Doctor Who_ Storm Harvest - Mike Tucker [100]
‘I cannot die,’ said Garrett, ‘though my mortal form may pass away.
Do not be deceived by this manifestation’ He rose from his throne, holding the weapon before him. ‘I am Treeka’dwra,’ he said. ‘A god cannot die’
‘Treeka’dwra.’
The Doctor turned. Blu’ip was perched in the shadows. The dolphin scuttled forward.
‘The liberator-god of the Dreekans.’
‘You recognise me,’ said Garrett.
‘Indeed, said Blu’ip. ‘Hail, great god. If I could bow... but you understand, it’s none too easy in this thing.’
‘What do you want, Blu’ip?’ said the Doctor angrily. ‘What game are you playing now?’
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‘No game, Doctor,’ the dolphin spat.
‘Revenge?’
‘Revenge against the human scum and cetacean traitors who drove me from Coralee. Who hunted me across the perimeter worlds. You yourself gave me my plan, Doctor. The ship will plunge down into the oceans of Coralee. The Krill will be released. The colony will be wiped out.’
‘And you?’ the Doctor queried.
‘Oh, I shall be long gone. I can’t allow the weapon to be used, Doctor.You understand that, don’t you?’
The dolphin scurried towards Garrett, his machine guns sliding from their casing.
‘No!’ bellowed the Doctor – in vain.
Blu’ip opened up with both barrels, pumping bullets into the weapon. Garrett roared and leapt towards the dolphin. Bullets cut into him and he staggered to one side, howling in pain. The Doctor watched in dismay as the weapon’s metallic casing cracked and sparked, as its controls shattered.
Garrett dropped the weapon and slumped to the ground, gasping for breath. He was bleeding badly. Blu’ip’s guns rattled into silence, his ammunition spent. The Doctor sprang forward and ran his hands over the weapon. The ring of green cylinders was intact – whatever it was made of, the bullets had failed to penetrate it. The controls, though, were utterly destroyed.
‘You’ve wrecked the dispersal mechanism!’ the Doctor yelled. He jabbed at a button. The weapon crackled hotly in his hands.
‘Give it to me, Doctor.’
Blu’ip was bearing down on him. Twin metallic tentacles snaked towards the Doctor. From the dolphin’s exoskeleton a laser-drill emerged, buzzing with harsh red light. The Doctor felt his shoulders gripped by the tentacles. The dolphin was on him, drawing him forward in a lethal embrace, pulling him towards the laser.
‘Think, Blu’ip!’ shouted the Doctor. ‘If I can’t repair this thing you will die along with the rest of us!’
‘I think not, Doctor,’ the dolphin squeaked. ‘My plan’s complete.
I’m getting out of here. And I want the weapon.’
He pulled the Doctor forward. The Time Lord could feel the heat of the laser. He raised the weapon. The laser beam ricocheted off its green-glowing trunk and back into the dolphin’s breastplate. The dolphin chirruped his pain, and scuttled backwards, releasing the Doctor.
‘And just how do you intend to escape?’ the Doctor shouted.
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‘By shuttle? The shuttles on this ship are designed for close-orbit flight. The only place you can go is Coralee – and if I can’t repair the weapon Coralee will become as infested with Krill as this ship!’
‘You underestimate me, Doctor, said Blu’ip. ‘I’ve escaped from tighter situations than this. There are other planets in this system.
‘You’d never reach them!’ the Doctor railed.
I’ve flown further in smaller tubs,’ said the dolphin. ‘I’ll make it.’
There was a loud explosion from one of the corridors leading to the command deck. The door slid open and Mottrack staggered through it.
The door closed behind him. He was wounded. Thick purple blood oozed from his shattered shoulder. He looked balefully around him.
His eyes fell on Garrett, whose body rippled eerily, shifting between his human guise and his Cythosi form.
‘Skuarte!’ Mottrack snarled. ‘You have done this! Traitor!’
Garrett lurched to his feet. The two wounded Cythosi regarded one another with savagery. Mottrack tried to raise his gun. Garrett sprang