‘I believe that I can alter the… identity, for want of a better term… of the life form’s cells.’
‘How?’ said Caroline, who was rather eager for the Doctor to simply explain what he was doing.
‘Indeed Doctor,’ said Desiato, striding towards them, ‘please explain.’
‘All cells have a distinct chemical signature, that the immune system’s white blood cells detect. I think I’ve found a way to fool the white cells into thinking the alien tissue is part of the body’s own tissue. You see, the alien adapts to its environment, so if I chemically stimulate it correctly, its own chemical signature will alter. Et voila, Bingo’s your uncle.’
‘So can you try it out on the patients?’ asked Desiato.
‘Certainly, but it will take some time to take affect. This isn’t a quick fix.’
The three of them walked to the young blond man in the bed nearest.
‘As I examined this gentleman’s tissue, it seems best to begin the procedure on him. I already know the chemical signature of his blood.’ The Doctor performed a number of calculations on his homemade tricorder. He grabbed one of the nurses by the shoulder. ‘Could you make up twenty milligrams of this exact solution please?’
‘Sir?’ he said, looking at Desiato.
‘Go ahead. I believe we can trust the Doctor’s judgment.’
‘Don’t worry, lad,’ said the Doctor to the unconscious patient. ‘We’ll soon have you marching stiffly and blindly obeying orders again.’
The nurse returned with a syringe full of the substance. The Doctor took it from him.
‘Thank you. Here goes; my reputation put to the test.’ He injected into the patient’s left forearm. The Doctor studied the display on his gadget intently. ‘The symbiotic matter is altering… it’s matching with the blood signature… the antibody levels in the area are dropping.’ He straightened up, grinning with a mixture of relief and self-satisfaction. ‘Gentlemen, I believe we have a treatment.’
Two hours later, and the Doctor had, with the aid of the medical staff, synthesised compounds tailored to each of the patients’ biologies. All had been injected, and were beginning to show signs of improvement.
‘They’ll need to be treated in the same way at least once a day for several weeks,’ said the Doctor to Desiato. ‘Keep monitoring their progress and judge for yourselves when they’re ready to stop the treatment.’ He smiled. ‘I do enjoy a triumph. It must be my natural arrogance.’
‘Doctor,’ said the captain, ‘I realise I may have been unfairly harsh to you earlier, but I am deeply grateful for what you have done for us. If there is – ’
‘ – anything you could do for me in return?’ he finished. ‘Certainly, you can help me get my TARDIS
back before its swallowed for ever and I am marooned on this planet with you lot. If it’s not too much of an imposition.’
‘Certainly, Doctor. I’ll get some men together and we’ll join in your search. There are some caves towards the foot of the mountains that lead into the areas beneath us; they haven’t been explored far, but I’m sure what knowledge we have can help you.’
‘Thank you, Captain, it’s nice to get a little gratitude every once in a –’
There was an almighty thump on the wall of the building, the putty-like material deforming slightly under the force before returning to its original structure.
‘What now?’ complained Desiato.
The pair walked outside, to be greeted by what was clearly a brawl brewing. Seven Tarrokku stood, hackles raised, staring with undisguised hostility at three humans. Others were gathering to watch the fracas – the humans and Tarrokku divided roughly down the middle.
The tallest of the Tarrokku, standing at the front of the knot, was walking towards the humans, his yellow teeth bared like an angry dog’s. His body was poised in a predatory stance, muscles taut and ready to spring, arms raised slightly in preparation for combat.
Hesper approached from the crowd. He did not move to stop the approaching fight – he merely watched. There seemed to be, amongst the colonists, an air almost of resignation; as if to say: ‘This was going to happen eventually. Lets watch and see who comes out with the most interesting bruises.’
Caroline spoke: ‘Doctor, shouldn’t we do something? Couldn’t you step in, and stop this from breaking into a fight?’
‘A fight is going to happen, sooner or later. Tensions have built up to breaking point. It may as well happen now.’
The presence of the audience had, naturally, not gone unnoticed amongst the antagonistic groups. One of the humans, displaying the chimpanzee pack mentality, inevitably had to shout something out to appear the toughest.
‘What the cruk did you say about us, Green Gilbert?’ he bawled, using a traditional affront against non-human life forms.
The lead Tarrokku did not require a great deal of provocation.
‘I said it’s not surprising, sharing a planet with blood-thirsty animals like you lot.’
‘What’s not surprising?’ asked one of the onlookers.
Oh, dear, thought the Doctor. Someone’s joined in. Here it comes.
‘The murder,’ yelled another of the Tarrokku. ‘More of our people, viciously killed by you humans.’
‘A classic example of the disregard by Homo sapiens for higher species,’ said a smart-arse Tarrokku.
‘Only doing our job,’ said the lead human, ‘ridding the galaxy of bug-eyes.’
