Skeed was raising his gun.
Perhaps he couldn’t argue with Emma’s logic. But he was the Doctor, and he was never going to let that happen. He’d just have to find another way.
The trouble was, all the athletes were now up on the starting blocks. They would be fast. Once the race started he’d only have about ten seconds to think of something.
‘Go!’ A streak of red laser fire shot out above their heads. The Doctor found himself running, almost without thinking about it. The students had hared off, wanting to save their own skins.
The Doctor stayed just behind them. The watching faces flashed past so quickly. He had seconds left to think of a plan. They were approaching the finish line.
Then he noticed that, all of a sudden, there were only four athletes in front of him.
Karl had dropped back.
The Doctor turned his head.
‘We need you, Doctor!’ Karl called. ‘I won’t let you lose!’
The Doctor’s foot was almost at the line. He was going too fast, he couldn’t stop. And there were only two seconds to go . . .
He changed direction in mid-air, spinning around and grabbing Karl’s arm. His speed carried them both over the line and they landed in a heap. As they fell, a wall of energy shot up around the track. They lay there panting, and watched as orange gas filled the course they’d just taken.
Legs in dark blue armour came into view. The Doctor looked up to see that Stenx had joined them. Lieutenant Slorr was taking the four other students back to their seats.
‘So,’ said Stenx. ‘You ran the race in exactly the same time. You are both losers. You will both be put to death.’
‘Or both winners,’ panted the Doctor. ‘Major, you said, “The one who loses will be put to death.” The one. But there was no one person who lost. You can’t go back on your word. It wouldn’t be honourable.’
The Doctor knew he was on shaky ground. Sontarans held honour above everything, but they did not always accept that it applied to other races too.
He was lucky. Stenx gave one of his whole-body nods, and Slorr hurried forward to remove Karl.
‘Thank you,’ the Doctor mouthed as the sprinter was led away. Karl had been willing to die so the Doctor could live. There was no question that the youth was a hero.
They’d both been lucky, though. The Sontarans wouldn’t let the Doctor get away with the same trick twice.
His troubles were just beginning.
* * *
Chapter Eleven
THE DOCTOR GOT to his feet. ‘Do I get my medal now?’ he asked Stenx.
The Sontaran sneered at him. ‘There are many races to come, Doctor. But I thank you for the data you have provided. We now know the speed that humans and Time Lords can reach. We can make use of fast creatures. A running target may draw the enemy’s fire, for example.’
The Doctor said nothing, but he was fuming inside.
‘Now for the long jump!’ called Stenx. ‘It will be useful to find out how far humans can jump. Oh, and Time Lords too.’ His thin mouth curved up in a cruel smile. ‘Lieutenant Skezz, bring the humans.’
Skezz nodded to the major and moved over to the stands. Captain Skeed pushed the Doctor towards a sandy area. The long jump pit.
Soon, the Doctor was lined up behind five students. He hadn’t met any of them before. That didn’t mean he was willing to see harm come to them, though.
A line had been drawn across the pit, about six metres along. ‘You will cross this line,’ Stenx told them, pointing to it.
The first jumper, a tall, blonde-haired girl, seemed very scared. She stumbled as she began her run, but soon picked up speed. She reached the board, took one long stride then another, and sailed through the air. Her heels came down just over the line, and she began to sob with relief. For a few moments she just lay on the ground, shaking with sobs. In the end, Skezz forced her out of the pit at gunpoint.
The second athlete seemed less nervous. He gave the others a look that said ‘you might be in trouble, but I’m not’. He started his run-up, pounding along as fast as any of the sprinters. He took one huge stride. He took a second, bringing his left leg forward, ready for the jump.
Something went wrong. His feet seemed to get tangled up, crossing over each other. He still jumped, but it was clear that he’d never reach the line.
He thudded into the sand, only a few metres along the pit.
For a second, he just looked cross with himself. Then something changed.
He began to scream.
The Doctor tried to run to him, but Lieutenant Skezz grabbed his arms.
Things were coming out of the sand. They were tiny, black and furry, and they had very pointed teeth. Soon they were swarming over the pit, all the way from the board to the line.
They were all over the failed athlete. But in less than a minute, there was no athlete left at all.
‘Sontar Sand Shrews,’ Skezz told the Doctor. ‘Food is scarce in the deserts of Sontar, so they eat anything.’
The Doctor couldn’t bring himself to speak. He could still hear the young man’s screams in his head. Although now there were other screams too, from the watching crowd.
The next long-jumper in line, a young woman, was crying. ‘I won’t do it!’ she sobbed. ‘I won’t, I won’t!’
‘You will jump,’ Stenx told her.
‘No, no, no,’ she said.
‘You can’t expect them to jump, not after seeing that!’ the Doctor cried.
‘I can,’ said Stenx. ‘Because if they don’t, this is what will happen to them.’ Before the Doctor could react, Stenx had raised his wand-like gun. Red light spurted out of the end, and the crying girl fell to the floor.
The Doctor rushed to her, but it was too late. He stood up. All four Sontaran guns were pointing at him.
He couldn’t think of a way out.
