Putty Love, Chapter 8

‘I think,’ said the Doctor gingerly, ‘that I may have found the answer.’ He sat at the desk, deep in the analysis of the symbiotic tissue. He’d harvested further samples from the structure of the building around him, and had subjected them to every test that the equipment he possessed allowed.

‘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.’

Putty Love, Chapter 7

To the outside Universe, the Doctor was asleep. In truth, he was calculating biochemical equations and levels of symbiotic sub-cellular matter. He was crouched in a chair, his head between his knees.

‘Doctor?’ said Desiato, prodding him gently with an outstretched finger.

The Doctor looked up at the captain, his eyes sharp and piercing.

‘Crumpets,’ said the Doctor.

‘I don’t understand…’ said Desiato, giving the Doctor a suitably baffled look.

‘The symbiote’s bio-structure,’ the Doctor elucidated, ‘is a lot like a crumpet. It absorbs foreign materials, building them up inside, and using them as raw matter from which to produce more of itself.’ He seemed to think about it a little further. ‘A little like a crumpet sopping up butter, I thought, though it’s a strained analogy, now that I say it aloud.’

‘Doctor, there’s been another attack.’

‘Where? When?’ the Doctor leapt up.

‘On the edges of the crop fields, in the early hours of the morning. I think you should come and see…’

‘See what?’ said the Doctor, doubting it was anything comforting.

‘You’ll understand when you see it.’




The Doctor and Desiato walked out of the settlement, towards the fields. Over the bank of the silver, shimmering river, stood a wall of seven-foot tall blue crops, their sturdy branches twisting around each other, forming a single vast barrier. A pathway had been hacked through their solid, almost military unity. Desiato led the Doctor along the path. They strode along the rough soil, surrounded by the towering plants, tough, leathery leaves whipping their faces. The Doctor had to tug his coat off the boughs on which it snagged several times, tutting with irritation as he walked. Quite suddenly, the crops ceased, the tangle of leaves and branches opening into a wide, sparse field. And that is when the Doctor saw it. Even he, who had seen many horrors in his time, felt a wave of nausea roll over him. He clamped his hand to his mouth as he looked at it.

The Doctor concluded five Tarrokku were in the field, but only by counting their heads. Tufts of green fur lay around the corpses, their limbs twisted into sickening shapes. Deep maroon blood stained the soil. Bones poked through flesh, their sharp, broken edges tearing through the tough skin. One of the Tarrokku’s arms – lying some distance away from the rest of the remains – was still clutching a makeshift hoe, raised in a futile attempt at defiance.

‘An act of pure hatred,’ whispered the Doctor, truly horrified.

‘Doctor?’ said Desiato, not quite hearing him.

‘Whoever is controlling the creature is motivated by a burning hatred of the Tarrokku. Surely you cannot think otherwise after seeing this?’

‘No, Doctor, I cannot. I also cannot see how we can stop someone who has control of a life form capable of such destruction.’

The Doctor turned away from the carnage, unable to look at it any longer.

‘In my travels through space and time, I have seen things you would not believe. I have seen beauty so breathtaking I could scarcely blink for fear of missing the tiniest second of it. I have also seen terror and despair, destruction on scales that would appal the most cruel and uncaring of individuals. I have seen things that have made me give up all hope. And I have seen triumph. I have seen the repressed fighting back; I have seen the weak and helpless find the strength to overcome those who would destroy them. I know we will stop whomever is behind this slaughter before he can continue.’

‘We should bury the bodies,’ said Desiato. ‘Once we’ve, uh, sorted them into individuals. The Tarrokku don’t place any spiritual importance on the body; a ceremony will be held to commemorate them when we go back.’

‘Did any of them have family here?’ asked the Doctor.

‘Tau and Reta were brothers. Other than that, no. But we all consider ourselves as part of the same family, in a way. At least, some of us do. It’s clear that others don’t.’

The Doctor picked up a spade that lay on the ground, its handle twisted; presumably an attempt had been made to use it for defence. He started digging.




The Doctor and Desiato trudged back into the settlement in silence, dust and dirt caking their clothes.

Danny and Caroline ran up to him. The Doctor saw the anxiety and fear in their eyes.

‘What’s happened?’ he grabbed Caroline by the shoulders.

‘The alien thing,’ she gasped, ‘it killed one of Hesper’s people, and then, then…’

‘Then it swallowed the TARDIS,’ said Danny.

‘It did what?’ shouted the Doctor. ‘How did this happen?’

‘It forced its way in, and started feeding off the stone eye,’ said Caroline.

‘It fed off the Eye? How? It must be draining energy via the Eye from the TARDIS energy banks – this is very serious. And you say it swallowed the TARDIS?’

‘It sucked it underground. We used an escape pod to get out.’

‘More of an escape fridge, really,’ said Danny.

‘Well, at least you’re safe. The TARDIS, however, may not be so lucky. If we can’t find it soon, it may be totally drained of power. And then we won’t be going anywhere.’ The Doctor grabbed the bag out of Caroline’s hands. ‘At least you found my medical equipment. If I can find a way to neutralise the symbiotic tissue, I may be able to help those who are dying from its effects – or lack thereof – and find a way to free the TARDIS. Perhaps I can even find a way of stopping the golem creature that has been attacking the Tarrokku.’

The Doctor dashed sideways and ran towards the ‘hospital’. Caroline and Danny darted after him. When they entered the building, the Doctor was already sitting at the makeshift medical desk, unloading various gizmos from his medical bag. He removed the sliver of flesh from under the microscope and loaded into a small perspex sample box. He activated a small black box from his bag, which immediately sprung into life, lights flickering on its display.

‘What’s that Doctor?’ asked Danny. ‘It looks like a tricorder out of Star Trek.’

‘Yes,’ said the Doctor. ‘Well, I saw the programme from time to time when it was first broadcast, and I thought to myself what a good idea it was. I decided to build one for myself, but I didn’t have the components for a long time. But recently I got the chance to put one together, and I think it works rather well.’

He loaded the sample box into the front of the machine, which flickered as it analysed the structure. The Doctor stood up and walked over to the various patients suffering from the disease, scanning them with his gadget. He nodded thoughtfully, and began to scan the various nurses who were caring for the patients.

‘Do you mind,’ said one middle-aged woman, who was recording the temperature of one of the sick.

‘Not at all,’ said the Doctor absently, continuing his readings. ‘Carry on.’

She returned, irritated, to her work.

‘Aha!’ cried the Doctor, causing the nurse to jump a short distance into the air and drop her equipment.

‘What Doctor?’ asked Caroline.

‘It’s just as I thought. The cells of most of the humans on this planet are ensconced in the symbiote’s tissue, but the sick cells are not – they’ve fought the symbiote as if it were a pathogen.’

‘I thought it was a pathogen causing the illness.’

‘No that’s what the colonists believed, although – of course! It makes perfect sense now.’

Caroline waited for several seconds, before, sighing deeply, asking ‘What does, Doctor?’

‘Hhm? Oh, yes, well, there must have been a pathogen to start with – some organism that was capable of penetrating the symbiote’s defences, probably with the help of its own symbiotic tissue. The bodies of the infected could have adapted to fight it off, like any other infection, and that would have been fine if it had stopped. The problem arose because the immune system now identified the symbiotic tissue as a threatening foreign body. The bodies of the sick still need the life form to survive prolonged exposure to this environment, but now they’re fighting it off.’

The Doctor was becoming over-excited, as he often did when he’d come to some intriguing conclusion. Caroline decided to bring him back down to Earth a little – his ego did sometimes get the better of him.

‘So Doctor, just how do we help them now?’

‘Ah, well you see, all we need do is convince their immune systems that the symbiote is not a threat. Oh. I see what you mean. That will be difficult.’ The Doctor looked rather smaller than had done moments before. ‘I’m sure I’ll come up with something.’




The planet was infused with the life form. It spread through the rocks, assimilated microbes, entered plants and assisted animals. It helped the other life on the planet live together – in many ways, it was the planet. In return for maintaining the ecosystem, its own system was cleansed and nourished by the other life on the world. It had existed like this for millions of years, unchanging as the other life of the world evolved and adapted. For all this time it had existed, but had been unaware of its existence – it neither thought, nor felt, it simply lived. Now, however, things were slightly different.




Life forms had arrived on the planet from somewhere else. This had never happened before. It sensed their arrival, as it would sense any other life form in its aegis, entering and absorbing them, as they became part of its world. For a time, this was good. As part of the great entity, they thrived, a new harmony created between them. Then, after some time, one of the creatures contacted him. It had not meant to, but its emotions had overcome its mind and reached out. Now, for the first time, the planet life form felt thought, and assimilated it into its system. In return, those parts of it touched by thought belonged to the creature. It was a new level of cooperation. The two life forms’ influence on each other grew, and for the first time, the world felt anger. And it was good.




The world being started aping the form of its new benefactor, to better express its rage. For the first time, it had become violent, and its growing self-awareness allowed it to relish the experience. As it grew stronger, it had also grown hungrier. It had lacked the energy to act in great force, until another group of life forms arrived on the surface; one of the beings, that carried the others within itself, was a source of tremendous energy; the world being, in another change of behaviour, turned predatory. Part of it was no longer acting in symbiosis, but as a parasite, and as it fed, its strength grew. As did its anger.




Under the surface of the planet, the TARDIS stood, alone, the alien infesting its structure draining its energy. It needed the Doctor. But the Doctor could not hear its cries.

Putty Love, Chapter 6

‘Telepathic?’ said Desiato. ‘Some of them do have basic ESP – Walters, Mendez, Puri. It’s routinely tested in the fleet, but none of them have ever shown any great psychic skill.’

‘Perhaps not,’ said the Doctor, getting to his feet. ‘However, what if the presence of the alien organism in their cells has created a bond between them? A psychic link, if you will? One of your crew could be telepathically controlling the life form – perhaps consciously, perhaps instinctively, but controlling it either way.’

‘Why one of my crew? Why not one of Hesper’s?’

‘The creature took on a humanoid form. To me that suggests a human master.’

‘The Tarrokku are humanoid, Doctor.’

‘But recognisably alien, captain, don’t you see? The creature formed itself into an almost human shape, and was acting out the will of its master. It’s a kind of puppet, or golem.’ The Doctor looked pleased with his deduction.

Desiato snorted derisively. ‘You’re grasping at straws, Doctor. You have no more idea about what this creature truly is than I do.’

‘You aren’t willing to accept the truth!’

‘Not the truth, Doctor, your theory.’

The Doctor sighed. ‘Well, I suppose I could be mistaken. It has been known to happen. From time to time.’ He sat back down. ‘Whatever is causing the golem’s attacks, it appears to have stopped for now. I hope my friends get back soon with my equipment. Then maybe I can find out what is causing the symbiotic organism’s breakdown.’




The alien matter was oozing its way through the crack between the TARDIS doors. It glistened as it seeped through, spreading further into the console room. The normally stone grey floor was becoming enveloped by the grey mass, expanding through the room with at a terrifying rate.

‘I think we should get away from here,’ said Hesper.

‘I agree,’ said Caroline.

As one, the five of them swivelled on their heals (or hooves, in the cases of the Tarrokku) and bolted for the rear door of the room. Glancing behind him, Broon saw the monstrous mass expanding, stretching tendrils out towards them. He thought, for a moment, that he could see a face forming in the mass, but such concerns were driven from his mind as the tentacles wrapped around his body.

‘Help!’ he bellowed, as the writhing entity lifted him off his feet, dragging him towards the main body.

‘Broon!’ cried Hesper, in the futile way that people have when unable to act. He and Romat bolted to help their comrade, but they were too late. The tentacles were tightening around his body. There was an audible cracking, as his ribs snapped under the strain. He grunted in pain, unable to cry out as his lungs were crushed. The cracking became crunching as Broon’s body was wrung beyond tolerance. He died,

suspended in the air by the creature’s tentacles, which dropped him, unceremoniously, to the floor.

For a moment, none of the TARDIS’ occupants could speak. Hesper was the first to regain a hold of him.

‘We have to escape form this ship. Is there an emergency exit? An escape pod?’

‘Er, yes, yes, I think so,’ stuttered Caroline, still shocked by what she had just seen. ‘Yes,’ she said, more resolutely, ‘the Doctor showed it to us.’

The four of them hurriedly left the console room, the thrashing heap of tentacles following them. Danny grabbed the food supplies and closed and locked the door.

‘I doubt that will hold it for long,’ he said, ‘we have to get out of here. Do you remember the way to the escape pod?’

‘Yes,’ said Caroline. ‘I think so,’ she added under her breath.

They followed her down the corridor. It was much like the console room, gently illuminated roundels on white walls. It opened into a vast chamber, quite unlike the console room: ancient, baroque pillars surrounded a central well, inside which a single huge stone sphere lay. The room stretched away and upwards into shadow, giving a sense of unlimited volume.

‘Where are we?’ asked Hesper.

‘The Cloister Room,’ said Caroline. ‘I think it’s sort of like the engine room.’

‘Then this is where the creature will be heading.’

‘For the power,’ realised Caroline.

‘Where is the escape pod?’ asked Romat.

‘Through here,’ said Caroline, leading them across the room to an archway that lead to another corridor. Behind them, with a moist thud, a vast chunk of the alien matter burst into the room, sprouting tentacles that reached hungrily towards the stone sphere that enclosed the power supply.

‘Run!’ yelled Danny, somewhat redundantly, for the others had already broken into a sprint towards the exit.

They hurried down the corridor. It appeared constructed from ruddy stonework, quite like the console room. It stretched onwards into darkness. As the two humans and two Tarrokku ran, they passed all manner of oddities – a human skeleton, propped up on a stand and sporting sunglasses and a cigar; a sundial, illuminated by an unknown light source to read four o’clock; a bookshelf, stacked with tomes in unknown languages marked the corner where the passage veered right.

Danny ran directly into it, knocking books flying, and himself falling flat on his backside. With a comedy flourish, a large, leather-bound volume landed on his head with a thump.

‘Danny!’ cried Caroline, turning back to help him.

‘Is he injured?’ asked Hesper, in a voice that conveyed little care or concern.

‘I’m fine,’ replied Danny, grumpily. He lifted off the book that was now perched on his head. ‘Xtineyuuu Aff Innmmmtrelx’ it read, which Danny had no idea how to pronounce. ‘Looks like a good read,’ he quipped, as Caroline helped him up.

‘It looks like the creature has stopped pursuing us now that its found its power source,’ said Hesper, ‘but we still need to find our way out of here.’

‘Yes,’ said Caroline, vaguely, looking at one of the books. ‘The Book of Lies,’ she read from the blackened cover. ‘Oh, it’s through here,’ she said, snapping to attention. She led them through one of the old oak doors that lined this stretch of corridor.

‘Caroline, this is a kitchen,’ said Danny.

‘This is where he said it was. He showed us through this door. Don’t you remember?’

‘I don’t know which door he showed us through, but I’m sure he didn’t take us to the kitchen.’

She looked across the array of ovens, utensils and spice racks.

‘The Doctor said it periodically camouflages itself. He said we have to looked for an ‘E’ symbol, and that will be the escape pod.’

‘All right,’ said Danny sceptically, as he began to search.

The four of them overturned pots and pans, scanned doorways, opened ovens and even searched the sinks. Eventually Danny found what they were looking for.

‘It’s over here,’ he called. The others crossed the enormous kitchen to where he was standing. In front of him, in the corner of the room, was a six-foot tall white refrigerator with a pink capital ‘E’ imprinted upon its door.

‘It’s the fridge,’ he said.

‘I honestly don’t know who’s worse,’ said Caroline, ‘the Doctor or his ship.’

A sudden violent tremor knocked them to their knees. Various utensils and containers fell to the floor.

‘It would seem that the creature is becoming active again,’ said Hesper.

‘We’d better get out of here then,’ said Danny, getting to his feet.

He reached out for the stainless steel handle of the fridge. He pulled firmly. With a soft hiss, the door opened. The four of them peered inside.

Inside the fridge was a luxuriously furnished room. Three sofas and a bed, upholstered in aged brown leather, surrounded a beautifully woven rug of eastern design. In one corner of the room (which was at least ten times as large as the interior of the fridge should have been) there was a mahogany chair and bureau. On the opposite wall, a blank screen was draped with golden curtains. A teapot and six teacups with saucers sat on an elegantly carved table in the room’s centre.

‘Well, it’s a very nice escape pod,’ said Caroline.

‘It’s nicer than anywhere in the TARDIS I’ve seen,’ said Danny.

The four of them went inside. The door closed itself behind them – on this side it resembled an ancient submarine airlock, with a large, steel wheel serving as its opening mechanism.

Hesper and Romat sat down on one of the sofas.

‘It’s very comfy,’ said Romat, who up to this point had had little to say.

Danny picked up the teapot.

‘It’s warm,’ he said. ‘How? No body’s been in here – not since we started travelling with the Doctor.’

Caroline shrugged, and walked over to the bureau. She carefully opened it, swinging the wooden flap down. She sat down in front of it. Inside was a complex array of controls that appeared similar to those on the TARDIS console.

‘I’ve found the controls,’ she said, ‘but I don’t know how to use them.’

Danny walked over and gave the levers and dials a discerning examination. Then he thumped the thing. The screen opposite, and its smaller twin in the bureau flickered into life.

He shrugged off Caroline’s look. ‘It works for the Doctor,’ he said.

The screen rather unhelpfully informed them that an unknown hostile was entering the TARDIS, and requested if evacuation procedures should begin.

‘How do we work this?’ said Caroline in a nervous tone.

Hesper looked over her shoulder, startling her. He stooped close enough for his green moustache to brush the controls.

‘Although this is not a Tarrokku vessel, the control configurations do not seem entirely alien. I believe that this should be the launching mechanism.’

He reached over and pulled the big red lever at the edge of the controls.

‘Of course,’ said Danny, ‘it’s always the big red one.’

The room shuddered, and a momentary alarm gripped all four passengers, before they realised it was the launching process starting. A quiet hum emanated from the foundations of the pod, and a whirring noise, not unlike that of the TARDIS’ own engines, resounded throughout.

Caroline looked over at the centre of the room. She wasn’t even surprised to see the coffee table moving up and down.

Almost as soon as it started, the whirring stopped.

‘It doesn’t sound as though we’ve travelled far,’ she said.

Danny walked over to the door, and began turning the wheel. With the same sighing hiss, the door swung open.

He looked out. He saw the TARDIS, ensconced in grey biomatter, a few metres away.

‘We’ve landed in practically the same place,’ he complained.

‘Presumably we are at a safe distance,’ suggested Hesper.

The four occupants left the pod, the exterior of which was still distinctly fridgey in design. With a groan, the pod faded away, returning to the TARDIS.

‘Why has it gone?’ asked Danny.

‘Perhaps the power drain has affected it. Maybe it can’t stay outside the TARDIS for very long,’ said Caroline.

They watched as the TARDIS began to sink, the grey tentacles pulling it down into the earth. It descended with an unpleasant creaking sound, as the soil move aside to allow it passage. The grey monstrosity slithered over the top, and as the roof-light disappeared from view, it plugged the newly formed gap, seemingly as if it were bare rock.

They stared, dumbfounded, for a moment.

‘We’d better get back to the Doctor,’ said Danny. ‘Have you still got some supplies?’

Caroline held up the small bag she had managed to keep a hold of during the commotion. Danny held up his own bag.

‘Good. I’ve still got some food in here. That should lighten the Doctor’s mood after we tell him that his ship has been eaten by a space monster.’

Putty Love, Chapter 5

The Doctor took a step back and viewed the slowly calming mayhem. The colonists were beginning to cease panicking. It’s hardly surprising, he thought, that they should react so excessively; they had, after all, been living a very quiet life since their arrival. Other than the strange disease that had started to spread, of course. The Doctor rubbed his bald head in thought. They were surely connected. This wasn’t Earth; inexplicable events weren’t so common on planets so under populated.

‘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.

Putty Love, Chapter 4

The Doctor scrambled back from the widening rift. It creaked horribly, the rocks beneath audibly making way for the creature that was forcing its way to the surface. A stubby tendril protruded from the fissure, sliding its way out onto the ground. It slowly began to stretch, increasing in height and width, splitting four ways to grow more appendages.

The Doctor turned to Desiato.

‘Where did that weapon come from?’ he asked.

‘I’ve kept it in my pocket since we jumped ship. The power supply’s nearly run down – it doesn’t have nuclear batteries like the escape pod components. I don’t know if it will be effective against the creature again.’

‘Typical,’ sighed the Doctor. ‘Still, that’s the folly of putting your faith in weapons. They never help in the end.’

‘I’ll have you know that this blaster sent many alien marauders to the grave in its time.’

The Doctor turned on Desiato, facing him squarely in the eye.

‘As an alien myself, that remark pains me greatly.’

‘Doctor, I can see you’re as human as I am.’

‘Looks can be extremely deceiving. But we can’t argue about that now. We have somewhat more pressing matters in hand.’

Never a truer word had he spoken. The underdeveloped creature had now formed into a rudimentary humanoid shape, almost embryonic in its morphology. It stretched to its not inconsiderable full height; raising its overlarge head and staring at the panic around it with two empty eyes. It was quite hideous, a grotesque grey parody of a baby, its glistening mud-like body matter hanging like rolls of puppy fat on its body.

