“If you cared about the children that much,” said Caroline, breaking the silence, “you wouldn’t have done this.”
Annie looked at Caroline and smiled. “Have any of the children been killed? Have any of them died?”
Caroline’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not the point.”
“No, it’s not,” said the Doctor quickly. He took a few steps towards Annie and Blackmore. “You don’t play with people’s lives. What about Hideo? What about Tointon? What are you going to do with him?”
“It’s necessary to complete the mission,” said Annie coldly. “In return for not harming the children, Doomclaw and the rest of them get the adults.”
“Including you?” asked the Doctor, looking down his nose at her.
“No, not including us,” said Blackmore. “We provide food for Doomclaw, they get us through the barrier and as a final payment from us they get back to their own world.”
“We don’t like living in this fake world,” growled Doomclaw. “We want to be in the cities again. Where we can live and feed.”
“Feed on your own kind?” said the Doctor darkly. “Because let’s face facts, you’re not going to be chomping on apples and oranges, are you?”
Blackmore rounded on the Doctor. “Surely you, of all people, wouldn’t want to deprive these creatures of their right to live in their own, real world? And, yes, before you say it, I do know about you. The man who travels through space and time putting right all the wrongs in the universe. Surely this is right up your street?”
The Doctor narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I agree that Doomclaw and his followers shouldn’t have been made to live separated from their own kind, but I also believe that the Trixatins needed to save themselves.”
“This is just natural progression. This is just the way of things.”
“Before long,” said Doomclaw, “they will all be like us. They will all want meat. It is the way of our kind.”
“Doomclaw,” said the Doctor, crossing over to the towering hound, “surely you must understand why I can’t support you in this?”
“I don’t care whether you support us or not, little man,” grinned Doomclaw. “It’s the way it is.”
The Doctor shook his head. “How do you hope to even get through that barrier?”
Annie walked back towards a bemused Tointon. “Pass me the device.”
Tointon opened up the large rucksack he had been holding and took out what looked like a gun. “I still don’t know how this can help anything, Miss Phipps.”
“Because,” said Annie, turning the barrel of the gun and adjusting a few small dials on the side, “this is going to blow a hole in their barrier.”
“A gun?” scoffed Caroline. “How can a gun help?”
“It’s not a gun,” sighed Blackmore. “It’s a focus ray for our deflector shields.”
“From the Pythagoras?”
“Yes. It generates the beam that projects the shields around the ship.” He turned and smiled at Caroline. “Just in case we were attacked…from the outside.”
Caroline looked at him with contempt.
“The Doctor knows how this will help,” said Blackmore as he removed a small tripod from Tointon’s rucksack.
The Doctor was looking glumly at the device. “If focused correctly and on the right frequency, the focus ray can rip a hole in their barrier. If focused enough it could completely destroy this environment.” The Doctor looked back at Blackmore. “But I really wouldn’t risk that.”
“Of course not,” said Annie. “We’re not about to risk our own necks. If we destroy this environment whilst we’re still in it, we’ll be torn to shreds.”
“This is madness,” said the Doctor. “Why would you even bother to do this?”
“To better the Human race,” said Blackmore. “For too long we’ve allowed ourselves to be invaded or enslaved or taken advantage of by alien forces. Well not any longer. That’s what the Eyeglass is there for. To make the Human race into something to be feared. I‘ve got nothing against aliens, but the Human race has weakened itself against them.”
The Doctor’s eyes darkened. “I’ve fought establishments like you before and I’ve always won. Look up Torchwood in your history books. They thought they could cut themselves off from the universe and take whatever they found as their own, but it backfired and they were taken down. By me.”
Blackmore laughed. “Don’t try and play games with me, Doctor. I know of Torchwood. We all know they didn’t completely fall. They survived in some form or another. And the Eyeglass, believe it or not, is just one of those forms. Torchwood living on through us.”
“But you’ve already made a number of flawed plans so far.”
