CODE: S2/S7 Episode Seven James Beamish The Restaurant of Death Nick checked his watch again. He had been waiting here for too long. Where had the Doctor got to? Thinking about it, Nick decided, the Doctor was the sort of person who could be relied on to be late. He drained the dregs of his drink, and rummaged in his pocket for some change. Someone tapped him insistently on the shoulder. "Give it a rest, would you?" he sighed. "Me here first!" a gruff voice barked by his ear. Nick looked round to see a dark ugly face peering at him from close range. An Ogron? Yes, it had to be. That rank stench of raw meat on its breath was unmistakeable. "What do you want?" The Ogron's eyes narrowed. The effect was clearly meant to be one to incite fear, but ended up making him look like he was trying to stare at the sun. "My seat!" "Huh?" Nick asked, the puzzlement clear in his voice. "I've been sitting here for ages. Anyway, there're plenty of other seats." "No. Mine." Nick considered this for a moment. What was he doing? He was arguing with an Ogron, a muscle on legs. The seat was hardly that important, anyway. His train of thought was interrupted by the Ogron raising its huge fist towards him. Nick moved aside from the lumbering swing, almost losing his balance, but still managing to stay on the barstool. Before anything else had a chance to happen, a voice called over to them, "Hey, you two, break it up." One of the bouncers, of a race that Nick did not recognise, was walking over. If the Ogron was a muscle on legs, then this bouncer was a muscle on muscles. The ridge of horns down the centre of its forehead also helped give the impression that it would always be the last one standing. It was almost seven-foot tall, blue and scaly. The fists carried the same ridges as the forehead, and gave the impression of built in knuckle-dusters. Despite this, the Ogron managed to answer back. "He steal my seat." "What?" Nick exclaimed incredulously. "You weren't even-" "Leave it there, or you're out!" the bouncer interrupted forcefully. "I no take orders," the Ogron growled menacingly. "Is that so?" the bouncer asked, its voice calm. It flexed a few muscles before continuing. "Well, where I come from we don't take no for an answer. Either drink peacefully, or get out." The Ogron made as if to say something, then stopped. It was almost as though you could hear the neurons firing. The Ogron went over to the other side of the bar and sat down, still glaring at Nick. Arguing with an Ogron and a seven-foot tall bouncer. Possibly not the best plan he had had all day, but hey. Nick tried to avoid the gaze of the Ogron as he surveyed the sparsely populated restaurant bar. It had hardly been the sort of place he would have thought would lead to trouble, but then that was what he had thought about the whole space station. It had looked neat from the outside, no blemishes. He put his head in his hands for a few seconds, thinking back to when they had arrived. *** Nick looked around the concourse. It was not quite as glitzy as outside, but it was hardly as though a riot had been through. "What are we doing here? It doesn't look like it's in immediate danger. A few pick pockets, muggers, maybe, but I don't see any signs of impending doom." The Doctor shook his head. "Always looking for melodrama." He sighed. "I rather think that there are no portents of destruction." Nick nodded understandingly. "Unexpected disaster? So what are we doing, looking for some way to evacuate everyone in time?" "No." "Looking for future dictators, to try to talk them out of it?" "No, that rarely works anyway." The Doctor was inspecting a floor plan on the wall, clearly looking for something. The Doctor did not seem to want to add anything to this statement, as though the floor plan was the most important thing in the whole world. "Then what is it?" Nick asked. To his surprise, the question made the Doctor jump. The Doctor afforded Nick a brief scowl, before regaining his composure and breaking out into a smile. "We're going to a restaurant." The Doctor beamed. "A restaurant?" "Well, it has a bar too." "A restaurant?" "Yes, a restaurant." The Doctor stopped abruptly and pointed at a sign in a window. Nick looked above it, and saw that the words read 'Harry's Restaurant'. The sign in the window had a menu printed on it. "This restaurant cooks some of the finest culinary delights in this part of the galaxy," the Doctor concluded. "It says here that they specialise in fish and chips." Nick laughed. "What's wrong with that?" the Doctor snapped. "Doctor, why are we here? On this station, I mean," he added hastily, realising that the Doctor was about to answer his question in