Shining Darkness Read online

  As if in answer, there was another flash of light and a slightly bemused Donna materialised a few metres to the side of the new arrivals. She squinted in the darkness, getting her bearings, before she spotted him.

  ‘Doctor!’

  ‘Hello again!’ he grinned, hands in pockets, still jumping up and down on the segment like a child full of tartrazine. ‘We’re really going to have to stop meeting like this. People’ll begin to talk. Especially with you being a goddess an’ all! “Too good for him!” they’ll be saying.’

  ‘They wouldn’t dare,’ laughed Donna.

  Donna started to head towards him, but the man stepped forward with an outstretched hand to stop her. She pulled an apologetic face at the Doctor.

  ‘Looks like I can’t come out and play just yet,’ she said.

  The man indicated that Donna should stay where she was, and then he and the blonde robot crossed to the Doctor and stood a few feet from where he’d finally stopped his bouncing.

  ‘You’ve set up some sort of interference field, haven’t you?’ asked the little, boxy robot chirpily.

  The Doctor smiled and pulled out the sonic screwdriver, the tip of which was glowing a gentle blue.

  ‘Turn it off and step off the segment.’

  Keeping an eye on Donna, the Doctor jumped down; the man and the robot came and stood right next to the battered artefact.

  ‘The interference field, Doctor,’ the little robot reminded him.

  ‘Oh yes.’ He fiddled with the screwdriver for a moment.

  ‘Good,’ said the robot. ‘Thank you. Goodbye, Doctor. Let’s hope our paths don’t cross for a while. I’d hate to have to be the one to inform you of Donna’s death. One never knows what flowers to send, does one?’

  ‘What?’ called Donna, not understanding what the little robot was on about.

  ‘Donna!’ called the Doctor, stepping back from the segment as he felt the hairs stand up on the backs of his hands.

  ‘What?’ ‘Catch!’

  And with that, he flicked the slider on the side of the sonic and sent it spinning through the air in Donna’s direction. As he did so, he waved cheerily – and jumped back up onto the segment, just as the snowy glow of the transmat enveloped it, the muscle man and the blonde robot.

  And him.

  Reflexively, Donna caught the sonic – in time to see the Doctor and the rest of them vanish.

  ‘Oh,’ said the little blue robot, surprised. ‘I wasn’t expecting that.’

  ‘What happened?’ came a voice – it was a young white kid with a nose-stud, sprinting towards them, and a massive great robot, thundering along behind him.

  ‘The Doctor – he’s gone,’ said Donna, still trying to work it all out.

  ‘Gone?’ said the boy. ‘Where?’

  ‘Garaman’s ship. They’ve beamed him up.’

  Suddenly, there was a clattering noise, and the little robot fell over, its arms and legs flailing about all over the place.

  ‘Garaman?’ said the boy, ignoring it. ‘Garaman Havati?’

  ‘You know him?’ asked Donna, still trying to work out what had just happened. It was all going too fast for her to keep up. But the boy didn’t answer. He touched something on his lapel and then pulled a face.

  ‘Kellique says there’s some sort of interference field here, stopping us from beaming up.’

  Donna held up the sonic screwdriver.

  ‘This?’

  ‘The Doctor’s device? That’ll be it – turn it off, quick, otherwise they’ll be long gone. We need to beam up to our ship, quickly!’

  Confused and dazed – but still a little suspicious – Donna slid the slider on the sonic and the glow faded. The boy touched his lapel again.

  ‘What about that one?’ Donna asked, pointing to the robot that had spoken to the Doctor earlier. ‘It was having some sort of argument with the Doctor. I think it might be one of theirs.’ It still lay motionless, looking just like another piece of the scattered debris that surrounded them.

  ‘Fine,’ the boy said. ‘Come on – oh,’ he added to the robot looming over him. ‘Mother, can you…’ He pointed to the little robot.

  Silently, the giant robot strode over and picked it up in its hand. It looked like a doll. The two of them stood alongside Donna, and the boy tapped his lapel again.

  ‘You know something,’ said Donna with a sigh as she felt the familiar tingle of the transmat. ‘I’m getting bl—’

  ‘What’s he doing here?’ shouted the muscled guy once the disorientation of the transmat journey had passed.

  The Doctor had already jumped off the segment and was peering around the purple room aboard the ship.

