Doctor Who NA12 - The Pit by Neil Penswick

Author:Neil Penswick [Penswick, Neil]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2011-07-13T01:06:27+00:00

The voices were close behind her. She had to move. Just a little further.

With all her strength, she forced herself to stand and threw herself around the corner.

She ran headlong into a woman. The woman fell over and Bernice collapsed on top of the struggling body. An android stood over her. If this was death then she would stare it in the face. Although she had run out of steam and 156

no longer cared whether she lived or died, there was no way she was going to give up. With all her energy she clenched her fists and drove them between the android’s legs. It hurt her arms but had no effect on the android. He picked her up and threw her a few metres down the corridor.

‘It’s just me and you,’ she said to herself. The android was ignoring her, talking to the woman. He was asking if the woman was all right. He then turned his attention to her, lumbering over. He was about two and a half metres tall; naked muscular chest and short dark hair. He was dragging a damaged left leg.

‘Hey, I’m not a shapechanger. I’m not. . . ’ she shouted. Perhaps the louder she shouted the more he would believe her. He stopped.

‘Kill me, but I’m not who you’re looking for.’

‘This banned world is crowded with unwelcome visitors,’ he said. The android appeared to accept that she wasn’t his target.

Bernice told him that she and her friend, the Doctor, had crash-landed on the planet. The Doctor had disappeared. She and Spike journeyed down the river until they arrived at the space station. Spike had been killed in an attack by one of the shapechangers.

‘Spike survived?’ the android asked.

‘Until the attack,’ she replied.

‘Now I know I am alone,’ he continued.

She discovered Thomas was one of the androids who had tried to kill her earlier, and the woman was the wife of a scientist sent to the planet to analyse the water. She listened to their stories of a red paralysis slowly expanding over the planet. The weed seemed to stop time within its boundaries. She was also told that some of the creatures and vegetation on the planet were not real, but the product of a Nicaean corporation.

The woman didn’t seem interested in meeting her. She seemed a little jealous. Bernice could understand that. She had felt possessive of Spike’s help and company. Ell wasn’t unfriendly to Bernice. Ell talked to her and offered her support, but with it there was a feeling of coldness.

Thomas and Ell seemed to make a good couple. Both of them rarely talked.

She wanted to go back home and he wanted to fulfil his mission and destroy the shapechangers. He was similar to Spike in build and single-mindedness.

Bernice was tired. She wanted a rest, and some hot food. Thomas needed to catch up with the shapechanger. There was no time for respite from the task at hand.

She followed the android outside. Ell was talking about life on Nicaea: the vidscreen soaps, her simple typing job and her small apartment.

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