Superior Beings

by Nick Walters

  The great orchid-like head swept round in an arc, limbs clicked and moved, and, with a gentle lurching motion, the creature stepped around Aline.

  She turned to watch it go, to see it stoop above a bed of tulip-like blooms and begin to extract weeds deftly from the dark-brown soil and toss them into its trumpet-like mouth.

  It had completely ignored her!

  Unable to stop herself, Aline collapsed in a fit of laughter, grabbing on to the Doctor for support - and then burst into tears of relief.

  When Aline recovered from her laughing/crying fit, she realised that everyone was staring at her. Peri was gaping at her openly, Incredulous; the two soldiers were looking at her as if she was mad and the Eknuri looked embarrassed, as if she’d committed some serious social faux pas.

  Only the Doctor seemed unconcerned by her reaction.

  There was genuine pleasure in his eyes, as Aline wiped her tears away and turned to face him.

  ‘Well done,’ he said. ‘You’re well on the road to recovery.’

  Peri couldn’t see what the all the fuss was about. She’d faced up to the Valethske - been chased, shot and frozen by them -

  Without once cracking. But if all it took to throw Aline was a giant walking pansy then Peri didn’t hold out much hope for the woman. And she seemed over-friendly with the Doctor. What had they been up to while she’d been stored away on the Valethske ship like a Thanksgiving turkey? They’d had plenty of time to become the best of chums. Now the Doctor was cradling her in his arms as she cried. Yuck.

  Peri turned away and went across the garden to where the creature was at work weeding a bed of blooms, a trowel-like appendage making flowing, precise movements. Flowers tending flowers. Cute, thought Peri, but what the hell was it all for? The purpose of flowers was to attract insects, the intermediaries of pollination. Peri bent and cupped one of the dark orange tulip-like blooms in her hand, putting her nose into its cool cup of petals and sniffing. No smell. No pollen. No point! There was a tap on her shoulder, and she looked up. The towering plant-creature loomed over her, its clicking tendrils gently easing her away from the flowerbed.

  ‘Hey, OK, I get the message,’ cried Peri, walking back to the others.

  They had spotted the creatures a few hours after they had left the hilltop forest and followed a long avenue of silvery-barked trees in the general direction of the strange castle-like thing. Melrose had wanted to make first contact but the Doctor had miraculously persuaded him to let Aline have a go.

  Much good she’d been.

  Aline had more or less recovered now and was standing by, arms folded, as Melrose and the Doctor argued again.

  Melrose’s face was flushed. ‘Clearly these - what did you say we should call them?’

  ‘Gardeners,’ said Aline with a smile and a glance at the Doctor.

  ‘These “Gardeners” pose no threat, and we can’t communicate with them. Therefore, they are of no interest to us. Therefore, we press on, to the structure we identified earlier.’

  He smiled without humour. ‘Do you agree, Doctor?’

  The Doctor’s eyes were wary, his words carefully chosen. ‘I agree that we should go on, but I don’t agree that these creatures are of no interest.’

  Melrose looked tired and impatient. ‘So we go on? Good.’ He turned away from the Doctor, heading back towards tile avenue of trees, motioning with his gun for the others to follow.

  They did. They had little choice. Behind Melrose’s back, Peri saw Athon flash a grin at Lt Meharg. The soldier grinned back with a warning glance in Melrose’s direction. Peri felt grimly satisfied. Just you wait, she thought. Or maybe she was just the type to be fooled by Athon’s unsubtle ways. Whatever, she was welcome to him.

  Peri caught up with the Doctor before Aline could chum up to him again. Unable to think of anything major to say, she said, ‘This place is weird.’

  ‘Weird and interesting, Peri, but only to the likes of us and Aline.’ He sighed, gaze scanning the seemingly endless colonnade of trees. ‘People like Melrose seem to have lost the capacity for wonder. I wonder...’

  The Doctor lapsed into silence for a while. Peri began to realise how tired she was. And hungry That bar of chocolate hadn’t nearly been enough. She felt hollow inside, and images of waffles swimming in syrup, hot dogs and ice-cream flitted about her head.

  ‘Wonder what?’ she asked the Doctor, half to take her mind off her rumbling tum and half out of curiosity.

