Chapter 7 (X-223)
The Doctor, Lilly and Kitz had been led through to an encampment not far from the base of the trees they had descended from. Josk had gotten one of his men to carry Obi who had slipped out of consciousness again.
The Doctor was grateful that Obi had awoken long enough to save their skins, but he was still concerned. Despite the warnings of the Surfacers being savage and dangerous, Josk had so far proved to be quite intelligent.
The encampment was at the bottom of a crater-like hill. Dug-outs had been dug into the hills and in the middle was a large bonfire.
Sat around the fire were more of the Gandran-like creatures, each with different deformities. One had no eyes, one had no arms or legs and others lesser deformities.
All the creatures watched the visitors with intrigue. Some became agitated, whilst others made sure the agitated ones were calm.
Obi was taken into a nearby dug-out, whilst Josk guided the Doctor and his friends to the fireside. He stood up on a trees stump and raised his head.
“I hope you realise there’s no escape,” whispered Lilly. “I mean, if they decided to kill us now then there’s no way we’re getting out of this.”
“Hush, Lilly.”
“My people,” said Josk, “we have visitors from above.”
“They are Superiors,” called one of the watchers.
“Look at them, Able, they are not Superiors. They are from another planet entirely.”
“The small one is a Superior,” said Able.
Kitz shifted uncomfortably.
“He tells me that they have been tricked. Only the top leaders understand what is going on. They believe that their elders pass to the Age.”
“Have you told him the truth?” asked another voice.
Josk turned to the Doctor and looked sadly at him. “This Age his people talk about cannot be real. It simply cannot.”
“Then what happens, Josk?”
“First you must understand that we are not here by choice. For many, many years we all lived in harmony, but then there was a light show above our planet. Two carriers -”
“He means spaceships,” whispered Lilly to Kitz.
“-fought above. A carrier crashed to our planet. Not long after a small amount of children that were born after the crash were born with things wrong with them.” He indicated the race of the encampment.
“Deformities,” said the Doctor, sadly.
“The Superiors - the leaders of each Gandran habitat - decided that any child that was born with a mutation should be expelled from their pure place of living.”
The Doctor shook his head. “So instead of trying to help you they instead exiled you.”
Josk nodded. “And so our ancestors lived on the surface, caring for each other.”
“But what about you eating people?” said Lilly, a look of disgust on her face.
“We ate the fruit for some time, but soon even that ran out. We instead began trying to get back to our rightful place in the trees, to try and live in harmony.”
“And they fought you back?”
“Yes. Then we discovered that they were throwing their dead bodies down to us to keep us fed and keep us away.” Josk shook his head. It looked painful for him to continue talking. He rubbed the side of his face. “But the bodies decomposed before they were good enough to eat.”
The Doctor looked at Kitz. “Kitz, how long are your life spans?”
Kitz thought for a moment. “Until the Age takes us.”
“But how many years?”
“Maybe twenty.”
“Twenty years!” said Lilly. “You age quickly, then?”
“It is normal for us.”
The Doctor rubbed his chin and nodded. “Your life spans are only twenty years and your bodies decompose quickly as well.”
“The meat was no good to us,” said Josk. “We began our ascent to the platforms again.”
“And then they devised the Age,” said the Doctor, looking up at the trees. “Yes, it’s all starting to make sense now.” The Doctor took his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and stepped towards Josk. “May I take a sample of your blood?”
“Is this a trick?”
“Trust him,” said Lilly, managing a gentle smile.
Josk sighed and held out his arm. The Doctor pressed the screwdriver down on his forearm. It beeped and whirred and then the Doctor looked at a small, digital readout. He shook his head and smiled in disgust. “Just as I thought.”
“What is it?” asked Lilly, trying to catch a look.
“Your blood is full of some kind of substance.” He put his screwdriver away and sat down on another tree stump. “What happens when you get the dead bodies?”
“Well they are warm. They don’t decompose.”
The Doctor nodded. “That’s because they poison them. When they pass to the so-called Age they are, in fact, being poisoned. It looks like they’re dead but they’re not.”
