Doctor Who: The State of Decay by Terrance Dicks

Author:Terrance Dicks
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction:Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426201335
Publisher: Target Books
Published: 1983-05-15T10:00:00+00:00

The Resting Place

So this is Aukon, thought the Doctor, third member of the unholy triumvirate - the Three Who Rule.

Or perhaps the first. For all his simple dress and unassuming manner, it was clear that Aukon was a man to be reckoned with. His whole manner was one of massive confidence, and of a kind of holy exaltation. Aukon was a fanatic, far more dangerous than the petulant Zargo, or the icy Camilla.

The Doctor was both worried and frightened, and as usual he covered up by acting the fool. `Well, I'm glad to catch somebody at home.' He looked round hopefully. `Charming place you have here. Are we in time for the guided tour?'

'You are a fool to mock; Doctor. There is power here such as you have never dreamed of-can you not feel it?' That was just the trouble - the Doctor could feel it. Waves of some icily malignant power flooded from Aukon. No, not from Aukon, thought the Doctor suddenly, but through him. The source was the ampitheatre beyond the altar, and whatever lay buried beneath. Buried, but alive - and about to awake.

Clowning still, the Doctor held up his finger as if testing the wind. `Feel it? No, I can't feel anything.'

But he lied and Aukon knew he was lying. `Power, Doctor. It is the only reality. You cannot hope to fight it. Why try when you could share it, become part of it?'

`Me?'

`When I sent my winged messengers to hunt you down, I sensed the power of your mind through theirs. We seek such intelligences as yours for our great purpose.'

`What purpose is that?'

`The Time of Arising, when we, the servants of the Great One, shall swarm across the universe. You could be one of us!'

`I could? Well, it's very kind of you, but I've never been a great one for swarming.' Casually the Doctor added, `Anyway, where were you thinking of swarming to?'

`Out of this universe, and back to our own.'

Romana felt a sudden surge of excitement. `You mean you know the way out of E-Space?'

`That is the secret of the one who brought us here.'

'Aha!' said the Doctor triumphantly. `So there was a guided tour. I suspected as much.'

Aukon seemed to be gazing into the past. `We were summoned, all of us, the whole ship, to be his servants.'

`Was that when you were just plain Science Officer O'Connor?'

Aukon's eyes widened. `You know?'

Romans was even more astonished than Aukon. `Are you saying he was O'Connor?'

`Yes. The Three Who Rule aren't just the descendants of the original ship's officers - they are the originals.'

`But how could they be? After a thousand years ...'

It was Aukon who answered her question. `He has given us eternal life. He summoned us here, speaking to the others through my mind. He was wounded, near to dying when we came. We fed and nourished his body with human blood, his spirit with the souls of the sacrificed. Now he is regenerated, ready to arise.'

Romana's mind was fixed on one vital fact.

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