  ‘You should let Boonie have the number of your interior designer,’ he said. ‘Very chic!’

  ‘Hold him!’

  Realising that resistance would probably just get him injured – or worse – he let the blonde robot grab his wrists and restrain him.

  ‘Ow!’ he yelped. ‘You don’t know your own strength, you don’t. Problem with your feedback receptors?’

  The man didn’t answer, but caught sight of something bulging in the Doctor’s pocket. Without so much as a by-your-leave, he reached in and plucked it out.

  ‘What’s this, then?’ he asked, holding up a shiny red sphere, the size of a tangerine.

  ‘Oh…’ said the Doctor casually. ‘That. You wouldn’t be interested in that. Trust me. If you just let me have it back, we’ll say no more about—’

  ‘This is not your ship, Doctor,’ Ogmunee interrupted him. ‘Don’t presume to lecture me on what I would and wouldn’t be interested in here.’

  He examined the sphere, turning it over in his hands as he tried to make sense of the blocky black markings on its surface.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Something bad, I imagine,’ replied the Doctor, hoping that Ogmunee wouldn’t try to open it. He’d fail, of course – the Doctor had tried himself until he’d realised what it was. ‘I mean, it’s not likely to be a Christmas bauble is it, looking like that?’

  Ogmunee just raised an eyebrow and tucked the sphere awkwardly into his own pocket.

  ‘I’ll have a look at it later.’ He sighed theatrically. ‘So you’re the Doctor, are you?’ asked the man, looking the Doctor up and down with distaste. ‘Donna’s friend.’

  ‘And you would be…?’

  ‘Ogmunee,’ answered the man. He looked around the room, suddenly realising that something was missing. ‘Where is Donna?’

  ‘Ahh,’ said the Doctor a little sheepishly. ‘That would be me. I lent her the sonic screwdriver. Hope she looks after it. Doesn’t start using it to clean her teeth or anything. It’s got three settings for—’

  The door hissed open and a short, officious man with blond curls trotted in. His mouth dropped open, literally, when he saw the Doctor. He bounded over, looking the Doctor up and down as if were about to eat him – or have him shot.

  ‘This is the Doctor,’ said Ogmunee.

  ‘What’s he doing on board?’

  ‘It didn’t seem fair that Donna should have all the fun,’ the Doctor said, wriggling in the grasp of the robot. ‘So I thought we’d do a bit of a Wife Swap. I must say, you’ve got a much snazzier ship – but don’t expect me to do cleaning. Hate cleaning. Not too bad with the ironing, though.’

  The little man’s eyes narrowed.

  ‘So you’re a friend of that useless little amateur Boonie, are you?’

  ‘Oh, don’t underestimate Boonie,’ the Doctor warned. ‘He might be a bit of an amateur, his ship might be falling apart, but he’s a lot smarter than you give him credit for. And dedicated. And an ounce of dedication’s worth a whole load of competence. What’s your name, anyway?’

  ‘Not that it matters to you, but I’m Garaman – Garaman Havati.’ He looked up at the Doctor superciliously. ‘Ring any bells?’

  The Doctor thought for a moment. Someone called Garaman Havati had been mentioned in the records that Li’ian had showed h
im. He pulled a face and shook his head.

  ‘Not even a tinkle. Should it?’

  It clearly annoyed Garaman that Boonie hadn’t mentioned his name – but then why should he have done? According to Li’ian, they had no idea which of the Cultists were on board the ship. Well, apart from one…

  ‘How’s Mesanth, by the way?’

  Garaman’s eyes widened. And then narrowed as he clearly realised that, although Mesanth was important enough for the Doctor to know about him, he, Garaman, wasn’t.

  ‘You know him?’

  ‘Only by reputation.’

  Garaman’s lips tightened.

  ‘You’ll meet him soon enough.’

  He glanced at Ogmunee and the robot.

  ‘Bring him to the bridge. I want to find out what Boonie and his little friends know.’

  Fearing that his arms were about to be wrenched from their sockets, the Doctor let himself be dragged from the room.

  This was getting ridiculous, thought Donna. It was like she and the Doctor were working different shifts and only got to see each other at tea time. And what was more, Boonie’s ship stank.

