Doctor Who: The Doomsday Weapon (18 page)

'Quick!' Caldwell grabbed the rock door to stop it from closing again. Jo leapt off the buggy and rushed into the entrance, followed by Caldwell . The rock door closed shut behind them. They looked down the long corridor cut through the rock.

'Where now?' said Caldwell .

'I don't know,' said Jo truthfully. 'This is where the search really begins.'

The Guardian addressed itself to the Doctor. 'Why have you returned?'

'I was brought here against my will,' said the Doctor.

The Master still couldn't believe his eyes. 'What is it?' he asked the Doctor quietly. 'How can it live in that heat?'

'I think it's the ultimate development of life on this planet,' the Doctor whispered.

'You,' said the Guardian, looking at the Master, 'what do you want here?'

The Master smiled. 'To restore this city and this planet to their former glory. You have here a wonderful invention. With it we can bring peace and order to every inhabited world in the Universe. Your planet will be the centre of a mighty empire, the greatest the cosmos has ever known.'

'This invention,' said the Guardian slowly, 'has destroyed us. Once the weapon had been built our race began to decay. The radiation from its power source poisoned the soil and even the upper atmosphere.'

'Exactly,' said the Doctor. 'The weapon has only brought death.' He pointed at the Master. 'This man wants to spread that death throughout the Universe. Only you can stop him. You must destroy the weapon.'

'I am the Guardian of the weapon, and its radiation gives me life.'

'Then I am afraid,' said the Doctor, 'you must give up your own life so that others may survive,'

'Don't listen to such rubbish,' said the Master. 'You can continue to live, and I shall protect you! With the Doomsday Weapon, I shall protect all the Universe.'

'Against what,' said the Guardian, 'will you protect the Universe?'

The question took the Master off balance. 'Well,' he said, 'against anyone who tries to attack it.'

'But the Universe is all matter in Space,' said the Guardian. 'So what can attack that which is everything?'

'I... I shall protect it against itself,' said the Master, desperately wishing to get out of this discussion. 'I shall protect it against evil-doers.'

The Guardian said nothing for some moments. Then, it spoke again, 'The price is too high, the risk too great. The weapon is too terrible to be under the control of any creature that might use it.'

'Surely it is under your control?' said the Master, who clearly now doubted whether the Guardian actually controlled the weapon.

'No,' said the Guardian. 'I am only the Guardian. I have the power, as you saw, to destroy that small metal weapon with which you menaced your companion, but I have no power to destroy you. The controls of the Doomsday Weapon are at your side, there for you to command.'

The Master looked at the control console. 'Then I am now the master of the Universe,' he said. He strode over to the controls filled with a sense of victory and total power. 'That planet you so favour,' he said to the Doctor, 'the one called Earth, can become a cloud of ashes at my touch. Even the Daleks will tremble when they know my power!'

'But this is not to be,' said the Guardian. It turned to the Doctor. 'This man proves you are right. The Doomsday Weapon is not only evil, but it creates evil in others. It must be destroyed. And therefore I must die.'

The little doll-like figure of the Guardian began to fade hack into the flames. The Master swung round to the open hatch. 'Just a minute,' he shouted, 'you and I can make an arrangement. I didn't
really
mean to use the weapon, only to frighten a few worlds.' The Guardian was already only half visible in the flames. 'Please come back,' screamed the Master. 'I am very clever. I may be able to restore you to the creature you were before you got so small and lived in those flames.' Only the head of the Guardian was now visible. 'Let's discuss this a little longer! Please don't go away!' But the image of the Guardian had now vanished completely. The Master turned away from the hatch, angry that he had shown himself so upset in front of the Doctor. 'Well,' he said, 'I've still got the Doomsday Weapon. Do you wish to share it with me?'

'I somehow think,' said the Doctor, 'that very shortly there will be nothing to share...'

The Doctor's words were swamped by a terrible roaring sound from within the furnace. A blistering wave of heat swept out from the hatch. Than the first sheet of flame burst from the hatch. The whole room started to tremble! The Master stared unbelieving at the now belching furnace. 'You fool,' he screamed, 'you're destroying yourself! You're destroying the Doomsday Weapon!'

