Doctor Who_ Winner Takes All - Jacqueline Rayner [24]
To an alien planet.
And it was real.
These are aliens, they are called Quevvils and they look a bit like porcupines, and they are in a war against these giant insects called the Mantodeans. They’ve been at war a long time, and they’ve developed all sorts of technology, but the Mantodeans have this force field round their stronghold which kills Quevvils and stops teleportation, and so they need humans to get through it, and you are the one boy in all the world who can save their race… This scratchcard promotion was all just a clever plan to get you here, to bring you to our rescue – we arranged for your mum (not that she is your mum) to win a holiday in the sun so you could embrace your destiny…
They hadn’t even totally lied, not really. There was sun and there was sand, just like they’d said, because this planet was desert stretching out for as far as you could see.
But it wasn’t a holiday.
They’d grabbed people one by one, and stuck these things on their heads. Into their heads.
‘All carriers augmented, Frinel.’
‘Place them in the holding pen. The controller that will bring us victory has been located on Earth. Carriers must be prepared.’ All except the boy Robert, he is the chosen one – he is the one who will bring us victory…
‘Bobbles, darling, it’ll be all right, Bobbles, it’ll be all right…’
It wasn’t fair. He was really scared, and this was terrible and real, and however much he’d longed for something out of the ordinary to happen this wasn’t nice and it wasn’t fun and it wasn’t even the good scary that you got from being the hero because he wasn’t the hero, he wasn’t special and he wasn’t important, he was just one of the nonentities and maybe there wasn’t even a hero who’d turn up in time to rescue him and his mum.
And that really wasn’t fair, because never, in any fantasy scenario in the world, did your mum get to go on the adventure too.
* * *
Rose stopped breathing for a second as she looked down at Mickey on the floor. Then she realised that he was still breathing, and so she allowed herself to do the same. But what damage had the Quevvil’s gun done to him? At least with human guns, terrible as they were, you knew that a bullet went in one place and out another, but something like this – it could have scrambled his insides, for all Rose knew, and in rolling him over, she could have done any amount of damage. But just as she was wondering whether to attempt to move him into the recovery position, Mickey gave a groaning sigh and his hands fluttered by his sides. A second later, he opened his eyes, and gazed without focus towards the ceiling.
‘Mickey?’ Rose said urgently. ‘Mickey, are you all right?’
He groaned again, and seemed to realise where he was. ‘Ooph,’ he said, exhaling heavily. Then a moment later, ‘Ow!’
‘Are you hurt?’ asked Rose. ‘Tell me where you hurt.’
Still groaning, Mickey propped himself up on his elbows. ‘My leg! That bloomin’ porcupine shot me in the leg!’ he said indignantly.
Rose sighed in relief. ‘Thank goodness for that.’
Mickey stared at her. ‘Oh yeah, it’s great. All hail to the porcupine for shooting Mickey in the leg.’ He leaned forward and began to roll up his jeans leg. The skin on his right knee had exploded in blisters, and he winced sharply as the denim brushed against it.
‘You know what I mean. All hail to the porcupine for not shooting Mickey somewhere where it might’ve been fatal.’
He appeared slightly mollified by that. ‘Reckon they meant to, though. Probably just distracted by all of what was going on.’
‘Probably dizzy with high blood pressure from a salt overdose,’ said Rose.
‘What about the Doctor, though? Reckon they got him?’
Rose had been trying not to think about that. ‘Nah. He’d’ve got out of the way in time, easy. They were looking at us. And anyway, they want him to play that game. Even if they caught him, they wouldn’t have hurt him.’ But she wasn’t anywhere near as sure as she sounded.
She helped Mickey up on to a chair. ‘Will