full philosophical depth. "I like it here." Nick was confused by the Doctor's behaviour. Normally he was in the thick of everything, rescuing people when the odds were highly stacked against them. Preventing invasions, crimes, and here he was, coming all this way to go to a restaurant. "But what about building a new time machine, or even your duties as Draconian Ambassador? The Universe..." "Can wait," the Doctor interrupted. He looked down at the menu. "They do some marvellous sandwiches here." *** The inside of the restaurant was quite unlike anything Nick had ever seen. He knew that once upon a time, half a year ago or so, he would have been able to name all of the different styles of architecture that had been mixed together to create the decor. There were stone pillars, hangings, and ornate buttresses. He tapped one of the 'stone' pillars. He supposed that real stone would have been much more difficult to bring into orbit than this plastic. Even so, the place had a good feel. The clash of styles, though obvious, managed to bring out a pleasant effect. Looking around, he began to wonder whether anyone had thought the same. "If this place is so good, why are there so few people here? The bar's completely empty." "Off-season?" "Off-season?" he scoffed incredulously. "It's a restaurant, not a theme park." "Ah, yes," the Doctor agreed. "Then you've asked a very good question." *** "A drink, sir?" The waiter's voice snapped Nick out of his reverie. "Uh, yes, same again, please." The bar was still quiet, with the only newcomer being a woman who had sat down near to him without his noticing. She was wearing a blue dress and knocking back lines of some clear drink. She was from a race that Nick did not recognise, but which looked reasonably similar to humans (except for the extra long eyelashes). She looked back at him and smiled, before being sick on the floor, narrowly missing his shoes. As she rushed out to the toilets, the waiter came back over to Nick, and sighed. "Has the Doctor returned, yet?" Nick asked. The waiter was still staring at the sick, and Nick had to repeat himself before he caught the waiter's attention. "Sorry, sir?" "The Doctor, the man who was with me earlier." "No, sir. Oh, you left this, sir." He held out something and put it on the bar in front of Nick before moving round the bar to clean up the patch of yellow and green on the floor. Nick looked down at the object, and realised what it was. The tracking device! The Doctor must have dropped it from those pockets of his. So the Doctor could not still be following anyone, where was he? The Doctor had probably gone to tackle something way out of his depth. If only Nick had persuaded the Doctor to take him. *** Without warning, the Doctor stood up and walked over to the pair of diners nearest to them. "Hello. I'm the Doctor." They were clearly surprised, but recovered quickly, one of them replying almost immediately. "I'm Jabez, and this is Danneth." "I was wondering if you could tell me why it's so quiet in here?" As if as a reaction to his question an Ossoban, at a corner table, rose and left the restaurant. "Even quieter now." Nick murmured. The man who had identified himself as Jabez answered the Doctor's question; "There have been attacks in this quarter of the station." "A well populated quarter like this?" the Doctor boomed, causing Danneth to flinch. "Yes, but it only seems to be on people that have come from the area around the restaurant. No demands, either." "No one's received any demands?" Nick asked uncomprehendingly. "No, and the attacks have been going on for the past fortnight or so. People have gone missing, and none have returned. As you can see, everyone's starting to avoid here." "I see." The Doctor paused thoughtfully. "Thank you, you've been very helpful." *** "No demands," the Doctor murmured at Nick as they sat back down. "Hmm. I fear that this is deeper than protection rackets." "So who is attacking all of these people?" Nick asked, his face a picture of bewilderment. "If this is the work of a criminal, surely this is drawing attention to them? I would have thought they would avoid staying in one place, since it makes it more likely that they will get caught." "Some criminals are not all there in the mind, you know." "Ah. So the attacker could be psychotic. Great." The Doctor nodded reluctantly. "Well, we'd be fools not to allow for the possibility." "And I thought you just wanted to have dinner." *** Nick had to admit that it had been a good meal. The elk burgers had been the best he had ever tasted. True, he had not had them before, but it was hardly the point. The owners really must have searched the galaxy trying