Chapter Ten
Trevithick pulled at the banister and leant heavily over it, wheezing and spluttering. He stared into the gloom and made out a large red sign on the far wall. Level 8. He was almost there now. Just through the door and back down the corridor towards the control room.
There was a sharp pain in his leg and he reached down, wincing as his fingers contacted a vicious cut. The tweed material of his trousers hung in shreds.
Trevithick took a deep breath and hauled himself to the top of the steps. He allowed himself a little smirk of satisfaction. He'd fought off that creature. Come through it alive. Him! A seventy-year-old man. That was something to tell his granddaughter, should he ever chance to see her again.
He pulled open the doors and stumbled as black dots crowded his vision. Shaking his head, he advanced down the corridor, leaning against the wall for support. For an instant, everything went black.
No. He'd never fainted in his life. This was no time to start.
Oh but he had, hadn't he? After the window had been smashed.
Don't think about that. Don't...
He had to tell them what he had seen in the lower floors. It was too important to ignore.
The corridor walls seemed to close in on him.
Dicky ticker, he thought to himself. No surprise at his age, and after the strain he'd put himself under...
With a low moan, Trevithick slid to the floor, unconscious.
'Doctor!'
Ace pulled at the hood of the Doctor's duffel coat in an attempt to rouse him. Robin put his ear to the Doctor's chest and blinked anxiously. He frowned and moved his ear to the other side.
'He's got...'
'I know,' said Ace quietly. 'Two hearts.'
She knelt down and held the Doctor's hand in hers. His face was pale and waxen, little curls of sweat-soaked hair plastered to his forehead.
'You might as well know,' she said, hopelessly. 'He's an alien and I'm from the future. We travel through Time.'
Robin looked up from his scrutiny of the Doctor. He shrugged and smiled slightly. 'Well, you did say you weren't from round here.'
Ace put her hand on the Doctor's brow. 'Why won't he wake up?'
Robin sighed. 'I don't know. His heartbeat is very shallow. Maybe that's normal for him...'
Suddenly, the Doctor sat bolt upright and yelled in pain.
Ace sat back on her haunches in surprise, staring at the Doctor's wide open mouth. He roared and screamed and howled in agony until Ace thought she'd be deafened.
'What is it? What is it?' she cried desperately.
The Doctor fell back, tears springing to his eyes, and bit into his lower lip.
'It's his shoulder,' yelled Robin. 'Look!'
Ace looked and felt suddenly sick. There was an ugly lump projecting from beneath the sleeve of the Doctor's coat.
'Dislocated,' gasped the Doctor, weeping in agony. 'Have to put it back.' He was panting in distress.
'What?' said Ace. 'I can't...'
'Do it!' ordered the Doctor. 'Please ... please. Can't stand it...'
He arched his back and screamed. Robin put his hands on the Doctor's right shoulder, eliciting an immediate howl from the prostrate Time Lord.
'I'll hold it,' panted Robin. 'You push it back in.'
Ace looked down worriedly.
'Please!' hissed the Doctor between his teeth. 'Quickly!'
'Sorry about this, Doctor,' said Ace grimly.
Robin pushed his knee under the Doctor's back and Ace rested her hands on the dislocated shoulder, gritting her teeth as though she were feeling the pain herself. She grasped the bones firmly and, holding her breath, slammed them back into place.
The Doctor emitted a stream of oaths not heard since the very darkest days of Gallifreyan history and then fell back, sobbing, on to the moor.
'Thank you. Thank you both,' he muttered, eyelids flickering.
'Did I do good?' asked Ace eagerly. 'Blowing up the tower?'
The Doctor opened one eye painfully. 'Nothing could've been worse. It feeds off energy. You gave it a nice hors d'oeuvre for the main dish.'
Ace looked crestfallen.
The Doctor looked up and smiled. 'But you did get us out of there,' he croaked. Ace grinned back.
'What d'you mean, "main dish"?' said Robin worriedly.
The Doctor struggled into a sitting position. 'That thing in the tower ... that Sentience ... is of incalculable age. I believe the Earth formed around it. It runs through space like a vein of mineral in the rocks. It's growing and it's hungry.'
Robin looked ashen faced.
The Doctor seemed to recover with remarkable speed and was on his feet within minutes. 'You see,' he said, pointing to the ruined tower, 'you've only made it stronger.'
