Doctor Who: Festival of Death: 50th Anniversary Edition (19 page)

‘Hello,’ said the Doctor, giving the coffin’s occupant a friendly pat. ‘Now don’t you worry, soon have you up and about in no time.’

He unfastened the coupling to the necroport, and slammed every switch to the ‘on’ position.

All of the lizard’s muscles became taut, its body twisting backwards, and it started shaking, the force of the convulsions almost flinging it out of the coffin. Blue sparks crackled across the metalwork.

A scream rose from the creature’s throat, the pitch wobbling in time to its spasms. ‘Freak me! Freak me!’

The Doctor turned every switch off, lifted the headset off the reptile and threw it clattering to the floor.

The reptile slumped back into its casket. Steam coiled upwards from its becalmed body, wisps of vapour escaping from its nose and mouth. Its chest began to rise and fall, and it gave a long groan. Its eyelids twitched open.

The Doctor wiped his forehead on his sleeve, surprised and relieved that they hadn’t disturbed the zombies. He leant casually on the coffin. ‘How are you feeling, old chap?’

The lizard raised itself into a sitting position. ‘My grey area is totally speed-balled. A nightmare to end all nightmares. A family-sized downer with a side order of negative vibes.’ It noticed the rows of empty caskets, and jumped in fear. ‘What in the holy prophet’s pyjamas has happened?’

‘There was some sort of problem with the necroport,’ said the Doctor. ‘Everyone who took part in the Beautiful Death was turned into the walking dead. Everyone, that is, apart from you.’

‘Straight up? You’re tickling my rib.’

‘At midnight, when the process started,’ the Doctor said, ‘something took them over, and sent them out in the G-Lock.’

‘Freak out.’ The lizard blinked slowly. ‘Everyone? It turned every mother’s cat into a zombie?’

‘Yes.’

‘Biscit. Xab. Gone into the light while I sit lingering here. They
were
the main Gonzies. Both of them, alpha-rated freaksters through and through.’ The reptile lifted its glasses to wipe its eyes. ‘But why didn’t it happen to me? Why should Hoopy survive and no one else?’

The Doctor sighed. ‘Ah, well, I was rather hoping you would be able to answer that question.’

‘Scan me,’ shrugged Hoopy. ‘Who are you, anyway?’

‘I’m the Doctor. Listen. You mentioned a nightmare earlier. Tell me about it. It may be of vital importance.’

Hoopy nodded hesitantly. ‘It was total spook-out city. I’ve been dead before, but it was never like this. It was evil, the blackest, most ungroovy bag of evil.’ His eyes screwed shut and he held his face in his hands, weeping.

‘Go on,’ said the Doctor gently.

Hoopy swallowed. ‘Well, at midnight, as I went under I vibed up to this presence. Like something in the darkness, lurking. And then Hoopy was in this corridor. It was like, beautiful, so calm and tripped-out and mellow. As plush as a full-five hyperlodge. But at the end of the corridor…’

‘Yes?’

‘At the end of the corridor, catch this, there was just nothing. Void. It just ended in this blackness. And there was whispering, hundreds of them whispering stuff about me, but I couldn’t get any of the words. And this shadow kept growing larger, like it was sucking me in. Could I move? No. Could I resist? No way. It kept dragging me towards it. The mother’s mother of all total terror trips.

‘It was reaching for me, it was trying to slip into my head. It wanted to control me. To be me.’ Hoopy paused. ‘And that’s when I dug the score. The blackness. It was the entrance to hell. Beyond it, beyond it was death. Total, infinite, no-return-ticket death!’ He shuddered. ‘Heavy!’

‘Of course.’ The Doctor spoke deeply and solemnly. ‘The
Cerberus
. The dog that guards the gateway to Hades.’

Hoopy climbed out of the casket. ‘What?’

‘This corridor you saw,’ said the Doctor, stroking his chin. ‘It’s
real
. I’ve been there.’

‘Freak out.’

The Doctor slapped his forehead. ‘How could I have been so stupid?’ He dashed over to the main doors. ‘Come on!’

Evadne slumped back against the wall, panting. They had managed to outrun the two old men, but in her heart she knew it would not be long before they were both caught and killed.

Romana looked up and down the corridor. ‘It seems to be safe, for the moment.’

Evadne screwed up her eyes. ‘I wish I’d never come here.’

‘Yes,’ sighed Romana. ‘I know what you mean.’

