Doctor Who: The Eight Doctors

by Terrance Dicks

  The Fourth Doctor took a long swig of his wine and looked around the crowded chamber. It was filled with rebels, some cheerfully celebrating, others having their wounds dressed, looking for old friends and engaging in eager discussions about the new and brighter future now that the Vampire Lords had been slain.

  'The only thing sadder than a battle lost,' said the Doctor, 'is a battle won.

  Old Wellington said that to me, just after Waterloo. He was quite right.'

  Romana frowned. "That doesn't seem terribly logical.'

  'Perhaps not. But it makes a lot of sense all the same.' Once the excitement of the fighting faded away, thought the Doctor, and the tumult and the shouting were over, you were left witii a curious feeling of let-down.

  The Fourth Doctor had just survived one of the most terrifying adventures of his life - of all his lives.

  Caught in a hole in the fabric of space, the TARDIS had been drawn into E-Space, a smaller universe that exists parallel to our own. There it had landed on an apparendy idyllic planet called Alzarius - which had turned out to be no such tiling. Leaving Alzarius, the Doctor, Romana, a dog-like mobile computer called K9 and a stowaway Alzarian lad called Adric had all landed on a bleak and inhospitable planet widi a horrible secret at its heart.

  Terrified villagers, leading a medieval-type life of poverty and oppression, were under the sway of their immortal masters, the Three Who Rule, who lived in the tower that dominated the village.

  It hadn't taken the Doctor and Romana long to discover that the Three -

  King Zargo, Queen Camilla and Aukon, their High Priest - were vampires.

  Worse still, they were servants of the Great Vampire, sole survivor of an evil race with whom the Time Lords had once fought a long and bloody war.

  Wounded and almost dying, the Great Vampire had fled into E-Space, somehow drawing after it a cargo liner called the Hydrax . The original Hydrax crew, Zargo, Camilla, and

  Aukon, had been vampirised and used the powers this gave them to rule the terrified peasants. They took an annual cull of the young people of the village, draining their blood and using it to feed the Great Vampire, who lay, slowly recovering his awesome powers, beneath the tower

  - which was, in fact, the Hydrax itself.

  When the Doctor and his friends had arrived, the Great Vampire had been about to arise once more, ready to invade the universe witii a swarm of vampire disciples. The Doctor had put an end to this scheme, initially by leading an army of rebels to attack the tower, and ultimately by destroying the Great Vampire itself, using one of the Hydrax's scout ships as a metal stake to shatter the giant monster's heart. With the evil force diat sustained them destroyed, the

  Three had crumbled to dust.

  Now the Doctor and Romana were back in the forest dome that was rebel HQ.

  Adric, the young stowaway was asleep inside the TARDIS, exhausted by his recent adventures. K9 was also in the TARDIS, busily trying to compute a method of leaving E-Space and re-entering normal space.

  The rebel dome was actually the interior of a hollowed-out mound, its walls reinforced witii wooden pillars and sheets of rusting metal. The circular room was filled widi an amazing jumble of partly dismantled machinery and miscellaneous scientific equipment.

  During tiieir long reign the Three had outlawed all science and technology, determined to keep their subjects in a dark age of ignorance. In the process of converting the Hydrax from a grounded spaceship into a tower they had ripped out the engines, computers, stores and supplies and all its communications equipment, abandoning it deep in the forest.

  Old Kalmar, leader of the rebels had ordered his followers to gather up all the abandoned technological equipment they could find, in the hope of rediscovering lost knowledge.

  Everything had been stored here in the dome.

  The Doctor had called the place it a teknacothaka , a word, Romana strongly suspected, he had simply made up because he liked the sound of it.

  In the aftermath of the battle, rebel HQ - now government HQ - was busier than ever. The frail, white-bearded

  Kalmar and the burly Ivo, the two surviving leaders, were surrounded by delegates eagerly discussing what must be done next.

  Tarak, their young commander, had been killed in the attack on the tower and arrangements were being discussed for a state funeral and some suitable memorial. And that was only the first of the problems to be tackled.

  After that there was a whole new system of administration to be set up, not only for the village but for the surrounding countryside as well.

  The Three were gone, but they had spread the taint of their evil far around.

  Kalmar broke off from the group and came over to them.

  'Forgive me, Doctor, but could you give us your wise counsel? There is so much to be decided.'

  'You'll have to learn to make your own decisions now,' said the Doctor. 'My friends and I will soon be leaving."

  'We realise that, Doctor,' said Kalmar. 'But while you are still here...'

  'Oh, very well,' said the Doctor.

  'Forgive me, Romana. Ill only be a minute or two.' He followed Kalmar across to the arguing group.

  Romana reflected that there didn't seem to be much demand for her wise counsel. There was no escape from male chauvinism it seemed, not even in E-Space. She was about to return to the TARDIS and go to bed when someone touched her shyly on the arm.

