Moon Bait (short story)

***Moon Bait*** was a short story written by Katie Taylor for the Doctor Who Annual Series 19, acting as a prequel to *Doctor Who and the Moonmen* and *I Am The Doctor*.

The story details the arrival of Roki XII and temporary assistant W'Katho on the moon, the construction of the machine used in the TV story and explains some of Roki's past and further plans.

## Synopsis

With an unknowing assistant by his side, Roki travels to the Moon to finally set in motion his masterplan...

## Plot

Standing outside a cave on the surface of the Moon, Roki XII throws a gravity globe inside to light up the interior, before turning his back on it to look at the Earth. His daydreams are soon interrupted by the voice of his assistant, W'Katho, over the radio who asks him if he’s finally decided on what cave to use. Roki looks over to his spaceship to see W’Katho gesticulating wildly in front of it, before confirming that he has indeed chosen.

W'Katho brings over crates from the spaceship inside the cave, before he takes out a canister from one of them and places it on the floor. Activating it, it creates a force field that blocks off the exit and fills the cave up with oxygen, allowing W'Katho to take off his helmet. He walks over to Roki to inform him that the atmosphere is now safe to breathe, who responds with relief. However, W'Katho’s request for a break is swiftly denied with a demand to return to work.

Roki brings out a machine from a box and requests W'Katho’s help in completing it, who asks him what it is actually for. He declines to answer, only claiming that it would drastically improve his life; an answer that W'Katho is not entirely happy with. After Roki tells him that he’s only there to fetch, carry and solder - under supervision - W'Katho jokes about whether he would be allowed super hearing as well, a pun which he finds hilarious but only gets met with scorn from Roki.

He yells at him to gather some equipment, which he does. Afterwards, as he shows him what they need to do, W'Katho asks what was the original device that he is repurposing this new machine from. Reluctantly, Roki explains that it came from a time machine - a TARDIS, before indulging that he is a Time Lord.

This is met with disbelief from W'Katho, who believed that they were all gone. Roki doesn’t elaborate and they continue to work on the machine. Finishing in a matter of a day, Roki then nicknames it “the Mind Weaver” and tells W'Katho that its purpose is to generate creatures that would grant any wish they were asked for - the Moonmen. When asked why, he states that it’s part of a trap to capture someone who wouldn’t be about to resist investigating.

W'Katho begins to back away as he slowly realises that Roki isn’t benevolent as he first realised. He is berated for not noticing that during all the months they worked together as he tries to run away, but Roki kills him with a shot to the back with his staser after a short chase. He then cleans up his equipment, turns the machine on, heads back to his spaceship and prepares to wait for someone to find the Moonmen.

## Characters

* Roki XII
* W'Katho

## Continuity

* The remains of W'Katho's body are discovered by Alyx Morgan in the caves, but he puts off investigating this in favour of the Moonmen. (TV: *I Am The Doctor*)

## Story Notes

* This story is the only mention of the machine's affectionate name; *the Mind Weaver*.