Ace and Robin looked up. The air around the blackened stonework was alive with roaring energy, a cloud of whispering light growing by the second.
Ace looked across the moor and then at the Doctor. His expression was dark and forbidding.
'What now, Doctor?' said Ace quietly.
The Doctor glanced up at the tower and then over the moor to the fog-shrouded telescope.
'Come on,' he said. 'It's time to lay some ghosts.'
Jill Mason sat hugging her knees to her chin in one of the cold church pews. It felt like an age since they'd closed the church doors and almost as long since George Lowcock had made his 'difficult' announcement. He had stuck to his idea of a poisonous gas leak and the reaction hadn't been as incredulous as expected, several villagers having already made their own grim discoveries.
There had been several ideas to perk everyone up, some of the residents organising things with all the gusto of a boy-scout jamboree, although Jill had violently vetoed someone's notion of a singsong.
Now they were huddled together in the pews, wrapped in the blankets they'd been requested to bring. A few children were dashing unconcernedly up and down the aisle.
Only Mr Medcalfe, one of Crook Marsham's oldest residents, stood alone, gazing out of the back window into the misty churchyard.
George Lowcock sat down next to Jill and undid his tie. 'I feel so... useless,' he exclaimed.
'I know,' said Jill calmly, 'but until we have a clue what's happening we'd better stay put. I know what it can do.'
'It?'
Jill shrugged. 'You know, I never believed in anything out of the ordinary, supernatural... even as a child. But I've seen things today...'
Lowcock sank his head on to his chest. 'Well, whatever it is, I want it out of my village. I want things back the way they were.'
Jill put a hand on his. 'I don't think they can be, George. Things change. They have to.'
Andrew Medcalfe watched his breath steam up the window. He felt safe here in the old church, lost amongst the cold shadows.
As a boy, he had often hidden from his parents in this bit of the building, enjoying the feel of the cool stone against his hands and face as he gazed out of the stained glass. He'd seen a good few headstones spring up since then and knew that his own, the one he was never destined to see, was not too far off. He was getting on.
This gas scare he could have done without, especially since his declining years had been so free of incident: calm, unspectacular and peaceful. Medcalfe turned the word over in his mind. Peace. Full. It had such a beautiful sound.
Some people said he was a dull old dog but he never complained, never answered back. Because they didn't understand. Could never hope to understand.
Oh, he had been a hot-blooded youth like the rest of them, a bit of a rebel even. He was going to get away from this miserable village and see the world. China, India, Africa or even America, which sounded so exciting in the Conan Doyle books.
There'd even been one or two brushes with the law back at the turn of the century. Nothing too serious of course, but it had taken more than a magistrate's fine to sort out Mr Woodall's daughter when he'd got her in the family way.
But after the Somme, he had never yearned for excitement again.
Of all the men in Crook Marsham who had joined up (and almost all had gone voluntarily, poor devils), only he and Jack Prudhoe had returned alive.
They'd never really been friends before but after the Great War they had an unspoken bond, something no one else could penetrate. Even though neither said a word about their experiences, both recognised the haunted look buried deep at the back of the other's eyes.
Medcalfe coughed loudly and spat up a ball of phlegm into his grubby handkerchief. He'd caught a whiff of gas in the trenches and was still suffering for it.
Now old Jack was gone too: a victim, so George Lowcock said, of this mysterious accident. Ironic that it should be gas too.
Medcalfe rubbed his hand against a crimson-hued pane of glass and peeked out into the frost-rimed churchyard. There it was. The one monument he could hardly bear to look at.
AICKMAN, ROBERT, PTE
ATKINSON, WILLIAM, PTE
COCKAYNE, CYRIL, PTE
CLEMINSON, JOHN, PTE
MAYNARD, EDWARD, PTE
SHACKLETON, GEORGE, SRG
His gaze moved swiftly to the base of the broken pillar where a fairly fresh wreath of poppies fluttered in the wind.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM
The sky above the ruined monastery tower rippled like water, great bolts of burning light shooting through the clouds. There was a distant rumble of thunder followed only seconds later by a vicious fork of lightning.
The Sentience licked about the tower and slowly, almost unconsciously, began to swirl into a vortex. This time the thunder seemed closer, booming from horizon to horizon, the accompanying lightning flared across the sky. The atmosphere crackled as though alive.
