Doctor Who: Galaxy Four (2 page)

‘Why?’ Steven wanted to know.

‘Maaga will tell you.’

‘Maaga?’

‘Our leader.’

‘Why don’t you tell us?’ said the Doctor. ‘That would seem to be the quickest way.’

Her eyes chilled him. ‘Our mission was to rescue you. We have done that. We have no other instructions but to take you to Maaga. If you stay here more machines will come and you will be captured and taken to the Rills.’

The Doctor watched as One approached and stood beside her companion. He noted their similar clothing and the same absence of expression. There was something odd about these two. They weren’t physical clones, that was true, but he wondered if in some way they might be mental ones. It was not beyond the bounds of possibility. Something had to explain their lack of emotion.

‘Are the Rills the people who control these machines?’

‘They are not people,’ Two answered.

‘They are things,’ One added.

‘They crawl.’

‘They murder.’

Vicki jumped. ‘Murder?’

‘They have already killed one of us.’

The Doctor nodded in agreement. ‘All right, we’ll go and talk to Maaga.’

Vicki stepped forward and grabbed his arm, pointing into the distance. ‘Look.’

In the distance were four Chumblies. They were heading toward them, their visors flickering with colour and their wheels bubbling over obstacles as though they did not exist. Their direction was clear and their intent easily guessed. Yet they did not seem to Vicki as menacing as the two women standing before her. Something about them did not ring true. There was a vacancy about them she could not quite put her finger on.

But the two were busy, trying to retrieve the mesh from the Chumbley. Yet no matter how they pulled it would not move. The Chumbley stood quite still, not a flicker of life in it, but the mesh would not come free, despite their frantic efforts.

‘It’s caught somewhere,’ One gasped.

‘Or the robot is magnetised to make sure you can’t get it off,’ the Doctor observed.

‘But we must. We were instructed not to lose it.’

Steven watched the Chumblies advancing like mechanised cavalry. ‘Were you instructed to be killed as well? They’re pretty close.

Two looked over her shoulder. ‘We must go. Come with us.’

The Doctor shrugged at his young friends and they set off after the Drahvins, Two waving her gun at them to encourage speed.

Behind them, the pursuers reached the trapped Chumbley and encircled it. One of them stood before it, chittered a while, then extended a clawed arm, grasped the mesh and effortlessly pulled it clear.

Immediately it came to life, visor flashing, turned and set off with its comrades after the Doctor and his party.

They had a surprising turn of speed and the party had to run to stay ahead of them, the Doctor soon wishing that he had found a younger body to inhabit. There was not a lot to be said for this one. In no time at all his hearts were hammering, his lungs labouring like a pair of ancient bellows and his limbs moving only with the greatest of reluctance. Steven turned back and put an arm about him to help him, but his assistance did little to improve things. This was an old body and there was nothing to be done about it, despite the hectoring calls from the two Drahvins for more haste.

He was about to give up entirely when Steven gasped, ‘There it is, Doctor.’

The Doctor looked up and there before him was the Drahvin spaceship. It was some fifty metres in length, observation ports lining its side, a badly damaged aerial protruding from the top. There were serious burns in its sides and several patched holes. It had obviously been in a battle and taken a lot of punishment. But at least it offered sanctuary, for which the Doctor would be deeply grateful. With one huge last effort he forced himself onward until they reached the ship’s entry. It slid open and they piled inside, all out of breath.

‘Close external door,’ One snapped.

A voice came from a speaker above them. ‘Close external door.’

It slid shut and Vicki leaned exhausted against the observation panel to see the Chumblies come to a halt just outside. She could see their visors flashing and knew that they were reporting back, though she could hear nothing as yet. She turned away. ‘Are you all right, Doctor?’

The Doctor emptied his lungs, then inhaled deeply. ‘I think so. I’m just not very good at physical exercise these days. This body’s wearing out.’

‘Oh, it should last a while yet,’ Steven said. ‘God bless you for those words of comfort.’ ‘You’re welcome.’

The Doctor turned to the Drahvins: ‘What now?’

‘We shall go inside,’ Two said. ‘Follow me.’

