by Paul Cornell
Tegan couldn't even react to the blow. She stood in the middle of a movement, her muscles screaming with adrenalin, but unable to do anything to get away.
Nyssa knew it. She watched as the cut on Tegan's face swelled with new blood.
Then she stepped forward to lap at it.
The Doctor raised his hammer and placed the stake gently on the centre of Yarven's chest.
In doing so, the very end of the wooden spear broke an infra-red beam.
The message flashed through the castle at the speed of light.
Inside a box in the cellar laboratory, Jeremy Sanders jerked awake, his brain afire.
He knew that this would come, but had hoped that it wouldn't awaken him. Concepts and patterns slammed into his brain, faster than he could see or hear, taking over all his senses until the world became a blur of roaring colour.
Jeremy focused, and dedicated his life to the cause.
Ruath had explained it to him that day, had asked him if he wanted to do this, without pressure or evasion. Her honesty had touched him and he had agreed. All his Undead life he had hoped for the Vampire Messiah, and the great change that he would bring. He had hoped for a real civilization for his people.
It was an honour to give all he had for that.
Time halted, clenched for a moment in the centre of Jeremy's mind. Then he spun it forward, calculating things that he couldn't hope to understand in the parts of his unconscious that had been used for dreaming and smelling and remembering faces. His brain bubbled under the strain and a vision spun by, clouding his eyes for a moment.
Mother and Father, smiling proudly at him in their polished pre-war kitchen. They finally thought he'd done well. Then, just as quickly, the smell, touch and sight of the vision were boiled away, as the senses themselves were quickly after.
Outside the castle, it was suddenly night.
Victor Lang spun, his arms held wide, as the sun flared like a comet down over the horizon.
"Open the gates!" he bellowed. "Let them come as they will! Let them all come into His grace!" He gazed up at the giant white cross that shone like a beacon in the stadium. Already, from the streets outside, he could hear the panicked crying of car horns and factory hooters.
He hugged the cross to his body, filled with a steely determination. "The night of revelations is at hand!"
The Doctor swung back his hammer, and winced as time haemorrhaged around him. With a yell, he flung his arm forward, hammer connecting to the butt of the stake.
Nothing happened. He opened his eyes, staring against the pain.
Yarven was holding the shaft of the stake, smiling horribly at hint.
"Doctor," the vampire Lord purred. "We meet at last: He threw aside the stake and grabbed the Doctor by the throat.
Ten
Yarven drove the Doctor back against the wall and held him there by his throat. "At last!" he cried. "That I, Yarven of the House of Yar, should hold the life of the great scourge of my people in my hands!" The Doctor choked on a reply. The vampire's grip on his throat was tightening.
"My Lord, no!" The door of the other cabinet had swung open. Out stepped a woman that the Doctor recognized, in the uncanny way that Time Lords had of ignoring the various bodies that each of them might wear.
"Ruath!" he gasped, as Yarven let go. "What are you doing here?" He sounded groggy, his senses still reeling with temporal confusion.
"You may very well ask," Ruath smiled, turning to her consort. "Yarven, my love, restrain yourself. You know what fate is in store for the Doctor. Don't ruin it, not when we're so close."
"You are right." Yarven visibly controlled himself. "I will enjoy his suffering at a distance. It will make the pleasure of it even more ... extreme." He grabbed the Doctor once more, and hoisted him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
The two vampires walked downstairs to the pit room, and Yarven unceremoniously threw the Doctor into the pit. He landed awkwardly on the padding, and stared up at them. "Ruath..." he whispered, then collapsed, unconscious.
Nyssa had been licking Tegan's blood from her wound for a few minutes, toying with her prey. The kill would come in a few moments, when the wave of appetite washed over her again.
Ruath entered the room and laughed, putting her hands on her hips. "Well done, Nyssa! I see you've become one of us already. It normally takes a few days underground to persuade doubters of their true nature. No more escapes now, eh? No, you've been reduced to a bundle of instincts, and you'll stay like that until the full moon. But leave her alone now, we need her alive. I'll find you something else. Come on: She gently interceded between Nyssa and her food, smiling at the girl's little growl. "Oh, aren't you fierce?" She attached a pair of tiny pods to Tegan's belt and clicked a control pad. Tegan, still paralysed, hovered out of the door. Ruath wandered after her, beckoning for Nyssa to follow.
