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

‘Speak.’ The cold draught of the Kotturuh’s voice came from out of nowhere. It crept around the cavernous space, stealing echoes from the stone.

The nabob did as commanded. ‘I represent the world of Turska Gordansis and its dominions—’

‘We know the lives you represent. This is why we summoned you.’

Estinee shuddered. She had seen Turska Gordansis on Fallomax’s star charts. She had better listen to it all.

‘Speak,’ the Kotturuh prompted icily.

‘You brought Judgement to the world of Tuthmoser in a neighbouring star system,’ called the nabob. ‘You left its people with lives lasting less than one hundred years. But Palkh, its sister world … you granted lifespans a thousand times as long.’

The accusation, if such it was, was all but swallowed by the silence that followed.

‘When civilisation fell on Tuthmoser, the creatures of Palkh invaded. Now their forces mass on our borders. They covet the empire of Turska Gordansis and wait only for your Judgement upon us.’ The emissary paused, as if summoning strength to go on. ‘I say to you now … we deserve long lives so we can stand against our aggressors. Make your Judgement on the lesser worlds of our dominion. Billions of lives will still be yours, but let us endure to protect those worlds … help the survivors adjust …’

Estinee closed her eyes. She could hear the emissary’s words growing slurred. The thing was happening to him. The change.

‘In exchange, we will make tribute to you … become your disciples, that we may preach the word of the Kotturuh …’ The emissary clutched his head with many limbs, groaning in pain. ‘Only … please … let us … last …’

‘Your time will be short,’ the Kotturuh voice declared, flat of feeling. ‘Your dominions will succeed you and bring better worth to creation. Judgement shall pass at the moment decreed.’

And as Estinee listened, the nabob’s gnashing and babbling began to resolve itself into words and numbers that sounded strange on his lips: ‘… two-seven, tau, six-heaven-two, sky-alpha. Fixed. Iota. Eight-zero-zero …’ A stream of syllables repeated over and over as he stood, head bowed in acquiescence, still as a statue, only his tongue twitching to spit the Kotturuh incantation.

He would be dead soon. But he wouldn’t stop repeating the pattern. They could put thoughts and words in your mind – whether just for amusement, or because it brought them power, Estinee didn’t know.

But she did know that, though the nabob was dead, he would start to move again, like the others.

Hugging herself for comfort, Estinee edged back up the tunnel. She placed her face to the veins of light in the rock and tried to remember how they felt – those days when good things lasted and everyone lived for ever.

Chapter Six

The exclusion zone around Mordeela was a tougher nut to crack than the Doctor had figured, but he found a tiny worn spot in the shield. ‘Must be where the Kotturuh spaceships travel in and out. And we can get in too!’

The TARDIS groaned like a pregnant whale until, with a final judder, the console room rocked and fell quiet.

Brian rose from the chair and brushed himself down with the air of a long-suffering Jeeves. ‘We have arrived?’

‘On the planet Mordeela.’ The Doctor checked the controls. ‘ Inside the planet Mordeela, in fact.’ A smooth-walled tunnel showed on the scanner, lit dimly by snail-trails of crystal in the rock. ‘About a mile underground.’

Brian looked down at his tuxedo. ‘I feel underdressed.’

‘In that?’

‘Without heavy weaponry.’

‘Ha! Well, don’t forget – you, me, the TARDIS, we don’t belong in the Dark Times. Existing outside the Kotturuh Design gives us the best weapon – surprise!’

Brian considered. ‘Our best weapon is something you shout to enthuse a small child?’

‘I’ve brought down empires with less,’ the Doctor said, with a confidence he wanted to feel. ‘How close are Estinee’s life signs?’

‘Within a mile of here. I regret I cannot be more exact, but the readings are distorted.’ Brian adjusted the device then shook his head. ‘Mr Ball suggests that a background power source is causing interference.’

‘There’s definitely something down here,’ the Doctor agreed. ‘The TARDIS is registering it, but almost … unconsciously.’ He smoothed his hand through his quiff. ‘Well, we won’t find answers in here. Ready to go outside?’

‘After you, Doctor.’

The Doctor opened the door and stepped cautiously outside. No sign of life. No sign of death. No alarms, at least. Skeins of soft light pulsed in the walls.

‘Natural luminescence,’ Brian observed, behind him.

‘The surface of the planet is exposed to galvanic radiation blown in from all sorts of exotic local stars,’ the Doctor agreed. ‘Forces like that are bound to form crystals with special properties. Light’s just the visible wavelength. Wonder what else it’s got?’

‘Special’ wasn’t quite the word, he thought. There was an atmosphere of dread here, conjured by something more than the darkness. Maybe this is just how it was in the Dark Times , he told himself – but had trouble hearing as his every instinct was yelling danger in a variety of pitches.

He glanced behind to see Brian watching him, the pale glow of his eyes like nightlights in the gloom. ‘The interference increases outside your ship. But having studied the tracker, Mr Ball advises we take this passage.’

‘After you.’

They moved as quietly as they could through passages made from what looked like melted liquorice. The Doctor could feel it getting colder the further they went. The nape of his neck bristled in the strange atmosphere, and he thought uneasily of those weird background energies. But Brian, striding alongside with his translation sphere in his hand, seemed unbothered.

‘Much further?’ the Doctor asked.

‘No,’ said Brian. ‘This tunnel will shortly open out.’

Sure enough, with every step they took, the way ahead through the tunnel seemed brighter. But it wasn’t a welcoming light that shone beyond. It was blood red and softly pulsing, taking and twisting the shadows into sinister shapes.

Brian stopped and politely gestured that the Doctor go first.

With a deep breath and hands plunged in coat pockets, the Doctor swept out of the tunnel and onto a kind of rocky balcony. It stretched out in a colossal half-circle, and overlooked not a stage but an abyss – a dark drop down into nothingness, with just a tongue of rock sticking out into the space.

The far side of the chasm was sheer, smooth rock, thick with carved equations and alien script. Overlaid were lines, angles and formulae in chalk, tar, blood and who-knew-what-else. The Doctor’s mind turned in a vertiginous spin; it was like trying to take in some colossal crime scene investigation board, put together by an infinite number of detectives going mad in an infinite number of ways. Wherever you looked, lines stretched to shapes and figures and different darknesses.

‘What does it mean?’ he whispered. He wanted to understand the purpose of it all, but a hole in his sight seemed to open on each part in turn as he tried to focus, like the onset of a migraine. His teeth ached and his cells stirred and he almost laughed. It was as if trying to make sense of it all was changing him in some secret, midnight way. Here was a truth never meant to be known, and he loved the thought of that, and if he could only pin it down—

The Doctor gasped as cold rock cracked against the back of his head. He’d been brought down, laid out on the ground; Brian was straddling him, gripping him hard by the shoulders, so he fought back, bucking underneath the Ood’s body. Brian’s mouth tendrils brushed the Doctor’s face like wet seaweed and left a stinging sensation. He gasped, senses on fire while his body seized in an agonising spasm. Then the paralysis ended as Brian quickly retreated.