Doctor Who_ Longest Day - Michael Collier [80]
***
Anstaar had peeked warily at the Kusks above her in the distance and had seen the gun suddenly raised in the Doctor's direction, as the other Kusk presumably became bored with the Doctor's tirade. She'd frozen as the Doctor had suddenly held out the bundled-up ball of his coat. She heard his voice, angry and defiant.
'I'm holding here the memory banks and central computer of the prize you've come so far to find. Shoot me and you risk destroying it for ever.'
Anstaar saw him holding it above his head, then in front of his face, down in front of his body. She saw the Kusks look at each other once again, and found herself smiling. So that was why they were so insistent the Doctor move away from the probe.
The voice rang out once again. 'Your lives will be spared if you give us the Prize.'
'Spared?' the Doctor challenged.'Spared to do what? To die here when time runs out for all of us on this poor tortured planet? No, I'm afraid I need something a little more tangible from you - otherwise, no deal.'
'Explain.'
'No, you explain. Tell me what this obscene device is really for.'
'The intelligence in the probe has not only recorded historical events throughout this part of the galaxy, but interpreted them,' came the slithering rattle of the voice from the loudspeaker. 'It is a master strategist, able to plan for us while taking into account everything that has ever transpired throughout recent history.'
'Planning for what? I wonder,' said the Doctor, his voice growing louder, angrier. 'For war, perhaps? Conquest? Send something back through time to assess the weakest points in the history of every planet in the galaxy, the point where you creatures can walk right in and seize control of an empire with only a minimum of force?'
Suddenly, Anstaar caught a glimpse of movement above her and away from the rocky ledge supporting the Kusk creatures: a dark-brown chitinous shape in a black skirt, the setting sunlight reflecting off its body as it moved stealthily down through a narrow fissure she hadn't seen before in the cliff face towering above the arena. A third Kusk, moving round to get a clear shot at the Doctor's back.
'Our numbers are few,' the high-pitched rattle from the loudspeaker informed them. 'Our race was left for dead long ago during a war not of our making. We have to become stronger.'
'Why?' stormed the Doctor.'So you can inflict your suffering on somebody else?'
It's keeping him talking, she thought, her heart sinking. But if she spoke up, the thing would see her and surely kill both her and Nashaad. The idea of dying still terrified her, but the Doctor was holding the one thing that stopped these creatures obliterating them all. Was she meant to sacrifice herself for him?
Above her, the third Kusk moved with a sinister grace across the narrow lip of rock above the basin, searching for the best vantage point from which to kill the Doctor and regain the Prize intact.
***
Sam followed a large ragged rabble of men limping through the outer limits of the settlement, about seventy or eighty of them, clearly with a destination in mind. She had thought of looking for the matter-transmitter platform by herself. Well, she would do that once she'd checked Tanhith was OK. If he didn't want to go with her, well, fine, but she still had to check up on him.
She owed him that much for saving her life out in that red desert, didn't she?
The men were tired and in pain, but fear was the overriding feeling she sensed in the air. Fear of being left behind now their options were dwindling with the water supply and the withered bruk. Fear of having passed up the chance to stave off death by falling in with Felbaac. Turd though he was, he now had the easiest route off this planet, and at this stage she doubted if these men cared about anything much other than that.
Cautiously keeping her distance, Sam scrambled up a dusty rise of land that the men, with their injured feet, were hobbling the long way around.
She could see