Doctor Who: Shining Darkness (7 page)

‘You’ve already seen the second one – the artefact from the gallery.’

‘Oh, that! Right. So we’re looking for another one of those, are we? Shouldn’t be hard to spot. And why’s it here?’

‘Safekeeping,’ said Mesanth cryptically, and then fell into silence as, out of the darkness beneath them, came a hideous roar that echoed on and on and on.

Donna took a deep breath. ‘That sounds
very
safe.’

‘You said this place smells of home,’ Donna whispered as they descended. ‘Where’s that, then?’

‘It’s called Lota. Lovely planet – dry, dusty.’ Mesanth gave a little sigh.

‘So how come you got mixed up with Garaman?’

‘I worked with one of his associates a few years ago. She… introduced me to Garaman and Ogmunee here and the others. She offered me a job.’

‘Headhunted, eh? Better than temping, I bet. What kind of work?’

‘Are you always this full of questions?’ grunted Ogmunee from behind her.

‘Only when no one’s bothering to give me answers, yes. Why? Got a problem with that? Something to hide, maybe?’

‘Stop it!’ warbled Mesanth.

‘You don’t like conflict, do you?’ asked Donna as the stairs began to curve around to the right.

‘The Lotapareen have evolved from highly communal herbivorous ancestors: violence and conflict are alien to us.’

‘Must make all this adventuring a bit of a nightmare.’

‘Mesanth knows what has to be done,’ came Ogmunee’s voice again.

‘And what
is
that, exactly?’

No one answered her. Abruptly, the steps ended and Mesanth’s torch beam revealed that they were in some sort of antechamber, blank stone surrounding them. As the ellipse of light from the torch flitted about the walls, Donna caught sight of something.

‘What’s that?’ she asked, taking the torch from him.

Most of the wall was taken up with a primitive, scribbled drawing of a huge, tentacled mass with a single, monstrous eye and a slavering mouth. And, to give some sense of scale, four of its tentacles held what looked like
squat
little stick figures. One of them was being thrust into the toothy mouth.

‘Tell me that this isn’t one of those “Beware of the dog” signs,’ she said.

‘The Jaftee probably worship this creature as a god,’ said Mesanth with a vague air of fascination.

‘The Jaftee?’

‘The inhabitants of Karris. Primitive ape-like creatures. No offence,’ he added with a sidelong glance at Donna.

‘None taken – I think.’

‘We don’t anticipate any problems with the Jaftee,’ Ogmunee said. ‘We seeded their culture years ago. They should see us as even greater gods than this thing.’

‘So,’ said Donna, handing Mesanth his torch. ‘Not too bright, then, these Jaftee.’

‘Simple creatures,’ agreed Mesanth, scanning the wall in front of them and running his two spare hands over its surface. ‘Ah!’

At this exclamation, there was a dull clunk and the three-legged creature stepped back. A deep, teeth-aching grinding noise started up and the chamber around them began to vibrate. Little whorls of sand drifted down in the torch’s path as a segment of the wall swung back and away.

‘So why the robot?’ she asked Mesanth as they set off deeper into the bowels of the planet. ‘You said you had these Jaftee people trained to think you’re gods.’

‘Insurance,’ said Mesanth simply, and Donna saw his huge eyes dart briefly to the wall painting of the tentacled thing. If the little stick figures being crammed into its
dribbling
mouth were even vaguely human-sized, she wasn’t sure that a robot – even one as strong and silent as the one they’d brought along – would be enough to fight it off.

‘I don’t know what you did to the sensors, Doctor, but we’ve actually managed to pick up a signal from beneath Karris’s surface.’

Kellique smiled appreciatively as the Doctor and Li’ian entered the control room. Boonie was nowhere to be seen.

‘Marvellous! Picked up what?’

Kellique gestured for him to come and look.

‘Hmmm…’ said the Doctor thoughtfully. ‘If I didn’t know any better – and obviously I do, otherwise I wouldn’t be saying this – I’d swear that that’s a similar energy profile to the segment that they stole from the art gallery. And this other signal – here – looks like the same transmat energy signature that whisked Donna and the segment up to the Cult’s ship.’

Kellique nodded – and did a double-take, before throwing a sharp look at Li’ian. The Doctor noticed and gave a gentle shrug.

‘Li’ian here told me all about Khnu and her little band of followers.’

‘Oh…’ said Kellique, looking a little worried. ‘Boonie’s going to be pleased about that.’

