Текст книги "Doctor Who- The Silent Stars Go By"

Автор книги: Dan Abnett

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‘We’ve got to go back,’ said the Doctor. ‘Or at the very least, we’ve got to not go this way.’

Then Amy heard it too. It was far away and coming from up ahead. It was the sound of footsteps. Heavy, regular, lumbering footsteps.

‘Stay!’ the Doctor whispered to them, as though his raised index finger would freeze them to the spot. He edged forward until he could peer down the corridor ahead.

The footsteps were getting closer. He saw movement first, then a shadow, cast on the corridor wall by a row of solamps.

There was no mistaking the silhouette.

He turned to them.

‘Ice Warriors,’ he said. ‘Coming this way. Run.’

‘Regular running or run for your life running?’ asked Amy.

‘What do you think?’ the Doctor replied.

They ran.

They ran back through the prep room and into the organic gallery, ignoring the smell. The Doctor skidded to a halt in the doorway, checking the door panel to see if there was any way to close and lock the hatch behind them. Whatever had bored through the mechanism to open it had fused the hatch motors. The hatch was wedged open.

‘Keep going!’ he yelled, running to catch up with them. They were running down the length of the vast gallery, following the grilled metal pathways between the stinking vats and the glass tanks clotted with slime.

‘How do you know there’ll be an exit at the far end?’

Amy shouted at the Doctor.

‘I don’t!’ he replied.

‘Then what?’

‘We don’t have a lot of choice!’ he replied.

Amy glanced back. Always a mistake, but she did it anyway.

She could see the entry hatch fifty metres behind her. The first of the Ice Warriors had appeared. There were three of them. They were so big, they had to come through the hatchway one at a time. There was something flat and expressionless about their faces.

The overhead light banks reflected off their red lenses.

They walked like hit-men, hired killers wearing expensive shades.

At least, she thought, the rows of vats and metal tanks would provide a little shelter and cover if the Ice Men started using their guns. Warriors. Warriors.

One last glimpse behind her showed her they weren’t packing guns at all.

They were carrying swords. Dirty great, double-handed, barb-hilted broadswords.

‘Oh great she said.

Chapter

12

Brighter Visions Beam Afar

The Doctor heard Amy’s strangled expression of alarm, and glanced back at their pursuers as well. He saw what she had just seen. The brutal, medieval weapons that the Ice Warriors were carrying with such brutal, medieval intent put an extra spurt of vigour into his pace. He began to lead the way, urging Samewell and Bel after him.

‘Swords?’ screeched Amy, lengthening her stride to keep up. ‘Swords? Honestly? For really real?’

‘I have no idea what that’s about!’ the Doctor yelled back at her.

‘Yes, you do!’ Amy objected. ‘You always do!’

‘Well,’ the Doctor shouted over his shoulder, sprinting hell for leather, ‘I suppose I could speculate that the Ice Warriors are an ancient and martial society that takes great pride in preserving and maintaining the traditions of weapon-craft honed by their ancestors, and that the use of ancient, bladed combat weapons suggests an intent to ritually slaughter or ceremonially execute! But I didn’t think that would be a particularly cheerful thing to say while they were chasing us!’ he added.

At least half a dozen Ice Warriors were doggedly following them down the length of the gallery. Still more had appeared at the hatch. The nearest Warriors seemed to be calling out to them. They were making strange, guttural noises, at least, perhaps uttering warnings, or issuing orders for their fleet quarry to halt or surrender. It was hard to tell. Each bark sounded less like words, and more like the pneumatic spit of a torque wrench driven by compressed air.

Arabel was lagging behind the Doctor, Samewell and Amy. Her long and heavy winter skirts were seriously encumbering her.

‘Come on!’ Samewell exclaimed, grabbing her by the arm and propelling her ahead of him. He looked around in time to see Amy trip over the lip of a deck plate and sprawl headlong.

‘Go!’ Samewell yelled to Bel, and darted back to help Amy.

She had winded herself. He hauled her to her feet.

‘Come on!’ he begged.

‘O-OK!’

‘Are you hurt?’

‘I banged my knees,’ Amy said, fighting to draw a breath.

‘You’ve got to keep running!’ he insisted.

They looked back.

