by BBC
But Athrocite was growing impatient – a dark maw opened in his craggy face, releasing a grating howl. He seemed to loom taller in the room and the others backed quickly away.
‘Please,’ the Doctor pleaded with the Rock Man. ‘You must understand – I’m doing my best to help you. But time is running out and I have to explain …’
Athrocite swept angrily at the air and the Doctor jerked backwards, raising his hands. ‘Steady!’
The creature roared and stretched out, past the Doctor’s head, snatching at Rory.
Rory darted backwards, Amy holding onto him all the time. ‘What does it want?’
‘The meteorite,’ said the Doctor.
And then he turned back to Athrocite. ‘Calm down – I want to help but you must be patient!’
Athrocite snarled again and stepped towards Rory.
‘Should I hand it back?’ Rory asked, holding the meteorite close to his chest as he looked uncertainly at the Doctor.
‘Not yet.’ The Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver at the Rock Man. ‘I’ll use this if I have to, Athrocite!’
The creature turned its baleful, empty eyes on the Doctor.
The Doctor triggered the sonic screwdriver – but nothing happened.
Like the Doctor, the sonic screwdriver was now made entirely of moon rock.
‘There’s plenty more where that came from,’ warned the Doctor helplessly.
‘What the Devil are you trying to do?’ asked Hoggett. ‘It’s had absolutely no effect!’
The Doctor glared at him. ‘I can see that,’ he hissed. ‘I had hoped to freeze him for a second or two, but …’
Athrocite glowered at the Doctor, eyeing the sonic screwdriver with suspicion.
‘Get on with it, then!’ seethed Hoggett. ‘Drive him away! Keep prodding him with that thing and it’ll drive him away!’
The Doctor tried to run a hand through his hair in exasperation, only to find his hair was all made of stone as well as the sonic screwdriver and his fingers only scraped noisily across his head. His grey eyes glared at Hoggett. ‘You just don’t get it, do you? This creature is totally unique. And frightened. That makes him dangerous – he’s massively powerful, but he’s struggling to contain it. What if he decides he’s had enough? Or panics? He could turn everything and everyone here to moon stone in an instant. And then the farm. And the surrounding countryside. When will it stop? The rest of the country? The whole planet?’
The Doctor’s voice was raised now and both Amy and Rory could see that he was under intense pressure to resolve the situation.
Athrocite kept watching the Doctor, and then Hoggett, and then the Doctor again as the argument went back and forth.
But Hoggett didn’t seem to care – or understand. He rounded angrily on the Doctor, his face reddening. ‘If you know so much about all this, why don’t you just explain to the wretched thing that it’s not welcome here?’
‘Athrocite doesn’t entirely trust me – or any human being,’ the Doctor replied. ‘And why would he? He’s completely alien to your world – he’s something entirely new, with origins in the dawn of time.’ He turned and looked up at Athrocite, his tone softening. ‘In fact, it’s a privilege just to be standing here.’
Hoggett spluttered. ‘A privilege? You don’t know what you’re blathering about, man!’
‘Doctor,’ interrupted Amy. ‘What can we do? How can we help him?’
‘I had hoped to persuade him to come with us in the TARDIS – to take him to another planet, somewhere in the Pron-Kalunka Galaxy where there are lots and lots of silicon-based life forms.’
Athrocite was growing impatient again, a long, low, scraping growl escaping from deep within his rocky torso.
The Doctor turned and spoke to him in his own language, and the two of them exchanged a number of strange, unearthly noises.
‘Well?’ asked Amy. ‘Will he do it?’
‘He wants to know what’s wrong with this planet,’ replied the Doctor.
‘Nothing,’ said Amy. ‘Except that it’s ours.’
‘But Athrocite doesn’t have a planet of his own, Amy. What’s the difference?’
‘I’ve had just about enough of this,’ Hoggett erupted. ‘The thing is made of rock. Why don’t you just take a ruddy great sledge hammer to it?’
‘I’m made of rock!’ the Doctor objected. ‘Do you want to take a sledge hammer to me too?’
