Doctor Who: The Also People (40 page)

And yet deep within himself Tsuro the hare held a secret sadness, for long ago when he had been a young animal the other hares had cast him out of his village. 'You are too full of pride,'

said the Chief of the Hares. 'If you will not live within the customs of your people you must live without them.' And so Tsuro was set on his travels without family, wife or children. 'If I cannot have family amongst the Hares,' said Tsuro, 'I will have friends amongst the other animals.'

Season followed season and for many years Tsuro travelled the wide world and beyond with his friends, playing his tricks on animals and people alike. Some wise people said that such a clever animal could only be a messenger of Musikavanhu the creator but if this was true Tsuro would not say.

But there are powers in the forest that are unknown to man and never spoken of by animals.

One such was Danhamakatu the snake, she whose passing is like the whisper of death in the grass. It was she that put her mark on the Leopard and sent her into the forest to do her bidding.

The tale of how Tsuro and his companions rescued the Leopard from a trap is too long for this day's telling but rescue her he did and Danhamakatu was so angry that she slithered through the forest to confront him. When she came to the clearing in which Tsuro was resting she lay her belly on the ground and silently approached.

'Do not think that I cannot hear you, Danhamakatu, as you slither on your belly,' said Tsuro, preening his long ears. 'Show yourself and explain why you have come from the secret places of the Forest to trouble me.'

'You are too full of pride, Tsuro,' hissed the snake, 'to think that I must answer to you.'

'That may be,' said Tsuro. 'Just tell me what it is you want and be about your business. I am sure that you have nests to rob and children to frighten.'

'I am angry with you, Tsuro,' hissed Danhamakatu. 'You have robbed me of my servant the Leopard and now you must heed my words, for I have come to claim my price.'

'What words are those?' said Tsuro. 'I hear nothing but the sound of the wind in the trees and perhaps the flatulence of a passing elephant.'

These words angered Danhamakatu so much that she reared up before the hare and spread her terrible hood so wide that darkness covered the clearing. But Tsuro was not afraid for he had made the snake angry on purpose knowing that it was better to face a snake in the open than to step on one in the grass.

'You have given the Leopard a heart and have tricked me out of her services,' hissed the snake.

'All I ask for in return is the life of one of your friends.'

'The lives of my friends are not mine to give,' said Tsuro.

'What do I care for that,' hissed the snake. 'I am Danhamakatu, she who strikes without warning. I do not ask permission first.'

When he heard these words Tsuro became afraid, for he loved his friends above all other things. 'Take me instead,' he pleaded with the snake. 'Spare the life of my friend.'

Danhamakatu was sorely tempted by this offer, for the clever hare had tricked and lied his way out of her grasp many times in the past. But she had grown so angry with him that she felt his death would not be punishment enough.

'No,' hissed the snake, 'I have sat in council with my sisters and they have agreed on this price.'

'Then please be quick,' pleaded Tsuro, 'and kill my friend now. It would be better that they die now than live in fear of your awful vengeance. I beg of you, show mercy just this once.'

Danhamakatu laughed to see the clever hare humbled in this way. How sweet to see him bury his face in his paws, his long ears all drooping and downcast.

'No,' hissed the snake, 'I will not show you mercy. I will wait a while to collect my prize so that you may live in fear of my coming.'

Hearing that, Tsuro buried his face further in his paws and spoke no more. Satisfied that at last she had taught the hare a lesson Danhamakatu got back down on her belly and slithered away into the forest.

Tsuro the hare waited patiently until he was sure that the snake was far away. When he was sure that it was too far away to hear he lifted his face from his paws and began to laugh.

The clearing, which had remained silent throughout the encounter, was amazed. 'Why do you laugh, Tsuro the hare?' asked the clearing. 'Surely you must lose one of your friends.'

'But not today,' said the hare and set to preening his ears. 'I have tricked Danhamakatu the snake once again. Tricked her into giving me time and with that time I can think up a new and cunning plan to save the life of my friend.'

'Truly you are the cleverest of all the animals,' said the clearing.

'Yes I am,' said the hare. 'and don't you forget it.' And with that Tsuro hopped out of the clearing and set off down the path to rejoin his friends.

'But, clever hare,' the clearing called after him, 'what if you cannot think of a plan?'

But if Tsuro heard the clearing he made no sign and soon he was gone from sight.

Already published:

One of the Seven Planets is a nameless giant, quarantined against all intruders. But when the TARDIS materializes, it becomes clear that the planet is far from empty – and the Doctor begins to realize that the planet hides a terrible secret from the Time Lords' past.

ISBN 0 426 20378 X

Ace – three years older, wiser and tougher – is back. She is part of a group of Irregular Auxiliaries on an expedition to the planet Arcadia. They think they are hunting Daleks, but the Doctor knows better. He knows that the paradise planet hides a being far more powerful than the Daleks – and much more dangerous.

ISBN 0 426 20362 3

Reunited, the Doctor, Ace and Bernice travel to Lucifer, the site of a scientific expedition that they know will shortly cease to exist. Discovering why involves them in sabotage, murder and the resurrection of eons-old alien powers. Are there Angels on Lucifer? And what does it all have to do with Ace?

ISBN 0 426 20338 7

The TARDIS crew, hoping for a rest, come to Haiti in 1915. But they find that the island is far from peaceful: revolution is brewing in the city; the dead are walking from the cemeteries; and, far underground, the ancient rulers of the galaxy are stirring in their sleep.

ISBN 0 426 20395 X

On the colony world of Arden, something dangerous is growing stronger. Something that steals minds and memories.