to find the finest dishes, and learning how to make them even better than people could have dreamed. The Ossoban who had left earlier returned, and talked to one of the bar staff, who promptly handed him a coat. "Right. Time to start following. I want you to remain in this area, checking for suspicious activity, I'll follow our friend the Ossoban. Meet you back here in an hour." The Doctor pulled something out of his pocket. "What's that?" "Tracking device. I'm going to use it as an aid to follow that man. I've got the locator here." He pulled a small grey box out of his coat pocket. The top was filled with a green grid, with a dot at the centre. "I see. Doctor..." "Yes?" "Why are we fighting for a restaurant?" "Not every battle I fight has the whole Universe hanging on a thread. What's the point of fighting for good and righteousness if you can't get on with your life afterwards? After all, shouldn't things get better?" "All I'm saying is..." "Sometimes it's not just planets that need saving, it's hopes and dreams." *** Nick supposed that there were lives at stake here, rather than this seeming quite as frivolous as the Doctor had originally implied. The station seemed a lot darker than it had earlier, probably to simulate night time, although it could just have been his imagination. There seemed to be very few people in the area, but then with its recent reputation, Nick decided that made sense. After all, a few people had disappeared without anyone seeing them. A nasty thought struck Nick; what if no one saw him disappear? Suppose he was attacked, rather than the people he was trying to help? Would Danneth or Jabez come running to the sound of a startled cry? Would anyone? Would he even get a chance to cry out? It was a little late for that, he decided, having already come a long way into the depths of the station. A reassuring thought hit him, that if he were going to be attacked, surely it would have happened by now? *** Nick found himself on the ground with a splitting headache. He could already feel a bump forming on his head, as well as a little blood. He looked around him and cursed. That must have been the universe's reminder that you should not get cocky. Still dazed, he tried to struggle to his feet, to see if his assailant was still nearby. The area was empty of people. "Damn." He stumbled back to the restaurant, trying to stop the world from throbbing all around him. If only the Doctor had had two of those handsets for the tracking device, he could tail the Ossoban too. This area was supposed to be under investigation for attacks, but Nick realised that there were no police anywhere. Funny way of investigating. Perhaps they were all too afraid to come here too. *** Nick rubbed his head again. The painkillers were taking very little effect, and barely bringing his headache down to something more manageable. They clearly were meant for a species with a better toleration for pain. He checked his watch again. The Doctor was only ten minutes late, which had to be an occupational hazard for someone who did as much as he did. But the Doctor did not have the tracker. Perhaps the Doctor had not realised he had left the tracker until the Ossoban he was following had gone somewhere interesting? Nick could follow now... No, he should wait for the Doctor. He should at least give the Doctor another five minutes. "Would you like a drink, sir?" the new barman, who had introduced himself as Plerr, asked Nick for the second time. The waiter who had served the Doctor and Nick earlier had removed the last traces of sick some time before, and had gone off to clean other parts of the restaurant. Plerr was polishing a glass. Did barmen really do that, Nick wondered? It must be just for show, in this ultra high technology environment. After all, the glasses were cleaned to a polish by putting them in a machine. He supposed that it was quiet, so barmen would have to find something to do. "No, thanks, I've got to go in a minute." "Very well, sir." The Doctor was almost twenty minutes late. What was he doing? The dot on the tracker had not moved in some time, so surely the Doctor would have been able to get a position and come back. Unless the Doctor had been attacked... It was possible, after all. Nick considered his options for a moment. He was sure that Station security would be more than willing to look for a Galactic Federation Ambassador, but there was no proof that the Doctor was even missing yet. Would Station security even see him as missing if he had been gone for only an hour? Probably not, so there was no use going to them yet. Nick had a tracker, and a good idea that the Doctor would have continued following the