Doctor Who_ Winner Takes All - Jacqueline Rayner [14]
‘Looks like a desert planet,’ said the Doctor to Rose. ‘Porcupines and praying mantises are found in deserts on Earth. It’d make sense for creatures like that to have evolved there.’
‘Really?’ she said. ‘Is that how the universe works?’
‘Oh yeah,’ he said.
‘But the catacombs within are not fit for our impressive bulk,’ continued the Quevvil, ‘And the Mantodeans have seeded their stronghold with fiendish traps.’
The Quevvil called Frinel narrowed his watery pink eyes, showing his disdain for those who set fiendish traps. ‘Which is why we turned to technology to defeat our foes, developing the extremely clever science of teleportation, to enable us to reach the very centre of the Mantodean stronghold, defeat the enemy, and incidentally provide access to the valuable mineral deposits below.’
‘Aha,’ said the Doctor. ‘Look for the money, they always say.’
‘But the dishonourable Mantodeans have turned to technology also,’ said Frinel, snarling and showing stumpy but fearsome‐looking yellow teeth.
‘Porcupines are vegetarians, right?’ said Rose, a bit nervously.
‘They have protected their stronghold with a force field. It prevents teleportation! And worse, it is tuned in to Quevvil biology!’
A cartoon showed a Quevvil trying to run into the pyramid. With a sizzling sound and a lot of jagged lines, it was clearly fried.
‘This is terrible!’ cried one of the Quevvils at the council of war. ‘What can we do?’
‘I have had an idea,’ said Frinel. ‘We will scour the universe for aliens of great cunning and ingenuity. They will come to Toop and infiltrate the Mantodean stronghold for us. They will evade the traps, and get to the centre. And there they will place this.’ He held up a shiny metal cube. ‘This is the disruptor developed by our scientists. When placed within close range of the Mantodeans’ computer banks it will disrupt all their technology, taking down the force field and allowing us to teleport in – to victory!’
‘But where will we find such beings?’ asked a Quevvil.
Another Quevvil came running up to the table. ‘Frinel! Fellow Quevvils! I have found a planet within range of our teleporters, where the inhabitants are warlike and possessed of great guile.’
‘And what is this planet?’ said Frinel.
The screen cut to an image of a very familiar blue and green globe.
‘It is… the Earth!’ said the Quevvil.
‘Now there’s a turn‐up for the books,’ said the Doctor to Rose.
There was a whirring noise and a jump in the image, and suddenly they were with another Quevvil. A counter in the top right corner read ’0’.
‘Starting the game proper,’ said the Doctor.
‘Thank you for rising to the challenge, human,’ said the Quevvil, holding out a disruptor. The Doctor pressed buttons, and the Quevvil took back its hands, now empty. In the bottom of the screen, a little icon appeared, labelled ‘Disruptor: primed’. Then the Quevvil moved aside, revealing a window beyond which was a stretch of desert. In the distance was the enormous truncated pyramid of the Mantodean stronghold. ‘The fate of our race is in your hands,’ the Quevvil said, pulling a lever on the wall. The image shimmered, and suddenly they were looking at a completely different wall, containing a door. As the Doctor manipulated the controls, their point of view moved forward, towards the door.
‘Nice when the villains present you with their whole plan in semi‐animated form,’ said the Doctor. ‘Saves you having to be tied up and about to die before they’ll reveal anything.’
‘You really think they’re telling the truth?’ said Rose. ‘About the force field, and why they need humans and everything?’
‘Wouldn’t be at all surprised.’ The Doctor pressed a button, bringing the door into sharp relief. ‘After all, no one’s going to suspect it’s true for a second. And even if they did, even if some human sat down to play this game and thought, “Hang on, maybe these are real aliens telling us about their real enemies,” what are they gonna do about it?