‘Yes!’ Hoggett yelled. Then he turned to face Athrocite. ‘I don’t know who or what you are, because none of this makes the slightest bit of sense to me – but I do know this: you don’t belong here, you’re not wanted here, and you –’
Hoggett froze mid sentence.
His face stiffened.
He turned grey, greyer … and with a sharp cracking sound he turned to solid stone.
There was complete silence. Everyone simply stood and looked at him.
Ralph Conway had reached out and gripped Mr Hoggett’s shoulder from behind. The effect of the touch had been instant – Hoggett had been transformed into moon rock.
‘Dad!’ said Jess, a hand to her mouth in shock.
‘Thank goodness someone found a way to shut him up,’ said the Doctor. ‘What a very annoying man. Did anyone else think he was a very annoying man?’
Everyone else nodded immediately.
And then Rory said, ‘Um, Doctor … Athrocite seems to have left.’
The Doctor snapped around. The Rock Man had vanished.
CHAPTER 28
‘NOT A SECOND TO LOSE!’
‘No!’ cried the Doctor, rushing out of the farmhouse. ‘No, no, no!’
Rory and Amy ran out after him, closely followed by Chris. ‘Where did he go?’
‘There!’ The Doctor pointed.
Athrocite was stomping away across the yard.
‘Come back!’ the Doctor yelled.
Athrocite turned slowly around, eyes narrowed. A low growl scraped out of his mouth.
‘Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea,’ said Amy.
The Doctor darted forward, slipped, nearly fell, scraping his hand along the brickwork of the wall.
‘Be careful!’ Chris told him. ‘You’re made of rock, remember! If you fall and break –’
‘Good point,’ agreed the Doctor, regaining his balance.
‘Athrocite looks really angry,’ said Rory.
‘Between him and Mr Hoggett, it’s a wonder we’re all still standing,’ said Amy. ‘I’ve never seen such bad tempers.’
‘At least Athrocite has an excuse,’ said the Doctor.
‘True,’ agreed Rory. ‘But he doesn’t have this.’ He held up the meteorite ball.
The Doctor leapt over to him, regardless of the risk. ‘Rory! That’s brilliant! You’ve still got the meteorite!’
‘It’s what Athrocite wants, isn’t it?’
‘Definitely,’ nodded the Doctor. ‘Probably. Maybe. Let’s hope so. Quickly – back inside the farmhouse.’
Back inside the kitchen, the Doctor took the meteorite ball and put it down on the table. ‘This might be just what we need.’
‘I thought you said Athrocite needs it?’ said Amy.
‘He does – the negative electrostatic field that allows him to move, and me and Ralph and Mr Hoggett here, is tied right into the energy field contained in this meteorite.’ The Doctor stared at the glossy black ball, and Amy could tell, even though he was made of stone, that his fantastic mind was already coming up with a plan. ‘It’s my guess that the molecular reconfiguration is controlled by a similar field.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I’ve been thinking about Athrocite and his ability to turn things into moon stone. Do you remember I said that the transformation was unstable, and therefore reversible?’ The Doctor paced quickly around the kitchen. ‘Well, that’s true – but only up to a point. Because once enough Earth matter has been converted, then it will reach a tipping point.’
‘Which means?’
The Docto
r stopped. ‘Which means that the transformation will start to spread faster and faster. And it will be unstoppable. And it will not be possible to reverse it.’
‘The point of no return,’ realised Chris.
‘But that means it could take over … everywhere,’ said Amy. ‘And everything.’
‘We have to stop it,’ said the Doctor. ‘And this meteorite is the key. We have to keep it away from Athrocite – as far away as possible.’
‘But he’ll follow it anywhere,’ said Chris. ‘He followed it all the way from the research centre to here.’
‘I was thinking of taking it somewhat further away than that,’ said the Doctor. He turned to Amy. ‘Stay here with Chris and Jess – make sure no harm comes to Mr Conway or Mr Hoggett. And whatever you do, don’t let Athrocite back in.’
Jess gaped at him, trying to imagine keeping the huge Rock Man from entering the farmhouse. ‘What? How?’
