Doctor Who_ The Gallifrey Chronicles - Lance Parkin [97]
and Europe had little in the way of human intelligence on the ground there.
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That the mountain needed investigating was obvious. When Illustriou s got within a hundred miles of the coast Harriers were sent out on a reconnaissance mission, entering Guinean airspace at 500 m.p.h. It wasn’t hard to spot the mountain. The Harriers gave it a wide berth on the first pass, then swept around and returned to their ship on a course that gave them a closer view.
That fly past was completed without any enemy retaliation. The pictures were relayed back to Illustrious, then on to London.
British helicopters had landed in the capital city, Bissau, and diplomatic contact had been made with the National People’s Assembly. The people here had experience of locusts, and feared that the Vore were breeding. If they were like their terrestrial counterparts, each Vore could lay nearly three hundred eggs. When the locals were asked how they fought ordinary locusts, they said they used hoes and brushes. Insecticide was rarely used, because it was ineffective rather than because it was expensive.
In London, experts in insects and insect behaviour had been brought into military planning meetings within hours of the first Vore attack. They warned that there would be millions of Vore in the mountain, and that the structure would extend deep underground.
The Illustrious waited for further orders.
Marnal crashed, softly, into a pile of grey mush, catching his leg on something harder. The Doctor landed right next to him. Rachel was already standing, dusting herself off.
‘We should be dead,’ she said.
‘Low gravity,’ the Doctor explained. ‘We can fall six times further than we could on Earth. We knew it would be a soft landing.’
‘The Vore will just fly down for us,’ Rachel complained.
‘No,’ said the Doctor, pointing at the floor. ‘We landed in the mushroom patch. We smell like food now.’
‘They’ll eat us?’
‘Not here they won’t. The Vore follow strict patterns. They don’t have thoughts in the way we’d understand, just a set of internal instructions, ways to react to stimuli. They can’t take the initiative or use their imagination.’
The Doctor pointed over to a line of Vore trudging through the mush, carrying what looked like twice their weight of it, which they’d collected. ‘They eat elsewhere, probably in specially designated refectories.’
There were other Vore dotted around, tending to the mushrooms.
Marnal drew his gun, set it to kill and shot one of the lone Vore. It fell down.
The Doctor looked horrified.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ Rachel shouted.
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‘Testing a theory. Observe.’
None of the other Vore reacted.
‘They can’t sense us,’ Marnal concluded. ‘We can move around undisturbed.’
‘Do you smell that?’ the Doctor asked.
Marnal sniffed the air. There was a new scent mingled with all the others.
‘Tetramethrin?’ the Doctor asked.
Marnal shrugged.
A Vore landed close to them. Marnal raised his gun again, but it started walking in the other direction, towards the one Marnal had shot. Without hesitation, it bent down, grabbed the dead insect’s abdomen, lifted it easily and then flew off, vanishing into the dark.
The Doctor had watched the whole process, fascinated.
‘We have to get out of here,’ Marnal said.
‘Well obviously we have to get out of here,’ the Doctor replied testily.
He turned to see Marnal pointing the gun at him.
‘Do you know, I think I recognise that gun,’ the Doctor said. ‘Just like I recognise this place.’
‘Your memories are coming back?’ Marnal asked.
‘I hope not,’ the Doctor said, before quickly adding, ‘No, it’s not that. More recent. So much has happened in the