‘Let me go! He’s out to kill us! He’s leading us to our deaths!’
‘What he hell are you on about?’ said Caroline, whilst the men struggled.
‘Let him up,’ said the Doctor. Danny did so slowly, keeping a careful eye on the captain. The Doctor passed Desiato the gun.
‘Doctor, he just tried to kill you with that!’
‘Don’t worry Danny, the power supply ran out yesterday. I don’t think Captain Desiato was thinking straight. Were you, captain?’
Desiato seemed to regain some of his composure. ‘Sorry, Doctor, I don’t understand what I was thinking. For some reason…’
‘Walters is influencing your mind, captain. Breeding hatred in you, to use against us. You must control your thoughts. Can you do that, or do I have to send you back to the surface?’
‘I’ll be all right Doctor.’ Desiato struggled to keep his temper down, especially as the Doctor now seemed to be talking to him as if he were a schoolboy. The voice faded from his mind, and his thoughts began to order themselves once more.
‘Good.’ The Doctor resumed his march onwards. ‘The cavern opens up ahead. Follow me.’
Desiato, Caroline and Danny did as they were told. They trailed the Doctor into a vast expanse that seemed carved away from the rock. The grey gloop of the symbiote’s tissue spread over the contours of the cavern walls, thick, arterial tubes emerging from it. The vein-like protuberances ran over the rock face, converging on the far side of the cavern, some twenty metres away. As they met, they swelled into a large blob of matter, which convulsed and contracted with a steady rhythm.
‘It’s a heart,’ said Caroline.
‘I think you’re right,’ said the Doctor. ‘It must pump the symbiotic matter through the rock, right across the planet. It’s incredible.’
‘Indeed it is, Doctor,’ said a snide, superior voice from the roof of the cavern. They looked up. Walters was descending towards them, his feet supported by an entwined knot of grey tentacles.
‘You finally made it here,’ he sneered, coming to a gentle halt on the rock floor. ‘I was wondering how long it would take you. You’re not quite the prevailing hero you make yourself out to be, are you Doctor?’
‘I never claimed to be such.’
‘Oh, but that is the impression you give. Fighting the good fight, your trusty companions by your side. But you’re nothing really, are you? You’re half the man you were once.’
The Doctor looked angry and bewildered. ‘What do you mean by that...?’
‘Your hypothesis concerning my psychic abilities was very close to the truth, Doctor. However, you underestimated me. At this range, I no longer need the symbiote to be in your system in order to read and influence your mind. Its presence at this level boosts my power. I am surrounded by a living psychic amplifier.’
‘Still, it must have taken you time to break through my mind. I am a Time Lord, with the inherent strengths and defences.’
‘A Time Lord? You’re not even close to that any more. You‘re a failure. A broken and shattered man.’
‘Doctor?’ said Caroline. ‘What does he mean?’
‘Don’t listen to him, Caroline,’ warned the Doctor. ‘He’s just playing with us.’
‘And these kids you bring with you. They are nothing to you, really. You like humans for company, as inferior little pets - ’
‘That isn’t true. These people are my friends.’
‘You condescending freak!’ screamed Walters. ‘How can you lie to yourself even now?’
‘You’re lying. I know what you’re thinking. You’re like an open book to me now, all that anger flowing through you, it’s like a beacon. It illuminates your worst thoughts. Why should you be so angry? You should be proud to have Human beings as companions, despite how pathetic they are.’
‘Better that than an alien?’ shouted Desiato.
‘Ah, the monsters’ friend,’ said Walters, pursing his lips in a grotesque mockery of a kiss. ‘Let’s all be chums, Mister Alien, come and have a big friendly hug. You’re worse than him. You should know better.’
‘I have learnt to put aside my anger with the Tarrokku, to view them as equals. Why do you despise them so badly?’
‘They’re just animals, Desiato. Parodies of humanity.’
‘For someone who hates aliens, you hang around with some strange company,’ piped in Danny.
The grey glutinous mass quivered around him. ‘Such creatures have their uses – if they serve my purpose. I control this creature, it failed to control me.’ He looked curiously at Danny, as if he’d spotted a blemish on his face. ‘I didn’t focus on you before, so I didn’t see it. How strange. You’re less human than he is,’ he said, gesturing towards the Doctor. ‘There’s alien in you, isn’t there? Something truly alien. Something evil.’
‘Stay out of this.’ He looked defiantly at Walters. ‘I know you’re just messing with me. It was you who made me angry earlier, made me attack the Tarrokku in the ship.’
‘Oh no it wasn’t, young man. That was nothing to do with me.’
‘Why should we believe anything you say?’ said the Doctor.
‘Because I do not lie. I expose your inner truths, your real hatreds.’
‘Why have you turned on the humans?’
‘They fought against what they knew to be right. If they want to be friends with creatures, then they don’t deserve their humanity.’
‘You are insane, Walters, you really are. What’s your grand plan? Kill everyone on the planet and spend the rest of your life here alone, with only a blob for company?’
‘Actually Doctor, that is where you’re going to help me. You TARDIS is an excellent energy source for my pet, but I can’t pilot it. It won’t let me access any of its systems. I need you to help me.’