An Ice Warrior was just twenty metres away. It came around the end of a row of vats, saw them, and raised its sword in a braced, two-handed grip, hilt high, the blade tipped down, like a ninja with a katana. Or whatever those swords in the kung fu movies Rory liked were called. Katanas? Kanteenas? Katonas?

The Ice Warrior didn’t break stride. It seemed to accelerate, as if it was charging them.

Amy and Samewell fled, his hand clamped firmly around hers.

Leading the furious escape, the Doctor spotted an exit hatch in the end wall of the farm gallery. It was exactly the same as the hatch they’d entered the gallery by, except that it was shut.

It was the only way out.

He ran up to it, shoe-sliding the last few steps so he slammed into it. The hatch was sealed tight, but there was another palm-checker built into the frame. It hadn’t been tampered with or bored through. It was in full working order.

The Doctor slapped his right hand flat against the plate. A neon glow travelled up the metal under his hand. Then red lights began to flash in all four comers of the door and an angry klaxon sounded repeatedly.

The door did not recognise his print.

It wasn’t going to open.

‘Ah,’ said the Doctor. For a split second, he started to reach for his sonic screwdriver. Then he remembered that it was a waste of time. The Ice Warriors were far too close.

Arabel arrived beside him, and Amy and Samewell were just behind her. The Doctor turned to the terrified Arabel, grabbed her by the wrist, and jammed her right hand against the palm-checker. A neon glow travelled up the metal under her hand. There was a click, and then a hiss, and the hatch opened.

The Doctor bundled Arabel into the hatch, and then grabbed Amy and Samewell as they ran up, and shoved them through too. He turned in the open doorway, and took one last look at the advancing Ice Warriors. He grinned.

‘Warriors of the Tanssor clan!’ he cried out to them.

‘Warriors of the Tanssor clan line of the Ixon Mons family, inform your warlord that the Belot’ssar greets him!’

They stopped in their tracks and stared at him. He threw a cocksure salute, stepped backwards through the hatch and pressed the palm-plate. The klaxon sounded again, and the red corner lights flashed. The hatch did not shut with the dramatic flourish he’d been going for.

‘Still got to sort that part out,’ he acknowledged, pointing to the lock mechanism. The Ice Warriors started forward with renewed determination, raising their blades.

Amy reached past the Doctor and pressed her hand against the plate. A neon glow travelled up the metal under her hand. There was a click, and then a hiss, and then the hatch clanged shut in the faces of the Ice Warriors, locking them out.

The Doctor looked at Amy. They were nose to nose.

‘How did you know that would work?’ he asked.

‘I didn’t,’ she said.

‘Good thing it did, though, eh?’ he pointed out.

‘I would think so,’ she replied.

They both jerked back a step as several echoing blows were delivered to the other side of the hatch.

‘That’ll keep them out for a moment,’ said the Doctor.

‘What if they cut through the lock like they cut the other ones?’ Amy asked.

‘Oh, they will,’ said the Doctor. ‘But now we have a head start. And it’s because you’re human.’

‘What?’ asked Amy.

‘It’s because you’re human,’ the Doctor repeated.

‘And for those of us who aren’t fluent in non-sequitur?’ Amy asked.

‘You could operate the hatch,’ explained the Doctor,

‘because the palm-checker recognised your genetic code as human. It’s the same reason that Bel could open the door. Humans built this, so human gene-codes work the locks.’

‘Even human genes as old as mine?’ asked Amy.

‘Gene-code is gene-code,’ replied the Doctor.

‘Wait,’ said Arabel, flustered and looking at the Doctor, ‘if you can’t open the lock, doesn’t that mean you’re not human?’

The Doctor glanced awkwardly at Amy. ‘Ah, yes.

How do I explain that best?’ he began.

Before he could answer, Amy shrieked, ‘Samewell!’

Samewell’s outstretched hand was hovering above the palm checker. At Amy’s protest, he snatched it back.

‘I just wanted to see if it would work for me too,’ he said. He pouted.

Several more dull but herculean blows landed on the other side of the hatch and made him recoil.

‘I’d best try it on another door, though, eh?’

Samewell added.

‘I think that would be healthier for all of us,’ the Doctor said.

