Investigations! Ha!’
They just gave him a look.
‘Okay, maybe not that either. Anyway, we can get back, and Clyde will stay where he is. Now, hold tight.’
And he gripped a hand of each of them. Tight. And squeezed. And grinned a marvellous grin that reminded them both of how much they loved, trusted and adored this madman with a box.
And all three of them vanished in a blue flash.
Chapter Ten
Trapped
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
They just gave him a look.
‘Okay, maybe not that either. Anyway, we can get back, and Clyde will stay where he is. Now, hold tight.’
And he gripped a hand of each of them. Tight. And squeezed. And grinned a marvellous grin that reminded them both of how much they loved, trusted and adored this madman with a box.
And all three of them vanished in a blue flash.
Chapter Ten
Trapped
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
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