Doctor Who_ Amorality Tale Part 22

'We have always been with you.'

'We are you.'

The priest smiled, his tears forgotten. 'I knew you could never desert me. I knew you would guide me in this hour of need.'

'Why have you come to us?'

'What do you seek?'

'Why are you here?'

'I'm sorry, Saviour, I don't understand where am I?' Father Simmons looked around him but the darkness remained.

'Let there be light.'

A dazzling brilliance engulfed the priest from above, blazing down on him. It was just as he remembered from that fateful night, six years earlier. He had been standing over the dying man when this same light found him. The Saviour had sought him out, chosen him at that moment.

The priest dropped to his knees in adoration, clasping his hands together to offer up a prayer of thanksgiving. 'I wors.h.i.+p you, my Saviour, I praise you. I wors.h.i.+p you, my Saviour, I praise you. I am Xavier Simmons, your most faithful servant.'

'We know who you are.'

'Do you know who we are?'

'Do you?'

Simmons was confused. 'You are the Saviour. You speak with the voices of the Holy Trinity three voices of the one true Saviour, indivisible and whole.'

The air became alive with crackling energy. The priest felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. It was happening again just as it happened six years ago. He was going to be in the presence of the Saviour.

A glowing figure emerged from the light. It floated down through the air, coming to rest just out of the priest's reach.

Father Simmons couldn't bring himself to look at the figure, such was the brilliance surrounding it. He threw a hand in front of his eyes to s.h.i.+eld them.

'Look at us.'

'Look around you.'

'Look upon the face of your Saviour.'

The priest lowered his hand, forcing himself to look up at the glowing figure. As he watched the blaze of light around it grew fainter, allowing him to see the figure properly, to see the Saviour for the first time.

The face of the Saviour had a hundred eyes. The face of the Saviour had no mouth. The face of the Saviour was the face of the creature that had presided over the murdered people in the death chamber.

The face of the Saviour was the face of the Xhinn.

The Doctor woke with a start. He had been dozing in an antique chair he had dragged into the control room. He went to the central console and examined the time readings. It was nearly dawn on Sunday morning. The atmospheric monitor showed the air quality outside at near toxic levels. Unless the build-up of smog could be stopped today, London would be a dead city.

The Doctor strode into the interior of the TARDIS and returned a few seconds later clutching an old leather satchel. He carefully picked up a delicate mess of wiring and circuitry from beside the antique chair. It had taken him nearly twelve hours to complete the device but he hadn't had a chance to test it yet.

Dozing off had cost him that opportunity. 'This body of mine must be getting old,' he murmured.

The Doctor slid the device into the satchel, closed the flap and slung the bag's carrying strap over his shoulder. He looked around the control room, which was littered with discarded equipment and rejected prototypes. He must do some spring cleaning when he got back. He thought about what lay ahead. If he got back.

The Doctor operated the TARDIS's entry mechanism. The heavy outer door swung inwards and smog curled inside, insidious and cold. The Doctor strode out of the TARDIS, humming quietly to himself as he left.

'No! No, this can't be right. It's some kind of trick!' The priest was shocked and confused. The creature spoke with the voices of the Saviour, the same voices he had heard in his prayers and in his dreams. But it had the visage of that creature which killed the men outside the church, the fallen angel. The creature that had been gloating over the dead bodies...

'You're not the Saviour! The Saviour is wise, all knowing.

The Saviour wants to rescue mankind from its mistakes, to guide men to the promised land! The Saviour is a kind and benevolent G.o.d!'

The Xhinn made a crackling, otherworldly noise. Father Simmons realised they were laughing at him. 'You're not the Saviour. You are an impostor, pretending to be the one true Saviour.' The noise only grew louder. 'Stop laughing at me! Stop laughing!'

'You have become blind to the truth.'

'You have believed what you wanted to believe.'

'You have wors.h.i.+pped us as your G.o.d.'

The priest looked around. Three Xhinn floated about him now, each keeping an equal distance from the others. Their voices echoed inside his mind, cold and guttural. Their words scratched at his thoughts like c.o.c.kroaches scrabbling over exposed flesh.