‘What the hell is that thing?!’ gasped Huhrun, joining Desiato’s side.

‘It’s a threat,’ he said. The captain turned to the frightened colonists. ‘Have you forgotten your training?’ he yelled. ‘This is an alien enemy. We have all fought creatures new to us, have we not?’

‘Actually,’ said a Tarrokku, gingerly, ‘we just fought your lot.’ He had the decency to look embarrassed when Desiato glared at him.

‘It always comes back to that,’ muttered the Doctor.

‘Get the wounded inside,’ said Huhrun. ‘Walters, Ahgus, Mendez, organise the personnel. We need to tackle this creature.’

Ahgus, a burly Tarrokku, and Mendez, a young dark-skinned man, immediately began to rally their fellows. The Doctor noticed that both tried to gather members of their own species first. A natural reaction, he supposed.

‘So, Doctor, how do we tackle this creature?’ said Huhrun.

The monster bellowed, charging at Huhrun. He dodged it, but the creature was surprisingly agile, and turned quickly, grasping Huhrun by the throat.

There was a loud, sickening snap.

Huhrun slumped in the monster’s grip. The beast dropped him onto the ground.

‘My God,’ exclaimed Desiato. ‘How do we stop this thing?’

‘I don’t know,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’m sorry.’

Desiato noticed that Walters was still standing, watching the monster, as it pounced at the battle ready troops. Some stood their ground, most scattered.

‘Walters, don’t stand there watching, do something!’ ordered Desiato, although what could be done he didn’t know.

Walters looked at his captain, suddenly alert.

‘Sorry, sir?’

The creature stopped moving. It looked back at where it had sprung from, as if unsure what to do. It then approached the three of them. Walters looked terrified.

The creature bolted for the fracture, its body losing cohesion, flowing forward into the crack, sealing it behind it. It hardened into rock.

‘Opinions, anyone?’ said Desiato.




The five travellers reached the TARDIS at long last.

‘This is your ship?’ said the Hesper.

‘Yes,’ said Caroline. ‘What you see here is its plasmic shell, which forms an interface between the ‘real’ Universe, and the micro-universe within, which is larger than the exterior dimensions would suggest due to it’s being dimensionally transcendental.’ She was rather pleased with that, even though she didn’t really know what the Doctor had meant when he’d told her.

‘Oh,’ said Hesper. ‘I see you’ve already got some gunk growing on it.’

Caroline and Danny looked down. There was indeed some of the grey substance creeping up the sides.

‘It’s attracted to power sources. I’m not surprised its after your ship.’

‘Do you think it’s safe to go in?’ said Danny, eyeing the substance warily.

‘I don’t think we have much choice,’ said Caroline.

‘Indeed we don’t,’ said Hesper. ‘We need food and medical equipment. If you have it in there, we’re going in.’

‘Okay,’ said Caroline, taking the key out of her pocket. She slid it into the lock, and pushed the door hard. It opened with little complaint. She stepped in.

The others followed her in.

‘This is the console room,’ she said. ‘Christ, I sound like the Doctor.’

‘Come with me,’ Danny said to the three Tarrokku who’d been following Hesper. ‘We’ll gather some food.’ He left through the main door at the back of the console room.

Caroline squatted down, ducking under the projecting dais of the console. She opened a small cupboard in the stem of the device.

‘We have medical supplies in here,’ she said. ‘The Doctor will probably want some of his laboratory equipment to.’ She stood up and passed a green medical kit box to Hesper, then left through a small side door. He followed her into the laboratory, a medium sized room utterly full with bizarre looking equipment. Huge arrays of tubes wound around the room, linking flasks of chemicals on several tables. Computer screens from various eras displayed reams of unintelligible data. Stained, empty teacups sat strewn about the place. A yellow-white skull, human looking but for the curved horns that sprouted from its forehead, lay on one desk.

‘Does he use this for dissection?’ queried Hesper, looking with alarm at a large microscope from which sprung various blades and syringes.

‘That was part of his experiment to find out how they put the sherbet into sherbet lemons,’ said Caroline. ‘Don’t ask me,’ she said when Hesper gave her a quizzical look, which she didn’t realise was because he didn’t know what sherbet lemons were.

Caroline gathered some pieces of equipment, and placed them carefully into a leather bound briefcase.

‘The Doctor explained to me that these were used for chemical analysis,’ she said. ‘I’ll expect they’ll be useful.’