A massive shock ripped through the tower and the ancient masonry shattered into limestone dust. Trails of light sparkled in the vortex, spiralling from a rich purple to a dense, terrifying blackness. Wind roared across the moor, tearing up clumps of heather and rock. The old bus shelter and the road sign gave little resistance, exploding in a cloud of rotten wood. Only the TARDIS stood firm, like a watchful policeman, calmly biding its time.
The Sentience spread its nebulous fronds, gushing down from the heavens like an avenging angel. The sky boiled with fire.
It felt the blackness at its heart, the great, awful hollowness. There had to be more. There was still need.
Need
Flicking a shimmering tendril, it covered the whole distance to the village in a fraction of a second. For a few moments, it gurgled and twisted around every house, loosening bricks and shattering roofs.
Need
Then there was a tiny trace in its mind. Insistent. Powerful. Bountiful.
Need
A torrent of emotion raced through every brilliant particle of its essence and sadness overwhelmed it. Such regret. Such regret.
Regret was good. Regret was strong.
Need
Need
Suddenly, there were images too. Faces and names and voices, all perfectly clear and unsullied. Without the slightest hesitation, the Sentience moved in for the kill.
Vijay found Trevithick slumped in the corridor just outside the control room. He appeared to be asleep through sheer exhaustion, his empty revolver gripped tightly in one hand.
Vijay was so delighted to find the old man alive that he kissed him, an action which roused Trevithick faster than any smelling salts.
Hooking one of Trevithick's arms around him, Vijay carried the battle-weary actor into the control room where he was enthusiastically received by Cooper and Holly. It was better than a hundred ovations, he thought, chuckling to himself.
Trevithick recounted his adventures with some pride and then told them of his discovery in the base of the lift shaft.
Cooper threw him a glance. 'Describe it.'
Trevithick sat back in his chair. 'I can't. It's all lit up like a TV studio. Too bright to make anything out. But it's pulsing, as if it were alive. I managed to get back up the stairs to this level but I think I must've passed out. Getting to be a bit of a habit, I'm afraid.'
'Well,' said Vijay, 'we're delighted...'
The double doors burst open at the suggestion of Robin's foot and he, the Doctor and Ace ran into the room, bringing a mass of wind-blown foliage with them.
'Doctor! Thank God!' exclaimed Trevithick.
Cooper ran a hand through her blood-stiffened hair and grinned broadly. 'Good to have you back.'
'What's the situation?' said the Doctor quietly.
Cooper gestured around desperately. The room was clattering with data again.
'It's coming from under the ground, not space,' said Holly, triumphantly.
The Doctor blinked. 'Yes. Yes, that would make sense.'
Trevithick stepped forward. 'Doctor, I've seen it. Down there. You wouldn't believe it. All the lower levels, full of light and.. .and...' He stammered and shook his head.
'I've spoken to it,' said the Doctor gravely.
'You've what?' cried Vijay.
'I don't know what it is. I don't even know if it's alive in any sense we understand. It's like a virus. Or a vampire. Feeding off energy.'
Ace shot a look at the shattered window. 'What happened here?'
Vijay smiled. 'You wouldn't like to know.'
Robin was also by the window, gazing at the boiling sky. 'Doctor, I think you should see this.'
The Doctor appraised the violent heavens with one look and then turned back. 'We're running out of time. It's spreading all over the moor.'
'But what is it?' insisted Cooper.
'I've told you, I don't know!' bellowed the Doctor, angrily. 'I can't have an answer for everything.'
Oh, that's a good one, thought Ace.
The Doctor sat down. 'It's incredibly ancient. Older than the Earth itself. It runs through the planet.'
'Like the letters in Blackpool rock?' said Trevithick brightly.
The Doctor glared at him. 'If you like.'
Cooper looked at the Doctor earnestly. 'But all these incidents, ghosts...'
The Doctor's voice was husky and exhausted. 'My guess is that, powerful as it is, it can't feed directly. It needs something to latch on to, to give it time to feed.'
'Memory?' said Vijay.
The Doctor nodded. 'For the most part. Strong associations. Regrets. Desires. They're formidable emotions. Think how one little thing can stir up a flood of nostalgia in all of us.' He glanced down. 'All of us.'
'Like that French chap and his teacake!' announced Trevithick triumphantly.
'So the power of our emotion, our memory, summoned these ghosts into being?' whispered Holly.