She pressed her hand against a light in the bulkhead and another door slid open. She led the way into the adjoining compartment. This too, the Doctor noticed, was somewhat battered. Clearly, some attempt had been made to clear up the damage, but holed metal needs tools and he surmised that these were in short supply. The table to the side had one leg on chocks and the chairs looked none too sure of themselves. The shelving listed. A desk had been torn away from the deck and now stood forlornly to the bulkhead. Originally spartan, the compartment now looked utterly cheerless, no effort ever having been made to brighten it in the first place.

‘Warm and cosy,’ he muttered to himself. ‘A nice place to die.’

‘Biggish, isn’t it?’ Steven said, looking about him.

‘And more than a little backward, by the look of it,’ the Doctor replied. ‘The machinery I. can see looks fairly primitive.’

‘It got them through space,’ Vicki said.

The Doctor nodded. ‘Just.’

Another Drahvin entered. She too wore the same uniform as the others. She too was blonde. She too had the same absence of expression. Steven was beginning to think that they looked like mobile dolls. For all he knew, that was precisely what they were. Whatever the truth of it, he was beginning to dislike attractive women who showed no sign of feeling.

‘Silence. Maaga is coming,’ the third one said.

Maaga stepped into the room. She also was blonde, but something about her was different. Her face was lively and her eyes bright. She glanced briefly at the trio, then addressed Drahvin Two: ‘Report.’

Drahvin Two stood rigidly at attention, as did her companion. ‘Mission accomplished. We have brought the prisoners.’

‘Prisoners?’ Vicki wondered aloud.

But Maaga was not yet interested in her. ‘And the mesh sheet?’

‘It stopped the machine.’

‘Good.’

Now One spoke, though the Doctor was interested to note that she now showed a trace of emotion – that of fear. ‘We could not get the mesh back again. It became affixed to the machine.’

Maaga was clearly angry. The Doctor felt he should intervene in the interests of fair play. ‘I think you’ll find it was magnetised,’ he said.

Maaga glanced briefly at him, then returned to her two subordinates. ‘I will deal with you both later. Sit.’

They crossed to the chairs and did so, though they sat to attention, obviously in awe of their leader. Their faces lapsed into the normal lack of expression.

Maaga turned back to the Doctor. ‘I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, but I had to hear the report first. Please sit down.’

The Doctor grunted his thanks and did so. He waited expectantly for her to speak.

‘We are at war, you see,’ she said.

Now the Doctor really was interested. ‘War? With whom?’

‘The Rills and their machines. It’s a fight to the death. One of us has to be obliterated.’

‘As bad as that?’ the Doctor asked.

‘Very bad indeed. So bad that it is conceivable you too will be obliterated.’

Vicki was angry. She had no liking at all either for the ship or its inhabitants. Nor did she greatly care for what seemed to be a threat. Who did this woman think she was? ‘Who’s going to do that: you or the Rills?’

Maaga was unmoved by her anger. ‘When a planet disintegrates nothing survives.’

The Doctor was suddenly alert. ‘Disintegrates? I take it you mean this planet?’

‘Correct. It is in its last moments of life. Soon it will explode, taking all life forms with it. If my calculations are correct – and they usually are – that will happen in fourteen dawns’ time.’

Steven was not only alarmed. He was suspicious. ‘How can you be so certain?’

‘You don’t have to take my word for it. The Rills contacted us by radio and confirmed my figures. That is why they are repairing their spaceship – so that they can escape.’ A look of determination came onto her face. ‘And that is why we must capture it from them.’

Steven raised an eyebrow at Vicki. He was far from used to women having such an attitude. He preferred the old-fashioned type, gentle, loving, fond of homely things. The warlike variety did not win him over at all.

‘Our ship is powerless,’ Maaga continued. ‘We were innocently seeking a planet we could colonise when the Rills appeared and attacked us. My crew fought well, but the Rills’ armament was superior to ours. We damaged them all right and they had to come down, as we did. But I think their problems are less serious than ours, which is why we want their ship.’

‘And how will you get it?’ the Doctor asked.

‘We shall fight our way in and take over.’

‘And the Rills?’

‘They are of no importance.’

The Doctor nodded. He could see that the Drahvins had little respect for life. But the question uppermost in his mind was: would they respect that of Vicki, Steven and himself? The woman before him gave little evidence of such an inclination. Nor did her subordinates, sitting like graven images at the table. He wondered briefly why he always managed to materialise in a trouble spot, then returned his attention to Maaga. ‘Have you travelled far?’

