Doctor Who_ Beyond the Sun - Matthew Jones [124]
‘Can’t you see’?’ she pleaded, gesturing around the room. ‘All this belongs to you. Why risk your legacy to save that woman’s life?’
Iranda walked over. ‘Nice try, Benny,’ she said brightly. She waved over the remaining Sunless who stood at the entrance. They began to move smoothly forward, walking in step. ‘Unfortunately for you these Sunless can’t understand a word you’ve just said. Get that child out of there.’
Reluctantly Emile clambered out, kneeling in front of the grave, nursing his bruised arm.
‘In a few moments,’ Iranda announced to Bernice, ‘I’m going to have all the power in this room at my disposal. And then we will see whether or not I am a machine or whether I am free.’
Out of the corner of her eye, Bernice saw Kitzinger pull a shard of bloodstained crystal from her coat and begin to move towards Iranda.
‘Kitzinger, don’t!’ Bernice shouted, but she could see that her words were not going to have any effect on the Ursulan woman.
So Bernice charged forward and slammed her shoulder into Iranda’s side. The woman staggered backward and came to a halt at the edge of the grave, just in front of Emile. Without looking behind her Iranda said, ‘You don’t get rid of me that easily.’
The two Sunless were almost upon them. Bernice saw Emile preparing to climb to his feet.
Last chance.
‘Oh no?’ Bernice said as she walked forward and pushed Iranda hard in the chest.
The young woman tried to take a step backward to steady herself, but Emile was in the way.
She wobbled for a second, wheeling her arms around madly, and then she fell backward over the kneeling boy and slid into the open grave.
There was a scream.
The beautiful lights went out.
Blackness.
The sound began as a whisper and then increased into a whistling hiss.
‘Here it comes,’ Bernice said to anyone who might have been able to hear. After the brightness she couldn’t see anything more than grey shadows in the familiar pink gloom.
The whistle became a rumble. Distant but growing.
The ground started to tremble. Loose rocks bounced and tumbled painfully against her ankles.
The noise was coming from directly in front of her. The stone disc lit up from beneath like a luminous novelty dinner plate.
The rumble became a roar.
And then a beam of pure white light burst from its centre. A cylinder of energy burning in the very centre of the room. Bernice staggered, fighting to remain standing. The ground was vibrating like the skin of a drum. Ice and grit filled the air, irritating her eyes. Squinting, she saw the beam of light spiral upward and hit the crystal lattice.
The roof became a band of platinum fire. The room was blasted with heat.
She heard a woman – Kitzinger? – cry out next to her. ‘We’ve lost!’
Bernice reached out a hand and felt a clump of short hair. Kitzinger. The older woman was, after all, the only person in the chamber who had any to speak of.
‘We have to get out of here!’ Bernice screamed over the noise. The chamber was bleached out, but slowly Bernice began to see outlines of shaved, uniformed figures. The light was too bright to distinguish her friends from the Sunless.
Taking Kitzinger’s arm, she made her way to the entrance, where she found Jason and Emile sheltering from the brightness.
‘Where’s Scott?’ Emile demanded.
Bernice shook her head. The last time she had seen him he had been in the arms of the Sunless. She closed her eyes for a moment, summoning the courage and determination to go back for him. She was about to set off when she saw a figure moving towards her out of the light. It was silhouetted by the bright pillar, edges blurring. A stick figure against the sun.
Scott.
‘What happened to the Sunless?’ she demanded.
‘I don’t know,’ he shouted back. ‘They just left.’
‘I think we should follow their example.’
They ran out on to a different world. The pale pinkness which had drenched the entire landscape was gone. The blood-red glaciers were gleaming white. And the patches of rock were no longer maroon but light brown.
And a