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

‘It does,’ the Doctor agreed as his machine bleeped. He pulled out a phial of crystals, which glowed dangerously as they caught the light. He considered it a moment, then reset the machine.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Second thoughts,’ the Doctor muttered, not looking Fallomax in the eye. ‘Listening to my friends, maybe.’

The machine beeped again, and the Doctor removed another phial of crystals from it. These reflected the light more dimly. ‘A taste of their own medicine but watered down. Maybe even with a spoonful of sugar.’

‘You’re showing mercy to the Kotturuh?’

‘Depends on what they fling at us,’ the Doctor said. ‘But I’m giving them more than they give anyone else – a choice.’ He held the two phials up to the light. ‘One’s a sentence of death.’ He tucked the first phial away inside his jacket. ‘This one’s a sentence of life.’ He put the second phial in his top pocket.

‘But what about your fleet?’ Fallomax said. ‘You’ve just sent them all to Mordeela. When the Kotturuh sense that Mordeela’s under threat, their ships will converge and they’ll attack.’

‘Exactly,’ the Doctor agreed. ‘And that may be to our advantage. When they converge, they’ll be close enough for our counter-wave to hit them.’

‘In the meantime,’ said Fallomax, helping herself to some crystals scattered beside the machine, ‘people will die.’

The Doctor shook his head. ‘They’ll be protected by Lifeshrouds.’

‘For six hours.’ She replenished her own ’Shroud’s crystal supply; another two days’ protection from Kotturuh attack. ‘Think that’s long enough?’

‘It’ll have to be.’

‘You’re happy to sacrifice your mercenaries?’

‘Not mine. I didn’t hire them. Presumably they signed up because they’re ready to fight …’

‘They’re not yours, but you’ll use them. Just as I used Estinee. For all your furrowed brow and kind words, you’re really no better than me, are you?’ Fallomax looked down at the comforting pulse of her ’Shroud’s crystal circuit, and sighed. ‘Pity. For a time there I actually thought you were diff—’

She broke off as the floor bucked under her feet, and a great grind of engines crunched at the air. ‘What the—?’

‘Dematerialisation!’ The Doctor pushed past her and ran off down the corridor. ‘Someone’s trying to work the TARDIS. Come on!’

‘Estinee …?’ Fallomax was soon puffing as she ran after the Doctor. So many years locked up on board the Polythrope , padding round the corridors twice a day, could never have prepared her for keeping up with someone like the Doctor, who charged at open space like a toddler off the reins.

When she reached the control room, he was scanning the screens on the central console. ‘We’ve shifted forward!’

‘On the plaza?’ Fallomax panted.

‘Forward in time.’ He looked up at her, eyes wide and dark and urgent. ‘Five days.’

‘To when the Kotts said you’d come?’ A chill traced the length of her backbone. ‘Where is Estinee?’

‘Estinee.’ He stared around, like a beast scenting danger. ‘The Kotturuh must have come to her again. They’ve done this.’ He raised his voice. ‘Estinee!’

‘Doctor …’ Fallomax pointed. The police box doors were open. ‘Doctor, come on. This is their trap. You’ve got to get away from here.’

‘We can’t leave Estinee,’ the Doctor said.

‘We can come back for her. A different day. I mean, come on, they want you to do this!’

But the Doctor was already walking to the doors. Fallomax wanted to follow him out. To save Estinee. To be that brave. But her legs wouldn’t move. Come on, your Lifeshroud’s fully charged , she told herself, the Kotturuh Judgement can’t catch up with you .

‘Fallomax?’

She turned at the sound of Estinee’s voice, incredulous, delighted.

Estinee’s owl-like eyes were dark and glittered like diamonds. In her hands she held a stubby tool with a square nozzle: an energy probe, like the one that had burned the flesh from her bones at every demonstration of the Lifeshroud.

‘There are so many other ways to die, Professor,’ said Estinee.

Though she was still panting, Fallomax turned and ran, faster and harder than she ever had in her life. She reached the TARDIS doors just as Estinee switched on the probe.

As the light engulfed her, Fallomax screamed. The tears in her eyes boiled away so quickly, and her last thought was of the shame she felt that she had only ever cried for herself.

The Doctor was hunting for Estinee in the grounds of the Tombs. He watched as two Andalians circled high overhead like bloated buzzards. Then they flew away, as a strange, unearthly wind began to build across the plaza.

The Doctor heard the scream from inside the TARDIS. ‘Fallomax!’ he shouted, picking a desperate path across the plaza, jumping over bones and bodies.

Estinee stood in the TARDIS doorway. In front of her was a heap of steaming remains. It was only by the golden mail and cables over the charred jumpsuit that the Doctor knew they had been Fallomax.

‘What did you do?’ he whispered.

‘I hated her for what she did to me.’ Estinee’s dark eyes glittered. ‘The Kotturuh knew that. They used that hate to make me kill her for them.’ A single bloody tear tore its way from the blackness in her eyes. ‘I don’t want to kill anyone. But you do. They know what you are. That’s why they’re doing this.’

‘This isn’t you,’ the Doctor told her urgently. ‘It’s the Kotturuh. You were on Mordeela for so long, they owned a part of you and they’re using it—’

‘I don’t want to kill anyone.’ Estinee took a jerking step towards the Doctor. ‘You want to use me to kill …’

‘No! That’s what the Kotturuh want. They couldn’t get to Fallomax so they used you to do it. And I’m not a part of their Design – they have no right to touch me so they’re getting to me through you. They’re using your fear, your anger, your helplessness …’

‘ What else drives you, little one …?’

The Kotturuh were coming as the skies darkened. Shadows and scratchings swept across the inky indigo, as thick night settled over the corpse-littered plaza. The wind grew hotter; the Doctor felt as though a furnace door had been flung open and the heat was being bellowed into his face.

Estinee took another step towards him, the energy probe clutched tight in her hands.

‘ You would destroy us for a fool’s fantasy … ’

‘Life doesn’t deserve the Kotturuh!’ the Doctor howled into the storm. ‘Estinee, you have to fight this. The Kotturuh are coming for you. Once you’ve killed me they’ll take you back to Mordeela, keep you there for good …’

‘No,’ Estinee whispered, as eight Kotturuh ghosted into reality, standing in a circle about the TARDIS, perhaps 50 metres wide. A faint mist seemed to blow in with them, coiling around their oily tentacles.

‘Your interference in the Design is not tolerated, little one.’ One of the Kotturuh, smaller than the others, came closer, through the mist. ‘End him, child of Destran.’

‘Estinee, don’t—!’

‘ End him .’

Chapter Fifteen

Estinee felt the darkness prickling her eyes, felt the cold dank tunnels of Mordeela running through her body. Dimly, through a haze of blood and shadow, she could see the Doctor’s face.

Here she stood, ready to kill him. And even now, there was only concern and compassion in his frantic eyes. For her.

The energy probe felt so heavy in her outstretched hands. She wanted to drop it, but she couldn’t. The Kotturuh had placed it in her hands, like they placed words in the minds of the revenants, using her like they used all life to bring more death. And death could bring her no end so she knew she would be kept in the cold and the dark for ever. Owned and alone for ever.