Doctor Who_ Bad Therapy - Matthew Jones [107]
The emerald fire burnt brightly in the centre of each of the glass spheres, filling the cavern with icy white light, blinding the Doctor momentarily. When the lights returned to normal the circle was empty. He glanced at the symbols on the surface of the nearest sphere. Tiny images of animals danced and shifted position across the globe. The corridor was stable. Tilda, Harris, Julia 185
and all the dormant Toys would already be in London. The Doctor nodded slightly to himself in satisfaction. ‘At least they got away.’
Figures with spears were making their way down the steps near the roof of the cavern. It wouldn’t take the creatures more than a couple of minutes to reach them. Gilliam and Jack were standing close by, looking at him expectantly. Waiting for him to weave some magic.
‘So, what’s the plan?’ Gilliam asked. Jack observed that a truce appeared to have been declared in the face of a greater danger.
‘Can’t you guess?’
‘Not Plan B?’
‘I’m afraid so.’
‘What’s Plan B when it’s at home?’ Jack asked, puzzled.
Gilliam sighed. ‘Boy, do you have a lot to learn.’
Jack ran until he was pinched by a stitch in his side. Progress was difficult in the low tunnels and he was relieved to see that the Doctor’s old friend was looking equally exhausted. Only the Doctor, typically, showed no signs of fatigue. The Doctor shone his pocket torch back down the tunnel the way they had come.
‘I don’t hear anything,’ the Doctor muttered, his head cocked to one side.
‘But I can’t think of one good reason for them not to follow us.’
Gilliam perched on a fallen boulder and put her hands on her knees, leaning heavily upon them. ‘I’d forgotten about all the running about in dark tunnels.’
She turned to Jack. ‘He promised me a tour of all the wonders of the Universe, but it amounted to an extended pot-holing expedition.’
‘Don’t exaggerate,’ the Doctor scolded, as he fiddled with the torch.
‘Don’t tell me that I’m exaggerating, Doctor!’ Gilliam snapped, standing up.
Jack was surprised at how upset she sounded, as if their bickering had ignited a smouldering anger. ‘You almost got me killed in the sea caves on Thoros-Beta –’ She stopped speaking suddenly. ‘And then you left me there,’ she said, her voice suddenly small and vulnerable. ‘You left me behind.’
The Doctor froze, unable to meet her gaze. After a long moment, he said, ‘I think we’ve rested for long enough. We ought to press on.’
They were about to move when several figures floated out of the darkness ahead of them.
Jack glimpsed misshapen, bloated faces beneath the veils. The women stood all around them dressed in filthy dark robes.
‘Whoever you are,’ the Doctor said, ‘we mean you no harm.’
One of the women stepped forward. ‘We know. We’ve been watching you, Doctor.’
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‘You know my name.’ The Doctor leant forward, intrigued. ‘You have the advantage of me, I’m afraid. I don’t know who you are.’
The woman lifted her veil for a moment. It was all Jack could do to prevent himself from crying out in disgust. The woman’s features floated loosely on her face, as if there were no cartilage or bones to anchor them beneath the skin. Her eyes, nose and lips were distorted and swollen, and quivered sickeningly when she spoke.
‘Are you sure that you do not know us?’
The Doctor reached out to her, gently caressing her face with the back of his fingers. ‘The Petruska Programme. You’re the results of his experiments, aren’t you?’
‘We are Petruska. All of us. We are the brides of Moriah,’ the woman replied. She took hold of the Doctor’s wrist and pushed it away from her face, replacing her veil. ‘We do not require your sympathy, Doctor.’
‘I only wanted to show you that –’
‘We know what you wanted to do. The gesture was unnecessary and misplaced. We do not need your sympathy or your comfort.’
‘Then what do you want? What do you want of me?’
‘Only for you to continue to fight him. For you to become the agent of our revenge. Destroy him for us.’
The Doctor glanced away for a second, before meeting the woman’s gaze. ‘I will try to stop him. I will do my utmost to prevent