Beneath the Stone - Part 3

BENEATH THE STONE
Part 3
BY BERNIE FISHNOTES

Katie and Kyle were still in the chamber, unaware that Caudatus had just decided the fate of humanity. They hadn’t said anything for a while, when Katie suddenly spoke.
“Kyle?”
“What?” he answered grumpily.
“Why were you trying to protect me?”
He looked at her. “What?” he repeated.
“When Caudatus arrived, you tried to keep me behind you, putting yourself in danger. Why did you do that?”
Kyle looked at her, as is surprised she was asking. “I dunno, instinct I guess. Anybody else would have done the same.”
“Ben never does.” She said softly.
“Yeah?” Kyle said “Well, I’m not Ben.”
“That’s true…” Katie said absently.
“Why, cos I’m ‘Captain Chav’?” he retorted.
“No, it’s not that…”
“What then?” he asked.
Katie tried to put her finger on it. “You seem to care more. I’m not saying Ben doesn’t, but you seem to care about everybody. You wanted us to find another way to stop those possessed chavs when Ben was all for shooting them.”
“I seem to remember you being on his side in that!” Kyle said.
“I know, and I was wrong.”
Kyle adopted a look of mock astonishment. “You were wrong? Bloody hell, that’s a first!”
Katie shot him a withering look. “Do you want a compliment, or not?”
“Well, it’s rare we get to see a side of you that isn’t the sarcastic bitch from hell!”
“Has Ben every told you that I had a mental breakdown a few years ago.”
Kyle looked at her, astonished. “No, he hadn’t” he said, stunned.
“It was after we’d dealt with some mad computer in Scotland. I’d been put under hypnotic control, and needed a rest. Well, that’s what I told Ben…”
“What was it really?” he asked. He knew that this probably wasn’t the best time to be asking, but there was nothing else they could do.
“I had a… thing about Ben. Was devoted to him, and he treated me like a whore. He’d claim not to be interested, and then we’d end up in bed together. He knew how I felt, and he didn’t care. He’d use me, and then chuck me out onto the street.” Tears started to appear in the corner of her eyes, and Kyle put his arm over her shoulder. She found herself embracing it, rather than shrugging it off. “I went into a clinic to try and get over him, saw a psychiatrist, everything.” She felt it was wrong to mention that the clinic had turned out to be a cover for yet another sinister cult, and that Ben had got the Doctor to blow it up. “I thought I was over him, but I wasn’t. He kept on using me, but then you came along, and he stopped using me.”
Kyle didn’t know what to make of this, but he nodded accordingly. He’d quite a reputation amongst his mates back home for being a listener, not that his mates were really ones for talking about their problems.
“So what does that have to do with you being so bitchy?” He asked.
“I’ve been trying to get Ben’s attention, but it hasn’t been there.” She smiled slightly. “It has meant, though, that I’ve been able to get my life back on track. My work at the university has improved greatly, I’m no longer behind on my credit cards, I’ve even made a start on my book.” She looked into Kyle’s eyes “And it’s all been down to you.”
Kyle suddenly felt very nervous. Was Katie coming on to him? She was clearly in a vulnerable state, and he didn’t want to take advantage of her. Sure, she was fit, and he couldn’t deny that he hadn’t thought about it, at least until he recalled her personality, but it wouldn’t be right.
“Katie…” he started, when the door started to creak open again. He pulled away from Katie, and Caudatus entered the room.
“I have decided to place a preservation order on the Earth.” He announced. “As soon as I can get my ship in orbit, I’ll send for the fleet.”
“What will they do?” Katie asked. “Protect the planet from alien invaders?”
“No,” Caudatus said. “They’ll select the finest artifacts humanity has produced, and take them to Dalmanite!”
Katie was outraged. “What!” she shouted, leaping up. “You can’t do that! They’re ours!”
“Yes I can.” Caudatus replied calmly. “It’s for the best, they’ll be protected for future generations, and it will do much to improve our understanding of the history of the lesser known planets”
“You’re nicking our stuff though!” Kyle said.
“We are taking it for its own protection.” Caudatus said. “You people are clearly unable to protect it, with your war-like ways”
“War-like ways?” Kyle said, “I’ll show you war-like ways!” He launched himself at Caudatus, but wasn’t quick enough. Despite his frailty, Caudatus pulled the gun from his belt and shot Kyle. He fell to the floor. Katie screamed, and ran to him.
“He’s not dead.” Caudatus said. “I’m not as brutal as you people. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to prepare.” He went to the door. “I might take you two back to Dalmanite, as examples of humanity. Maybe even start a breeding program…” He closed the door behind him, the hydraulics screeching.