The Doctor woke to find Tegan lying beside him, rubbing her wrists and ankles. She was white, either from fear or lack of blood.
"Tegan ..." he croaked, "have you been - ?"
"No. Just this. Nyssa did it." She indicated the cut on her face, healing under the effects of Nyssa's saliva. "Damn it, she's way too far gone now, Doctor." She was shivering, trying to slap some life back into her cramped muscles. She was also very scared, but that wasn't something that Tegan was fond of showing.
The Doctor thought for a moment, pulled out his handkerchief and dabbed at the cut. "I managed to erect some mental barriers while I was unconscious" he murmured "so I shouldn't be quite so affected by the temporal concussion. Still, this hasn't gone very well so far, has it?"
"Did you find the guy in charge?" Tegan blinked back her tears .
"Yes ... and I've never met him before. He, however, regards me as an enemy of his people. He does have an associate that I have encountered before, however. This is her TARDIS."
"I'm glad you remember me, Doctor." The languid voice drifted down into the pit. Ruath lay on the rim, pouring blood into a goblet from a decanter.
"I do." The Doctor got to his feet and frowned up at Ruath. "But the Ruath I remember was sincere and compassionate."
"I was in the class of "92, at the Prydonian Academy. The year above you."
"We used to break into capsules together. Which is how you knew I'd get into this castle of yours. You know, I do believe that you were the first to lead me astray."
"Oh yeah?" Tegan glanced up at the beautiful vampire.
"That was when I was young and wild, Doctor. My contemporaries and I grew up to take our responsibilities seriously."
"Ah..." The Doctor nodded. "Unlike my year. I begin to see."
"Yes." Ruath warmed to her subject, sipping from the goblet. Her eyes never left the Doctor's. "Mortimus, the Rani, that idiot Magnus. And you, Doctor. All graduates of Borusa's Academy for scoundrels."
"I am not a scoundrel!" The Doctor sounded genuinely aggrieved. "It was a very difficult decision for me to leave Gallifrey."
"Difficult?" Ruath nearly spat out a mouthful of liquid. "How much more difficult do you think it was to stay? I made the decision to live out the troubles and contribute to our society."
"Of course ... and giving an army of Undead parasites access to Gallifreyan technology is the height of civic responsibility, hm?"
"You know nothing" Ruath leapt into the pit and confronted the Doctor face to face. "Do you know what percentage of genes Time Lords share with vampires?"
"No, I can't say - "
"Ninety-eight per cent! Haven't you ever considered how similar the two species are? Both maintain regenerative information in a bioplasmic field around their bodies, both can recycle the entropic process to prolong their lifespan. How do you think that all this happened?"
"Parallel evolution?" The Doctor and Ruath were inches apart now.
Tegan wasn't sure that she liked the way that they were concentrating on each other so much. She suddenly felt very human and very ignored. So, being Tegan, she tried to butt in. "You mean that Time
Lords and vampires evolved from the same creature?"
Ruath didn't look at her, continuing to stare into the Doctor's eyes. "I can put a name to him. Rassilon. In the dark times, he became an initiate of the Great Vampire, itself merely a mutation of a natural creature. He took on the blood of that bat-like being, and became the first humanoid vampire. And do you know why he did it?"
"I can't possibly imagine." The Doctor seemed to be considering Ruath's thesis very seriously.
"Because of what you renegades choose to ignore. You know that, relatively speaking, the civilization of Gallifrey is far in the past of this time continuum. You know that TARDISes are prevented from entering what the Minyans call the Constellation Of Kasterborous after a certain date. At the point where we stand, there is no sign of there being an active Gallifreyan civilization. Apart from you renegades, running about the cosmos playing out your adolescent conflicts, where have all the Time Lords gone now?"
