Doctor Who_ The Dalek Factor Part 8

EIGHTEEN.

WE'VE BEEN WALKING FOR A WHILE. THE TUNNEL IS FEATURELESS, dimly lit, apparently a road to nowhere fast. I see nothing ahead of us. Nothing behind. With the exception of Kye, Tar'ant and the Professor, of course, who follow. There are no junctions in the tunnel. No branches off. Grey, grey... Grey walls forever. Once more my mind spins back those long dead years to when Yo was struck by the vehicle. I hear her cries. I find myself gazing into those brown, trusting eyes again. Helpless, but knowing I must act to free her from her pain...

'Four thousand,' the man declaims.

[image]'What's that, Professor?'

'Four thousand. I've counted every step of the way.'

'We should be reaching the end of it now,' says Kye; a statement rooted more in hope than in fact.

'As long as we're not in a storm drain,' I add. 'I hate the idea of being flushed.'

Tar'ant sniffs. 'You're not the only one.'The mournful cry echoes along the tunnel again; a ghostly sound that chills my blood.

'A storm drain?' The Professor's eyes gleam with uncanny lights in the shadows. 'Oh, I think it's far more than that.'

We move on.

'Four thousand and one, four thousand and two, four thousand and three...'

If the Professor's going to count aloud every step of the way, this will send me as crazy as he is.

'Four thousand and four, four thousand and five...'Kye murmurs so the man doesn't hear: 'Are you going to shoot him, or shall I?'

I open my mouth to reply; only I don't get chance. The floor is no longer there I'm falling. A steamy, warm atmosphere rushes over me. I see ten different shades of green. Then solid ground hurtles up.

NINETEEN.

'JOMI... JOMI! ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?'.

I don't breathe any more. At least, that's what it feels like. I'm lying flat on my back in a mess of broadleaf plants, looking up at two faces that peer down at me through the hole I fell through.

Now that doesn't make sense, I tell myself. I'm walking through a subterranean pa.s.sageway, then I fall out of it into the open air. What's more, I've fallen a distance that's more than twice my height into vegetation that's a bilious green.

I don't breathe any more... only I need to need to breathe. My back hurts. Pains shoot through my ribs. Then in a rush I breathe in. I wince, expecting that inhalation to be agonising. Surprisingly, it doesn't hurt as much as I expected. Exhaling, then taking another breath, I find the pains in my jolted body are receding. This helps me take more of an interest in my surroundings. breathe. My back hurts. Pains shoot through my ribs. Then in a rush I breathe in. I wince, expecting that inhalation to be agonising. Surprisingly, it doesn't hurt as much as I expected. Exhaling, then taking another breath, I find the pains in my jolted body are receding. This helps me take more of an interest in my surroundings.

With a groan, I raise my visor. All around me clumps of billowing green burst out of the ground. The sky above is blue. (No cloud; no rain; no thunder. Strange). I see that looping across and through the blue are long grey tubes. They look the same as the one I fell from. Only, thankfully, that particular one isn't so high from the ground. My eyes take in the grey tubes that make me think of arteries within the body. They run in seemingly random patterns from one horizon to the other. The longer I examine them, the more I see that a number appear to snake out of the blue stuff of the sky to slope downward to the green stuff of the ground.

Jorm!' Kye's shouting again. 'Are you OK?'I wave to her, still trying to recover from the winding I got from the fall. She interprets this as me not being badly hurt.

'Can you stand?'I nod; at the third attempt, I make it to my feet. Then I retrieve my gun from where it splashed down into a cl.u.s.ter of fungi that reach as high as my knees. The weapon's smeared with a foul smelling jelly from the fungus, but appears to be undamaged.

The Professor calls down, his bright eyes fixed on mine: 'Can you tell where you are?'

'Rain forest,' I manage to say.

'Can you see Tar'ant?'

'He's down here?'

'He fell through just seconds after you. The floor dissolved right from under his feet.'