‘We have to jump,’ he told the other two. ‘That way, we have a chance. If we don’t jump, we have no chance at all.’
‘But—’ began a scared-looking youth.
The Doctor shook his head. ‘No buts. You can all do this. You wanted to go to the Globe Games! Imagine the pressure there! World records at stake. TV cameras all over the place. Your family and friends watching. This should be a piece of cake compared to that!’
He was relieved to see them almost smile.
‘That’s it,’ he said. ‘You can do it.’
He was right. The two of them both made it over the line.
The Doctor gave a sigh of relief. His joy didn’t last long, though. It was now his turn.
A blast from Skeed’s gun shot over the Doctor’s head, and he began to run. He knew he had to build up as much speed as he could. Nearly there. One huge stride, then another. His toe almost touched the fault line as he bent lower, preparing to jump.
He jumped . . . and soared away. He brought his back leg forward, bending so he was almost sitting in mid-air. It felt as if he spent hours above the ground, days, not mere seconds. Then he could feel himself slowing, getting lower. He was nearly at the line. He was going to make it!
Down, down, down . . .
His heels thudded into the sand – just before the line. Sand Shrews exploded out of the pit, snapping fiercely. They lunged at his feet . . .
* * *
Chapter Twelve
THE SAND SHREWS fell away, their teeth bouncing off the Doctor’s heavy boots.
The Doctor almost felt sorry for them, as he jumped across the line, out of their reach.
The students were cheering from the stands. The Doctor felt like cheering himself. A few laser beams flying over the crowd soon shut them up, though. That made the Doctor serious again. He wondered what warped event he would have to face next.
Lieutenant Slorr had gone back inside the gym. Now he came out again, carrying a long, thick rope coiled over his arm. Skezz led forward seven students, all stocky and muscular. The Doctor felt very skinny as he was pushed into the middle of them. The eight of them
were made to take hold of one end of the cord. ‘If you let go of the rope, you will be killed,’ the lieutenant told them.
‘Tug of war,’ the Doctor said. ‘But who are we tugging against?’ He knew that the Sontarans came from a world with much higher gravity than Earth. They had devices in their suits to help them adapt to the gravity of whatever planet they were on. Even so, the huge muscles they built up on their home world would help them win through.
The Doctor really hoped they weren’t facing the Sontarans.
They weren’t. They were facing something worse.
The Doctor looked on in shock as a huge robot came towards them. It stood high on bent metal legs. Black eyes on stalks snaked out of a wide head, perched on a blocky body. As they watched, eight metal cords sprung out of its sides, like long, thin arms.
These feelers weaved their way forward, then grasped the rope. First a left feeler, then a right feeler, all along the other end of the cord.
Beneath the centre of the rope was a red line. The Doctor dreaded to think what would happen to anyone who crossed it.
‘Right,’ he said to his team. ‘You all know how a tug of war is played. You’ve all seen what happens to people who lose a Sontaran game. So we are going to pull and pull and pull, and we are going to win.’
There were murmurs of ‘yeah’ around the team.
‘I can’t hear you!’ called the Doctor. ‘We’re going to win!’
‘Yeah!’ they cried.
There wasn’t time for a longer pep talk. Skeed gave the signal, and the tug of war began.
It went well at first. Slowly but surely, the Doctor’s team were forcing the robot towards the red line. Closer and closer it came. Almost there . . .
. . . and then the Doctor felt himself yanked forward so quickly he was barely able to keep upright.
The robot had been playing with them, judging their strength. Now they were running forward, unable to stop. The first athlete reached the red line almost before they knew what was happening.
With a crackle, a wall of energy sprang from the line. The girl barely had time to scream before it hit. When the last of the blue flashes died away, there was nothing on the ground but dust.
‘Don’t let go of the rope!’ yelled the Doctor, as the others stood there, stunned. ‘Keep pulling!’
He knew now that they didn’t stand a chance. He wouldn’t let them give up, though.
‘It’s too strong!’ sobbed the young woman behind him.
‘Yes, it is,’ said the Doctor.
But something wasn’t quite right. The robot was strong – but not as strong as he had expected. ‘It’s feeling Earth’s gravity!’ he cried. ‘It must have controls to adjust its apparent mass, like the Sontarans’ suits. If they were set for Sontar, it would seem even stronger!’
He peered hard – yes, there was a dial near the robot’s head. The controls!
‘If we could only get close enough, I could change things,’ the Doctor told the athletes. ‘I could make it feel really light, so we could pull it over the line easily.’
‘But we can’t get that close!’ shouted a youth, as they were dragged towards the line again.
‘I know!’ cried the Doctor. ‘What we need—’ He broke off.
He couldn’t believe his eyes. He’d have rubbed them, if he’d been able to let go of the rope. Surely he was dreaming?
Crawling across the arena, towards the robot, was Emma.
Two of the Sontarans were watching the crowd. The other two had their guns pointing at the Doctor’s team. None of them were looking towards the robot. He had to make sure it stayed that way.
‘Tell you what, let’s sing a song!’ he called.
‘What? Are you joking?’ shouted a young man from somewhere behind the Doctor.