"You're asking about the future of Gallifrey. I always think it's best not to know one's own future. It gives you a certain sense of mortality."
"You fool!" Ruath grabbed his lapel, crushing the celery. "I'm talking about the mortality of our whole race! The destiny of the Time Lords!"
"Assuming that they have one. Presumably you intend to impose one of your own?"
"The one that Rassilon foresaw and prepared for. The one that he created Agonal to set in motion, the one that he lies in his Tomb, Undead, waiting for! The one that I have worked centuries for!"
"You've just finished three sentences with a preposition," the Doctor murmured. "I do hope that it's in a good cause."
Ruath ignored him. "Rassilon knew that the Time Lords had retreated down an evolutionary blind alley. He knew that the Undead would come to be the dominant life form in the universe. Together, the two species will unite and form an empire that will return Gallifrey to her old glory!"
"I see. And how do you intend to achieve this?"
Ruath lowered her voice to an insane whisper. "By raising a planetary army of vampires on Earth and using them to take the Capitol."
"Of course." The Doctor smiled. "You know, this all makes a good deal of sense."
Despite herself, Tegan had the awful feeling that he might mean it.
Victor Lang stood in front of a backstage monitor, watching the faithful trooping into Old Trafford. Well, more than just the faithful. The great mass of the C of E also, those who hadn't thought of God beyond christenings, weddings and funerals, but didn't feel themselves to be hypocrites in the slightest.
And he'd got them, thanks to signs and portents. God's design in His mercy, to bring the uncertain to the gates of Heaven. He only had to shepherd them in and, in the morning, for a kind of morning would come, they would all sit warmed by the light of the Lord.
Olivia took his arm, gently. "They're being let in. The policemen at the doors have given up arguing. We're going to be sued by the council, though."
Lang laughed, a full, healthy roar. "Oh, let them sue me in the Hereafter. I'm sure the public defender there's a good man!"
Olivia smiled too. "I haven't seen you so happy in ages, sir."
"It's good to get it over," Lang patted her shoulder. A strange frown shadowed his features for a moment. "It's good to get it out."
Nyssa had been promised food by Ruath, but she'd just led her to the kitchens and pointed to the various joints of meat that lay around.
Nyssa wanted real food. Fresh blood.
She loped along the hallways, shrugging past the Undead who were assembling in the Great Hall. There was word of an announcement from Lord Yarven shortly. Nyssa was deaf to it all.
Some instinct drove her forward, in the last fevered trance of her transformation. Many of the younger vampires recognized her condition, and gave her wry smiles or a pat on the shoulder as she passed.
She stumbled down the stairs towards the laboratory, breezing into a vapour to slip under the door. Not a thought in her head, she materialized again and found herself staring at Yarven.
He had opened a panel in the wall and was looking at the body of Jeremy Sanders, the devoted vampire's skull shaven and dotted with surgical connections. The burnt cross on it stood out like a brand.
The expression on Sanders' face was one of intense concentration, his teeth resolutely grinding against each other.
Yarven turned and smiled at Nyssa. "This is what my Queen would have for me, Nyssa. Ugly, isn't it?" Nyssa raised a hand in a vague gesture. She remembered that she had some reason to hate this man, but couldn't recall it.
Yarven walked over to her and ruffled her hair. "Come with me, little creature. While I'm making my speech, there's something I'd like you to do."
Yarven entered onto the balcony above the great hall, and gazed proudly down at the mass of vampires gathered below him.
"My friends, my loyal subjects, we arc ready at last." He stepped off the balcony and floated smoothly down to stand on the end of the great banqueting table. He kicked aside a limb and snapped his fingers. "Stephen, the screen!" At the other end of the hall, a young vampire pulled a lever and a giant screen unfolded behind Yarven. It showed the planet Earth hanging in space, one side in darkness, the other in daylight. "Imagine," Yarven whispered, "an eternal night. One half of this globe without recourse to sunshine. Would that not be a place of glorious feeding?" There was a roar of agreement from the vampire horde. At the back, Jake and Madelaine gave a noncommittal cheer. They'd made a quick search for Nyssa in the last few minutes after waking, and were still scanning the crowd for her.
