‘Delay that order!’ shouted Gabriel, ‘We’re getting some answers…’
‘And killing your people!’ shouted the Doctor and he flicked the intercom on. The sounds of screams filtered the intercom on. The sounds of screams filtered into the room, an ice cool chill enveloped them all. ‘Now switch off that machine!’
The white light vanished, the noise vanished, the screaming stopped. Grabbing his hat, the Doctor shot an angry glance at Gabriel and ran out.
The mist tumbled down the Doctor as he ran through the door to the outside. The mist gradually dived lower and lower, until it hovered above his ankles and then below his feet. The scene of devastation was revealed - Kalikol and his scientists, ordinary people and children, all lay dead on the floor. The mound was larger, the fissures greater. But no sign of anything else.
‘Doctor?’ called Mel as she ran out. ‘What happened?’
The Doctor sadly shook his head. ‘I have a number of theories, none of them very pleasant.’ he said.
Mel stooped down and picked up the board that had been in Kalikol’s hand. ‘Look at this,’ she said and gave it to the Doctor.
The Doctor looked at the board. There wasn’t much, just a few rough pencil scratching - but there was one thing very distinguishable and detailed piece - an eye. An evil wide eye, with a thick black pupil staring malevolently from the page.
‘Come on, Mel. We need some rest. I’ll get someone to keep a close watch on this mound, but from a distance. Come on.’ and they walked slowly to the TARDIS, and the possibility of a sleep.
4. THE HORROR BEGINS...
‘Gabriel, you fool!’ yelled the Doctor, as he pulled on his jacket and ran out of the TARDIS and onto the surface of Arillios. He saw the four high pillars of white light projecting upwards to the moons again, and cursed again. Mel appeared beside him.
‘What’s the racket?’ she asked, ‘An impromptu slide show?’
‘Gabriel’s trying to accelerate the mound into opening completely! If he succeeds, he’ll kill us all!’ and with that the Doctor ran across to the building, dragging Mel with him.
They hadn’t got halfway to the block of the buildings, when the high pitched scream of tortured earth rupturing open, hit them. They looked towards the mound, great rips raced across the surface, and huge chunks of earth suddenly projected themselves into the air, landing hundreds of feet away.
The whine of the projectors was unbearable and Mel slumped to her knees, hands on ears. The Doctor braced himself and looked up at the mound. He saw, what looked like five white trees emerge from the ground, only to see they were fingers, large bony, almost stone like in appearance.
He fell to his knees and cried out loud, but kept his eyes on the mound and saw, to his horror, the awesome bulk of a Malus drag itself from the shallow mud grave and stand high and proud; huge tail waving; arms flexing in almost triumphant gestures and it threw back its head and roared. This was the last thing the Doctor saw before he collapsed to the turf.
The sound of the projectors stopped almost as soon as the Malus had finished roaring its victory cry. Its huge, stone-like head turned from side to side, taking in the devastation it had created and it roared again.
The Doctor suddenly sat bolt-upright as the roar reverberated around the surrounding buildings. ‘Oh no, oh no,’ he kept repeating, and staggering to his feet, he threw Mel over his shoulder in regular fireman style and ran to the TARDIS.
The Malus saw him and roared. Quite unexpectantly ( for the Doctor, anyway ), it opened and a shaft of flame leapt from its throat and made the turf near the darting figure of the Time Lord, char and finally erupt in a sheet of flame.
‘It couldn’t do that the last time I encountered the Malus!’ thought the Doctor. ‘Maybe this one has been genetically restructured for some reason…’ and ran over the threshold of the TARDIS, before shutting the door. The hum that accompanied the door closing stopped suddenly.
The Doctor tapped a switch on the wooden panel.
*Power level = 1.5% : Near exhaustion...End of analysis*
...and the letters faded from the screen, leaving nothing but blackness. The lights, already a dim orange, blinked off completely.
‘You poor thing,’ said the Doctor to the console and flicked the secondary power button.
*Secondary power operative* *Energy levels low* *Power 48%* *End of analysis*
flashed onto the screen as the lights slowly faded back to virtual full brightness. The doors hummed for a moment and finally shut.
The Doctor flicked to external scanner, just in time to see the control building for the lance laser projectors be demolished by the Malus. ‘Hmm, oh dear..’ mumbled the Doctor, juggling his thoughts and shuffling a dozen ideas at the same time.
‘Well,’ he said out loud, pacing the console room,’ we need to ask ourselves how did the Malus get here? Huh, obvious! It was sent here to fight the Cadinollium warriors when they were raging wars on anyone and everything. But how did it get here without being detected?’ He walked back and forth, and then tripped over the inert body of Mel. As he fell, he grabbed what he thought was the chair but was in fact the book Mel had found earlier. The Doctor hit the floor with a thud and instantly sat upright and turned the pages of the book to the chapter headed "Arillios"
‘Of course!’ he yelled, ‘The Malus arrived during the ten year period between the death of the Cadinollium and the birth of the Arillions. Finding no-one on the planet, it slept, was grown over and then was awoken when it subconsciously drained the energy from the projectors! And now, it’s fulfilling its programming - the eradication of the Cadinollium, or whoever it bumps into, i.e. the Arillions’
He slammed the book shut. ‘It must have arrived on the planet unaware of the fact that the Cadinollium had committed mass self-genocide, and that they were creating a pure race. So instead of slaughtering its enemies, it’s going to slaughter the innocents and it won’t know!’
