by Nick Walters
Peri was about to run after when a hand gripped her shoulder.
She turned to see Taiana’s dark face. She was shaking her head. ‘You heard what he said. We’d better stay here.’ Her golden eyes for once showed a glimmer of fear, and Peri realised how traumatised the Eknuri woman was. Who knew what dark images flickered behind that smooth brow?
‘OK,’ said Peri, deciding to give in for the moment.
‘All I want to do is find civilisation and use it to get back home.’ Taiana turned and stalked off to stand with Athon.
Chapter Twelve
Forbidden Fruit
Peri walked over to Lornay, who was standing staring at the ferns still settling into place after the Doctor and Melrose’s departure.
‘Are you OK?’
‘Yeah, I’ll be fine.’ She shook her head. ‘The way he looked at me, as if he didn’t know me any more.’
‘Has he done this sort of thing before?’ Aline had joined them.
‘No, never. He never cracked, not even when the Valethske...’
Lornay’s mouth worked in agitation. Then she looked up at Peri. Her frown framed an expression of dawning realisation, as if she had just woken from a bad dream. ‘I ought to get after my Captain - ah what the hell. He’s old enough and ugly enough to look after himself.’
‘So’s the Doctor,’ muttered Peri. ‘Well - he’s not ugly but you wouldn’t believe how old he is!’
Lornay smiled briefly, revealing tiny, pearl-white teeth. Then she stared at Peri, her expression suddenly challenging. ‘Oh yeah? I’ve had to believe a lot of weird shit today. So try me!’
In that moment Peri saw that Lornay wasn’t the type to crack under pressure. She was just a grunt, paid to take orders, not to think. Paid to kill in the name of ‘keeping the peace’. The sort of person the Doctor - and by association Peri herself - should cross any gulf of time and space to avoid.
Oddly, though, Peri found that she quite liked the young soldier - she couldn’t be that much older than herself, Valethske interference notwithstanding.
In contrast Aline remained a distant, forbidding figure. Peri wouldn’t have minded chatting to the xenologist about her experiences, but there was something in her eyes that gave Peri the creeps. Something about the way she stood, as if she wasn’t listening to their conversation, but to something else, something that none of them but Aline could hear.
With enthusiasm, Peri told Lornay about the Doctor and the TARDIS, enjoying seeing the young soldier’s eyes bug out in amazement. Peri noticed Athon lurking nearby, blatantly eavesdropping, but she ignored him.
‘You’re mad,’ said Lornay when she’d finished. ‘Or I’m mad.’
she laughed. Then she shrieked as Athon crept up and grabbed her from behind, lifting her off her feet.
Exchanging a wry glance with Taiana, Peri turned away, her gaze running along the line of smooth, silver-grey trunks to a field beyond, a regular square of the usual dark grass, with a hundred or so small, pink-leafed trees, evenly spaced and well tended as usual, their branches almost touching the ground, heavily freighted with large yellow fruit. Three Gardeners towered over the trees, taking fruit in their many-fingered hands, twisting it from the stems and dropping it inside their flower-like mouths, where it disappeared soundlessly.
What were they doing? Were they eating it? Peri felt her eyes drawn to the fruit. She suddenly remembered how ravenous she was.
‘Hey, Lornay,’ she called out. ‘You hungry?’
Lornay came over. ‘I’ve been tryin’ to ignore it, but yeah.’
‘You’re not thinking of eating some of the fruit, are you?’
Aline’s voice was unwelcomingly harsh.
‘Why not?’ said Peri, moving off towards the trees. ‘I’ve got to eat something soon or I’ll just pass out.’
‘I don’t advise it said Aline, stepping in front of Peri, barring her way. ‘We’ve no idea what that fruit actually is - it may contain alien toxins.’
Peri didn’t like the tone of her voice one bit. ‘Aren’t you hungry, though?’
‘I may be, but I’m also intelligent.’
The two women stood glaring at each other for a few seconds, at impasse.
Then Lornay said, ‘Let her pass.’
Aline shook her head vigorously, more of her black hair coming loose. ‘Has everyone gone mad? This fruit is alien. It could be poisonous. It could kill you!’