“I knew something was wrong!” said Kitz, angrily.
“They convince the people that they are dead and then lower the poisoned bodies down to your people were you eat them thinking they are already dead.”
“So they paralyse them or something?” asked Lilly.
“Exactly,” said the Doctor. He shook his head. “The poison is harmless now, but it’s there in your bloodstream. Not only that, but you are full of X-223.”
“What is this?” said Josk.
“The two ships fighting above your planet were part of the Virus Wars - a war between the Shrieks and Plantaniums. It went on for a few years. Each faction fought the other with varying different viruses. I intervened a while back and brought it to an end. I almost lost Louisa and Atom in the process”
“Who?” asked Lilly with a frown.
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that the ship that crashed must have been carrying a virus. It got into the very air you breath and effected a certain amount of the population causing the mutations in the new born.”
“So we have been eating the living?” said Josk, with disgust.
“I’m afraid so,” said the Doctor.
Josk looked away, disgusted with himself and then back at the Doctor. “What do we do now?”
Richard and Holly were surrounded by confused Gandrans back at the main living platform. Richard was carrying the small, still-unconscious Tees in his arms.
Jag was flanked by his soldiers and they were pointing spears at the two Humans.
“This cannot be true,” said Jag. “None of it can.”
“I’m afraid it is true,” said Holly. “The Age is nothing but a lie.”
“But…how many people know of this?” said Jag, his anger threatening to boil over.
“Likely just the leaders of each town and the priests,” said Richard.
“But the Age has been with us for centuries. It’s always been there.”
“It’s always been a lie,” said Holly, sadly. “They’ve been feeding your elders - alive - to the Surfacers.”
Jag shook his head and lowered his spear.
Tees groaned in Richard’s arms and he set him down on the floor.
“What have you done!” growled Jag, pointing his spear at his leader.
“What…is happening…?” asked Tees, barely able to comprehend what was going on.
Jag grabbed Tees and hoisted him to his feet. Richard tried to stop Jag, but Jag pushed him away. “My mother and father joined the Age,” said Jag.
“The Age is real…”
“It’s not real,” said Jag, shaking Tees. Tees didn’t have the strength the fight back. Jag dragged him towards the edge of the platform.
“Jag, no!” said Holly. “You can’t kill him. He needs to face trial with the rest of the leaders and priests.”
“He needs to go to his Surfacer friends,” said Jag.
The crowd gasped as Jag hoisted him over the railings and hung him over the edge.
“WAIT!” came a familiar voice.
Everyone turned their heads to the source of the voice. The Doctor was standing beside the large, central tree trunk with Kitz, Lilly and Josk beside him.
“It’s a Surfacer!” yelled one of the Gandrans.
“He is not here to hurt you,” said the Doctor.
“It’s true,” said Kitz. “We climbed back up to the platforms. We know what has been happening.”
“There’s been a misunderstanding,” said the Doctor.
“Not a misunderstanding,” said Jag. “A lie. A centuries-long lie.”
“Yes, that’s another way of putting it,” said the Doctor, edging closer to Jag. “But Holly is right - Tees needs to stand trial.”
“No,” said Jag. “He needs to die.” Jag released his grip. For a moment time seemed to be frozen. Tees eyes widened and then he fell from Jag’s hands. The small creature screamed as he plummeted down to the ground and landed far below with a sickening thud.
“Jag…” said the Doctor, quietly.
“He’s gone to join his Age,” said Jag, who slumped to the floor and sighed, his head in his hands.
“What do we do?” asked Josk, looking around nervously.
“All in good time, Josk,” said the Doctor, crossing over to the worried alien. “We have time to work this out.”
Holly looked across to Lilly who was looking tired and dishevelled. Now the tension had been broken between Josk and the rest of the Gandrans Holly slowly approached her. The Doctor smiled and gave her a hug. “I’m glad you’re safe, Holly.”
“You too, Doctor,” she said.
The Doctor relaxed his hug and then crossed over to Richard.
Holly slowly walked up to Lilly and smiled. “You’ve alive.”
“Always, Dangerfield,” said Lilly.
