Kingdom of the Blind: Part 4
"Yeah right!" Rose shouted as she spun out of range of Illyan's reach. She lifted her foot towards the vampire's crotch. Illyan laughed as he snatched her foot in mid swing.
This entire exchange took less than ten seconds, which was more than enough time for the Doctor to have positioned himself at Rose's side. He lifted something from his pocket, "If that's your screwdriver, I don't think it's going to do much good here Doctor." Rose gasped as she continued to pull against the grip of the vampire.
The doctor held the content of his hand out in front of Illyan's face, Rose noticed it was a badge of some kind, a symbol made of swirls and folds of some gilt like metal. Rose felt sure that she heard a female voice singing. Illyan immediately recoiled, whether from the symbol or from the near whisperlike singing, Rose couldn't be sure, but whatever it was, the vampire was terrified by it. He spun on his heels and ran. "What the hell was that all about?" Rose asked, looking more closely at the symbol in the Doctor's hand, before he quickly replaced it in the pocket of his jacket.
"A relic. From Gallifrey. Something I have great faith in. Faith is a key defence against these creatures, in all their forms."
"So that's why crosses always work then?" Rose seemed proud of her logical deduction. The Doctor smiled, glad that Rose had gotten the idea.
"It can only hold them at bay though, even scare them off, it can't do them any real harm. It's the psychic energy that is generated when someone has faith, whatever it's basis, that the vampire's cannot understand or overcome. so for the most part, they run."
"Now they know where we are though. They'll come back. In greater numbers no doubt. Where can we go? What shall we do now?" Androsa had been pushed over the edge by the encounter, he was now in the firm grip of panic. "They'll kill us all, you know that. your trick can stop one of them but you can't stop them all, we're doomed"
The Doctor turned to the panicked man and placed a hand on his shoulder. At the Doctor's touch the man stopped shaking, the Doctor then spoke, in a slow rhythmic tone, almost hypnotic, "It will be alright Androssa." The man stared deep into the Doctor's eyes and calmed significantly.
"Did you just hypnotise him?" Rose asked, "Cos if you did, that is so totally cool."
"It's the force." The Doctor joked. Rose smiled at the quick pop culture reference, then shook her head and marvelled at the Doctor's ability once again to avoid a direct answer to a direct question.
"These vampires shouldn't give us much grief for a while yet anyway," Jack commented, "if this chronometer is right. We're only a few minutes shy of Dawn. Once the sun is up, they're powerless right?"
"No, sadly that is a myth. How do you think the species could traverse the Galaxy across entire star clusters if they were vulnerable to starlight. They're free to roam in the daylight as easily as we are. We must move quickly."
"Where to exactly?" Jack asked.
"The Tardis?" rose asked, her voice full of both hope and certainty that the answer would be no.
"No, we're going to find the Queen of the Vampires, and kill her." The look of fierce determination had returned to the Doctor's face. "Let's go."
The Doctor led the way to the door out of the Lab as he reached the bottom step, he turned and said to Androssa, "bring your Father's invention, the one that can free your people from the Queens control, maybe I can tweak it, increase it's range and scope."
"We tried for years to do that, it was hopeless." Androssa replied, though he picked up a small device anyway.
"There's no such word in the Doctor's vocabulary." Jack said, a reassuring smile crossing his face.
Back in the forrest the strange shape of the Tardis stood out like the proverbial sore thumb, but it was changing. The shape blurred, the corner's rounded out slightly. In a small room 25 levels below the Console room, a bank of deceptively ancient looking computer banks had sprung to life. Lights glowed and the tape reels spun in the cabinets. On a small display panel lights glowed, stark words stood out on the screen, the ominous words "Rassilon protocol 1, alpha, alpha 1 Initiated." Glowed and shimmered. The ancient engines of the Tardis powered up and the entire craft throbbed as the flow of power became more pronounced.
"Will you stop examining the back of your eyelids, we've got to get moving." Rose shouted at the Doctor, who had seemed lost in another world.
"Oh! Sorry, my mind must have wandered, where are we now?" The Doctor responded, looking around slightly confused.