'Exactly.' The Doctor rose from his chair. 'And the stronger your belief in it, the more powerful it becomes until you haven't the will to deny it. And then it consumes you.'
Robin thought of Betty. What had she seen? What was the dreadful death he had condemned her to?
'What can we do?' he said at last.
'We have to fight it at source,' declared the Doctor firmly. He turned to Trevithick. 'Edmund, you said something about the lower levels...'
'There's no need, Doctor,' cried Vijay. 'I think we've found a more direct route downwards.' The Doctor frowned.
Andrew Medcalfe jerked back from the window in surprise. There was someone standing by the war memorial, their face in deep shadow.
He almost turned to call Lowcock. Everyone was supposed to be inside the church. For their own good. He almost turned.
But then the figure raised its face and gazed directly into Medcalfe's bleary old eyes.
Need
The young man was wearing a knee-length trenchcoat and high boots. His hair and skin were fair, almost radiant, flushed with youthful vigour. He smiled warmly.
'John?' whispered Medcalfe.
John Cleminson.
Need
Need
Need
The Sentience hissed with delight. Perfect.
'John?' croaked Medcalfe in disbelief.
His mind raced, unbidden, through the other names on the memorial. So many friends.
Medcalfe backed away. There were others now, appearing out of the mist in a staggered line. Some he recognised. Billy Atkinson with his shiny black moustache. Cyril Cockayne, his arm in a sling just as it had been the day the shell wiped him off the face of the Earth.
Others were anonymous behind gas masks, strutting remorselessly across the graveyard like hideous blind pigs.
Medcalfe felt someone by him and turned in fear. It was George Lowcock.
The policeman stood and stared at the spectres through the frost-covered window. He didn't recognise a single one, but he believed in them.
He believes
Need
Need
The Sentience relished Lowcock's contact and grew stronger still.
Suddenly, there were faces crowding the window, pressing their features against the cold panes and grinning. Grinning.
One of the gas-masked figures pushed itself to the fore and Medcalfe saw his own face reflected in the blank glass sockets. He screamed.
'Not this time!' insisted the Doctor.
'But why?' cried Ace plaintively.
The Doctor looked about evasively. Cooper was staying behind to monitor things on the surface. Holly, Vijay and Trevithick, who wouldn't hear of being left out of the adventure, had elected to accompany him below ground. But Ace was not to come.
'You're...' The Doctor looked up but managed to avoid Ace's eyes. 'You're too important.'
Ace frowned but then decided this was a rare compliment, something not to be sniffed at. She smiled warmly.
'OK. No tantrums. You win, Doctor.'
He touched her arm and smiled thinly.
'Is it really that bad?' said Ace.
The Doctor didn't reply. Ace sighed. There were deep shadows under his eyes. He looked fit to drop. Robin put his arm around Ace and the Doctor clapped a hand on the boy's shoulder. 'Look after her,' he whispered.
Ace watched the party leave through the double doors, shrinking back as another blast of wind from the moor flooded into the station.
It was as if he didn't expect to come back.
The moor was like a battleground, a fierce gale whipping and lashing through the heather. The Doctor pulled up the hood of his coat and wrapped his scarf over his mouth as he, Trevithick, Vijay and Holly struggled towards the cave entrance.
'There, Doctor!' called Vijay, his face hidden by the bulk of his parka.
The Doctor ran towards the cave mouth which the subsidence had uncovered, plunged his hand into his pocket and produced his torch.
'Are you going to try and reason with it?' shouted Trevithick above the noise of the wind.
The Doctor scowled and didn't reply. Instead, he swept the torch-beam around the cave, the beam creating a broad yellow cone of light in the fog.
'Man made,' he said softly. 'Well done, Vijay.'
'But if this is the quarry, Doctor, what's made it show up? Why has the ground...'
The Doctor looked Vijay in the eye, crinkling his face against the onslaught of the elements. 'This thing has come fully to life, probably for the first time, and it's growing. Expanding under the ground. That's what Edmund must have seen in the lower levels of the station: a tremendous build up of energy. It's shaking off its earthly shackles and this is the result.' He gestured around at the scorched, disrupted ground.
Trevithick stepped forward. 'Well, let's see where it goes, shall we?'
The cave floor began to dip almost immediately, leading into a steep tunnel. The rock walls glistened with moisture.
