The Forgotten Army (9 page)

them snap into order. They were all clearly terrified of him.

Only one thing stopped Amy from shrinking back with fear. The soldiers were about seven centimetres tall.

'They're like toys!' She burst out laughing. 'How cute.’

She stretched her hand out above the battalion to measure their size. 'Wow! There's a whole army of them!

Can I keep them, Doctor? Oh, please say I can? They had the perfect invasion plan, so long as no one stands on them by mistake.'

The first row of soldiers armed their weapons and aimed them at Amy's hand.

The Doctor was very quiet and very serious. He gently moved Amy's hand away, and addressed himself to the figure that was obviously their General. His tiny features were twitching with frustration and rage. Amy thought he looked like Wayne Rooney at his angriest and most stubborn, red faced and blotchy, ready to scream at the world at the least hint of subordination.

'Sorry about her, she's new, well, so to speak. I'm the Doctor, and what are you doing here?'

The General turned to his troops and signalled them to lower their weapons. He stepped forward, hit a button on his baton, and rose on a lift, until he was eye to eye with the Doctor. The little alien pointed his baton at the Doctor and scanned his

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eyes, then turned sharply to Amy and repeated the move.

'You confirm my observations. One humanoid, early stages of evolutionary development. No gills. Limited intellect. And one unidentified species.'

'Time Lord, Oncoming Storm, Defender of Earth, take your pick. But who are you?' the Doctor asked the forceful little alien.

'I am Erik, General of the 99th Vykoid Expeditionary Force. I have at my disposal the might and fury of the Vykoid Army. And you will surrender to me!'

Amy looked at General Erik with curiosity. He had the unconvincing swagger of a new boy on his first day at school.

Brash and knowing, yet a look that suggested he'd be only too easy to unsettle.

'Nah,' the Doctor was saying. 'Not surrendering to you in a beast like that. You've come prepared for the wrong century, make that wrong millennia... You're not going to get anywhere if those are your wheels. Now look, not to worry, I can help you get home, but I won't have a war. I forbid it. No one gets hurt today.'

To capture the moment, Amy slid her phone open and snapped a picture on her mobile phone. General Erik's face reddened with rage.

'That's not helping,' the Doctor said to Amy. 'Peace in Our Time wasn't interrupted by passers-by uploading the pictures onto Facebook...'

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'Peace in Our Time didn't last long anyway.’Amy pointed out. 'It didn't end up saving any lives.'

General Erik waved his baton angrily. 'You are fools. We will take no lives. Our slaves will work for the glory of the new Vykoid Empire.'

Amy could see the Doctor flinch at the word, his revolve hardening. 'What do you mean - slaves?' he demanded.

With the confidence of the victor, General Erik calmly explained. 'We have a more worthwhile occupation for these New Yorkers. I have observed them today, and they are a weak and unproductive species. The Desiccated mines of Cassetia 2 have been waiting for workers. We hoped to take the famous mighty beasts of Ancient Earth to do the work of millions of Vykoids. But as there are none left, I shall return instead with millions of your well-fed drones.'

The Doctor's face fell. He looked more than a little disgusted. 'Amy, have you heard of the island in the Pacific made up of dried seagull droppings? After hundreds of years it turns into guano and it's mined to be made into explosives.' Amy pulled a face as the Doctor kept on. 'Well the Cassetia asteroids were excreted several millions years ago by a mighty Space-Boar. A race of giant carnivores, they ate only rotting meat from the swamps of Malmatine 5, and grew so huge they evolved into creatures capable of travelling in space. A herd of

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Space-Boars ate their way around the universe for 20,000

years before producing the asteroids. Some say it's the worst smell in the entire galaxy. The most concentrated foul stench you can possibly imagine. I've heard terrible stories of the Vykoid slave mines. The smell is so foul, that one whiff can make your hair fall out, and turn your eyes green. The atmosphere of the mines actually prolongs the lives of the slaves. Anyone they take will work for three hundred years or more...'

General Erik's plan seemed insane to Amy. There were millions of people in New York, and there was no way the miniature army could simply kidnap all of them. 'Doctor?

Can't they, you know, take the animals here?'

'Not exactly fair on the poor animals, is it? But hang on, good point, why can't you take beasts from elsewhere?'

Amy thought she could see General Erik grinning. 'You will be easier to defeat.'

Amy was surprised by his confidence. The Vykoid army had the enchanting freedom of shipwrecked men, with nothing more to lose, and everything to gain. Amy whispered in the Doctor's ear. 'We can stop them, right?'

The Doctor grinned at Amy. 'Oh, yes!' Turning his head away from General Erik, he addressed the neat ranks of soldiers, gazing into their beady little eyes. 'Listen to me, army of Vykoid warriors. Your

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war is over. Your time has gone. There is not a single person or creature on the planet that you are fit to touch. Return to your planet, and tell everyone you meet that the people of Earth are born free. You got a problem with that? Come see me!'

The Vykoid troops watched the Doctor stony-faced.

'And don't listen to old Sour-Face here.’ the Doctor went on, pointing at General Erik. 'Look around you! This is a place of beauty and life. You will not harm anyone. Now, scram, before I have to do something about it.'

General Erik became even more furious. 'I will not be undermined in front of my troops by this lumbering beast.

By a pacifist! All my years of training in the Vykoid army have prepared me for moments like this. I have heard the legends of the great Vykoid heroes, and soon it will be my time to join them.' He puffed out his diminutive chest and went on. 'I too will have a statue built for me, in the Hall of Honour on our home planet! Efficiency and punctuality are the backbone of any successful military campaign, and since we seem to have woken up several thousand years too late, I am not about to waste any more time.'

