Doctor Who_ The Awakening - Eric Pringle [50]
When they reached the foot of the steps Turlough led Verney around the edge of the crypt, in the shadows, again crouching close to the wall. Once he stopped to allow the old matt to catch up with him. ‘What do we do?’ Verney whispered in his ear.
‘Sssh!’ Turlough pressed a finger to his lips, then groped around the floor and picked up a stone hefty enough to fell a man with a single blow. He weighed it in his hand and gave Verney a meaningful look. The elderly man nodded anxiously and found a stone to arm himself.
As soon as they were ready, they glanced at each other for confirmation and launched themselves across the remaining yards of rubble-strewn floor at Willow and the trooper. By the time they were heard coming it was too late.
As their enemles turned round with surprised faces, Turlough fell upon Joseph Willow. He brought down the raised stone with all his strength and gave the Sergeant a crushing blow across the side of his head. A split-second later Verney, with the greatest gusto, performed the same operation on the trooper. Willow and the trooper grunted under the impact of the stones. They were unconscious before they hit the ground.
Panting for breath, Turlough and Andrew Verney looked at each other and smiled a little smile of victory.
Inside the TARDIS the struggle had reached its moment of resolution. Victory was about to be won – or lost – for the Malus image was preparing to leap at the Doctor, and the Doctor had completed his program.
Now, with a lot of deliberation and even more hope, he pressed a final set of switches. Instantly a low, clicking, electronic hum filled the console room. There was a sensation of air vibrating very deeply. ‘That’s it!’ the Doctor cried, with a smile of satisfaction and relief.
Tegan gave him a pleading look. ‘Can you control the Malus?’
‘Ah, not quite,’ the Doctor admitted. ‘But it can no longer fuel itself from the turmoil in the village.’
Now he permitted himself a glance at the Malus clone, which was glaring down at him from the wall. He had cut off its power source too, and the sudden deprivation of its life blood could have dramatic consequences – eventually, he thought, the image might collapse in upon itself like a deflating balloon.
However, the results came sooner, and even more dramatically, than he had expected. Almost immediately the image slumped and there came a blood-curdling, retching noise from inside it. Lumps of vivid green mucus blew out of its mouth and dribbled from its eyes.
It was a sight so obscene that despite their unbounded relief that the Doctor’s efforts had worked this far, the onlookers winced with disgust. The green mucus poured and spouted, and the image began to implode. Tegan, feeling very sick, turned away her head.
Jane, who had also averted her head, was staring at the scanner screen, her eyes wide with wonder. Only moments ago the screen had shown Willow and the trooper battering their way into the TARDIS: now, large as life, there stood in their place the gasping and bemused figures of Turlough and Andrew Verney.
‘Doctor – look!’
The Doctor followed her pointing finger. His eyes absorbed at a glance the prone figures of their enemies and the weary but triumphant stance of their friends, and he grinned with pleasure. He gave a last glance at the now rapidly-shrinking image, retching in its death agony. ‘I think it’s time we left this thing to die in peace,’ he said, and led them all out of the TARDIS.
As the Doctor came out through the door he smiled at the sight of the old man bending over the two unconscious bodies, and Turlough standing guard over him. ‘Turlough!
Well done!’ he cried.
Tegan pushed past him. Scarcely able to believe her good fortune, she paused for a moment to look at the man she had begun to think she might never see again.
‘Grandfather!’ she shouted, and almost crying with happiness, she ran towards the crouching figure. Verney looked up at the sound of her voice, pulled himself to his feet and held out his arms.
‘Tegan, my dear!’ he said happily, and kissed her