Doctor Who_ Winner Takes All - Jacqueline Rayner [68]
* * *
Robert was feeling quite dazed. He couldn’t quite believe that the Doctor had done it. ‘Had to get everyone across the desert first, had to drag things out long enough for them to make it. Then split‐second timing,’ the Doctor had said. ‘Those things only work at very close range. Had to be near enough to get here when the teleporter was still in operation, while the Quevvils were still streaming through the air as their component atoms – but not so soon that they’d muck it all up as soon as the disruptor signal was sent. Then we’d’ve just had a pile of angry Quevvils on our hands, and that’d be no good to anybody.’ He’d smiled then. ‘I suppose that Mickey’s not so useless after all.’ He put a finger to his lips, and hissed to Robert, ‘But don’t tell him I said so.’
‘But what about Rose?’ said Robert, hardly daring to think about what might have happened to the wonderful girl.
The Doctor looked really solemn for a second. Then he gave a sort of half‐smile, an ‘of course it’s all right, honest’ smile. He looked round to where the Nkomos were hugging, and Rachel and Daniel Goldberg were clinging to each other as if they’d never let go, and Mr Snow was saying to Mrs Snow that they were certainly never coming here again, and they’d be writing a strongly worded letter to the company.
‘I didn’t know if the disruptors would knock out the control system,’ he said. ‘I thought they would – couldn’t be sure though. Bit scared I was leaving Rose frozen solid in the middle of a bunch of Mantodeans. But she’ll be all right.’
‘But what about the bunch of Mantodeans?’ asked Robert, who’d seen the screen in the instant before the signal had been cut off. He hoped that was all that had been cut off.
‘She’ll be all right,’ the Doctor reiterated. ‘But it wouldn’t hurt to go and see…’
* * *
Every light died. Every technological hum cut out.
‘Crikey,’ whispered Rose. She said it to herself, in her head, but was astonished to hear the sound come out of her mouth. She could speak again! She tried moving a foot. Yes! She could walk again!
Her delight was slightly tempered by the realisation that she was going to have to get out of this room full of Mantodeans without any of those superpowers the control device had given her.
This room full of Mantodeans – who were all looking at her. ‘What have you done!’ screeched one. Rose was surprised. She’d never heard a Mantodean speak before, she’d been assuming they were just dumb monsters, beasts acting on instinct. How stupid she’d been – how could dumb monsters have created a maze like this, and puzzles and traps like those she’d encountered?
‘You can speak!’ she said.
There was a collective hiss from the Mantodeans. ‘It talks! It talks!’
The Mantodean who first spoke stepped forward. ‘If it talks, if it is not a dumb beast like the others, then it will explain why it has done this to us, before we crush its thorax and it can talk no more!’
‘Hang on a minute,’ said Rose. ‘I… I think there’ve been a lot of crossed wires here. You thought humans were animals, we thought you were monsters…’ This didn’t seem to be going down too well, so she changed tack. ‘Look, the Quevvils –’ there was a hissing from the Mantodeans – ‘the Quevvils have been kidnapping my people, humans, and sending them over here to get into your stronghold. They couldn’t get in, but they’d developed this disruptor –’ she tapped her chest – ‘so they could knock out your defences and teleport in.’ She looked around. ‘Thought they’d be here by now. Although obviously I’m glad they’re not.’
‘You are an ally of the Quevvils?’ snapped a Mantodean.
‘No!’ she said. ‘They’ve been forcing us to do this. Really forcing, so we couldn’t move for ourselves, or even speak. Look, it’s nothing to do with me. Please, if I could just go, I’ll never bother you again… I’m really sorry for what’s happened.’
But the first Mantodean was coming towards her, and its mandibles