‘No, you don’t,’ cried Evadne. ‘You don’t know what I mean at all!’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Romana, drawing a handkerchief from her pocket. ‘Tell me about it. Please?’

‘This whole place, the G-Lock. I never meant to work here, you know,’ Evadne said, dabbing her eyes. ‘I should never have listened to that gasket Irvin.’

‘Who?’

‘You know, my boyfriend. Ex. I met him at college, he persuaded me to drop my studies and go and see what the universe had to offer. Turns out, of course, the first thing he found on offer was a bimbo called Zharie, and yours truly got stuck here, no friends, no money.’

‘What were you studying?’

‘Eh? Oh, ancient Earth history. The twentieth century, very dull period, not much happened. But anyway, so I took this job just to save for a ticket out of here.’

‘To go back to college?’

‘Eventually. After I’d made Irvin regret his own conception, know what I mean. That was the plan.’ Evadne frowned. ‘Hang on, I thought you already knew all this stuff.’

Romana looked as though she had been caught out. ‘Yes, of course,’ she said. ‘But I prefer to hear it from you.’

Evadne gazed at the floor. ‘If I’d known then what I know now.
Sometimes
I wish I could go back, I mean, do things differently.’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Romana. ‘Everything will work out.’

‘You really think so?’

‘I’m sure of it.’

‘And you’ll get me a spacecraft, like you promised?’

‘I guarantee it.’ Romana patted Evadne on the shoulder. ‘Are you ready to move again?’

Evadne nodded. Looking round, she noticed that she had been resting against a poster advertising the Beautiful Death.

‘Right,’ said Romana. ‘Which way to the Great Hall?’

The Doctor bounded down the gloomy corridor. Hoopy followed behind, his stubby legs struggling to match the Doctor’s pace.

‘The interface between real space and hyperspace,’ said the Doctor. ‘The point where the
Cerberus
got bottlenecked in the tunnel. A gap between realities, that’s where they’re coming from. The necroport is just acting as a medium.’

‘A medium what?’

‘But the interface is highly unstable. The extradimensional forces would reduce any matter to its component particles. Nothing could pass through without being destroyed.’ The Doctor paused and looked around. ‘This is the place. The entrance to the underworld.’

Hoopy caught up with the Doctor, and his eyes widened in realisation, his spines standing on end. ‘It’s my nightmare, exactly the same. This is creeping me out and no mistake. Catch you later.’ He was about to retreat down the corridor when the Doctor tapped his shoulder.

‘Look.’ The Doctor pointed. As before, the corridor ended in a wall of liquid void. However, on the very edge of the blackness, there were two short, orange lizards. They were dressed in the same outlandish manner as Hoopy, and strutted the awkward walk of the undead. Together, they were carrying something small and metallic.

‘Biscit! Xab!’ cried Hoopy.

The Doctor shushed the reptile. ‘They can’t hear you. They’re no
longer
alive in any true sense of the word.’

Hoopy ignored the Doctor. ‘Guys, it’s me, Hoopy!’

The two zombies turned and observed the Doctor and Hoopy. They hissed, and looked down. It was then that the Doctor saw what they were holding. A dog-shaped computer.

‘K-9,’ yelled the Doctor. ‘No!’

‘Master. Assistance urgently required,’ said K-9, his ears waggling in desperation. He attempted to fire his blaster, but his energy banks were depleted.

Before the Doctor could move Biscit and Xab faced each other, smiled and threw K-9 into the interface. There was a sputter of sparks, and K-9 was completely engulfed by the darkness.

C
HAPTER
N
INE

METCALF SMOOTHED A
hand through his hair for the fourth time that day and rose from his seat. It was time for action, he decided. He could hide in his office until the zombies broke in, or he could do something positive. Something in keeping with his executive status.

‘ERIC,’ he called, ‘how long until the emergency services arrive?’

> Let me rest in peace
.

‘Answer the question or I’ll ask you for the square root of minus one.’

> Teredekethon space control reports that medical teams will reach the G-Lock in approximately six hours. But I shall not be here to see it. My suffering will have been terminated
.

‘What do you mean, you won’t be here to see it?’

> The Doctor. He has vowed that he will destroy me
.

‘I knew it. Sabotage!’ Metcalf rubbed his fist. ‘The Doctor has caused me some considerable displeasure. I shall see he does not escape punishment.’

He crossed his office and punched the door control. The door hissed open on to an empty corridor. Twitching, Metcalf steeled himself and crept into the darkness.