“Oh,” said Blackmore, crossing over to the Doctor. “What flawed plans?”
“Like not getting rid of the Pythagoras’s hand weapons. If you’d have done that then you and Doomclaw could have overrun the ship and taken what you needed.”
“How many times do I have to tell you,” said Annie. “We don’t want to children harmed.”
Blackmore laughed. “And we’re certainly not going to let Doomclaw’s grunts in the ship.”
Doomclaw growled threateningly.
“There are lines that you have to draw. You have to take these things very delicately. If I had let the dogs onto the ship they would have taken and eaten everybody. Then where would my bargaining chips be?”
“But they wouldn’t have gotten in the barrier. So then what?”
“When faced with food these guys revert to their basic instincts. They wouldn’t have even cared about getting back to their proper world.”
Before the Doctor could say anything more Blackmore crossed over to the focus ray.
“Now, let’s blow a hole in this thing.”
Director Villa walked into the control room and found Haltrix hunched over a few computer monitors. They showed various energy waves and blurred images.
“What is it?” asked Villa. “You said it was urgent.”
“It is,” said Haltrix quietly. “There seems to be unusual energy readings in the wastelands.”
“The crashed ship, of course,” smiled Villa. “We’ll soon have the humans off the planet and away.”
“It’s not their ship,” he continued, flicking a few switches and looking at data readouts. “I’ve been monitoring their signals for days, now, and it’s not them. This is something different.”
Villa sighed and lowered her head. “We can’t risk opening the barrier again. Bringing those two in was foolish-”
“It was a necessity,” interrupted Haltrix. “They would have been killed out there. Maybe not the older man, but the female is just a child.”
“I know that,” hissed Villa, “but we only open up to put things out. Not to bring things in!”
“We need to send a team to investigate.”
“Absolutely not. Out of the question.”
“We don’t know what they’re doing out there.”
“They’re too stupid to do anything that could threaten us.”
“Are they?” asked Haltrix, turning to face Villa. “Are they really that stupid? Don’t mistake their savage ways for stupidity.”
Villa jabbed a finger towards her scientist. “You’re the one who did the research.”
“Yes, I was,” he replied, “but in our later cases I noticed that things weren’t always so clear cut. The patients craved meat. They were angry and vicious…but at the same time they seemed…I don’t know…intelligent.”
Villa laughed.
“It’s true. Even though they were trying to break free from their bonds. Even though they wanted to rip me to shreds and eat me…there was something clever and calculating about them. They always waited for the right moment to strike. I’m wondering if things are coming full circle with this disease.”
“What do you mean? That they’re becoming normal?”
“No,” said Haltrix sombrely. “I mean that maybe it’s possible for us to be cannibals and live how we are living now.”
Villa shook her head, half in disbelief.
“Director, this morning, whilst I was eating my fruit salad…I suddenly had a craving for meat.”
Villa simply stared at him.
“Of course, the feeling passed. But it was there none the less.”
“So you’re saying we should just give in to these thoughts?”
“No. I’m saying that if we don’t allow a team to go out there and deal with Doomclaw’s gang, we may find ourselves being overrun and every single one of us may become just like them. Masses can influence other masses.”
“I see.”
“But the real question is this: do we keep fighting against what could possible be our destiny, or do we give in and allow it to happen?”
The focus generator was now on full power. A beam of bright, white light was streaming from the device to an area which was now shimmering with light.
“How long before they know what we’re doing?” asked Doomclaw.
Blackmore was shielding his eyes from the light. “I suspect they already know we’re up to something.”
Caroline and the Doctor were at the back of the group being closely guarded by Jawlock.
Caroline leaned in to the Doctor. “Where’s Danny? They haven’t mentioned him.”
“I don’t know,” said the Doctor worriedly. “Perhaps he’s still at the ship with the children. Perhaps he’s escaped.”
“Should we ask?”
“No. We can’t risk drawing attention to him. If I know Danny, he’ll be keeping out of the way.”