  ‘Sorry we lost the Doctor,’ Boonie said. ‘It seems he used that device of his to block the Cultists’ transmat of you but was outside its range himself. At least you’re in safe hands now.’

  ‘Am I?’ Donna had yet to be convinced. She glanced up at the hulking silver machine – apparently called ‘Mother’ – standing behind her. The blonde supermodels on board Garaman’s ship might have been a bit scary, but this thing was terrifying.

  ‘And what d’you mean, “the Cultists’ transmat”? If you’re the good guys, why was the Doctor so keen to get away from you?’

  ‘Think about it this way…’ This was Li’ian, an elderly woman, who seemed slightly out of place amongst the rest of them. ‘If he’d thought we were the bad guys, he wouldn’t have made sure you ended up in our hands, would he?’

  Donna had to concede that that made a certain sense.

  ‘And who are these Cultists? You mean Garaman and Mesanth?’

  Li’ian glanced at Boonie.

  ‘They didn’t tell you about the Cult of Shining Darkness?’ she asked Donna.

  ‘Why would they?’ sneered Boonie. ‘They’re hardly going to advertise the fact that they belong to a Cult.’

  ‘No reason why they shouldn’t,’ said Li’ian. ‘They’re not exactly ashamed of who they are, are they?’

  Donna raised her hands for them to stop.

  ‘Look,’ she said firmly. ‘I’ve just come from one ship where everything was more mysterious than a Miss Marple. I’m not about to walk into a Hercule Poirot. Just tell me what the hell is going on!’

  She glared, first at Boonie and then at Li’ian. She ignored the slight whine from the robot towering over her. It was giving her a very strange look – well, as strange as a face like a jet-engine part could manage.

  ‘Garaman and Mesanth are leaders of what remains of a—’

  Boonie stopped as there was a grinding, mechanical noise from the middle of the room.

  They all turned to see the little robot they’d brought up from Junk, flailing its bendy arms and legs, trying to right itself. In seconds it was sitting up on the rusty floor, the screen on the front of its blue, boxy body flickering.

  ‘Oh my,’ it said in a chipper voice and gave a shudder before turning towards them.

  On the screen, the cartoon image of a little man’s face appeared. The mouth moved in exaggerated astonishment as the short pen-strokes of eyebrows went up.

  ‘Oh my…’

  ‘Mother…’ Boonie said, gesturing at the robot as it swivelled its upper body to look around the room. In seconds – and with surprisingly little of the earthquake-style ground-shaking that Donna had expected from such a hulk – Mother was at the robot’s side, looking down on it. It tipped back so that it could look up: the sight of Mother, towering over it, must have scared the thing half to death, thought Donna.

  ‘Oh…’ it said again.

  ‘Yes, yes,’ snapped Li’ian. ‘We get the point. You’re shocked. Now why were you arguing with the Doctor?’

  ‘What?’ The face on the robot looked genuinely surprised – but then, thought Donna, that damned paperclip that popped up on her computer when she started writing a letter looked genuinely helpful. ‘Who?’ the robot added, twizzling around again. It tried to get up, but Mother’s firm, metal paw came down on its top, pinning it to the floor.

  ‘The Doctor,’ said Donna grimly. ‘The man you were talking to about my death and what flowers you’d send to my funeral.’

  ‘The who, the what?’ The robot flailed its arms around, slapping them ineffectively against Mother’s hand. ‘Oh my, this is all very unexpected.’

  ‘Oh, sunshine,’ said Donna, crouching down so that her eyes were on a level with the robot’s screen. ‘You have no idea what other unexpected things we can come up with if you don’t start telling us the truth.’

  The cartoon face flashed to astonishment.

  ‘Of course I don’t, otherwise they’d hardly be unexpected would they? Although, of course,’ his face went all thoughtful, ‘events could be both unexpected and yet not unknown, since “expected” could be seen to apply to their timing as well as to their nature, couldn’t they?’

  ‘What?’ said Donna.

  ‘I said—’

  ‘I know what you said. Now look, either you start telling us who you’re working for, or… or…’ Donna floundered around, trying to think of something to threaten the robot with. ‘Or I’ll get Mother here to crush you into a ball of scrap so small that you won’t even be able to get a job as a doorstop.’

  There was a sharp intake of breath from just behind her. It was Li’ian. Her hand was halfway to her mouth in an almost comic gesture of concern.

