Doctor Who_ Battlefield - Marc Platt [38]
Between them, they had as good as passed his death sentence.
The threat hung over him, frequently inspiring him.
But when its event was thus predicted, it came like a hammer blow. That he would regenerate was certain, for the evidence of his inescapable future as Merlin was all around him. But before that was achieved, he knew as surely as he now lived, that he was going to die... again.
‘Doctor,’ shouted Ace and pointed into the shadows.
A ribbon-tail of green light slithered behind one of the consoles that surrounded the chamber like pews.
Whatever it was, whatever it resembled, it was the manifestation of his destiny. The more he resisted the future, the closer it slid.
He reached for her hand. ‘Ace. I think it’s time for Plan B.’ ‘We run?’
A venomous green head reared up over the console. Its snakemouth gaped open in a hiss of malice.
‘Yes!’ he shouted.
They began to run towards the portal, but the snake launched itself into the air, wriggling through the darkness like an ethereal tapeworm.
It blocked their path.
‘What do we do?’ shouted Ace, lifting the sword towards the attacker.
‘Now is not the time to panic!’
The ghost snake was casting its head about until its white eyes set upon a target. It homed on the Doctor and struck at his face. He caught a blast of blue light on his upheld arm and went skidding across the floor.
‘Now we can panic,’ he gasped as Ace started to pull him up.
The snake was slowly circling in the air like a shark sizing up its victims.
‘It’s a form of automated defence system, isn’t it?’ said Ace.
‘Yes.’ He saw the snake turn towards them. ‘When I say run, run...’
The snake bore down on him like a glowing javelin.
‘Run!’ he yelled, and they split up as the snake coursed through the gap.
The Doctor saw Ace, still carrying the sword and running towards an alcove in the wall. He tried to call her back, but the snake struck at him again as it passed over his head. His hat tumbled, smoking, to the floor.
‘Not that way!’ he shouted at Ace.
She turned inside the alcove and called, ‘It’s a dead end.’
The recess suddenly filled with white light. A glass door slammed down over the entrance.
The snake had begun to circle again, as if the defence system had been curtailed during this diversion.
The Doctor reached the door in two seconds flat. Ace was beating her hands against the glass. but he could not hear her.
‘Hang on. I’ll soon have you out,’ he mouthed at her.
Ace took no notice. She was lifting her feet awkwardly and pointing down. Water was splashing around her ankles and up the glass. There were jets hosing down the back of the alcove from above. She was trapped in the ship’s airlock.
She started to beat against the glass again as he searched for the controls to the door. The grey and chilling lake water was already up to her waist and rising fast.
He could find nothing. He saw her starting to tread water as the torrent reached her shoulders.
‘Let go of the sword!’ he shouted.
He saw her suddenly trying to point behind him.
Looking up, he saw the ghost snake rushing in. Its blast caught him squarely on the chest, sending him hurtling across the floor to collide head on with one of the consoles.
Ace struggled and went under for the first time.
Part 3
Scenario: Bent Spear
‘...and in the midst of the lake Arthur was ware of an arm clothed in white samite, that held a fair sword in that hand.’
Sir Thomas Malory
Le Morte D’Arthur
Chapter 1
A cold wind was whipping up waves on Vortigern’s Lake.
Bambera and Ancelyn emerged from the woods along the shoreline between the dig and the UNIT convoy.
A figure stood on a bare outcrop that jutted into the water. His anorak was drawn tightly around him as he stared unmoving across the lake.
Soldiers came running to meet Bambera. Ancelyn kept his distance while she stood in conference with them, but he watched as more soldiers came from the huddle of ugly machines by the water. They held her in high honour, standing formally around her, while