"Where were you?" Rose asked.
"Right here. Didn't you see me, I didn't move from this spot."
"You know what I mean." rose retorted, her voice dripped sarcasm. The Doctor smiled gently. Rose could do nothing but forgive him his glib dismissal of her question.
"We are no more than ten minutes walk from The Citadel, the seat of the Queen's court." Androssa replied to the Doctor's first question. "Ariella had my people build a castle for her, one fitting a Queen. Its defences are myriad, however do you hope to gain entry."
"Knock on the front door, say hello, you know, the usual." The Doctor said as he absentmindedly tinkered with Androssa's device in one hand, his trusty sonic screwdriver in the other. "We only need to cause a distraction for a while." The Doctor's eyes seemed to lose focus again for a second then he was back again, "won't be long now." He said, smiling at Rose.
"I know it's probably pointless to ask, but what are you planning Doctor?" Rose asked nearly exasperated.
"Well, since you asked, I'm going to free as many of her slaves as I can, then I'm going to kill Ariella."
"And just how are you planning on doing that?" Jack asked. "If that image we saw was anything to go by, even some of these trees wouldn't be big enough to use as a stake for that creature."
"Oh, she's undoubtedly much bigger than that by now, she's had a few hundred years to slowly feed off this planet. Growing fatter, and hopefully, more complacent." The Doctor replied with a smile. He held up the device given to him by Androssa, "this, is a work of genius. It only needed a little amplitude adjustment, now it's got a range of about 22.5 metres, give or take."
"Great, now all we need is for all of her followers to stand still in a large closely gathered group, then we can free them all. Easy!"
Rose's sarcasm would have cut a lesser man like a knife, but the Doctor just smiled and replied, "Sounds like a plan to me." Rose rolled her eyes back so much she felt she could see the poriatal lobes of her brain.
"That's weird." Rose said simply.
"What is?" The Doctor asked, still with the smile of an eternal optimist on his face.
"I think I just thought about my poriatal lobes in the right context. Am I getting smarter or something?"
"Anything's possible." The Doctor replied, a sarcastic smirk crossing his face.
"Hey, let's not stretch the limits of credulity here Doctor." Jack commented, jumping away from Rose as he spoke, and she struck out with the back of her hand.
"Unbelievers." The loud cry shattered the groups reverie, as all their eyes turned on the source of the call. Three men stood, only about 10 meters from the group.
"Use the gizmo Doctor." Rose said swiftly.
"No, let's wait for the rest of their party to join them." They didn't have to wait long, as a large group of around 20 people joined the original 2 and slowly advanced on the party. The Doctor raised the device in his outstretched hand.
"Now to see if it does what it's supposed to do." The Doctor spoke with an air of uncertainty in his voice. But the group stopped almost immediately. He looked at the device in his hand, then looked at Rose, "Am I good or what?"
"Yeah, Fantastic." Rose replied, aping the Doctor her use of his favourite word..
"Where? What are we doing? Where are we?" The closest of the men seemed to be the first to regain his faculties. "Who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor, this is Rose, that's Androssa, and the letch trying to see through your ragged cloth garments in Captain Jack."
"Hey! No fair spoiling my fun." Jack laughed as he spoke.
"You're now free of Ariella's influence. Can you remember anything about the Citadel? It's guards, how many there are."
"I remember it all, as though in a dream. But it wasn't a dream, was it?" The Doctor shook his head mournfully. "What did that creature do to us?"
"She made you her slaves. She made you hunt and kill your own kind, as she herself fed from your very planet." Rose nudged the Doctor as she noticed the distraught look on the faces of the group of now free Megopolitans. "They've been hidden from the truth for too long Rose, it's time someone opened their eyes to the facts of the situation."
"All of our people are slaves to that creature." Androssa interjected. She must be destroyed. She must die for what she has done to us. It must end now."
"And end, it shall." From all around the group, figures appeared from the shadows. At the head of the group was the familiar figure of Illyan. These were not like the rag wearing group recently freed from their life of mind controlled stupor, these were Ariella's personal guard. A group of vampires. And they pounced.