  He spoke in low tones, so Melrose - or any of the others -

  couldn’t hear what he was saying. ‘Melrose is volatile, unpredictable. He thinks he’s in control of the situation but really he has no idea of what the situation is yet. He could jeopardise our lives. I’ve got to have one more try at getting through to him - and I’m afraid it’s time for shock tactics.’

  So saying, he left Peri’s side and fell into step with Melrose, smiling amiably at the soldier. Peri wondered what he had in mind. Behind Melrose, Lt Meharg - Lornay - was chatting freely with Athon, weapon held loosely by her side. She wouldn’t be a danger to them, mused Peri. Already she seemed to realise her old way of life lay far behind her, and her eyes had lost their haunted look.

  Peri let her gaze drift beyond her fellow travellers through the branches of the trees to the gardens beyond. So much -to see. Endless gardens of the most outlandish, fascinating plants. Sunflowers as tall as houses, their heads intent on the sun like radar dishes. Dense patches of gnarled, twisting bushes, bristling with thorns, dotted with berries as big as her fist. Plantations of trees, fruit dangling enticingly from their branches. And things that defied classification, baroque warpings of plant biology, strangely beautiful.

  Between each field or garden or orchard ran lanes of the now-familiar dark green grass, the occasional neatly trimmed hedgerow, and here and there Gardeners worked, tilling the soil, pruning leaves. In the distance Peri saw a new kind of Gardener, a many-legged thing that hugged the ground, bearing before it a wide mouth that worked at the grass. That explained the neatly cropped stems, thought Peri, wondering again what it was all for. Gardens were kept for pleasure, for walking in, for looking at. But there was no one here to enjoy the beauty of the flowerbeds, or to stroll along the avenues of trees. Except themselves. Were they the first ever visitors to this garden-world?

  Peri realised she’d fallen way behind, and forced her legs to speed her up, wincing with the effort. The avenue seemed endless, and her legs were aching badly. She truly felt her hundred and nineteen years. Marshalling her energies, Peri drew level with the Doctor and Melrose.

  One look at her flushed face was enough for the Doctor.

  ‘We’ll rest, we’ve been walking for quite a while now.’

  ‘I’m all right,’ said Peri, trying to avoid Melrose’s piercing stare, ‘really.’

  ‘No, you’re not,’ said the Doctor, gently leading her to the side of the avenue. She sank gratefully on to the grass, cool and springy in the shade, and leaned back against the smooth bark.

  Melrose gestured with the barrel of his gun into the patches of blue sky visible through the interlocking branches above.

  ‘We haven’t got time. The Valethske could turn up at any minute.’

  ‘Peri needs rest,’ said the Doctor, squaring up to Melrose.

  ‘So does Aline, so does Lt Meharg, and so do you. You were in suspended animation just like Peri. However well-trained you are, your body is going to need time to recover.’

  Melrose and the Doctor stood glaring at each other for a few seconds, and then with a nod of his jutting chin, Melrose turned away and sat down stiffly in the middle of the avenue, Valethske gun held across his lap.

  ‘As for you, Taiana, Athon, well, your physiology is more resilient than the basic human,’ he smiled apologetically down at Peri, ‘so please bear with us.’

  Taiana leaned against a tree and watched them sullenly from a patch of shadow. Athon sat down on the grass a hit too near Peri for her liking. He gave her a fleeting, h
opeful look which she crushed instantly with a stony glare. Lornay sat down right beside him, which seemed to cheer him up a little. Huh.

  A silence fell over the party, and once more Peri was struck by how quiet it was. No birdsong, no chirruping of insects, just the gentle whispering of the wind through the trees.

  There wasn’t even the usual feeling of being watched. The planet was ignoring them. That suited Peri. She suddenly felt heavy with sleep.

  ‘Can’t be far to that structure now Wonder what it is?’ the Doctor said breezily, trying to kick-start a conversation.

  Peri felt her eyelids closing and a blissful drowsiness started to seep through her body. Her hunger pangs receded to a bearable level. Through a dazy fuzz she heard the conversation weave around her.

  ‘Looked like a castle or a palace to me,’ said Athon.

  ‘No, it’s a ship,’ said Lornay. Her voice had a musical Celtic lilt. ‘A bio-organic chlorophyll-fuelled starship that’s gonna whisk us off this planet.’

