Steve Cole - Doctor Who - The Knight, The Fool and The Dead

Being small, none of the guards registered her as worthy of challenge. So she wended her way down through the decks. And as she passed the steps down to the Escape Pod Deck, she saw the Doctor, half-hidden in shadow.

There you are , she thought, heart thumping heavily as she crouched beside the stairwell. Green eyes glowed in the gloom, and she realised the Doctor was talking with Brian. A secret meeting! This was a change from the norm.

‘… Chalskal has told his president nothing,’ Brian told the Doctor. ‘Nothing about the impending Kotturuh invasion, nothing about providing Lifeshrouds for its people. His “Victis Fleet” is not even owned or governed by the Alliance he claims to represent.’

‘A mercenary force,’ muttered the Doctor. ‘So that’s why we’re stuck up here instead of mobilising a planet to protect itself. Chalskal’s gone rogue.’

‘He has been assembling a private army. These mercenaries were always the intended recipients of the Lifeshrouds. He hoped to create troops who could not die …’

The Doctor nodded moodily. ‘They’re always gonna win out over your regular mortals. But the Lifeshrouds are designed to be worn against the Kotturuh, not in general warfare.’

Brian nodded. ‘I suspect the Ambassador would like to change the direction of Fallomax’s research.’

So he can conquer any planet he chooses . Estinee’s eyes opened wider. The warty little creep!

The Doctor’s expression was cold as stone. ‘Never trust anyone trying so hard to seem humble.’

Brian inclined his head. ‘I bow to the wisdom of your opinion.’

The Doctor gave him a look. ‘How’d you find out all this about Chalskal?’

Brian shook his head. ‘Mr Ball hacked into the Ambassador’s holo-diary. We read several of the speeches he has already penned in anticipation of a successful and bloodless coup.’ He paused. ‘Mr Ball also corrected minor points of grammar and spelling but with luck this won’t be noticed until we are able to act on the information.’ He paused. ‘You will act on this, Doctor?’

‘Oh, yes.’ The Doctor was shaking his head. ‘I’m not letting another planet go down. The Kotturuh must be fought.’

‘Fought?’ Brian was suddenly interested. ‘Then, the Lifeshroud is not purely defensive technology.’

‘Attack is sometimes the best form of defence.’ Did the Doctor sound defensive himself? ‘All right, back to business. We’ll discuss what we do about all this tonight after ten-bells. Come to the main lab. Scramblers on.’

‘Very well,’ said Brian.

Estinee ducked back into the shadows as the Doctor and the Ood climbed the steps and went past. They didn’t notice her. She’d learned well how to hold still and not be seen.

It was then that Estinee saw the Kotturuh watching her from the shadows of the deck below. It was resting on tentacles like giant maggots beneath the skirts of crimson velvet. Estinee froze, filled with the same fear she’d known on Destran the night her parents left her.

‘Can’t be here,’ she whispered, closing her eyes. Can’t be .

When she opened them again, the Kotturuh was right in front of her.

Diamond eyes glittered behind the dark spider-web veil. ‘Our Design cannot be broken,’ the Kotturuh announced in its unearthly tones. ‘And all within it have their part to play.’

Shivering, shaky-breathed, Estinee kept her eyes shut for what felt like ages.

When she opened them again, the Kotturuh had gone.

Stunned, numb, she sat very still.

That couldn’t have been real , she told herself, feeling stupid. If the Kotturuh knew where we were, they’d strike us dead right now. You’re losing your mind .

Only … What if you’re not …?

Estinee ran back the way she’d come, to tell Fallomax, and the Doctor.

Fallomax was rattled by Estinee’s story – as much by the Kotturuh’s eerie appearance as by what they knew now about Chalskal.

She told Estinee to stay in her cabin in her Lifeshroud. The teleport was fully charged and programmed to jump her to the main lab if she saw Kotturuh again, or anything else.

After ten-bells, the Doctor walked in with Brian, and Fallomax explained what had happened.

‘Do you believe her story?’ Brian asked.

‘I believe she believes it. Could be hallucination, repressed memories …’ She poked Brian with her look. ‘Synapses misfiring as they heal from her last near-death experience.’

‘Mr Ball suspects you will have had ample opportunity to observe similar misfires on the many occasions you demonstrated the child’s abilities …’

‘We don’t have time for this,’ the Doctor said heavily. ‘I’ll run some tests on Estinee tomorrow. But why would the Kotturuh only come to her?’

‘They have incredible powers of mental projection,’ said Fallomax. ‘Estinee’s spent a long time in Mordeela. They could be using her as a conduit to spy on us?’

‘If everything happens according to your Design, you don’t need to spy,’ said the Doctor. ‘Anyway, if they are using Estinee, why advertise the fact?’

‘Maybe because … they know we can’t stop them, whatever we do.’ Fallomax felt suddenly tired. She imagined Kotturuh gathering in space, all around them. ‘Why do they have to exist?’ she hissed. ‘They’re so obsessed with the idea we should all be born with a death sentence hanging over us.’

The Doctor nodded to Brian. ‘By our time it’s entirely normalised. Death grows ingrained into the fabric of creation. All things end – except for the Kotturuh. Witnesses to life, arbiters of death, they’re the ones that get to go on, out there in the dark. Relentless. Immortal.’

‘To taunt a child for no reason would seem beneath such beings,’ said Brian.

‘Or maybe it just shows them for what they are – cruel, bullying cowards.’ The Doctor had grown suddenly fierce. ‘They’ve come for Estinee because she’s defied the Kotturuh’s Judgement – proving that they’re fallible. They don’t want word of that getting about, so they try to keep her down.’

Fallomax nodded slowly, fumbling for the crumbs of comfort he seemed to offer. ‘But how can they ever be beaten?’

‘Maybe … we need to play by the same rules as they do.’

Brian stared at the Doctor, eyes aglow. ‘What are you saying?’

‘That we do to them just exactly what they do to everyone else.’ The Doctor’s voice had hardened. ‘Turn their own power back on them. Limit their lifetimes. Choose how long they live – and finish their threat for ever.’

Chapter Twelve

‘What are you saying?’ Fallomax wondered at him. ‘It’s tricky enough just to shield someone from the Kotturuh genetic wave – now you think you can actually turn their gift against them?’

‘Don’t call it a gift like it’s something supernatural,’ the Doctor insisted. ‘Call it what it is: a thought-propelled retrovirus weaponised with some very nasty enzymes.’

‘ A gift is easier to say,’ Brian noted.

‘How can you ever fight back against the Kotturuh?’ said Fallomax. ‘We’re talking about creatures who can twist life into death as easily as Chalskal takes a bow.’

‘Estinee’s genes have twisted Kotturuh death back into life,’ the Doctor countered. ‘If we could combine that effect with the Lifeshroud’s ability to deflect the Kotturuh Wave …’

‘For that you would need to study the Wave in action,’ Brian pointed out. ‘Perhaps when Skalithai falls …?’

‘It won’t fall,’ the Doctor said. ‘I will stop it happening.’

Brian nodded a fraction. ‘Whatever it takes?’

‘Whatever it takes.’