‘We come from Drahva. But the vegetation is dying there. Our planet is cooling, so we have to find another which is habitable. There is not a lot of time left.

‘Where are your men?’ Steven asked. ‘Or are they back at home feeding the swans?’

She looked at him in puzzlement. ‘Men?’

‘Males,’ the Doctor prompted. ‘The counterpart of the female species.’

Her face cleared. ‘Ah, those. We have a small number of them, but no more than is necessary for our purpose. The rest were killed. They consumed valuable food and served no particular purpose. After all, why keep parasites? No civilization can go on doing that, especially when its planet is dying.’ She gestured disdainfully in the direction of her crew. ‘And these are not what you would call... human. They are ‘cultivated in test tubes as and when called for. We have very good scientists.’

‘All female, of course,’ Vicki said, noting that the crew still sat rigid and motionless despite the condescension of Maaga’s words.

‘Naturally,’ Maaga said. ‘I, by the way, am a normal life form. My crew are mere products and inferior at that.’ She surveyed them with no look of fondness in her eyes. ‘They are grown for a purpose and are capable of nothing more.’

‘And what is the purpose?’ the Doctor asked. ‘To serve. To fight. To kill.’

‘What an interesting place Drahva must be.’ He pondered a moment. ‘You’re quite sure the Rills attacked you?’

Maaga sighed. ‘We were in space above this planet when we saw a ship such as we had never seen before. We didn’t know it, but it was the Rills’ ship. It fired on us and we were brought down. But before we did we succeeded in firing back so that their ship crashed as well. They managed to kill one of my soldiers.’

Steven remembered what the two Drahvins had told him at the outset. ‘What do they look like, these Rills?’

‘Disgusting,’ Maaga said.

‘That’s no description– no description at all.’ ‘It’s all I will say.’

‘But now I begin to understand,’ the Doctor murmured.

‘So do I,’ Steven said. ‘This planet is going to explode and they’re managing to repair their ship in time. You haven’t, so you want theirs.’

‘We do not wish to be here when this planet ceases to exist. Do you?’

Before Steven could reply, Drahvin Three, who had been on watch at an observation window, turned and called, ‘Machine approaching.’

‘To your stations,’ Maaga snapped, crossing to the window. The other did the same, at another window. They saw one of the Rills’ machines chumbling across the landscape toward them, visor flashing and gun at the ready. Vicki thought again that she found them most attractive little machines. There was something almost human about them, though she knew such a thing was almost certainly impossible. A machine was a machine was a machine was a machine and that was the end of it. Even so... She thought it a pity that they would very likely turn out to be the enemy, particularly since that would make the Drahvins their allies. The situation was not overly full of promise.

Maaga and her soldiers had now crossed to protrusions from the bulkhead and were pressing numerous buttons. Canopies swung away, revealing two-grip guns and aiming ports. The guns looked as though they could do their job effectively, as did the Drahvins manning them.

Maaga peered through her aiming port, her expression one of determination. ‘Load,’ she commanded.

Each pressed another button and quiet red lights glowed forward of the grips.

‘Prepare to fire. Switch off the outside radio.’ Drahvin Two knocked up a switch.

‘Why do that?’ the Doctor asked.

‘They send the machines to tell us lies,’ Maaga said tightly. ‘We do not want to hear them.’

‘Possibly not, but we’d like to.’

But Maaga ignored him. The Chumbley was stationary now and the Doctor could see that it was speaking its message. It seemed a pity he couldn’t hear it,. There was something odd about the Rills trying to contact the Drahvins and receiving nothing but animosity in return. But then, he would put nothing past the hard-faced Maaga and her mindless minions.

‘Fire!’ Maaga snapped.

There was a harsh hissing sound and rays leapt out from the guns at the Chumbley. The machine was enveloped in smoke and glowed bright red from the attack. But its visor was covered now and it remained where it was. Still the rays stabbed at it as the Drahvins triggered their weapons again and again, and still the Chumbley remained. It looked to the Doctor very much as though the outer plating was protective, possibly even absorbing the energy hurled at it and using it, which would make the attack totally futile.