Lornay levelled her gun at Aline. ‘And so could I.’
Peri bit her lip. Things had gone too far too quickly. But would Lornay really shoot? She couldn’t risk it. ‘Aline, if I were you I’d do as she says.’
Aline stared at Lornay, but backed off, hands raised. ‘All right, go ahead, but I want no part of this.’
Lornay walked out from the avenue of trees down the small incline to the orchard. Peri followed, her hunger still insistent, but now tainted with unease.
She looked back to see Aline striding off up the avenue, and Taiana and Athon standing watching from the edge of the trees. Ignoring Athon, Peri called. ‘Hey, Taiana, you coming?’
‘I can control the enzymes in my gastric tract for much longer before I require food.’ called Taiana.
‘Suit yourself,’ muttered Peri and hurried to join Lornay in the orchard. The trees weren’t very tall - the three Gardeners towered over them. Lornay was standing by the nearest tree, gun lying on the grass beside her. She reached out and cupped one of the large yellow fruit in her hands, and just stood there.
Peri walked up and asked her why she was hesitating.
With a jerk of her head Lornay indicated the petalled head of a nearby Gardener rising above the enmeshed branches of the trees. ‘Those things give me the creeps. They’re watchin’
us.’
‘They don’t even know we’re here,’ said Peri. She didn’t care if they did. All she cared about was eating, making her hunger go away.
The fruit looked even more succulent close up. She could almost hear it speaking to her: ‘Pick me.’ Peri reached out for the fruit, cupping its powdery-yellow skin in her hand, relishing its heavy coolness. Its stout pear-shape gave slightly as she squeezed it gently; it felt nice and ripe, and from the tree on which it hung heavily along with dozens of others like it, a creamy, musty aroma curled around Peri’s head, intoxicating her.
‘Are you sure about this?’ said Lornay.
‘Nope,’ muttered Peri, intent on the fruit, fingers running up towards the thick woody stem. God, she had to eat, even if it was poison. In a moment of delirious abandon, mouth watering like crazy, Peri twisted the pear-like fruit from the branch. She raised it to her mouth ready to take a big, satisfying bite, when Lornay yelled out.
‘Holy shit!’
All at once there was an urgent thrashing as something moved through the trees towards her.
Lornay grabbed Peri’s hand, dashing the fruit to the floor.
The three Gardeners were moving swiftly through the trees like giants wading through a leafy sea, their appendages flailing and clicking, an unearthly hissing emanating from their flower-like heads.
Peri backed away towards the avenue of trees. The Gardeners didn’t look so inoffensive now, their appendages flailing like whipcords. In a few strides they were almost upon the two women.
With a cry, Lornay brought her weapon to bear and fired, hitting the leading Gardener at the point where its head met its body. The flower-like head exploded in a burst of pale flame, but the rest of it kept advancing, stilt-like legs carrying it tottering towards Peri.
Lornay fired again, blasting the central body of the Gardener.
It exploded into flames, crashing to the ground amidst a tangle of twitching limbs.
The other two Gardeners paused in their advance.
And then Lornay fired again, and again, until the two creatures were charred, sticky masses of appendages, petals and vegetable mulch. From their remains rose a sweet sickly smell.
Lornay stood panting hard, gun still he
ld at the ready.
Peri grabbed her and dragged her back towards the others, who must have seen it all. Aline’s face was a pale mask of disapproval. Peri couldn’t meet her gaze.
‘I don’t think there was any need for that,’ said the xenologist. ‘You saw those things - they were gonna kill us,’
said Lornay. Aline turned away. ‘Oh, here comes the Doctor.’
The Doctor came up to them. He was breathing hard, and his face was flushed.
‘Any sign of the Captain?’ asked Lornay.
The Doctor shook his head. ‘No. Nothing, I’m afraid. He’s lost himself somewhere in this tamed wilderness.’
Lornay swore.
The Doctor frowned at her but made no comment. ‘My guess is that he’s gone back to the shuttle.’
‘Then I’d better get after him!’ Lornay made as if to run off, but Athon held her back.
‘That’s just a guess,’ said the Doctor. ‘Our safest bet is to stick together. Let Melrose come to terms with things on his own.’