He looked around, and took stock of where they had ended up. It was a service room, full of metal shelves and hoppers. The shelves were racked with tools and equipment that looked part surgical and part horticultural. The hoppers were packed with mechanical spare parts wrapped in plastic. He picked up a few items and examined them.

‘We can’t really stay here, Doctor,’ Amy said.

‘No, we can’t,’ said the Doctor.

To reinforce her point, the banging on the hatch ceased, and was replaced by a high-pitched and very unpleasant wailing noise. It was like a dentist’s drill with the volume turned up.

‘No, we really can’t,’ said the Doctor. ‘That’s a focused sonic drill. They’ll be through that hatch in two shakes. Two shakes if we’re lucky. Probably more like one shake. Let’s get going.’

They hurried away from the painful noise to the end of the service room. There was another hatch, shut tight.

‘Now you can try it, Samewell,’ said the Doctor.

Samewell put his hand on the plate. The hatch opened.

Samewell looked extremely pleased with himself.

Passing through the hatch, they entered a gloomy corridor lit by a line of blue overhead lights. It stretched away in both directions. From the left came the roar of heavy turbine machinery. The Doctor took them to the right. He got Samewell to close the hatch behind them.

‘That’s two barriers they’ve got to get through,’ the Doctor remarked.

Feeling a little more secure, they walked briskly down the corridor.

‘What was that you were saying to the Ice Warriors before we slammed the door in their faces?’ Amy asked.

‘Oh, you know. Saying hello.’

‘How do you say hello to an Ice Warrior?’ she asked.

‘Um, “Hail, Ice Warrior”?’

‘You’re not as funny as you think you are,’ said Amy.

They reached another hatch. This time, Amy opened it.

The room on the other side was dark, but quickly woke up as automatic lights flickered on. The air smelled stale and slightly dusty. It was a large room, lined in pale white shipskin, with a wide, flat floor covered in odd patterns. The patterns were circles and spirals, inlaid in a fine, contrasting metal filament.

There was another hatch at the opposite end of the chamber, and one side of the space was fitted with complicated workstations and consoles. There were also two chairs facing the console station. The chairs had high, padded backs and raised armrests. The area looked like the cockpit of a spaceship.

The Doctor walked over to the workstation area. He seemed intrigued by the control systems. ‘Go and see what’s behind the next door,’ he said to the others.

‘Don’t go too far.’

‘What are you going to be up to?’ Amy asked.

‘I’m going to look at these,’ he said, leaning over the consoles. He ran a speculative finger along the fascia above a line of touch-sensitive pads. Dust came away on his fingertip. ‘I think I know what this is,’ he said.

‘In fact, I’m sure I know what this is.’

‘Really?’ asked Amy.

‘Give me a moment,’ said the Doctor, investigating further. He gestured over his shoulder. ‘Look at the floor, Pond. Look at the patterns on the floor. Where have we seen that before?’

‘Uh, I don’t know?’ Amy said.

‘Think about it. We’ve seen it recently.’

‘Really? I don’t know.’

‘Then hang on a minute,’ he said. He sat down in one of the high-backed chairs, laced his fingers together, and cracked his knuckles. He had already pressed a few switches at random. Several indicator lights had come on. The consoles began to hum with power. ‘Allow me to show you what this is.’

‘Have we really got time to stop and play around, Doctor?’ Amy asked.

‘We’ve got time to stop and play around with this,’

said the Doctor. ‘If,’ he added, ‘this is what I think it is.

And, as I believe we established, it is.’

Arabel and Samewell returned from their examination of the next door.

‘It’s another hallway,’ said Bel, ‘and then some rooms beyond that. We didn’t go too far.’

‘Good,’ said the Doctor. He adjusted some more controls.

‘What are you doing?’ asked Samewell.

‘He’s showing off,’ said Amy.

‘I’m not,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’m bringing these long-dormant systems back online, and juicing them up to operational power.’

‘Yeah, but he’s not telling us why he’s doing that, or what it is he’s doing it to,’ Amy said to Bel and Samewell, ‘and the reason is because that way it’ll be more impressive when it finally does whatever it’s going to do.’

‘No harm ever came from a bit of dramatic anticipation,’ said the Doctor. ‘There is an art to the building up of suspense. A prince from Denmark told me that.’ He gently tinkered with a few more settings, and then picked up a chunky remote-control device that slotted into a socket in one of the consoles. He stood up.