Then the fur flew.
Deep within the planet, the entity felt the anger and hatred rise in its partner, ready to be summoned.
The seven Tarrokku leapt at he humans, pinning them to the ground, landing sloppy, angry punches and violent hoofed kicks to their bodies. Three against seven, clearly being unfair, led several more humans to join in, launching themselves at the assailants and wrenching them off their fellows. Having extended the brawl, more individuals from both sides joined the throng. Those who entered to rescue their friends, or to attempt to break things up, were drawn into the melee as punches flew their way. Mutters of ‘Typical primates,’ and ‘bloody greenies,’ and suchlike were evident from the less physical of the company, serving only to aggravate those in the skirmish further.
‘That’s enough!’ shouted Desiato. He seized a small few of his crew from the throng, berating them.
‘How dare you behave like this? Do you want this society to collapse? As if we didn’t have enough problems without this.’ And so forth.
Hesper deep bellowing at his people went further to calm to fight, cutting through the noise it generated.
‘If you could discipline your crew a little, Captain,’ he began.
‘It was your own crew who started this damn thing,’ he replied.
‘Perhaps they had good reason to,’ the Tarrokku captain growled.
‘What exactly do you mean by that?’
Deprived of its only stabilising influences, the brawl continued in earnest.
‘That is ENOUGH!’ the Doctor shouted, his voice considerably louder than it appeared possible for a mere humanoid. ‘This hatred has continued long enough. You have lived together on this planet for five years. Look how much you have built – and now you throw it away for the sake of a fist-fight!’
The struggle had, astoundingly, dwindled to almost nothing.
‘What is wrong with you people?’ the Doctor bellowed, his face reddening. ‘Why can’t you just live together?’ He took a deep breath. ‘Are you nothing but animals, squabbling over territory?’
The last fighting pair, a Tarrokku holding a man stretched between his arms like an accordion, looked up to the Doctor, suddenly noticing the quiet. The Doctor simply stared around himself, looking at the masses before him, with undisguised contempt.
‘There is a serious threat to you on this world,’ he said, with more restraint. ‘Something that has been both feeding upon and sustaining the antagonism between your peoples. If we are to stop it, we need to work together. Fighting amongst yourselves will only help it destroy you more quickly.’
‘You are correct, Doctor,’ said Hesper. ‘However, the creature of which you speak has only killed Tarrokku; no humans have been harmed by it. I have also been led to believe that you yourself think a human is responsible for its actions. True?’
The Doctor’s resolve faded somewhat. ‘I do believe that to be the case, yes. However, whoever has been provoking the creature’s attacks will only be served by this hostility.’ He looked at the humans in the crowd, trying to isolate one who looked more hostile. He tried another tactic.
‘I believe that the one responsible for these attacks is here amongst us – and is simply provoking the rest of you into doing his dirty work. He wishes to put himself above the rest of you. He wants not only the extermination of the Tarrokku, but the satisfaction that he has bent you all to his whim.’
The crowd began to look around themselves with suspicion.
‘Furthermore, this individual is nothing more than a coward; afraid of those different to himself, and afraid to take action himself. Instead he uses an innocent alien to destroy those he fears. He is nothing more than your typical megalomaniac – convinced of his own importance, yet ultimately impotent. And against the combined might of us, he doesn’t stand a chance.’
‘Good speech, Doctor,’ said Caroline, sotto voce.
‘Well, Doctor,’ said Desiato, ‘you have certainly gained the attention of all those present. Do you, however, have any idea how to find the one who is causing the killings?’
‘To your left,’ said the Doctor.
To the left of Desiato, Walters was walking towards the Doctor, a childlike sneer on his face.
‘Very well, Doctor,’ he said, ‘here I am. If your little speech was designed to provoke me into revealing my guilt, then it worked perfectly. However, your idea that you can stop me is rather unfounded –’ he looked around at the crowd surrounding him, ‘and if you must insist on associating with these creatures, then I will simply have to dispose of the lot of you.’
The ground began to shake.
The planet being sensed its partner reach out in communion with it. It fed off the anger, channelling the hatred, and became ready for the attack.
The earth below was splitting. The alien grass was pushed aside as the soil bulged and ruptured, fragments of rock spat into the air by the force emerging from below. The ground tore open, a crevasse widening on either side of Walters, leaving him standing – isolated from the terrified crowd – on a trembling plinth of rock. A deep groaning rumble emanated from deep within the freshly created chasm, as the planet’s own defences turned to the offensive.
‘Everyone, back! Get as far away from the hole as you can!’ shouted the Doctor, knowing full well that retreat would buy only a little time for them all.