Holly wrinkled her nose. 'Can you smell that?'
The Doctor sniffed. There was a faint but noticeable odour of decay.
'It's the same,' said Trevithick in a sepulchral whisper.
Holly moved off into the darkness. 'It's stronger further down.'
The Doctor pointed his torch before them and led the way.
Trevithick looked back as they descended deeper into the tunnel, the rain-lashed entrance now a diminishing half circle of grey light.
Ace stapled the last sheet of polythene across the shattered window and watched the rain drum against it. Even through the distortion of the plastic she could see the fantastic display lighting up the sky. If she hadn't known how sinister were its implications, she would have marvelled at its beauty. It was as if the oceans had been drawn up into the clouds, torrents of light creating a magnificent effulgence against the pale December sun.
Cooper had given up even attempting to make sense of the data overwhelming her computers. She sat rubbing her temples as sheaves of paper pooled around her shoes.
She glanced up as lightning spat across the sky, illuminating the whole room. Robin caught her eye and smiled.
'Had enough?' he said.
'Now I know it's not from space,' she gestured at the steady pulse of data, 'it's not such a burning issue. I was giving myself a heart attack trying to make sense of it. Turns out to be just nonsense. This "thing" below us flooding the systems.'
Robin sensed her helplessness and felt sorry for her. It couldn't be easy having so many of one's certainties turned on their heads like that. He looked at the chattering consoles with interest and decided to engage Cooper in conversation, preferably on a topic she was expert at. Almost guaranteed to perk her up.
'And what's that?'
He pointed to the small bank of monitors to Cooper's left. She smirked. 'That, son, is the only thing we can get a fix on at the moment. Our own private nova.'
Robin chewed his thumb, struggling to recall his half-heard science lessons. 'And that's an exploding star, right?'
Cooper nodded. 'Mmm.'
Robin held up his hand and looked into space thoughtfully. 'So what's the difference between that and a - what d'you call it - super nova?'
Ace saw her chance. This was going to sound impressive. 'A supernova is...' she hesitated, remembering one of the Doctor's short but instructive lectures, 'a supernova is an old star. Its centre gets hotter and hotter till it tries to burn heavier elements...'
'Helium, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon...' added Cooper helpfully.
Ace cast her eyes upwards, praying she wouldn't forget. 'And finally iron,' she said triumphantly.
'So?' Robin shrugged.
'When the centre of a star is made of iron,' said Cooper with mock gravity, 'it has an energy crisis, because the thermonuclear fusion of iron absorbs energy instead of releasing it.'
Ace knew that bit and was a little annoyed she hadn't been allowed to say so. 'Anyway,' she put in, before Cooper could steal any more of her thunder, 'the star collapses like a house of cards and boom!'
Cooper smiled. 'You're remarkably well informed.'
Ace grinned. 'The Doctor taught me everything I know.'
'Anyway, they're very rare,' Cooper continued. 'One of the reasons we're here is to look for their remains. We call them pulsars. A friend of Holly's discovered the first one in February.'
Ace sat down next to Robin, deciding to continue privately with her impressive monologue. 'The iron core collapses and becomes so dense that the, that the...'
'Atomic nuclei,' called Cooper, without looking up. Ace smiled ruefully at Robin. "Those, anyway, are crushed together. It spins on its axis and produces pulses which they can detect with the telescope.'
Robin grinned at her. 'Right.'
'Anything else you'd like to know?' said Ace chirpily.
'Yes. How long you'll be staying around.'
Ace's face fell. She'd been expecting this moment. 'Well...'
Robin looked at her. 'You said the Doctor wants to stop travelling. Settle down. Is he likely to do that here?'
Ace shook her head. 'He's got universes to choose from.'
'Any time, any place, any where. He's not called Doctor Martini, is he?'
Ace smiled sadly. 'Anyway, I doubt he'll choose Yorkshire in the late sixties.'
Robin shifted uncomfortably. She knew so much that he wanted to know.
'Tell me about the future, Ace. Will things be OK?'
Ace frowned. 'I can't tell you that. It's not fair. You'd be expecting things, or dreading them.'
Robin took her hand. 'Well, there is one way of making sure I just take things as they come.'
Ace looked at his serious expression, his thick black hair, brilliant eyes and oh-so-delicious lips. 'Stay with me,' he said at last.
