by Steve Cole
And Ryan saw that as more and more lassos lashed out from the whirlwind of light above the plains, so the storm was changing shape: a huge, amorphous figure, stunted with no limbs, no real head, growing bigger and more malformed as it fed on the thousands of dead. Flashes of light sparked between it and the clouds above, each flash scratching off a little of the night to reveal the dark, calcified metal of the vast Tenctrama spaceship hanging high above.
‘This was always going to happen, Ryan. They started planning for this day over one thousand years ago.’ Liss couldn’t take her eyes from the shifting horror blazing in the night. ‘The Tenctrama are taking life from death. They are being reborn.’
Chapter 31
Yaz stood next to the Doctor, watching the horror blast across the battlefield, strafing the plains with supernatural light. Attila and Aetius stood beside her, staring, uncomprehending.
‘The harvest,’ Yaz breathed. ‘Humans, animals …’
‘Even the ground is alight,’ said Attila.
‘That’s the plant life, the insects and mini-beasts in the soil.’ The Doctor chewed a fingernail. ‘The natural world’s been prepped for centuries, so its death will bring strength to the Tenctrama.’
Graham came back into the room, and looked visibly shaken. ‘Those poor people.’ He pointed to one of the monitors, where a dark stallion, rearing up at the lightshow, was struck by the lightning and disintegrated. ‘That’s just outside. Liss’s horse …’
Yaz took hold of Graham’s hand. ‘We can’t stop them.’
‘The Tenctrama are winning,’ the Doctor breathed.
Everyone in the Hidden Hall jumped as the view on the screens changed, became a single image repeated across the monitors.
It was Inkri, shuddering in golden light, shot through with sparks. ‘Winning, Doctor?’ Her sibilant rasp filled the cold stone space. ‘We have already won.’
‘This is your last chance,’ said the Doctor. ‘Stop this and leave. Now. Or I’ll stop you, my way.’
‘Your way is to cower in hiding,’ Inkri retorted. ‘But why watch on monitors when you can witness our rebirth at first hand?’
The room shook, like a bunker struck by missiles high above.
‘We are attacked,’ said Aetius, uneasy.
‘So is Inkri.’ Attila pointed at the screen. ‘See? She dies in fire!’
‘Quite the opposite.’ The Doctor shook her head. ‘It’s a metamorphosis.’
‘She’s changing?’ said Graham, holding on to Yaz as the hall shook again and dust was thrown from the roof. ‘Changing into what?’
‘Her true form,’ said the Doctor.
Inkri was groaning, gasping, her voice growing deeper. Her lined skin was falling in tatters, her golden eyes with their three pupils melting over her cheeks. The mouth grew wider, a lipless gash in a waxy, maggoty stripe of flesh. Skeletal wings twitched and flexed from her hunched shoulders in the golden firestorm.
Yaz looked across at the shrunken, mummified figure in the corner of the room. ‘They don’t need to pretend they’re even close to human any more!’
Aetius was staring in baffled horror. ‘It … it is trickery.’
‘No.’ The Doctor tapped the DNA manipulator. ‘They only altered their form in the first place so they could fool humanity into accepting them. Influencing them through the generations, directing them to this point. Now the cycle begins again. Lives are snuffed out, and energy siphoned from the dead. That thing’s being grown from the bodies on the battlefield, but it won’t stop there. It’ll get big enough to kill everyone clear across the Roman Empire, until the Pit is replenished, the lair teeming with Tenctrama once again.’
‘And then they’ll project themselves to a new world,’ said Yaz, ‘and trick the people there into doing the same thing.’
Graham looked pale. ‘Doc, you said you’d stop them …?’
‘I will. I have to stop them.’ The Doctor hid her face in her hands. ‘Come on, think …!’
The room shook again, so hard this time that everyone was thrown to the floor. Vitus came staggering in from the antechamber; he looked terrified.
‘Something’s coming!’ he shouted.
‘Why isn’t it working?’ Ryan was pacing the ground while Liss tapped at the little plate in the wall, trying to bring back the transporter interface. ‘We’ve got to get back to the Doctor and everyone …’
‘I know! But the golden door won’t open.’ Liss kicked the wall in frustration and then winced. Outside, the sounds of the screaming dead and the zap of the feeding tendrils from the sky were growing louder. A soldier, trapped outside on the battlefield, started scrabbling at the rocks that had closed off the tunnel. Ryan could see through the cracks in the fall: it was a boy younger than he was.
