IA09.6

Doctor Who: The Internet Adventures - #9
 REVOLUTION 9
 Chapter 6
 by Vicky Jewitt
 
 
 
 Flashback:
 
 "Thank you, Ms Ferris, I'm glad you decided to come after
 all," said the figure seated at the desk. It was humanoid, but
 enshrouded in a large dark cloak that left almost everything to
 the imagination.
 She said nothing.
 "These records are of great interest, despite their age,"
 continued the other. "We are truly grateful for your
 information concerning this earth 'directorate'. I hope you
 understand that. If you wish to go through with this, I have to
 warn you that you may be working with some unsavoury
 characters."
 Angela remained silent. She wished she had never bothered
 to track this particular group down. Too late for that now.
 "I've said I'm willing to go through with it."
 "Fine." He watched her go. Another figure approached him.
 "Do we dispose of her now, sir?"
 He frowned, "No. Ms. Ferris has one last task to perform.
 *Then* you will dispose of her."
 
 
 Unflashback
 
 "I don't think I'll be that much use," Wil didn't fancy running
 into Kuldor again.
 Jadi marched on ahead, "In that case, you can stay here and
 watch the fireworks."
 "Fine, fine," sighed the jester. "I'm coming. Why is it I
 always get dragged into these things?"
 The bounty hunter had no sympathy for him, "If you will
 travel around with the Doctor, you might as well try to get used
 to it, kid."
 "It's Gwilym," he corrected with a haughtiness that was
 spoiled by his turning pale and being sick in the corridor only
 moments later.
 Jadi folded his arms, "I can't say I'm surprised."
 "No, neither am I," retorted Wil. "Rutan tastes disgusting."
 The other pulled him up, "Can we get a move on before we
 manage to totally lose Ferris?"
 "No, no, don't mind me. Of course we can," said Wil, getting
 revenge by pocketing one of the many weapons Jadi handily
 carried about him. It occurred to him to wonder how many of
 these could successfully be removed without the bounty hunter
 noticing. Wil brightened and trailed after Jadi with an innocent
 expression on his face.
 
 
 "Through here," said the young Indian, rather bemused.
 However, something in the woman's eyes and the terrified
 appearance of the boy made him respond to her request. For
 the benefit of watchers and his own satisfaction he said. "I
 believ you will find a table that is to your liking."
 "Thank you," she said with a smile that brought a humourous
 light into her eyes. She understood. 
 Behind them, there was a crash. Tim jumped, grabbing hold
 of Beatrice's arm.
 She gently pushed him away and patted his shoulder
 reassuringly as a water cleared up the mess he had made by
 careering into the doors that linked the kitchen to the restaurant.
 "You can get out this way," said their helper, opening another
 door.
 Beatrice thanked him again and then hurriedly led Tim out
 into the back yard. They made their way past rubbish bins and
 black plastic sacks, through a small lane and out onto one of the
 backstreets.
 "Hello, I'm the Doctor and I think you both ought to come
 with me!" said a well dressed whirlwind, grabbing both their
 hands and dragging them back through the restaurant.
 
