Doctor Who: Shining Darkness (6 page)

Mesanth nodded.

For a moment – for one silly, heart-stopping moment – Donna imagined that maybe the Doctor had found out who’d kidnapped her and was riding to her rescue. She realised she was smiling when the muscled guy frowned at her.

‘What’s so funny?’ he barked.

‘Nothing,’ said Donna defensively.

Mesanth turned towards her, his huge eyes wide and unblinking.

‘You’re thinking that this is your friend, the Doctor, coming to rescue you?’ he asked.

The tone of Mesanth’s voice suggested that he knew something she didn’t. If it
wasn’t
the Doctor…

‘Could be,’ she said, trying to sound as positive as possible.

‘Could be,’ said Garaman. ‘But isn’t.’ He smiled tightly. ‘Sorry.’

‘So who is it then, Mr Know-It-All?’

Garaman folded his arms and gave her a smug look.

‘Just a minor annoyance,’ he said. ‘But you know what they say: keep your friends close and your enemies even closer. As long as we know where they are and what they’re doing, they’re fine. Sadly for you, though, it’s not this Doctor person.’

Donna’s heart sank.

Wherever he went, the Doctor thought, it was the same old story, wasn’t it? One group of intelligent beings (whether they were robots, humans, multidimensional entities living in a fold in space-time or whatever) decided that another group didn’t qualify for basic rights, human or otherwise. Sometimes it was based on biology; sometimes on culture or religion or on whether they preferred eating trifle with a spoon or a fork. But what always followed was persecution, war and death. Lots of death. And no matter how advanced or civilised they were, they always managed to justify it. To themselves, if not to anyone else.

‘I don’t know what you did,’ said Boonie, breaking him out of his reverie, ‘but the range of our sensors, never mind their sensitivity, has almost doubled.’ He narrowed his eyes and stared at him. ‘Just who are you?’

‘I’ve told you – I’m the Doctor.’

‘That’s not a name – it’s a job title.’

‘Well, as long as I get the job done, isn’t it enough?’

Boonie gave him a thoughtful look. ‘For now, maybe.’

‘A little thank you wouldn’t go amiss, either.’

‘Thank you,’ said Boonie, almost reluctantly. ‘But I’m still not convinced that you’re on our side.’

‘Oh, believe me,’ said the Doctor. ‘
I’m
not sure whose side I’m on yet, so that probably makes us even. But if you want any more of my help, you’re going to have to trust me. Tell me about this Karris system.’

Boonie thought for a moment and nodded.

‘According to the database,’ Boonie said, tapping at the controls and bringing up a set of whizzy-looking graphics, ‘it’s not a particularly interesting system: a red giant sun, two gas planets and a small, human-suitable planet. According to records, it was once quite a nice place, but solar flares have turned it into something of a desert.’

‘Natives?’

‘Primitive ape-like creatures called the Jaftee are at the top of the evolutionary ladder here – simple tool-makers, builders. No advanced technology.’

‘So why d’you think the Cult have stopped over here?’

‘Could be a way of trying to shake us off,’ Boonie suggested.

‘And if they think they’re still shielded,’ the Doctor said, ‘then they should be on their way pretty soon.’

‘Would make sense,’ Boonie agreed.

The Doctor gave a great big stretch.

‘So while we wait to see if they do, why don’t you tell me a bit more about this Khnu em Llodis woman? With a name like that, I’m sure she has an interesting story.’

As the snowy glare of the transmat field faded, the blood-red light of Karris’s sun washed over everything. Donna’s skin began to tingle, and she realised it was because of the constant slew of sand grains, battering against her in the wind. The air smelled dry and dead, of heat and of the flinty tang of the sand.

‘Ahhhh…’

It was Mesanth, standing by her side and letting out a sigh of what Donna realised was relief.

‘Ahhh?’ she muttered, squinting to keep the sandstorm out of her eyes.

‘Smells like home,’ explained Mesanth, flexing his fingers like a cat kneading a woolly jumper. ‘Bliss!’

‘Smells of death,’ muttered Ogmunee, the muscled guy that had given her such dirty looks aboard the ship. He stood alongside her, at his back one of the bimbots, cold and impassive and silent.