Mel had sat up and was listening intently. ‘So what can we do?’ she asked.
‘Aaaagh!’ screamed the Doctor and then checking both his hearts he said, ‘Oh you made me jump!’
‘What can we do, if anything?’ she asked again, slowly getting to her feet.
‘I have a few theories on my mind...and the only suitable one is an extreme long shot.’ He activated the computer, and punched in the command of:
*Analysis of planet strata*
The planet appeared on the screen and was then cut in half to reveal many multi-coloured layers, each with long names.
‘Zoom into the first three layers…’muttered the Doctor and hit the appropriate button. The three layers enlarged and the names were printed beside them. The first layer was usual composition of soil, rock, etc. But it was the second and third layers that fascinated the Doctor. He read the computer’s read out: ‘Analysis: thick metal surface possibly a Forastium based one. Third layer: Hibernation chambers.’
Mel was aghast. ‘Hibernation chambers? But I thought the Cadinollium committed suicide by going underground and turning off their life supports.’
‘So did the rest of the Universe. They broadcast the fact to every Solar System - made it well known that they were all going to die, and simply just hibernated.’
‘Why though? To what purpose?’
‘Simple! To avoid all the retribution and revenge that was obviously coming their way - how can you exact revenge on a dead race of people, who they obviously hoped to turn into a new army when the time was right.’
‘Why, the crafty bunch of…’
‘Exactly. The Cadinollium are a bunch of cads. And they’re still alive…’
‘How does that help us? There’s a...what did you call it? A Malus? Stomping about out there killing innocent people.’
‘Ah,’ said the Doctor, ‘this is the tricky bit. We’ve got to wake the Cadinollium and get them to destroy the Malus.’
Mel was watching the scanner. ‘What’s happening to the Malus?’ she said pointing to the viewer, ‘It’s screaming…’
Indeed it was. Amongst the fresh wreckage of mirrored tower blocks and broken building, the Malus was staggering back and forth, tail waving wildly, flame spurting intermittently.
‘Energy...it needs more energy. It’s destroyed the projector building and unwittingly destroyed its power supply!’
The Doctor opened the doors and was about to leave when the room went dark. He glanced outside and saw a renewed Malus stalking across towards him.
‘It’s drained the last of the TARDIS’s power…’ he muttered, ‘it must have picked up an energy burst when I opened the doors.'
Mel joined him by the doorway and screamed as a line of flame sped towards them.
‘Run Mel, Run!!’ the Doctor cried and both of them ran across the courtyard.
They were now in the open, streamers of flames roaring past them. ‘Now you know how a mouse feels running from an owl,’ murmured the Doctor, as he pulled Mel and veered to the left to avoid a jet of fire.
‘Over there!’ yelled Mel above the din of the Malus’s footsteps. She pointed to a trap in the ground, virtually invisible.
The Doctor tried turning the round shaped handle on top, but it was jammed. ‘It hasn’t been opened for years…’ and the Time Lord smiled as his voice trailed off. ‘This is what we’ve been hoping for, Mel!’ he shouted, and with renewed vigour, wrenched open the handle and pulled back the thick concrete cover. No sooner had he and Mel vanished and pulled the cover back, then a spray of fire scorched the surrounding grass.
The Malus began scratching at the ground.
‘Energy...it needs more energy. It’s destroyed the projector building and unwittingly destroyed its power supply!’
The Doctor opened the doors and was about to leave when the room went dark. He glanced outside and saw a renewed Malus stalking across towards him.
‘It’s drained the last of the TARDIS’s power…’ he muttered, ‘it must have picked up an energy burst when I opened the doors.'
Mel joined him by the doorway and screamed as a line of flame sped towards them.
‘Run Mel, Run!!’ the Doctor cried and both of them ran across the courtyard.
They were now in the open, streamers of flames roaring past them. ‘Now you know how a mouse feels running from an owl,’ murmured the Doctor, as he pulled Mel and veered to the left to avoid a jet of fire.
‘Over there!’ yelled Mel above the din of the Malus’s footsteps. She pointed to a trap in the ground, virtually invisible.
The Doctor tried turning the round shaped handle on top, but it was jammed. ‘It hasn’t been opened for years…’ and the Time Lord smiled as his voice trailed off. ‘This is what we’ve been hoping for, Mel!’ he shouted, and with renewed vigour, wrenched open the handle and pulled back the thick concrete cover. No sooner had he and Mel vanished and pulled the cover back, then a spray of fire scorched the surrounding grass.
The Malus began scratching at the ground.