Author's Note:
Okay, I said my last story was my first piece of fan fiction, but it appears that I've misled you slightly as I found this, a Doctor Who tale I wrote all the way back in 1998. It's not particularly good, but I thought I might as well put it here anyway. This chapter originally appeared in issue 28 of the Doctor Who fanzine Fast Return and is set between Frontios and Resurrection of the Daleks. As always I hope you enjoy this story and please don't forget to review.Disclaimer:
Doctor Who belongs to the BBC and is used without permission.Steel and Flesh
By Jack of the Pelt
Chapter One
Darius Thompson was unable to sleep. In fact he had not slept properly for what seemed like ages. He knew that he would not probably get another decent nights rest until he was away from this place. He did not know whether it was the total silence or the bizarre shadow of the Khrullian Sphinx which hung over his tent like an angry shadow that did it, but he just could not sleep, no matter how hard he tried. Thinking that a breath of fresh air was what he needed he swung himself off his bunk, picked up the battered pair of boots he always wore on expeditions, tied up the laces and left his tent.
After walking for a while Thompson decided that he was beyond being tired now and that he would carry on with his work. Only two months before, a strange necropolis had been discovered on the planet and it was the greatest find on the expedition yet. Nothing had prepared him or his team of the sheer majesty of the necropolis and the craftsmanship that had gone into building the structure many thousands of years ago.
One of the best features of the necropolis was the giant sphinx that hung over the entrance, like an angry security guard. Just passing beneath it he knew the effect that it had on the people who came anywhere near it. It seemed to promote fear. Maybe that was the idea.
He shivered as he looked up at the construction. It was very bizarre, unlike most of the things he had seen before and he had seen a lot of strange things in his time. It was a little like the ancient sphinx of Earth mythology, except it looked more like a jackal than a lion, and whatever it was made of he could only hazard a guess. Whatever it was, it was nothing that he or any of his team had ever heard of.
Even so, after a month they still could not get inside the damn thing.
Removing a micro torch from his top pocket, he leaned closer and shone his torch on the hieroglyphics covering the massive double doors. Suddenly he looked again over the symbols and realised they had been reading them wrong from the start. Excited, he tested his hypothesis and pressed some of the hieroglyphs. He waited for several minutes, but nothing happened. Oh well, he thought. Back to the drawing board. He was about to return to the camp when he heard a loud grinding noise. He turned around, and gasped with excitement as the doors slowly began to open.
Thrilled at his new discovery, he hurried back to the camp.
***
In the darkness of the deepest part of the necropolis, a pair of eyes flared into life.
"My servants," intoned a deep, mellifluous voice. "Kill the flesh things. Spare nothing." The cavernous room suddenly lit up with an intense brightness. The sounds of a thousand swords drawn in unison and a thousand feet marching flooded the necropolis.
***
In the deep, dark regions of space hung a blue box. Not just any old box, but a powerful time machine called the TARDIS. Inside was a large room with a hexagonal console at it's centre. A man milled around the console. He was young with short, fair hair. He was dressed in the garb of an Edwardian cricketing gentleman with a long coat, flannel trousers and white jumper. The only thing that would have looked out of place was the distinctive question marks on his shirt collars and the stick of celery pinned to the lapel of his jacket. However this was no ordinary man. This was a man almost a thousand years old, who had the power of time travel at his fingertips. He was the Time Lord know only as the Doctor.
He was distracted from his work at the console when the door behind him opened and Tegan stepped into the console room. "Hi, Doctor," she said. "Where are you taking us this time?"
The Doctor looked up at her and handed her a book that was on the console. She took the book from the Doctor's hand and looked at the cover. It was entitled The Riddle of the Khrullian Sphinx. It's author was one Professor Darius Thompson. She looked back at the Doctor. "That's nice," she said. "But that still doesn't tell me where we're going? And what is a Khrullian Sphinx?"
The door opened again and Turlough walked in. He caught the end of the Doctor and Tegan's conversation. "The Khrullians were a civilisation that was destroyed thousands of years ago," said Turlough.
"So who is this Darius Thompson?" asked Tegan, still nonplussed as to why they were telling her about a long since dead race.
"An eminent archaeologist from the 38th century, Tegan," replied the Doctor. "He was the foremost authority on the Khrullian race."
"Doctor, snapped Tegan. "I don't appreciate riddles."
"I'm sorry, Tegan," said the Doctor, his face softening. "I mean we're going to meet Professor Thompson when he found the Khrullian Necropolis."
"Well, why didn't you just say?" said Tegan.
***
A short while later the TARDIS materialised on Khrull and the three time travellers walked outside. The Doctor closed the TARDIS door behind them and then surveyed the horizon.
