Doctor Who_ Infinite Requiem Part 26

The fighters screamed over the crenellated rooftops. She heard plasma bolts cut through the air, and a shattering explosion which sounded as if it had torn out a sizeable portion of the house.

She risked a look. The whole of the western wing was ablaze, a torrent of orange and black pouring from the broken windows.

Two Phoenix Phoenix troopers had dropped for cover behind the remains of a stone wall, and were engaging a single member of Shanstra's Phractons in com-200 troopers had dropped for cover behind the remains of a stone wall, and were engaging a single member of Shanstra's Phractons in com-200 bat. Livewire saw pulse after pulse raking the surface of the Phracton globe, ensnaring it in jittery crackles of energy, like living creatures.

She loaded her crossbow.

If this was war, she wasn't intending to miss out on it.

Bernice ran.

She was following Leibniz and two troopers, and expecting at any moment to be cut down by a volley of shots from the distant Phractons. But, she reasoned, they could be just as confused as she was; the fire and smoke on the grand lawn had given it a haze of total chaos.

Unbearable heat seemed to be coming from all sides. She saw Leibniz stop, rap out instructions into his comlink.

Something stirred in the billowing smoke by the entrance to the house: something round, glistening and moving.

'Leibniz!' Bernice yelled.

For a moment, the two of them stood there, immobile on the battlefield, watching the Phracton motor unit float out of the smoke with its laser-tube extended.

Leibniz's gun swung to cover the Phracton.

Bernice felt as if time had stopped. She could hear the roaring of the flames in the background, but she did not want her mind to linger on the sound, knowing all too well what it brought back for her.

Then the speaker-grille buzzed: 'Re-group your forces Trau Leibniz. We will de-fend here.'

Benny felt relief rush through her, and saw Leibniz relax too.

'Don't do things like that,' he said to the Phracton, lowering his pistol. 'I was about to kill you.'

201.

26.

The Quality of Mercy

'I had hopes for you. I came here thinking I could reason with you, the last of the Sensopaths.' The Doctor made no attempt to veil his disgust. 'Instead, I find you steeping yourself in acts of barbarism to rival Shanstra's own.'

The two of them were circling one another, like dogs squaring up for a fight.

'I see,' Jirenal murmured, amused. 'You had hoped to appeal to what you would call my "better nature"?'

'Don't you find it strange? That such an advanced race should have nothing better to occupy itself with than a complex form of bullying?'

'And what right do these other . . . animal races have to the existence you would afford them, Doctor?' For the first time, Jirenal sounded truly angered.

'Do you realize how little their shallow, one-dimensional existences mean to us? Even those who call themselves telepaths, telekinetics, parapsychics. Just children, playing games for which they will never know the rules!'

'The Pridka know the rules. They are n.o.ble, proud, beautiful. Amarill was, once, before you destroyed her! And humanity they may not be perfect, but they have rules too! This is humanity! Look!' And he pointed to Suzi Palsson.

'A human being. A complete person whose existence, no, whose life has been made worthwhile because she stopped being frightened of the past. And when she's accepted some guilt for her actions ' the Doctor met Suzi's gaze ' her life will be ready to start again!' The Doctor lifted his chin and stared Jirenal in the eye. 'Little triumphs, little tragedies. Learning to live with loss, and redemption. It's part of being individual, Jirenal.'

Suzi swallowed. 'Don't push him too far, Doctor '

'It's all right,' he whispered. 'I know what I'm doing.'

The Sensopath made a dismissive sound, a sneer on his long, white face.

'How many times have you trodden a caterpillar underfoot? Or watched a wasp try to escape from a gla.s.s, struggling feebly until it runs out of air?'

Jirenal's huge grin swept across his face in a tide of red and white, cartoon-huge, horrible. 'These beings are all wasps, and caterpillars.'

'What hideous arrogance,' the Doctor muttered. 'Your new-found existence hasn't given you any concept of individual freedom.'

'Which means, Doctor?' Jirenal spread his hands.