‘I don’t know – you’ll think of something.’ The Doctor turned to Rory. ‘Rory, I’m going to need your help. I can’t move all that fast, so you’ll have to take the meteorite.’ He gave it to Rory. ‘We’ll go as a pair. On the count of three …’
‘Hold on,’ said Rory quickly. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘We need to get that meteorite on-board the TARDIS,’ explained the Doctor, already heading for the door. ‘And that means we’ve got to get past Athrocite first. Come on – there’s not a second to lose!’
CHAPTER 29
TO THE TARDIS
They crept out into the farmyard, keeping low so that Athrocite couldn’t easily spot them.
The Rock Man was still standing at the top end of the yard, surrounded by moon stone. He was deliberately touching more and more things – the barn, the engine shed, a tree – and transforming them into lunar rock.
‘What’s he doing?’ whispered Rory.
‘Turning everything he can get his hands on into moon rock,’ replied the Doctor, as quietly as he could manage with his rasping rock-voice. ‘He’s trying to change everything – to reach the tipping point. Soon the effect will be unstoppable.’
‘We’d best get a move on then.’ Rory crept out from behind the Land Rover and motioned for the Doctor to follow him.
Together they moved slowly up the farmyard, towards the TARDIS.
But that also took them nearer to Athrocite.
‘Hopefully he’s too busy trying to create a new world to notice us,’ said the Doctor as they paused by the edge of the barn.
They moved on, darting from cover to cover.
But then disaster struck.
The Doctor’s stone foot hit the edge of a pile of logs balanced against the side of the shed. Athrocite had already turned the logs into moon stone – but they were still loose. The Doctor’s boot dislodged one of the lowermost logs – and the rest came tumbling down with a loud clatter.
Athrocite lumbered around, alerted by the noise.
But that wasn’t all. The Doctor’s legs had got caught up in the rock fall and he sprawled his length on the ground. For a hearts-stopping moment he thought he was going to be smashed to pieces.
‘Doctor!’ Rory skidded to a halt, eyes wide. He watched Athrocite start towards the fallen Doctor.
Rory panicked, thinking the Doctor must surely have cracked.
But the Doctor, miraculously, had landed in a large patch of mud. He slithered to a stop and tried to get up, but it was impossible to get a grip on the slippery ground.
Athrocite stalked towards him with a triumphant growl.
‘Go!’ the Doctor shouted at Rory.
Athrocite turned to see Rory on the other side of the yard.
The distraction was just enough for the Doctor. He crawled through the mud and dragged himself carefully up, using the wall of the barn for support.
Rory looked uncertainly at the Doctor, and then at the Rock Man.
And ran.
Athrocite roared and turned back to face the Doctor. He growled again as the stone figure walked calmly towards him.
‘There’s no point in getting all cross about it,’ said the Doctor. ‘You had your chance.’
Athrocite roared, flailing at him with a craggy arm. If the blow had connected, the Doctor would have been smashed to smithereens – but he dodged just in time.
Athrocite swung again, and the Doctor darted out of the way once more.
‘You’ll have to be faster than that,’ the Doctor told him. He ducked another blow. ‘I used to spar with Mohammed Ali – the greatest boxer who ever lived.’
The Rock Man lunged desperately, almost losing his footing in the mud. The Doctor skipped lightly under the blow – although it was a close thing. A piece of hair was chipped right off his head.
But Athrocite stumbled past, and the Doctor was free to run – or rather lumber – as quickly as his heavy stone legs would allow.
Rory had already reached the TARDIS. ‘Doctor, hurry up!’
The Doctor trudged on up the hill. The TARDIS windows shone brightly, beckoning him forwards.
Behind him, Athrocite was pounding in pursuit.
The Doctor could hear the Rock Man’s rasping growls growing closer. He wasn’t as nimble as the Doctor, but he had longer legs and a bigger stride.
The Doctor pushed on wearily. He could feel the weight of every stone organ in his body.
Athrocite marched untiringly after him, threatening him with every kind of fate. Any hope of negotiating a peaceful settlement had gone. Sadly, the Doctor had to accept that it was now a case of simple survival.
