Dr. Who - New Series S1

by The Coming of the Teraphiles # Michael Moorcock

  heard, cit. Those lads will be singing, singing all the way.'

  'All the way?'

  'If I know them,' said the steward fondly, opening the

  cowl. 'You won't be able to stop them.'

  'I thought I heard a choir of angels in the distance,' said

  Amy. She looked around the boarding lobby. 'Oh, this is

  much better. Clean and tidy, at least'

  'I think you'll find us very comfortable, ma'am,' said the

  steward. 'You'll be with us for the next seven days, won't

  you?' Getting off on Glub Glub, I understand.' He grinned.

  'Sorry, ma'am, just my joke. Seaworld, I mean. A pity you

  can't go all the way with us to New Llareggub. You must get

  someone to introduce you to old Taffy Sinclair. He's a doctor,

  too. And a plotsman. But he's also the choirmaster.'

  'Oh, I'm not that kind of doctor,' the Doctor said hastily.

  'Neither would he be, sir. You're with the Gentlemen,

  I understand. You going to the black hole, are you? These

  lads know all about black holes, sir. We follow all the big

  Renaissance Re-Enactments we do, the lads on board. We're

  all big Terraphiles here, sir. We have a lot of very good

  amateur players. Any tips for a cit who might be thinking of

  placing a small wager?'

  'Oh, you'd be wise to bet on us.' The Doctor looked up

  through the agitated, multicoloured sky as if he could see

  their destination from here. 'The way everything's going, it's

  more important than ever that we win that Arrow.'

  Amy glanced at him, suddenly alert.

  Chapter 15

  Luxury Class

  APART FROM MRS BANNING-CANNON'S occasional complaint about the

  choir practising in the common rooms of the spacebus and

  a bit of an argy-bargy between W.G. Grace and her chums,

  who had accused one of the other players - Pavli-Pavli - of

  licking their arrow flights during a friendly on the faded

  artificial green provided by the bus, the journey was largely

  without incident. Poseidon had experienced an horrendous

  space tornado and was out of bounds to civilians.

  Amy was sure Frank/Freddie Force and Co had been given

  the slip, but the Doctor wasn't quite so optimistic. 'Once he's

  after you, that one, he becomes a bloodhound. If I didn't

  know better, I'd say he had somehow attached himself to our

  hull and Lady Peggy had made them all invisible.'

  'You're not serious?' Sitting next to him, Amy stirred her

  kashions. She would have been glad to have a bit more variety

  in her diet, wholesome as the food was.

  They were feathering down against the huge, glowing

  world of Pangloss. They would not actually land but had

  arranged to meet the Gargantua here. As they swung round

  into Pangloss's night side they spotted the mighty liner lying

  along the line of the planet's twin rings, hardly visible at first

  until their own reflected light suddenly struck her and made

  her blaze like a star, all silver and rubies in the depths of

  night

  'Wow,' said Amy. 'Whenever I start to get blase, something

  like that happens. Is she the Gargantua? Gosh, she's the size

  of Earth!'

  The Doctor smiled. 'Aren't you glad you didn't miss the

  chance to go aboard her? Even if it's only for a few days.

  I'm surprised she's here ahead of us. She wasn't supposed

  to arrive until tomorrow, I thought I must have got the

  schedules wrong.'

  'It'll be good to take a shower,' Amy said, 'without

  worrying about seventy miners queuing to use it after you.

  Did you say they have showers en suite?'

  'I think the A-class cabins have two,' he told her. But

  that's only for the family apartments. Mr and Mrs Banning-

  Cannon and their daughter are in one of those.'

  'On a different deck to ours I hope.' She smiled.

  'At least one removed. Probably twenty or so. I think it

  says somewhere on our tickets.' He consulted his pocket-V,

  then put it away, grinning. 'They're on Deck Four and we're

  on Deck Hundred and Two!'

  'Result!'

  'Yes, that's six decks away from the B-Cs.'

  'Six?' She shook her head. 'You're a whizz at maths, Doctor,

  but even I know that four from a hundred and two makes a

  ninety-eight''

  'Think about it,' he said. T h e ship's a huge tube. She has a

  hundred and ten decks.'

  'Oh!' she felt like an idiot 'So the poshest deck is next to

  the lowest economy?'

  'Not exactly.' He seemed puzzled. Something about

  the massive planet had intrigued him. Then he turned his

  attention back, watching as their tender swept gracefully

  around the golden ship while she drifted into dock.

  Her wonderful nouveau baroque stylings made Amy gasp

  in delight.

  'They're the G-class. The most up-to-date ships in the

  galaxy. Safe, luxurious even on the cheapest decks. Nothing

  spared. Planets bought and sold to pay for them,' the Doctor

  told her. 'There are five of them in all. Commissioned by

  Meng and Ecker. Built by Mhuta and Shang. Fitted by Jon-

  Jon Coolart & Co. And we get to travel free.'

  'Free? How come?'

  'M&S - Mhuta and Shang - are one of our sponsors.

