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'They have the chance to destroy me, yet they give me time enough to wipe them out. The Red Death will cleanse the Earth of human filth. It will feast on them, their women and their primate offspring. This vast green world wil be scoured clean, its oceans and skies will be emptied. Humanity will die.'

He turned to face the Doctor, and found himself staring into the lens of a holocamera.

'You should never underestimate the power of public opinion,' the Doctor smiled, lowering the camera.

'Congratulations, King Xznaal, I think you've just made your abdication speech.'

***

The giant hologram faded from the skies. All around, there was silence. The crowd were holding their breath.

'Commit,' said Lethbridge-Stewart.

***

There was a deep rumbling explosion, far away. Then another, much nearer. Within seconds it had become a sustained assault, salvo after salvo hitting home. The warship might not have forcefields, but the armour-plating was several metres thick in places. Unless the RAF were very lucky, the first wave of the attack would weaken the superstructure of the warship rather than hit anything more vulnerable, like a power cable or the magnetic engines.

Here in the hold they were sheltered from the worst of the bombardment, but the lighting was flickering and the whole ship was lurching from one side to another. The intercom was crackling. However much of a pounding the warship took, Xznaal's men wouldn't move it without an express order from their Lord.

Xznaal had disappeared into the shadows. The Doctor peered into the gloom. He was sure that the Martian Lord wouldn't leave the Dispersion Chamber. Above him, the Red Death was straining inside its tank. The Doctor bounded over to the release controls, slipping the sonic screwdriver from his pocket.

118

'It's finished, Xznaal,' he shouted over the noise of another explosion. An adjustment to the sonic screwdriver made it into a welding tool. A couple of quick bursts from that, and the lever was jammed so tightly that not even Martian strength would be able to move it.

The ship had stopped rocking. The first wave of the attack must be over, and there would be a brief respite for the warship as the Harriers arced around at not-quite-supersonic speeds ready to attack again.

Suddenly Xznaal was in front of him, emerging from a column of choking black smoke and filling his field of vision.

'If I die, you wil die,' he bellowed.

'If you die, the Earth will live,' the Doctor said, standing his ground. 'I've died many times before, Xznaal, and death doesn't scare me.'

It was getting hotter. There was fire behind the glass door that led into the rest of the ship. Hot gases would be swirling around the ship, melting plastics and the softer metals like cast iron. The light from the flames was pouring into the Dispersion Chamber, and soon the flames themselves would be in here.

Above him, the Red Death continued to rage.

Xznaal brought a claw up, sweeping the Doctor from his path and charging towards the release controls. The Martian tugged at the lever, but it didn't move. He tried again, and it came away in his claw.

The Doctor took a step back. 'You are beaten.'

Xznaal turned, still defiant. 'I can still make my mark on history, Doctor,' he roared. 'As the man who killed you.'

The Martian was holding a burning torch, a piece of wreckage from a damaged section of floor. The firelight danced over the landscape of the Martian's face, throwing its rifts and valleys into sharp contrast. A sweep from the torch and the Doctor stumbled, struggling to retain his balance. He was pinned against the wal now.

Xznaal tossed the torch aside, reached over him and yanked off one of the stainless steel gas cylinders bolted to the bulkhead. Xznaal swung it down without effort, angling it at the Doctor.

'You saw what the liquid nitrogen did to Vrgnur,' Xznaal rasped. 'Imagine the effect it would have on soft Gallifreyan flesh.'

The Doctor had no time to do anything