"That night is nearly upon us." Yarven nodded to the assembly. "Thanks to Ruath's time technology, we have plunged this planet into what she calls - "
"A Time Freeze!" Ruath told the Doctor triumphantly. "A miniature Time Loop, if you like, holding the Earth's rotation, its local time in terms of the solar system, on a second-long repetitive cycle - "
"But not affecting time for the inhabitants! Interesting!" The Doctor stared into Ruath's eyes, his glance flicking to the silver ring on her finger every now and then. "Tell me more."
"The night side of Earth will be the new kingdom of vampirekind!" Yarven bellowed. "The day side will become dry and cracked, its ecology and civilization destroyed! When, and only when, we have converted or eaten every human being on the night side ..."
There was a roar of approval.
"We shall allow the world half a day's rotation, and fly with the night, falling on the other hemisphere as one, gigantic horde. But, my people, our mission shall not be accomplished by force alone ..."
"We will release the vampire genetic material into the air in aerosol form, into the stratospheric currents over Europe. It will spread round the globe, converting or destroying on contact. The process of conversion will take mere weeks." Ruath was trembling now, the words spilling obsessively from her lips.
"Ruath," the Doctor put a hand on each of her arms, "this is wonderful, you've achieved so much. But what's my part in this?" "Ah." Ruath reached up and stroked his cheek. "That depends on who you ask."
"The Time Lord known as the Doctor will give his blood, over the course of a week-long torment, over the course of his remaining eight incarnations. He will give his blood so that as many of you as possible will have the blood of the Time Lords in your veins."
The picture behind Yarven changed. Another world hung in space, a world of huge cities and vast deserts. "That will prepare you for the rigours of time travel, for our assault into the universe at large. Together, the Undead will conquer Gallifrey, and then be free to feed over all space and all time!" The crowd burst into frantic cheering. "Well," Jake whispered to Madelaine, "that's us booked up for the next few weeks."
"Yarven has my symbiotic nuclei in his blood," Ruath explained. "He will take over from the fanatic Sanders, become the biological component of my Time Baffles - "
"And extend the long night infinitely!" The Doctor grinned. "Yes, it would take somebody with the blood of a Time Lord to
do that. The brain of any other life form, even a vampire, would burn out after a few days. But that still doesn't explain why you set a trap for me."
"Doctor, I have high hopes for you. Since Yarven will not be joining us for the assault on Gallifrey, I thought that perhaps you might stand beside me, as my new consort."
"You've got to be joking!" Tegan exploded. "Why would he want to join your lot?"
"Tegan, Tegan, Tegan ... " The Doctor raised a hand. "Don't be so hasty. Ruath's made a good strategic choice. I am, after all, Lord President of Gallifrey, at least in theory. As we've recently seen, my Presidential access codes are still valid. And there would always be at least a few Prydonians willing to follow a President of their own College, even if he had fangs and sinister intentions."
"Why, Doctor, I had hardly dared hope that you would be so sympathetic." Ruath spun, and pointed a long-nailed finger at Tegan. "Will you become one of the Undead, Theta? Will you share this human's blood with me?"
"Doctor..." Tegan muttered, uncertainly.
She was horrified to see the Doctor produce his coin, and spin it in the air. He slapped it onto the back of his hand. "Heads I will ..."
Lang, his arms wrapped around him, watched on the backstage monitor as his audience started to file into the stadium. The darkness was illuminated only by the light of the screen.
They were running in, some of them, looking around at the walls of the stadium as if they were a guarantee of safety.
Maybe so. Maybe this strange choice of place was going to be the last fort against the dark. There was surely something reassuring about the great football lighting gantries that shone across the ground.
He winced as he felt a slight pain in his stomach. That old ulcer again. Couldn't let it get the better of him now. Tomorrow he'd be in an ideal body, with all his friends and relatives together in the sight of God. His daughter would be reconciled with him.
Maybe. He didn't want to think of that, though it forced itself to the front of his brain more and more.