'No... I don't see him.''The fall might have stunned him. All we can see is you and the area of ground immediately around you. Do you see anything else?' Kye adds: 'Any sign of the platoon?'

I shake my head. Looking round, I see a ma.s.s of verdant green. Heavy crimson blossom hangs from branches. Green tsunamis of vines sweep over boulders. There are myriads of insects painted in dazzling colours emerald greens, metallic blues and purples. Vast b.u.t.terflies with papery, lemon-hued wings flutter above my head.

'I don't understand it,' I begin. 'Clear skies... but there's no sun. I can't ' My voice morphs into a shout. 'Hey, Kye! Professor! I can see the building again. The same one we saw from the kitchen. This must be '

'Then take great care, Jomi,' the Professor warns. 'Remember your people encountered hostile forces out here.'

He's right. I drop to a crouch, use leaves to wipe away the slippery gunk from the gun, then set the trigger to rapid-fire. Now I scan my location, searching for the Daleks I suspect haunt this jungle.

After a moment, I call up. 'I see nothing that presents a threat.'

Kye kneels at the lip of the hole. 'Keep watching, Jomi'I remember what happened to Golstar, so I keep watching all right. As I scan the encircling trees I call out: 'Tar'ant... Tar'ant?'

'Jomi, I don't know how we're going to haul you and Tar'ant back up here. There's no way of reaching you.'

'There's no need anyway. If anything, you have to find a way to climb down here' I glance at the crushed plants that broke my fall. 'Without cracking any bones. But I'm starting to get worried about Tar'ant' I look round. 'Tar'ant? Can you hear me, friend?' Uneasy, I try and make a joke of it, to drive away the anxiety that's gathering like a dark cloud over me. 'Tar'ant? Are you there? Knock once for yes, twice for no...'

Above me, the pair of them appear to go into conference, no doubt discussing the best way to climb down from the aerial tube to the ground. Now, I notice that an oval section of the bottom of the tube is missing. Strange, because I'm sure it had been intact before I fell through it.

For a while I crouch there keeping a watchful eye on my surroundings. Hoping Tar'ant will lumber from the bushes with a big grin on his face. From time to time, dragonflies with iridescent wings buzz me. The hostile way they dart toward my face suggest they're sizing me up as their next meal. I flip the helmet visor back down. When they hover too close, I jab them away with the muzzle of my weapon.

The Professor and Kye are taking their time over deciding how to reach me. I glance up.Sweet life. What I see leaves me open-mouthed. The tunnel has resealed itself; a patch of black material has replaced the hole through which Tar'ant and I fell, and I never noticed a thing. Even with the predatory dragonflies circling, I risk removing my helmet, just in case I can hear the pair. Only I hear nothing but the cry of birds and the unpleasant whine of those d.a.m.n dragonflies. One buzzes close to my ear. With the b.u.t.t of the gun I take a swipe at it.

'Kye! Professor?' I listen again for a reply. Nothing. d.a.m.n. How can I have been so un.o.bservant? Now they're sealed inside that aerial grey tube again. Beyond reach. I follow the tube with my eyes, trying to determine if it simply terminates or if it snakes away into the wide blue yonder like so many of the others. Only, at last, I see that this airborne artery suddenly dips downward to penetrate the ground. Will the pair wait? Will they retrace their steps? Will they go forward? h.e.l.l, I have no way of knowing. I check the pad on my sleeve, hoping that the comm link has been re-established. Not so much as a murmur. The whole system's dead, including telemetry and environment sensors. Now I have to rely on what Thal evolution has given me. Sight, smell, touch, hearing. I see little apart from profuse plant growth, blue sky, insects and the metallic fortress on the cliff. The smell is undoubtedly powerful. Rich, organic smells of rain forest, scented with heavy perfumes from the blossom. Touch. Here, I feel only the press of the humid atmosphere against the small areas of skin that aren't protected by my suit. Again, sounds are restricted to a c.o.c.ktail of insect buzz and birdcalls from the forest deeps.