Ossoban. "Listen." Nick leaned towards Plerr. "If the Doctor does show up, could you tell him to meet me here tomorrow at lunch?" "Certainly, sir," the waiter replied. There was no time to wait for the Doctor, Nick decided. He would have to go find the Ossoban himself, even with this head splitting headache. As he left the bar, he did not notice the Ogron stand up and lumber along some distance behind. *** For an orbital space station with thousands of people aboard, it was still surprisingly deserted, Nick decided. Perhaps there was not much of a night culture here. The scarcity of people meant that he felt reasonably happy that he was not being followed, but also that there was no one to witness if he was dragged away. According to the tracker, the Ossoban should be about a hundred yards away, just around the corner. Just around the corner? This was not a residential district. Nick was walking along near the end of a shop front, with an array of cut price clothes shops all along. The garishly adorned mannequins stared back out of the shop windows at him, their varied shapes reminding him of how many different types of aliens lived aboard this station. Thousands of other people, living their lives completely oblivious to whatever danger was here. No, they were not oblivious. They were aware of the problem, and were avoiding the area. There was no one around. Nick tiptoed carefully up to the corner, looking down at the locator as he did so. He was a matter of yards from the trace. He looked up and slowly moved his head so that he could see round the corner, and saw... No one. There was no one there. Nick looked up and down the corridor, but there was not a living soul in sight. He looked into the shop windows, but all he could see was a selection of shop mannequins staring out impassively. Where was the Ossoban he had been following? Clearly this part of the station had not been cleaned in a while, with empty bags and boxes lying around on the edges of the corridor. He looked down at the tracker again, trying to get a more precise reading. It was giving a trace showing that he should be... The trace led him to a blank wall. Damn. There must be a way to get to it from the other side, he decided, and so tried to find it. He tried getting to the trace from all directions, but there was just a blank wall. It was definitely on this level, but there was no room there. No shop, no lift, nothing. He hit a panel in frustration, and watched it fall to the floor. Of course! Panelling had been prised away to get into some part of the ventilation system. He peered into the darkness. "Hello? Anyone there?" He took a step nearer. He could hear someone letting out ragged breaths in the corner opposite. Or was it simply the sound of the fans whirring, keeping the air moving? "Hello?" He tried again, putting his head and shoulders fully through the hole. "Make a move and you're dead," a female voice by his ear whispered. "I'm not going to hurt you." Nick tried. It sounded silly when he said it, though it always worked for the Doctor. His captor made a small laughing noise but made no other move. Sizing him up, he supposed. "What are you doing?" "Just looking for someone?" Nick tried. "There's no one here." "Ah. " He nodded understandingly. "My mistake." "Why are you really here?" The female voice was more forceful than before. "I really was just looking for someone." "How did you know which panel to open, then?" Nick shrugged. "Blind luck?" "I think you'd better come inside." As he crawled inside, he felt the source of the trace crush under his foot. He supposed it must have fallen out of the Ossoban's pocket, when he clambered inside. Oh well. At least he knew which way the Ossoban had been heading. "I'll tell you what we'll do, we'll sit you down here, and I'll be back in a moment." The girl, who he recognised as the one who had been sick in the restaurant, had pushed and shoved him down the ventilation shaft until it had opened out into some sort of disused storage area. It was dark, dank, and rusty. A perfect place to keep prisoners. Perfect in a film. Nick's captor, however, did not fit the part so well. She seemed almost as worried as Nick. Presumably she did not hold people at gunpoint very often. There was something else missing. He was on a chair, but he was a prisoner, and there were... "No handcuffs?" Nick asked. "Do I look like the sort of person to have handcuffs on me?" she snapped, before blushing as she clearly thought about the sentence. Blushing? Something did not add up here. She then stomped out of another exit. Wherever it was, she was unlikely to be gone long. Was this where the missing people were all going? If