‘Well before you start trying to sell me a timeshare here,’ said Donna, casting around for somewhere to shelter from the relentless sandstorm that threatened to scour her skin down to the bone, ‘can we at least get under cover? Assuming there
is
some cover. I’m beginning to wish I’d brought my coat.’

She squinted, sheltering her eyes, and scanned the surface of Karris. Clear to the horizon, in every direction, was nothing but flat, orange sand. It was like Norfolk, only blisteringly hot.

She turned back to see Mesanth skipping away across the sand, some sort of device in his hand bleeping and
twittering
. Ogmunee scowled at her and followed him, the robot at his tail.

‘So where’s this segment thing, then?’ Donna gasped, racing to catch up with them. Ogmunee pointed downwards.

‘So why not just beam us straight down there, then? Giving us the scenic tour, are you?’

‘Too risky,’ said Ogmunee laconically. ‘The sandstorms are generating too much electrostatic interference for us to be sure that we’d materialise at all. And we haven’t mapped the tunnels yet.’

‘Oooh!’ said Donna sourly, pushing back her hair as it whipped around her. ‘Tunnels! You know how to spoil a girl, don’t you?’

‘Why did we bring her?’ Ogmunee asked Mesanth tiredly as the creature rotated on the spot, scanning the ground beneath them with his squeaking device.

‘Despite what Garaman thinks,’ Mesanth said, ‘I believe that Donna has more in common with us than she might believe. It’s only courteous to include her in our… activities.’

Ogmunee just grumped and scowled at Donna – who wasn’t sure she swallowed Mesanth’s explanation. She wondered if it were more to keep Donna out of Garaman’s face. Suited her fine.

‘She’s more likely to be a liability than an asset. Garaman’s losing his mind,’ he said.

A second later, Mesanth let out a little hiss. ‘Ah!’ he exclaimed. ‘The entrance! About five metres this way.’

And off the three-legged lizard went, Donna and
Ogmunee
and the robot in hot pursuit. Mesanth paused a few seconds later at what looked like nothing more than a flattish, sand-coloured rock lying on the ground. In the midst of the sandstorm around them it was almost invisible. He pushed at it with one of his feet and it slid effortlessly aside, rotating as if pivoted at one corner.

‘You’re stronger than you look,’ Donna said, casting a sidelong glance at Ogmunee. ‘Should’ve got Mr Muscles here to do it.’

‘No strength involved,’ said Mesanth, slipping the scanner into one of the pouches of his shoulder belt. ‘It’s counterbalanced.’

As the rock continued to swing out of the way, Donna saw a flight of rough-hewn steps, the colour of the sand, descending into the darkness. With a glance at her and Ogmunee, Mesanth stepped down into the shadows.

KHNU EM LLODIS
had been a genius. Well, that’s what she told everyone. And from what the Doctor gathered, it sounded like pretty much everyone believed her.

‘One of our greatest roboticists,’ Li’ian said as the Doctor scanned the scrolling display in front of him.

She’d taken him to the ship’s ‘library’ (little more than a storeroom with some rickety shelves and a desk) and shown him dozens of documents and transcripts relating to Khnu, stretching over more than a decade, when the scientist had been at her height.

‘So what went wrong?’

He spun in his seat to face Li’ian. She shrugged.

‘Some say she just went mad.’

‘Happens a lot,’ the Doctor agreed. ‘Scientists. Always going mad. Especially the top-class ones.’ He paused and looked up at Li’ian. ‘You never hear of the second-rate ones going mad, though, do you? Always the geniuses. Funny, that.’

‘Some say she discovered a truth that threatened the entire galaxy.’

‘That’ll be what she meant by this bit, then,’ he said, turning back to the display and reading aloud. ‘“But there is a dark heart to our shining empire, a dark heart that, until now, we have chosen to ignore. A dark heart that, if not addressed, will rise up and destroy all that we have built.”’ He spun back to face Li’ian. ‘What d’you reckon she meant by that?’