He reached the pigsties. Percy the pregnant pig snuffled her way around the pen, searching in the muck and straw for anything good to eat. The other pigs squealed in shock and distress as the Doctor clambered over the fence.
He staggered across to the TARDIS and fell heavily against the wooden doors.
‘Hurry, Doctor,’ Rory yelled. ‘He’s gaining on us!’
Athrocite had reached the pigsty. His dark eyes blazed with fury and the pen was suddenly turned to moon stone. The grey rock spread across the concrete floor, the straw, the trough … and with a series of cracks and muffled grunts the pigs were turned to stone.
Percy gave an anguished squeal as her pink hide turned grey, then stiff and then solid.
The Doctor looked in dismay at the TARDIS key. ‘It’s turned to moon rock as well!’
He held up the key for Rory to see. The brass had been turned into a sliver of stone.
‘Will it still work?’ Rory asked.
‘Let’s see!’ The Doctor carefully inserted the stone key into the lock on the police box door.
Athrocite clambered into the stone pigsty with a growl.
‘Can’t let him turn the TARDIS into moon rock!’ said the Doctor, turning the key as gently as he could. He didn’t want to snap it accidentally.
The police box door opened and the Doctor and Rory piled quickly inside.
CHAPTER 30
A RETURN TO NORMAL
Rory banged the TARDIS door shut behind them as the Doctor raced up the steps to the control console.
‘Careful you don’t fall!’ Rory called after him.
‘Got to be quick, Rory!’ The Doctor ground to a halt at the console and began pulling levers and twisting dials at a frantic pace.
Rory was climbing up the stairs to the console deck just as the Doctor threw the dematerialisation lever. The TARDIS engines began to grind and groan and the strange glass elements inside the central column heaved up and down.
Outside, the blue police box faded from the pigsty with a harsh wheeze.
Athrocite roared, swiping at the air where the TARDIS had stood. Then, with an angry grumble, he turned and stomped back down the hill towards the farmhouse.
The TARDIS lurched and spun, sparks flying from the circuits arranged around the complicated hexagonal console. Rory grabbed hold of the seat on the edge of the deck for support. ‘Where are we going?’
‘Away from here,’ replied
the Doctor, busy at the controls. Puffs of steam erupted from the console. The monitor screen suspended from its iron framework filled with complicated numbers and patterns.
Rory knew the TARDIS was in flight – hurtling helter-skelter through the mysterious region of space-time known only as the Vortex.
‘We don’t need to go too far,’ said the Doctor, moving rapidly from one section of the console to another. He turned wheels, pumped handles and flicked switches with incredible speed for someone made of stone.
It always amazed Rory that the Doctor knew what any of the complex instruments actually did. The TARDIS was supposed to be a time machine, the product of a fantastically advanced civilisation that no longer existed – but most of the controls appeared to be made up of old bits of junk: taps, typewriters, cogs and other arcane pieces of machinery collected from across the universe and throughout history.
Like the Doctor, the TARDIS was something of a mystery.
The ancient engines began to wheeze and groan once more.
‘Coming into land!’ the Doctor declared loudly, as the old ship rattled to a stop.
The glass bubbles in the rotor column slowed to a halt and steam drifted from the depths of the TARDIS console.
‘Doctor,’ said Rory suddenly. ‘Look at you …’
The Doctor twisted a shaving mirror around so that he could see his face. The greyness of the moon stone was beginning to fade. His skin was looking pinker, fleshier and his hair was loosening and turning dark once more.
‘You’re turning back to normal!’ Rory said with relief.
‘We’re far enough away from Athrocite for the molecular transformation to start unravelling,’ said the Doctor. He sounded very relieved himself. ‘I wonder what’s happening back on the farm?’
Jess and Amy peered out of the kitchen window and gasped in shock.
Outside, there was little more than a lunar landscape.
The entire farm had been turned into moon stone. The land beyond was turning greyer, dustier and more lifeless as they watched.
‘When is it going to end?’ wondered Jess.