so, where were the bodies? A nasty thought hit Nick that if these people had the right technology, there would be no need for bodies. He heard a noise from the ventilation shaft, but put it down to the fans changing their rate of spin. After all, he had heard quite a few noises whilst crawling. The girl had put a padlock over the ventilation duct cover, and it did not yield to his efforts. He tapped on the walls. They seemed quite thin; he could probably get through with a few shoulder barges. Before he could try this out, Nick heard someone behind him. He turned slowly round, and saw that the girl had brought in the Ossoban. "Ah, so glad to see you again." The Ossoban greeted Nick with a wry smile. "May I ask why you were following me?" Nick decided to play the innocent, after all, the Ossoban may not have seen him before; it could be a bluff. "Sorry?" "An assumption. I saw you in the restaurant, I see you here now," the Ossoban said quietly. "Well, you've got me there." He was slightly further from the wall. It had looked weakest at a point slightly off the centre. If he could aim for that, he might be able to break through. Use the chair, perhaps. Where would that lead him? Well, it was the best plan he had at the moment. "Flemboosso, I'm not sure-" the girl began, a worried look across her face. "I am sure that our dear friend would not want to be encumbered with our names," the Ossoban interrupted sternly, before turning back to Nick. "You are of a race I do not recognise. Have you been hired by the station security?" "I don't suppose you would recognise my race. No, I'm not with security; I'm looking for someone." "There is no one but us here," the Ossoban replied curtly. "Thank you." Perhaps, Nick decided, he would not need to smash through that wall after all. “However, ” Flemboosso began slowly. “I do not want anyone knowing that we are here.” Back to the wall plan, Nick decided. "No one likes people being nosy." The Ossoban sneered. The girl had a terrified look on her face. "Flemboosso? What are you-" "I shall deal with this." "It isn't that important!" The girl was not so certain. "Listen to her, it's not that important, whatever it is." Perhaps the chair could knock the gun aside? Would that take up too much time? What Nick really needed was a distraction. "We cannot simply allow people to come and go. We would be imprisoned for life!" the Ossoban shouted with vehemence. "He might not tell, you-" "I have managed to keep this secret without killing anyone so far, but I am afraid that he must not leave," Flemboosso retorted angrily. Without killing anyone? So, this was definitely something else. That would explain why the girl was almost in tears about all of this. "But you've managed to get this far, how-" "How far have we got?" The Ossoban's eyes were alight with accusation. "How much do you know?" Nick realised he had been agreeing a little too much. "I'm just agreeing for my sake." If he kept up the pretence of incompetence he was trying to project, he might be able to overpower Flemboosso, and then escape. "Do you have no dignity?" Nick thought better of mentioning that this Ossoban was skulking around ventilation ducts, and clearly in some clandestine business. Instead Nick bowed his head to allow his eyes to flicker back to the chair. In his reckoning, he could reach it and swing it at the wall in one movement. The Ossoban's gun arm was lowered. Before Nick had a chance to do anything, there was a massive crash form behind him as the ventilation grille fell down. The others' attention was focussed on that, and Nick took his chance. The chair slammed onto the metal, but apart from a small dent, seemed to do nothing. The girl and the Ossoban did not seem to have noticed, so Nick looked round to see what had made the well timed, but ultimately wasted, distraction. "You insulted me." "You?" The Ogron stood there as real as ever. Flemboosso's trigger finger twitched once, then twice. Nick was not sure as to whether the Ossoban really expected the gun to honestly stop an Ogron, and at the time put it down to sheer panic. It merely served to rile the already annoyed Ogron. Nick was surprised to see the Ossoban still breathing after the Ogron had finished pounding him. He was either unconscious, or attempting with reasonable success to appear unconscious. The girl was petrified; Nick decided that she must be well beyond screaming. He had not quite managed to sneak past the Ogron in the few seconds it had taken to incapacitate Flemboosso. Nick looked across at the Ogron, who clearly was still in a very bad mood, and down at the chair he still held in his hand... No. The chair had barely dented the