Doctor Who_ Halflife - Mark Michalowski [105]
There was no sign of the Doctor or the other male: either they were hiding, or they’d found the bioship. He fingered the metallic disc in his pocket – all he needed to do was to get close enough to the bioship’s central systems, and it would be over. At least he’d had the chance to test it out on Javill. The boy had been useful after all.
188
A half-hearted cheer went up from the Guard as the second of the night beasts collapsed. Its massive body jerked briefly as they fired another dozen shots into it, just to be sure. One of the Guard turned to him, clearly unsure about what they should do now. Trove nodded appreciatively, hoping that his association with both the Imperator and the Imperatrix gave him some leverage with them.
‘Well done,’ he said. ‘Excellent job.’
He lowered the car to the ground.
‘What?’ exclaimed the Doctor, and Fitz winced at the volume of his voice in the sweaty confines of Tain’s inner chamber. ‘ You set that wave off? Why? You know what it’s doing, don’t you?’
‘Of course – the Gaian phase is, shall we say, my last resort.’
‘For what?’ asked Fitz. ‘Taking over planets? And what’s “Gaian phase”
mean when it’s at home?’
‘Gala was the Greek goddess of the Earth,’ said the Doctor. ‘Mother Nature, if you will. The name was used by the British biologist James Lovelock who believed that the most meaningful way to understand Earth was to see it as a single living organism. A sandwich short of a picnic on that one, really. But to answer your first – and second – questions, yes, Fitz, I think that’s exactly what it’s for: taking over planets.’ His voice was dark and he turned, taking in the musty chamber around them. ‘That’s why, when the wave touched me, I got flashes of the planet from other viewpoints, isn’t it, Tain? I was briefly plugged into this planetary gestalt that you’ve started to create. I assume it didn’t convert me because it somehow detected I’d already been “touched” by you? If you’re genuine about your desire to atone for your past sins, I think you’re going to need a bloody good excuse for this one.’
Fitz winced again at hearing the word come from the Doctor’s mouth. He knew it was because of the mix-up – that, effectively, they were his swearwords coming out of the Doctor’s mouth. He ought to be getting used to it by now – but it still seemed wrong. Like catching your granny on the toilet, or finding nuddy books under your parents’ bed. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to cope if the Doctor moved on to the really strong stuff.
‘I panicked,’ said Tain eventually. ‘When your TARDIS arrived, I assumed that you were either an agent of the Makers, come to take me back home, or an agent of the Oon, come to finish the work that the Trojan had started. My only chance to remain free was to initiate my Gaian phase.’
The Doctor frowned. ‘How would that safeguard your freedom? Breaking down and recreating every living thing on the planet, subsuming them all into one vast gestalt entity. . . How?’
189
‘Once the Gaian body has reached a certain critical mass – which it is rapidly approaching – it is impossible to disentangle my bioship body from it. The Oon and the Makers would either have to leave me – or sterilise the planet to kill me.’
Fitz saw the Doctor’s jaw clench, his fists tighten. He wasn’t going to actually punch Tain, was he?
‘And this is your way of saying sorry for your past actions, is it?’
‘If I allow either the Oon or the Makers to take me away, I will be either force-bred to produce more like myself, or reconditioned to be a faithful Maker subject. Once again, I will be responsible for the death of millions. By activating my Gaian phase, I will – at the most – be culpable of taking away the individuality of the Esperons. They will not die.’
‘They might wish they had,’ said the Doctor tightly under his breath. ‘Tain, you have to stop this. Now.’
‘I cannot, Doctor. The only way to stop it now, before critical mass is achieved, is to kill