Doctor Who_ The Gallifrey Chronicles - Lance Parkin [96]
‘Capable of warp engineering?’ Marnal sneered. ‘Or even just building a bridge like this?’
‘Spiders can spin webs and set traps, bees and ants can build themselves whole cities. They do it on instinct. The Vore are simply able to construct more complicated items. They have no individual intelligence.’
The Doctor patted the nearest Vore on the head. It hissed at him. ‘Or conversation. They exist to consume.’
Marnal laughed. ‘Of course. Yes. They’re feeding. They’ll grind all life on Earth into chyme, then transport it here.’
‘Chyme?’ Rachel asked.
‘Sniff the air,’ Marnal suggested. What does that smell remind you of?’
‘It’s like someone’s been sick. A lot.’
‘You’ve been sick in the past, haven’t you?’ the Doctor asked, so gently that the question threw Rachel a little.
‘Er. . . I’ve thrown up, yes.’
‘What you were bringing up was chyme, give or take.’
‘Why not just say they want to eat us?’
‘They don’t,’ Marnal explained. ‘They want to turn the human race into vomit. They’ll line their food caves with it, then plant fungal spores that will use it as fertiliser. The Vore will feed on that fungus.’
‘That’s horrible.’
‘Your race is always looking for a purpose that will unite it. It looks like you’ve found it.’
‘I hate to bring this up,’ the Doctor said to Marnal, before looking apologetic,
‘if you’ll pardon the expression, but we really should be getting out of here.
We’re heading away from my TARDIS, I know that. Are we heading towards yours?’
Marnal shook his head.
‘The Vore brought us here, Doctor, in one of their warp corridors,’ Rachel said, more helpfully.
The Doctor frowned at Marnal. ‘You said your TARDIS was here.’
‘You brought it here.’
The Doctor rolled his eyes. ‘You meant my TARDIS? I see. How very witty of you.’
‘You stole it, Doctor.’
‘I took it back, yes.’
197
‘I mean all those years ago.’ Marnal turned to Rachel. ‘Centuries ago, when he was in his first incarnation. He stole it, fled.’
‘Fled Gallifrey?’ the Doctor asked. ‘Why would I do a thing like that?’
‘I only found out later, from my son. There were all sorts of rumours, but the real reason was because you –’
‘Your son?’ Rachel interrupted. ‘You have four daughters, all from your wives’ previous marriages.’
‘Not those parasites. My real son visited once, back in the Seventies. He couldn’t stay long, but he told me. . . Oh, it doesn’t matter. The Doctor stole the TARDIS. Everyone knows that. Who did he steal it from, though, eh? Me.
That’s my Type 40. I recognised it the moment I saw it. We went through a lot together. It was with me when I first encountered the Vore.’
They continued along the bridge – the monsters weren’t giving them any choice. Rachel looked over at the Doctor, who was deep in thought.
‘How high would you say this bridge was?’ he asked.
‘Seventy feet?’ Rachel guessed. ‘It’s too dark to tell.’
‘Hmmm,’ said the Doctor, then pushed her over the edge.
Marnal turned and saw the Doctor leaping at him, grabbing for his jacket.
Before he could even raise his arm the Doctor had pitched them both over the edge, into the darkness.
HMS Illustrious had left Portsmouth for the mid-Atlantic within a few hours of the first Vore attack, leading a five-ship task force that had – at that stage –
orders that talked loosely of counterattacks and last resorts. During the Cold War, these were the orders given in the event of a nuclear war, and they boiled down, essentially, to playing it by ear if the United Kingdom was wiped off the map and no one was left to send further orders. Launch a counterattack against the assumed aggressor, then make your way to Canada or – if Canada had also ceased to exist – Australia.
It had transpired that the Vore threat was of a different nature. UNIT personnel were seconded to the ship and the task force was sent new orders: to head to the West African coast to look at a mountain. Most of the crew knew the area. Less than five years ago they’d been sent to stabilise Sierra Leone.
There were satellite images of a new mountain in Guinea-Bissau. It hadn’t been there a week