  ‘It’s just a robot,’ said Donna, rolling her eyes. ‘If necessary, we’ll take it apart, circuit by circuit…’

  Donna stopped at the expressions of outright horror on the faces of Boonie and Li’ian. She turned sharply as even Mother joined in with a deep, electronic groan.

  ‘Barbarian,’ whispered Boonie.

  ‘Come again?’ Donna still wasn’t getting it.

  ‘I’m finding it hard,’ said Boonie grimly, ‘to believe that the Doctor spoke so highly of you. How dare you come aboard my ship and start threatening people like that? What kind of a civilisation do you come from?’

  ‘Threatening people?’ echoed Donna. ‘I’m not threatening people, for god’s sake.’ She gestured at the robot, its cartoon face a picture of amazement – eyes and mouth wide open. ‘It’s. A. Robot.’

  Donna sat back on her haunches – how could she make it any clearer? What was wrong with these people?

  ‘Don’t you want to know who it’s working for?’

  ‘What’s your name?’ Boonie asked the robot, ignoring Donna.

  ‘Weiou,’ the robot said.

  ‘Right, Weiou. Donna here says that you threatened the Doctor. Is that true?’

  ‘Me? Threaten the who?’

  The robot looked around, looking genuinely confused.

  ‘Just a mo,’ he said, screwing up his cartoon eyes tightly. His screen face went dark for a fraction of a second.

  ‘What’s he doing?’ asked Donna suspiciously.

  ‘Connecting to the mechanet,’ said Boonie. ‘Resynchronising his clock.’

  Weiou shook his face as though he were clearing away cobwebs.

  ‘Oh my,’ he said, eyes wide. ‘I’ve been hijacked! I’m missing eight minutes and thirty-seven seconds.’

  ‘You’re saying you can’t remember what happened to you?’ Donna wasn’t sure whether it was telling the truth. ‘What’s the mechanet, then? Some sort of internet for robots?’

  Weiou nodded.

  ‘I’m missing eight minutes and thirty-seven seconds,’ it repeated, as if this were the most unbelievable thing ever.

  ‘Weiou,’ said Li’ian gently. ‘
Can you come with me? I can run a couple of diagnostics on you – see if we can work out what happened to you.’

  Donna glowered at the woman: she was treating the robot like some sort of dizzy elderly relative when they should have been taking a screwdriver and a spanner to it. There was little she could do – clearly they were more concerned about not upsetting the thing than trying to get the truth out of it.

  ‘Meanwhile,’ said Boonie, as Mother helped the robot to its feet, ‘we need to get after the Cultists’ ship. Kellique says the Doctor’s modifications to the sensors mean we’re still tracking it.’ He threw a sneering glance at Donna. ‘You’d better come with me,’ he said, turning away and heading for the door. ‘The Doctor clearly sees something in you, although god knows what.’

  And before Donna could respond, Boonie swept from the room.

  ‘Doctor,’ Donna whispered to herself. ‘I hope you’re having as much fun as I am…’

  A chair had been brought into the control room of Garaman’s ship, bolted to the floor, and the Doctor tied to it. The blonde robot stood silently at his side.

  ‘Why did you get yourself beamed aboard our ship, Doctor?’ asked Garaman, hands on hips.

  ‘Oh, you know how it is – change of scenery and all that. Besides, I’ve been hearing so much about you – you and your little cult – that I thought it was about time I met you face to face.’

  At the mention of the word ‘cult’, Garaman’s eyebrows rose and he glanced towards the door that had just hissed open.

  ‘This,’ Garaman said to someone out of sight, ‘is the Doctor, Donna’s friend.’

  ‘Garaman,’ sighed a warbly, fluty voice. ‘I’m seriously beginning to wonder about you. Is there any need to tie him up like this? Have you learned nothing from the way you treated Donna?’

  Into view came a three-legged, three-armed lizard, its head shaking sadly.

  ‘I’m Mesanth,’ the creature said, looking at the Doctor with wide, unblinking eyes. They were slate grey, the pupils diamond-shaped.

  ‘Ahh! The infamous Mesanth!’ said the Doctor, smiling cheerily.

  ‘Infamous?’ Mesanth looked alarmed.

  ‘Well, you know what Oscar Wilde said about being talked about…’