wall, and Nick knew who he would put the bet on if the Ogron went up against a wall. "Now even more annoyed." The Ogron roared at Nick, trickles of blood barely visible through his tunic from where the shots had impacted. "I'm sure we can talk about this." Nick thought desperately - how could he get out of this situation? What would the Doctor do? "After all, you can't be as stupid as you look." This last comment sent the Ogron into a rage, and he charged at Nick... ...who leapt deftly out of the way, allowing the huge bulk of the Ogron to slam into the wall at full speed. The wall gave way into a brightly-lit toilet block. Nick climbed over the dazed Ogron, almost standing on the Ogron's face as he did so. How well had the people in these toilets been able to hear what had been going on? Nick decided that this was a question he was happy not to answer, and broke into a run. The stunned Ogron got up slowly, before smashing a few cubicles apart. Nick ran out of the toilets and straight into a security guard. "I think you'd better call for backup!" he exclaimed breathlessly. "Easy does it," the guard berated him, whilst putting his arms on Nick's shoulders in an effort to calm him down. "Now tell me why, and I'll call back to the-" "You need backup now!" "Calm down, sir. Now, about this disturbance-" It was at this moment that the Ogron smashed down the toilet door, a look of murderous rage on its face. Nick shook the officer's arms off him and ran off, pushing the security guard out of the Ogron's path at the same time. "Headquarters, we need some backup in level six blue." *** The security forces quickly detained Nick and the Ogron; after all, it is not that hard to find out where the angry Ogron had been. They also brought Flemboosso and his still petrified companion into the security office, along with a hoard of drugs. The security forces questioned Nick, but no evidence seemed to connect him to the damage to the station, nor to the drugs. The security forces seemed somewhat suspicious on hearing that the Doctor had disappeared without a trace, but did not seem to hold this against Nick. In fact, it almost seemed to speed his release, with him being let out the next day. *** The Qux security forces seemed to have taken up Nick's cause in searching for the Doctor, and there were noticeably more police walking around the area. Perhaps they had finally taken the hint that these disappearances would not go away on their own. It was whilst taking all this in that Nick noticed a jacket on the ground, covered in debris. He walked over to it, allowing his eyes to sweep across the jacket, seeing a large rip, and a few splatters of blood. It was Jabez's jacket, one of the diners from the restaurant. The blood was still fresh. Another one. *** "No, sir. He has not returned." Nick was sitting at the restaurant bar, waiting. He had shown the Qux security forces where the coat was, and they had cleared it up quickly. A few tests, and it was taken away, before anyone could see it. After all, there was no need to incite panic and alarm, they informed him. It was evening already, but no one else had come into the restaurant, leaving just him and Danneth, the man who had been there with Jabez the night before. The man had been nursing his current drink since Nick had returned to the bar. "He said he'd meet me here yesterday!" "I do not know where he is." A simple statement of fact from the barman. It looked like Nick was back to square one. No, it was worse than that, he decided, since he did not even have the Doctor. "This is going to be a long day." Nick was annoyed. Annoyed at his impotence. The Doctor had gone missing, and he had no idea how to find him. He could be in great danger, after all, none of the other missing people had returned, had they? Perhaps someone knew what was going on, and had noticed the Doctor looking into it... Danneth, sitting there all alone. Why did he look so suspicious? He was still coming to a restaurant that he knew was in a dangerous area? If Danneth knew the space station, he could have sneaked out and caught the Doctor by surprise, and got back in time to be sitting there when Nick got back that first time. Suddenly, it all made sense. That was why Danneth had flinched when the Doctor had asked him about the attacks. That was why he looked shifty; he was taking all of these people! Hiding them somewhere. Nick looked over to where Danneth was sitting, clad all in black. The man looked back with cold staring eyes, and Nick could contain himself no longer. "It's you!" he cried as he leapt at Danneth. This caught Danneth totally off guard, and he was flung to the floor by the onslaught. "Please