Doctor Who_ Night Of The Humans Part 17

The Doctor smiled at her. 'Well, I'm not scared. You scared?

I'm not scared.'

195.

'Yeah, pull the other one.'

Twenty metres ahead of them, the ground burst open as yet another sliver of the comet slammed into the Gyre. Salt crystals and lumps of misshapen metal came raining down around them, but they didn't stop running.

'OK,' said the Doctor. 'Maybe just a little bit.'

They ran around the outer edge of the crater left by the last fragment, and Amy saw how it went down, deep below the surface of the salt plain, its centre filled with bubbling, molten metal. The thought that one of those things could hit any of them at any given moment, and that there was nothing they could do about it, filled her with terror, a terror that coursed through her veins and made her run even harder and faster than before.

She looked at the Doctor, and wondered if he really did feel fear. If he did, it didn't show in his face. He looked like he had done this, or something like this, a thousand times before.

Based on her experiences with him so far, she'd say he probably had, and this made her feel very suddenly that little bit safer.

When they reached Bird, Charlie's helipod, Slipstream stopped running, struggling to catch his breath, and he braced himself on his knees.

'That thing?' he said. 'We're flying in that contraption!'

Charlie nodded.

196.

'Are you insane, man? It's like a child's toy!'

'I know! said Charlie. 'Two of us'll have to hold on to the outside.'

He looked from Slipstream to the Doctor and back again.

'Oh, I see! said Slipstream. 'So I take it I'm one of the two, then?'

'Yes! Charlie replied bluntly. 'You are.'

Without further hesitation, he opened up the helipod's hatch and climbed inside, inviting Amy to join him. Amy turned back to the Doctor.

'You should get in! she said. 'Charlie can take us back to the TARDIS, but you're the only one who can fly it. You should be inside, where it's safer.'

The Doctor looked at her with an expression she couldn't quite read. He looked surprised, sad and deeply moved, all at the same time.

'No! he said. 'No. You get in. I'll be fine. Trust me.'

Amy nodded and climbed into the helipod, and then Charlie closed the hatch behind them. Seconds later, the engines whirred into life, and the twin horizontal propellers behind the cabin began chopping at the air. The Doctor took up his position to one side of the craft, his feet balancing precariously on one of its runners, clinging by his fingertips to the cabin's roof. He looked at Slipstream. 'Are you coming?' he asked.

Slipstream looked back across the salt plain; 197 at the smouldering craters that pockmarked its glistening surface and at the fires that had broken out in the human city.

He sighed and closed his eyes, then he climbed onto the helipod. The Doctor slapped his hand twice on the cabin roof, and they took off.

Inside the cabin, Amy and Charlie sat squeezed into a seat designed for one.

'OK. Where are we going?' asked Charlie.

'Take us to the TARDIS! Amy replied. 'Remember? Back where you found us?'

Charlie nodded. He lifted a small receiver to his mouth, and twisted a dial on the dashboard.

'Golden Bough, Golden Bough...' he said. 'This is Bird 1. Are you receiving me? Over.'

There was a moment's near silence at the other end of the line, when all they could hear was the faint hiss of static, but then...

'Hearing you loud and clear, Bird 1.' It was the voice of Captain Jamal. 'What is your location? Over.'

'We're heading back to the copper valley, to the Doctor's s.h.i.+p. He can bring us to you. Over.'

'Copy that, B ird 1.'

Another pause, but Amy was sure she could hear the Captain breathing at the other end of the line.

'I'm so glad you're OK... Charlie,' he said at last, his voice now trembling with emotion.

198.

'Copy that, Dad,' said Charlie. 'Over and out.'

They flew west, over the tangled black nest of plastic tubes and putrid green waters of the swamp. The helipod flew only a short distance above the tubes, the downdraft from its propellers striking a series of ghostly, atonal chords as they pa.s.sed over them.

The Doctor rapped his knuckles against the window three times.

'What is it?' Amy asked.

The Doctor pointed skywards.

'Higher!' he mouthed. 'We need to go higher!'

Amy turned to Charlie. 'He says we need to go higher.'

'Well we can't,' Charlie replied. This thing isn't designed to carry this kind of weight.'

Thunk-thunk-thunk. The Doctor was knocking at the window again, and still peering in at them both.

'Higher!' he mouthed, pointing at the sky. 'Go! Higher!'

Amy shrugged helplessly, and then she heard a heavy thud, and the back end of the helipod seemed to dip back, as if burdened with yet another pa.s.senger.

'What was that?' she asked. 'Charlie... What was that?'

Charlie leaned to one side, trying to see what had happened in one of the helipod's mirrors.

199.

'Not sure! he replied. 'But it didn't sound good.'

Something was happening outside the cabin. The Doctor was balancing with one foot on the runner, and frantically kicking at something out of Amy's view. Slipstream, meanwhile, edged his way towards the front of the helipod's cabin, as if he was backing away from something. The Doctor pulled himself back, and now both he and Slipstream were nearing the nose of the helipod, both still facing backwards, wide-eyed and almost paralysed with fear.

