Shakedown Read online

  ‘An excellent piece of navigation, Doctor,’ said Lisa.

  ‘Well, it is the only city on the planet!’ The Doctor adjusted controls and a light pulsed in the very centre of the city.

  ‘There’s Bernice,’ murmured the Doctor. ‘In the middle of things as usual. I’ll set the course, Captain, if you’ll steer. Three degrees north...’

  Lisa’s hands moved over the controls. On the scanner, Sentarion City swam steadily nearer. They moved closer, and found themselves over a great shining dome.

  ‘She appears to be in the Temple itself,’ said the Doctor. ‘Which means that she really is in trouble. Captain Deranne, can you land us in that garden beyond the Temple? Not too close to the Temple itself, but not too far either?’

  ‘All part of the service, Doctor.’ Lisa’s hands moved surely over the controls.

  ‘Then let’s go down and see what she’s up to!’

  Minutes later the ship touched down.

  The Doctor and the others gathered by the airlock.

  ‘I must warn you,’ said the Doctor, ‘the fact that we’ve landed in the Temple grounds means that we’ll be going into considerable danger.’

  ‘What’s all this we?’ said Lisa Deranne. ‘You may be going into danger, Doctor. I’m staying with my ship. I got you here, and if you survive I’ll take you back, but the charter fee doesn’t cover heroics.’

  ‘I wouldn’t expect it to,’ said the Doctor. He turned to Kurt. ‘What about you?’

  Kurt hesitated for a moment. Finally, he made a sweeping gesture that took in both Lisa and the ship. ‘Soriy, Doctor. Got to protect my investment!’

  ‘Come on, Doctor,’ said Roz Forrester impatiently. ‘Let’s go and get Benny. Ready, Chris?’

  ‘Born ready,’ said Chris.

  ‘See you soon, I hope,’ said the Doctor. He led Roz and Chris from the ship.

  Lisa and Kurt looked at each other for a moment.

  ‘Let’s go to the control room and get ready for instant blast-off,’ said Kurt. ‘If I know the Doctor they’ll be back with half the planet on their tails.’

  As they walked along the corridors towards the control room Lisa said, ‘You wanted to go with them.’

  Kurt shrugged. ‘I wanted to go with them and help the Doctor find his friend. I wanted to stay here and look after you. I can’t do both – I chose you.’

  Lisa stopped. ‘You can still go.’

  ‘No,’ said Kurt. ‘I can’t. Let’s go to the control room.’

  The Doctor, Roz and Chris moved cautiously through the lush tropical gardens.

  ‘Be on your guard,’ warned the Doctor. ‘These gardens are part of the Temple itself – sacred ground. We could be killed just for being here.’

  ‘What else is new?’ growled Roz.

  Suddenly a shiny black shape hurled itself through the air at them, shrieking fiercely.

  Chris and Roz both fired when it was still in the air, and the creature was dead when it hit the ground.

  The Doctor bent to examine the body, noting the long sharp proboscis protruding from the narrow head.

  Roz looked down and shuddered. ‘What the hell is that?’

  ‘Bloodsucker beetle,’ said the Doctor. ‘I imagine they act as temple guards.’

  ‘You mean they’re intelligent?’ said Chris.

  ‘Oh yes,’ said the Doctor. He bent down and pulled at the cloak wrapped around the insect’s body. ‘It’s an insectoid civilization here on Sentarion.’ He looked round. ‘I’m surprised there aren’t more of these things about. Maybe something’s distracting them.’

  ‘I do hope so,’ said Roz.

  ‘These aren’t the dominant species though,’ said the Doctor, as they moved on. ‘There are some intermediate insects, but the real rulers are the Sentarrii – giant soldier ants.’

  ‘Terrific,’ said Roz.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said the Doctor. ‘They’re dedicated to peace and scholarship – unless something’s stirred them up, of course.’

  They forced their way through a clump of towering ferns and came out into a little clearing. There before them arose a vast shining dome.

  ‘There it is,’ said the Doctor. ‘The Temple. Whatever’s happening, it’ll be happening there. Come on.’

  They moved steadily forwards.

  Bernice Summerfield was at the centre of things at last.

  She was close to the heart of Sentarion’s most sacred secret. Now she was wondering how long she could survive there.

  After its dramatic transformation, the glowing sphere had addressed its terrified worshippers in a strange burbling voice.