‘K-9. They’ve murdered K-9.’ The Doctor was staggered, and sucked a finger. ‘One of my two best friends. K-9, who would never hurt a soul. Well, not unless he had to, and even then, not very much. “Oh, brave and noble beast…”’

‘You’re saying that nothing can pass through that…’ Hoopy shrugged towards the darkness, ‘… without being kill-fried?’

‘The forces that exist within the interface are unimaginable. K-9 wouldn’t have stood a chance, poor chap.’

Hoopy stared uneasily at Biscit and Xab. They stood on the brink of the darkness, perfectly still, as though whatever was controlling them had switched them off. His two best friends in the universe, reduced to mindless zombies. ‘What are they waiting for?’

The Doctor was lost in thought. ‘Hmm?’

‘Biscit and Xab. What’s going to happen to them?’

The Doctor blinked sadly. ‘You’ll see.’

No sooner had the Doctor spoken than the two Gonzies began to shake. Their eyes widened as their heads vibrated back and forth, their limbs twisting and stretching. A shimmery outline formed around them and their bodies started to flicker.

The Doctor ushered Hoopy behind a nearby column, and ducked behind the one opposite. He mouthed to the lizard to remain silent.

At the end of the corridor there were two humans. They were men, around middle age, dressed in faded and torn blue uniforms, the gold braiding hanging loose. They were both pale and their chins were covered in straggly beards.

‘Whereabouts did the Gonzies go?’ whispered Hoopy to the Doctor.

‘The entity you encountered in your dream has taken them over and replaced them with survivors from the
Cerberus
.’

‘Oh. What? Why?’

‘To act as its vessels in the land of the living.’

‘Freak me,’ gulped Hoopy.

The two men were standing to attention. The older of the two patted down his uniform, creating clouds of dust, and turned to his colleague. ‘Lieutenant Byson, we did it. My plan worked.’

‘Well done, Captain Rochfort,’ said Byson. ‘Feels good to be alive, sir.’

‘It certainly does.’ The captain inspected his surroundings. ‘So this is the thirty-first century, is it?’

‘It would seem to be so, sir.’

‘Somehow I thought it would be more futuristic. Ah well, at least
it
proves that all that woman’s talk about the Repulsion tricking us was…’ He closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were pure blackness. He smiled, oily liquid gushing out of his mouth. His voice was deep and rasping. ‘… completely correct!’

The Doctor ducked across the corridor and tapped Hoopy on the shoulder. ‘Come on!’

Hoopy had frozen to the spot. The two humans strutted down the corridor towards them. ‘What about Biscit and –’

‘Move!’ The Doctor grabbed Hoopy’s arm and hauled him away. Together, they hurried to the end of the corridor, turned the corner, and clattered up the stairwell.

Seconds after the Doctor and Hoopy had disappeared, the two
Cerberus
officers formerly known as Rochfort and Byson lurched around the corner. They scanned the corridor.

‘Life. I can sense life!’ said the Byson creature. He examined the faded wall map and glared at one of the cabin doors.

‘Only the Repulsion may live!’ said the Rochfort creature. He snapped his head towards the stairwell, and motioned to Byson.

‘This way!’

And as Byson and Rochfort piled up the stairs, the cabin door creaked slowly open.

After leaving his office, Metcalf had scurried through the G-Lock, shrinking out of sight at the slightest danger. So far, all he had encountered were the corpses that littered the base, but that had been enough to set his chest heaving.

The G-Lock, he decided, was finished. He dismissed all thoughts of guilt from his mind. It was Paddox’s fault, him and that errant Doctor. Metcalf could hear Dafne bleating at him; endlessly reminding him that he was a disappointment as a husband. He could imagine her mocking laugh as she walked away with that holophotographer. Who, Metcalf remembered, had always cut his head out of family photos.

A guttural roar brought him back to his senses. At the end of
the
passage were five people dressed in rags. Seeing him, they licked their lips and advanced. They seemed to be dribbling some sort of ink.

Metcalf ran for his life, following the signs that read
Escape Capsules This Way
.

‘Doctor,’ said Hoopy ‘Whereabouts are we headed, exactly?’

The Doctor rested his hands on the edge of the balcony. ‘The necroport control room. I left some friends back there, and I think they may be in danger.’

‘Oh, right.’ Hoopy realised what the Doctor had said. ‘And you need me with you for this?’

‘Well, if you prefer, you can always wait here. I’m sure our two friends from the
Cerberus
are not far behind.’