‘Come on,’ the Doctor said to them. ‘Come over here. Into the centre of the room. Hurry now.’

Power was building. They could all hear the ambient tone. Light levels in the room were starting to increase too.

‘What have you done?’ Amy asked.

‘It’s safe, I swear,’ said the Doctor. He made a tiny adjustment via the remote control.

The hum of the mounting power levels turned into a lazier throb, like a slowly cycling energy pulse.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘Ready? Hold on to your hats.’

‘I don’t have a hat,’ said Samewell.

‘You should get one,’ replied the Doctor. ‘Hats are cool.’

The Doctor pressed an activator on the control pad.

The light in the room around them altered quite dramatically. Not only did it shimmer and dim, the actual quality of the light seemed to change, becoming softer and less intense. It was like a scene change in a West End play. The effect was so odd, Arabel, Samewell and Amy all murmured in surprise.

Then they realised what they were looking at. They blinked. They saw what the chamber around them had very suddenly turned into. Their second murmur of surprise was much louder and more appreciative than the first.

The Doctor grinned.

They weren’t in the same room any more.

They were somewhere else entirely.

Rory wondered if he ought to risk some more soup. He didn’t really want any more soup. It was good soup, but he was full. However, having some soup was about the only thing to do apart from just sitting there, and he was fed up doing that. At least having some soup was doing something. It was an activity.

The assembly hall was very quiet. Vesta was snoozing. Sol Farrow was watching the flames crackling in the nearest firebucket. Sol had already been back for seconds and thirds of soup, and Rory was worried there might not be much soup left if Sol decided to go for fourths. Then there really wouldn’t be anything to do to pass the time except sit around and be bored.

The night wind was picking up outside, driving the snow against the windows. Rory could hear it pattering like grains of sand. It was a proper blizzard out there.

Things were warm enough close to the firebuckets, but there was a wickedly cold draft blowing in under the main doors of the assembly, and odd, fluting wind sounds were coming from the chimney vents up in the eaves.

‘They’re taking a long time,’ said Rory.

‘Guide’s answers are often hard to find,’ replied Sol.

He cleared his throat and leaned forward to warm his hands at the fire. ‘Particularly when… you know.’

‘It’s a problem you’ve never met before?’ suggested Rory.

Sol nodded.

‘Have you really never seen winter until now?’

‘Not until these last three years,’ said Sol. ‘We knew what winter was, of course. Knew what it had been like on Earth before, because of the records. And it always got a bit colder this season, regular. But we’d never seen white and ice before.’

‘Right.’

‘Vesta tell you that, did she?’

‘Yes,’ said Rory.

‘They have winters where you come from, then?’

asked Sol.

‘Yes, actually,’ said Rory. ‘Where I come from, they have them quite often. We’re used to them. But this is pretty fierce. It’s a bad winter. And, obviously, any winter’s going to be a bit worrying if you’re not supposed to have them.’

He got up and looked over at the doors that led into the Incrypt.

‘Maybe I should just go and see how they’re doing?’

he suggested. ‘I’m sure I could help.’

‘It’s not allowed,’ replied Sol. ‘The council voted.’

‘What are they looking at exactly?’ asked Rory.

‘Well, the words of Guide, of course,’ said Sol, sitting up and looking at Rory with a frown. ‘The covenant that Guide provides for us, as is held in the Incrypt. Guide knows an awful lot. More than any of us, and it usually takes quite a time and a lot of cleverness to sort of sift out what Guide is telling us.’

‘This is your Guide Emanual?’ said Rory.

‘That’s right,’ said Sol. ‘Surely you have the same in your plantnation?’

‘We’ve got tourist information points and a weekly free paper.’

‘What?’ asked Sol.

‘Never mind,’ said Rory. He paced a little. ‘I wish I knew where Amy and the Doctor were. I hope they’re OK. The Doctor always knows what to do. I keep trying to imagine what he’d say or do if he was here.’

‘Hello! Hello? Can anybody hear me?’ the Doctor’s voice suddenly boomed out across the assembly.

Sol and Vesta both leapt up in considerable dismay.