 
 "Let's get off this planet!" As everyone else sensibly- or rather
 hysterically- proceded to do that, Wil had to traipse round
 Paradise after Jadi who was quite plainly obsessed with this
 Ferris woman. Wil himself had said she was pretty but he
 hardly thought it was worth dying just to catch another glimpse
 of her. Besides, she kept very bad company.
 Jadi ground his teeth, "Not until-"
 "Why d'you think she's still here?" Wil almost screamed at
 him. "She's probably left Paradise. If you've got transport
 here, how about we get to it before one of these people runs off
 with it?"
 The bounty hunter gave him a cold stare, "Anyone running off
 with anything of mine- wait a minute-"
 Wil silently cursed himself for having been so clumsy while
 swiping the laser knife out of Jadi's well-hidden pocket in his
 sleeve. "You were saying?"
 "Talking of stealing things," Jadi pinned the jester back
 against the walls. Wil produced a gun and pointed it at him
 hopefully. "That's mine as well! Wait a minute!" His eyes
 narrowed. "Ten seconds to give me back everything you've just
 snitched off me while you've been moaning."
 Wil resumed his earlier innocent expression as he produced a
 grand total of seventeen items- a watch, a folded piece of paper,
 three guns of varying sizes, the laser knife, several coins, two
 photographs, one unidentified object, a sandwich, a note book,
 a more conventional knife, a business card, a strip of metal, a
 communicator device, a wad of paper money and a stun gun.
 The two of them stood with the assorted pile between them for
 a moment.
 "Well, I had to do something," said Wil apologetically.
 Jadi gathered up his belongings and then looked up at the
 jester. "I thought you said you weren't very useful."
 "Oh, good," said Wil, realising that he wasn't about to get
 shot. He grinned and added, "Stand still a moment- I forgot
 something." As he spoke he produced a ring from behind Jadi's
 ear. "Is this yours?"
 Jadi glared again, "No, you idiot, it belongs to Ferris! Can
 you see me wearing that?"
 "Oh, I don't know," said Wil, feeling more cheerful than he
 had for the past two days. He took it back and made it vanish.
 "Am I supposed to be impressed?" growled Jadi.
 Wil sighed, "Oh, well, in that case, it'll have to be the
 juggling!" He seized his battered old clubs and gave a well-
 rehearsed performance as he followed Jadi down the corridor.
 "Wait," said the bounty hunter. He turned and raised his
 weapons. One by one he shot each of the clubs to the ground.
 Wil gulped and bent to pick them up. He shoved them back
 in his bag and turned to face Jadi. "Am *I* supposed to be
 impressed?" he countered in a small voice.
 "Yes!" said Jadi. 
 Wil recovered himself. "Hah!" he added. "As if any old
 Dalek couldn't do better!"
 "Any old what?" demanded the bounty hunter, insulted. 
 "And keep away from me- you stink at the moment!"
 The jester rolled his eyes. "So sorry," he said. "That's just
 the worst thing about getting swallowed whole by weird
 aliens."
 
 
 "Isn't this the way we *shouldn't* be going?" queried Beatrice.
 The Doctor kept going, "Well, possibly, but I think it's better
 than what's waiting for you out the *other* way. "
 "I don't want to be here!" wailed Tim, keeping his eyes
 closed.
 "I can't say that I'm enjoying it, either," said the Doctor and
 Beatrice together. He paled and she flushed.
 Then they raced through the restaurant, causing the hapless
 waiter to throw somebody's dinner to the floor for a second
 time that evening and back out the front door.
 "This way!" yelled the Doctor, heading to the left. "Now,
 wait!" He changed direction abruptly. "I meant *this* way!"
 Beatrice ducked down behind a garden wall. "Where are we
 going?"
 "To the TARDIS," he replied seriously. "I don't know
 whether or not that's a good idea, considering, but-"
 As a woman opened the door with a suspicious look on her
 face, Tim tugged at his sleeve. "I think she wants to know why
 we're sat in her garden."
 "Admiring the view, of course," said Beatrice. 
 Tim stared ahead, "Great brick wall. You don't get brick
 walls like this everywhere."
 "Quite," said the Doctor, rising and turning to the woman.
 "Did you know that this wall is a rare example of the early
 work of Herman Smith? The red brick-" He paused. "Garden
 gnomes!"
 "Doctor?" said everyone else.
 The householder appeared to be sceptical. "Red brick garden
 gnomes?"
 "No," said the Doctor. "I'd just like to borrow one, if I may."
 He pocketed a red-hatted fisherman. "If we could also just
 disappear through your back garden," added the Doctor. "Ah,
 thank you so much." He hastily slipped in through the garden
 gate before the stunned woman could protest and out over the
 back wall, followed by Tim and Beatrice.
 Tim swallowed, "Beatrice said that this would get more
 subtle."
 "I did?" said the clone.
 The Doctor straightened himself. "I think we should make
 haste to disappear."
 "Sounds like a good idea to me," said Tim shakily.
 The Doctor looked at Beatrice, his gaze suddenly harder than
 usual. "And what do you think- *Doctor*?"
 "There's no time for that," she returned. "We had better
 leave, if we can."
 