  If only, thought Peri, beginning to half-dream about a giant flower-powered rocket.

  Aline’s calm voice drifted from nearby. ‘It’s neither.’

  ‘Ah, you have a theory!’ Peri heard the Doctor snap his fingers... and then she was asleep...

  ...but Athon’s voice jolted her awake again. He was almost shouting. ‘It’s far too big to be a tree!’

  Peri opened her eyes, shifted position. Trust him not to notice that she was asleep and keep quiet accordingly.

  ‘Perhaps it’s a city,’ said Lornay.

  Aline gave her a dark look. ‘I think my hypothesis is more likely, given what we’ve seen so far, don’t you?’

  Lornay glared at her.

  ‘A giant tree,’ said the Doctor. ‘Yes, that does seem likely.

  Doesn’t it, Peri?’

  ‘Yeah,’ muttered Peri. She felt too tired to care much about anything. ‘A giant tree. Must be.’

  She closed her eyes again, hungry for sleep.

  There was silence for a while, then the Doctor spoke.

  ‘Captain Melrose, you’ve yet to tell us of how you got captured by the Valethske!

  The tone of his voice told Peri he was up to something -

  perhaps the something he’d mentioned earlier - and she made herself stay awake to listen.

  Melrose sighed. ‘There’s not much to tell.’ He gazed off through the trees, as if searching the skyline for memories. ‘Is there, Lieutenant?’

  Lornay stared down at the grass, idly toying with the short, uniform stems. ‘No, sir.’ Her large blue eyes were framed by a tense frown as if she was trying hard not to remember.

  ‘Anything you can tell us about the Valethske might be of help,’ urged the Doctor.

  Melrose took a deep breath and began. ‘Korsair’s a military outpost, formed to police and protect the planets of the Thynemnus system. Colonists arriving all the time, lots of territorial and racial disputes. Without a strong military presence the whole system would have descended into chaos long ago.’

  ‘Racial disputes?’ asked the Doctor.

  Melrose nodded. ‘With the indigents. Some weren’t too hot on the idea of coexistence. We had to step in and pacify.’

  Peri recognised a euphemism when she heard one. ‘I hardly blame them.’

  Melrose’s blue eyes were cold. ‘I do. They get the best out of the deal - superior technology, our protection. Before we arrived they were just primitives grubbing about barely above subsistence level, ignorant of the potential of the worlds they eked out their lives upon.’

  The Doctor raised his eyebrows and looked down at Peri with a world-weary expression. He’d obviously heard a lot of crap like this in his long life. ‘Where do the Valethske fit in? Was their homeworld one of the planets earmarked for

  “pacification”?’

  Melrose shook his head, picking a blade of grass and rolling it between his fingers. ‘No.’

  ‘No one knows where the Valethske homeworld is,’ put in Aline. ‘Or even if they still have one.’

  ‘Right.’ Melrose continued. ‘I was overseeing a dispute on one of the newest colonies. The indigents - a bunch of filthy boar-like creatures - had started attacking the colonists. No deaths as yet, but I took a squad in, just to keep the lid on things. We’d been there barely a day when the Valethske turned up. Hit us when we least expected it. Took all the colonists and many of the indigents prisoner, had a big feast that night.’

  Peri noticed that Lornay kept her eyes fixed on the ground, her face white, mouth slightly open, reliving the events Melrose was relating.

  Melrose closed his eyes. ‘I can still see the fires, Valethske cavorting around them, my troopers... Good men and women...

  torn apart. Sometimes, they’d use - instead of with each other -’

  Melrose’s face writhed in a sudden, uncontrollable spasm of disgust. When it was over his eyes were wide, imploring. ‘You’ve got to understand, there’s no bargaining with the Valethske. To t hem, we’re just prey. Walking lumps of meat. Nothing more. So if you’re thinking of trying to negotiate with them to get your ship back - forget it.’

  The Doctor looked uneasy. ‘We’ll see about that.’

  ‘No,’ Melrose leaned forward, stabbing a finger at the Doctor to emphasise his words. ‘Forget it. They won’t care. You are just meat.’

  ‘They spared you and Lornay, though,’ put in Peri.

  Lornay looked up suddenly, dark shadows under her eyes, face pinched in anger. ‘I’d rather they’d have killed me.’