Moments pa.s.s. The dragonflies are enough of a nuisance to persuade me to flip down my visor. Above me, the black patch that re-sealed the hole is lightening to the same grey as the rest of the tube. It seeming increasingly unlikely that Kye and the Professor are going to find a way out through this section, I decide that what I must do next is find Tar'ant. I move through the waist-deep plants, softly calling his name. I'm wary that too loud a shout could attract the wrong kind of attention.

Within fifteen paces I find him. I see him. I know it's him... only for a moment I tell myself it's not real. One of those walking hives playing another trick on me, or maybe I'm seeing things because I was concussed by the fall. Reality bites only when I look into his eyes.

'Tar'ant...' I groan his name. 'I'm sorry... You shouldn't...' Now I bite my lip, not trusting my own voice as it breaks. There's no escaping the reality of this. Here is my friend Tar'ant. He's fallen into a cradle of branches that have closed over him, almost hiding him from view. No wonder the Professor and Kye couldn't see him. On each branch are a dozen or more thorns that resemble the long, slender spines of a poison fish. Dozens more have penetrated his body. One has even pierced the back of his neck, the tip emerging from between his lips. I see that the tip of each spine is hollow. A silvery drop of some liquid that can only be venom forms there like dew. The branches from which the spines emanate are a pale brown, but as I watch they turn red... blood red... as they suck away what once flowed through his veins. For a moment, I want nothing more than to stamp those killer plants literally bloodthirsty plants into the ground: grind them to pulp. But that won't bring Tar'ant back. I turn away.

They say that soldiers who stop to mourn their fallen comrades die young. I have no choice but to move on.

I suspect that Captain Vay would have headed for the cuboid fortress up there on the cliff. If I make good progress, I can probably reach it within two hours. Slipping the strap over my shoulder, I keep the firearm hanging level at my hip, its muzzle pointing forward, just in case. I see that I need to make my way down a slight incline first, before reaching the base of the cliff. There appears to be a ramp that hugs the rock face, then rises to the fortress itself. If I'm fortunate, I will make contact with my platoon there.

Moving quickly, yet stealthily, I enter the forest. Immediately, I'm in a green world of little light. In the gloom, wraiths of mist float amid branches and rope-like vines criss-cross every available s.p.a.ce. Mossclad tree trunks loom. Fat bodied flies hover all around.

In front of me is what I take to be a stumpy tree as tall as a man. Moss covers it with a vivid green skin, while more vines climb up its trunk to curl round its three remaining branches... Green surfaces, soft shapes, light diffused by a steam-laden jungle atmosphere. But that configuration of lines; the hint of deadly symmetry beneath moss. I know what this is.

I leap sideways as what I'd misread as a tree stump twists on its own axis. The movement tears away softly engulfing moss to reveal hard hemispheres that project from a metallic structure. The top rotates as well, shedding fallen leaves, snapping vines. Insects flee from where they'd settled on its body, perhaps instinctively reacting to this concentration of pure evil. What I took to be branches break free of vines. Its eye-stalk swings to focus on me. Then the whole monstrous configuration lurches forward, leaving a crater where it had embedded itself for what? Centuries? Millennia?

'Do not move.' The Dalek's voice is a hoa.r.s.e rush of sound, like a breeze blowing through trees in a cemetery. A distillation of cruelty that contains the promise of death in every syllable. Sheer age has slowed it, has hoa.r.s.ened its voice; but every molecule of its body oozes an emotional and mental toxicity. 'Do not move.'

I do move, leaping sideward as moss covering the stubby weapon sizzles into a blackened crust; a bolt of raw energy crackles from the muzzle. Instantly, a ball of blue light sweeps past me, cutting a swathe through the forest, searing vines, undergrowth, tree trunks to dust. Felled trees collapse with a thump that shakes the ground. I glance back and see that the Dalek's shot has cut a circular tunnel clean through the forest.