"Over there," he said, pointing over the horizon.
"All the way over there!" moaned Tegan. "You've got to be joking?!"
The Doctor looked hurt. "I never joke, Tegan."
"Don't I know it," grumbled Tegan as she followed the Doctor and Turlough.
Meanwhile behind them the sand trembled for a few seconds.
***
A while later, a very angry Tegan and the Doctor and Turlough arrived at the necropolis. Tegan looked up at the imposing stature of the Sphinx. "What on earth is that?" she asked.
"That, Tegan, is one of Professor Thompson's most famous discoveries. The Khrullian Sphinx." He looked around and pointed in the direction of a small camp. "Let's go and meet him."
Soon they arrived in a clearing which had several tents and a large space shuttle standing in it. "I think this must be it," the Doctor said.
"What are you going to tell Thompson when you see him?" asked Tegan.
"I haven't thought about it," he replied. "Don't worry, I'll think of something."
Then from out of nowhere came a voice.
"Stay where you are," it barked.
The three travellers froze.
"Place your hands on your head."
They did as they were told. Then suddenly, three figures appeared in front of them. They were clad in plated black armour, their faces masked with black helmets. They also carried large laser rifles which they noticed were rather disconcertingly aimed right at them.
"Light reflective armour," said the Doctor. "Very useful. That's why we couldn't see them."
"No talking!" barked one of the troopers.
One of the troopers, who they assumed was the leader, lifted his wrist to his mouth and spoke into the device strapped to it. "We've found a group of people. One humanoid female, two humanoid males." The trooper lowered his arm and motioned to the Doctor and his friends with his rifle. "You three, come with us," he snapped.
Tegan was about to argue, but thought better of it when one of the troopers aimed a laser rifle at her.
***
They were marched to the main camp and were interrogated by Captain Kenzaki, a Japanese man in his late thirties.
"What are you doing on Khrull?" he demanded.
"We came here to meet Professor Darius Thompson," said the Doctor.
"And to kill him?"
The Doctor looked at Tegan and Turlough who both shrugged. He turned back to Kenzaki. "I beg your pardon?" he said.
"We found the bodies of the whole team," said Kenzaki. "Every last one."
"I can assure you we only just landed…" said the Doctor. He trailed off and listened intently for a few seconds. "Did you hear that?" he asked.
"I'm not a fool," said Kenzaki. "If you think that old trick is going to work on me…"
"No, listen," said the Doctor.
Kenzaki sighed and did as the Doctor asked. Before he could say anything one of the troopers burst into the tent.
"We're being attacked, sir!" he stammered.
Kenzaki ordered a trooper to guard the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough and ran outside. An explosion rocked the tent and the Doctor and his companions fell to the ground.
"What the hell's happening?" moaned Tegan. Looking up she saw the tent ripped from top to bottom. She screamed when she saw a huge metal scorpion bow, it's head moving into the interior of the ruined tent. The trooper fired but the laser made no impression on the scorpion's metal exoskeleton. It just picked the trooper up and crushed his body between it's metal claws. The broken body of the trooper fell to the ground with a loud thump.
***
In the necropolis, Syclos, the last Priest-King of Khrull, saw through the scorpion's eyes and zeroed in on the Doctor. He looked closer.
"It can't be," he said. "It just cannot be him."
The image zoomed in on the Doctor's face. Syclos laughed. "Kill him," he screamed. "Kill the Doctor!"
***
"Take cover!" cried the Doctor as the scorpion went for him. "And watch out for the tail!"
Tegan watched as the Scorpion's tail hit a buggy. It glowed and exploded in a ball of green flame. The three travellers made it to cover and Turlough dusted himself down. "What is that thing?" he asked.
"A Khrullian war scorpion," said the Doctor. "The Khrullian's most powerful war machine. Almost indestructible."
"Almost?"
"Aim for the tail," shouted the Doctor to the troopers.
The remaining troopers changed tack and began firing at the scorpion's tail. It flailed as burst after burst of laser fire hit it.
"MALFUNCTION!" came a metallic feminine voice from the scorpion. The tip of the tail glowed brightly then the scorpion began to judder uncontrollably and finally violently exploded causing all of those around it to be flung to the ground.
***
Syclos laughed. "Well done, Doctor," he said. "But I think you are being to clever for your own good!"
***
Where the scorpion had been was now a huge scorched crater. The Doctor helped Tegan and Turlough to their feet.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Massive feedback," said the Doctor. "You see the sting crystal absorbs energy and when the troopers fired at it, too much energy was put back into the generator and it couldn't take it. That's its one and fatal flaw."