There was a heavy but somehow soggy-sounding thump as something landed on the transparent ceiling of the cabin, and Amy looked up to see a single, suction-cup foot stuck to the gla.s.s.

'Oh no! she said, and then again, 'Ohhh no.'

Another slimy foot came down and attached itself to the cabin roof. Then another. And another.

The Sollog crept its way out over the top of the helipod, so that it was almost blocking Charlie's view of the landscape ahead. Its eight feet hit the gla.s.s with a series of sickening plops as it drew closer to the Doctor and Slipstream.

'Please let it eat Slipstream... please let it eat Slipstream...'

said Charlie, and Amy looked at him, shocked though not necessarily appalled.

'Do something!' she said.

'Like what?'

200.

'I don't know. Try jiggling it up and down.'

'Jiggling it up and down? What does jiggling mean?'

'You know... jiggling. Go up and down. Try shaking it off.'

'Right. OK. Jiggling.'

Charlie gripped the helipod's control column and began shaking it vigorously. The whole craft shuddered in mid air, its nose tipping suddenly towards the ground and then jolting back up again. The Doctor and Slipstream both stumbled back, barely managing to hold on, and the Sollog staggered clumsily from side to side.

'Do it again!' Amy shouted.

Charlie nodded, and once again the helipod jolted up and down. This time the Sollog lost its footing altogether, and was sent skidding back across the roof, emitting a monstrous, high-pitched scream as it fell. There was a sickening splatter and crunch as it was sucked into one of the propellers, and a bright green gunk was sprayed out in all directions.

Hit full force by the shower of slime, the Doctor and Slipstream fell from sight.

'No!' Amy screamed, her hands pressed flat against the gla.s.s.

She couldn't see either of them. All that was visible, through the film of green slime now drizzling down the window, were the smouldering 201.

mounds of junk and the burning craters below them.

Then, with a heavy thump, a single hand came up and grasped the helipod's nose. It was followed, seconds later, by another, and then she saw the Doctor, pulling himself up. He was covered in what looked all too much like snot, and was far from amused. Bracing himself against the winds and the jolting movements of the helipod, the Doctor leaned around the nose of the craft. Reaching out with his hand and straining with all his strength, he lifted Slipstream up to safety.

'Did he have to do that?' said Charlie, shaking his head.

'Yes,' Amy replied, and then, as if it were self-explanatory, 'He's the Doctor.'

A red light started flas.h.i.+ng on the dashboard, and a loud repeated buzzing sound filled the cabin.

'What's that?' asked Amy.

Charlie took in a deep breath and winced.

'We've lost engine one,' he said. 'We're going down.'

202.

Chapter.

19.

The helipod clipped the razor-sharp ridge above the valley, and the jagged metal sliced through one of its runners like a hot knife through b.u.t.ter, narrowly missing the Doctor's foot. razor-sharp ridge above the valley, and the jagged metal sliced through one of its runners like a hot knife through b.u.t.ter, narrowly missing the Doctor's foot.

For just a fraction of a second, the craft seemed to recover, rising up above the valley, its single working engine howling with the effort, but then it plummeted again. The runners met the ground with a terrific screech, showers of bright orange sparks erupting in their wake.

The Doctor looked at Slipstream across the nose of the helipod. Though only an hour or so earlier the man had tried to kill him, the Doctor took no pleasure in seeing him look quite this terrified.

'Hold on tight!' he shouted.

203.

With its runners still squealing against the embankment of sc.r.a.p metal, the helipod raced down the hillside like a toboggan, every slight b.u.mp causing it to shudder violently.

Inside the cabin, Amy and Charlie were helpless at the controls. There was nothing they could do now but wait for the moment when they would reach the bottom.

That moment came a split second later, when the helipod came to a sudden, cras.h.i.+ng halt. The Doctor and Slipstream were flung clear of the craft, tumbling end over end through the dust and the refuse.

Landing awkwardly on his back, the Doctor coughed and spluttered and groaned with pain before getting to his feet. The dust and debris were beginning to settle, and he saw the helipod resting nose-first in a mound of sc.r.a.p. Its hatch creaked open, and Amy and Charlie climbed out, both still dazed by the impact.

'Where's Slipstream?' Amy asked, as she made her way toward the Doctor.

Scanning the bottom of the valley, the Doctor saw Slipstream lying face down and spread-eagled. He ran to his side, and turned him over. He was still breathing, but his eyes were closed.

'He's OK,' said the Doctor. 'Unconscious, but OK.'

'That's a shame,' said Charlie. 'Can't we just 204 NIGHT Of THE HUMANS leave him here?'

'No!' shouted the Doctor and Amy in unison.

'Joke! It was a joke! Well... kind of.'