Doctor Who_ The Gallifrey Chronicles - Lance Parkin [89]
‘From the Ruling Mind?’ the Doctor asked.
The TARDIS, finally, was in the Northern Constellations, so someone on Klist would have spotted them by now.
‘Negative. It originated in the solar system. It is being received on the ninth psychic wavelength.’
The Doctor frowned, and not only because he didn’t realise the TARDIS
could pick up psychic wavelengths.
‘A telepath?’
‘A Time Lord, master.’
Marnal appeared in the control room, right beside the console.
The Doctor tensed, then relaxed. It was some sort of hologram, you could tell by the light falling on him, which hadn’t come from anywhere in the control room.
‘Doctor,’ Marnal began, ‘this is an emergency. You have to help.’
‘Changed your tune, haven’t you?’ the Doctor asked, not sure he should be trusting a word of what he was hearing.
The message continued without Marnal reacting. The Doctor couldn’t decide whether this was because he couldn’t hear, or because he was too arro-gant to take any notice.
‘You must come to the following coordinates.’ Marnal read out a string of numbers. ‘Hurry – there isn’t much time. Humans are dying.’
Marnal snapped out of existence.
‘We need to get to Earth.’
‘Master, our work here –’
‘Unimportant.’
‘I calculate a point seven eight probability that this is a trap.’
‘It is a trap, I’ve no doubt about that at all.’
‘Then –’
‘Did you see it, K9? On the edge of the image?’
182
K9’s ears waggled. ‘Image analysis reveals alien object.’
‘A leg, wouldn’t you say?’
There had been something right at the edge of the shot, a spindly black limb with tiny hooks all over its hard, segmented surface.
‘Affirmative. Initial identification: the fore limb of species asilidae, cross-checking database.’
The Doctor was already at the console, programming in the numbers Marnal had given him.
‘Warning, master. Alien species identified. It is the Vore. By Supreme Council order, date index 309456/4756.7RE/1213GRT/100447TL, no Time Lord is to engage the Vore, all time ships are to observe an exclusion zone no less than one parsec and one century, in all five directions from any Vore moon.
Further warning: this is a potential Last Contact. No further information.’
The Doctor sighed. It had taken a long time to get here. He couldn’t dawdle on the return journey.
‘Master?’ K9 asked, as the Doctor started working at the console.
‘I need to divert all power to the engines, K9. Slightly more than I dare.
There, now all I need to do is –’
‘Master. It is imperative you do not pull that lever.’
The Doctor’s hand was on it. He hesitated.
‘You must keep yourself safe, master.’
The Doctor grasped the lever. ‘If that’s your only concern. . . ’
‘Please consider your actions more carefully, master.’
The Doctor did just that, for a moment. This wasn’t a decision at all, was it? People were in danger. What was his alternative – to run away and hide?
‘We have to get back,’ the Doctor said, pulling the lever.
He apologised to the ship. The lights flickered and dimmed, but the column in the centre of the console started pumping at something like its normal rate.
If anyone was monitoring the progress of the TARDIS on Klist they would have seen it powering towards them, before arcing around in a five-dimensional U-turn, picking up speed and heading back the way it had come.
‘Before it’s too late.’
183
Q: Which modern English word is derived from the Greek words algos,
‘pain’, and nostos, ‘a return home’?
From ‘Increase Your Word Power’ in the Skywords in-flight puzzle book, Early Summer 2005.
( Answer on page 228)
Chapter Eleven
The Vore Games
Trix parked the car. Sat back in her seat. Her hands were only shaking a little.
Why wouldn’t she be a little nervous?
There was a lot of Vore activity in this area. Here, in London, it was the worst she’d seen it. There were police and army patrols out. The radio was on the air as normal, the DJ on Capital Radio occasionally dropping in monster sightings with the traffic reports. An extended news on the hour gave updates and emergency information. The Vore had attacked human beings,