Holly, Vijay and Trevithick had hung back a little whilst the Doctor went ahead with his torch. After a time, he returned, a look of puzzlement on his face.
'Come on. It's all right.'
They followed him down the narrow tunnel until they emerged in a large cavern, its black rock walls glistening with moisture. Rain from the drenched moor above trickled down through the roof.
Trevithick chose a boulder and sat down, tired by his exertions. The Doctor shone the torch around the cavern, picking out chunks of stone upon which the mark of human interference was obvious.
'The quarry,' said the Doctor. 'Smothered by soil over thousands of years.'
Holly picked up a small figure, crudely carved out of limestone. There were others dotted about the ground, some almost perfect, others with only rudimentary work on them.
'It's like Easter Island,' she breathed.
'What do you think we'll find here, Doctor?' said Vijay.
The Doctor was examining the walls. 'I don't know. I suppose I half expected it to be here waiting for us.'
'But the sky,' said Trevithick. 'All that activity. Surely it's on the surface now.'
'No,' said the Doctor. 'I'm convinced it's just sending out feelers. The main body is still here. This has to be it.'
There was a dull crackle from his pocket and he swiftly removed the walkie-talkie.
'Dr Cooper?'
'No. It's me.' Ace's voice was indistinct through the hiss of static. 'Dr Cooper's monitoring a slow build-up. The pulse is getting stronger. I think it's on its way. Over.'
'Right. Thank you. Over and...'
'Doctor?'
'Yes?'
There was a long pause. 'Nothing. Take care. Over and out.'
Vijay's eyes widened in fear. 'Let's get out of here.'
'No,' muttered the Doctor. 'We came here to confront it and that's what we must do.'
Trevithick looked about uneasily in the darkness. 'I say, gone awfully quiet, hasn't it?'
They all exchanged glances. A thick hush had descended on the cavern. Even the steady drip of water from the surface appeared to have ceased.
Holly shivered. 'It's so cold,' she said wonderingly.
The Doctor was conscious of it too. 'Temperature drop. Like a cold spot in a haunted house.'
'Over there!' Vijay pointed to the far wall of the cavern in which a dark fissure was visible. As they watched, the wall began to glow, almost as though a gateway were opening to the outside. There was a deep, thunderous rumble and tiny spheres of light began to split off and dance about in the cold air, colliding off the walls to coalesce above their heads. The Doctor gazed up in awe. The light continued to sparkle, shifting colours from gold to a brilliant cobalt blue.
'It's so beautiful,' whispered Holly.
'The song of the Siren,' said the Doctor cryptically.
The cavern was suddenly alive with blinding light. Trevithick shielded his eyes against the painful glare, his brows knitting together. The Doctor peeked through his fingers. 'So strong,' he breathed. Waves of heat shimmered towards them.
'Clear your minds!' called the Doctor. 'It's the only way to remain safe.'
Holly had seen this display before, the hypnotic light drenching her brain. The thought came before she could even acknowledge it and then refused to go away, like the refrain of some annoyingly catchy tune. She shook her head and looked away from the burning gold light.
Vijay caught hold of her arms and shook her. 'Holly? What is it?'
She snapped shut her eyes and fought to wipe the image from her brain.
'Can't! Can't do it!' she whimpered, grasping her temples, her face screwed up in agony.
'Look!' It was Trevithick's voice, hushed in awe. The Doctor and Vijay turned. Holly ran to the wall and buried her head in her hands. Out of the flood of light, a man was emerging, tall and smiling, his arms open in welcome. His skin shone beautifully, patches of golden light woven together to form the image.
The Sentience could taste the strength of Holly's memory. Part of it had sensed her presence, shooting out tendrils from its massive core to find and isolate her.
There was resistance too, but that would pass. Somewhere, in the darkest corners of her mind, Holly wanted to believe.
She turned from the wall.
'James!' she screamed, gagging with emotion.
'It isn't real, Holly!' bellowed the Doctor above the rising noise. 'The more you believe...'
'I need him. I still need him,' she sobbed.
Need
Need
The Sentience throbbed with delight.
'Let it go,' cried the Doctor. 'You can't bring him back.'
'Hol,' pleaded Vijay. 'Let it go.' He gazed into her frightened eyes. 'Need me.'
The Sentience rippled and grew more substantial, ethereal light glancing off every feature. It opened its mouth, rushing through Holly's memory and piecing together fragments of Time, moments of experience. Constructing a voice.