‘Please!’ the young soldier shouted, desperate. ‘Let me in! They’re coming!’
Then he screamed as a dead Hun attacked him from behind and fell lifeless against the rocks. Both victim and killer were struck by light rays, reduced to ash as the essence inside them was drawn out.
Ryan looked away. Liss put her hand on his shoulder. ‘Come on,’ she said softly. ‘If the transporter won’t open, we’ll just have to get back to the Doctor on foot, the long way round.’
A golden glow shone into the passageway and for a moment Ryan thought the transporter was back online.
But the light wasn’t coming from the doorway. It was shining through the rocks from outside, and the rocks were shaking. Ryan and Liss backed away as the stones tumbled down, and a monstrous creature scuttled into their sanctuary: a giant, glistening grub with bony wings twitching on its back and long, many-jointed legs. Its eyes were stretched across the sides of its conical head, its mouth a huge hole crammed with little tongues that squirmed like maggots. There were more of the creatures outside.
Liss clutched her stomach. ‘What are they?’
Bony claws extruded from the slimy skin of the beast before them, but all of them spoke together. ‘We are the Tenctrama.’
‘What’s happened to them?’ She shook her head. ‘There’s so many!’
‘Run, Liss!’ Ryan shouted. ‘Run like hell!’
It was too late. The Tenctrama’s wings buzzed, it slithered forward and caught Liss in its claws.
Ryan raised his gun but Liss had her own ready and fired point blank, blast after ruby blast. The Tenctrama exploded in light, and Ryan grabbed Liss by the arm, pulled her away.
The Tenctrama reformed further up the corridor, as if nothing had happened.
‘They’re way stronger. Run Like Hell part two, yeah? This time it’s personal.’ Ryan shoved Liss on ahead of him. Even as he ran after her, he could hear more of the Tenctrama slithering into the tunnel.
‘The golden door is theirs.’ Liss sounded frantic. ‘We couldn’t get the transporter working – but I think they will!’
Chapter 32
Yaz was thrown to the ground as the Hidden Hall rocked with the impact of another explosion. The Doctor didn’t seem to notice, sat cross-legged on the floor, staring at the DNA manipulator.
Aetius, sweating hard, had drawn his sword – as if that could help him now. ‘Those witch-monsters aim to bury us alive.’
‘One way of keeping us out of their harvest,’ Yaz supposed.
‘Lacks the personal touch,’ said the Doctor. ‘More likely they’re just trying to drive us outside into the open.’
‘They burned up this merchant I met to nothing.’ Graham looked at Aetius and grimaced. ‘Sorry, chief – they did the same to your slave.’
‘Consus, dead?’ Aetius lowered his sword, and then his eyes, visibly affected. ‘The Tenctrama killed Theodoric also. Incinerated him.’
‘I’ll be for it too.’ Graham sighed. ‘And Attila.’
‘I don’t fear demons,’ Attila insisted, rubbing crossly at a vein pulsing in his temple.
‘Where’s Ryan and Liss?’ said Graham. ‘Shouldn’t they be back by now?’
‘That’s a good poi
nt.’ The Doctor jumped up. ‘I hope they haven’t found any trouble.’
Vitus came back in through the open hatchway in the stone. ‘The soldiers are growing restless out there. They would rather leave the catacombs and fight.’
‘And die,’ said the Doctor. ‘That’s only going to help the Tenctrama.’
‘Cowering like worms helps no one,’ Attila said.
‘Neither does bickering,’ said Aetius, master diplomat as ever. ‘Vitus, tell the men they’ll see action soon enough.’
‘Yes, sir.’ Troubled, Vitus ducked back outside. As he did so, the glowing images in their golden spheres switched off.
‘The spheres have gone dead,’ Yaz realised.
‘Ought to come straight back to life and start twitching, then,’ Graham joked weakly. ‘What’s caused it, d’you think?’