  ‘Take me to the Sanctum.’

  It had floated towards the Temple, followed reverently by the Lord Chancellor and his attendants. The Harrubtii, clearly overawed, had fallen back.

  No one took the slightest notice of Bernice. She supposed that when a god returns, the odd blasphemer is neither here nor there. She felt that she could have walked free from the Temple without anyone even noticing. But where could she go? And how could she miss the final revelation – whatever it was?

  Unable to resist her curiosity, she hurried after the Lord Chancellor.

  When she reached the Temple, she found the Lord Chancellor and his attendants by the entrance to the great dome, gathered reverently about the glowing sphere.

  ‘Reveal the Sanctum,’ ordered the glowing sphere.

  The Lord Chancellor slid back a hidden panel and his two forelegs moved over the controls. For a moment nothing happened.

  Then, with a faint rumbling, a vast section of the wall of the great dome slid back in two halves, revealing a space filled with glowing alien machinery.

  Bernice stared into the vast shining cavern with a feeling of total awe. The machinery seemed to be made of spun crystal, with elaborate whorls and loops, complex structures and pillars and towers. Here and there light ebbed and flowed, and there were pulses of power. There was no noise, nothing moved, all was cool and silent. The control room – she supposed it must be a control room – was beautiful.

  The Lord Chancellor bowed to the glowing sphere.

  ‘Shall you open the gateway? Will the rest of the Shining Ones return now?’

  ‘No!’ said the burbling voice fiercely. ‘The gateway must never be opened now. It must close for ever. I came here only to send a warning –’ Suddenly it noticed Bernice, standing by the entrance. ‘What is that?’

  ‘It is a human, Great One, a scholar who entered the Temple. I have granted her sanctuary.’

  ‘Kill it!’

  The Lord Chancellor’s body quivered in distress. ‘Great One, I promised her sanctuary –’

  ‘Kill it. It has seen the Great Secret and it must die.’

  Bernice turned to run but one of the Chancellor’s aides was suddenly at her side, gripping her arm with its powerful foreclaw.

  ‘Summon the Harrubtii and give her to them,’ said the Lord Chancellor sadly.

  ‘You promised sanctuary,’ said Bernice. ‘You gave your word.’

  There was grief in every line of the Lord Chancellor’s body.

  ‘That is so, Domina. But when a god commands...’

  ‘Rubbish!’ said a familiar voice. ‘That thing’s not a god – it’s a Rutan.’

  21

  Assault

  ‘Doctor!’ cried Bernice joyfully. Wrenching free from the claw of the Sentarrii aide, she ran to join him. ‘Am I glad to see you!’ She looked at Chris and Roz, looking grim and efficient with their drawn blasters. ‘You too!’ She took the Doctor’s arm. ‘Doctor, look!’ She pointed to the glowing crystal control room.

  ‘I’m looking,’ said the Doctor, genuinely impressed. He bowed to the glowing sphere. ‘Rutan workmanship at its finest. I congratulate you.’ He went up to the Lord Chancellor, grasping him warmly by the foreclaw. ‘And how are you, old friend?’

  ‘Doctor,’ said the Lord Chancellor, in very different tones from Bernice, ‘this is not fitting. You intrude on our mo
st sacred moment.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ said the Doctor firmly. ‘Important, yes, momentous even. But sacred – no!’

  ‘Kill them,’ burbled the Rutan in its eerie fluting voice. ‘Kill them all!’

  ‘Now don’t start that again,’ said the Doctor firmly. ‘I hate violence myself‘ and my two friends here hate it even more. So if you threaten us again they’ll blast you into glowing gobbets!’

  The Rutan crackled angrily; the Sentarrii wailed in horror. ‘Doctor,’ said the Chancellor in anguished tones, ‘you threaten our god!’

  ‘If it were a god there’d be precious little point in threatening it,’ pointed out the Doctor. ‘But it isn’t. It’s a Rutan, a member of a highly evolved species from the other side of the galaxy. They have a number of interesting attributes, including polymorphism and group consciousness, but I assure you, divinity isn’t amongst them.’

  ‘Doctor, you do not understand,’ whispered the Lord Chancellor. ‘The Rutans are our gods.’

  In the control room of Tiger Moth Lisa and Kurt sat looking at each other.