The voice seemed to come from directly behind Rory. He turned around very slowly.

The assembly hall was bathed in a soft yellow radiance, warm but bright, that was somehow shining out of the floor, the walls, and the ceiling. Glittering traceries of energy had appeared along the circular metal patterns inlaid in the wooden floor, and up the seams in the hall’s beams and roof posts.

The centre of the hall was no longer the assembly room at all. It appeared to have become, in the blink of an eye, part of a very modern-looking white chamber.

The row of benches in front of the council rail had turned into what looked like a computer workstation complete with two high-backed chairs.

Rory was standing halfway inside the assembly hall, and half in the new, white room.

The Doctor, beaming from ear to ear, was right in front of him, along with Amy and two young Morphans that Rory didn’t recognise.

‘Doctor!’ Rory cried.

‘Rory!’ exclaimed the Doctor in delight. ‘Rory Williams Pond!’

‘Not my actual name,’ smiled Rory.

‘I was confident we’d make contact with someone,’

the Doctor said excitedly. ‘I didn’t dare hope it would he you!’

Dumbfounded, Amy rushed towards Rory so that she could hug him. He spread his arms wide to meet her.

‘How did you get here?’ Rory laughed.

The anticipated hug didn’t go according to plan.

Much to their mutual surprise, Rory and Amy passed through each other like ghosts. They stopped in their tracks, turned and looked back at each other.

‘What just happened?’ asked Rory.

‘Why can’t I touch Rory?’ demanded Amy. ‘What’s going on? It’s spooky! I just went right through him.

How can I not touch him if we’re in the same room?’

‘Well, because you’re not actually in the same room at all,’ said the Doctor.

Amy reached out her right hand to feel Rory’s face.

She succeeded merely in pushing her hand through his head.

‘Urn, OK, stop doing that,’ Rory told her.

‘That’s so freaky!’ Amy exclaimed.

‘Yeah, still, stop it,’ said Rory.

‘You must be in the assembly in Beside,’ said the Doctor. ‘Well done, Rory. That’s exactly where I needed you to be.’

Rory gave a no problem shrug as though he’d planned it all along. ‘Where are you?’ he asked.

‘We’re in Firmer Number Two,’ replied the Doctor,

‘which is one of the big mountains you would be able to see from the window if it wasn’t night-time.

Actually, we’re deep inside it, so you wouldn’t see us anyway.’

He was speaking rather too loudly and rather too clearly, as though he was using a telephone with a poor connection.

‘Remember the mountains, Rory?’ he asked. ‘The strange ones that I didn’t think were mountains?’

‘I do, Doctor,’ said Rory.

‘Well, they’re really not mountains. They’re giant machines called terraformers, or terramorphers, or whatever you want to call them. They’ve been set up to change this world. To re-engineer its climate and make it more Earth-like.’

‘Earth -esque, surely?’ smiled Rory.

‘Touché, Mr Pond,’ laughed the Doctor. ‘So, it’ll take years to do. Centuries. It’s a long-term project.

Anyway, we’re inside one of them.’

‘OK…’

‘Specifically,’ the Doctor said, ‘we’re in a telepresence communications chamber. We found it by accident. It’s part of a communications network that probably once linked all the Morphan communities.’

‘It’s like you’re here,’ said Rory, still not quite believing his eyes.

‘It’s conjury!’ Sol Farrow murmured. He and Vesta were rigid with fear. Their eyes were very wide.

‘Who’s that?’ asked the Doctor.

‘That’s Sol Farrow,’ said Rory. ‘And this is Vesta.’

‘Vesta Flurrish!’ the Doctor cried. ‘Alive and well!

How fantastic is that? Very pleased to virtually meet you, Vesta. As you can see, I’ve got your sister and Samewell here with me. They’re perfectly safe. Well, they’re relatively safe. Well, they’re here with me.’

Vesta and Bel stepped forward and gazed at each other.

‘I was so worried about you,’ said Bel.

‘You look like you are made of light,’ said Vesta.

‘She is!’ cried the Doctor. ‘To you, she is! The telepresence system generates a live hologram field.

It’s like 3D. I love 3D! Especially the cardboard red and green glasses. Anyway, it creates a hologram of you, where you are, here with us, and vice versa, so we all seem to be in the same room.’

