Doctor Who_ The Art Of Destruction Part 16

The Doctor sat up. His head felt raw and it hurt to think. 'What do you mean, "template"?'

'The future of the Valnaxi race.' The words came from the male's precisely sculpted lips, but the voice was identical. A tear was running down his cheek. 'Translation pattern now complete. New physical form achieved for both genders. Templates can be discarded.'

'We wished you to surrender peacefully,' said the newly hatched golden Rose, her lips turning down in dismay. 'But we must stop your mental disruption before the Wurms destroy what is left of our army.'

The two figures advanced on the Doctor like golden shades, perfect arms outstretched, perfect hands hooked into claws. Basel busied himself not just with s.h.i.+fting pictures and figurines but with scoping out Faltato whenever he could, looking for the telltale bulge of the Doctor's device in the monster's flared jacket. They had moved to the cavern where the bats had attacked Solomon. Unfortunately Faltato had gone straight next door in search of his missing masterworks. He hadn't found them, but he'd found the tunnel the Doctor had opened up and deliberately caused a cave-in. Not just to stop golems or guardians creeping up behind them, Basel reckoned, but to prove to them there was nowhere they could go. The screwdriver thing was their only chance. It had driven those bats away from Solomon; it could maybe protect them again. It had to be better than just loading up this freaky treasure till their usefulness was at an end.155.

Faltato was watching them from a safe distance, as if worried the stuff was about to blow up in their faces.

'Are these from the same period of Valnaxi history too?' asked Adiel, piling some crockery carefully into the transporter.

'Yes,' he snapped. 'And so are those in the next cavern.'

'That was the last one,' Basel informed him. 'No more after that just tunnels.'

'But there must be more!' Faltato railed, stamping several feet on the floor. ' The Lona Venus, The Flight of the Valwing The Lona Venus, The Flight of the Valwing. . . They must be here! Where are they?'

Suddenly a loud, gurgling voice burst from Faltato's communicator, clear as day. 'We have victory over the guardians.'

'King Ottak!' gasped Faltato. 'I I'm delighted!'

'The routes to the warren are clear and have been scanned and mapped out in full,' he went on. 'After searching for so long, we shall finally seize the Valnaxi masterworks for public desecration. Our hearts, and the hearts of our people, will soon fill with rejoicing. I will be with you shortly.'

'Great!' squeaked Faltato, his pincers flopping due south. With a final hiss, Ottak broke contact.

'That's it, then,' said Basel weakly. 'They don't need us for protection no more. We're dead.'

Adiel took a deep breath. 'We've got nothing to lose.'

Suddenly she ran off. Faltato turned automatically to stop her and the second his back was turned, Basel jumped on him. He grabbed hold of the alien round its suited midriff, patting over its pockets for the screwdriver.

'How dare you touch me there there!' Faltato spluttered between highpitched gasps, then fell writhing to the ground. Adiel doubled back and joined the struggle, but soon cried out as a pincer locked on to her arm, as a tongue lashed out and wound round her neck. Basel found another pincer closing round his throat. He clawed at Faltato's slimy face, jabbing his fingers into his eyes, until two more tongues took hold of his wrists and yanked them so hard he thought both arms might jump out of their sockets.156.

'Biped savages,' Faltato groaned, legs scrabbling beneath him as he tried to right himself. 'No one crosses me. . . '

Basel felt the world start to throb into darkness, felt the pincer start to scissor into his neck. They'd blown their last chance. Now it was over.

The Doctor backed away but the golden shades moved with balletic speed and grace to grab him. While the male held him in a bearhug, the female's fingers closed round his throat. She looked oddly unhappy about it, though, staring at her hand as if she did not trust its movements.

Being throttled ought to hurt, the Doctor decided. But it didn't.

'Ha!' he laughed in the female's face. 'Is that all you've got? Can't feel a thing!' The magma form bubbled up to him, surged around his leg, then pulled back uselessly. 'Looks like your guard dog's lost his teeth too. This golden skin makes a warrior out of anything that lives shame you didn't worry about them ever turning on you you.' He brought up both legs and planted his feet in the female's stomach, then pushed. That broke her grip on his throat and made the male overbalance, dragging the Doctor down with him. But the female was soon back on the attack. The Doctor rolled backwards out of the way so she stumbled into the male instead.

'New bodies, always tricky getting used to them, isn't it?' the Doctor remarked, eyeing the nearest of the dark doorways. 'Cup of tea helps, I always say. Got any tea? Africa's a good place for tea. We could sit down, have a cup of pure Kenyan, chat things through '

'Do not fight control!' shouted the male. 'Our enemies are near. We must have defences!'

'And I must have Rose!' he yelled back. 'Solomon too. They're not templates to be discarded, they're people. If you will release them and send them out of this place through one of your teleporters. . . then I'll give myself up to you.' He grinned suddenly. 'And what a catch!

I'm spoiling you here.'