The Doctor was crouching by the probe, pointing his screwdriver at the spikes. “What are you doing?” Ben asked.
“I’m seeing if I can get a message down to the pilot.” The Doctor said through gritted teeth. “With any luck, he’ll fancy a chat!” Suddenly, the spikes started to glow brighter.
“Oh, that is not good!” the Doctor said, falling back.
“What?” Ben asked.
“It thinks I’m attacking it. It’s going to self destruct.”
“How big will the explosion be?”
The Doctor looked around. “Big. Won’t reach any houses, but this field, plus the surrounding ones, will be flattened.” He looked at the caravan. “We need to get Anselm out of there.”
“How long do we have?” Ben asked, concerned.
The Doctor scanned the probe “About a minute.”
“I’ll try and get him out.”
“No you don’t.” The Doctor told him. “Get in the TARDIS, I’ll get him.”
“He’s my boyfriend…” Ben protested.
“Ben, the longer we stand here, the less time I have to save us all.” He pointed at the TARDIS. “GO!” he shouted, and Ben did as he was told, muttering to himself.
The Doctor went to the caravan door, and knocked. “Anselm, it’s the Doctor. You need to come out of there.” No answer. He pointed the sonic screwdriver at the lock, and opened it. Anselm was sobbing in the corner, behind the desk. The Doctor went over to him, and tried to get him to move.
“Leave me alone!” he wailed. The Doctor sighed. He had twenty seconds. He grabbed Anselm, dragging him to the door.
Ten seconds.
He swung him over his shoulder, and carried him to the TARDIS door.
Five seconds.
He opened the door, and dropped Anselm’s sobbing form to the floor.
One second.
He slammed the door shut.
There was a terrible roaring noise from outside, and the TARDIS shook violently. Ben grabbed one of the large coralline buttresses, and held on for dear life. Almost as suddenly, it stopped, and everything went silent.
Ben looked at the Doctor, his arms and legs braced against the TARDIS doors. He was listening, considering, then let go. He went over to the console, swung the scanner screen round, put his glasses on and began flicking switches, squinting at the screen. “Quick check for radiation…” he said, by way of explanation, and straightened up. “All clear!” he said, walking back to the door. Ben followed him, leaving Anselm sitting on the floor.
The Doctor opened the door, and a strange sight met them. The entire area was covered in ash, there was no sign of the nearby trees, the caravan or Katie’s land rover, and the monolith was now lying on it’s side fifty metres from where it had been. Ben stepped out, looking across the surreal landscape. It seemed to stretch for about a mile in every direction, suddenly stopping and being replaced by green fields and trees. The TARDIS was where it had been, covered in ash but undamaged. The Doctor patted the side, leaving a blue handprint. “Knew you wouldn’t let me down!” he said. He looked across to where a fence had been. “There was a horse in that field…” he said sadly.
“So, now we’ve destroyed half the English landscape,” Ben said “What are we going to do now? You’ve destroyed the probe, we have no way of contacting Kyle or Katie or even the pilot of this ship. Frankly, Doctor, you’ve made a complete mess of things. I knew I should have phoned Torchwood instead!”
The Doctor turned on Ben, a look of anger, and walked up to him, kicking up clouds of dust. He pointed a finger at Ben’s face, eyeballing him, then dropped it, huffing. He went over to where the monolith had been, pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the ground.
“Now what are you doing?” Ben demanded.
“Contacting the pilot” The Doctor snapped. “With the monolith out of the way, I can get a better signal!” he turned the sonic slightly, the tip flashing intermittently…

Caudatus had been surprised to see the self destruct mechanism in the probe set off, but didn’t let it bother him. Whatever had set it off would have been destroyed by now, he was still safe. What did bother him was that a minute later a message had started coming through. It was faint, and a basic sequence of pulses, but it was a signal. Could it be the humans? He considered asking the humans in the hold if they knew who it might be, but decided not to. They wouldn’t be helpful, they’d already tried to attack him, and his low-frequency psychic abilities would be useless at gaining anything other than basic intent, especially from creatures as bloody-minded as these. He had no more probes to send, so any kind of long-range transmission was out of the question, and he didn’t want to risk transporting himself above ground unprotected. He had one option.
He had to take the ship to the surface.
He checked the systems. They seemed to be intact, a few diodes had blown on the port side, but they were easily fixed, and had nothing to do with the teleportation systems. He primed the transmitters, and initiated transference.

Kyle had recovered to find his head resting on Katie’s lap, her watching him with relief in her eyes. He was about to speak, when he felt his stomach tingle. Katie felt it too, and they both grabbed each other. They were being teleported again…

The Doctor was starting to think he was being ignored when he suddenly noticed the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. This, he though, meant one of three things. Either there was a powerful telepathic presence (which he dismissed, as he knew Dalmanites only had limited psychic powers), there were Daleks near (again, dismissed because there was no sign of them otherwise) or that there was a lot of energy in the air, almost as if… Matter transmission! The pilot was bringing his ship to the surface! He leapt to his feet, and rushed back to where Ben was stood. The air shimmered, and exploded in bright light. Standing where the monolith had been was a large, gun-metal grey spaceship. A turret on the side turned and faced The Doctor and Ben, and a speaker crackled into life.
“I am Caudatus of the Dalmanite Institute for Universal Antiquities. This planet is now under the protection of the Dalmanite Empire. You will co-operate, or be destroyed!”