Doctor Who_ Beyond the Sun - Matthew Jones [35]
‘No. I didn’t connect the Blooms to the chamber . . .’ she began, hesitantly.
He nodded to where Aric cowered. ‘Don’t say that what’s-his-name did it.’
Aric knotted himself into a tighter ball as Nikolas directed his attention towards him.
‘No,’ Kitzinger replied. She still wasn’t absolutely sure what had happened herself. ‘They just sort of did it by themselves.’
Nikolas stared at her, suddenly very interested. ‘Go on,’ he said, after a moment.
‘I don’t know how or why, but as soon as they were lowered on to the floor of the chamber, they began . . . taking root. I only discovered it recently when I was drilling down for samples.’
She remembered the coils of thick tentacles pushing their way through the ice-packed ground, attaching themselves to the foundations of the ancient structure.
‘Taking root? Are they . . . alive?’ he asked, his bulging eyes full of excitement and wonder.
She shrugged, her fear of him temporarily forgotten. ‘I don’t know. Not in a conventional sense, I’m sure.’ She found herself giving voice to an idea that had been nagging at her for a few weeks now. ‘They . . . belong here, don’t they?’
He looked amused. As if she was a student who had just grasped a basic but fundamental point. ‘Oh yes, they are the key to this place. The heart of its power.’
‘I’ve told you before, Nikolas. There isn’t any power here. There aren’t even any residual energy readings. I’ve tried every scan I know of. As far as I can tell, there never has been anything here but ice and rock. That’s the truth.’
‘You’re wrong,’ he said wearily. ‘This structure is here for a purpose. I don’t need your science to know that there is energy here, just out of sight, just out of our reach. I can practically taste it on my tongue.’ He signalled his readiness to leave to the two ashen-faced humanoids who waited patiently by the door, turning his back on her as he did so.
It was only then that Kitzinger realized that the Sunless had been listening attentively to the conversation. Quietly watching the proceedings with their dull, lifeless eyes.
‘Bring them food, enough for another two weeks.’ Nikolas paused for a moment, before adding,
‘Then we’ll see.’
He seemed to delight in being vindictive. There was a melodramatic campness to his threats, as if they were carefully rehearsed. He probably practised the routine in the mirror, Kitzinger told herself, feeling a little more rebellious now he had gone.
She joined Aric at the back of the hut. He was rocking gently back and forth, his eyes staring straight out in front of him. He looked an awful lot older than his twenty-eight years. She placed her hand on his shoulder. ‘We’ve won another reprieve.’
He didn’t say anything. Kitzinger thought he looked almost disappointed, as if he would have preferred the ordeal to be over at any cost, even if it meant dying.
That was what being a ‘prisoner’ did to you. It chipped away at your self-determination. While they were here, there was no way that they could stop the process continuing. They couldn’t fight back. They’d tried that and learnt just how physically powerful their captors were. They could only ever be dominated, only ever be slaves. There wasn’t any other position to take, besides that of suicidal martyr – and Kitzinger wasn’t ready to die for her beliefs, not when she might yet find a way to live for them. Perhaps they should think again about trying to find a way of leaving this place, of stopping being prisoners. They needed to leave here without permission. There was a word for that, dusty with lack of use.
Escape. That was it. Perhaps they could escape.
7
DEEP WATER
Blackness. Panic overtook him and he lashed out wildly in the water. The weight of it absorbed the power of his blows. Scott kicked at the icy grip on his ankle with the heel of his free foot. It wasn’t a human hand, far too big even for the Sunless. He imagined it as a grey metal fist wrapped around him. Was this some creature of the Sunless? Or even a giant version of one of those cold-hearted