‘You must be joking. I’d sooner see the TARDIS dead than let you loose on the Universe.’
‘Trust me Doctor, when I’m through with you, you’ll do anything I tell you to do.’
A tentacle ripped out from the ceiling, lashing at Desiato, Caroline and Danny. They flew backwards, smacking into the rock wall. More tendrils followed, enmeshing and coagulating into a single impenetrable wall.
‘A little time alone I think, Doctor.’
Danny, Caroline and Desiato pounded against the wall of rock-like matter in a futile attempt to break through.
‘It’s no use,’ said Caroline, falling to her knees in resignation. ‘It won’t budge.’
‘There must be someway to break through,’ said Danny, digging his nails into the mass. ‘Can’t we prize the tentacles apart?’
‘No, it’s completely fused together,’ said Desiato. ‘If Walters is holding it together, there’s no way we can persuade to budge.’
Danny continued to claw at the wall, small fragments of grey tissue unpeeling, only for the face of the barrier to reform moments later. Still he continued, ripping a fingernail out as it embedded in the wall. He yelled at the sudden pain, slowing his efforts, but not stopping, and as he did so, he felt the anger swell up in him again.
‘So what now?’ goaded the Doctor, staring into the face of his adversary. ‘You offer me a share of the Universe if I let you into the TARDIS systems? You threaten my friends? You carry on with a bit of a gloat? Whatever you’re planning, I’ve seen and heard it all before. You won’t get me to help you.’
‘Doctor, I am fully aware of how stubborn you can be. I did consider bargains and threats, but I soon realised they would have little sway with you. So,’ he chuckled, ‘I thought I’d just rip the information from your mind.’
The Doctor felt a light penetrate his mind, heard a knife cutting into his brain, tasted a tear running from his eye as the pain increased. Walters was forcing his mind into the Doctor’s, and the Doctor could not resist.
‘Not quite the great mind you once were, are you Doctor?’
‘I may not be the man I once was,’ gasped the Doctor, desperately trying to fight the probe, ‘but at I am still a good man. Can you say the same? You despise monsters – but you are no more than a monster yourself!’
‘Be quiet, Doctor, I am fast running out of patience with you. Give me what I need.’
The Doctor screamed.
Danny saw through the wall.
‘He’s weaker. He’s using his power on the Doctor.’
‘What?’ said Caroline.
‘I can see what he’s doing. I don’t see how but I can. He’s attacking the Doctor, and I will stop him.’
Danny felt the anger rise inside him, and he let it out, channelling it forward into Walters’s own mind.
Walters felt the Doctor fighting back at him, at the same time Danny pushed his way in. He lost control of the symbiote, focussing his efforts on the Doctor.
Danny could feel the life form all around him, he could feel it’s basic mind yearning for instruction.
‘Leave,’ he told the part of it that formed the wall, and it shrivelled away, slithering into the darkness.
‘Danny, did you do that?’ asked Caroline, baffled.
‘I think so,’ he replied. ‘I don’t know how.’
‘Give me the TARDIS!’ cried Walters, and with that outburst, the huge, pumping heart behind him exploded, freeing the police box shaped craft.
‘Never!’ cried the Doctor. ‘Danny, whatever you’re doing, help me!’
Danny saw the symbiotes in Walters’s body. They cried out to him, abandoned by their master, needing someone to guide them. Danny told them what to do.
Walters collapsed to the ground, his eyes bulging.
‘What is happening?’ he whispered, before he fell forward.
‘Is he dead?’ asked Desiato.
‘Yes,’ said Danny. ‘He is.’
‘Danny, how did you do that?’ cried Caroline.
‘I’m not sure. Somehow I connected with Walters and I felt the symbiote’s tissue in his body. I told them to attack his cells. I think he died of shock.’
The Doctor got to his feet, sweat running down his head.
‘Thank you, Danny. I’m not sure how you did it, but thank you.’
The Doctor walked over to Desiato, putting a hand on his shoulder.
‘Thank you, Captain. I think we’ll be leaving now. I have no desire to stay here any longer.’
‘I can understand that, Doctor. But I do. I have a lot of work to do. Everyone here does. The creature will behave like it did before now, I take it?’
‘As far as I can tell, everything will be back to normal. As normal as it was, anyway. Do you need any help getting back to the surface?’
‘I’m sure I’ll manage. Thank you for your help, all of you.’
The trio bid their goodbyes, and climbed into the TARDIS.
‘Will the TARDIS work okay now,?’ asked Caroline.
The Doctor flicked a few switches. The console hummed into life.
‘The old girl’s got plenty of life left in her yet.’ He set a few more controls, and the central column began to rise and fall, the familiar groaning sound accompanying it.
‘Where are we going?’
‘Somewhere quiet, I think. I hope. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to bed. It’s been a very tiring day.’
‘I think I will to,’ said Danny. ‘I think I’d like to be on my own for a while.’
As they walked through the corridor to their respective rooms, the Doctor stopped Danny,
‘I don’t understand what happened today, and I don’t think you do either. But rest assured, we’ll get to the bottom of it. Don’t worry.’
The Doctor walked away, closing the door to his room behind him.
At the edge of his hearing, Danny thought he heard someone laugh.
THE END
Next time: The Vanishing Man
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