Doctor Who_ Last of the Gaderene - Mark Gatiss [89]
Flashing through the inky blackness of space, they spearhead the Gaderene invasion force; three hundred thousand embryos glittering in their molecular wake...
The Brigadier ducked as a section of the aerodrome building crashed to the ground. The worm reared above him, its mandibles thrashing wildly, and wriggled forward, crunching the old tarmac beneath its scaly body.
Several soldiers lay dead around the base, crushed by its monstrous bulk or casually tossed aside by its maw.
A lone soldier raced towards the action. Close behind him came the remainder of the troops, the villagers on their heels.
‘Benton!’ cried the Brigadier. ‘Glad to have you back.’
Benton saluted breathlessly.
‘Bring in the bazookas!’ ordered the Brigadier.
Benton tore off to the rear of the UNIT trucks. The newly arrived troops immediately took up their positions.
‘Now, Yates,’ said the Brigadier, turning to his deputy. ‘If we can just get the creature into that passageway...’
Yates nodded. ‘I know what to do, sir.’
Keeping low, he scurried along the side of the hangar, revolver in hand, until he was perilously close to the monster’s underbelly.
Ahead of him, a broad passageway connected the hangar buildings to the main body of the old control tower. Yates waited until the worm was at the top of the passage and then gave three sharp blasts on a whistle. At once, the troops to his immediate left began a vicious assault, blasting into the creature’s flank until blood pumped from its gelatinous flesh.
Roaring in pain and rage, the worm slithered backwards down the passage.
The Brigadier smiled, raised his hand and then dropped it to his side.
At once, every one of the UNIT vehicles switched on their headlights. The worm was suddenly lit by a fierce illumination, pinioned back against the hangar buildings as though pierced by arrows. It howled in agony, its evil black eyes retreating back into its fleshy face.
The Brigadier raised his R/T set. ‘Now, Benton,’ he barked.
There was a short pause. Then, with a multiple crack, the bazookas let rip, sending shell after shell into the monster’s head.
Clenching his fist in triumph, the Brigadier looked over to see the possessed villagers shambling towards him.
Bliss’s face had taken on an ecstatic look. She stepped back from the fiery blue light, which now seemed as solid and palpable as a glass column. Dark shapes had begun to swirl within it. Jo peered closer but couldn’t make out anything definite.
‘Doctor,’ hissed Noah in an urgent whisper. ‘What’re we going to do?’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘I don’t know. If the Brigadier can get through we can still destroy the matter encoders...’
Everyone stiffened at the sound of the multiple bazooka barrage close by. Bliss looked away from the light, but she seemed untroubled.
She felt the creature’s agony as the human soldiers shattered its flesh. The pain coursed through her own veins, jagged, dreadful. But the tiny voice in the back of her mind called not for help but for release. Release...
In a very few moments, she would allow the worm to die.
Its part in the great plan would finally cease. But not yet, not just yet. The encoders must be protected. The time for the breakthrough had come.
‘Look at her face!’ Jo’s voice cut across the deafening sound of the column of light.
Bliss did indeed seem to have altered. It was almost as though her bulky frame was merely hanging loosely over another, more angular, body; like a butterfly about to cast off its chrysalis. The mouth was impossibly wide, more like a wound, and there was something visible behind it, chitinous, slimy. Only the huge, dark eyes seemed the same, and they blazed like burning pitch.
‘Everything I have striven for is about to come to pass,’
she hissed, something like wonderment in her voice. ‘The last of the Gaderene are on their way. We have found our new home.’
The Doctor struggled to make himself heard over the noise of the light. column.
‘There must be another way.’
Bliss shook her head. Fragments of skin came away.
‘When the elders arrive,