by Nick Walters
He looked around frantically for somewhere to run - but there! was nowhere.
He turned back to his captive, raining punches down on it -
but still it laughed. Tears of frustration welled up in his eyes -
this wasn’t how he was supposed to die!
He screamed as thorned tentacles wrapped around him, digging into him, tearing, ripping. He fell to the ground, his body seeming to disappear into separate bursts of pain. The sun disappeared behind a mass of writhing tentacles. He couldn’t breathe; blood gurgled in his throat.
Only three Valethske. He’d only managed to kill three.
As he died, Melrose hoped that the plant-creatures would get the rest.
Chapter Eighteen
Sacrifice
Peri slumped to her knees and dropped the shovel. Her back was on fire with pain and she ached where she never even realised she had muscles. Through the blood roaring in her ears, she could hear the thrumming of the excavator machine, the yelps and barks of the Valethske - and footsteps, heading towards her.
She gritted her teeth. Now she was unfit to work, they’d find other uses for her. She could already feel their teeth sinking into her flesh.
Hands on her shoulders, then moving underneath, hauling her to her feet.
She opened her eyes. Athon.
‘You must carry on working, Peri. If you stop...’
He looked the most together Peri had seen him since their capture. She rubbed her aching arms, eyeing the muscles that bulged beneath his uniform. ‘That’s easy for you to say.’
‘Come on.’ Athon handed the shovel back to her.
She took it with a weary groan.
His mouth trembled. ‘I don’t want to see you die. I couldn’t stand it.’
So his concern was for selfish reasons. Just like the old Athon.
But Peri didn’t remonstrate with him - instead she managed a brief smile. ‘Yeah, well, you might not have any choice in the matter.’
Then his expression changed, eyes widening in fear and looking over Peri’s shoulder.
Peri whirled round to see a Valethske stalking up to them.
It was the one that had shot the Doctor - the one that had shot her.
Peri held the shovel across her chest, as if to ward off the approaching hunter.
It raised a hand. Peri saw that it was like a human hand, only with three fingers and a thumb; the palm was a pad of glossy grey - black flesh, and from the ends of the furred fingers, sharp claws protruded. ‘Get back to work,’ it said in gruff tones. ‘I cannot vouch for your safety - these hunters lust continually after meat!’
‘And what about you?’ said Peri, defiance welling up within her. ‘Aren’t you hankering to take a bite out of us?’
She heard Athon catch his breath, felt his restraining hand on her shoulder. She shook it off and glared at him.
The Valethske stood above her. ‘I am the Hunt Marshal, responsible for this pack of hunters. I must set an example, not fall to temptation.’ A pink tongue ran over black lips, and blue-white teeth glinted. ‘Believe me, it is not easy.’
‘I get it,’ said Peri. ‘You can’t harm us or you’ll lose the TARDIS.’ Getting bolder, she pressed the Hunt Marshal for information. ‘Where’s the Doctor? And what the hell is all this for?’ She indicated the excavator and monorail with a tired sweep of her arm.
The hunter’s ears twitched and it blinked, surprised at Peri’s audacity. Before it could answer, a commotion broke out on the far side of the excavation pit. The Hunt Marshal swivelled round, tail scuffing against Peri’s legs. Peri had time to notice that it was similar to a fox’s brush, only thinner and shorter, its end tapering to a black spike of fur.
Then suddenly a wavering scream cut across the hum of the machinery.
Flayoun - Burzka!’ hissed the Hunt Marshal, loping across to where -
Taiana -
Peri heard Athon let out a cry of anguish.
She began to run forwards, but stopped as she realised there was nothing she could do to help.
Taiana was buried beneath a mass of Valethske, their black-tipped tails questing in the air as they fed. She could see Taiana’s arm raised to fend them off, watched helplessly as a hunter sank its teeth into it. She could hear Taiana’s voice, a low, shuddering moan fading to an unrecognisable gurgle. A hunter flung something wet and dark into the air, another leapt to catch it, jaws wide. Yet another had its teeth locked around her throat. More tussled with her thrashing legs, tearing great welts in the uniform and the flesh beneath.