‘Pleased about what?’

They all turned at the sound of Boonie’s voice: he stood in the doorway, his face hard and angry.

Li’ian stepped forwards.

‘I told him about Khnu and about what we think the Cult are up to.’

‘You did
what
?!’ exploded Boonie.

‘Oh, don’t blame Li’ian—’ began the Doctor, but Boonie cut him off with a wave of the hand.

‘Boonie!’ snapped Kellique. ‘We were the ones that brought him on board, remember? And his modifications to our sensors are amazing: come here and look. We’ve picked up similar readings to those from the second segment from the gallery.’

Boonie was speechless; and, although he glared at the Doctor, he said nothing and went to check the readings.

‘So this is the
third
part?’ the Doctor said. ‘Still no idea how many of them there are? I mean, I know I’ve got a fairly long lifespan, but I wouldn’t want to think I’ll be chasing around the universe for the next forty years, looking for the other bits.’

‘Yes,’ said Kellique, keeping an eye on Boonie for his reaction, ‘we think this is the third one. The second one was in the gallery and the first was hidden in a forest on Chao.’

Boonie just glared.

‘Hmmm,’ the Doctor mused. ‘Shame I didn’t get a chance to have a proper look at the second one. I might have been able to work out exactly what the finished thing’s supposed to do.’ He paused. ‘But now that my little modifications have let you find the third one, why don’t we use your matter transmitter to pop down and take a look before they beam it away?’

He stared at them all, eyebrows raised expectantly.

‘I mean,’ he added, shoving his hands into his pockets, ‘I know you’re waiting for them to collect the whole set before you swoop in, but if we were to just take a teensy little peek at it… Not take it; just a little look-see…’

It was clear from Kellique’s expression that she didn’t think the idea was a bad one at all, but Li’ian shook her head.

‘The Cultists have been in orbit almost an hour already. They won’t waste time. That transmat trace means they’ve already sent a recovery team down – there’s too much electrostatic interference in Karris’s atmosphere for them to beam it out directly without using a signal booster like they did from the art gallery. They can just about make it to the planet’s surface, but from there they’ll be on foot.’

‘Well,’ said the Doctor, studying the floor thoughtfully and casually. ‘If you let me have a go at your transmat, you never know: I might be able to boost it like I did with your sensors. And then we could beam in, check it out, and then be gone before they even know we’ve been…’

All eyes were on Boonie: as the head of this rag-tag mission, they clearly all deferred to him. Most of the time, anyway.

The Doctor grinned wolfishly.

‘Don’t tell me you wouldn’t like to know what they’re up to. And who knows? If we can work out what this thing does, before they’ve assembled it, you’ll have even more chance of stopping them from using it.’ He held Boonie’s gaze. ‘Go on! Live a little!’

Donna flinched – and, to her shame, grabbed hold of Mesanth – as another howling roar echoed out of the darkness ahead of them.

‘This thing,’ she said slowly. ‘This creature. What exactly do you know about it? I mean, you said you’d been here before and ponced about dressed up as gods or something, right? So, you actually saw it, right?’

Mesanth’s eyes glinted in the torchlight.

‘Not… as such.’

Donna rolled her eyes.

‘So for all you know, it could be waiting around the next corner to stuff us into its mouth – y’know, like on that mural back there.’

‘The robot will protect us,’ said Ogmunee. Donna peered over his shoulder to where the slender, blonde thing stood silently, its face cold and impassive.

‘No offence, Mr Muscles, but you’re out of your tree if you think that she – it – can fight off something the size of that creature.’

‘And I have this,’ said Ogmunee, holding up a slender, silver tube. ‘A thermal projector.’

Donna relaxed a little. ‘That a fancy term for a space gun?’

Mesanth said nothing, but Donna could tell from the way he glanced at Ogmunee’s gun that he wasn’t impressed.

‘Wouldn’t it be an idea if blondie went first?’ Donna added after a moment’s thought, indicating the robot.

Mesanth considered Donna’s suggestion and agreed, waving the silent robot forwards.

‘Your type, then, is she?’ Donna whispered to Ogmunee
as
the robot took up position at the front. ‘Strong and silent.’

Ogmunee opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by another roar – a roar that sounded distinctly closer than the last one had done.

Mesanth took a couple of steps back, allowing Ogmunee forwards, just behind the robot.

What happened in the next few seconds, Donna wasn’t quite sure. A horrendous howl shattered the clammy silence of the tunnel and something huge and dark surged out of the side of the passage, striking the bimbot and slamming it up against the opposite wall with a screech of metal and a crash that echoed away into the blackness.

