Doctor Who - New Adventures - 31 - St Anthony's Fire by Mark Gatiss

Author:Mark Gatiss
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Doctor Who (Fictitious Character), Fiction
ISBN: 9780426204237
Publisher: London Bridge
Published: 1994-11-14T08:00:00+00:00

‘Quite,’ said the Doctor. ‘Thoss? Care to enlighten us?’

Thoss strode up to the polygon and ran his claw over the metallic surface.

‘There are many such things all over Betrushia. Relics of the Time Before. No one knows what their function was. I discovered this one below my Temple some time ago.’

The Doctor looked at him quizzically, his face half-hidden in the shadows.

‘No one knows their secret or no one knew?’

Thoss inclined his head. ‘One day it opened up. It. . . began to tell me things.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘Things you couldn’t explain, or tie in with your faith’s traditional view of things?’

‘You may mock me, Doctor,’ said the old man sadly, his rheumy blue eyes watering. ‘But the Faith has been my only support for most of my life. It isn’t easy to admit you’re wrong.’

He pressed one panel of the polygon and a concealed door shushed open, revealing darkness beyond. Thoss extended a claw in a gesture of invitation.

‘I could not listen to the things it said. Perhaps you are made of sterner stuff?’

162

‘I don’t doubt it,’ said Ace.

The Doctor advanced. Ace grabbed his elbow. ‘It could be a trap.’

He shook his head. ‘I don’t think so. Do you want to stay outside and. . .

er. . . watch my back?’

‘I’d rather go in with you. But I suppose I should stay out here, yeah.’

The Doctor patted her arm. ‘Tactics, Ace, tactics. Obviously that military training didn’t go to waste.’

She smiled ruefully.

The Doctor put out his hands and pulled himself across the threshold into the polygon. The door slid shut behind him, seamlessly resealing the panel.

Ace sat down on the cold metal floor and examined the blaster in her hand.

It was an ugly, inefficient little weapon of a type for which she might once have had a certain fondness. Now it felt cold and alien in her hand.

Thoss stood some distance away, looking blankly into space.

Ace cleared her throat. ‘Read any good books lately?’

‘Yes,’ said Thoss without a trace of irony. ‘But it didn’t have a happy ending.’

Bernice prodded De Hooch in the back. As the strange party advanced through the corridors, she was forced to admit it was the oddest spaceship she had ever seen. Fluted columns and high vaulted ceilings were everywhere, enraptured statues in niches, stone-flagged floors and, virtually everywhere, the reassuring flood of sunshine. If the air had not been so stuffy, Bernice might almost have believed the illusion.

‘Why do you do all this?’ she asked as De Hooch led the way.

‘All what?’ spat the dwarf.

Bernice gestured with her free hand. ‘All this. It’s pretty impressive. What’s it for?’

‘I don’t have to explain myself to you, or your reptile associates.’

Bernice pushed the blaster into the folds of fat around De Hooch’s neck.

‘Those are my friends you’re insulting. And I’m the one with the gun, so start explaining.’

De Hooch reluctantly gave them a potted history of the Chapter’s exploits and dubious motivation.

‘But you’re not the Keth?’ queried Grek.

De Hooch frowned. ‘The what?’

Liso waved Grek into silence, his solitary eye fixed on De Hooch’s diminutive form.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.