‘Glitch in the power flow?’ The Doctor was straight out with the sonic, and coaxed a golden glow from the gloomy wall. ‘Looks like the transporter went down for a time, though it seems to have fixed itself now—’
A huge, misshapen monstrosity crawled out from the golden light.
‘Look out!’ The Doctor sonicked the controls, and the golden glow shut down – but not before two more of the monsters had got through.
One made straight for Attila, who swung his sword; it bit deep into the pale, glistening flesh but didn’t stop the beast coming. Aetius grabbed Attila and swung him out of its way just in time. It turned to tower over Aetius, a roar of anger building in its black maw – then a point of bright green light shone into the gold of its eyes and the roar became a shriek as it sank backwards, the sword still in its side. Yaz saw that Graham had picked up the ancient laser pointer in both hands and was now gripping it for all he was worth. ‘Go on then,’ he shouted at Aetius and Attila, ‘get your men!’
As the leaders pushed past Graham for the exit, the Doctor drew the sonic and tapped it against the sword stuck into the first of the monsters. A jolt of energy sent the creature flying over the stone altar where it smashed into the wall.
‘Way to go, Doc!’ Graham cheered. ‘What are these things?’
The Doctor was staring at the other two in fascination. ‘Tenctrama, redux.’
Yaz felt a stab of fear. ‘They can’t stop my mind like before, can they?’
‘They’re like newborns,’ the Doctor said, ‘I don’t think their own minds have moved much past the need to feed.’
‘And the need to kill. Look out!’ Yaz yelled as the other Tenctrama reared up over the Doctor.
The Doctor pressed the DNA manipulator to the glutinous face. ‘Taking sample!’ There was a spark of dark light and the Tenctrama recoiled. As it did so it was hit by staccato pulses of red light blazing into its body. Vitus was back, standing beside Graham, letting rip with the blaster.
Still holding the manipulator, the Doctor seized the distraction and ran to join Graham. But the third Tenctrama was already wriggling forward. It leapt at Vitus, its black, bony wings buzzing into flight. As it slammed into him, Graham and the Doctor were knocked aside, tumbling across the floor, but Vitus was skewered on the end of the creature’s claws. He arched his back, his death scream choking away.
‘No!’ the Doctor shouted.
The monster pressed its maw to Vitus’s corpse and made a hissing, snuffling noise that made Yaz sick to her stomach. Vitus jerked and his bones fell through his desiccated skin to fall to the flagstones as ash.
‘You poor lad,’ Graham whispered, shocked and stunned.
As the gorged monster reeled back, blazing with golden light, Yaz saw that the Doctor had grabbed the tin of ancient spray paint. ‘Grenade!’ she shouted and rolled it at the Tenctrama. It scurried backwards, as the Doctor and Graham ran for the exit. Yaz scooped up the gun and fired up at the roof, blasting the stone into rubble that crashed down on top of the monsters. She kept firing until the roof had no more stone to spit at them.
‘Save the power pack.’ The Doctor put a hand on Yaz’s shoulder, so gentle amidst the violence. ‘It must be almost exhausted.’
‘Know how it feels,’ Graham said.
‘There’s nothing we can do this time,’ Yaz said, looking into the Doctor’s eyes. ‘Is there? Nothing.’
‘We can bargain,’ the Doctor announced. ‘I can bargain. For time. For something.’ She crossed to the lashed-up talk-boxes and sonicked the wall to bring the comms network back online. ‘This is the Doctor.’ Her voice echoed back, booming and muffled, outside. ‘You know I’m not from this world. You know I came here in a spaceship. Well, it can travel through time. With my help … you won’t need to play your long game any more.’
Graham looked uneasy. ‘Doc? You sure you ought to tell them about—’
‘Imagine if you could seed your essence, get your genetic contamination going and then jump ahead five hundred years, a thousand years … two, three, four thousand beyond that.’ The Doctor had started to pace and prowl, her voice growing louder, more impassioned. ‘Think of it! Fresh harvests without the wait. Access to more advanced civilisations with weapons that can kill millions with the press of a button. I can give you that, if you let my friends here go free.’
‘Doctor!’ Yaz shouted, ‘no!’
Then the talk-boxes blew up in sparks, and the golden glow died. The Doctor looked between Graham and Yaz. ‘D’you think I got their attention?’