'And it'll destroy us if we don't get out of here,' said the Doctor. Another great sheet of flame burst from the furnace. The room trembled violently and a huge crack appeared down one of its silvery-coloured metal walls. 'If you don't mind, I'm leaving before we get roasted to death. I suggest you do the same.'

The Doctor ran to the doors, then realised the Master was not following him. He turned back to see the Master still staring at the furnace as though mesmerised. 'Come on, man,' he called, 'you'll be killed!' The room trembled again as in an earthquake. Flames were now bursting from the furnace. 'We've got to get away!' called the Doctor.

The Master turned to him. 'The Doomsday Weapon,' he said, 'it will never be mine.' Then he followed the Doctor. As they left the room flames spewed out from the hatch engulfing the control console.

As they ran down the first corridor the floor was quaking, the rock walls trembling. 'Which way?' called the Master. They came to an intersection which the Doctor thought he recognised. 'This way, I think,' said the Doctor, and kept running. The Master kept up behind him. There was no sign of any otter faced priests or the Primitives. Cracks started to appear in the rock walls and roof. Boulders of rock fell from the roof as they ran down one corridor after another. They came to another point where the corridor split into different directions. The Doctor stopped. 'You had a map - give it to me.' The Master handed over the map, his hand trembling with fear.

'Doctor!' It was Jo, running down one of the corridors towards them, Caldwell behind her. 'Are you all right?'

'None of us is all right; said the Doctor, trying to read the map and understand it, 'not while we're down here.'

'What's happening?' said Caldwell .

'I think the whole place is going to explode,' said the Doctor. He looked up from the map. 'I think we may find an exit this way.' He grabbed Jo's arm and started running again. As they left the spot, the rock wall fell in.

Two minutes later they came to a small opening in the rock face. It opened on to a circular staircase cut in the rock. The Doctor stopped, again checking the map. 'This could be it.'

'As long as those stairs lead up,' said Caldwell , 'that sounds good to me. Come on!' He bounded up the steps, the others following. From behind they could hear massive underground explosions. Caldwell got well ahead, and soon they heard his voice from above. 'It's all right - we're in the open!' A moment later they were all emerging from a hole in the rock. They had come up into the open inside a devil's playground of huge rocks and boulders. It was still night, but already the sun's rays were lighting the western sky. Even here the rock beneath their feet was slightly trembling. 'We'd better get away from here,' said Caldwell . 'We've got to find the buggy. I reckon we go this way.' He walked off quickly, the others following.

'So much for your interest in science,' said the Master, hurrying along behind the Doctor and Jo. 'The most powerful machine ever created in the Universe, and you let that fool Guardian destroy it all.'

'Science like that,' said the Doctor, 'is something we can all do without.'

Captain Dent stepped out from behind a boulder, his gun raised. 'Stop!' He signalled with his free hand. IMC men carrying their high-powered guns appeared from all sides. Dent turned to Caldwell . 'Thank you for leading them to us. Now stand over there.'

Caldwell stood speechless. Jo knew by his expression that he had no knowledge of the ambush. Resigned, he walked over to the spot indicated by Captain Dent. The Master walked up to Dent.

'Congratulations, Captain Dent,' said the Master. 'You're just in time. Put these people under arrest'

'Get back with your accomplices,' ordered Dent, and pointed his gun directly at the Master.

'You don't understand,' the Master protested, 'I'm the official Adjudicator, sent here by Earth Government.'

Morgan stepped forward, also armed. 'You're an impostor. Now get back.' He pushed the Master back in line with the Doctor and Jo. Then he turned to the IMC guards. 'All right, firing squad, step forward!'

Six IMC guards lined up in front of the Doctor, Jo, and the Master. They raised their guns, ready for the order.

'You're insane,' said Caldwell , speaking to both Dent and Morgan. 'You're murderers!'

Dent turned to him. ' Caldwell , if we didn't need you as our mining expert, you'd be over there with them. So shut up!' He turned to the IMC guards. 'Take aim!'

Suddenly Winton's voice called out from somewhere among the surrounding boulders. 'Drop those guns, all of you!'

Dent turned and fired wildly. All around colonists rose up from behind the boulders shooting at the IMC men. The Doctor grabbed Jo to pull her to safety. The IMC men fired at any colonist's head they could see appearing over the boulders. But they had to fire from crouching positions in the open, whereas the colonists all had the protection of the ring of great rocks. Morgan fell dead as a colonist's bullet hit him, and Captain Dent's gun was shot front his hand. Within moments half the IMC men were either dead or wounded.