Still it tracks me as I run. I see the weapon's muzzle lock onto me. What I choose to do now determines whether I survive, or whether I end up like Golstar: a skeletonised ruin. So, what's it to be? Run? Fight? I reach a snap decision. My gun hums in my hand; the ammo cyst pulses, ejecting a gush of super-heated molecules at the Dalek. An incandescent aura forms round the metallic body. Vines and moss covering it flash away in vapour, exposing the uncompromising shape of the monster; then the blazing particles enter the fabric of the killing machine to detonate within.

The explosion throws me backward. I roll onto my front, covering my head as shards of the hot Dalek casing land in the moist vegetation, where they hiss, blackening leaves and shrivelling vines all around me. Quickly gratefully I retreat from the heat and the stench belching out from the remains of the Dalek.

Now I leave the forest, at the same time treating my surroundings with infinitely more respect. It is only when I'm clear of the jungle canopy and can see blue sky above that I tug off my helmet. Suddenly that air is a lovely thing to breathe. Especially as I came within five seconds of becoming another Dalek statistic.

Once more, I have to re-a.s.sess my choice of destination. There may be more Daleks in the forest. Sleepers that have waited for their Thal enemy for a thousand years or more. Once more I gaze at those grey tube structures running like veins through the air above me. Is there a way to reach one of those? But even if I can find a way up there, how do I enter one? And which one? Some do snake their way in S-shaped lines to the cliff-top fortress. But will there be an exit, if I can even reach the end of one? Sweet life, this isn't going to be easy.

TWENTY.

FOR A WHILE, ALL I CAN DO IS STAND THERE, CONSIDERING WHAT to do next. My heartbeat has slowed after the adrenaline rush. It beats with a steady, grave rhythm in my chest. High on its rock, the ugly carca.s.s of the fortress ruin looms over a jungle that is a violent outburst of plant growth, one that swarms with venomous insects and choking vines. The entire place is a stinking stew of rampant, undisciplined nature where death and decay relentlessly pursue life. And behind the poisonous green that swarms over bedrock, and beneath the deeply forbidding conglomeration of cubes on the hill that could be some grim structure built from a million coffins, there is some other thing. A monstrous sense of charge. It's as if what I see now is a thin mask that conceals a power that is immense and as implacable as it is faceless. I A monstrous sense of charge. It's as if what I see now is a thin mask that conceals a power that is immense and as implacable as it is faceless. I feel it. It's feel it. It's growing in strength; a dark heartbeat building in strength and purpose. growing in strength; a dark heartbeat building in strength and purpose.

Now my solitude is like a weight I am forced to carry. I've never felt so alone in my life before. A breeze slides through the bushes, drawing out a breathy hiss; a sinister sound as if the planet itself exhales. A suggestion of something long dead returning, not to life but to some grotesque state that mimics life. My eyes are life. My eyes are drawn up to the fortress again. Its walls and vine-covered columns no longer appear inert. Whatever dark energy pulses beneath the sweating forest is seeping into that cold structure, too. Somehow it seems watchful now. As if a cold, sinister intelligence high on the mount watches me. Recording my every move. My deep, slow heartbeat seems to speak to me of impending events. A profound change will take place soon. I feel its dark promise in my bones. A transformation. An imminent pa.s.sing from this universe I know into some dark abyss of the soul an alien place that will never willingly permit my return. At least, not as I am now. It will be a place that is malignant with pain and despair a crucible that changes me forever. Or is that fatal intersection of time and location I foresee, my moment of dying? When I will be torn from this universe for the rest of eternity? drawn up to the fortress again. Its walls and vine-covered columns no longer appear inert. Whatever dark energy pulses beneath the sweating forest is seeping into that cold structure, too. Somehow it seems watchful now. As if a cold, sinister intelligence high on the mount watches me. Recording my every move. My deep, slow heartbeat seems to speak to me of impending events. A profound change will take place soon. I feel its dark promise in my bones. A transformation. An imminent pa.s.sing from this universe I know into some dark abyss of the soul an alien place that will never willingly permit my return. At least, not as I am now. It will be a place that is malignant with pain and despair a crucible that changes me forever. Or is that fatal intersection of time and location I foresee, my moment of dying? When I will be torn from this universe for the rest of eternity?