The golden figures looked at each other. Then they took a few steps backwards as a golden smoke began to waft across the centre of 157 the arena. Moments later, two golems appeared the real Rose and Solomon, standing still as statues but not yet mutated.

'Reverse the effect!' he demanded.

'If that were possible,' said the female that had taken Rose as her template, 'we would have done so on you.'

'Good point. So it's down to me,' muttered the Doctor, rus.h.i.+ng over to them, pulling the datagive from his pocket. He paused for just a second then gave Rose the first dose, Solomon the second. He held his breath, wondering if it would work, if the magma effect would be driven out by the sudden cellular disruption. Or if all his wild improvising and Fynn's bravery had been for nothing.

'Now you must surrender yourself,' said the male. 'Now you must stop fighting.'

'You said you'd teleport them to safety.'

'There is nowhere safe while you block our network. But they will will be taken from here.' be taken from here.'

The Doctor bit his golden lip and closed his eyes. Darkness pressed in on him almost at once. There was a force in that darkness that wanted to do his thinking for him, wanted to control him. 'Take care, Rose,' he whispered as he let those thoughts crash in and drown him. 158 [image]

The imperious question roared around the cavern: ' if you are quite finished playing with the bipeds, Faltato? if you are quite finished playing with the bipeds, Faltato? ' '

For a split second Adiel could only feel overwhelming grat.i.tude as the leathery tongue around her throat slackened its hold and as Basel fell choking to the rocky ground. But then she saw King Ottak and his Wurm hordes squelching into the chamber. Lumps had been pecked out of them, their pink-grey skin was blackened and much of their soil had fallen away, but the mood of bloodl.u.s.t and elation was unmistakable. Repulsed by the horror of the scene, she found her attention taken by one who stood out or rather laid down from the rest. The giant worm had been chopped in half and was twitching obscenely on a stretcher that looked like the tough green carapace of some enormous insect.

'Your Majesty,' said Faltato, letting Adiel fall panting to the floor. 'I was forced to restrain the bipeds. They attempted to '

The Wurm king's voice was an icy rasp. 'Where is the Lona Venus Lona Venus? Where are the masterworks? I wish to spit on them.'

'Ah.' Faltato grimaced. There might be a tiny teeny teeny-tiny problem there.'159.

Adiel s.h.i.+vered in the long pause that followed.

'Explain.'

'The, um, bulk of the treasures hail from the most recent eras of Valnaxi history. While still of great merit '

'Faltato.' Ottak slithered closer. 'Did you, or did you not, identify this warren as the last great Valnaxi stronghold, said to be piled high with the greatest art treasures of all?'

'Based on the visual evidence gathered from the last warren, it was only logical to a.s.sume '

'And have we, or have we not, travelled thousands of light years to secure these promised treasures?'

'I'm sure the treasures will be here somewhere somewhere and that you will seek them out with your usual aplomb ' and that you will seek them out with your usual aplomb '

'Cover the exits,' Ottak told his troops.

They squirmed off to obey.

Faltato s.h.i.+fted uneasily. 'King Ottak?'

'If the artworks are not here, then this is not the last of the warrens, as you claimed. It is merely a forgotten outhouse with obsolete defences, of no real worth.' He hissed. 'You are therefore a charlatan or a fool and I will not tolerate either.'

'The great works must be here somewhere,' said Faltato desperately.

'Underground, perhaps. Or or maybe secreted in the summit '

'Our scans show there is nothing more!' Ottak insisted. 'I will not be cheated. Squad! Take aim.'

Adiel stared in horror as, with an ominous whirr of servos, the Wurms' stump-guns trained themselves on Faltato. With a yelp he yanked her and Basel back to their feet, held them to him close like a frightened child clutching his teddies.

'Bipeds are soft and fleshy, Faltato,' Ottak went on. They will not s.h.i.+eld you from us.'

Basel tried weakly to struggle, but Adiel found herself paralysed. Time seemed to slow to a dread crawl.

Death was coming.

160.

The Doctor opened his eyes but they felt gritty and sore. 'Feeling something! That's nice. Ow! Niceish.' He knelt up and rubbed at his eyes with his hands.

Unless he was very much mistaken, they were fleshy, dirty and definitely non-golden hands. Breathlessly he rolled up his sleeve, clutched hold of his ankle, scratched his b.u.m and stuck a finger in his ear. 'I'm back!' he shouted.

'I was all ready to give myself up. But your magma gave up on me first! Couldn't handle the cell walls and gave up, just as it did with the 'shroooms! Ha! Ha! ' He whooped for joy and shook his head in disbelief. 'How jammy am I? I'm immune, and now Rose and Solomon will be too! If you have a problem, if no one else can help, call for FUNGUS MAN! He'll be there in the shake of a spore to. . . ' The Doctor tailed off. 'Um, h.e.l.lo?' ' He whooped for joy and shook his head in disbelief. 'How jammy am I? I'm immune, and now Rose and Solomon will be too! If you have a problem, if no one else can help, call for FUNGUS MAN! He'll be there in the shake of a spore to. . . ' The Doctor tailed off. 'Um, h.e.l.lo?'

