• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

'Very good,' said the Doctor.

'Too good for you,' said the ersatz Benny.

'She's not mine,' said the Doctor. 'She belongs to herself.'

The woman made that sick gurgling laugh again. 'A time-travelling archaeologist,' she said. 'I must have been out of my mind.'

They waited but there was nothing else.

'I'm fine, just some major bruising on my back,' said Kadiatu as the Doctor stalked off towards the control room. 'Don't worry about me.'

The ersatz Benny twitched and made coughing noises. Kadiatu turned back, her pistol held ready.

'Listen,' it said, 'a word from the freshly dead.'

'Go on,' said Kadiatu.

'Evolution,' it said, 'is the response by living organisms to their environment.'

'In one respect,' said Kadiatu.

'Don't argue with the dead, girl,' it said. 'He's become a major factor in that environment. You are the human response to him.'

Kadiatu realized that the ersatz Benny's lips weren't moving when she spoke, hadn't moved since the Doctor had left.

'Which is the more dangerous, girl,' it asked, 'the male or female leopard?'

'The female,' said Kadiatu.

'Why?'

'Her children,' said Kadiatu. 'Her children make her dangerous.'

'What will you sacrifice for the children?'

Kadiatu scrambled backwards. For a moment she thought she saw tears of fire well up around the ersatz Benny's left eye, an eye that had become alien in colour and full of secrets. Then eye, face and neck were obliterated by the bursts of coherent light from her gun.

'Stop wasting ammunition,' said the Doctor.

'Did you hear that?' asked Kadiatu.

'Hear what?'

'Nothing,' said Kadiatu.

'Then I couldn't have heard it,' said the Doctor, 'could I?'

Kadiatu followed him out.

'What's the best route from here to the Stunnel terminus?' he asked.

'The Central Line extension runs straight to it,' said Kadiatu. 'There's a station four levels up from here. Did she sabotage the power plant.'

'Worse than that,' said the Doctor.

Acturus Station (Stunnel Terminus)

Lambada dropped her Big Chicken Bit on to the floor when she saw it.

'Shit,' she said.

'It's not that bad,' said Old Sam, 'a bit overseasoned though.'

'The power feed,' she said.

On the monitor the line marking the power feeding into the Stunnel gateway from their side had suddenly started climbing. It now matched the power input from the other side.

'Tell Ming,' said Lambada. 'She's got to shut it down.'

'We lost the link with Ming,' said Credit Card. 'About fifteen minutes ago.'

'They still have to come down here and switch the thing on,' said Old Sam.

'Yeah,' said Lambada, 'but now that's all they have to do.'

'Whoever they are,' said Credit Card.

'We know who they are,' said Blondie. 'Cake-eating freesurfers from hell.'

'That's a great comfort,' said Lambada.

'You want that Big Chicken Bit or not?' asked Old Sam.

Olympus Mons (Central Line)

There were two cake monsters waiting on the platform. They stood chatting to each other just like normal people. One of them was holding a freesurfing board. Kadiatu ducked back into the entranceway and told the Doctor.

'Reinforcements,' said the Doctor. 'Just in case the fake Benny didn't make it.'

'When you plan,' said Kadiatu, 'plan in depth.

'Get rid of them,' said the Doctor.

'What, just shoot them?' asked Kadiatu.

'Yes,' said the Doctor, 'shoot them.'

'What happened to the sanctity of life?'

'It just got filed under D for desperate expediency.'

'Just checking.'

Kadiatu stepped round the comer and opened fire. She kept firing until both cake monsters stopped moving. By the time she'd finished the pistol's charge LED was flashing.

'I need a bigger gun,' said Kadiatu.

'What for?' asked the Doctor. 'Dead is dead.'

'But not fast enough.'

'We need a train,' said the Doctor.

The destination indicator was blank.

'Typical,' said the Doctor. 'You wait ages for a train and then three come at once.'

'I doubt that,' said Kadiatu. The STS map was showing a large swath of black lines in the northern Mars area. Black for no service. 'Someone doesn't