FOR ROMANA, THIS was a nightmare. She clutched a bulkhead as the TARDIS bucked and swayed through the vortex.
Could the tall, slender young man holding on to the console really be Salyavin? The mere mention of that name had sent a shiver through her body. It had stripped her of the very training and detachment that she had been extolling, and suddenly she had been a little girl again, over a hundred years earlier. ‘Go to sleep,’ her mother had said playfully, in the mocking tone adults used without realising the horror they were inspiring, ‘or Salyavin will come to get you!’ She had seen holo-images of Salyavin, the wild man, in the history books, and spent the night still and silent, listening to the sounds of the Citadel, convinced that Salyavin was hiding beneath her bed.
And Salyavin, or Skagra, or whoever he really was, had stolen the mind of the Doctor, and left him dead. He had no reason to lie.
One thing gave Romana hope. She had not seen the Doctor’s body. Was it just possible he had somehow fooled Skagra, and would come bursting in at any moment, teeth flashing, eyes bulging, that ridiculous scarf flapping in the wind?
Finally the TARDIS started to groan to a halt, the centre column grinding slower and slower until Romana felt the familiar wrenching sensation of materialisation.
Skagra stood back from the console. ‘We have arrived,’ he said simply. He threw the big red lever, and the outer doors opened.
Romana gathered herself. Whatever was out there, she would refuse to be impressed.
Skagra gestured for her to exit first.
Romana stepped past him haughtily and went through the doors of the TARDIS.
She found herself among the stars. She stifled a gasp of astonishment.
The TARDIS had put down at the centre of a huge open circular space. Above and around her on all sides was a brilliant starfield, beyond what she guessed must be some kind of invisible spherical vacuum shield. At the edges of this arena she could see huge dark mountains, blasted black spires of rock reaching up to the heavens.
Romana turned to see Skagra exiting the TARDIS, carpet bag in hand, followed as ever by the sphere.
‘Where are we?’ she said as casually as she felt able. She waved a hand airily across at the infinite stars. ‘Of course I know roughly where we are from the star formations. We’re at the centre of this galaxy’s trade routes, among the most powerful civilisations, not so very far from Gallifrey. I assume from the look of those rock formations that this observatory is built into the surface of an asteroid.’
‘Of course,’ said Skagra, who did not look impressed either. ‘This is my command station.’
Romana sneered. ‘Command station! And what do you need to command?’
‘More than you can possibly imagine,’ said Skagra.
‘I have a very vivid imagination,’ said Romana.
‘Then it may be in for a shock,’ said Skagra.
He gestured her forward. To one side of the TARDIS was a large computer console. The sphere bobbed forward and, at Skagra’s command, positioned itself on top of a slender spike.
‘For a logical, rational man, you like a bit of mystification, don’t you?’ Romana said. ‘Why don’t you just tell me who you are and what you want?’
Skagra turned to look at Romana. He inclined his head, as if evaluating her. His blue gaze was even more intense than usual.
He gestured around at the heavens. ‘Tell me what you see.’
‘I’ve already told you. Stars. Billions of them.’
Skagra nodded. Then he leaned forward, bringing his face closer to hers. ‘What are they doing?’
Romana shrugged. ‘What do you mean? They’re not doing anything. They’re just there.’
‘Exactly,’ said Skagra. ‘Spinning uselessly through the void. And around them, trillions of people spinning uselessly through their lives.’
Romana snorted. ‘Says who?’
‘Says me.’
Romana thrust her face into his. ‘And who are you? Salyavin?’
For the first time Skagra seemed almost passionate. ‘What I am now is not important. But what I – what we all – shall become. That is all that matters.’
Romana, acting a lot braver than she felt, laughed. ‘Messianic rubbish.’
Skagra cupped his hands together and slowly moved them up to her face. Then he parted the palms.
‘Look,’ he said.
Romana was hoping that he was as mad as he now seemed. A madman was fallible by definition. She looked into his cupped hands. ‘What am I meant to be looking at?’
‘What do you see?’
‘Nothing,’ said Romana. ‘I don’t know… Air?’