He took in his surroundings not that there was much to take in. He seemed to be in a deep, dark cave. The only illumination came from veins of faintly glistening light tracing wayward paths over the steep walls. They pulsed gently as if the rock itself was alive.

'You are not Fungus Man.' The voice came out of the darkness, ancient and dry, like the crackle of leaves in a bonfire.

'Um, no,' he admitted.

'I'm the Doctor.

Where are Rose and Solomon?'

'They have been taken for teleportation above as you requested.'

'Are they safe?'

'You have risked all our lives.' A pause. 'You are not like the human creatures.'

The Doctor's eyes probed the darkness, trying to see who was talking. 'Have you been peeping?'

'We have scanned you.'

'You're right. But you're not like the human creatures either, are you so why are you trying to be?' Silence. 'Oh, come on. s.h.i.+ne a little light on the subject.'

The veins of light glowed brighter. Now the Doctor could make out strange, delicate machinery and instrument panels built above rocky perches set high in the rock. The controls seemed powered by thick 161 conduits that snaked down out of sight, presumably into the molten magma below. Clearly this was a centre of operations or perhaps a throne room. Seven huge ornate structures, halfway between chairs and perches, resolved themselves from out of the gloom. In each, the body of a fierce, bird-like creature with fiery golden scales was propped, immediately familiar from so many statues and paintings in the caves far above. Faint black-gold smoke gusted round the bodies. The Doctor took a step closer. 'So. The Valnaxi race lives on after all. The last survivors.'

'We are the Council of Valnax,' said the ancient disembodied voice.

'Our bodies are long since dead. Only the intelligence survives.'

'Sentient smoke,' the Doctor murmured. 'And there's no smoke without fire. You did this to yourselves, didn't you?'

'We knew the Wurms would revenge themselves on us.' He turned at the sound of the low growl to find the female in Rose's image standing just behind him. 'Knew that they would scour the universe for all traces of our civilisation, to steal our art and treasures.'

'And we knew that we could never return home.' The male based on Solomon had also stepped out from the darkness. 'That we faced eternal persecution.'

'So the chosen few hid themselves away down here,' the Doctor surmised.

'Though we lack flesh, we are many thousands,' the old voice said.

'Though most choose to lie sleeping until they have a future to wake to.'

'Waiting for the heat to die down under a volcano!' The Doctor grinned. 'That's brilliantly twisted. Ha, ha, ha! That's genius!'

'The planet's mantle sustains our systems,' came the aged whisper.

'And fresh eruptions hid all traces of our arrival.'

'Apart from a tekt.i.te or two.' The Doctor took a step closer to the thrones. 'But you knew the Wurms would find you some day. In fact, you wanted them to. You didn't leave those riddles and clues to the whereabouts of each successive warren for your descendants to find, 'cause your descendants are down here with you.' He lowered his voice. 'You set a trap, didn't you? A long, slow trap.'162.

'The Wurms are brutally efficient but unimaginative,' came the old, crackling voice. 'By defending each warren in the same way, we have conditioned their responses.'

'Each time,' said the female, 'they must scout the land, fight the guardians and the ranks of local sentries '

'People and animals,' said the Doctor savagely, 'living creatures whose purpose you perverted and pressganged into perpetuating this pathetic war.' He paused. 'Blimey, what a lot of p's! Can't you give p's a chance?'

The Wurms thrive on conflict,' said the male. 'It was important to satisfy their desire for violence, to lead them onwards.'

'So they battle their way through to a deactivation plaque and shut down the auto-defences,' the Doctor concluded. Then they ransack the warrens to their heart's content and pick up the clues pointing them on to the next little treasure trove. But here for the one and only time it's different.'

The deactivation plaques respond only to the touch of flesh. The plaque far above is a fake, a decoration. It conceals a genetic sampler designed to extract DNA, life essence and psychic energy at first touch. Everything we need to reformat our race from a new template.'

'Why?'

'If the Valnaxi are ever to return to our home world and know peace, we need new ident.i.ties. A new form.' The smoke swirled in a tight, impatient motion. The form of our tormentors.'

The Wurms?'

The Doctor stared in consternation.

'Why d'you wanna look like Wurms?'

'External appearances are irrelevant,' said the female. 'As artists we see through them to perceive the truth of things.'

'What kind of an answer's that?' the Doctor complained. 'And why such an elaborate scheme? Surely you must have had Wurm prisoners you could have taken as templates?'

The smoke darkened a touch.

'Wurms disintegrate themselves rather than remain prisoners. In any case, in the war time such technology did not exist. Science does not come easily to our race. It took many years to refine the process.' A pause, then the voice con163 tinued more sadly, 'We overestimated our enemies' abilities believed the Wurms would find our warren here far, far sooner. We thought, perhaps, 300 years. . . '