The Hunt Marshal had reached the feasting hunters and was screeching at them to stop.
Peri shook her head, mesmerised by the scene. It would be her turn next. She couldn’t move. She felt something tugging at her uniform. Athon. ‘Now’s our chance - they’re not watching us.’
It was true - all the Valethske in and around the excavation pit were fixed on the gruesome scene.
Peri found herself tumbling after Athon towards the excavator. There was a square door in its side, secured by a locking wheel. His muscles bulging beneath his uniform, Athon spun the wheel, looking fearfully over his shoulder. With a hiss the door opened and he thrust Peri through.
Peri found herself on a narrow gantry, sandwiched between the Inner and outer walls of the machine. There was barely enough room to turn around. Dim light spilled from grimy bulbs spaced along the outer wall. The air was thick and greasy, the walls and floor vibrating.
‘What do we do now?’ she cried over the noise.
After his brief burst of action, Athon was once again a cowering child. ‘I - I don’t know!’
Peri looked around. This was obviously some sort of access point. She figured the Valethske were after something that lay underground, so there must be a way for them to climb down the bore. Peri tried to imagine what was happening beneath her, wishing she knew more about drilling and mining.
Obviously the drill-head would be remote, carving a shaft through which the Valethske could descend. Peri ran along the gantry, her legs almost giving way beneath her. Soon she found what she was looking for - a ladder.
She turned to speak to Athon, but he wasn’t there. Athon!’
she called.
He hurried around the curving wall, zipping up a pocket on his uniform, a distracted look on his face.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing, nothing... they’ll soon be after us.’
Peri started down the ladder. It was hard going. As well as fatigue making her head swim, her arms and legs feeling like they were going to drop off, the ladder was made for Valethske and it’s rungs were widely spaced. Peri had to place each foot with precision, stretching her aching legs. She began to sweat, droplets falling from her face into the blackness below.
Above her, Athon was descending with greater ease and she had to work fast to keep out of his way.
The Valethske must have noticed that they were gone. They must have finished with Taiana by now. Peri felt too tired to grieve for the Eknuri woman.
Soon they reached a second gantry, and Peri rested gratefully.
Below, the metal walls of the machine gave way to glistening black earth. In the midst of the shaft, a thick network of cable and tubes descended into darkness, from which the drill-head screamed. Peri looked back up, realising that they had only com a short way down, through the initial stages of the machine itself.’ How much further the drill-head had penetrated, she had no way of knowing. And short of shinning down the cables in the middle of the shaft - which she couldn’t reach anyway - there seemed to be no way to climb down.
Peri fought down a wave of panic. They’d been stupid, running blindly into probably even greater danger. But what choice did they have? To end up like Taiana...
Athon had noticed this too. ‘We’re trapped. They’re going to climb down after us and kill us.’ A sob squeezed itself wetly out of him.
‘Hey, calm down,’ soothed Peri. ‘They need us alive, remember. If they kill us
, the Doctor won’t let them have the TARDIS.’
It sounded feeble to her and made no impression on Athon.
‘They’ll just kill him as well and take it anyway!’ he moaned. He was probably right. She tried another tack. ‘You’ve done well, getting us this far.’ She managed a smile. ‘You’re not the total coward I took you for.’
His dark eyes were full of pain, his mouth twisted in an ugly grimace. ‘But I am, I am,’ he wailed. ‘I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.’
He was bordering on hysterics again. Peri began to realise that as long as he was doing something - shovelling crud for the Valethske, clambering down into the depths of the planet
- he seemed to be OK. She needed to find something for him to do, to take his mind off the situation.
Giving Athon a reassuring pat, she set off around the gantry, searching for something, anything, some clue as to what this was all for. Perhaps the Valethske were digging for oil... no, that made no sense. Above her head, spaced evenly around the walls, were cylinders of tightly bunched cable.
