Doctor Who BBCN17 - Sick Building (22 page)

She could only watch, with the Doctor, Solin and Barbara, as the Voracious Craw gradually changed its mind. And changed its direction. It was backing up, rather slowly, with all the grace of a massive cruise liner doing a U-turn in the middle of a stormy ocean.

Still the noise rang out. Slowed down, altered, looped like that. . .

their belches did sound horrific.

Like the cries of some ancient,

primeval beast. . .

Now the Doctor was springing up and down on his toes. He was jumping for joy and waving his hands in the air. Martha still couldn’t hear what he was shouting.

But one thing was plain. Something was happening that had never happened before.

The Voracious Craw was going. It was turning away and growing smaller as it slipped into the upper atmosphere. It was leaving Tiermann’s World behind.

Never before, in the history of this monstrous race, had one of the Voracious Craw left behind a meal unfinished. . .

Once he was quite sure that the Craw was going, the Doctor turned to hug his companions. And when she was crushed to him and he was yelling right down her ear, then Martha could at last hear what he was saying: ‘We did it! We sent it away! We saved the world, Martha! We saved the world again!’

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They let Solin take one last look around the ruins of the only home he had ever known. The Doctor and Martha were waiting for him by the TARDIS.

‘So. . . the noise we were making,’ Martha said. ‘It was just like the sound of an even bigger and even more Voracious Craw?’

‘That’s exactly how that creature heard it,’ the Doctor nodded. He was still drinking pop. He had somehow acquired a taste for the sticky, sugary stuff and now Barbara’s supply was almost depleted. Not that Barbara was complaining. With not so many bottles clunking around inside her, she felt lighter, and freer than she had in years.

‘And our Voracious Craw backed off and went away, because it thought that a bigger Craw had first dibs on the planet?’

‘Hmmm,’ the Doctor said. ‘They are a dreary bunch of witless bullies, I’m afraid. And they give in very easily, when someone bigger and stronger comes along. Like all bullies do. All we had to do was stand up to it.’

‘We scared the hell out of it,’ Martha laughed.

‘That’s another way of putting it,’ the Doctor grinned. ‘Was that a medical diagnosis, Doctor Jones?’

‘You bet your monstrous eructations on it, Doctor.’

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He unlocked the TARDIS door for her. ‘Shall we tell the others it’s time to go?’

She nodded towards Solin, who was still striding about thoughtfully in the blackened rubble. ‘It’ll be hard for him.’

‘He’ll be OK. He’s a resilient kid. And he’ll fit right in on Spaceport Antelope Slash Nitelite. It’s a real ragbag of displaced persons and interesting types. Quite I fascinating place, really. I reckon Barbara will enjoy it there, too. She’s had far too sheltered a life. She’ll look after Solin.’

They watched Barbara ambling up to the TARDIS. She had a spring in her step. She looked as elated as a vending machine ever could.

‘I’m ready, Doctor, Martha,’ she said. ‘I’ve said my goodbyes. To Toaster, to everyone else.’

‘And the Domovoi?’ the Doctor asked her.

‘I think she’s gone,’ Barbara said, frowning. ‘I can’t detect her anywhere in the remains of the Dreamhome. I think she’s gone deep, deep underground.’

The Doctor stared at Barbara and nodded solemnly.

For a second he allowed himself to wonder: what if she was lying?

She had been connected to the Domovoi, after all. What if – even unbeknownst to Barbara herself – the Domovoi had secreted some small part of her malign intelligence inside the circuits of the vending robot? And what if she managed to get herself away from Tiermann’s World? What if she managed to smuggle herself away, inside Barbara, and into the galaxy at large?

The Doctor waved the thought away. He was getting much too suspicious. Always thinking and expecting the worst. No, the Domovoi was gone. And it was time for them to leave, too.

‘I think I’m ready, Doctor. To explore the universe,’ Barbara said brightly.

The Doctor was watching as Solin turned his back on his wrecked and burning world. There was nothing left here for him now. The boy was turning and walking towards the TARDIS, ready to be swept away and taken into a different time and place.

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The Doctor smiled at Barbara. ‘It’s completely marvellous, exploring the universe,’ he told her. ‘Everyone should try it. Eh, Martha?’

‘Too right,’ she said, and led the way into the ship. Martha was secretly glad that they were dropping off Barbara and Solin (with that embarrassing crush of his!) at that spaceport. They were all very nice and everything, but she was happiest when it was just he and the Doctor.

Smith and Jones. At home in the universe. And setting off together for new and fantastic adventures.

Now she was returning to the valley.

Her cubs were safe. They were strong and they had been fed at last. She had found them something: a fleeing beast she had caught up with and casually killed. She had fed her cubs and she had eaten a little flesh too, though not as much as she needed to.

She still felt sick with worry. She still felt disturbed at having to leave her valley and flee.

Now the mutterings and the whisperings in the wintry forest were telling her that all was safe. The danger had passed. And when she cocked her ear and stared into the skies she could sense that it was true. The ultimate, terrible danger had gone. They had been saved.

Death had been dismissed from their world at the very last moment.

But how? And why? And what was it anyway? That colossal, alien behemoth that came bearing down on them. That had sucked up so much of the forest’s life elsewhere. What had it been? And would it ever come again?

She didn’t know. None of them knew.

She watched her cubs scatter into the frozen undergrowth. They padded and scampered ahead of her, Now they were onto the scent of their home. They knew they were nearly there. She shared their excitement and their relief at the sense of home.

She was exhausted, though. Bone weary. And the shock of this whole nightmare had shaken her very deeply. She knew she would never take her place in this world for granted any more. Not in the same way. Not now that she knew that something – some inexplicable thing – could come along out of the blue one day and simply force her 163

to move. Something bigger and more powerful, forcing its will onto her familiar landscape.

She would never take things for granted again. And she would warn her cubs to be careful, too.

Because the world could change overnight.

And here on Tiermann’s World, that’s exactly what had happened.

Here in the valley, in the densely packed snowy woods, there was a smell of destruction in the air. Charred remains. Devastation. The human beings were gone, Those who had been here, so many years, thinking this world was theirs. Now they were gone. Hopefully for ever.

The mother realised this and felt a great wave of happiness wash through her. This place was hers again. Theirs.

The world had changed overnight, and she was glad.

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Acknowledgements

With thanks to Justin, Gary, Russell, Jac, Claire, Steve, Sherry, Tiff, Alicia, Mark, Mark, Mark, Ann, Louise, Mam, Panda and Jeremy.

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• Front Cover
  
• Contents
  
• Prologue
  
• One
  
• Two
  
• Three
  
• Four
  
• Five
  
• Six
  
• Seven
  
• Eight
  
• Nine
  
• Ten
  
• Eleven
  
• Twelve
  
• Thirteen
  
• Fourteen
  
• Fifteen
  
• Sixteen
  
• Seventeen
  
• Eighteen
  
• Nineteen
  
• Acknowledgements
  
• Back Cover