Then he sniffed the air. ‘What’s that smell?’ His gaze drifted beyond Peri and to the charred remains of the three Gardeners.
‘Oh no,’ he breathed. ‘What happened here?’
Aline went to speak but before she could say a word, Peri cut in.
‘It’s my fault, Doctor.’ She explained what had happened, watching the Doctor’s face darken in a disapproving frown. When she finished, she bit her lip. The last thing she needed was a lecture from the Doctor.
But instead he turned to Lornay. ‘There was no need to kill them! They wouldn’t have harmed you.’
‘How do you know?’ The skin around Lornay’s mouth hardened in anger and her blue eyes glittered. ‘You weren’t here, you didn’t see those things turn nasty.’
‘They could have some sort of defensive capability,’ put in Aline. ‘Barbs, thorns, poison...’
The Doctor’s face had that look of hurt disapproval, mouth slightly sucked in and eyebrows raised. ‘You mean you approve of this?’
Aline’s gaze flicked over to the cremated Gardeners and back to the Doctor. ‘No. But I can understand why Lornay acted as she did.’
The Doctor took his hat out from his inside pocket and jammed It over his fair hair, shading his eyes from view. ‘So can I.’ His tone did not indicate approval.
Peri’s stomach chose that moment to let out a strangulated gargle of hunger, clearly audible to everyone. The Doctor strode off down the slope.
‘Sorry, all right?’ she called after him, exchanging an exasperated glance with Lornay. All very well for the Doctor to take the high moral ground when he hadn’t been there.
The Doctor had reached the edge of the orchard. ‘There’s no need to apologise for feeling hungry, Peri.’
‘I wasn’t!’ She glared at the back of his head. ‘I don’t know...’ Aline went to move towards the Doctor but Peri held her back. The woman gave her a look of total surprise, which made Peri feel even more angry. If anyone was going to make up with the Doctor, it was going to be Peri, not this cuckoo in the nest.
‘He’s right, you know. There was no need to kill them. A few warning shots would have sufficed.’
‘Yeah, we get it,’ said Peri, dismissing Aline, resenting the way she was siding with the Doctor.
He stood with his back to them all, hands in his pockets.
Peri could tell from his posture that he was deep in thought.
‘We’ve got to eat, and soon,’ said Lornay in a low voice. ‘Any more of those choc bars?’ she added hopefully.
‘You ate them all back at the forest,’ said the Doctor. He sighed. ‘I should have brought more from the TARDIS. But then I hadn’t banked on losing the old girl.’
‘More to the point, we’re going to need water.’
As soon as Aline mentioned it Peri realised how sand-dry her throat felt, how cracked her lips were when she ran a parched tongue over them.
The Doctor turned back towards them. He spoke in stilted tones. ‘Fortunately, fruit will stave off hunger and contains enough fluid to keep thirst at bay.’
He walked stiffly over to the orchard, giving the scorched Gardeners a wide berth, and plucked a fruit from the nearest tree.
Peri started down the slope after him, looking around fearfully for any Gardeners. But there were none to be seen.
She saw the Doctor take a big bite out of the yellow fruit and she came to a halt, hand flying to her mouth.
The Doctor chewed, a contemplative look on his face, and then swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing above the collar of his cricket shirt.
Then he smiled. ‘We Time Lords have extremely well developed palates - we can detect even the smallest amounts of toxins in foodstuffs.’ He held out the fruit to Peri, with a sad glance over at the Gardeners. ‘This is perfectly safe.’
She took it from him, its warm syrupy juice staining her fingers.
‘I suggest you all take your fill before more Gardeners arrive,’ he called to the others. He leaned towards Peri, eyes shining from the strip of shade beneath his hat-brim. ‘There’ll be no more killing, not if I can help it.’
He strode off back to the avenue of trees, passing the others who were running down the slope - even, Peri saw with a wry smile, Athon and Taiana; so much for enzymes or whatever.
Peri’s stomach growled again. She brought the dripping fruit up to her face and buried her teeth in its flesh, closing her eyes with the sheer pleasure of it, and took a big, grateful bite.
