Doctor Who: The Ark (13 page)

But I have to get back, otherwise I will be charged with loitering.’

Maharis scuttled out of the Kitchen.

‘He is like the jelly that we sometime make,’ remarked Dassuk scornfully.

‘Somehow we shall have to find out where that bomb is located,’ said Steven. ‘The question is, how?’

The Doctor walked in the gardens of the castle, deep in conversation with the unseen Refusian.

While he strolled, Number Nine watched the Doctor from a distance. It disturbed him to think that the Doctor was not just talking to himself; as it appeared, but that he was in conversation with a being more powerful than himself and all other Monoids. As he sat on a stone bench observing the Doctor, he took care never to let his attention wander. And his hand never strayed from the heat gun at his side.

‘... and that was the Guardians’ aim,’ the Doctor explained, ‘along with the Monoids’ forebears, who were peaceful beings then – to land here on Refusis and inhabit it.’ ‘Yes, we’ve known the plan for some time,’ the Refusian confirmed. ‘And we welcomed it. That’s why we built places like this. Together with whole cities, ready for occupation.’

‘I see,’ the Doctor nodded, impressed. ‘Just to make them comfortable.’ Shrewdly he added: ‘I didn’t think you needed places like this for yourselves.’

The Refusian chuckled. ‘No! Once we had a shape and form something like you. Then there was a galactic accident – a giant solar flare – and now we no longer have a physical presence that you can see or recognise.’

‘But... er... can you see each other?’

‘Not even that. Oh, we can sense one another, but that is all... One moment.’

Flowers were disturbed alongside the path. The Doctor watched, fascinated, and realised that the unseen being was plucking weeds from around them. Then, as the being moved on, the Doctor was able to locate his presence by the position of the weeds which he still carried. So now the Doctor appeared to be accompanying a bunch of weeds that hovered and floated along in the air!

‘And since we can only sense one another,’ the Refusian continued, ‘it would have been good for our planet to be once again inhabited by life – visible life, that is – provided that the beings who come here are peaceful.’

Number Nine, watching from a distance, had seen the weeds plucked and saw them travelling through the air near the Doctor. He realised what this meant and reached out for his heat gun and levelled it up.

Out of the corner of his eye the Doctor had caught this movement. Quickly he reached out and snatched the weeds away.

‘I’ll carry these for you,’ he said. ‘And I think you had better walk on my other side.’

Number Nine fired his heat gun at the area where the weeds had been, then reacted in annoyance when the blast travelled on past the Doctor and hit a far wall, shattering it to pieces.

The Refusian, now on the other side of the Doctor, spoke: ‘I take your point, Doctor. And thank you.’

‘My pleasure,’ the Doctor replied.

‘That Monoid is not a peaceful thing! Sooner or later I think I. will have to teach him a firm lesson.’

Number One tried to make contact with Number Nine on the planet. ‘This is the Ark calling. Make your report, Number Nine. We need it if we are to know how to act.’

There was no reply. After a moment Number One turned to Number Two. ‘He must be making a survey,’ he suggested.

‘Yes, Number One.’

‘If the circumstances are favourable, we land. But if they are not, then we must think in terms of an alternative destination.’

‘Where might that be, Number One?’

‘That is the problem. There is another planet – Trang -

but it will take a long time for the Ark to reach it. You and I would no longer be young by the time we arrived.’

‘If that happens and we have to take the second choice, what about the fission bomb? Can it be dismantled to ensure our safe journey?’

‘Yes. The timing device would be removed – then it would be safe.’

‘You think of everything, Number One. That is why you are a great leader.’

Number One nodded. He recalled that his leadership went back through several generations of his Monoid family – back to the time of the revolution which had enabled the Monoids to wrest control of the Ark from the Guardians.

In that period, when the war had been fought, his forebear had emerged from the ranks of the Monoids.

There had been a struggle for the position of leader, but that grand old Monoid had seen off all opposition and had then united the Monoids against the real enemy, the Guardians.

Some Monoids had wanted that war to end in both senses; to win the battle and then to strike up an alliance with some of the Guardians. But Monoid One the First had been quick to denounce this as treachery, and those who had proposed the plan had been condemned and executed. And that had been the right action at the time.

