In the Funeral Chamber Azure was giving orders to his fellow Shansheeth. ‘Dispense with the coffin, prepare this room for the coalescence.’
Amaranth and Aureolin gave the vast lead coffin a shove and it ended up by the drapes at the back that separated the main Chamber from their private, hidden area.
Azure then drew the drapes aside, revealing the Doctor’s TARDIS.
Colonel Karim walked into the Chamber and smiled. ‘I always love seeing that in my possession.’
Azure gave her a look. ‘It is a possession of the Claw Shansheeth.’
Karim was about to give a reply, then decided not to. After all, once the plan was in motion, getting the TARDIS away from the Shansheeth was going to be easy. Stupid vultures – they had no idea what she could do.
‘Behold,’ Amaranth announced, ‘the Memory Weave is ready.’
He had moved an upright medical stretcher next to the Cradle. There were retractable straps and arm and leg clamps on it. And close to the top was a small dome that could fit over a human head, with a spaghetti of different coloured wires running from that into a small portable computer console about the size of a chest of drawers. This contained a screen and a series of switches and dials.
Aureolin had an identical set-up on the other side of the room.
Karim opened a small square cut into the floor, which revealed a power supply with flexible cabling and linked first Amaranth’s and then Aureolin’s to the main UNIT power grid. That done, she glanced at her watch.
‘We have about an hour before the base fills up with personnel again,’ she snapped. ‘You said we’d be finished by now.’
Azure flexed his wings angrily. ‘And you said we’d have the memories by now.’
Karim closed her eyes and imagined a huge oven, like her one at home but massive, and inside it, three large birds slowly roasting. She forced a smile on to her face. ‘Hopefully the Doctor will bring them back soon, we can get the key to the TARDIS and be done.’
Azure stared at her – was that contempt she could see in his eyes? ‘Soon the Memory Weave will be active. Deliver the women to our wings, and not even the Doctor will be able to stop the crusade of the Shansheeth.’
Karim had heard it all before and it was starting to get repetitive. The same promises and pronouncements over the last few months.
She turned back to the door but before leaving, pointed to the connected-up Memory Weaves. ‘Don’t overheat those things with power. When UNIT first got their hands on them, we left one of them plugged in for too long. That’s why we only have two now.’
And she marched out, slamming the Chamber doors behind her.
Stupid Shansheeth. If she’d known when she was first contacted by them just how frustrating they could be, she’d never have agreed to all this.
Actually, that was a lie, she reminded herself. Because she wanted the TARDIS as much as they did – if not for the same reasons. The Shansheeth wanted its secrets, its time-travelling capabilities for their own, frankly insipid reasons. Noble in some respects, perhaps, but wasteful. So that didn’t interest her. In return for her help in getting it, the Shansheeth had promised to take her out there, into space and time. All these years working her way up through UNIT, doing demeaning jobs, being posted to stupid backward countries, protecting idiot dignitaries when all the stuff UNIT had gathered over the years was theirs to use! But no, stupid rules and regulations forbade the use of alien artefacts and stuff.
How ridiculous was that? She had known when she was ten that Tia Karim was destined for a better life and UNIT had promised it. But it had let her down with its placid, reactive rather than proactive, attitudes. How was the human race supposed to grow in strength and power if it didn’t use the gifts and trophies it found? Stupid politicians with their small-minded perspectives. But out there, out in space amongst those aliens, she could show them how powerful one person could be. And with the TARDIS at her command, once the Shansheeth were out of the picture…the universe was hers for the taking.
The Colonel took a small device from her pocket. On it glowed an illuminated map of the whole base. A red dot showed where she was standing, and a small cluster of dots nearby were the Shansheeth. Which meant that other small cluster, working their way through the ventilation ducts, must be those stupid kids.
She tapped a button on the device and a line went across one of the ducts.
Tap. Another line.
‘Time to box you lot in,’ she muttered.
Clyde, Rani, Santiago and the Groske were staring in horror at the metal panel that had just slammed across the ducting in front of them, cutting off the route ahead.
‘That’s not good,’ Clyde said.
‘Trapped,’ the Groske said.
‘Great,’ said Clyde. ‘Back the way we came?’
At which point another panel crashed down, cutting off that way too. Clyde looked at the Groske. ‘So what exactly was your plan?’
‘No plan. Shansheeth scary. Groske hide. Humans hide, too.’
Clyde sighed. ‘No plan. Oh, great.’
Rani shrugged. ‘Hiding made sense actually,’ she said. ‘We need to keep you safe because whatever the Doctor’s doing, he needs you safe for that body switcheroo thing.’
Clyde waved around. ‘Yeah, but in here, if he arrives, splat – there’s not a great deal of space now.’
Santiago laughed quietly. ‘I can’t believe you do this all the time. Aliens and chases and stuff.’
‘You can talk, mate,’ said Clyde. ‘Going off to Paraguay and Mount Everest.’
‘You just went to another planet!’
Clyde laughed too. ‘Yeah, there is that.’
‘We’ve been to parallel worlds. Nightmare dimensions. Limbo. And if we’re lucky, home for tea. We see all this stuff and then Mum’s like, “What did you do today?” and I’m like, “Not much. Went to the library.” ’
‘ “Played footie with Steve, Finney and the guys.” ’ Clyde smiled.
‘ “Stayed behind at drama club.” They always like that one!’ said Rani.
‘And of course what we can’t say is, “Oh, and Mum, I fought off a platoon of Judoon from the moon in my spare time,” cos our parents’d freak.’
Santiago nodded slowly, then said, without a smile, ‘Haven’t seen my mum for six months.’
Rani frowned. ’How come?’
‘She’s in Japan, organising a rally. I mean, that’s brilliant, it’s really important.’
‘Course it is, yeah,’ encouraged Clyde.
‘But before that, she was in Africa finding shell-flower plants. And Dad’s with the Gay Fathers Organisation, hiking across Antarctica, so we haven’t been together since about…April.’
‘When are you going to see them next?’
Santiago shrugged. ‘I know they’re going to be at some anti-nuclear rally in Norway in a few weeks but Gran needs to get back to Granddad soon, and I’ve got a cousin on the way in Dubai. Still, at least that’ll be warm.’
‘Talking of warm…’ Clyde rested his hands on the ventilation ducting floor. ‘Is it me, or…?’
The Groske jumped and immediately banged his head on the low ceiling. ‘Hot too,’ he pointed up. ‘Hot, hot, hot!’
Rani grabbed Clyde. ‘They’re trying to boil us!’