The Ghosts of N-Space - Barry Letts [23]
Turning, he abandoned his tantalizing, taunting dance and took off at sprinter speed, straight for the other two, with the slug in close pursuit.
What was the man doing? Sarah s whole being was shrinking back inside itself, as if she were trying to make herself as small as possible.
The slug so nearly touched her as it brushed past that she was almost overwhelmed by the stench of decay which came from its body.
The Doctor reached the other two – and shot between them as if he were breasting an Olympic tape. The savage swipe of the shark teeth, snapping too late to catch him, seized a mouthful of spines instead – just as the pursuing slug-fiend arrived and cannoned into the pair of them.
‘Come on!’ cried the Doctor, as he jumped clear over the shrieking tangle of flesh. He gripped Sarah’s hand and away they went again, flying higher than before and so fast that the wind snatched away Sarah’s breath.
As they flew, she could hear behind the receding snarls of rage and pain as the creatures tore at each other’s bodies, Beneath her, what? Nothing but a blur.
Just when she was beginning to feel that if she didn’t get a proper breath she might explode – implode? – what 81
did the word matter for God’s sake! – the Doctor slowed down, releasing his grip on her hand, and landed in a grove of leafless trees.
‘Curious,’ he said mildly. ‘One wouldn’t expect to see three of them together so far away from their usual feeding ground. The odd wanderer, yes. But three!’
Sarah’s breath was coming in deep painful gulps and in no way could she have voiced her thought. Feeding ground?
Why should creatures from N-Space need to feed, for Pete’s sake? They were spirits, weren’t they? Or images or whatever? Where did feeding come in?
Of course, she’d left out of account the Doctor’s new-found telepathic ability. ‘Quite right,’ he said. ‘Quite wrong too., Those creatures are solid enough to give you a nasty nip.’ Nip! She a seen the slug thing swallow a man whole!
‘They’re as real as you and me,’ went on the Doctor.
But they re nothing but the embodiment of complexes of negative emotions, as I told you. They lack one thing – and it’s the very thing they inevitably crave; and that’s a self, a personality. So in the usual human grabbing way they try to absorb the selves they see around them; and how can they do that except by eating them?’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Sarah, who was beginning to breathe more easily. ‘That poor man was dead already, wasn’t he?’ The Doctor nodded. ‘Well he can’t die again, 82
can he? But if that thing has eaten him…’ Her thought slipped away.
‘He would know the agony of being eaten,’ said the Doctor, ‘because, deep down, he believes he deserves punishment for the things he’s done in his former life. But he’ll wake up again and find himself reliving his last hours, just as before.’
Sarah’s mind boggled. How could somebody die over and over? In any case… ‘So if it had eaten me,’ she said, ‘it wouldn’t have hurt? I mean, I don’t believe I deserve punishment for anything I’ve done in my life.’.
‘Don’t you?’ said the Doctor. ‘Congratulations.’
It might have been easier if he hadn’t been looking at her in such an understanding way; she couldn’t hold his eye; and she blushed.
Jeremy sat on the low wall of the cloister with the warm spring sun on his back, and looked at the deathly-still figures on the truckle beds. He was, as usual, feeling put upon.
Even the Brigadier, who was quite a decent chap really, didn’t seem to think him capable of actually contributing anything. ‘Well now, I need to discuss the whole situation with my uncle,’ he’d said. ‘I’m not quite sure what this Vilmio fellow will try next.’
83
The night before, after Sarah had gone to bed, Jeremy had listened in a perfunctory manner (his attention being more firmly fixed on Umberto’s excellent avocado and tomato sandwiches) while the Brigadier had explained to the Doctor the unfortunate position his uncle found himself in.
‘Council of war, you mean?’ said Jeremy,