  'My lady?'

  Romana turned and saw a young peasant woman, a thin and pale-faced creature wrapped in a ragged shawl.

  'My lady, is there one called the Doctor here?'

  Romana pointed across the dome to where the Doctor was lecturing a group of respectful rebel leaders.

  'You've got to maintain a state of constant readiness,' he was saying.

  'Vampires are notoriously hard to kill and there may still be others lurking in hiding. Every man must keep a sharpened stake to hand - in fact, what you need here is a stakeholder's economy!'

  'He's over there,' said Romana. 'But

  I'm afraid he's very busy.' She saw that the woman was listening to the Doctor's words with horrified fascination. No doubt the fear of the vampire was still very fresh in her mind. 'Can I help?'

  'I fear not, my lady. My child is sick with the marsh fever.I was told that there was a wise Doctor here. She is near to death and he is our only hope.'

  Romana thought for a moment. Like most Time Lords of her rank she was multi-qualified. She would be quite as much use as the Doctor - very probably more.

  'Wait here a moment.'

  She went over to the nearest rebel, a skinny lad with a mop of curly hair who embarrassed her by promptly falling on one knee. 'How may I serve you, my lady?'

  'Have you any medical stores in this collection of yours? Among the things you salvaged from the spaceship, I mean.'

  He stared blankly at her and Romana added, 'They'd probably be marked with a red cross.'

  The boy's face brightened. 'Yes, my lady, there are such things. Kalmar ordered all of them to be stored together in one place.'

  He led her to another part of the dome where Romana found the neatly stacked remains of what must have been a well-equipped ship's hospital.

  To her delight they included a sealed box with a carrying handle and a red cross on the lid. It turned out to be a basic medikit.

  Romana checked the drugs and dressings. She could certainly find something here to bring down a simple fever.

  She turned to the boy. 'Thank you - what's your name?'

  'Xan, my lady.'

  'Thank you, Xan, you've been most helpful. This is exactly what I need.'

  She went back to the peasant woman who was gazing about her in timid astonishment. 'Come along, then!'

  'My lady?'

  'Take me to your child. I'm pretty sure I can help.'

  'But I came to seek the Doctor, my lady.'

  Romana was getting tired of being taken for useless simply because she was female.

  'Well y
ou won't get him for hours, if at all. I'm a doctor as well, and I can help you as much as he can.'

  The woman looked at her with a sort of peasant cunning. 'Are you the Doctor's woman, my lady?'

  Romana smiled. 'Not exactly, but we're very good friends. We come from the same - from the same country and we have been travelling companions for some time. Now, do you want me to help your child or not?

  A few-hours could make all the difference.'

  The woman thought for a moment. Romana could almost see her mind grappling with the problem.

  Finally she said, 'If you will follow me, my lady,' and led Romana out of the dome and into the dark forest.

  Caught up in a heated discussion as to whether a column or a statue would commemorate the late Tarak best, the Doctor didn't even see her go.

  ***

  The journey took far longer than Romana had expected, but she strode along without complaint. The peasant woman scurried ahead along the narrow forest paths, her head shrouded in her shawl.

  Once or twice Romana asked if they were getting any nearer to their destination.

  'Just a little further, my lady,' came the unvarying reply.

  It was dark and sinister in the woods at night. The trees closed in overhead so that the paths became tunnels.

  Occasionally a clearing gave a glimpse of a pale moon in a sky full of dark clouds. Romana kept thinking she heard a sort of stealthy, scuttling movement in the bushes. She had a curious feeling that she was being watched... , She seemed to catch glimpses of dark figures flitting through the trees always just at the edge of her vision, but when she turned to look they were gone. Telling herself not to be childish, she marched on.

  They came at last to a low rambling building crouched in a gloomy hollow.

  A gravel drive led up to a heavy, metal-studded front door. The roof was crowded with chimneys and crooked turrets. The place was a substantial manor house, not at all the peasant hut Romana had expected.

  She turned to her companion. 'Is this where you live?'

  'Yes, my lady.'The peasant woman saw the surprise on Romana's face and went on. "This is the House of Zarn, my lady. Master Zarn owns the land for miles around. I'm a kitchen-maid here. Master Zarn gave me permission to leave the estate and go to seek the Doctor.'

  'Kind of him,' said Romana drily.

  'Where is the child?'

  'In my room, my lady. We must go around the back.'

  She led Romana away from the imposing facade of the house to a yard at the back. It was filled with a clutter of wooden outbuildings, some of them actually built on to the house.

  The woman rapped on an arched wooden door. After a moment it opened, revealing a figure with a lantern who looked at Romana in surprise and then at the peasant woman. 'Hurda, who is this? You were sent to fetch -'

  'Let us in, Master, and I shall explain all,' said the woman. There was fear in her voice.

  After a moment the man stood aside, beckoning them to enter.

