Doctor Who_ Original Sin - Andy Lane [113]
‘Put it down!’
Pryce’s long fingers flicked the lid of the box up. Something shifted inside, and he reached in. A thin, piercing shriek filled the room, making Hater Of Humans, Hopeless Itinerant and the two guards flinch.
‘Am I right?’ he repeated, his voice calm and level.
‘Yes,’ Hater Of Humans said tightly. ‘It is our last hope. Put it –’
‘And if it is destroyed, then thousands, if not millions of people will go mad and kill each other?’ He withdrew his hand from the box. He was holding a small creature shaped rather like an Earth cuttlefish. Its skin was slimy and orange, and its three stalked eyes had a nasty gleam in them. It twisted in Pryce’s hand and sank its cogwheel teeth into his palm. He smiled slightly as the blood trickled down his arm.
With a sickening realization, the Doctor could see where the conversation was leading. If he hadn’t spent so long talking to Pryce on board Beltempest’s spacecraft he wouldn’t have believed it himself, but he knew what the man was going to do. The Hith, with limited knowledge of the limits to which the human mind could be driven, had no chance. He opened his mouth to warn Hater Of Humans, but he was too late.
‘Yes,’ said Hater Of Humans. ‘As the shielding around the icaron ring is removed and the radiation builds, more and more people will be affected every time the door into hyperspace is opened. According to the fastline reports we have been receiving, there are already riots on Earth and insurrections on some of the colony planets. Murder rates are rising steadily. Earth is on the verge of collapse. If you value the lives of your fellow humans, put the nexus down! It’s your only chance!’
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Pryce suddenly clenched his hand. The nexus screamed shrilly for a brief moment before it ruptured and a pink liquid splattered up and across the table. Pryce smiled at the other six people in the room.
‘My only regret,’ he said licking at the gelatinous remains that slid down his wrist and forearm, ‘is that I will not be around to watch it.’
‘Kill him,’ said Hater Of Humans.
Pryce made no attempt to escape as the female guard aimed her weapon at him and pulled the trigger. His face creased into a smile as the beam of pure, unsullied energy burned its way through his forehead, blackening and blistering his flesh. Amazingly, he stood up and stretched his arms wide. For a split second, light shone from his eyes and mouth as he was consumed from within. The Doctor wasn’t sure, but he thought that Pryce said something just before his head imploded and his body slumped to the floor. Whatever words he said, the Doctor couldn’t make them out, and he was glad that he couldn’t.
Whatever message Pryce had sent back from the edge of death, it wasn’t one the Doctor wanted to hear.
Pryce’s death took just under three seconds, but the Doctor felt as though he had been sitting watching the man die for an eternity. When he turned back to Hater Of Humans, he felt older than he ever had before.
Hater Of Humans was ashen and shivering. Beside it, Hopeless Itinerant reached down towards its tail.
‘No!’ the Doctor shouted, but before he could stop it, Hopeless Itinerant curled a pseudo-limb around its vestigial shell and, without a moment’s hesitation, pulled it right off.
It screamed, and died before its blood could hit the walls.
The Doctor shook his head sadly. There were moments in his life when he felt as if he was in the last act of a Jacobean tragedy.
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Chapter 14
‘Please listen carefully. This is an announcement by the Imperial Landsknechte. By order of Her Highness the Divine Empress, Glory of the Empire, Ruler of the High Court, Lord of the Inner and Outer Worlds, High Admiral of the Galactic Fleets, Lord General of the Six Armies and Defender of the Earth, a state of martial law has been declared across the planet. From this moment forward until further notice, a twenty-four-hour curfew is in effect. This is purely for your own protection, and law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear.