The Slitheen Excursion Read online

  ‘We don’t need to fight them,’ smiled the king. ‘They have conjured fuel and oil and wine out of the air. We can just use their magic against them.’

  ‘So what’s the problem?’ asked the Doctor, stepping into the arena with the cocktail-swilling aliens. June felt a thrill just at the sight of him. She ran over, throwing her arms round his shoulders.

  ‘You’re all right!’ she said.

  ‘I’m better than that,’ he said, disentangling himself. ‘And you’ve been pretty brilliant, too. I take it this is your idea?’

  She felt herself flushing with glee. ‘I had a hand in it,’ she said.

  ‘If only the humans had thought to back down in the real war!’ he went on. ‘Billions of lives would have been saved.’

  June regarded him carefully and his smile faltered. ‘Humans did something terrible, didn’t they?’ she asked.

  He shrugged. ‘I’m not really meant to tell you,’ he said. ‘Spoilers. You know how it is.’

  ‘But enough to make all these creatures despise us. To want us written out of history.’

  The Doctor looked round at the assembled alien creatures. ‘Is that what you wanted?’ he asked. The alien tourists looked down at their feet – those of them with feet. They murmured indistinctly and would not meet his eye.

  ‘All right,’ said the Doctor. ‘But it’s not what you want now.’ The aliens looked up, eager to assure him that they’d seen the error of their ways.

  ‘I never wanted it,’ said Cecrops, slithering forward on his fishy tale. ‘Sorry,’ he went on. ‘I just didn’t want you lumping me in with the rest of this lot.’

  The other tourists groaned. June saw the Doctor glance over at the three Slitheen, whispering to one another behind the tourists. Mamps looked up at her and smiled cruelly, showing razor-sharp teeth.

  ‘No really,’ Cecrops went on. ‘The package tour is the only way you can get back to see this stuff. But most of the people who come on these things are . . .’ He tailed off. ‘Well, they don’t take it as seriously as I do.’

  ‘We’ve been discussing rights for humans,’ June explained to the Doctor.

  ‘Right,’ he said.

  ‘Human beings are people too,’ added Cecrops. A murmur went through the crowd at this. Cecrops turned on them, raising himself up to his full height. ‘There’s so many stories,’ he said. ‘About their greed and violence, the things they’ve done to other species. But is that any different from the rest of us?’ He let them hang on that for just a minute, then came in with the punchline. ‘Sounds just like my family.’

  The tourists stared at him. And laughed. They turned to each other and began to compare amusing stories about the shocking things their own families had done. The Slitheen looked on in horror.

  Cecrops turned back to the Doctor and June. ‘Was that all right?’ he said.

  ‘Brilliant,’ said the Doctor. ‘You’ve got them looking for ways that we’re all the same. Taking the initiative themselves.’ He twisted round to look up at the stars, then looked back again. ‘And just in time, as well.’

  June went over to Cecrops. ‘So you don’t get on with your family?’ she asked him.

  He smiled sheepishly. ‘They don’t get on with me. Everything’s got to be about how we’re seen and what people think. Don’t ask questions, don’t cause a fuss. Certainly don’t do anything political . . .’ He looked round at the gabbling tourists, and then back to June. ‘Whoops.’

  But she hadn’t stopped teasing him yet. ‘So you’re not here to change my world,’ she said. ‘You’re just running away from your family.’

  ‘I’m not,’ he said, affronted. ‘I just needed to clear my head. You know, work out my priorities.’

  And she did know that need to get away. She could see the same restlessness in him that she felt herself. Just as he’d said, they weren’t very different. She took a step towards him. ‘When this is over—’ she began.

  ‘You’ll be dead,’ gurgled Leeb, striding purposefully towards them.

  Cecrops bravely put himself between June and the Slitheen. But Leeb only giggled the more. ‘Boy,’ he said loudly, so everyone could hear. ‘You’re guilty of corporate espionage. We all heard you loud and clear.’

  The alien tourists clucked at one another, trying to remember what had been said. June reached forward to take Cecrops’ hand.

  ‘I didn’t say anything of the sort,’ he told Leeb.

  ‘You said you weren’t part of the package deal,’ Leeb crowed. ‘Nobody takes it as seriously as you.’

  The alien tourists decided that yes, Cecrops had indeed said those very words. They also remembered the way he’d set himself up above them. June saw the lion-faced couple with the huge wings nodding their heads together, their earlier differences forgotten now Cecrops was in the frame.

  ‘I didn’t mean it like that,’ he protested.

  ‘You’re an agitator,’ sneered Leeb. ‘Corporate espionage is a very serious crime. It carries a very serious penalty.’ He giggled. ‘In fact, if we have reliable witnesses, we can choose any penalty we like.’ His smile vanished as he turned to the alien tourists. ‘And we have reliable witnesses, don’t we?’ he barked at them.

  The alien tourists didn’t mistake his tone. They murmured their assent.

  ‘Good,’ said Leeb. ‘So now we’re going to have a hunt. Mr Cecrops and the humans he’s augmented to tell these lies. Versus anyone who’d care to join me.’

  Cecrops and June backed away towards the Doctor as Leeb came slowly forward. The alien tourists exchanged nervous glances, not sure how to behave. Cosmo and Mamps emerged from between them, taking their places beside Leeb. One Slitheen each against Cecrops, the Doctor and June.

  ‘Sorry,’ said Cecrops. ‘Said I shouldn’t do anything political.’

  ‘You were good,’ June told him. She leant forward to kiss his cheek. Then she turned back to the Doctor. He was looking up at the sky.

  ‘Um,’ she said. He seemed startled as he looked round at her.

  ‘What?’ he said. ‘Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.’

  ‘They’re going to kill us,’ she said, indicating the three Slitheen. The Doctor looked up at them and grinned.

  ‘No they’re not,’ he said.

  Mamps laughed. ‘And what’s going to stop us this time?’ she asked.

  ‘You need me,’ said the Doctor.

  ‘What for?’ asked Mamps.

  The Doctor turned to June, a huge grin on his face, and then turned back to the Slitheen. ‘Because I’m the only one who’ll get you and your punters back home.’

  Mamps froze. Just the look on her green face made June want to burst out laughing. ‘What did you do?’ said the Slitheen.

  ‘When I said I was fixing the systems?’ said the Doctor. ‘Well, I was fixing the systems. First, I made it make a tunnel through time. One end open in the year Arlene-plus-22, the other open just twenty-four hours from now. Then I put a password on the end that opens up tomorrow, so only I can open it. And then I got the machine to transmat itself into orbit, just – ’ he left a dramatic pause ‘– over there . . .’

  With a flourish he pointed up at the stars. June, Cecrops, the Slitheen and the alien tourists all looked up where he was pointing. The blanket of stars remained unchanged.

  After a moment the Doctor let his hand down, scrutinising the finger with which he’d pointed.

  ‘That’s odd,’ he said. ‘I thought there’d be a bang.’

  ‘Another bluff,’ preened Mamps, taking another step forward. ‘You’ve run out of surprises.’

  ‘Um,’ said the Doctor, glancing at June. ‘Yeah. Sorry, I thought that would work.’

  ‘It’s OK,’ she told him, holding on to Cecrops. ‘We gave it our best shot.’

  And before the Doctor could reply, a voice sounded from high above them: ‘I sing the last song of King Actaeus!’

  They all turned to look. On the balcony looking down on the arena, on them, three tall silhou
ettes blanked out the stars. June gasped as she recognised them. Deukalion stood flanked by Aglauros and Pandrosos.

  ‘It’s the drunk human!’ said Cosmo.

  ‘What does he think he can do?’ said Mamps.

  ‘What’s this all about?’ the Doctor called up to him.

  Deukalion smiled. ‘You think we’re stupid,’ he said to the aliens. ‘You bring us here to play your evil games and you think that we are helpless. But tonight we strike a blow for humanity.’

  ‘Not another one,’ moaned Mamps. Some of the aliens concurred.

  ‘The final one,’ Deukalion declared. ‘The great King Actaeus gives his life for the people. The masters are masters no more!’

  Mamps and the other Slitheen began to run towards the balcony, where Deukalion and the king’s daughters stood firm. June felt a chill run through her as she turned to the Doctor.

  ‘What can Actaeus do?’ she asked.

  The Doctor scratched at the back of his head. ‘Well, nothing,’ he said. ‘I mean, even if you attacked the temporal drives with a sword . . .’ His smiled faltered. He turned round, away from the Slitheen and the aliens and Deukalion, in the direction of the sea.

  In time to see the whole sky erupt in flames.

  SEVENTEEN

  THE FUEL SPLASHED slickly over the magic instruments and the metal floor, splashing against Deukalion’s bare ankles. He had seen the masters cover a town in this stuff; flame consumed it quickly, water would not put it out. No one had escaped. Deukalion and a few others had been chosen at random to survive so that they might sing the tale to others. Those who dared oppose the masters met the most terrible ends.

  He had tried to remind Actaeus and his daughters of this as they dragged crates of fuel through the magic portal that had brought them here from the citadel. But the old king would not heed the warnings. His people had been scattered into the hills, he had no kingdom or anything else left to lose.

  Fuel dripped from the gantry down onto the machines below. Actaeus removed his cloak, dipped it into a crate of fuel, then threw it out over the balcony. He held on to one corner, so the soggy cloak snapped short, fuel spattering high across the cavern to slap all over the machines. Actaeus repeated the trick, fuel dripping thickly from the systems he had hit.

  They worked quickly, unloading most of the fuel, then stacking the crates against the control bank of winking glass beads. Deukalion wanted to study the machine, to make sense of its awesome powers, but he knew this thing enslaved them. It let the masters bring ever more strange creatures here from the heavens – while it remained, people would live under their magic. It had to be destroyed.

  ‘We are done,’ said Actaeus at last. He hugged both of his daughters. ‘Now,’ he said. ‘You must go.’

  ‘We all go,’ said Deukalion.

  ‘No,’ said Actaeus. ‘One of us must stay to light the fire.’

  Deukalion stared at him. ‘You could light it, then press the map. Escape back to the citadel.’

  The king smiled sadly. ‘And perhaps in my haste it will not light. Deukalion, this must be done properly. I am proud to do it. Go.’

  Deukalion protested, but Aglauros dragged him away. ‘He is the king,’ she said simply. ‘We obey him in all things.’

  Pandrosos hugged her father again and listened to his counsel. Then she joined Aglauros and Deukalion in the passageway leading back to the map. Actaeus stood proudly on the glistening gantry, his sword in his hand. He was smiling.

  ‘We tell them,’ said Pandrosos, ‘and in his name, that the masters are masters no more,’ she said.

  ‘And then what?’ asked Deukalion as they dragged him with them. ‘We can’t fight them!’

  Pandrosos only smiled as they reach the map. She reached out and pressed the red dot that took them back to the citadel.

  The sky danced with fire, purple and red and then, with a great roar of noise, the shockwave smashed through them, hurling them into the hot, dry sand. June lay there, stunned, looking up at the purple stars, wondering why no one was screaming. She realised with a start that she’d gone deaf.

  Strong hands reached for her, helped her to her feet. Cecrops looked battered and bloody, but he was more concerned about her. She fought him off, knowing they needed to find the Doctor. It took a moment to spot him, up on the balcony overlooking the explosion. The three Slitheen stood beside him.

  ‘Doctor!’ she yelled as she ran for the steps and made her way round to him. Her voice sounded as if underwater and, though she said ‘sorry’ and ‘excuse me’ as she pushed through the alien tourists, they didn’t seem to hear her. They gaped and cooed at the pretty colours of the sky, as if this were just another part of the evening’s entertainment. But June knew better; something had gone terribly wrong.

  The Doctor embraced her, holding her close. For a moment she thought he had been stunned into silence by the explosion. But as she withdrew from his arms she realised he was talking. She let him go, watching his lips as he gabbled on. He spoke too fast for her to pick out the words, his eyes wide with horror and amazement. The Slitheen kept close to him. They wouldn’t kill him in front of the tourists – not without letting on there’d been some mistake – but they wouldn’t let him escape.

  ‘I can’t hear anything,’ she told them. But she had no idea how loud she had spoken and they didn’t seem to register. So she shouted the same thing: ‘Doctor, I can’t hear!’

  The Doctor turned his gaze upon her, still gabbling away. Behind her, Cecrops glided forward, eager to be of help. The alien tourists took pictures of the pretty sky. Ash and cinder rained down on them.

  The Doctor tried asking June questions and she struggled to read his lips. Perhaps he mentioned a pineapple. Then he reached into his pocket for his sonic screwdriver and buzzed blue light into her ears.