  Melrose leaned towards her. ‘Easy now, Lieutenant -

  remember you’re a soldier.’

  Lornay blinked, wiped her face with small hands, trying to control herself. ‘I’m sorry,’ she gasped through sudden tears.

  ‘It’s just - the things I’ve seen -’ she lapsed into silence.

  Athon folded a long arm around her.

  Melrose appeared to let this pass, for the moment. His eyes were chips of blue in his reddish-pink face. ‘Oh, they “spared”

  some of us all right. Froze us for later.’ He leaned forward, looking from the Doctor to Aline to Peri as he spoke. ‘I’ve worked out what they’re doing - they’re on some immense voyage across the galaxy, looking for a new homeworld, and they need to keep stopping off to restock with meat every now and then.

  Meat - meaning us. Taiana spoke up. ‘Perhaps this is it, their new homeworld. A garden for them to play in.’ Her voice was bitter and sarcastic, the first time Peri had heard any emotion in her voice.

  The Doctor gazed through the trees to the gardens beyond.

  ‘I sincerely hope not. But why would they choose to come here, where there’s no meat at all?’

  ‘Except us,’ said Peri.

  The Doctor shot her an admonishing glance. ‘Yes, well, I don’t think we actually need to be continually reminded of that, Peri.’

  Peri felt embarrassed and looked away. She heard the Doctor address Melrose again.

  ‘Tell me, when did all this happen? I mean, which year?’

  Melrose frowned. ‘Well, 2594.’

  ‘Ah,’ Said the Doctor, with a warning look at Taiana, who looked as if she was about to speak. ‘How long do you think the Valethske kept you and the lieutenant on ice?’

  A shadow passed over Melrose’s face. ‘Couple of years, maybe more - ten, at most.’

  The Doctor shook his head. ‘Captain Melrose, it was over five hundred years ago.’

  Melrose opened his mouth, but no words came out. He stood up, gun swinging from left hand. With his other hand he reached out, fingers splayed, grasping at air. ‘Five hundred years?’

  ‘It’s true,’ Said Taiana. ‘It’s been a century since Athon, Peri and I were taken.’

  Lornay looked at Peri, eyes wide in shock. ‘This true?’

  Peri nodded, trying to look and sound reassuring. ‘I’m afraid it is.’

  Melrose’s eyes were pleading. ‘Doctor, you’re joking - please tell me you’re joking.
’

  ‘Does it look like we’re joking?’ said Aline. ‘The Doctor’s right, believe it.’

  Melrose shook his head. Peri could see a sudden breakout of sweat on his pink, lined brow. ‘Korsair command... the colonies...’

  The Doctor stepped towards him. ‘Now take it easy - the main thing is, you’re alive.’

  ‘What’s the point?’ yelled Melrose suddenly, his cultured tones rising in a strangled yell. ‘What’s the bloody point?’

  Peri rose to her feet as everyone began to back away from Melrose. Everyone except the Doctor. Peri realised that this was it, the time had come, the time the Doctor had been worried about: when Melrose gunned them all down in a moment of madness. Why the hell had the Doctor told him the date? Didn’t he guess it would unhinge Melrose?

  The Doctor approached Melrose, talking soothingly, trying to calm him. But with a roar, Melrose raised the gun and loosed a bolt of energy at the canopy of leaves above them. Peri ducked as scorched plant material floated down around her like surreal confetti.

  In the silent, stunned aftermath of the gunshot, Melrose spoke. ‘No one follow me. Not even you, Lieutenant.’

  ‘Where are you going?’ asked the Doctor.

  Melrose’s eyes glittered. ‘To find the truth.’

  ‘What truth?’

  ‘The truth about what’s going on here.’

  ‘I’ve been telling you the truth,’ the Doctor shouted.

  ‘He has,’ added Peri.

  ‘No.’ Melrose was emphatic. He panned the gun in an arc covering all the party. ‘I’m going now. No one follow me.’

  With that, he turned and ran from the avenue of trees, disappearing into a thick growth of fern-like plants.

  The Doctor and Lornay both started after him.

  ‘No, stay here with the others - I’ll see if I can reason with him.’ Then the Doctor was gone, haring through the ferns after Melrose.