'Holly,' it stammered.
Holly froze. The voice was strange, indistinct, as though heard underwater. But it was James.
'Holly.' The voice was already stronger, almost commanding. The Sentience beckoned.
Trevithick moved forward. The Doctor held him back. 'We can all see it, Edmund. It knows we believe too. We're all in danger.'
Vijay grabbed Holly by the shoulders. 'Holly! For Christ's sake! Think of us. Think of me. James is dead. D'you understand?'
Holly wriggled in his grip, shaking her head in confusion.
Holly...
Holly...
The voice was inside her head now, quiet and calm. Peace descended on her mind and suddenly everything became clear to her. It was so easy. So obvious.
Holly...
She turned to look at Vijay and nodded. 'It's OK. I'm all right.'
Vijay's grip on her arm loosened. In an instant, she was sprinting across the cavern.
'James!' she yelled, tears flooding her eyes.
'Holly, no!' Vijay pelted after her.
The Sentience grinned broadly. Holly jerked to a stop directly before it. She extended a shaking hand. James's smile faded a little. 'It's been so long,' he whispered. His voice was as soothing as the babble of clear, mountain water.
'James.' Holly felt her grief easing away moment by moment, a healing joy washing through her mind. 'I love you!'
'Kiss me,' instructed James, his red lips alive with pixels of light.
Vijay caught hold of Holly's hair and swung her round.
'No!' he screeched. Holly looked at him with a strange hatred in her eyes and he felt his heart sink. Then, gritting his teeth, Vijay brought round his fist and punched Holly into unconsciousness. She crumpled and fell to the rocky floor.
The Sentience billowed like a sail, regarding the three men below it with detached interest.
'Leave us,' hissed the Doctor. 'Why can't you leave us alone?'
'Need!' thundered the Sentience, pillars of fire shooting from its outstretched arms.
It grew suddenly larger, patterns of gold filigree sparkling across its eyes as it turned to observe Holly where she lay. There was a huge inrush of air, it closed its eyes and, in an instant, was gone.
Vijay looked about desperately. 'Doctor? What's happened to it?'
The Doctor shook his head wearily.
The Sentience squirmed and gushed with pleasure. Didn't he realise that sending the female into unconsciousness was the worst thing he could have done? The belief of the dreaming mind was so much stronger. So much sweeter...
It had almost consumed her before whilst she slept, like the woman in the village, but this time there would be no escape.
The Sentience entered Holly's willing mind and began to gorge itself on her life force.
'Vijay!' Trevithick pointed down at Holly's inert body and felt his blood run cold.
Vijay dashed across to Holly and lifted her in his arms. A tide of light was drifting over her skin in sweeping waves.
'No, no!' Vijay sobbed angrily, running his fingers through Holly's hair and across her face.
He could see through her skin now, as the Sentience burrowed through her flesh. Fragments of bone shattered and burned before his eyes.
Vijay dropped her and wept into his hands, scarcely daring to watch the appalling sight before him.
The Sentience ripped and pummeled through Holly, draining every morsel of her energy. A great wash of light exploded, around her.
For a moment, she shone with magnesium brightness and then the glare faded. There was nothing left behind.
'No.' Vijay sank to his knees. Trevithick put his arm around the young man's shoulder and shot an anxious look at the Doctor who was struggling to his feet. 'Let's go, for heaven's sake.'
The Doctor was already making for the tunnel. 'It's so strong,' he said again. 'Not even a body left this time. I must... I must think.'
A huge sigh, almost a sob, was wrenched from his chest.
Trevithick pulled Vijay to his feet. The young man was shaking his head silently, tears running down his cheeks.
He had been too weak, then, after all. Unable to fight against a dead man. Now she was gone.
The Doctor strode down the tunnel, scarcely bothering about the rocks into which his shins slammed. Trevithick hobbled behind, helping Vijay as best he could.
'What are we going to do?' cried Trevithick to the little figure ahead of him. The Doctor said nothing. In fact, Trevithick thought he might not have heard until the Doctor stopped abruptly just in sight of the tunnel entrance.
Trevithick wheezed and let Vijay slide to the ground. 'Doctor, I said...'
He stopped, conscious of the Doctor's back turned towards him. 'What is it?' he asked, turning to look out into the open air.