Ogmunee jumped back, his torch skittering away across the floor like some mad, terrified firefly. He bumped into Donna who fell back against Mesanth.

As her eyes tried to adjust to the darkness, Donna saw faint sparkles of light come from the robot as part of its face fell away, clattering to the ground.

‘Back! Back!’ cried Mesanth, whirling on his three feet and pushing Donna away, leaving Ogmunee at the front.

‘Use your gun!’ shouted Donna as, dimly, she saw thrashing tentacles oozing out into the passage.

Suddenly, the roaring subsided, and, glancing past Ogmunee, Donna saw that the creature’s tentacles had vanished back into the opening in the tunnel. Sprawled on the floor, its spine snapped and folded back on itself, was the robot. A few more crackles of light danced within the circuitry of its head as it turned towards them. Despite the fact that it was a robot, Donna felt vaguely sick. It was the
movement
of the head that made her act.

‘Help it!’ she cried.

She looked at Mesanth, to see that he was staring at her in disbelief.

‘Help it!’ she said again, her voice lower and more angry, now that the lizard man seemed to be ignoring her.

‘It’s a robot,’ grunted Ogmunee swinging the beam from his torch over it.

‘It’s
injured
,’ Donna said, unable to believe their lack of concern.

‘It’s damaged,’ corrected Ogmunee.

Donna just glared at him.

‘Keep your eye out for that thing,’ she said. ‘And your gun for that matter.’

And before anyone could stop her, she crept forwards, keeping her back to the wall against which the broken robot lay. Something inside it whirred pitifully.

‘It’s OK,’ Donna said quietly, risking a quick glance down at it. ‘You’ll be OK.’

‘What is she doing?’ she heard Ogmunee whisper, disbelievingly, to Mesanth.

‘I’m trying to help it,’ she answered, trying to keep the fear out of her own voice. At any second, the creature could be back. She checked that Ogmunee was keeping her back covered.

‘How are you?’ Donna whispered to the robot, realising that this could well be the bimbot that Garaman had instructed to break her finger. Strangely, it didn’t seem to matter. ‘You’re going soft,’ she whispered to herself as it clicked and sparked pathetically and raised a shuddering
arm
towards her.

For a moment, everything was silent – and then, unmistakeably, Donna heard the sound of the creature in the darkness, a deep, stomach-churning roar. She leaped to her feet and backed away, pushing Ogmunee and Mesanth behind her. Something dark and sinuous flicked out of the tunnel towards them, smacking against the wall and sending little puffs of dust into the air.

‘Move!’ she cried, wishing that Ogmunee would use his gun. She felt the breeze from one of the creature’s tentacles as it thrashed about, briefly catching the light from Mesanth’s torch.

‘Shoot it!’ Donna called as Ogmunee pushed alongside her and raised his arm. Glancing down, she saw the tip of his weapon glow a deep cherry red and there was a ferocious howl from up ahead.

‘You’ve hurt it!’ cried Mesanth.

‘Well, d’uh!’ shouted Donna. ‘That is rather the point!’

Ogmunee fired again, and they heard the creature roar in pain.

‘Keep firing,’ Donna said.

‘Maybe we’ve hurt it enough,’ whimpered Mesanth.

‘Not as long as we can still hear it, we haven’t.’

‘I don’t like this,’ Mesanth said, and Donna could hear the distress in his voice.

The tentacled thing seemed to have gone quiet, though whether it was dead or just licking its wounds, Donna wasn’t certain.

‘Isn’t there another way through?’ Donna asked Mesanth, who started fiddling with his scanner. The cold
light
lit up his face from below, and she could see his lips trembling.

‘This is the only way through,’ he said. ‘That creature is obviously a guard dog.’

‘So we either go on and try again, or we go up and back to the ship?’

‘We aren’t leaving here without the segment,’ Ogmunee said, catching Mesanth’s eye. He hefted the thermal gun in his hand, pointedly. ‘So put away your scruples, Mesanth. The projector hurt it, so we know it’s not invulnerable.’

‘Yeah,’ said Donna. ‘But neither are we.’

Cautiously, the trio moved back towards where the damaged bimbot lay, Mesanth bringing up the rear, Ogmunee at the front. As they made their way, Donna’s foot caught on something and she waved her torch around until she found what it was: a scorched, crisped piece of tentacle.