  Suddenly she could hear the whole awful night. The sky roared with fire and energy. The alien tourists twittered with excitement. ‘They sure put on a good show,’ she heard one enthuse.

  ‘It’s not good, is it?’ June asked the Doctor.

  ‘Keep your voice down,’ hissed Mamps. She looked back at the alien tourists and said loudly, ‘I’m glad it surprised you. We spent weeks planning it.’

  The Doctor took June by the arm and led her further along the balcony, away from the tourists. Cecrops followed them, like a loyal dog.

  ‘The temporal drives were built deep inside the rock,’ he said. ‘The explosion must have taken out most of the island.’ He shook his head sadly, an agonised look in his eyes. ‘There would have been people living there.’

  ‘Not any more,’ said Cosmo, checking the readout of the bracelet on his wrist. ‘I think the whole of Thera has gone. The temporal drive, the transmat . . . All of it destroyed.’

  ‘Thera . . .’ June repeated, trying to remember the word. It nagged at some part of her memory.

  ‘Santorini,’ said the Doctor. ‘In your time, it’s called Santorini.’

  And June thought of the map she’d had for hopping islands on her holiday, a lifetime ago. An arc of land like the crusts from a slice of bread, the main body of the island lost beneath the sea. You could visit one of the towns buried in the ash . . . The ash only just falling now. June could almost hear the cries of the people out there across the sea. She gripped the Doctor tight.

  ‘Cosmato,’ said Mamps quietly. ‘We need to send a signal to the family. Get them to send the time bus so we can get this lot home.’

  ‘But without the temporal drive I’ll have to build a relay,’ protested Cosmo. ‘That’ll take for ever!’

  ‘Then you’d best get started now,’ Mamps glowered.

  Cosmo thought better of protesting and hurried away.

  Mamps turned to the Doctor. ‘You see?’ she said. ‘We’ll get this fixed. You’ve barely inconvenienced us.’

  ‘I didn’t do anything,’ the Doctor told her. ‘Well, nothing that would do anything like this. No, this is your own doing.’

  ‘Hah!’ laughed
Mamps. ‘How are we responsible?’

  ‘You pushed the humans until they snapped,’ said Cecrops. ‘We tried to warn you.’

  ‘The humans wouldn’t know where to start,’ said Mamps. ‘They’re three and a half thousand years away from discovering time-travel technology!’

  ‘But they don’t need to understand something to break it,’ said the Doctor.

  ‘Deukalion said it was Actaeus,’ said June. She prodded Leeb in the arm. ‘You were going to blow up his people.’

  ‘What?’ said Mamps. ‘You didn’t ask permission.’

  ‘No!’ protested Leeb. ‘I just said I would. To make the prey behave!’

  ‘Where is Deukalion?’ asked Cecrops, looking round. June looked too, but Deukalion, Aglauros and Pandrosos had long since disappeared. So had the other human competitors. The Doctor caught June’s eye, shook his head imperceptibly, telling her not to say anything.

  ‘He’ll be found,’ said Leeb. ‘And punished. I think we’ll have a hunt.’

  ‘It’d better be in the citadel,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s going to be a bit wet outside.’

  They turned to look back over the citadel walls in the direction of the fiery sky. Mamps and Leeb both gasped, and it took a moment for June to realise why. The sea no longer twinkled away in the distance. Instead, pale sand stretched to the horizon, the tide out for miles and miles.

  ‘What’s happening?’ asked June.

  ‘There’s going to be tidal wave,’ said the Doctor calmly. He looked up at Mamps. ‘Tell me there’s a force field round the citadel,’ he said.

  ‘We didn’t think there was any need,’ said Mamps sadly.

  ‘Oh well,’ said the Doctor, clapping his hands together. ‘I’ve got a couple of minutes to rig one up.’ He beamed at the Slitheen for a moment, then grabbed June’s hand and dashed off across the balcony.

  ‘Go find Deukalion,’ he told her once they were out of the Slitheen’s hearing. ‘Make sure he’s not being stupid.’

  ‘Right,’ said June, letting him go. He disappeared off up the passageway.

  She turned, pleased to see Cecrops slithering after her, glad for the protection he gave her. The courtyard and balconies showed alien tourists, still admiring the purple sky. But there were no other humans to be seen anywhere. She tried to think tactics, what her priorities would be in Deukalion’s place. And it seemed quite obvious.