Doctor Who_ Empire of Death - BBC Worldwide [96]
We knew of the thin membrane between our worlds but avoided all contact with it. Beyond was only darkness and foreboding. It was beings from beyond the membrane that created the rift'
`The people of Earth - they are not my kind,' Nyssa protested.
`That much is true. We saw that in your mind'
`You wear my father's face and body like a mask'
`We took your memories, used them to recreate your father, your home.'
Ànd my mother? I never knew her. She died giving birth to me'
`She was taken from the darkest place in your subconscious, spun out of your own fears and guilt. She was a mirror of your feelings'
A rush of realisation overwhelmed Nyssa as her true memories began flooding back. 'James Lees - the James I met before passing through the rift - he was one of your kind'
`The boy chanced upon our world after the rift was created. We sent one of our own back in his place, as an ambassador. But those beyond the membrane held him prisoner. They tortured him and they murdered him,' Tremas snarled. 'We cared for the boy as if he were one of us and they murdered our ambassador. We shared his mind through it all, experienced all that he felt. He was dying, his human body collapsing under the strain of what he was made to do -
reaching into their minds and recreating the voices of their dead. He just wanted to come home but none would let him.
Just as he was about to return, they killed him. We all felt his passing. None of us had ever known or felt death before - but now we have. His death will spread among us, infecting us all, just as the horrors beyond the rift have infected our world with linear time. What kind of monsters live in such a nightmare? What more barbarity can they visit upon us?'
Nyssa shook her head. 'You're wrong. They don't understand what they have done. They don't mean your kind any harm'
Tremas stopped. They had reached the edge of the rose garden. Ahead was just a barren plain, its horizon smeared with darkness. He pointed at the black, cancerous centre. This was a place of light and joy once. Then they flung one of their unborn offspring into our world, covered in blood, murdered before its time. That one act created this hole in our world. We fought back, sending our thoughts through to warn them away. But still they came. We took the lives of those that had damaged us. But still they came. You say they don't mean us harm. Yet the one called Doulton came here with thoughts of conquest and invasion and glory. The incursion of these monsters is destroying our world. That doom shall be visited back upon them.' Tremas lurched forwards again, dragging Nyssa towards the darkness.
To my wife Clara,
I write this letter in the hope it may one day reach you, although that hope is increasingly forlorn. By now you will probably know I was sent north into Scotland on a special mission. If you are reading this letter, it means someone has retrieved it from my body and I am almost certainly dead.
Please do not grieve on my behalf. I cannot say I have been the best of husbands to you, for that would be a lie and this not the time for such falsehoods. I have been selfish and arrogant, and I have been no sort of husband for you - certainly not the husband you deserve. All my life I longed to meet a woman as kind and gentle as you.
When I did, I thought myself the luckiest of men.
But I failed you. Perhaps if we had been able to have a child, it would have brought us closer together. But when our marriage was not so blessed, we grew cold with each other and so did our bed. I do not know who was to blame and blame is not important any more Just know this and I can rest in peace, content to have made good with you at last.
I love you, more than I have loved anyone else in this life, certainly more than I have loved myself I betrayed y o u , n o t w i t h a n o t h e r w o m a n , b u t w i t h m y h e a r t .
I turned away from you when you needed me most and for that I can only beg God's forgiveness - if there is such a thing. I hope you find someone else who can grant you the happiness you so much deserve,