Doctor Who_ The Bodysnatchers - Mark Morris [88]
Sam went to the Doctor and crouched beside him. His hands were pressed to the puncture wounds in his neck. She wondered what she should do.
Suck out the poison before it got into his bloodstream? Unable to think of anything else, she took hold of his right wrist, intending to drag his hand away from the infected area.
His eyes opened. They were cloudy with pain, but not insensible with it.
Through clenched teeth he muttered, 'Balaak dying... not enough poison...
not fatal... Help me sit up.'
She did so, putting her arm around him and dragging him upright as best she could, allowing him to rest his lolling head against her shoulder.
'Balaak...' he croaked.
The Zygon warlord, still leaning against Tuval, raised its great, domed head with an effort.
'Didn't mean this to happen...' the Doctor gasped. 'Wanted peaceful solution... all this... terrible mistake... So sorry.'
There was no forgiveness in Balaak's eyes.The Zygon stared at the Doctor balefully.
'How did you kill us,Time Lord?' it gurgled. 'He trapped me in a time bubble in his TARDIS. Then he returned to our ship and introduced a concentrated anaesthetic into the lactic fluid supply, Commander,' explained Tuval. The Zygon scientist seemed about to say more, but then appeared to think better of it.
'Then that is why I, alone, am still alive,' rasped Balaak.'In order to facilitate our plan I have foregone several of my nourishment periods.'
Suddenly Balaak doubled over, choking and gasping. Sam looked away as thick, brownish fluid spilled from the Zygon warlord's mouth and spattered on the floor.
'Commander!' cried Tuval in alarm as Balaak's legs began to give way.
With Tuval's help and the support of a console, the Zygon warlord remained standing.
'Do something for me,Tuval,' Balaak hissed. 'Anything, Commander.'
Balaak's features were almost unrecognisable, engulfed in a mass of dribbling boils.'Complete what I am unable to do. Kill the Doctor.'
There was a pause. Tuval looked at Sam and the Doctor, face unreadable.
Sam stared back, alarmed but defiant.
'No,' she said suddenly, her voice spiralling to the high ceiling. 'I won't let you.'
She lowered the Doctor gently to the floor and stood in front of him, clenching her fists.
'Kill them both!' gurgled Balaak.
Tuval advanced, blank-faced. Sam raised her fists. 'Come any closer and you'll regret it.'
Suddenly Tuval ran at Sam. Sam lashed out, catching her opponent on the side of the head. Tuval staggered slightly, but kept on coming. Sam threw another punch, but this time her blow was parried. Then Tuval was thrusting its hands beneath her armpits and picking her up, its strength surprising her. The Zygon lifted her into the air as if she was a baby and hurled her savagely to one side. In her path was a console, which Sam, unable to halt her momentum, half expected to bounce off as if it was rubber. She hit it face first; it was like crashing into a tree. Stars exploded across her vision and she tasted blood in her mouth.
Then she blacked out.
The Doctor lay on his back and looked up as Tuval loomed over him.The Zygon's eyes in Sam's face were flickering with orange light. The pain of Balaak's poison was ebbing now as his own system dealt with it, but the warlord's attack had left him too weak to resist a further one.
He saw Tuval reach towards him, ironically resembling a healer about to perform a laying-on of hands. He saw the suckers open in Tuval's palms, the tips of the spines peek through, oozing poison. He looked up into Tuval's face, into Tuval's eyes, calm and unafraid.
Tuval gazed back at him.A long moment passed.
Then the spines retracted into Tuval's palms and the Zygon scientist half turned away.
'You are mistaken, Commander,' Tuval said. 'Your sting was strong enough to kill.The Time Lord is dead.'
The Doctor heard Balaak give