‘It’s really freaky,’ said Amy, poking her fingers into Rory’s face.

‘Again, stop it,’ he said. He looked back at the Doctor. ‘What’s going on, Doctor?’ he asked. ‘There’s something really bad happening in this town. There’s this thing—’

‘With red eyes!’ Vesta blurted.

‘Yes, red eyes,’ Rory agreed.

‘That would be an Ice Warrior,’ the Doctor nodded, suddenly more serious. ‘I’m sorry to say, there’s more than one of them around. It is a real problem, Rory.

They’re a threat to the Morphans, to all human life on Hereafter. We’ve got to work together to stop them.

Throw a spanner in their works.’

‘How?’ asked Rory.

‘First things first. You need to get the Morphans ready,’ the Doctor told him. ‘The Ice Warriors are mobilising. They could strike at any moment.’

‘Is Elect Groan there, Vesta?’ asked Bel. ‘Can you fetch him? Any other members of the council…

Chaunce, Old Winnowner, anyone? They have to hear about this.’

‘They’re all in the Incrypt, consulting the word of Guide,’ said Vesta.

‘Now that is very interesting,’ said the Doctor.

‘Go and fetch them, Vesta!’ Bel urged. ‘Hurry now!’

Vesta nodded, and darted away. Sol was still staring in wonder at the luminous figures.

‘Doctor?’ said Rory.

‘Yes, Rory?’

‘I – hang on. Amy, seriously, stop poking your fingers through my nose. Doctor, why are you talking so urgently?’

‘Am I?’ asked the Doctor.

‘Yeah,’ said Rory. ‘It’s almost like… you haven’t got very much time.’

‘Well, there’s no time like the present!’ the Doctor enthused. He really wasn’t very good at lying sometimes.

‘Doctor…’ said Rory, a cautioning note sounding in his voice. His take me seriously voice.

‘What?’ ask the Doctor.

‘What’s that high-pitched noise?’ asked Rory.

In the hologram field deep under Firmer Number Two, the Doctor looked back at the shimmering, lifesized image of his friend and shifted uncomfortably.

The noise of the focused sonic drill was steadily getting louder.

‘Hang on, Rory,’ the Doctor said. ‘Stay right there.’

He walked out of the glow of the hologram field and over to the open hatch. The noise was echoing down the corridor. The Ice Warriors were already cutting through the second of the hatches that the Doctor and his companions had locked in their path.

‘Samewell?’ he called.

The young man ran over to join him.

‘Keep watch here,’ the Doctor told him. ‘As soon as the Ice Warriors appear through that door down there, yell out so we know about it, and then lock this hatch.

It’ll slow them down again.’

‘Guide is my witness, I understand,’ Samewell said.

‘As soon as you’ve done that, I want you to take Amy and Bel out the other way, out the way you scouted. Got it?’

‘Yes, Doctor.’

‘It’s important.’

‘Cat A. I understand. Where will you be while this is happening?’ Samewell asked.

‘I’ll be right behind you,’ the Doctor said. ‘But I need you to lead the way so you can open the doors with your hand.’

‘Ah,’ said Samewell, nodding. ‘Right. Got you.’

The Doctor left Samewell standing watch at the door and walked back into the hologram field.

Amy and Rory were face to face, looking at each other.

‘I was really worried about you,’ Rory said to her.

‘And I was worried about you,’ she replied. ‘You only went back for a coat. How hard is that?’

‘Uh, I think you got captured while I was getting a coat,’ said Rory, ‘so this whole series of disasters started with you.’

‘It started with the TARDIS missing Christmas by about a bajillion years, actually,’ replied Amy.

‘Well, I was really worried anyway,’ said Rory. He raised his hand, palm open, fingers slightly spread, as though he was pressing it against a window pane. Amy echoed the gesture with her left hand, so they could

‘touch’ hands through the holographic medium. An elasticated mitten dangled from her cuff.

Their hands passed through one another. They both stepped back sharply, shaking their heads.

‘I thought that would be, like, really sweet,’ said Rory, disappointed. ‘I thought it would be a proper moment, like in those films when the hero’s in jail, and the girl visits him, and they put their hands up on either side of the glass partition of the visitor’s cubicle? You know, like that?’