203.

'Which means that you're not keen to retain your existence as Jirenal, as a whole being. You want to be reunited with Shanstra. Strange. Very strange.'

The Doctor lowered his voice to a mere whisper. 'Now, I wonder what Kelzen thinks about that?'

Horst Leibniz had seen Karin dying several times over already.

His wife's eyes seemed to rise from a sea of glutinous ma.s.s in his mind before his eyes In another world one which might have been called real by another Horst Leibniz, one of flesh and blood he was kicking in a door, bursting through he was kicking in a door, bursting through into a marble hall, his boots crunching on gla.s.s. into a marble hall, his boots crunching on gla.s.s.

Karin's eyes were those shards of broken gla.s.s, the emotions of pain pouring out into him from her plague-wracked body. Into his own mind. Only she didn't out into him from her plague-wracked body. Into his own mind. Only she didn't know that was happening, she had never known what she'd married. know that was happening, she had never known what she'd married.

The toxin was of Draconian origin, swift and efficient. The a.s.sa.s.sin not even a name to her former employer had launched the dart from a pistol, among the a name to her former employer had launched the dart from a pistol, among the crowds that afternoon in the Experience Park on Magellani. crowds that afternoon in the Experience Park on Magellani.

And Karin had slipped, falling in Horst Leibniz's arms, the life slipping out of her as the escalator carried them down. her as the escalator carried them down.

He lifted his goggles, motioning the squad of troopers to take up positions in the hall.

With the screams of her death in his mind The gla.s.s was a shattered chandelier, spread across the marble floor like a carpet of ice.

Bernice, next to him, drew breath. Leibniz looked up. He saw a big, winding staircase of red, strewn with dust and rubble, the carpet torn and burned in patches. And standing at the top of the stairs, lounging on the banister and watching them like a hungry lioness, was Shanstra.

Bernice had not been at all sure about the wisdom of actually confronting Shanstra, but the Doctor had been adamant about this. He had told her not to worry, saying he would be dealing with the most difficult and dangerous task when the time came.

This was not rea.s.suring. It sounded to Benny as if it came from 101 Ways 101 Ways to Pacify a Companion to Pacify a Companion.

She hardly dared even breathe. She had to have faith in the Doctor, now, the Doctor who was thousands of light years and millennia away. But still, she reflected, by the usual paradoxes, they were linked to the Doctor through the gateway of this creature.

She it was approaching them. Benny's heart was beating fast, her fear stronger than the taste of smoke in her mouth and the ringing of battle in her ears. That, she thought, had been one of the differences between her and Ace.

204.

Benny liked to admit her fears, but Ace had always been one for pretending she didn't really have any.

Well, Summerfield, she thought, this is another fine mess the Doctor's got us into. And I don't think he's sure how we're meant to get out of it, this time.

'Have you come to play?' purred the Sensopath, as she slinked down the stairs towards them like some celluloid G.o.ddess. 'How nice. I have so very few diversions.'

'Now, Kelzen!' cried the Doctor.

There was a flickering in the darkness of the Dreamguide's domain, like an inquisitive ghost. Suzi saw Jirenal's arm suddenly flung out as if he were being pinned to the darkness, and his body rippling like an unsteady reflection.

The blue-cloaked form of Kelzen was taking shape around him. The faces merged into one, the hair, glossy and even longer than before, seeming to coil around itself and tangle in all directions.

'What's happening?' Suzi gasped.

'The inevitable,' said the Doctor.

Leibniz and Bernice exchanged glances. 'If you'll give us a few minutes of your time,' Bernice ventured, 'we'd like to talk.'

And why bother lying? she thought in desperation. All she has to do is Too late. She had done it.

Reality warped in the house. The floor in front of Bernice shattered open in five different places, scattering shards of chandelier and marble.

Her feet flew from under her. Tentacles had sprung from nowhere, were slithering across the floor. One of them had grabbed her firmly by the ankle, biting, while others were reaching out for her wrists.

