‘Walters, what the hell happened there?’ barked Desiato.
Walters looked cautiously into the eyes of his fuming captain.
‘I’m sorry, sir,’ he stuttered, shaking. ‘I don’t know what came over me. I was just… shocked, that’s all.’
Desiato softened. ‘Yes, well, we all were. Doctor,’ he said, turning to him, ‘do you have any idea what that thing was?’
‘I am ruminating on the possibilities,’ said the Doctor. He narrowed his eyes in thought. ‘That entity was clearly comprised of the same flexible symbiotic organism that pervades the earth and life on this planet. I don’t understand, however, why it had taken on a humanoid form. It’s so impractical for a life form of that manner. It was far more efficient in its initial form. Which leads me to conclude that it is directly related to your presence here.’
‘How, Doctor?’ said Desiato. He motioned to some of his subordinates, who picked up the wrecked body of Huhrun, and took it into the main hall.
He walked up to the Doctor. ‘We’ve been on this planet for five years. Nothing like this has ever occurred before. You, on the other hand, arrived this morning. Hours later, a violent alien attacks my people. I’d certainly say that your presence here is more to blame than ours.’
The Doctor gave the captain the tired look of one who has been accused of such things far too many times before. ‘Are you suggesting that I caused that attack?’
‘Well - ’ began Desiato.
‘What would I possibly have to gain by coming here and setting an animal on your people? It hardly seems worth all the bother for the scenery.’
‘Fair point, Doctor. But you must admit that it is far more likely that your presence is the key here, not ours. Perhaps that spacecraft of yours has something to do with it. It certainly doesn’t sound like a conventional craft. You say it is larger on the inside than the outside. What other properties does it have?’
‘Well,’ the Doctor reluctantly conceded, ‘that could be a possibility.’
‘Exactly. We don’t know what this thing wants, why it’s suddenly started behaving like this.’
‘True, but I consider it very likely that the life form is being controlled by an intelligence. Nothing else could drive such a benign entity to act in this way. It’s a symbiont, and somehow its reliance on other life forms has left it susceptible to exploitation.’
‘Why would any of my people exploit it? What would they have to gain from the death of their fellows?’
The Doctor sighed again. ‘I don’t know, captain. I don’t know everything, you know, no matter what my reputation may suggest. But I would wager that this was an act of unmitigated hatred.’
The Doctor waved a hand to silence Desiato’s reply. ‘While the creature is dormant, I suggest we get on the matter at hand. Your plague isn’t curing itself.’
The Doctor led the way back to the makeshift infirmary.
‘Your companions haven’t yet returned with your equipment, Doctor,’ Desiato reminded him.
‘You say you have examined the food supply for pathogens. Thusly, you must possess some form of microscope.’
He entered the building, and headed straight to one of the delirious patients, a young fair-haired man.
As he frothed at the mouth and quivered in his bed, the Doctor carefully reached into his pocket, extracting a small thumb-sized device.
‘What is that?’ asked Desiato.
‘A photon knife,’ replied the Doctor. He flicked a tiny switch, causing a short, blue beam of energy to emit from the end of the contraption. He turned it onto its side. The blade was so thin as to be invisible. The Doctor lent forward, slowly and carefully. ‘It’s alright,’ he said, soothingly. ‘This won’t hurt.’ He shaved an extremely thin sliver of skin off the man’s arm.
‘Hold this, would you,’ he said, passing it to Desiato, who looked at it with just a hint of distaste. The Doctor adjusted the knife, forming the blade into an almost imperceptibly thin tube, which he used to remove a deeper sample of tissue. He stood up and crossed to a shoddy workbench, upon which laid a few meagre pieces of equipment.
‘Your “laboratory”?’ he asked. Desiato nodded.
He ejected the tissue sample onto a petri dish. ‘Pass me that skin layer, would you?’ he said. The captain did so. The Doctor placed the sample in the small microscope, and began examining.
‘Anything?’ asked the captain. The Doctor made a negative sort of noise. He removed the skin, and tweezed the tiny tissue sample into the microscope.
‘Ahh, ‘ he ahhed, looking through the eyepiece. ‘Look at this.’