Beneath them, racks of harnesses. From the reels, the cable ran along an arm which jutted out over the drop.
Peri called to Athon. ‘Hey, come here!’
She picked up a harness and chucked it at him.
He caught it, blinking slowly.
‘Strap yourself in - we’re going abseiling!’
Veek grabbed Flayoun’s shoulder and hauled him away from the carcass. Fool! We need them alive!’
Flayoun glared at her, no trace of guilt in his yellow-green eyes. He tossed her a length of intestine. Veek let it slap against her breastplate and fall to the muddy floor. The other hunters backed away from the stripped carcass.
Veek sighed. She could hardly blame them. ‘Get back to your positions!’ she snarled. ‘The Vale Commander shall hear of this.’
Suddenly she remembered the other two humans and whirled round. They were nowhere to be seen.
She dashed over to where she had stood conversing with the small dark-haired female, eyes scanning the ground for tracks. There - they led to one of the access hatches in the side of the excavator.
Flayoun appeared at her side, ears flat against his head in apology. ‘If they have entered the machine, there is no escape.’
A technician called out from the machine’s monitoring post, a plinth set into the earth, cables snaking from it to the side of the excavator. ‘Success! The drill-head is chewing air - we’re through!’
Veek strode across to the technician, roaring. ‘Stop the machine!’
The technician’s hands flicked switches and the distant rumble of the drill-head subsided. Soon the only noise was the throaty whine of the extractor fans.
‘The humans have escaped into the guts of this planet,’
hissed Veek.
Flayoun licked his lips, eager to make up for his lapse. ‘We had better get after them.’
Veek nodded, beckoning to three of the hunters to follow her, and loped towards the now-silent machine. ‘Take weapons - but shoot to wound only. The Vale Commander wants this prey alive.’ Veek gnashed her teeth. They all thought she was doing her duty, out of loyalty to Kikker. But she had other, more personal reasons for wanting the prey intact. Like Kikker, she wanted the secret of time travel, but not for the glory of the Valethske...
The Doctor stopped walking. ‘Take me to my friends. Now.’
The Vale Guard in front of him turned, extending its arm so the muzzle of its blaster rested on the bridge of the Doctor’s nose.
‘Keep walking, prey!’
The Doctor moved the gun out of the way. ‘I can hardly comply with that thing up my nose, now can I?’
The Vale Guard lowered its gun, blinking.
The other Vale Guard prodded him in the back with the muzzle of its gun. ‘No questions. Keep moving.’
But the Doctor remained standing where he was, arms folded, staring intently at the maze of conduits and pipes that wound their way along the ceiling.
The first Vale Guard reached out, seized the Doctor’s arm and sent him spinning against the wall. ‘You will obey!’
The Doctor rubbed his shoulder. ‘Your Vale Commander needs me alive. If you kill me, he won’t be pleased.’
The Vale Guards looked at each other.
‘You’re not proper hunters, are you? You’re just Kikker’s lapdogs!’
The first Vale Guard, who was more quick-tempered than his companion, stepped forwards to cuff the Doctor, but the other, a more taciturn beast, restrained it.
‘We will be hunters, when we come of age,’ said the second Guard. ‘We will undergo the Ten Trials of Azreske, and -’
‘Oh, I’m not interested in all your rites and ceremonies.’ He fixed the Guards with an earnest stare. ‘But think, when will you ever come of age? In the centuries you’ve been travelling, you’ve probably only aged a few months. You’re doomed never to become hunters, to always be slaves!’
The first Vale Guard, who had a limited attention span, had started picking his teeth halfway through the Doctor’s speech; but its fellow had taken it all in.
‘Your words are heresy!’ it growled.
‘Hardly surprising, since I’m not one of you,’ the Doctor groaned.
‘We’ve wasted enough time here,’ said the second Guard.
‘You must be put in the long sleep.’