'You stand before the Xhinn Triumvirate.'

'Three voices, one mind.'

'Indivisible.'

Father Simmons clamped his hands over his ears, trying to block out their words. But it was no use.

'We are your trinity.'

'We are your true G.o.d.'

'We are your Saviour.'

Simmons shook his head but could not deny the reality of what they said. It was true, every word. All this time he had been wors.h.i.+pping at the feet of a false G.o.d. 'Then everything I have done...'

'Has been at our bidding.'

'Has been of our choosing.'

'Has been for our good.'

'The charitable words, all the things I have done for the community...'

'We let you have some independence.'

'We let you have your beliefs.'

'But you were our agent.'

'What do you mean?' The priest searched back through his memories, trying to recall the moments of divine inspiration that had directed his energies. One such moment stood out from all others. 'No not that. Don't tell me that was your bidding.

Anything but that...'

The Doctor emerged from the TARDIS and locked the door behind him. He was grateful for his alien respiratory system, which helped filter out the worst of the smog. This vile cloud was designed to weaken and debilitate humans. It made him feel ill but the effects were far less than for the natives of Earth.

He turned into Old Street and began striding towards the Ramsey household. To get close enough to use the weapon inside the satchel, he would need help from Tommy's men. The Xhinn would not take kindly to another unannounced visit from the Doctor.

As he walked east past St Luke's Church, the Doctor heard voices crying out for help from a side street. He went to the corner and peered along the tiny road. Policemen were herding people out of their houses and into the back of black vans.

Those who protested were beaten and then thrown inside the vehicles, dead or alive. Despite the savagery of the tactics, the faces of the police remained calm and impa.s.sive. Each of them just kept repeating the same words, over and over again.

The Doctor recognised mind control at work, he had seen its evil effects often enough. It created an army of slaves, acting out the will of their controller. They were just as much victims as the people they were attacking. The Xhinn had turned the police into a private army, using mankind's own protectors against the citizens. Like Sarah before him, he agonised about whether to intervene. He turned away, no longer able to watch the brutal evacuation. The Doctor knew he had to fight the source of this disease of cruelty, not the symptoms. But how were the Xhinn controlling the police? The Doctor remembered the words proudly spoken by Father Simmons outside the smouldering ruins of Fixing Time, boasting about negotiating a contract to supply bread to the local police stations. The Doctor started running towards Tabernacle Street...

'My bread factory giving jobs to local people. Selling the bread cheaply to those in poverty. Giving something back to the community that was all a lie?' Father Simmons asked, hoping against hope for a negative response. The Xhinn did not fulfil that hope.

'A ruse, to spread our influence.'

'The bread contains a drug, a chemical.'

'It makes human minds susceptible to suggestions.'

'Our suggestions.'

'Our will.'

'Our ways.'

'The bread sent to police stations is especially strong.'

'It makes them our drones, our slaves.'

'They serve us, dead or alive.'

'Forever and ever.'

'Amen.'

The priest shook his head helplessly. 'I thought I was doing good. I believed I was helping people.'

'You were just another p.a.w.n.'

'Another of our agents.'

'Like Callum.'

Father Simmons wasn't listening to the triumvirate. 'You tricked me! You clouded my mind! I would never have done your bidding if I had known!'

'Yes you would.'

'You were our most loyal servant.'

'Callum was a mistake.'

'An error.'

'He wanted power.'

'Anarchy.'

'Chaos.'

'He broke with the ways of the Xhinn.'

'He had to be punished.'

'Extinguished.'

'Erased.'

The three consulted silently before speaking to Simmons again.

'Would you make the same mistake?'

'You can still do our bidding.'

'Share in the glory of the Xhinn.'

The priest shook his head. 'Never! You manipulated me, had me manipulate others just to suit your purposes. I could never go back to your ways. I could never betray my people.'

'So be it.'

'There can be only one consequence.'

'Are you ready for that?'

Sarah got out of bed. She had slept badly, her mind fixated on questions for which she had no answers. Had she been right to tell Tommy the truth about herself and the Doctor? Probably.

She believed Tommy still had an important part to play in this crisis, whatever it might be. Had he believed what she said?