'Worried about going under, Professor Professor Summerfield?' said the echoing voice of Shanstra. 'They were always there, you know. Always just about to find you out.' Summerfield?' said the echoing voice of Shanstra. 'They were always there, you know. Always just about to find you out.'

Benny, gasping, grabbed a table leg. The tentacles continued to pull her into the gaping cracks in the floor. She realized that Leibniz and the troopers had fallen to their knees, and had their hands clamped over their ears.

Her hands were sweaty on the table-leg.

Shanstra's laughter echoed around the house.

Livewire ran across the flat roof, screened from below by a wall of fire. She launched herself at the nearest latticed window in a ferocious jump-kick, sending most of the window's structure scattering inside the house.

Her head was aching. She could sense herself coming close to the woman who had made Livewire kill her enemies.

205.

Livewire leapt in through the smashed window, landing neatly on all fours like a cat, ignoring the lacerations to her arms and legs. Her eyes were bright with hatred as the battle raged outside, sounds ebbing and flowing like a sea of shouts, explosions and plasma bolts.

Livewire liked to know who her enemies were. Her true enemies. Now, she knew.

She loaded her crossbow with the new arrow, and began to move stealthily along the corridor. The irony of having finally, after all this time, got inside the residence of the vice-governor, did not really concern her. Unlike her parents, Livewire had never aspired to do any such thing.

She wanted to kill. She had always wanted to kill.

'What do you mean, "inevitable"?' Suzi asked.

'You haven't worked it out? Kelzen has.' The Doctor nodded. 'She obviously absorbed most of the truly cognitive processes of the Trinity.'

The two forms of the Sensopath were twisting together like plaited strands of hair. They twirled in a bright pillar of fire, dancing a macabre mental-physical two-step.

'So Kelzen's on our side?'

'I certainly hope so.' The Doctor raised his voice, addressed it to the ag-onized, nebulous form of the Sensopaths. 'Jirenal, look inside Kelzen! Look there, and see what you find! There is the presence of a human. A sentient being call Sanjay Meswani, who will live because Kelzen has chosen not to destroy him.'

Suzi was looking curiously at the Doctor. 'You know a h.e.l.l of a lot about these creatures, don't you?'

'Enough. Kelzen had a talk from me earlier about the power of being merciful. And now, if I'm right, then the dream centre should have a consciousness strong enough to deny Shanstra access.' He turned to face her, looked into her eyes. 'Now,' he said, 'we leave.'

Livewire saw the dark figure, a shadow, turn momentarily to face her. Then she lifted the crossbow and fired.

And Bernice felt the grip on her arms and legs slacken. It seemed to stop.

Shanstra's mind had broken away from her.

Benny risked a look upwards.

Shanstra was staring at an arrow that had buried itself deep into her body.

There was a ring of blood around the shaft where it sat, right in the middle of her chest. Shanstra gripped the shaft of the arrow with both hands, her eyes blazing green wish anger, her mouth locked in a silent and furious scream.

206.

Benny sensed Leibniz and the others struggling to their feet beside her.

'She's controlling it,' Benny breathed. 'She's using her mental force to contain the impact of the arrow.'

Shanstra, her eyes and mouth open in pain, stepped on to the next stair down, and then the next.

The house shook to the impact of another explosion. Somewhere Bernice heard a scream. She found her hand sliding into her pocket then, and touching the small pyramid.

All they had to do was break her concentration.

'Here!' Bernice shouted. 'Fetch!'

She hurled the pyramid in Shanstra's direction. Halfway up the stairs, it bounced, clattered, resolved itself into a startlingly lifelike image of the Doctor hurrying clumsily to his feet.

The hologram whirled around to face Shanstra.

'Good day,' said the h-Doctor, raising its hat. 'Can we talk?'

For a second the image was outlined in a bright, angry burst of fire. Then it faded, and a charred lump of metal and circuitry bounced down the stairs and shattered into thousands of pieces like fragments of burnt toast.

Benny blinked. Shanstra continued to advance.