Li’ian nodded thoughtfully and folded her hands on her lap. ‘Everyone assumed that she was talking about machine intelligences,’ she said simply. ‘That speech was the last one she ever gave. En route back to her own planet, after the conference, her ship was destroyed.’

‘
Mysteriously
destroyed,’ corrected the Doctor, pointing to the screen.

‘
Mysteriously
destroyed,’ agreed Li’ian. ‘There were rumours that she was killed because she was speaking the truth.’

‘Well,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s a very flexible thing, the truth, isn’t it?’

‘Not for her,’ Li’ian said. ‘For Khnu, it was always very clear. Very black and white.’

The Doctor took a deep breath.

‘Anyway,’ he said. ‘Enough of the official documents. What do
you
think?’

‘Me?’ Li’ian seemed surprised.

‘You’re aboard a ship, tracking people who – I assume – think like Khnu did. This Cult of Shining Darkness. They’ve stolen a whopping great lump of technology from an art
gallery
, and now they’ve stopped off at a planet that doesn’t seem to have much more going for it than Lanzarote. And you’re still following them. You must have some idea of what they’re doing.’

Li’ian took a breath and glanced around the empty library room as if she thought she might be being overheard.

‘Boonie will probably have me raked over the coals for this,’ she said eventually, chewing on her bottom lip. ‘But we think they’re collecting the parts of something. Some sort of device or maybe some sort of map.’

‘Really?’ The Doctor was all ears.

‘When Khnu was killed – when she died, whatever – her little band of followers went quiet for two years. Most of them just disappeared. Possibly killed by whoever killed Khnu. But then rumours began to circulate that she’d been working on something before her death – something connected with her research field.’

‘Robotics?’

‘Robotics. Despite being a genius in artificial intelligence, Khnu refused to believe that machine intelligences, mechanicals, whatever you want to call them, were truly intelligent. Her speech, thinly veiled as it was, was aimed at those who considered machines intelligences to be on a par with organic ones. She believed that they simply mimicked intelligence, and that the organic races of the galaxy had fallen for it, hook, line and sinker. It’s reported that she foresaw a time when the galaxy’s machine races would rise up against the organics and slaughter us all.’

‘That’s what she meant by “the darkness”?’

‘That’s what they say. And the rumours are that these things they’re collecting have something to do with it.’

The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck.

‘Interesting.’ He paused and stared thoughtfully into the distance. ‘So these artefacts – part of a device, or a locator or something maybe? Like one of those partwork magazines: “Builds week by week into the ultimate robot defence”? How many instalments are we talking? A little one like
Delia’s How To Boil Water
or a whopper like
The Star Trek Files
?’

‘Sorry?’

The Doctor grinned.

‘D’you reckon the cultists have got all the bits already, or are they going to be searching for ever?’

‘Your guess is as good as mine, Doctor. All we know – all we
believe
,’ Li’ian corrected herself, ‘is that when Khnu died, the Cult went into a panic and scattered the pieces of the thing around the galaxy, scared that robot sympathisers would find them and destroy them.’

‘Ahhh…’ The Doctor smiled. ‘That’s why you didn’t want to go barging in, isn’t it?
You
lot want them to find all the bits, put it together, and
then
you can go barging in and collect the whole set, ringbinders and all!’

‘Ringbinders?’

He waved his hand.

‘Don’t worry about it.’ He leaped out of his seat suddenly, making Li’ian flinch. ‘Right! Let’s get this party started!’

And before Li’ian could stop him he was halfway to the door.

‘Thanks for not telling me to bring a cardy,’ Donna muttered as the rock above them swung back into place, cutting out not only the drizzling sand and the gusting wind but the searing heat of the red sun. It suddenly felt cold and clammy. Mesanth produced a torch from his shoulder belt and flicked it on, illuminating broad, sand-silted steps leading down into the Stygian darkness.

‘You humans are remarkably susceptible to changes in environmental temperature, aren’t you?’ he said over his shoulder as he began the descent.

‘
Some
humans,’ grunted Ogmunee from behind Donna.

‘At least some of us have the decency not to go around half-naked,’ muttered Donna. ‘Anyway, what’s this segment thing look like?’