The ground continued to tremble as the vast grey mass of the creature squeezed out of the fissure, its body sloppily oozing out like wet mortar between bricks. It bulged upwards out of the gap, gradually wrenching itself out into the world. Its body stretched and distorted, mutating into the grotesque human parody that was its fighting form. Now, standing a good three feet above the tallest Tarrokku, the monstrosity stood like a putty-snowman, the folds of false flesh wobbling against its bulk.
It turned its malformed head at the Doctor, its tiny, sightless eyes staring at him.
With a deft swivel, the Doctor turned and ran.
‘Doctor!’ cried Caroline.
‘Don’t worry about him,’ said Danny, ‘I’m sure he’s got somewhere safe to hide.’
The golem lurched towards them, its arms outstretched and –
- walked right past them.
‘It’s after the Doctor,’ said Caroline. ‘While it’s chasing him, its not hurting anyone else.’
Walters turned to look at them, as if to say, ‘That’s what you think.’
Around them, the buildings, formed from the alien’s symbiotic tissue, began to distort and unentwine,
growing simple arms with misshapen fingers that reached out to them.
Arms and tendrils extended out, grabbing the colonists, ensconcing them. People screamed as limbs were snapped by the grasping tendrils. A fat tentacle smothered a Tarrokku, her legs twitching as she suffocated. A human was crushed as one of the smaller buildings lurched its entire bulk over on top of him.
‘He’s not just killing Tarrokku any more,’ muttered Caroline.
Desiato, meanwhile, had organised a small group of troops, armed with simple shears and scythes for work in the fields. They hacked away at the lurching monsters the buildings had become, slicing off tentacles and chunks of grasping flesh, but it was ultimately useless. One man hacked off two tentacles that went for him, only to find them growing back immediately and wrapping around his neck.
Caroline turned away, unable to watch any more. She was then pulled to the floor, a grey, twisting arm wrapped around her foot, dragging her to the now monstrous structure that had once served as the sickbay. What had once been a door was now a horrific, gnashing maw, and Caroline was being pulled towards it.
On the other side of the building, the Doctor was still on the run from the golem. Fortunately, the creature’s form was designed to smash and destroy, and it was having some trouble keeping up with him. He stopped at the hospital. The monster was a short way behind him, leaving him perhaps thirty seconds head start to do what he needed to do. He removed his photon knife from his inside pocket, adjusting the beam to produce a fiery red blade. It cut easily through the material of the building, scalding it badly enough to prevent regrowth long enough for him to enter. He clambered through the newly cut doorway, making for the workbench, which housed the chemical analysis equipment. He took out his homemade tricorder, studying the readings he’d serruptiously taken whilst Walters was ranting, and hurriedly began to mix the correct formula.
The monster lurched through the rip in the building. It approached the Doctor, as the walls around it began to close in, entwining with the creature. It reached out for him.
‘One moment please,’ said the Doctor, stirring furiously with a spatula. He rapidly loaded the mixture into a hypodermic, simultaneously ducking out the creature’s way as it lurched for him. He dashed for the door, which had now seemingly given way to some kind of approximation of a mouth. Slashing with his knife, he tore the mouth away from its moorings. He leapt through the collapsing wall, his photon knife now embedded in the alien’s flesh.
‘Hello Caroline,’ he said, as he landed in front of her. The monstrous arms relinquished their hold on her as the building collapsed in on itself.
‘Blast,’ said the Doctor, helping his companion to her feet, ‘I’ll never find another knife like that. How am I meant to make my neutronium sculptures now? The neutron star gosling will never be finished.’
What had once been the hospital had now coalesced into a quivering mass. It stretched itself out, developing into the golem that had formed part of it – now at least double its former size.
‘Doctor, I think we have more to worry about than that,’ said Caroline, as the creature lurched towards them.
‘Indeed,’ said the Doctor, as, whipping round, he threw the hypodermic at Walters. He shouted as it embedded in his arm, delivering its chemical load into his bloodstream.
‘Just what was that supposed to accomplish, Doctor?’ he sneered. ‘Oh, what the -’ he muttered, falling from his precarious perch, plummeting into the depths of the planet.
The golem stood over Caroline and the Doctor, its arms reaching towards them, and stopped, dead in its tracks. All around them, the carnage had ceased, the monstrous creatures that the settlement had become simply frozen in their positions.
‘What happened?’ said Danny, who had appeared along side the creature.
‘I tailored the treatment I had created to Walters’s biology. Only, this time, I altered the symbiotic tissue in such a way that it would be rejected by his immune system. It disrupted his hold on the creature, and severely weakened him to boot.’
Desiato finished untangling one of his fellows from a dead tentacle.
‘So he’s lost his power over the creature?’
‘Only temporarily. Now he’s down there,’ the Doctor nodded towards the fissure, ‘surrounded by the creature. Once he recovers, we’re in trouble again. We need to go down there and stop him once and for all.’
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