Doctor Who_ All-Consuming Fire - Andy Lane [116]
'Now I've seen everything,' she said to herself.
'It was Tir Ram's hand,' I said. 'He was in the process of changing into one of those creatures. He tried to explain to us about the cult of Azathoth, but Ace . . . well, she dispatched him, I'm afraid.'
'She what?'
'She killed him.'
Bernice smiled.
'Well, no surprises there.'
'I had to,' Ace interposed, casting a glance over towards the bloated bulk of Azathoth. 'That thing was trying to pass the Word on to us. I had to distract its attention somehow.'
'Thanks for saving us,' Bernice said. 'It's good to see you again.'
Stepping forward impulsively, she hugged Ace. Surprised, the girl hugged back.
The Doctor looked down at the scarlet object on the floor.
'And what about Mr Ram's hand, then?'
Ace was unrepentant.
'Well he wasn't going to use it any more, was he?'
'Sometimes,' the Doctor mused, 'just sometimes, I hanker for the good old days, when all my companions ever did was scream and ask me stupid questions.'
'So what's going on, then?' Ace asked.
'Yes, that was a favourite one. Well, Bernice, perhaps you would care to summarize the present situation.'
'Fine.' She nodded towards Azathoth. 'Well, that's one alien creature pretending to be an ancient god from another dimension. It can control your mind, and when it does you worship it and turn into something that looks like it might be more at home in the larder of a seafood restaurant. It's imprisoned here, with the fivelegged things as guards, and it wants out.
Unbeknownst to the people who put it here, there's a short cut between Earth and Ry'leh that can be opened by singing, but none of the lobster things can sing. Sherlock Holmes's father heard the local wise men in India singing the song and wrote it down in his notebook, where brother Sherringford found it. Sherringford managed to open a gateway between the worlds and arrived here, only to find himself having a face-to-face talk with God. Once his mind had been given a good pummelling, he and God hit upon a plan to escape. He would travel back to England, raise an army and bring them back to India where the Indians would open another gateway. The army was necessary to create a diversion. The guards would try to repel all boarders, and in the confusion, God and all hands would head for Earth. Does that cover all the salient points?'
Ace looked stunned.
'I've never heard such an implausible idea in my life!' she said. 'Apart from the imprisonment bit. The big maggot lived in a city some way away, worshipped by the winged things. The fivelegged things were in little garrisons around the city.'
'That was the problem,' the Doctor added. 'Getting Azathoth out of the city and past the garrisons to the plain of . . . what did K'tcar'ch call it? The Plain of Leng. That was the only place where so few people could open such a large gateway.' He gazed over to Azathoth. 'I presume that you have managed to turn the tables upon our host, Ace.'
'You blaspheme my temple,' Azathoth said in a voice that was all sweetness and light. 'You cannot stop me. I shall escape this world. I shall!'
'Shut it,' said Ace. She put her fingers to her lips and emitted a piercing whistle. A small black object, about the size of my hand, whistled round Azathoth's bulk and knifed through the air towards her. Bernice and the Doctor ducked, but the object terminated its trajectory a few scant inches in front of Ace's face.
'Smart missile,' she said. 'I used to read about these things in lain M.
Banks's books, then I found that SpaceFleet issues them like the Civil Service issues biros. That's the nice thing about the future: it's full of little things you've already read about.'
She murmured something to her little infernal device and it whipped away, back to its sentry position in