  There's a full-size Tournament court on board. You name it.

  Nutcracking. Arrers. Jesting.'

  'Jesting? What? Joke-telling competitions?'

  'Um. Maybe I mean Jousting? Quintain, where you have to

  charge at a straw man with your lance and try to make sure

  he doesn't swing round with that long arm of his and knock

  you off your saddle. That's harder than it looks. Everyone's a

  bit rusty at the mounted events because there was no chance

  to practise until now.'

  'They have horses here?'

  'Of course not! We use centaurs.'

  'I can see why Mrs Banning-Cannon was fed up, if this is

  what she's used to.' Amy gazed wide-eyed at the Gargantua.

  'She's as big as - I don't know - the Moon?'

  'Roughly the size of four moons. In volume. Shell last

  for ever.' He shared Amy's pleasure in the glowing golds

  of the Gargantua' s exoskeleton, the brass and platinum

  pipes curving and curling to form a tight bailiwick between

  hulls and the infinite galaxy-splashed blackness of eternity.

  Nothing in the known universe could kill her. 'Even if she's

  badly mauled by something or drawn into a star, shell live.

  She's been through five suns and still come out in one piece

  with all functions unharmed. Five suns, two of them ten sols

  strong! She can survive anything!'

  And black holes?' asked Amy. 'What about those?'

  The Doctor made a face. 'Maybe even one black hole. But

  I think it would be risky to bet on two.' He was peering past

  the ship at the planet hanging in space behind it A huge,

  dark disc. And he frowned. That's funny. If I didn't know

  better I'd say that Pangloss was deserted.'

  'How can you tell?'

  'Light. No reflected light, even.'

  'And that means...?'

  'Could be anything. Maybe nothing. I'll check the gazetteer

  on my V. Hmm. Nothing. Tourist world
specialising in

  architecture from the Third Islamic Empire. Soft stone

  sculptures. Nothing much a gang of asset-strippers would

  need.' He tapped his head. 'Very strange.'

  He pointed as a tender emerged from the gates, tiny beside

  the massive ship. 'Here comes the Transfer Officer. Well ask

  him.'

  As the TO came aboard the Doctor introduced himself,

  wanting to know what had happened.

  'Difficult to say, Doctor. We arrived on schedule to find the

  entire planet deserted. Actually a desert! Nothing growing.

  No sign of a battle of any kind. No messages we could capture.

  We had agents down there. Vantul, Malli, Poshnam. All good

  friends. Gone. Together with the rest of the population. Dust.

  That's all that's down there now.'

  'Really? Nothing living?'

  'It's as if she's been sucked dry of every bit of energy. I

  called it all in, of course. We haven't been here more than

  half a day. There should be a path but we haven't traced it

  through if there is one. I wouldn't be surprised if something

  or someone has made a corridor for itself, eating up planets

  as it goes. Maybe dark flow grazing? But I've never heard of

  anything like it this close to the galactic Hub. We only had a

  handful of passengers due to be getting off here. They're in

  very poor shape, I fear. In shock. A lot of questions we can't

  answer. We have plenty of empty berths, of course, because

  there were over a hundred bookings to the Tournament in

  Miggea, and your berths haven't been resold. We can only

  hope whatever it was isn't going anywhere else on our

  course.'

  Gravely the Doctor took all this in. He was very thoughtful

  when he talked to some of the other passengers. The Gargantua

  was continuing on course, making her way to Miggea. She

  would then take on new passengers and return, keeping the

  same course which had brought her here, though she would

  bypass Pangloss. The IPC was sending a team to investigate.

  With luck, they would discover what had happened. It

  usually turned out to be a disease or a big comet, a natural

  phenomenon. Sometimes, however, they had no way of

  finding out the cause of something like this. Space was full of

  these mysteries. Many would probably remain unsolved.

  Amy voiced what he was probably thinking. 'Anything to

  do with Frank/Freddie Force and Co?'

  'Could be. But did he come out this way? I don't know.

  But this looks like one of his attacks. The whole thing stinks

  of a matter clash.'

  'Well, he was going in the opposite direction to us, wasn't

  he? That means he's probably already failed to find the hat

  - or whatever was hidden in the hat. He'll have given up,

  surely?'

  'That makes sense,' said the Doctor.

  But his frown did not lift. He remained in this mood for

  some time. Only when they were enjoying a tasty dinner

  in the elegant restaurant with its murals depicting all the

  peoples of the galaxy did he manage to cheer up. The few

  former inhabitants of Pangloss were keeping to themselves

  and had no wish to discuss what had happened. Some of

  them had elected to wait in a capsule until the IPC arrived.

  By the time the Gargantua was on her way to Miggea, all talk

  was of the Tournaments and how the teams would do.

  Amy certainly hoped that what had happened to Pangloss

  was a fluke. She wasn't sure she could take another pirate

  attack. She supposed the decision of the Gargantua' s officers

  to make light of what had happened was the right one.