‘Yeah,’ she said.

‘But it was just a bit creepy,’ he said.

‘It really was,’ she agreed.

Rory saw the Doctor reappear.

‘What is that noise, Doctor?’ he asked.

‘Nothing to worry about,’ said the Doctor cheerfully.

‘He’s just saying that so you won’t worry,’ said Amy.

‘What is that noise?’ asked Rory.

‘The Ice Warrior Men are drilling through doors to get at us,’ Amy told him.

‘What?’ Rory asked, very alarmed.

The Doctor looked at Amy. His shoulders drooped and he sighed sadly.

‘It’s not even like it’s a difficult name to remember, like Jagrafess or Castrovalva,’ the Doctor said to her. ‘I mean, a friend of mine just made it up on the spot. Ice Warriors. It’s simple. It’s not hard. Why are you having such trouble with it?’

‘Probably the stress of the situation,’ Amy snapped.

‘Is she telling the truth?’ Rory asked the Doctor.

‘Not at all,’ replied the Doctor. ‘The word “men” has never had anything to do with their name. They’re just plain Ice Warriors.’

‘God help me… Are they drilling through the door, Doctor?’ asked Rory insistently, trying his best not to shout.

‘They are doing that,’ the Doctor admitted.

‘Doctor! You’ve got to get out of there!’ said Rory.

‘Has Vesta gone to get the council?’

‘Yes,’ said Rory.

‘Well, we haven’t really got time to wait for them to come back,’ said the Doctor thoughtfully. ‘Listen, Rory, it’s actually all very simple. The Ice Warriors want this planet. They want to conquer it and colonise it. They want to take it from the Morphans. But they need it to be colder. Tons colder. They don’t want the Morphans warming it up to make it all Earth-like. Their idea of Earth-like isn’t like the Morphans’ idea of Earth-like, and—’

‘Skip that part, Doctor,’ Amy advised.

‘OK, Rory,’ said the Doctor, focusing. ‘The crucial point is that the Ice Warriors have sabotaged the terraformer systems. They’ve reset them to plunge Hereafter into an ice age.’

‘Hence the sudden winters,’ said Rory.

‘Exactly,’ the Doctor agreed. ‘An ice age will suit the Ice Warriors just fine, but it will wipe the Morphans out. I’m not prepared to allow that. So… I’m going to sabotage the Ice Warriors’ sabotage, Rory. I’m going to undo what they’ve done, and accelerate the global warming processes of the terraformers. I’m going to make Hereafter a very uncomfortable place for any Ice Warriors to be.’

‘OK,’ Rory nodded.

A sudden bang reverberated down the corridor outside.

‘They’re through, Doctor!’ Samewell yelled from the door.

‘Close that hatch, Samewell,’ the Doctor shouted back, ‘and get everybody through into the next room like I told you to!’

‘Yes, Doctor!’ Samewell replied. He put his hand on the palm-checker and the hatch slammed shut.

‘Sorry. Really running short on time,’ the Doctor said, turning back to Rory. ‘Like I said, I need to reset the terraformers, but they’re a huge and very complicated set of systems. I don’t want to cause a global disaster by, you know, fiddling around. I need plans or schematics to work from. Rory, all the Morphans I’ve met keep mentioning “Guide”. Guide, as I understand it, has principles that they live by.

Instructions. I think they’re actually referring to a real guide, to codified information that the original colonists left behind to cover all the details of operating and maintaining the systems.’

‘I reckoned that too,’ Rory agreed. ‘It’s such an important part of their lives, they treat it as a sort of holy text. I’ve heard them calling it “Guide Emanual”.’

‘Emanual, or e-hyphen-manual?’ the Doctor asked, intrigued.

‘Exactly,’ said Rory. ‘E-manual. An electronic manual. I think it’s stored digitally. There’s a place adjoining the hall called the Incrypt. That’s where they keep it.’

‘I need a copy,’ the Doctor said.

‘Well, they won’t let me in there,’ Rory replied.

The high-pitched dentist’s drill whine had started howling on the other side of the hatch. The Ice Warriors were right outside.

‘Come on!’ Samewell said to Amy and Bel. ‘We’ve got to go! Right now! Doctor says so!’