And then the two embraced.
“I wanted to come and find you,” said Holly, burying her head in Lilly’s neck.
“But he wouldn’t let you,” said Lilly. She smiled. “It’s alright. I know how he works. I’ve just been on a little adventure. I even went swimming!”
Holly laughed. “How’s your infection?”
“It’s eased off a bit,” said Lilly, idly scratching at her side again. “The results should be in now, though.”
“We need to tell the Doctor.”
Lilly nodded. “Yeah, I know. It was stupid of me to keep it quiet.”
“You’ll be okay,” said Holly. She kissed Lilly on the lips and then smiled. “Once we’ve sorted these guys out, we can sort you out.”
The Doctor had spent the next few hours with Kitz, Josk and the other Gandrans negotiating a truce between the Surfacers and the Superiors. He had contacted other tribes across Gandra and they had exposed their leaders and priests for their crimes and slowly the planet was coming to terms with what had happened.
Jag had allowed Kitz to take charge of the situation and slowly Josk was going to start moving his Surfacers back to the tree tops. It was going to be hard, but they were going to find a way to live together.
Jag had then disappeared into the morning light and had not been seen since.
Kitz and Josk had escorted the Doctor, Lilly, Holly and Richard back to the jungle surface where they found the upturned TARDIS lying in a big bush.
The Doctor patted his ships side and said in a soothing voice, “Don’t you worry about it, old girl. Everything’s going to be okay.”
“Your craft is alive?” asked Kitz.
“Not exactly,” smiled Holly.
“I shall miss you people,” said Kitz. “Especially you, Holly Dangerfield.”
“I’ll miss you too, Kitz. But you never know, we may come back and see you some day.”
“Please do,” said Josk. He held out his hand and Holly shook it. “You are always welcome here.”
The Doctor clambered down from the TARDIS and shook Josk and Kitz’s hands. “You two need to work together to bring your two peoples together. You know that, don’t you?”
“We do,” said Kitz.
“It’s not going to be easy, but I’ve seen others do it before. I know you two can.”
“Now we know the truth it will be easier,” said Josk.
“Take care,” smiled the Doctor.
Kitz and Josk gave them one last look and then headed back to the ropes at the bottom of the tree.
The Doctor watched as the two of them ascended to the platforms, his hands in his pockets. “So, Mr Hicks, how was your first alien world?”
“Well,” said Richard, “I got knocked out by alien poison and almost died, but apart from that…yeah, it was alright.” He smiled.
“You’ll get used to it,” said Lilly.
“You mean you’re okay with him being onboard now?” asked Holly, just out of earshot of the Doctor and Richard.
“If he hadn’t have been there then you would have been killed by Tees,” said Lilly. “That means more to me than you could know.” She took Holly’s hand and guided her to the TARDIS.
“But we’ve gotta be open with the Doctor now,” said Holly.
“Open with me?” said the Doctor as they clambered through the opened TARDIS doors.
Holly looked at Lilly.
She sighed. “Back on Earth when I fought that Kro’Tenk captain I got some of it’s blood in a wound. It’s been hurting - itching - ever since.”
“You should have told me, Lilly.”
“I know, I know,” said Lilly. “I’ve already had the Dangerfield Lecture. But I was running scans in the TARDIS. They should be complete by now.”
“Then let’s get you seen to,” said the Doctor.
The Doctor had quickly set the TARDIS in motion and as it entered the space/time vortex Holly relaxed onto the sofa. The Doctor was hunched over the console with Lilly by his side as they examined the readings.
“I’m off for a shower,” said Richard, heading through the interior door.
“It doesn’t look too serious, but-”
The Doctor was cut off by a strange, high-pitched buzzing emanating from the central rotor. The rods inside were glowing a little brighter than normal.
“What’s that?” asked Holly, looking up at the flare of light coming from the rotor.
“I don’t know,” said the Doctor.
And then, without warning, the light flared brighter, the glass cracked and shattered and the console erupted in a huge ball of light.
The TARDIS tipped and rocked to the side and was plunged into darkness.
To Be Continued…
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