  No point, as they used to say, alarming the shadies and

  frightening the phonies.

  Chapter 16

  Dark Tidings: The Tsunami of Time

  THE WHOOPS OF JOY with which the Gentlemen greeted their first

  sight of the Tournament Court reflected the general mood

  of everyone who had suffered the more spartan amenities of

  the various ships used to get them back on course.

  The court was the latest in artificial environments, with

  grass indistinguishable from the best natural turf, a beautiful

  quintain run which could easily be turned into a jousting alley,

  a full-length arrers pitch, broadswording mats, quarterstaff

  grounds, nutcracker enclosures and all the other facilities

  required to put on an entire set of practice rallies, with the

  Tourists there to play against while each team got the other's

  measure. Wearing practice 'pads', a full suit of which could be

  slipped over one's ordinary clothes, they could play all day.

  The Doctor was a bit of a dark horse and was being kept

  back as much as possible so that rival players would not

  be able to judge all his skills. He spent more time on the

  nutcracker enclosure than anywhere else. He knew he might

  be weak in that area. Almost as soon as they had boarded, he

  was down in the 'pegs', carefully swinging his sledgehammer

  to hit practice nuts designed to register the most feather-light

  strikes. Although the Arrer - the beautiful silver Arrow of

  Artemis - was awarded principally for the final whackit

  match, all scores in the games played were taken into

  consideration and there were too few really good nutcracker

  players for any team to ignore this aspect of the 'Renaissance

  Rally', as the V-commentators liked to call it. In another part

  of the court, Judoon quarterstaff aces were having at it with

  loud snorts of triumph or grunts of effort, while centaurs

  galloped up and down the quintain course, narrowly missed

  by the swinging arms of the target or 'man'.

  Amy watched from the bleachers with an especially

  critical eye for the archers. She had tried a bit of archery as

  well as hockey at school and felt that the Gentlemen, though

  strong on bats, were still a little short of really good bows.

  Bingo, of course, was an astonishing shot, but after that the

  Doctor and Hari ran him only a fairly close second. She had

  known nothing of the games involved in a Renaissance Rally

  before the Doctor began his crash course, but now she had

  all the expertise of a valuable punter, a punter, in fact, of

  the best kind, who believed in their own ability to outplay

  every professional and make far better decisions than the

  interstellar referees brought in to judge the matches.

  She was filled with the excitement building now all over

  the ship. While audiences were discouraged from attending

  the early practice games, they were banned altogether from

  the later ones for fear they might gain advantages for use

  when wagering. Amy, however, was understood to be the

  Doctor's nutcracker trainer and had been issued with an

  official Terraphile Re-Enactment Society pass to all practice

  events. It was clear to her that the teams were well-matched

  and that there was little between them. It was going to be

  tough to win that all-important Silver Arrow. Why was it so

  all-important? The Doctor himself still did not seem to know

  why he needed it.

  Meanwhile, during t
heir time off, Hari Agincourt,

  reassured by Bingo that their home planet was in the bag

  and an earldom on the horizon, continued to woo Flapper

  Banning-Cannon, who was relieved that at last there were

  no more spaceships for him to admire and identify. She was

  glad, of course, that he had hobbies. A man with hobbies

  could be trusted and you always had an idea what to buy

  him for his birthday or a Mass-X holiday. While she thought

  she could never get thoroughly involved in ship-spotting,

  she felt that life on Notts (or whatever Bingo chose to call

  it) would probably keep him busy enough, and she rather

  liked the idea of learning some of those games. She was not

  a great lover of cities. Hari shared her taste for the rural life,

  so that wasn't a problem. Now all she had to do was get him

  to pop the question and hope that Pop continued to smile as

  benignly on their potential union as he seemed to be doing

  at present.

  To his relief, Bingo Lockesley was beginning to find

  Amy's company relaxing. Not that she wasn't already the

  easiest girl in the world to get on with. The tension had all

  been his. He hadn't known how she felt about him. At least

  he could now breathe without his chest constricting. He no

  longer felt his body tie itself into small, tight knots of the kind

  that would baffle the most dedicated boy scout, whenever

  Amy hove into view. Like Hari, he looked on the prospect

  of the future with this angel and it was good. Jolly good, in

  fact. Of course, he hadn't asked her and she hadn't shown a

  great deal of interest in settling down to a long and restful

  life at Lockesley Hall, but he thought there was a more than

  fifty-fifty chance of her helping him pick suitable dates and

  banging the posts, as the quaint old expression had it when

  it came to traditional marriages, preparations for.

  Life had become pretty idyllic now they were settled

  aboard the mighty Gargantua, a ship designed to instil feelings

  of tranquillity and wellbeing in its pampered passengers

  and almost guaranteed to turn the least likely of shipboard

  romances into something permanent and beautiful (or so it

  said in the brochure). Hari told Bingo that one of the regular

  travellers on the monster ship had told him that there was

  some sort of relaxing scent the owners put through the air

  supply. Certainly, he was pretty sure he had been smelling