'Surrender,' called Winton. 'You will not be killed.'

'We give in,' Dent shouted. He called to what remained of the IMC guards. 'Throw down your guns!' The IMC men dropped their guns, and raised their hands in surrender. Now, from all sides, colonists appeared from behind the boulders. Winton ran forward to the Doctor and Jo. 'Are you two all right?'

Jo let Winton help her to her feet. 'But the spaceship,' she said, 'it exploded.'

'Captain Dent left one lookout to make sure no one should escape by leaving the ship,' said Winton. 'I stayed behind and knocked him out. That let all the others get out of the ship to safety before it took off.'

'Did you make it take off by remote-control?' asked the Doctor.

Winton shook his head. 'No. John Ashe went up with it. He insisted on doing so. He gave his life for the sake of the rest of us.' He shrugged. 'Maybe he was a bit crazy.'

'Perhaps,' said the Doctor, 'or a saint'

The Doctor's words were drowned by the thunderclap roar of a spaceship in flight. Everyone looked up, and for a few seconds they saw the Master's TARDIS still looking like an Adjudicator's spaceship as it raced into the dawn sky.

'You let him get away!' said Jo.

'Ah, well,' said the Doctor, 'I suppose we all make mistakes sometimes.' He turned to Winton again. 'What are you going to do about your prisoners?'

'Send them back to Earth,' Winton said; but his attention was still focussed on the sky. 'Look, clouds!' He pointed to a formation of clouds that was sweeping in from the west. 'There have never been clouds like that before,' he said, 'not since we came here.'

The Doctor looked towards the oncoming clouds. 'You know something,' he said to Jo, 'I think it's going to rain.'

The colonists stood in a circle around the big grave they had dug a little way from the main dome. Most of the IMC men had been safely locked up in their spaceship, ready to be sent back to Earth. But Captain Dent, Caldwell, and three guards were present at the ceremony to bury their own dead. Colonists and IMC guards killed in the final battle were laid side by side in the grave. Gentle rain fell from the clouds, soaking the colonist's poor clothing and making the dusty soil turn into mud. When all the bodies were in the grave everybody turned to Winton, expecting him now to speak as John Ashe had done before. He turned to the Doctor. 'You say something,' he pleaded.

'No,' said the Doctor, 'it has to come from one of you. This is your land now.'

Winton turned to face the colonists and the IMC men who stood sullenly as prisoners on the other side of the communal grave. 'I don't know how to make speeches,' he said, 'but I can tell you how I feel. Our people didn't die for nothing. To get anything worth having, like freedom, sometimes you have to fight, and sometimes you have to die. So now it's up to us to make this colony work, for the sake of the people who died.' He paused, then turned to the five IMC prisoners. 'Your people died for the wrong things, but I'm still sorry they got killed.' He looked down into the grave. 'There's one man missing - John Ashe. We can't bury him, but we can always remember him. He died so that we could live.'

No one spoke for a long time. They just stood, looking into the grave, remembering. Then the first man picked up some of the muddy soil and threw it into the grave, and each of the rest followed this ritual in turn.

Winton gave orders for the IMC prisoners to be escorted back to their spaceship. But Caldwell stepped forward from the IMC group. 'You've lost some good men,' he said to Winton. 'You're going to need more people to make this colony a success. I'm a good engineer. How about it?'

'We're going to declare an independent republic,' said Winton. 'Do you want to be an outlaw?'

Caldwell smiled. 'I told you, I'm a good engineer. You're going to need people like me.'

'All right. Let's go back to the dome and talk.' Winton led Caldwell away, and the two men slowly walked back towards the main dome.

In the dome Mary Ashe, Jo, and some of the other younger women had been busy preparing what food and drink they had for the others. As the colonists returned from the burial the Doctor detected the beginning of a more hopeful mood amongst them. He noticed that Winton and Caldwell were already discussing how to improve the structure of the dome, where to dig deep wells for more water. Then the men who had escorted the IMC prisoners to their ship returned, and one of them made immediately for the Doctor. 'That blue box you lost...' said the man, 'we found it on the way back here. It's in one of the old Primitive ruins.' He drew a crude map to show the way.