  ‘We’re doing the right thing,’ said Lisa.

  ‘Absolutely,’ said Kurt. ‘Only –’

  ‘Only what?’

  ‘Only it doesn’t feel right.’

  Kurt fiddled with the scanner controls, changing the field from the earth below to the skies above. Suddenly he tensed. ‘Lisa, look!’

  She came to join him. There on the screen was a blunt, dreadfully familiar shape.

  ‘Sontarans!’ said Kurt. ‘It’s another assault craft.’ He took a blaster from a wall-locker and headed for the door. ‘I’ve got to warn the Doctor.’

  Lisa snatched up a blaster and followed him.

  He paused. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

  ‘Protecting my investment. Come on!’

  They ran towards the airlock.

  In the Temple, the Lord Chancellor was desperately defending his creed. ‘The Rutans are the Shining Ones. Long, long ago the Shining Ones came to us from on high, bringing us truth and knowledge...’

  ‘They made contact with you at a time when you were still at a primitive stage and they were already highly evolved,’ said the Doctor. ‘They gave you knowledge, certainly, though for purposes of their own. But they fed you lies as well. They encouraged you to worship them as gods.’

  The Lord Chancellor gestured up at the soaring dome.

  ‘But they gave us all this, the Temple, the University!’

  ‘You gave them the Temple, in mistaken adoration,’ said the Doctor. ‘The University, the Great Library you achieved yourselves. They gave you your start, but you have outstripped them in achievement. The Sentarrii are honoured as scholars on all civilized worlds. Who has heard of the Rutans?’

  The Rutan crackled with rage. ‘The whole galaxy shall hear of us once the Sontarans are destroyed!’

  Kurt and Lisa ran into the Temple.

  ‘Let’s get your friend and go, Doctor!’ shouted Kurt. ‘The Sontarans are here!’

  The warning came too late. In a roar of retro-rockets, the Sontaran assault craft slammed to the ground, directly in front of the Temple. A ramp sprang out and squat armoured figures ran down it, heavy blasters in their hands.

  ‘This is where I came in,’ muttered Kurt.

  With the Temple and all its occupants covered by Sontaran blasters, a strangely familiar figure limped down the ramp.

  ‘I don’t believe it,’ whispered Lisa. ‘It’s Steg!’

  Steg made his way up the Temple steps and paused in the doorway. ‘Those of you who are armed can see how you are outgunned. Some of us would die, but not one of you would survive. Put down your weapons – now!’

  ‘Do as he says,’ said the Doctor.

  Reluctantly, Kurt, Lisa, Roz and Chris obeyed.

  At a sign from Steg, a Sontaran trooper gathered up the weapons, stacking them against the wall.

  Steg looked swiftly around the dome, scanning its occupants one by one, ending with Lisa.

  ‘Greetings, Captain Deranne.’

  Lisa sighed. ‘How many times do I have to kill you, Steg?’

  ‘More than once it seems. We Sontarans are hard to kill. As indeed, are you, Doctor. And you, Kurt, my smuggling friend. Yes, I recognize you now. Seeing you with the Doctor brings it all back. I may yet carry out my death sentence on you both!’

  Steg moved closer to the Rutan, studying it curiously. ‘And you, I take it, are Karne?’

  ‘We were Karne,’ said the strange warbling voice. ‘We were many others. We are Rutan. We learned of your plan and came here to frustrate it.’

  ‘And instead you have helped us,’ said Steg. ‘I take it you planned to send a message through the gateway? How?’

  ‘We thought of all possibilities. Even this one. Passenger units are provided for such emergencies. We shall pass through the Gate, travel the Way and take a message of warning.’

  ‘Not now,’ said Steg. ‘Instead we shall send a message through the Gateway – though not precisely the message you intended. Open the Gate.’

  The Rutan made no response.

  Steg turned to his troopers. ‘You two – cover the human prisoners. The rest of the squad, surround the Rutan.’

  In seconds, the Rutan was ringed with Sontaran blasters.

  ‘Hear me, Rutan,’ said Steg. ‘If I give my troopers the command to fire, you will be disintegrated, blasted to fragments of your filthy primal slime. No shielding can protect you from so many blasters at such close range. Open the Gate – or you die.’