Skagra looked down into his hands. ‘Billions of atoms, spinning at random. Expending energy, running down, achieving nothing. Entropy.’
He broke the pose and gestured above himself. ‘Just like the stars. Heading pointlessly and futilely towards extinction and endless night and nothingness.’ A gleam came into his eyes. ‘But what is the one thing that stands against entropy, against random decay?’
He held out one gloved hand to her.
‘Life,’ said Romana.
‘Exactly!’ Skagra flexed his fingers. ‘See how the atoms are arranged here. They have meaning, purpose. And what more meaning and purpose than what is contained –’
Slowly he pointed to his head.
‘– in here?’
‘The living brain,’ said Romana.
‘My living brain,’ corrected Skagra. ‘My genius.’
Romana shot him her best look of utter contempt.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, stepping back and regaining himself. ‘I had hoped you might be different. But like everybody else, your mind is limited. You do not understand me.’
‘What is there to understand?’ said Romana and turned her back on him.
She found herself looking into the glowing red eyes of what appeared to be a living rock.
She jumped in sheer animal terror at the strangeness of the creature. It stood about seven feet tall, and its large body was formidable if not graceful. Its bulky frame consisted of crystallised lumps of smouldering black carbon. An intense aura of heat emanated from it.
‘Command station welcomes you, my lord Skagra,’ it said in a deep, rumbling voice.
Romana saw two more of the creatures emerge from the shadows at the edge of the domed observatory. ‘What are these things?’
Skagra had returned to his normal icy self. ‘My Kraags,’ he said evenly. ‘My creations. They shall be the servants of the new generation.’
All Romana’s fears came flooding back. ‘New generation? A new race, new people?’
Skagra shook his head. ‘You still do not understand. Not new people.’ He paused as if to emphasise his point. ‘A new person.’
He turned his attention to the Kraags. ‘It is almost time. I shall shortly require reinforcements. Begin the generation process.’
The first Kraag lowered its head in a gesture of obedience. ‘As my lord commands.’
The Kraags turned away and lumbered off into the shadows.
Skagra took Romana’s arm. ‘You shall see this,’ he said and pushed her forward.
As they moved into the shadows, Romana saw a large circular door leading out of the observatory down into a long tunnel of roughly hewn rock. A fiery glow came from the end of the tunnel.
The tunnel emerged onto a large metal platform that looked down into another circular area, this one some hundred metres in diameter, and covered by a canopy of rock. Romana shied away from the heat and the light. The entire central area of the room was filled with a bubbling pit of lava. The air was filled with a heavy thick green gas that caught at her throat.
The first Kraag pounded to a small console built into the edge of the platform and depressed a series of switches with its stubby, three-fingered claw.
The lava bubbled even more furiously. Suddenly a massive crane-like device swung out from the opposite wall. In its claw was a bare wire skeleton, roughly human-shaped.
The crane lowered itself. The claw dropped the wire frame into the pit.
The lava seethed. Suddenly, black crystals of carbon began to agglomerate around the wire frame. Romana watched as the crystals coalesced, forming the unmistakable figure of a Kraag.
The newborn Kraag groaned and strained, ripping itself free of the lava.
The first Kraag pressed another button. A long ramp extended from the platform down into the pit.
The new Kraag clambered on to the ramp, its heavy feet, still smouldering, leaving steaming black prints as it presented itself to Skagra.
‘What is your command, my lord?’
‘Join these others,’ said Skagra. ‘The time is nearly come.’
The new Kraag joined its fellows on the platform.
‘Test activation complete, my lord,’ reported the first Kraag.
‘Begin full activation,’ said Skagra.
The first Kraag – which Romana could now see was slightly larger than its fellows, some sort of commander – hit another button.
Panels in the ceiling slid back around the huge chamber to reveal more and more crane-arms. Each crane held a wire frame in its claw.
The cranes swung out. The frames splashed into the lava pit. New Kraags started to form around each frame.
The cranes swung back – then swung out again a second later, producing more wire frames.
Romana looked into the impassive face of Skagra. If this was madness, it was madness on a terrifying scale. For once, she could not hide or mediate her own reaction.
Romana was appalled.