s.sing over his body as it slid across the cold stone surface.

The Doctor ducked to one side and felt an energy beam pa.s.s his head. Sarah fell to the ground screaming, her legs suddenly useless.

10, 9, 8...

Tommy was trapped beneath a row of pews, the Xhinn hovering above.

Sarah looked back. Brick was lying on her legs, pinning her to the floor. His eyes stared into hers, sad and pleading. 'I'm sorry,' he whispered. The Doctor grabbed Sarah and tried to pull her out from under Brick.

The Xhinn fired down at the pews protecting Tommy, vaporising them.

5, 4, 3...

The Doctor managed to free Sarah and began pulling her towards the exit. 'No! We're not leaving him!' she screamed.

Tommy rolled out into the side aisle, just avoiding another deadly energy beam. He pointed his shotgun at the stained-gla.s.s window overhead.

Sarah and the Doctor dragged Brick towards the doors.

Behind them both Xhinn turned towards the Time Bomb, their arms raised. Tommy fired his shotgun, blowing a hole in the ma.s.sive window.

2, 1...

The Doctor and Sarah fell through the doorway, on to the stone steps outside, still dragging Brick behind them. Tommy flung himself at the church window as the shattered gla.s.s rained down around him. The two Xhinn fired at the Time Bomb, just as the device triggered its own detonation.

The Time Bomb exploded in a ball of black light which rapidly began expanding outwards from the device, swallowing everything around it. The Xhinn were enveloped by the darkness, their arms still pointing down at the device. The dark globe of energy surged outwards, folding itself around the interior of the church. Black light blazed from the windows of the church, throwing menacing shadows into the smog cloud outside. It sank down through the stone floor, into the soil below and caught the edge of the Xhinn vessel buried beneath Old Street. The darkness spread out through the vessel, consuming the living circuitry and structure.

Hodge was running up the tunnel when he heard the roar of the Xhinns.h.i.+p dying around him. Ahead the young constable could see the rescued people running for their lives, urged on by the rest of the policemen. The tunnel began collapsing around them.

Inside St Luke's Church the black light explosion turned to black fire, silent and searing. The counter on the face of the device began racing through a series of numbers. Zero became ten, ten became a thousand, a thousand became a million. The numbers pa.s.sed ever faster until the counter melted, no longer able to keep pace with the rate of change.

Sarah stared up in terror at the glowering shadows bursting through the doors of the church. 'Doctor, what's happening?'

He watched the dark light show with quiet fascination. 'The pa.s.sage of time is being vastly sped up within the boundaries of the explosion. Millennia are taking mere moments. No living creature can survive such a catastrophic chronometric acceleration.'

'Like seeing your life pa.s.sing before your eyes.'

'Yes, but the Xhinn are seeing their own future pa.s.s before their eyes while they are still living it.'

Two terrible cries a.s.saulted the minds of the Doctor and Sarah, as the Xhinn cried out in telepathic anguish.

'It is believed the Xhinn can live for thousands of years, by absorbing the energy released when one of their kind dies. The two caught in the blast are trying to feed off each other's energy as they die.'

'Cannibalism?' Sarah said with a shudder. The death-cry of the Xhinn was fading away as the black fire inside the church subsided. She crawled over to Brick, who was lying face down on the steps. Sarah rolled him over with difficulty and listened to his chest. There was no heartbeat. He was dead.

'He died saving me,' she said, too numb to cry.

'Another victim of the Xhinn.' The Doctor rubbed his hand against his forehead. 'I may never forgive myself for this, Sarah.'

'You did what you had to do.'

'That doesn't make it right. Murder can never be justified.'

'It wasn't murder,' Tommy said, as he walked around the corner of the church. 'You saved us all. That can't be murder.'

'I'll thank you not to tell me what's right and what's wrong, Mr Ramsey.' The Doctor got wearily to his feet and went inside the church.

'Who rattled his cage?' Tommy asked. He crouched besides Brick's body. 'I'll be hard pressed to replace you, Brick. Best enforcer I ever had.'

'His name was Arthur!' Sarah shouted, flailing at Tommy with her fists. Tears of anger ran down her face. 'His name was Arthur and he saved my life! He was worth ten of you!'

Tommy pushed her away and stood up, shoving his hands into his pockets. 'Have it your own way.'

Inside St Luke's the Doctor sat in a pew, pulling apart the Time Bomb. The device had served its terrible purpose. Now it must be destroyed, so it could never be used again.

Sarah joined the Doctor inside the church. The device had blown out all the fires, leaving the smouldering remnants of the tapestries hanging limply on the blackened walls. There was no sign of Xhinn, except for two silhouettes burnt into the ceiling.

Sarah pointed them out to the Doctor. 'When the atomic bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiros.h.i.+ma in 1945, those nearest the explosions were vaporised almost instantly,' she said.

'All that was left of some were silhouettes of their shadows on the walls.'

The Doctor pulled the last circuits apart and pushed the components into his satchel. 'I hope I never have to resort to such a weapon again.'

Sarah looped her arm through one of the Doctor's arms.

They sat in silence for a while, contemplating the empty church.

'I hate to agree with him Doctor, but Tommy's right you did save us all.'

'Not the thousands killed by the smog and its effects. Not all those who were sacrificed on the altar of the Xhinn's grand quest for new worlds to colonise. Not Father Simmons, who believed he was doing the work of G.o.d, but found his n.o.ble efforts had been warped and twisted by the Xhinn.'

'You said it yourself we can't save everyone. We had to prevent a greater tragedy,' Sarah insisted. 'We did.'

The Doctor was still not convinced. 'In the year 279 BC, King Pyrrho of Epirus won a victory over the Romans that proved so costly in consequence, it was as if the Romans had won anyway.'

'A Pyrrhic victory,' Sarah said. 'Hardly an apt comparison, Doctor.'

He got up and slung the satchel over his shoulder. 'Did I ever tell you about meeting Pyrrho?'

'No, I don't think you have.' Sarah followed the Doctor outside.

'A great military tactician but he just didn't think things through...'

Monday, December 8, 1952 The killer smog over London began to disperse as the new day dawned. It would be several days before the city's public transport system could return to normal, but the first trains were running again between stations. Traffic on the roads was still minimal as buses remained in garages for another day and car drivers stayed home. But weather reports talked of a gradual freshening of the air over London.

The East End had been hardest hit by the events of recent days, yet it seemed to be bouncing back quickest from the tragic loss of life. Neighbours rallied around families who had lost loved ones or had relatives in hospital. In the streets around Old Street regular police patrols were conspicuous by their absence.

Few policemen had reported back to duty and those that did seemed too ashamed to go far from the station. None of the men who escaped from the Xhinn vessel before it was destroyed were able to meet each other's eyes.

Rumours about what had happened were rife and tales about life and death during the smog would serve as gossip fodder for years to come. By mid-morning an army detail had appeared and began a strictly regimented clean-up of the streets. The sergeant in charge of the men knew only that there had been some sort of riot between the locals and the police, but n.o.body was talking. It was as if n.o.body dared speak about what had taken place...