Doctor Who_ Beyond the Sun - Matthew Jones [64]
What had she been living in for the last year? What kind of society could have produced such a thing? Certainly not the Sunless, that was for sure. Then who?
A dull roaring began to compete with the sound of the wind. Kitzinger screamed and almost lost her footing as a huge, dark shape cut through the storm clouds above her, like the shadow of a shark moving below the surface of a grey sea.
Some kind of ship, she thought, her ears deafened by the noise of its engines as it raced on through the sky. Searchlights swept over the ridge. For a tiny moment she was caught in one of the beams and she cringed beneath its blinding intensity. And then it moved on, lighting up the icy plain in front of her.
Moments later the searchlight picked out a tiny running figure on the blood-coloured ice below her. It was Aric. He was like a stick figure against the dark ice. She saw him desperately try to evade the beam, but it was hopeless. The ship, a functional black object with curled legs, buzzed around him like a hornet before settling down on the ice beside him.
Moments later she heard Nikolas’s amplified voice. ‘I know you can hear me, Kitzinger. There’s nowhere to go. Nowhere at all.’
All hope of escape died with his voice. She guessed that he was on the ship. Kitzinger stood on the ridge, unsure of what to do. If she stayed out here, she would die when her respirator failed.
If she went back, Nikolas would kill her. He’d enjoy it, too.
She sat down on the slope of rock and hugged her thick legs defiantly. She wasn’t going to give him the pleasure. She’d sit here until the blizzards and the cold did their work. Let them find her sitting frozen to death on her backside!
She could see other figures in the searchlight now. Nikolas’s voice came again. ‘Don’t be stupid, Kitzinger,’ he called. She could tell that he was really angry. Her feet were beginning to go numb in her thick boots. ‘I’ll give you five minutes to find your way here or we’ll kill your young friend. Your choice.’
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. What kind of warped logic was that? How could she be responsible for what Nikolas was going to do to Aric? What kind of Ursulan was he? How had he become so changed? Whatever had happened to him, she was still an Ursulan, responsible to all of her people, but not for them.
She remembered her code. I am responsible for myself and responsible to others.
And then she heard Aric’s screams amplified a hundred times, echoing through the snow. His pain merging with the howl of the wind until she couldn’t tell where his screams ended and the storm began. Before she had consciously come to a decision she had staggered down the loose slope and was running towards the motionless searchlight.
The light was fixed on to the side of the insect-like black craft and directed downward. Aric was kneeling on the hard ground in the middle of the beam, one of the Sunless standing behind him.
They looked like they were standing on a stage.
The Sunless didn’t seem to need respirators to breathe the rarefied atmosphere. It occurred to Kitzinger that they were almost certainly natives of this world. As cold and as unwelcoming as their home.
Reluctantly she turned her gaze towards Aric. He was bent over, clutching his jaw. Blood, black in the harsh light, leaked out from between his fingers. Kitzinger winced. She wasn’t sure what they had done to him. Broken his jaw? Torn out a tooth? His eyes were wide open and desperate
– imploring her.
Nikolas appeared from inside the vehicle, casually walking down the ramp as if he were making an entrance at a party. He was wearing a respirator mask, which covered his entire face, but she knew it was him by the affected nonchalance of his walk. She was grateful that he at least had to wear a respirator out in the open. She