The light was still a dismal grey, wind and rain lashing down on to the moor, and lashing also on to three of Trevithick's monsters; their obscene heads twisting and clicking in pleasure...
Lowcock and Medcalfe had jammed over a dozen pews against the window. The figures outside continued to press against the glass and Medcalfe kept a weather eye on their activity.
Jill had managed to keep the villagers calm, using an authoritative voice of which she didn't know she was capable. She did know, however, that, sooner or later, faces would begin to appear at every window. And when they did... Well, they would cross that bridge when they came to it.
The beamed roof shook and plaster cascaded down on to the frightened survivors.
Outside, the Sentience lashed about the church gables like a kraken attached to a storm-tossed ship. Tendrils of golden light ranged through the graveyard, lapping at tombstones.
There was a deafening roar as the portion of its consciousness which had been below ground blasted back through the village like a typhoon, flattening houses in its path.
The Sentience felt almost whole again and flexed itself, the energy infusion from Holly gushing through it. Soon it would be strong enough to summon its entire self from below.
But still there was need. There was always need.
It scanned the minds of those gathered in the church below and felt good. There were rich pickings to be had.
The Sentience prodded and encouraged every fugitive memory.
Believe
The soldier in the church promised most. He was old and steeped in Time, like the other it had encountered in the monastery.
But was there yet more?
The Sentience scanned experimentally and picked up a trace from Trevithick's mind. He had defeated it once...
Instantly, the Sentience propelled a tendril to the tunnel entrance, assuming the familiar image of Trevithick's monsters.
The Doctor stepped back from the entrance. 'Impasse,' he said under his breath.
Vijay looked up from the ground. 'No. No more. Please.'
Trevithick regarded the creatures with tired old eyes. He had given them a good run for their money.
The Doctor grasped his arms. 'Don't remember them, Edmund! Don't you see that they can have no existence without you?'
Trevithick closed his eyes and concentrated, but the images became stronger not weaker. In his mind, he was shoulder to shoulder with young Jimmy Reynolds, fending off the razor-sharp claws as they ripped through the walls. And there was Margaret, his dear wife, standing just off the set as the cameras rushed in for the close-up. Little Paula had been so frightened of the creatures that he'd arranged for one to unmask itself in front of her.
'You see, my dear,' he had said, holding her in his arms, 'just a fella in a costume.'
But now she was gone. Margaret too. And he was just an old man with nothing but memories left to him...
'Edmund?' The Doctor touched his hand.
Trevithick opened his eyes and smiled. 'I'm an old fool, Doctor. Never been a real hero. Not the way people thought I was.'
The rain hissed down. Trevithick looked at the silent, waiting creatures.
'They're a part of me. I can't be rid of them, hard as I try. I'm the only one who can get you out of here.'
'There must be another way, Edmund,' cried the Doctor, his voice hoarse with despair.
'Not this time, Doctor. No cliffhanger with a miraculous escape. It's time for Nightshade to do his bit.'
The old man's wrinkled face creased into a sad smile, his eyes misting over. He held out his hand.
'Goodbye, old fellow.'
The Doctor took his hand and looked down at the ground.
Vijay scrambled to his feet. 'Mr Trevithick! Wait!'
'Use the chance I'm giving you, my boys,' called the old man. 'And don't look back. Never look back.' With that, he ran out into the fog.
For a moment, he faced the three creatures, the rain soaking his hair. He looked at them steadily, his eyes steely and thoughtful.
Then he launched himself at the central creature, grabbing its thick neck with both hands. The other two were upon him immediately, their vicious claws flailing at his skin.
Trevithick managed to rain several good blows on to the creature's eye before he felt a strange numbness rising through him. Light began to sparkle under his skin and he felt unconsciousness overwhelming him.
Believe
Believe
With one last effort, he flung his arms around the creature's head and fell with it on to the moor, kicking his boots into its brittle eyes.
The Doctor grabbed Vijay by the scruff of the neck and dragged him outside. Then they sprinted across the ground towards the telescope, trying to ignore Trevithick's agonised screams as he twisted and melded into the beasts.
They didn't look back, even when they reached the double doors.
The Doctor slammed and bolted both doors and, turning, put out his hand to enter the control room. Vijay stopped him and shook him desperately. 'Why do people have to keep dying?'
The Doctor looked at him grimly, then pushed open the interior door.
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