Doctor Who_ Storm Harvest - Mike Tucker [70]
She shook her head. The next thing she remembered was the Doctor shaking her awake, leading her back down the ladder.
Of the Krill there was nothing left except stains on the floors.
Everywhere there were small pools of steaming slime that had once been monsters.
Garrett had gone, vanished with his wild-eyed followers. Ace had a vague recollection of his laughing face, bright with patterns and colours.
‘Preposterous, Doctor. Absolutely preposterous.’
Brenda was shaking her head. Ace could see that the Doctor was getting angry
‘What other explanation would you have?’
Brenda laughed. ‘Phillip transforming into an alien monster? A weapon so discriminating that it chooses its victims?’
‘Yes!’ The Doctor held up a jar full of the goo that had once been a Krill. ‘I told you, it’s a biogenic weapon. It’s keyed specifically to the Krill’s biorhythms... I hope.’
‘You hope...’
‘You felt what it was like when he triggered the thing. Everybody 135
did. Even I was affected. I hope it was just a mild reaction – otherwise, heaven knows what damage Garrett’s done.’
‘Definitely Garrett...’
‘Yes!’
‘Who is no longer entirely human.’
‘Yes!’
Brenda snorted and turned away.
The Doctor turned to Ace. ‘Tell her, Ace! Tell her what you saw.’
‘Professor, I’ve been through this...’
‘Well, tell her again!’
Ace sighed. ‘Garrett’s face was blurred... shifting, like a mask. It was as if there was something trying to get out.’
‘I thought you said his face was painted,’ Brenda scoffed.
Ace could feel her own temper rising. ‘Now listen, matron, his face was painted as well. Him and those four-armed blokes. The Dreekans.’
The Doctor caught hold of Ace’s shoulder and pushed her down on to the sofa again.
‘Our Mr Garrett is in possession of the only effective weapon that we have against the Krill, and he is in a desperately unstable state. It is imperative that we locate him as soon as possible. Now does anyone here know what those symbols might mean, or know why he would be in the company of Dreekans?’
Brenda cast a look over the room at MacKenzie. The Doctor nodded and leant across the desk, staring at the archaeologist through a cloud of cigarette smoke. ‘What do those symbols mean, Professor?’
‘I’m not sure.’
There was the harsh rasp of a match as Q’ilp lit up a cigar.
‘Sounds like Dreekan voodoo to me,’ clicked the dolphin.
‘Voodoo?’ Ace was suddenly at the Doctor’s side. He waved his hands at her to be quiet.
‘They brought it with them to the planet. There’s only a small number of them practise it – primitive types mostly, who keep away from the colony – but lately we’ve had some trouble.’
‘Yes,’ the Doctor tapped his lips thoughtfully, ‘We’ve seen.’
‘What? The graffiti on the fountain!’ said Ace. ‘I’ve seen worse.
Back in Perivale...’
‘Don’t underestimate them,’ Q’ilp snapped ‘Dreekan voodoo is a nasty little religion. The Dreekan economy was nearly wrecked by it. A drug culture encouraged by the cult swept across the planet. At one point there were nearly three billion addicts being treated.’
‘But why would they latch on to Garrett?’ mused the Doctor.
Q’ilp took a long drag on his cigar and blew a cloud of blue smoke 136
at the ceiling. ‘There are legends of a Messiah. A saviour of the people.
The Treeka’dwra. From what we can make out it’s some kind of animal god.’ He managed the dolphin equivalent of a shrug. ‘Maybe Garrett fitted the picture.’
‘And do you have any idea of where they might have gone?’
MacKenzie stepped forward. ‘Q’ilp and I have discovered a number of ritualistic implements over the last few months, plus of course the pictograms that turn up every now and again. We haven’t any proof, but we think that there could well be a temple out in the jungle.’
The Doctor rounded on Brenda. ‘You must organise a search of the surrounding jungle immediately.’
Brenda looked at him incredulously ‘Doctor, my colony has Just been attacked by an unknown form of life, there are dozens – maybe hundreds – dead, my