Any weakening of resolve at that point and the Guardians might have been able to insinuate their way back into power.

Instead, the Monoids ruled firmly. The Monoid Order answered to no-one except itself and he, Number One the Seventeenth, was the one who organised their every move.

And the stewardship of the Guardians, subservients and prisoners alike.

He was proud of his family line, proud of himself and the way he carried out his tasks. It pleased him to think that when they settled on a new planet he would be the one they would refer to in the annals of history as the founder of the new civilisation.

Once again he tried to make contact with Refusis:

‘Number Nine... this is Number One, calling from the Ark.’ There was still no reply. He addressed Number Two:

‘I am very curious about what is happening on the planet Refusis... and what Number Nine and the others have found...’

Dodo had been wandering through the castle, delighting in its furnishings and the well-stocked closets of clothes that had thoughtfully been put there.

But then she jumped as a female voice addressed her:

‘Hello!’

Dodo looked around, but could see no-one; and then realised that this was a female of the Refusian species.

‘Hi!’ she replied. ‘Made me jump out of my skin. I don’t think I’ll get used to something – I mean, someone – that I can’t even see.’

‘We’ll have to think up a way of putting your mind at rest on that point,’ laughed the Refusian girl, in a reassuring tone.

‘Well, for starters, do you have a name?... Mine’s Dodo.’

‘Normally we haven’t, but that’s no reason why we shouldn’t start using them. Let’s see... I’ll call myself Mary... and my brother – that’s the Refusian you’ve already met – we’ll call him... Charles.’

‘Mary and Charles. Yeah, OK. That sounds fine.’

‘Do you like this place that we’ve prepared for you?’

‘Yes! Reminds me of a castle in Wales. Castle Coch, it’s called. That means – in Welsh – the Red Castle.’

‘And the clothes you were looking at?’

‘Great! Fab gear!’

‘Fab gear? Is that Welsh, too?’

‘Oh, no! Just my way of coming across. But please don’t tell the Doctor. He’s always having a go at me about the way I speak.’

The Refusian girl laughed. ‘I won’t tell him.’ Then she moved to a door, as Dodo realised when she saw it opening.

‘Come with me. I’ll show you something.’

Puzzled, Dodo followed the voice, which chatted on in a friendly way, describing the various things they passed, until eventually they emerged outside, onto a tennis court.

‘Do you play this game?’ the Refusian girl asked.

‘Well, I have knocked a ball around a bit in my time,’

Dodo replied cautiously. In fact, this was a considerable understatement. She had played tennis at school and had gone on to win a county championship.

‘I’ve been dying for a game,’ came the eager reply. ‘So you play from this end and I’ll go to the other.’

A tennis racket, seemingly of its own accord, jumped into Dodo’s hands. She caught it, then watched as another racket was borne through the air to the far end of the court.

‘Ready?’ her opponent called out.

‘Er... yes.’

Above the racket opposite her a ball was lobbed into the air. Then, as it descended, it was struck with tremendous force so that it came flying over the net and aced Dodo.

She stared in amazement. The ball had travelled too fast for her even to attempt a return.

‘Er... sorry... I wasn’t as ready as I thought I was,’ she said lamely.

Then she picked up the ball and played it down the court. Only to be distracted once more as she saw the racket at the far end moving across the base line to cover it.

The racket swung... and again the ball went past Dodo like a cannon shot.

They played on for a while and Dodo managed to recover some of her skill as she learned to accept the bobbing, darting racket for what it was – the only opponent that she could see.

At the same time she was somewhat relieved when the Doctor opened a window and called out: ‘Dodo... come up here.’

‘Have to go,’ she called out to her opponent. ‘We could have another game another time.’

‘I’ll look forward to that,’ came the answer. ‘I’ve enjoyed our game, Dodo.’

‘Yeah!’ Dodo put her racket down and started back indoors. ‘Be seeing you – in a manner of speaking, that is!’

In the Great Hall Number Four looked up at the statue that towered over him and Number Seven.