Caroline looked up at the Doctor. “Why do you say that?”
The Doctor was about to speak but Caroline spoke again.
“Do you think he’s a coward? Just because of what happened with the Apparites?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then what? Because I’ve known him since I was a little girl and if there’s anyone out there I can trust, it’s Danny Lennon.”
The Doctor looked down at her sadly. “I’m sorry, Caroline. I just get so used to people wanting to come away on adventures with me.”
“But Danny chose to come with us. I came because I wanted answers. If there’s anyone who is a coward, it’s me.”
“Don’t be silly.”
“It’s true. I don’t want to be here. If I’m being honest, I’m scared out of my mind.”
The Doctor looked concerned.
“Danny was the one who wanted to come for the adventure. Just because he chose not to trek across the desert it doesn’t mean that he’s a coward.”
“Caroline-”
“I just want answers, Doctor. When we finally get off this god-awful planet, I want some answers.”
The Doctor put his hand on her shoulder. “Okay. I promise. We’ll find out all we can.”
There was a burst of energy from the shimmer and the dogs moved excitedly on the spot.
“Be warned,” said Doomclaw, “our cousins will be armed with weapons.”
“We’re not stupid,” said Blackmore. “We’re armed with you.”
Doomclaw smiled at Blackmore.
“We’re almost there,” said Annie.
Down at the fountain Danny, Alison and a group of Trixatins were looking across the square to the patch of air shimmering a few feet in the air.
“What is it?” asked Alison.
“It looks like what we came through,” said Danny. “That shimmer thing. Through the barrier.”
“Are they sending us out then?”
“I think it’s more likely that something’s trying to get in.”
Director Villa and Haltrix came running from the building, down the steps and to the front of the crowd that was gathering in the square.
“I told you they were up to something,” said Haltrix, his eyes transfixed on the shimmering air.
“Is there nothing we can do?”
“I’ve got engineers working on it now. It seems they’re using a deflector from the humans ship.”
Villa turned angrily on Danny. “Your kind are trying to break through with their technology.”
“Don’t be stupid,” snapped Danny. “Why would the teachers from the Pythagoras try and get through?”
“The savage ones don’t poses that kind of technology.”
“Clearly they do now,” said Haltrix quickly. “Perhaps they stole it from the crashed ship.”
“Not possible. If they did then they must have someone helping them,” said Villa, crossing towards the shimmering.
Now many of the other Trixatins were beginning to get restless.
Villa turned to face them. “Please, my friends, don’t concern yourselves with this. We have our best people working on the matter as we speak. It is merely a damage to the Shroud. It will be rectified.”
“They’re coming through, aren’t they?” asked one of the dogs in a red robe.
“Our lost cousins have no way of coming back,” smiled Villa.
“They’re coming back to punish us for banishing them,” said another dog.
“That is just pure silliness,” laughed Villa.
“Director, I really think we should get the security forces here,” said Haltrix nervously.
“Silence, Haltrix, I’m trying to ease our peoples concerns.”
“Those concerns are well founded,” said Haltrix in a hushed voice. “I’ve just received word from the engineers that they can’t stop it. It’s an outside force. We can only control what is done on the inside.”
Villa looked around nervously and then back to the shimmer.
“We need to defend ourselves if they come through. Doomclaw will attack and kill without mercy.”
Villa stood silent for a few seconds and then nodded at Haltrix. “Order the security forces to-”
There was a huge explosion from behind her and Villa was thrown forward into the crowd. There were screams all around and people began to run. Villa was bleeding from the side of her head, but she managed to turn herself onto her back and prop herself up her elbows. Haltrix, Danny and Alison were crouching down around her, checking to see if she was okay.
She waved them away and looked towards were the shimmer was. Now there was simply a large hole looking out to a desert landscape, and standing in the hole, making his way through, was the snarling, towering figure of Doomclaw.
“We’re through,” he growled as chaos erupted.
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