 
 "They went which way?" Jadi had found a guard who had seen
 Ferris and the Rutan.
 The guard pointed and Wil nearly sagged with relief., The
 docking bays. Now, at last, Jadi would have to leave.
 "Right." Jadi marched off, then looked behind him, "Will
 you keep up, kid?"
 Wil had stopped by a window. "Come here."
 Muttering and grumbling, Jadi did so. "Yes, the stars are
 pretty. Now, come on, while we've still got a chance to catch
 up with Ferris."
 "No," said Wil. "Over there. One of the ships that just left is
 heading straight for the alien ship. I'd say that was a bit odd."
 Jadi followed his gaze and then swore under his breath. "It's
 not only odd, its *her*!"
 "How do you know that?" demanded Wil. "It could be
 anyone."
 Jadi moved away from the viewing point. "Except that's her
 ship."
 "Well," said Wil, hopefully. "Now we know where they are,
 how about we follow them? Or something. Whatever, as long
 as it involves getting off this planet!"
 The bounty hunter grinned, "You win, kid."
 "It's Gwilym," said Wil through gritted teeth. "Although," he
 added, to the corridor in general, "anything's better than being
 labelled the 'Timid Boy'. But what do prophets know?"
 Jadi turned back. "For someone's who's so keen to get out of
 this place, you spend a lot of time mumbling to yourself in
 corridors."
 "Well, I did want to be an actor," said Wil, hurrying after
 him. "I was just performing to the stars." He wished he didn't
 feel so rotten. Of course, being swallowed whole by Rutans
 probably didn't help, but he knew the prime cause of that and
 grimaced. Bit of a stupid thing to do, really, in the
 circumstances. He'd have been better off stowing aboard some
 vessel. Get a hold on yourself, Gwilym, he told himself. What
 d'you want to do? End up like some other old Fool? He
 couldn't help shivering at that thought.
 Jadi stopped again with a glare, "Now what is it?"
 "Just thinking," said Wil. "Giving myself a good talking to,
 that kind of thing."
 The bounty hunter said, "Well, you just wait here, while I get
 the all-clear to take my ship off this planet."
 Moments later, he returned, looking grim. "It's gone."
 "Oh, no," said Wil. "Well, this is the end, then, isn't it?" He
 was silent for a moment, then added, "But, hey, we're on a
 holiday planet! We can do just about anything we like while
 we wait to die."
 Jadi paced up and down the corridor. "Shut up!" he growled.
 "I'm trying to think of a way out."
 "I suppose," offered Wil, forced into being serious, "that
 there might be bunkers or something, somewhere-"
 "That's no good. We probably haven't even got time to find
 them and nobody else seems to think they're going to be much
 use here."
 Wil sat down on the floor. "So we're stuck here, waiting for
 the world to end?"
 "Yes!"
 "I suppose it'll cure my headache," said Wil. He jumped up.
 "No! We can't just sit here, like this! We should at least use
 the swimming pool with the tube slide!"
 Jadi looked at him.
 "I meant, we should try to do something, even if it's only how
 far we can run," Wil apologised. "Only that seemed like a
 better ending at the time. Oh help."
 "Well, I agree," said Jadi. "I don't plan on getting killed just
 because I happened to get stuck on the wrong planet at the
 wrong time."
 Paradise shook.
 "Maybe you'd better change your plans?" offered Wil.
 Everything shook again and then an infinitely welcome voice
 said, "Would you like a lift out of here?"
 Wil was out of the corridor and into the TARDIS before the
 Doctor had even finished speaking and Jadi wasn't far behind.
 The ship dematerialised.
 
 
 Interlude
 
 "Sorry, Wil," said the Doctor. "I got a little held up."
 Wil was so relieved to be safe that he simply sat on the
 TARDIS floor and didn't even mention the fact that no-one had
 an excuse to be late in a time machine- or ask who the strangers
 in the ship were. 
 "Doctor," said Jadi. "I remember you saying something
 about 30,000 mazumas when we reached your TARDIS. Quite
 impressive," he added grudgingly. "Don't know how you
 managed to squeeze all this space in here, though."
 "Did I say 30,000?"
 "Well," Jadi amended. "It could have been fifty."
 The Doctor protested, "No, that it certainly wasn't! Well, I
 don't actually have any mazumas on me but-"
 "Right, then you can take this machine of yours and land it on
 the ship attacking that planet."
 Wil pulled himself up onto a chair. "I knew he'd be asking
 something like that!"
 "Oh, very well," said the Doctor. "Anything to be rid of you,
 Morok!"
 The bounty hunter grinned.
 "But," said the Doctor, as he made adjustions to the console,
 "I want an explanation."
 Wil and Jadi obliged.
 Once they had finished, the Doctor's face was grave. He
 adjusted the console again and then looked at Beatrice. "My
 talk with you is going to have to wait."
 She looked relieved. "I do understand, Doctor."
 "Yes, of course you do," said the Doctor in a tone that made
 Wil turn to look at him in surprise. 
 They materialised.
 
 End of Interlude
 
 Outside, the little ship steadily approached the large alien
 warship. The cloaked figure watched and then turned to a
 technician. "You may destroy them- now!"
 The technician pressed the button.