His speech finished, General Erik turned his back on the Doctor, and barked at his men: 'Activate the Temporal Lock!'

The ranks split, and a select group of soldiers 98

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quick-marched back into the mammoth. They obviously hadn't been deterred by the Doctor's speech, and seemed only too keen to follow General Erik's commands.

'Doctor?' Amy raised an eyebrow. 'What's a temporal lock?'

The mammoth was beginning to stir into life once more.

Lights were clicking on inside its body, shining out of its eyes and ears. With a grinding noise, the mammoth's trunk was raised into the air, and started to revolve like an aerial.

The Doctor scrambled to his feet and took Amy's hand. 'I think, given the circumstances, it would be a good idea if we run\'

Amy couldn't tear her eyes from the Vykoid troops.

Everything they did was so regimented and neat. She thought that this might just be the best-organised army she'd ever seen.

General Erik was shouting commands and waving his hands around, and the front ranks appeared to be preparing to attack something.

With a sudden feeling of dread, Amy realised who they were getting ready to attack. 'Running... yeah... I'm definitely with you on that.'

But before they could move, the air around them glowed green, just as it had when the circular wave had exploded. Amy could feel every cell in her body vibrate, like she was undergoing her own mini-earthquake. After it had passed through her,

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she could see the effects travelling over the whole Zoo - the rhinos and elephants shuddering as they shook.

'What was that?' she asked.

The Doctor patted himself up and down. 'I feel... the same as before... but... Oh, Amy, look at that.'

In the few seconds they had looked away, the Vykoid Army had equipped themselves with hundreds of tiny combat vehicles, rather like toy jeeps, and were preparing to move out.

The Doctor stepped closer. 'I thought I told you lotto...'

Something extraordinary was happening. The Vykoids were now moving with impossible speed, like Keystone Cops on fast forward. In the time it took the Doctor to make one step, they had unloaded mini combat helicopters, tanks and troop transporters. There was even a mobile kitchen set up, serving out soup to the troops.

'How did they do that?' Amy asked.

By the time she'd finished the question, the Vykoid army had put wheels on the base of the air deck in the mammoth's belly and had loaded it up to depart.

Amy moved quickly, and flung herself at the army, determined to stop them throwing themselves at New York. As much for their sake as hers. She didn't want a new species to be slaughtered, just by misjudging their sense of scale.

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But as she lunged, Amy felt hundreds of pinpricks on her ankles. The Vykoid troops were scampering up her legs, so quickly she could barely make them out. These were specialist climbing Vykoids, equipped with ropes, carabiners and the like. She may have imagined it, but Amy was sure they stopped for a tea break on her kneecap, before continuing their climb.

Within seconds, Amy had been pulled to the ground, every bit of her tied and secured. General Erik marched onto her face and peered into her large eyes. To him, she must have seemed like some wondrous deep-sea creature, all plate-sized eyes, enormous limbs and improbable physics.

This close to him, Amy could see the Vykoid's features properly for the first time. His skin was tough, like leather left out too long in the elements, and his eyes were mean and dark. The spirit of conquest was strong in him, and Amy felt rebellion rise in her heart - she would not be bested by him.

General Erik didn't talk, he boomed. 'Do you accept our victory?'

'No!' Amy bellowed back. Her breath was so strong General Erik was almost rocked off his feet.

'Analyse her!' he snapped, and in a flash he was replaced with dozens of white-coated Vykoids. Scientist Vykoids, Amy thought, trying to clear her head of the notion that she could feed the Vykoid army for a millennium, should they decide to eat

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her. Or, even worse, they could make their next vehicle inside her... Where was the Doctor when she needed him?

She tried to turn her head but was rewarded with a sharp jab in her ear, and an outraged squeaking from below.

'Sorry!' she called out. 'I can't see you back there, don't have eyes in the back of my head.'

As one, the Vykoid scientists started lifting her hair and examining her scalp for hidden eyes.

Then, as rapidly as they'd arrived, the Vykoids had gone.

Not a squeak to be heard. And it had got dark. Amy realised she had been unconscious - she must have been out for hours.

She lifted her hand and found it was no longer restrained.

Luckily, the Zoo was well lit, so she could see her watch.

She was amazed to see that it was close to midnight. She also saw that her hand had been stamped in bold red ink: 'Not Suitable.'

Amy guessed that this was a good thing. The entire Vykoid army had shipped on out. But, oh, this was much, much worse than she'd thought. They had left her behind, but they had taken the Doctor with them. She was on her own in New York. And the Army of the Vykoids was marching to take Manhattan.

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Around her, the animals
had gone back to their night-time activities

- meerkats chittering to themselves and giraffes sleeping quietly.

'Doctor!' she shouted into the Zoo, but there was no reply.

She kept thinking his tousled head might emerge, grinning like it was all part of his plan, but it looked like he was really gone. This was hopeless. Amy was going to have to stop the Vykoids alone.

'OK, don't panic.’ she told herself. 'Just think -what would the Doctor do? First off, no talking to yourself, definitely a bad thing...'

She was alone, in a locked cage in a zoo, while an army of tiny soldiers had been let loose in New York. She had no idea what they wanted, or how she was going to find the Doctor.

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'Come on, come on.’ she thought. 'Not done yet. Assets, Assets! OK, no Doctor, no sonic screwdriver, no ray gun... and still talking to myself.'

Amy put her hand into her pocket, and was delighted to find the psychic paper. 'Ha! Just what I need.'

As confident as Amy liked to pretend to be in front of the Doctor, she had rarely been alone in a foreign city before, let alone one being invaded by diminutive aliens.

She told herself she just had to focus on finding the Doctor.

Amy wasn't one for fainting or calling out for help.