  ‘Give the order if you wish, Sontaran,’ said the cold clear voice. ‘You understand nothing. We are Rutan, we cannot die. Why should we obey you? This fragment of our consciousness has no importance. You achieve nothing by destroying it.’

  ‘Something of a dilemma for you, Commander Steg,’ said the Doctor unhelpfully. ‘The lack of an individual consciousness removes the terror from the threat of death – renders it meaningless in fact.’

  Steg swung round at the sound of the Doctor’s voice. The Doctor ignored him, giving all his attention to the great crystal control console.

  ‘Do you understand this device, Doctor?’

  ‘Oh, I think so,’ said the Doctor confidently. ‘It may look like the original mighty Wurlitzer, but basically it’s a very simple space-time warping template. Not unlike the one in the TARDIS but about a million times simpler.’

  ‘Excellent. I take it, therefore, that you are able to open the Gateway?’

  ‘Oh yes. But why should I?’

  ‘Please, Doctor,’ said Steg wearily. ‘You may be a Time Lord, but you are not part of a group consciousness. Or even if you are – your friends are not. Death still has some terrors for you – and for them. Must I really utter the usual threats?’

  ‘You mean if I don’t open the gate for you, you’ll kill all my friends, one by one, in a variety of increasingly messy and unpleasant ways?’

  ‘Something along those lines, yes.’

  There was a long pause.

  ‘In that case,’ said the Doctor, ‘you leave me no choice.’

  Chris was horrified by his sudden surrender. ‘Doctor!’

  ‘Do you really want to die for the Rutans, Chris?’ said the Doctor gently. ‘More important, do you want to see Roz and Bernice die? Not to mention Kurt and Lisa?’

  Chris hung his head. It felt all wrong – but he could find no reply.

  ‘Don’t look so shattered,’ said the Doctor. ‘What do we care what happens to a faraway planet of which we know little?’

  ‘What about the broad picture?’ asked Roz.

  Like Chris, she had no answer, but she felt curiously let down.

  ‘I’m losing my taste for the broad picture,’ said the Doctor. ‘Somehow it never seems quite worth it when you start counting the cost in the bodies of your friends. Anything I have to do to get us out of here alive, I’ll do.’

  ‘Then do it, Doctor,’ said Steg impatiently. ‘Or must I
execute one of your friends, simply to convince you I am sincere? Order of least importance would be best. Where shall I begin? This overgrown bug here?’ He gestured contemptuously towards the stricken Lord Chancellor. ‘Or this petty criminal, Kurt?’

  ‘Not so much of the petty,’ said Kurt.

  ‘I thought we agreed there was no need for this,’ said the Doctor steadily. ‘As you well know, I value all my friends, and I’ll do what I must to save them.’

  He went over to the console and set to work. Steg watched him as he moved from control to control, touching each glowing projection in turn with his palm.

  ‘How much longer?’ rasped Steg impatiently.

  ‘Not long. The effect should be visible quite soon.’

  ‘Fetch me the field transmitter,’ ordered Steg. Two troopers appeared carrying a heavy piece of communications equipment.

  Steg began talking into it, in low, urgent tones. ‘Yes, very soon now, Admiral. I suggest that you take position. Thank you, sir. And good fortune to you.’

  Steg went over to the Temple doorway and stood looking upwards. Above him the sky began to darken. On a sudden impulse Steg called, ‘Gather the prisoners in the doorway here so they may see our triumph. Kill anyone who tries to escape.’

  Herded into the doorway by Sontaran troopers, the mystified captives joined Steg in looking upwards at the sky. The Doctor, his work apparently finished, came to join them.

  The sky continued to darken, not all over but in a clearly defined area. Soon there was a great circle of darkness, not unlike the effect produced by an eclipse.

  A spaceship appeared, heading for the circle of blackness. The massive wheel-like structures either side of the huge central dome gave it the appearance of a mighty juggernaut, rolling remorselessly through space.

  ‘The War Wheel,’ breathed Steg. ‘Now watch.’

  The War Wheel rolled into the circle of darkness and disappeared. The dark circle faded, and the War Wheel had gone.

  Steg turned to the Rutan, hovering in the doorway beneath the menace of Sontaran blasters. ‘You have seen the doom of your miserable race, Rutan. Now we wait.’

  ‘Wait for what?’ demanded Bernice.

  ‘For the Rutan to die, or to go mad. It will be interesting to see which occurs first.’