They returned to the console room, meeting Danny and his friends carrying bags full of food.

‘Ready to go?’ asked Danny. Caroline nodded.

The TARDIS jolted violently.

‘What’s happening?’ cried Caroline.

Danny pulled the door lever. The doors opened, to reveal a vast mass of grey mucilage climbing the outside of the TARDIS. Danny closed the doors quickly.

‘That thing’s swallowing us. We’re trapped in here!’

Putty Love, Chapter 3

The Doctor exited the hall with his Caroline, Danny, Desiato and Hesper. They walked further into the settlement.

‘This is our – well, hospital is an exaggeration, it’s a medical centre of sorts.’ Desiato stopped at another of the twisted, grey structures, this one ballooning outwards to form an oblong shape. ‘We care for those afflicted by the disease as best we can. But all we can feed them are the crops we grow here, and much of that seems to be infected. We’ve destroyed all the crops we have identified as supporting the pathogen, but more cases turn up. It must be spreading through the whole farming system.’ He sighed, a deep and angry sound. ‘It does have a certain irony, I suppose. We land on a planet that supports more food than our population needs, and it turns out to be fatal to us!’

‘Fatal?’ said the Doctor. ‘How many have died from this?’

‘Three,’ said Hesper. ‘Martins, Atkinson and Yono. All within the last two months. The symptoms progress at different rates in different individuals.’

They entered the enclosure.

Inside were nine humans, lying in beds that appeared quite out of place – rickety, grey plastic affairs, presumably cobbled together from parts of the escape pod. All the patients were deathly pale, their eyes rimmed red, lips swollen and cracked. None of them had their eyes open. From the harsh, rasping sound they made, it was clearly a struggle for them just to breathe. Some of them sported pinkish swellings on their flesh.

Caroline held back a surge of bile in her throat. She couldn’t help but be reminded of a documentary she had once seen on the television back home – it had featured a reconstruction of a medieval plague house, filled with dying peasants. This was just like it – except that these were no actors. They were real people, dying.

The Doctor gingerly walked up to one of them. He crouched beside the girl, took her hand in his. ‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘We’re here to help.’ His voice was calm, soft and soothing, almost a whisper, quite unlike his usual boisterous exclamations.

Danny looked at the girl. She was gaunt, her hair straggly, her skin like that of a cadaver. He couldn’t help notice how pretty she would have been – should have been.

‘It’s no use, Doctor,’ came Hesper’s bass voice, breaking the peace that had ensconced the room. ‘She’s insensible. They all are.’

He looked round at Caroline and Danny.

‘I’d like you two to head back to the TARDIS. Pick up a medical kit – I’d like to do an analysis of this pathogen. And get some food, as much as you can carry.’

‘Okay,’ said Danny. He didn’t much feel like arguing any more.




Danny and Caroline trudged back to the TARDIS, accompanied by Hesper, and two Tarrokku whom he had assigned to help collect supplies.

‘Which one’s which again?’ asked Danny under his breath.

Caroline rolled her eyes. ‘Romat is the dark, muscly one and Broon is the small, stocky one with the reedy voice.’

‘Right.’ I can’t help it, said Danny to himself. I’m only human; they all look pretty much the same to me.

‘So,’ said Caroline, eager to move on to something new in case the Tarrokku were offended. ‘Tell me about your world. What is it called again?’

Hesper cleared his throat, an oddly human gesture.

‘Tarrokk. It’s the fourth planet orbiting an orange dwarf star in the Pylea Sector.’

‘What’s it like?’

Hesper sighed. ‘It is truly beautiful. It’s surrounded by vast, blue rings, that span the night and day sky shining down a soft glow onto the land. There are vast mountain ranges that cover the world. Once every year, the people of my village head into the mountains nearby, on a pilgrimage to the highest plateau. All of us sit up there, watching the star set until, when the darkness comes, the rings are pushed by the magnetic winds of our sister planet and come into alignment with us. The sky is set ablaze by the vast band of azure for three days, giving extra life to our crops in time for harvest, and we feast and drink and sing.’

‘It sounds wonderful’

‘It is.’ He sighed again, deeper and far more melancholy this time. ‘I haven’t seen it in seven years.’

‘Why did you go to war with the Earth?’ asked Caroline.