Yaz shivered. ‘Guess we’ll know soon enough.’
Ryan was running full-pelt through the gloomy catacombs behind Liss. Twice, he’d fallen over his own feet and sworn his butt off. Dyspraxics were meant to stick to long-distance running, slow and steady, but if he didn’t speed up—
He fell over again. ‘Damn it!’
Liss turned, panting, came back for him. ‘It’s all right, Ryan.’
‘It’s not!’ he shouted. ‘Keep going. I’m slowing you down. You have to get back, our people need us.’
‘But what about—?’
‘Go, will you!’
‘You just stay on this path, all right? And follow it round.’
He nodded, and she ran on into the shadows, leaving him alone with the ancient dead. He realised his ears were ringing from all the explosions, all the shouting.
Over the high-pitched whine, Ryan heard a scuttling sound behind him. He turned.
And then he screamed, but not for long.
With a last forlorn glance at the ashes on the floor, Yaz followed the Doctor and Graham out into the dimly lit crypt. It was overrun with soldiers and horses. Attila and Aetius were barking orders in the cramped space.
Graham pulled on the arm of a statue and the stone door ground shut.
‘Wait here and keep watch.’ The Doctor smiled encouragingly at Graham and Yaz, and then ran to a set of mouldering stone steps at one end of the crypt and raised her arms, the DNA translator shining in one hand like the World Cup Trophy.
‘Here she goes,’ said Graham.
‘Listen to me, everyone!’ the Doctor shouted, and the room fell silent. ‘The enemy’s in here with us. I suspect there are more on the way. I’ve offered to meet with the Tenctrama. If they go for it, I hope to distract them long enough for you all to escape. Run in different directions and spread out through the woods. Get as far as you can—’
Before she could finish, the crypt rocked as if a giant had kicked it. The tremors threw everyone to the ground. Horses bolted, trampled panicking soldiers. Graham gasped as he was knocked to his knees, dragging Yaz down with him; she shielded her face as the stone ceiling above was torn away by some incredible, invisible force.
‘Doc,’ Graham shouted. ‘Think they heard you!’
Yaz looked up and dread filled her like cold water, her heart shrinking in on itself as she took in the vast alien light-storm dazzling down through the open roof. It twisted and convulsed in the night sky overhead, like an angry god displeased with these tiny people defiling its temple. Beyond it she saw the dark mass of the Tenctrama lair tethered to the burning sky.
She heard Graham’s urgent voice in her ear, saying her name, but it was too late. The Tenctrama had her.
Shielding her eyes from the glare of the Tenctrama animus roiling and writhing in the sky, the Doctor heard the shouts and screams die away, watched as the soldiers in the crypt sagged and fell still in the unnatural light. ‘Oh, dear. This is the work of someone with a bit of experience. Queen of the hive time.’ She straightened, braced herself. ‘Inkri?’
She turned and found Ryan, bathed in golden light, suspended in mid-air above the desecrated crypt. As if pulled by poltergeists, Yaz was tugged into the air, spiralling up to join him, helpless in the soft glow of energy.
‘Oh, no,’ the Doctor whispered. ‘Not you two …’
‘You cannot trick us, Doctor.’ The image of a Tenctrama appeared, as Inkri’s deep-edged voice sang from the ship above the storm, clear and no longer cracked with age. ‘We have your friends. You have no hope, no defence. Surrender now to the Tenctrama.’
Chapter 33
The Doctor gazed past her levitating friends, up at the dark majesty of the Tenctrama queen. Inkri filled the sky, her true form like that of the others, projected like a hologram from the Tenctrama lair, her smile glittering in the energies of the death-storm.
‘All right, Inkri,’ the Doctor shouted. ‘I told you, I want to deal. Don’t kill anyone else – I’ll help you.’
A soldier kneeling just behind the Doctor shrieked as a strand of lightning snaked out from the storm. At its touch, his body blew apart in a cloud of red particles. A nearby horse whickered and tried to bolt but it was struck too, its essence sucked up hungrily on a supernatural breeze.
‘That’s enough!’ the Doctor bellowed. ‘I said don’t kill anyone—’
‘You do not make terms, Doctor,’ Inkri said. ‘We crave the death of all organic life here.’