My heartbeat slows. My respiration falters. My eyes are closing. An all-engulfing darkness is blooming behind my eyelids. I know I should move but I can't. A voice whispers deep inside my brain: 'Give up. If you try, you fail. Why exert yourself in vain? Lie down here. Lie down. Sleep.'

'LOOK OUT!'.I open my eyes to see that b.u.t.terflies have settled on my arms and legs. They are the size of a hand and are decorated with purple and gold heart shapes on their wings. My sudden movement as I dodge sideways disturbs them, and they flutter away in a rush. From above me a shape descends. I drop to a crouch and point my gun, trying to find a target.

Only it's no hostile creature. In astonishment I watch as the Professor tumbles out of the blue sky to the ground. A second later, he crashes into a waist-high clump of plants.

Running forward, I look down at the man as he lies there amid crushed stalks, his arms and legs flung out.

He groans. 'That was no accident. That was deliberate. They They dumped me here. dumped me here. They They did this to me. did this to me. They They have cruel bones, Jomi.' have cruel bones, Jomi.'

I look up. Kye is crouching by the lip of a new hole in the grey tube that runs above my head.

Kye calls out: 'Jomi, what's happening?' She's seen the smoke rising through the trees from the still red-hot fragments of Dalek casing.

I answer her question with a different one: 'Kye! Can you get down here?'

'I'm going to jump.'

'Go for the plants where they're thickest; they'll break your fall.'

'But not by much,' the Professor adds bitterly. 'My aching back... 'He still lies there wincing and grimacing. Then his expression alters. 'Kye!' He yells. 'Don't jump. Get back from the opening!'

I look up in time to see what I take to be a swarm of black insects approaching the section of tube where part of the floor is missing. Kye sees too. She springs back in a split-second. Not a moment too soon, either, because that swarm of misty black abruptly condenses into a hard slab. Swiftly it flies toward the tube then clamps itself over it, neatly sealing the rupture.

'd.a.m.n,' I hiss, 'she should have jumped.''If she'd jumped into that thing as it condensed...' The Professor grimaces.

'Kye!''Don't waste your breath, Jomi. She can't hear you.' The man wipes sc.r.a.ps of leaf from his face. 'If I were you, I'd... What's that?' A cracking sound. 'No.'

Plants enclose the man in a kind of spiky green halo, but I see that they appear to be shrinking as a depression forms beneath his weight. The cracking is replaced by a loud snap. Even as the Professor attempts to stand, the ground sinks beneath him, then a whole section falls away. He plunges from sight with a yell. There's the sound of a heavy object falling, striking the sides of a pit as it does so, before eventually slamming into the bottom. Heart thumping, I edge toward the edge of hole, mindful that there might be only an insubstantial crust of earth and plants beneath me.

'Professor!'I see him clinging to the edge of the hole, hanging there by his hands. His feet swing beneath him, and below is only a deep, dark void into which sc.r.a.ps of earth and plant stems whirl away to vanish deep underground. A section of steel grid peels away from behind the man to fall into the abyss with a series of thuds followed, some time after, by a crash. It must have been another one of those falling that had led me to think that it was the Professor that had hit the bottom of the pit.

'Give me your hand, Professor.'

'Stay back! It's not safe.'I lay down my gun, then move forward on all fours, spreading my weight as much as possible. Now I see that a whole series of grids covers the pit. They are so corroded that one has given way beneath the man's weight. I never noticed the hole before because of the profusion of vegetation that swamps the entire terrain.

'Easy does it,' the man says. 'Move a little to the left no, your left. There's a solid-looking girder beneath you now.'

He throws out his hand as I extend mine across the infestation of plant growth. I seize his hand, gripping it as tightly as I can.