Desiato stooped and looked through the lens. ‘What?’ he said, after a pause.
‘Really, I would have thought a little medical knowledge would be prerequisite for a starship captain. The cells are not normal. A very thin layer of the symbiotic tissue surrounds them. Its cell structure is very fine, if it has one. It must be permeable, to allow chemical transference. Excuse me.’ The Doctor jabbed Desiato’s neck with his photon knife. He loaded the captain’s tissue into the microscope. ‘If you see here, your tissue also features the substance.’ Desiato peered. ‘But compare it with the young gentlemen’s. In his body, the alien tissue has begun to break down. His body is rejecting it, which gives it the appearance of pathogen cells. Most of the colonist’s bodies aren’t – it probably filters out hazardous chemicals in the food and water to feed upon. That’s how it survives, in a symbiotic relationship with all other life.’
‘We discovered that in the indigenous life, but never thought to check ourselves.’
‘For some reason, those afflicted with this disease have started to reject it – and they’re being poisoned by whatever it usually filters out. You’re dependent on this life form, captain.’
‘But now it’s become hostile.’
‘Yes.’ The Doctor rubbed his head in thought again. ‘Someone has gained control over the being. How I don’t know.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Tell me,’ he said, ‘do any of your crew have telepathic abilities?’
The TARDIS shook violently from side to side as the creature began to draw it in. The ship’s occupants were thrown to the floor of the console room.
‘What’s happening?’ cried Caroline, crashing onto her side.
‘It’s the being,’ said Broon, panicking, ‘the creature that infests this planet. It’s devouring us!’ His green fur was standing on end around his neck.
‘How has it grown so much?’ said Hesper. ‘It never acted so quickly, even around the power sources from the pods.’
‘Probably because the TARDIS produces a lot of power,’ said Caroline. ‘It must have absorbed a lot more when the door opened.’
They struggled to their feet, the ship still rocking. Danny looked angrily at Hesper.
‘You knew this would happen!’ he shouted. ‘You tricked us into coming here so we’d be destroyed with our ship!’
‘Danny, don’t be ridiculous,’ chided Caroline.
‘You heard the way he was talking. He hates humans. He wants all of us dead.’
‘I admit I once had enmity for humans,’ said Hesper, ‘but, living here, I have grown past such bigotry. I certainly had no intention of harming you.’
‘He’s lying! He wants us to be destroyed.’
‘Danny, what’s gotten into you?’
Danny wasn’t listening any more. He’d stopped thinking properly – he’d made a judgment, and nothing would sway him. Their denials just made him angrier. The aggression that had begun to take hold of him recently was greater than ever before. He didn’t understand it. He didn’t understand anything any more. All he knew was the anger. He no longer cared what had caused it. Deep within his mind, a part of him watched, detached, terrified by the rage that what overwhelming him, unable to understand why it was there. It was as if a fist was squeezing his very mind, crushing it, breaking through, taking control. It was a pain unlike any he had known. A loss of self that he could not stop.
He launched himself at Hesper, knocking him to the ground, pounding him with the increased strength that only adrenaline can give. He tore at the green fur. Hesper flayed his arms, taken unawares by the ferocious attack. He quickly regained his strength, however, pushing Danny off of him, smashing him into the console room wall.
Danny grabbed him again, all thought lost save for the desire to hurt the Tarrokku. Even in his frenzied state, however, he could not match the strength of the alien, and was flung across the room, into the arms of the other Tarrokku, who pinned him to the floor. Hesper smacked him hard across the face. Caroline shrieked, and ran over to him.
Danny lay dazed on the floor. ‘Are you okay?’ she cried.
‘I… I don’t know,’ he stammered.
‘What the hell just happened to you?’
‘I don’t know,’ he said again. He really didn’t. What had just happened to him? He didn’t understand why he had, just for a moment, hated Hesper so badly. The anger had taken control; he hadn’t been Danny any more. He didn’t comprehend how the anger had controlled him. He felt frightened and ashamed. What was wrong with him?
‘I think we have more to worry about than your psychotic friend,’ said Hesper. Caroline looked behind her.
Through the tiny crack between the doors, the creature’s putty-like flesh was seeping in.
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