‘The body of a humanoid... the head of a Monoid,’

Number Four murmured. ‘Maybe that was the way it was meant to be – a fusion of our two beings.’

‘Careful!’ Number Seven answered. ‘If any of the others heard and reported your thoughts back to Number One it could mean trouble for you.’

Number Four nodded, accepting the point. But at the same time he was troubled. He cared for the future of his fellow creatures, the Monoids. But he was uneasy about where the leadership of Number One was taking them. He had often questioned decisions, but carefully, going only so far and never allowing any hint of protest to go over the brink into outright confrontation.

His forebears had often adopted the same attitude. That streak in their family had long been recognised by Number One and his forebears, but had always been tolerated as long as it had not gone too far.

Now he questioned in his mind the total enslavement of the Guardians, whether by their use as volunteer servants or as slave labour. It had always seemed to Number Four that this was a mismanagement of the talents that they could genuinely offer; after all, long ago their forefathers had achieved a high level of civilisation on Earth. They had evaluated and correctly predicted the eventual fate of that same Earth and had taken the right decision to leave it, and they had designed and built the spaceship that they were all now travelling in.

Humanoids and Monoids, together then, working as a team. Oh, yes... the Monoids had been taken for granted; their willing co-operation had led to their being exploited as mere labour. But Number Four had a feeling that many of the Guardians now recognised that as a mistake, while at the same time they were undeniably having to suffer a worse fate than the Monoids had ever endured.

And then there was the bomb that would destroy the Guardians, hidden somewhere on the Ark by that cunning Number One. He glanced over to where a party of humanoids were being ushered through the hall by another armed Monoid and, for a moment, felt sorry for them.

Number Four was not happy. He would have to keep close observation on developments in the future, even if that meant more questions for Number One. In the meantime, he wondered about the party that was making the survey of Refusis at that very moment.

When Dodo arrived back in the hall, Number Nine was addressing the Doctor and the Guardian Yendom.

‘We must return to the Launcher. We must warn Number One and the others so that we can deal with these unseen creatures, the Refusians.’

The Doctor glanced at a chair where he knew the Refusian was seated. But the being chose not to speak.

Instead, Yendom stepped forward and addressed Number Nine.

‘We? Meaning only the Monoids?’ With rising apprehension ,he went on. ‘When you spoke of it before you meant that only you and your kind would make the landings, didn’t you?’

Number Nine started out of the hall.

‘Yendom, I do not have to account to you!’ He pointed his weapon at the Guardian. ‘Now, come with me, and let us pass on our vital information.’

Yendom followed Number Nine out of the hall.

Dodo watched them go. ‘I don’t think Number Nine is too happy.’ She moved to the chair to sit down. ‘Nor is that Guardian...’

Before she could sit the Doctor grabbed her arm. ‘Not there, my dear. That seat is taken.’

‘Eh?’ Dodo gaped. Then she jumped back as the Refusian spoke.

‘You two stay here,’ he said.

‘OK... Charlie!’

‘
Charlie?
’ echoed the Doctor, with a puzzled frown.

‘What’s this, my dear?’

‘Oh... I’ve met his sister. And she wants to be called Mary, and we agreed that Charlie – Charles – was a nice name for him.’

‘I am delighted with that thought,’ the voice replied.

‘But now I will see what the Monoid is up to.’

The Doctor and Dodo watched as the door of the hall swung closed.

Some distance from the castle Yendom grasped Number Nine’s arm.

‘I... I will not let you contact the other Monoids!’

Number Nine pushed him back. ‘Yendom, stay away from me. Keep your distance.’

‘No! If you alert them they will start landing here, then destroy the Ark and everyone aboard!’

He closed in on Number Nine again. But this time the reptilian Monoid raised its heat gun and directed it at Yendom. There was a flash... and where Yendom had stood, only scorched earth remained.

From within the castle the Doctor had seen the flash of the heat gun. Worried, he turned to Dodo.

‘I don’t think we should stay here, doing nothing,’ he said. ‘That Number Nine may have found a way of attacking... Charles.’

‘Oh, I wouldn’t think so, Doctor. The Refusians are very strong.’