Something that can reach out to another planet, Tairngire, where the newest exhibit in the sculpture park is a blue box surmounted by a flashing light.

ISBN 0 426 20394 1

Stranded in Edwardian London with a dying TARDIS, Bernice investigates a series of grisly murders. In the far future, Ace leads a group of guerrillas against their insect-like, alien oppressors. Why has the Doctor left them, just when they need him most?

ISBN 0 426 20393 3

In 2006, an ecological disaster threatens the Earth: only the FLIPback team, working in an Antarctic base, can avert the catastrophe. But hidden beneath the ice, sinister forces have gathered to sabotage humanity's last hope. The Cybermen have returned and the Doctor must face them alone.

ISBN 0 426 20392 5

The TARDIS is attacked by an alien force; Bernice is flung into the Vortex: and the Doctor and Ace crash-land on Earth. There they find dinosaurs roaming the derelict London streets, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart leading the remnants of UNIT in a desperate fight against the Silurians who have taken over and changed his world.

ISBN 0 426 20399 2

A holiday in Oxford is cut short when the Doctor is summoned to Space Station Q4, where ghostly soldiers from the future watch from the shadows among the dead. Soon, the Doctor is trapped in the past, Ace is accused of treason and Bernice is uncovering deceit among the college cloisters.

ISBN 0 426 20397 6

Someone has been playing with time. The Doctor Ace and Bernice must travel to the Aztec Empire in 1487, to London in the Swinging Sixties and to the sinking of the
Titanic
as they attempt to rectify the temporal faults –

and survive the attacks of the living god Huitzilin.

ISBN 0 426 20404 2

A killer is stalking the streets of the village of Arandale. The victims are found each day, drained of blood.

Someone has interfered with the Doctor's past again, and he's landed in a place he knows he once destroyed, from which it seems there can be no escape.

ISBN 0 426 20408 5

At last the Doctor comes face-to-face with the enemy who has been threatening him, leading him on a chase that has brought the TARDIS to London in 1976. There he finds that reality has been subtly changed and the country he once knew is rapidly descending into anarchy as an alien invasion force prepares to land . . .

ISBN 0 426 20409 3

When the TARDIS crew arrive on Olleril, they soon realize that all is not well. Assassins arrive to carry out a killing that may endanger the entire universe. A being known as the Supreme One tests horrific weapons. And a secret order of monks observes the growing chaos.

ISBN 0 426 20410 7

The Doctor returns to Peladon, on the trail of a master criminal. Ace pursues intergalactic mercenaries who have stolen the galaxy's most evil artifact while Bernice strikes up a dangerous friendship with a Martian Ice Lord. The players are making the final moves in a devious and lethal plan – but for once it isn't the Doctor's.

ISBN 0 426 20412 3

Menaxus is a barren world on the front line of an interstellar war, home to a ruined theatre which hides sinister secrets. When the TARDIS crew land on the planet, they find themselves trapped in a deadly re-enactment of an ancient theatrical tragedy.

ISBN 0 426 20414 X

ALL-CONSUMING FIRE

Andy Lane

The secret library of St John the Beheaded has been robbed. The thief has taken forbidden books which tell of gateways to other worlds. Only one team can be trusted to solve the crime: Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Watson – and a mysterious stranger who claims he travels in time and space.

ISBN 0 426 20415 8

While the Doctor and Ace are selling illegal booze in a town full of murderous gangsters, Bernice has been abandoned on a vampire-infested planet outside normal space. This story sets in motion events which are continued in
Goth Opera
, the first in a new series of Missing Adventures.

ISBN 0 426 20417 4

In the idyllic gardens of a Victorian country house, the TARDIS crew discover a young girl whose body has been possessed by a beautiful but lethal insect. And they find that the rural paradise is turning into a world of nightmare ruled by the sinister Quack.

ISBN 0 426 20419 0

When Bernice asks to see the dawn of the space age, the Doctor takes the TARDIS to Cold War America, which is facing a threat far more deadly than Communist Russia. The militaristic Tzun Confederacy have made Earth their next target for conquest – and the aliens have already landed.

ISBN 0 426 20421 2

ST ANTHONY'S FIRE

Mark Gatiss

The TARDIS crew visit Betrushia, a planet in terrible turmoil. A vicious, genocidal war is raging between the lizard-like natives. With time running out, the Doctor must save the people of Betrushia from their own legacy before St Anthony's fire consumes them all.

ISBN 0 426 20423 9

The TARDIS is imprisoned in a house called Shadowfell, where a man is ready to commence the next phase of an experiment that will remake the world. But deep within the house, something evil lingers, observing and influencing events, waiting to take on flesh and emerge.

ISBN 0 426 20427 1

The TARDIS has arrived in the Elysium system, lost colony of distant Earth and site of the Artifact: a world turned inside out, home to a bizarre ecosystem. But now the Artifact appears to be decaying, transforming the humans trapped within into something new and strange.

ISBN 0 426 20425 5

On the streets of near-future Earth, a strange new drug is having a devastating impact. It's called warlock, and some call it the creation of the devil. While Benny and Ace try to track down its source, the Doctor begins to uncover the truth about the drug.

ISBN 0 426 20433 6

There's a rip in the fabric of space and time. Passenger ships are disappearing from the interstellar traffic lanes.

An attempt to investigate goes dangerously wrong, and the TARDIS crew are scattered throughout history – perhaps never to be reunited.

ISBN 0 426 20436 0

In Kelzen, Jirenal and Shanstra are Sensopaths, hugely powerful telepaths whose minds are tuned to the collective unconscious. Separated in time, they wreak havoc and destruction. United, they threaten every sentient being in the universe.