‘The Earth went to war with us. We just wanted to be left alone. We were happy on our planet. But then Terran ships came. They landed on our world, claiming to be a peaceful delegation. We welcomed them to start with, not wanting to encourage enmity. But more ships came, and we realised that peace was not their way. They claimed Tarrokk for the Earth Empire, told us that we could continue to coexist if we gave them sovereign rights to our resources.’ Hesper’s muscular lips twisted in hatred. ‘Their arrogance caused the war. They truly believe that they have the right to take whatever they want from the Universe. “The inevitable cost of expansion” they called it. They apologised to our people, but when we cried out against them, they began to slaughter us, destroy our cities. We forced them off our planet, and the war continued in space. We were slowly driving them away during my last battle. Then we were brought here.’

‘Hesper, I’m sorry,’ said Caroline, realising that it was a somewhat redundant remark. ‘I had no idea…’

‘How can you have no idea what your people are doing in the galaxy?’

‘I… I don’t understand…’

‘The Earth Empire has swarmed across the galaxy, attacking, conquering, destroying. You must know what they have been doing in the name of your planet. Then there are your little establishments that pinch and take technology for their own.’

‘We’re not from around here,’ said Danny, butting in. ‘We know nothing about the wars. It’s nothing to do with us. We’re trying to help. Perhaps we shouldn’t bother.’

Hesper seemed to take control of himself once more. He looked away from the pair of them.

‘I apologise,’ he said. ‘I realise the war was nothing to do with you. It is … difficult, sometimes, to remain calm when I am reminded of it. It is sometimes easy to forget on this world, where our people have lived together.’

They remained silent for some time.

When she was sure that Hesper was involved enough with his own people not to overhear, Caroline whispered to Danny, ‘Thanks for stepping in.’

‘Don’t mention it. I didn’t think you could face up to a seven-foot green camel person on your own.’

‘Probably not.’ After a pause, she said, a little tentatively, ‘I do understand what he means though. It can’t have been easy putting it behind him, living with humans.’

Danny grunted.

‘Sorry?’ said Caroline.

‘I’m not so sure he has put it behind him. I’ve got a very bad feeling about Hesper.’




The Doctor was talking to Desiato in the main hall. The Doctor had a sample of the crops that had been grown on Terrakk, and was grinding them up in a mortar and pestle. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out what looked like a filofax.

‘What exactly are you doing Doctor?’ said Desiato.

‘I carry some scientific equipment with me at all times. I should be able to begin analysing these samples.’

‘I hope you can discover something new. We’ve taken them apart to the molecule and haven’t been able to deduce what’s causing the illness.’

‘Then how do you know it’s a pathogen?’

‘Because those who are suffering from the disease are riddled with them. And, before you ask, we aren’t sure if it’s really from the food supply. There just seems to be no other way it could have been contracted. The air is pure, as is the water, but the soil is teeming with life forms.’

‘Tell me,’ said the Doctor, pulling a test tube out of his little case, ‘are the pathogens amalgamated with this symbiotic life form, like the other organisms on the planet?’ He poured the clear fluid into the crushed crops, whereupon it did nothing. He looked at it. ‘Oh,’ he said. ‘Blow that one, then.’

‘They are, yes.’

‘Hmm,’ said the Doctor, his brow furrowed. ‘So it must be native – but if so, how can it be so suited to human physiology? He pulled at the wall, twisting a tendril of living putty between his fingers. He let it go, and it slithered back into the surface. ‘This being is everywhere on this planet – tell me, have you been able to test your own cells for its presence?’

‘No, Doctor, we never - ’

There was a scream from outside.

‘What the hell - ’ exclaimed Desiato, running outside. The Doctor followed.




A twisting tendril of grey symbiote flesh was protruding from a gash in the ground. It was wrapped around a Tarrokku. She was struggling against the thrashing tentacle, clawing away at it. Pieces came away in her hoofed fingers, giving her no leeway on her assailant. Dozens of colonists had gathered, but none seemed to know how to act. Desiato put his hand inside his jacket, pulled out a worn looking silver pistol, and fired it at the tentacle. It blistered, released its grip, and disappeared back in to the rift it had come from. The Tarrokku fell to the ground.

The Doctor and Desiato rushed over to her.

‘Are you hurt Lensher?’ cried Desiato.

‘No, I think I’m okay,’ she said, gasping for breath. ‘Maybe a few bones broken.’

The Doctor looked back at the rift from which the tentacle came.

‘Get back, everyone,’ he shouted. ‘It’s coming back!’