‘Not at all! A song to keep us all pulling as one. Just like the work songs from old America. The slaves would sing as they worked, to keep a rhythm. Maybe even to pass coded messages under the noses of their slavers. Come on! I’ll sing the verses, you join in with the chorus! You’ll all know this one!’
He began to sing at the top of his voice:
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home.
The rest of the team slowly took up the chorus:
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home.
The Doctor began to belt out a verse:
I looked at the robot and what did I see,
Coming for to carry me home.
A dial by its head that turned down should be,
Coming for to carry me home.
He glanced at the Sontarans. They didn’t seem to have picked up on his message to Emma. She gave him a wave and started to climb up the robot’s leg. He joined the team in belting out the chorus again, then added another verse. He hoped Emma was listening closely.
When the dial goes down,
the weight goes down too,
Coming for to carry me home.
Then jump off
or the line will frazzle you,
Coming for to carry me home.
Emma was on the robot’s shoulder as they sang the chorus again.
The Doctor kept singing to his team:
When that’s done everyone must pull together,
Coming for to carry me home.
It’ll feel to us even lighter than a feather,
Coming for to carry me home.
He saw Emma’s hand reach out and grab the dial just below the robot’s head.
She turned it.
The Doctor’s team didn’t pause. They just kept pulling.
‘Stop!’ he cried, but it was too late. For a moment, he thought the robot was flying. It came towards them like a bullet out of a gun.
The robot flew over the line. Energy beams leapt up from the ground. There was a crackling sound, then a huge explosion of blue and green. When it cleared, the robot was gone.
There was no sign of Emma.
The Doctor turned to his team, who were all crying with joy. ‘The girl who was up there,’ he said. ‘Where did she go?’
‘I didn’t see her jump down,’ said one, and the others all shook their heads.
‘I don’t think she had time,’ said another. ‘I think she was still on the robot when it came across the line. Oh no!’
‘You should have let her get off before you started pulling,’ said the Doctor. But he said it very quietly. He knew he hadn’t been clear enough. Hard to let people know what to do in a song. It wasn’t the team’s fault.
His hearts sank. No human could have survived that flash of energy. If Emma hadn’t got off the robot in time, she would have been fried.
* * *
Chapter Thirteen
‘DOCTOR, LOOK!’ CALLED Holly’s voice from the stands.
A red laser beam flew over the Doctor’s head, and he turned.
Holly hadn’t been shouting a warning, though. She’d been trying to tell the Doctor about something else.
All four of the Sontarans were floating off the ground. They were trying to aim their guns, but couldn’t manage it. Every few seconds they came back down to earth, but each step forward pushed them up again.
The Doctor gave a huge laugh. ‘All their gravity controls must be connected to a central matrix! When Emma changed the robot’s mass, the controls in the Sontarans’ suits were affected too!’ He shook his head, still grinning. ‘Well, that’s a clone race for you. What’s good enough for one . . .’
Then he stopped smiling. There was no time to waste. This was the chance he’d been waiting for.
He ran to the tunnel that led to the gym. OK, so the building was sealed, but at least they’d be out of the way of the Sontarans.
This door was now locked too. Sealed by the Sontarans.
Back in the arena, he looked around, searching for clues. If only they could disable the Sontarans. But if anyone went near them, the Sontarans did their best to shoot. How long would it be before one hit its m
ark? Getting close enough to hit a Sontaran’s weak spot, its probic vent, wasn’t possible.
The Doctor looked upwards. The bundle of missiles was still hanging beneath the force dome.
The weapons were held in a force-sphere. Spheres often had a weak spot at the join. The Doctor stared. Yes, there it was. He could see a flicker of energy, a little white hole buzzing near the top. If he could get to it with his sonic screwdriver, he could release the missiles.
He glanced around the arena. Surely he could come up with a plan using a load of top athletes and a long rope . . . Yes!
‘Tug of war team, to me!’ he called.
The six strong young people ran over to the Doctor. ‘Three this side, three that side,’ he told them. ‘Stretch the rope across, then climb up the stands as high as you can. Hold the rope tight.’
They didn’t even ask why. They just nodded and ran off to do as he asked.
‘Holly!’ called the Doctor.
She jogged over to him.
‘How are you feeling? Head OK?’
‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Well, I’m led to believe you might be the best gymnast in the country.’ He pointed to the rope, now stretching across the arena at a height of several metres. It passed below the force-sphere containing the weapons. ‘Could you get from that rope to that sphere?’
She nodded. ‘With a little bit of help. Piece of cake!’
‘The energy won’t hurt you,’ he told her. ‘It’s just holding everything in one place.’ He took out his sonic screwdriver, and adjusted the settings. ‘Just push it through that little white hole. I’ve set it for a 10-second delay. That should allow you to get off safely before the sphere vanishes. Do you think you can do that?’
‘No problem,’ she said. ‘I can leap off and catch the rope as I go. Then I’ll just shin along it. Plenty of time.’
The Doctor smiled at her, and then turned to the crowd.
‘Keep as far back as possible,’ he called. ‘When that force-sphere goes, all the javelins, hammers, shots and things will fall to the ground. You don’t want to be below when that happens.’
Doctor Who: The Sontaran Games Page 4