  Romana found herself in a shadowy, stone-flagged kitchen. It contained a massive wooden table and heavy wooden chairs, and there was a fireplace with a cooking range on one side. Hams and cheeses hung from the rafters in the ceiling.

  The man with the lantern was stocky and hard-faced. He had a neatly trimmed beard and wore a leather jerkin with a short sword in the belt.

  Ignoring Romana, he hung the lantern on a hook in one of the ceiling beams and turned to the peasant woman.

  'Well? Where is the Doctor?'

  'He was surrounded by rebels, Master. I could not reach him.'

  'Then why bring her? What use is she to us?'

  'She offered to come, Master. She is a friend of the Doctor.'

  The man frowned. 'Is she his woman?'

  'She says not, Master Zarn. But she is his travelling companion, they are of the same people. No doubt he cares for her.'

  The stocky man studied Romana. 'It may yet serve. You have done well, Hurda.'

  'Thank you, Master. And my child?'

  'Speak to my head guard. Tell him I said the child may live.'

  Romana was getting increasingly suspicious - and increasingly angry.

  'You told me there was a sick child here. Where is she?'

  'I am sorry my lady,' said Hurda. 'I lied to you.'

  'Why did you do this?' demanded Romana. 'I came here to help you and you reward me by leading me into some kind of trap. Is your child ill or not?'

  'My child is not sick, my lady, but her life was in danger all the same. That much was true.'

  'Why was she in danger?'

  'Master Zarn's guards took her. He said they would have her blood unless I brought the Doctor here.' The woman then hurried away, disappearing through an inner door.

  Romana looked around, noticing that there was nobody between her and the door to the outside. 'Apparendy I have been brought here under false pretenses,' she said. 'I shall leave at once.'

  'You will stay,' said Zarn flatly.

  Romana sprang for the door, but it opened before she could reach it. It was filled by a little group of black-cloaked figures. Somehow Romana knew that these were the dark figures who had followed her through the forest.

  There were both men and women in the group. They were of different ages and sizes, but all of them were thin and whitefaced, with burning eyes and claw-like hands. They had something else in common as well - an air of dreadful, ravening hunger.

  She turned back to Zarn and saw then the same hunger in his face. He smiled, revealing long sharp fangs.

  As the newcomers flooded into the room - there seemed to be at least a dozen of them - Romana realised that the Doctor's warnings had been well founded.

  Zargo, Camilla and Aukon hadn't been the only vampires on the planet after all...

  Chapter 11

  The Vampire Mutation

  'Where's Romana?' asked the Doctor.

  After much heated debate the rebel leaders had decided that a simple column somewhere in the village would be the most suitable memorial for Tarak - largely because nobody had the skill to carve a statue. The arts on the vampire planet were still in a very primitive state.

  Some of the more radical - and more economical -delegates had even been in favour of simply renaming the communal dining hall inTarak's honour. Ivo, who ran the hall was opposed to this. He had plans to make the hall into a village inn - a welcoming place where people would come to eat and drink because they wanted to, not because it was compulsory.

  The Doctor was opposed as well.

  'Symbols are important,' he said.

  'Every time you seeTarak's memorial it will remind you of the evils you overcame, and of all those who gave their lives for your freedom.'

  The decision taken, the delegates began squabbling about who should build the memorial, where it should stand and who should pay for it.

  The Doctor detached himself from the group.

  'Old Winston was quite right,' he said to himself. 'Democracy is a very inefficient form of government - it's just better than anything else that's ever been tried!'

  Guiltily aware that he'd been gone for far longer than the promised few minutes, he went to rejoin Romana, only to find that she was nowhere to be seen.

  'Where's Romana?' he demanded again to the room at large. He raised his voice. 'Romana?'

  A young rebel hurried to his side. 'You seek the Lady Romana, my lord?'

  'Just Doctor will do,' said the Doctor. 'I hate all this bowing and scraping.'

  'Yes, my lord Doctor. Sorry, my lord Doctor,' said the rebel.

  The Doctor sighed. 'Have you seen Romana?'

  'Yes, my lord, she left the dome some time ago.'

  'What!' said the Doctor. 'Why? Who with? Why wasn't I told?'

  'She left with Hurda, my lord, the kitchen-maid at the House of Zara, my lord. There was some problem with a sick child, but I fear she should not have gone.'

  'Why?'

  'Zarn was a trusted servant of the

  Thre
e Who Rule, my lord. He made many visits to the tower.'

  'Well, why didn't you warn Romana?'

  The young rebel looked shocked. 'It is not my place to advise such as you and the Lady Romana, my lord.'

  There were disadvantages to being thought all-knowing and all-powerful, mused the Doctor. Nobody told you anything, since they assumed you knew it all already.

  Now Romana had gone off to pay a midnight call on what might well turn out to be a colony of vampires - without, of course, bothering to tell him.