Doctor Who_ Winner Takes All - Jacqueline Rayner [26]
The other Quevvils had joined their fellow now, one of them limping a bit. Good of Rose and her lip balm. They seemed to be arguing about who would report the loss of the Doctor and Mickey to Frinel. The leader of the Quevvils was obviously feared.
‘Frinel will be displeased!’ a Quevvil said. ‘We had assured him that victory was near at hand. He will have prepared for the final defeat of the Mantodeans.’
‘Death to the Mantodeans!’ shouted the other three Quevvils, shaking their fists in the air. Their arms were so short and stubby that, even at the fullest extent, they reached no higher than their snouts.
There was a beeping noise from the control panel in the wall. One of the Quevvils moved over to it. ‘Incoming message,’ he said. The Doctor pricked up his ears.
A voice came out of the panel, of a harsher timbre than those Quevvil voices the Doctor had heard so far. ‘This is Frinel speaking. Respond, Earth party.’
The Quevvil said, ‘Earth party here, Frinel. This is Revik.’
There was a snort from Frinel. ‘Report status. Revik. You assured us you had found a controller who would complete the task. Two controllers, in fact. But the carrier controlled by one was killed by the Mantodeans. And the other was somehow allowed to remove his carrier from the Mantodean stronghold! Explain!’
Revik paused, obviously not relishing the task. ‘We were forced to leave our positions temporarily,’ he said at last. ‘It was a matter of urgency. When we returned, it had happened as you describe it.’
‘Then you will deal with the situation!’ screeched Frinel through the speaker. ‘Or you will be replaced!’
‘It will be done as you say,’ replied Revik.
A beep indicated that Frinel had terminated the link.
Revik turned back to the other Quevvils. ‘We must recapture the controllers,’ he said.
‘But we do not know their location,’ replied one of them. ‘Unless they play the game again…’
‘We do know their location,’ said Revik. ‘They obviously reversed the teleportation field. It will have returned them to their original location. We merely need to follow and retrieve them. Ready your weapons.’
Revik reached out a paw for the control panel. But the Doctor had already moved. Before the teleporter could be activated, he had grabbed hold of a cracked computer monitor, heaved it off the pile of junk, and thrown it as hard as he could. His aim was good. There was a shower of sparks as it smashed into the control panel. No one would be teleporting anywhere, certainly not to Mickey’s flat. Rose and Mickey would be safe. On the other hand, though, dodgy vision or no, the Quevvils could now hardly fail to notice that there was someone else in the room with them.
The Doctor raised his hands above his head as he stood up straight. ‘Hello,’ he said. ‘No need to go after anyone. You’ve got one of your controllers right here.’
Four guns were aimed straight at him.
‘You don’t want to shoot me,’ he carried on. ‘You were just running on to Frinel there how you were going to be getting me back. I’ve saved you the bother.’
One of the Quevvils turned to Revik. ‘This is the human who got the furthest with the task,’ he said. ‘He is the one most likely to bring us victory.’
‘But he has destroyed our teleporter! We cannot return to Toop! He must be punished!’ Revik’s quills started to bristle. The Doctor couldn’t decide which he’d prefer the least, being blasted with energy weapons or turned into a pincushion by an angry Revik.
‘It is inconvenient. But it can be repaired,