Chapter Thirteen
Inside the Tree
Dusk was falling by the time they neared the tree. Or rather, Tree - something of such size deserved at least one capital letter, thought Aline. The sun was a pale orange ball sinking slowly below the horizon, the darkening sky revealing a twinkling vista of stars. Aline felt a sense of humbling awe when she realised hers were among the first human eyes to gaze upon these constellations. Something she had never lost, even in her darkest days, was her sense of wonder. It was what had got her started on her path, from student to lecturer to renowned xenologist - to her Encounter. And now this strange world, with its mysterious presence she had fleetingly detected. Could she be on the verge of a second Encounter? Her mind balked at the idea, but the seeds of fear were there, churning in her stomach along with the alien fruit.
In front of her, the others walked in a ragged line. Taiana seemed lost without her servitors. She hardly said a word to anyone, and seemed totally unimpressed by her surroundings.
Athon and Lornay were shadows in the darkness ahead, moving close together, almost touching. To Aline’s amusement but not to her great surprise, they had struck up a friendship that had strengthened since Melrose’s abrupt departure. They made a strange couple: Athon was a living statue, Lornay was a sprite. The Doctor was conjecturing about the possible origins of the planet they had named, by consensus, simply ‘the Garden’.
‘It’s interesting, you know.’ He was gazing at the orb of the setting sun. ‘It’s very similar to Earth’s.’
‘Luckily for us,’ muttered Peri. ‘Or we’d fry. That or freeze.
‘Indeed,’ said the Doctor. ‘Maybe it’s artificial, as the Garden seems to be. Which means that whoever built all this had considerable power.’
‘A race of skilled astro-engineers with green fingers?’
chipped in Aline, grinning at the image.
The Doctor smiled at her, but his eyes held a different expression, questioning. ‘Maybe. I wonder if they’re still around?’ Aline held up both hands, the leather jacket creaking. ‘Don’t ask me.’
Peri made a moue, as if she thought Aline was putting on an air, but of course she didn’t know about the Encounter, or indeed anything about Aline.
But the Doctor said softly, ‘I won’t. But do tell me at once if you sense anything.’
Aline nodded, though she doubted she would. Since the hilltop forest, she hadn’t ‘sensed’ anything and was beginning to doubt if she ever had.
As t
he daylight faded, the plants began to glow with their own inner light. It was beautiful, calming, this strange silent world of luminous plants under a sky crazed with distant, alien stars. Aline began to feel as if she was walking through a dream world, an entrancing land found only in children’s stories.
She saw in the Doctor’s open face, his contemplative silence, that he shared her sense of wonder. ‘It’s hard to believe we’re in any danger at all,’ she said.
The Doctor’s expression hardened, his lower lip sliding over the upper, giving him a look of defiance. ‘Even so, we are,’ he said, keeping his voice low. He sighed and looked up at the stars.
‘Somewhere up there, my TARDIS is in the hands of the Valethske.’
‘You’re not hoping they’re going to come here?’ said Peri. The fear in her voice was plain. ‘They’re hardly likely to hand it over, are they?’
Aline saw him put an arm around her shoulder, and look away to the glowing trees, as if searching for inspiration. ‘They can’t know what it is. We’ll get it back. Somehow.’
Peri didn’t look reassured. Aline didn’t blame her.
The young girl was keeping her distance from Athon, for some reason, darting him the odd look of obvious hatred.
Didn’t take a genius to work out what had happened there.
Despite his surface geniality and air of innocence, Athon was no gentleman, unlike the Doctor. Aline could quite see why Peri hung around with him. He generated an easy-going atmosphere of friendliness that wasn’t intimate and was therefore non-threatening. The perfect platonic relationship. Except humans also needed non-platonic relationships. What if Time Lords needed human company, for some reason? Perhaps the Doctor needed to vicariously live through Peri’s experiences. Did Time Lords know anything of love? Aline realised that she was already beginning to mentally map out her paper on Time Lords. Whatever kept her sane.
Not far ahead now, the giant Tree loomed, a spiky silhouette against the darkening blue, framed in the receding perspective of the avenue of lesser silver-barked trees. Aline had been right