The first Vale Guard had completed its oral hygiene. ‘Move!’
it bellowed, brandishing its blaster.
The Doctor stood firm. ‘No. Not until you take me to see my friends.’
The second Guard holstered its gun and cracked its finger-bones. ‘Then we will break your arms and legs. They might heal during the long sleep.’
The Doctor backed against the wall as the two Valethske bore down on him.
As Peri helped Athon fasten his harness she realised that the distant screaming of the drill-head had stopped.
‘What can that mean?’ said Athon.
Peri swallowed, looking up. Could she already hear faint sounds of pursuit? ‘It means we’ve gotta hurry up.’
She sat on the edge of the gantry, legs dangling above the drop. Warm air surged past her, caressing her face. This has got to be what the Valethske intended to do, she told herself. They were after something beneath the surface of the Garden - maybe the thing the Doctor had spoken about, that had taken Aline...
She shied away from that line of thought. If they were after some as yet unspecified thing below, the shaft must lead somewhere. Right?
Right. She looked across at Athon, who was sitting on the opposite side of the shaft, just visible beyond the central mass of tubes. ‘Ready?’
He nodded, dark shadows under his eyes.
‘Right.’ she’d not been totally correct - this wasn’t abseiling, more like mechanically assisted bungee-jumping. The cable was attached to the back of the harness, and the rate of descent could be controlled from a small panel in the breastplate.
‘I’ll go first, you watch me, OK?’
Athon nodded again. The Valethske-sized harness fitted him well but, even with the straps done up tightly, Peri’s felt dangerously roomy. She knew that for any climbing activity you had to be strapped in real tight for safety. But what choice did she have? She craned her neck and checked the cable, which led from the reel in the wall through the arm mechanism and down to where it was tethered in the harness at the small of her back.
Holding her breath, she slid off the edge of the gantry, feeling the harness bite into her underarms and groin. She swung into the middle of the shaft, kicking her feet out to butt against the tubes in the middle.
She swung back again, looking around for Athon. ‘Go on, it’s perfectly safe.’
He heard him grunt, then cry out in surprise. There was a metallic clang as he hit the tubes and she saw his flailing arms and legs.
‘Stay calm! Now let’s try out the controls.’
She looked down at her panel, trying to ignore th
e spinning view of her own legs, the shaft and the silver tubes descending into darkness. She hoped she’d got it right - there was a red arrow which clearly meant ‘down’ and a black button which equally clearly meant ‘stop’. Or so she hoped.
Other buttons, she presumed, controlled the rate of descent.
Well, she’d soon find out.
She gritted her teeth and pressed the red button. Nothing happened for a few seconds, then there was a whine of machinery from above her and with a jolt she began to descend. She looked up. The cable was paying out slowly, making a sibilant grating noise as it slid through the arm mechanism.
She just hoped there was enough of it to reach the bottom of the shaft - whatever else they were, the Valethske seemed to be good engineers, so she was probably OK. She looked down between her legs, the updraught rippling and thwacking against her loose garments. Was that a faint green light far below?
She looked across at Athon. She could see the top of his head as he hung from the cable.
‘You OK?’
He swung his legs down, bringing himself upright in a balletic movement. For one brief moment there was a gleam of enjoyment his eyes. Then he looked up, fear returning to his face. They’re coming!’
Peri looked up too. The gantry was a circle of silvery light, surprisingly far away. Peri could hear the clamour of pursuit, booted footsteps on ladder rungs.
We’re gonna have to speed up.’ Her fingers fiddled with the control panel, hesitating over a likely-looking blue symbol.
Holding her breath, she pressed it - and immediately began to descend at a faster speed.
‘The blue symbol!’ she called out to Athon.
It was definitely getting lighter; a green glow suffused everything. She looked down. Between her booted feet, there was rough circle of green light framed by the end of the shaft. She could see the serrated bulk of the drill-head, its churnings now stilled, hanging like a giant silver fist.