The few remaining troopers got to their feet. One of them removed their helmet. She was a woman in her mid-thirties with close cropped blonde hair.
"Thank you," she said.
"I'm the Doctor and these are my friends Tegan and Turlough," he said.
"Reynolds," she said, holding out her hand, "Lieutenant Lisa Reynolds."
"Where is Captain Kenzaki?" asked the Doctor.
Reynolds pointed to the many bodies strewn over the ground. "He's in there somewhere."
"I see," said the Doctor. "So who's in command now?"
"I guess it must be me," she said. "Tell me about these things, Doctor. You certainly knew how to destroy it and we might need your help again."
"I've been here before," he said.
"Really?"
"Yes," he said, "it must have been about 4000 years ago give or take a decade or so."
"Well I know I shouldn't believe you," said Reynolds, "But I think I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Just tell me what they are and how we destroy them."
"It's a long story," he said.
"I'm not going anywhere," said Reynolds, smiling.
***
The Doctor enlightened Reynolds, her troops and his bemused companions as he told of the time he had helped thousands and thousands of Khrullians to escape from the tyranny of the last Priest-King of Khrull, Syclos and the death threat that was put on him.
"So you think that this Syclos guy is behind all this?" asked Reynolds.
"I would hazard a guess at yes," said the Doctor. "Those scorpions were an invention of Syclos. He was a great cyber-geneticist but he was also insane. "I should have guessed that his death wouldn't be the end of him."
"Why was he sacrificing his own people?" asked Turlough.
"To appease the gods," said the Doctor. "Syclos believed they were angry and that the only salvation was to sacrifice the unbelievers. Like I said, he was totally insane."
"How are we going to stop him then?" asked Tegan.
"I say lets get the hell off this dump and blast the planet into oblivion," said Reynolds.
"No," said the Doctor. "The Khrullians have very powerful force fields. You wouldn't even be able to scratch it let alone destroy it."
"We can't just sit here," said Reynolds.
She was interrupted by a loud rumbling noise. Soon the whole tent began to shake.
"Get everyone out of the camp!" cried the Doctor.
"Huh?" Reynolds said.
"Just do it!" he snapped. The Doctor turned to Tegan and Turlough. "Come on! we've got to get out of here."
***
The camp was in disarray. Troopers were charging everywhere, moving everyone out of the camp. When they reached the edge they noticed the sand was starting to swirl around the edges.
"What's happening?" asked Turlough.
"It's a Khrullian war machine," said the Doctor. "It's creating a sand whirlpool."
They watched in horror as the whole camp, ships and all were sucked into the maelstrom, a few luckless troopers were dragged to their deaths, their screams ringing in the ears of the survivors for seconds after.
The Doctor urged Tegan and Turlough to move. Tegan momentarily lost her footing but Turlough grabbed her hand and pulled her up. Then Turlough slipped, and both he and Tegan fell. The Doctor grabbed hold of a protruding root and grabbed Turlough's wrist before they could fall into the whirlpool. Using all his strength the Doctor tried to pull them all to safety.
"Hold on!" said the Doctor.
"We're trying!" they chorused.
"Brave heart, Tegan!" said the Doctor.
Then the root snapped.
Before they could fall, the Doctor felt something grab his wrist. He looked up. It was Reynolds.
"Hold on!" she said, as she strained to keep hold of him. She gestured behind with her hand. "Quick, lower a rope down here!"
A trooper appeared and lowered down a rope. When the trio had hold of the rope Reynolds ordered the troopers to pull them out. When they were back on firm ground the Doctor told them all to get further out of the way.
"We're not out of danger yet," he said. "We need to get over that dune!"
"Okay then," ordered Reynolds, "over that dune! Quickly!"
As they ran towards the dune Tegan looked over her shoulder. "Hey," she shouted, "the whirling has stopped!"
"Oh no," said the Doctor. "Get down now!"
The Doctor threw himself to the ground and all the others followed suit. A loud humming noise deafened everybody for a few seconds before reaching a crescendo before a huge blast of green energy exploded from the camp.
"What the hell?" said Reynolds.
The Doctor got to his feet and told everybody to keep running. "It'll take time for them to recharge the ultima cannon."
Tegan glanced over her shoulder again and this time saw a huge cobra-like robot rising from the ashes of the camp like a metallic phoenix. Silhouetted against the moon it looked truly demonic.
"We're almost there!" yelled the Doctor.
"Almost where?" yelled Reynolds back.
"The TARDIS!"
"The what?!"
"My ship," said the Doctor, "We'll be safe there, just over these dunes - oh, no!"
The TARDIS had gone…
To be continued…