Doctor Who_ Longest Day - Michael Collier [106]
The Doctor shook his head, his eyes closed, lips muttering something that could've been mental workings, oaths, or a prayer. Suddenly the eyes snapped open and fixed on her. "Think of a number,' he ordered. 'Now double it...'
***
Sam turned and walked robotically towards the cave mouth as the whole planet seemed to pick up her scream of anger and frustration and echo it all around. She glanced back over one shoulder and noticed that the Kusk had managed to extricate itself from the widening split in the planet's crust, and was even now staggering towards her.
She entered the thick blackness of the cave, the memory of the Kusk's operating procedure clear and sharp in her mind. The two grey buttons must be a kind of delay mechanism, giving you time to get on to the platform, she reasoned, detachedly. It had been preset by the Kusk. It would take her back to the moon.
Love, love, love.
She wondered if Tanhith had felt anything when he'd finally been taken by this place. She pressed the buttons, and pulled her clammy body up on to the clear plastic.
A short time later the Kusk entered the cave. Its bulk lent a frightening movement to the darkness. But the dust and the light were already pulling away at her skin and her hair, and her heart.
***
Leaving the two other survivors to the work of cutting through the debris that blocked their escape from the dying base, the Leader crawled slowly and painfully in the direction of the control chamber. He had to be sure that the knowledge they had travelled so far to attain was safe - that the Rusks'
future was assured.
His legs were crushed, unusable. One arm seemed broken and useless too. But he would pull himself forward with his good arm. His spirit and purpose were unbreakable; this was what science could not teach. The technician would be forced to witness his spirit. The technician would be reminded once again that science was little without strength.
He heard the voices from outside the door and hissed. The Doctor. And someone else.
'Divide it by four. Now take away the number you first thought of. What's left?'
'Twenty-four.'
'Pity. I was hoping it would be in the region of minus thirty-four million, thirty-four thousand, seven hundred and sixty-eight.'
A furious gurgling roar began somewhere in the pit of the Leader's stomach and rose in volume as it hissed through his jagged teeth.
***
Anstaar spun round at the sudden noise, and grabbed hold of the Doctor's shoulder. The eyes of the Leader glowered at them balefully from floor level, the arm reaching into the control chamber to haul the huge body along.
'Stop him, Anstaar!' yelled the Doctor. 'He's their leader. I can't leave this now, I can't!' He was wrestling with the controls in front of him, trying to solve problem after problem as his attempts to bypass the alien systems met with alternate failure and success.
Anstaar stared helplessly at the Time Lord. 'My leg's broken!' she reminded him.
The Kusk Leader dragged himself a little closer.
'Get in that purple machine!' He gestured impatiently over his shoulder.
"There should be a key inside. Turn it clockwise and you'll start an engine.
Quickly!'
***
Sam's eyes were still staring out into the cave, with no lids to shut out the sight of the furious Kusk roaring in frustration in front of her, reaching out into the milky opacity that surrounded and shielded her.
The process hadn't taken this long before. Consciousness showed no sign of leaving her, and nor did the savage creature that was desperate to destroy her, staring at what must be her half-dissolved face. Something was wrong. She was stuck. The howling noise of the maelstrom outside grew still louder.
Oh, God, help me, help me, help me.
***
Leaning on a shattered tubular cable housing for support, Anstaar took the quickest route towards the Doctor's machine, which involved getting dangerously close to the Leader. He roared again and flailed out his arm, which caught the piping and knocked Anstaar off balance.