Doctor Who_ Alien Bodies - Lawrence Miles [125]
I-Coda twisted its cranial unit, readjusting its senses until it could see through the clouds of crystal up ahead. The corrosive had no effect on Kroton tissue, naturally, but it was known to have spectacular effects on carbon forms. I-Coda was disappointed to note that there were no bodies in the passage.
There was something of interest, though. An unidentified object, suspended above the floor on miniature antigrav units. I-Coda’s high-level senses detected biological matter in the object’s interior. The Kroton rolled forward, and extended a probe. E-Kobalt had given orders to look out for an item like this. Something of great tactical importance, evidently.
I-Coda’s probings were interrupted by a dull sniffing sound, from somewhere within low-level sensory range. It readjusted its perception parameters. Yes; there were several chambers set alongside the corridor, and something was moving around inside one of them. I-Coda turned – a slow process, in this body – and trundled through the nearest doorway.
The room hadn’t been affected by the corrosive. On the far side of the area was what I-Coda took to be a biped rest-unit, and stretched out on it was a motionless humanoid female. I-Coda detected no life signs. By the side of the unit was a single humanoid male.
‘I-den-ti-fy-yourself,’ I-Coda ordered.
The humanoid looked up. A trace of liquid appeared in the corner of one of the biped’s visual sensors, though I-Coda wasn’t sure if this was due to damage or some form of lubrication.
‘Why can’t you leave us alone?’ the alien asked.
I-Coda answered the question by wobbling one of its weapons attachments. ‘I-den-ti-fy-yourself-or-you-will-be-dispersed.’
The humanoid reached out for the female being. It – he, I-Coda remembered; humanoids had specific terminology for units of different genders – stroked the side of the woman’s face.
‘Animals,’ said the man, quietly. And disappeared.
I-Coda recalibrated its senses, but it was too late. Whatever had happened to the humanoid, the Kroton’s systems hadn’t picked it up. It was almost as if the being had vanished inside the body of the female, though the laws of physics insisted this was impossible.
Then the female disappeared, too. There was a rhythmic wheezing, groaning sound, which made I Coda’s head spin in the most peculiar way, before the last traces of her body faded out of existence.
The Kroton filled the room with corrosive material, more out of frustration than for any practical reason. Then it backed out into the corridor, and made its report to E-Kobalt.
A square of grey light appeared at the end of the passageway. Mr Qixotl kept moving. He had no idea where the others were, and he didn’t particularly care. For a while, he’d been following Kortez, but they’d run into another one of the Kroton tanks, and Qixotl had lost sight of the Colonel among the clouds of corrosive. The man was probably dead by now. A wet patch of biomass, lying in a corner somewhere. Bleugh.
But now the exit was only a few metres in front of him. Qixotl had headed for the main entrance of the ziggurat – all right, the only entrance of the ziggurat – simply because he hadn’t been able to think of anywhere else to go. Even if he’d managed to reach the Faction’s shrine, he had no idea how to pilot the thing, and he doubted Cousin Justine would survive long enough to meet him there. He could have relied on the Doctor, of course, but he still got the feeling the Doctor wanted to kill him. Hell, the front door was as good a way out as any. The Shift had no reason to want him dead. The Doctor, yes. Homunculette, yes. But old Qixotl? Qixotl was the middleman. Anyone could see he was harmless. Right?
Right?
Yeah. He’d make it out of the ziggurat in one piece. The