sirs, we do not allow fighting in here!" the barman, Plerr, cried out desperately. He looked side to side, but there was no sign of the bouncer. Danneth was pinned down on the floor, looking up at Nick with a face that was a picture of confusion. "What's me?" "You took them!" "No I didn't!" Danneth shouted, and threw Nick off him, grabbing his arms in one deft movement and pinning them behind his back. Nick grimaced, and let out a short cry. "But, it all makes sense!" "What? How?" "You were here before; you saw who was here. You came back and..." "He didn't take Jabez!" shouted Plerr, clearly trying to reason with Nick. Nick froze. He had not said anything about Jabez's disappearance. "How did you know Jabez was missing?" Danneth relaxed his grip on Nick slightly at this news. "Jabez is missing?" He turned to look at the barman. "I..." "It's you." Nick breathed. "You did it." "No, it isn't like that." Danneth completely let go of Nick now, and stared unbelievingly at Plerr. "Plerr? You can't be serious. You've been causing all this?" "It wasn't me, Danneth." Plerr pleaded. "I..." "What was it, then?" bellowed Danneth in an uncharacteristically loud voice. "I... I couldn't let the poor thing die." Plerr stammered desperately. Nick went cold. In his mind he had thought a lot of things, but to have it confirmed now was hardly a comfort. "You’re feeding them to something?" "He has to eat to survive!" How could the man be saying this? "It's killing people!" Nick retorted forcefully. "What about other animals? Does it have to eat people?" "I'm teaching him. He'll stop eating people eventually." Plerr whined. "Eventually?" Nick spat. "It's already killed a dozen people! How many more? How many more people will be taken before it learns not to eat people?" "It isn't like that." "No?" asked Nick incredulously. "He's a living, intelligent creature," Plerr replied, the conviction evident in his voice. "We were refugees from a Martian assault, and I found him aboard our shuttle. When we decided to set up our restaurant, I smuggled him on this station. He hardly ate anything for three whole years, and I thought he was going to perish. But then, it perked up, and ate a ventilation duct engineer. It was a loss for him, but my beautiful Horatio began getting better." Nick shivered, realising that whatever he had been prepared for; he had not been prepared for this man to be actually insane. Perhaps Plerr had always been like this; perhaps the bombing of his home world had started it. Calling it Horatio? What was going through that man's head? "Do you know where the monster is hiding?" Danneth asked quietly, still reeling from these revelations. Plerr's face fell, clearly realising their intent. "N-no." Nick and Danneth both stared at him for a few moments. "Yes." Plerr replied meekly. "He's in the abandoned shop next door." "Why didn't the police find him? They've been searching all over the place." Nick asked in disbelief. If they had searched the area, surely they would have tried the only abandoned shop on the parade; with the suspicious looking half-finished graffiti? But then, the station security did seem to operate in an unorthodox way, Nick decided. "They did look, but... he's... hidden behind a fake wall," Plerr told them resignedly. "I'm getting station security," Danneth said, avoiding Plerr's gaze. "Let me show you first, you'll understand." "No, I'm with Danneth; we're getting security," Nick said, a look of disgust on his face. "This way." Plerr had pulled out a gun. "I'm sorry. I can't let you leave. This way." He motioned with the weapon towards the back of the restaurant. "Is everyone else in on this?" "No, it's just me. They don't know about any of this. Pull that panel to one side, right there." Plerr indicated with the barrel of the gun. Nick decided that there was only a small chance that he would be able to get the gun, whereas there was a large risk of getting shot, so did as he was told. Danneth opened the panel and stepped through. "This leads into next door." "I'm sure you make good use of the space." "Oh, I do. Horatio's a very intelligent creature, and so he's very humane." The thin wall space opened out into a room about ten metres square. In one corner, they could just make out a large shape pulling a leg from a still struggling body. As their eyes grew more accustomed to the light, they could see that it was a little taller than a man, but with rippling muscles filling its four arms out to the size of tree trunks. It turned its head as they approached. The actions it continued to carry out seemed anything but humane. "Horatio! What are you doing?" Plerr screeched at the creature. "Eating." "But... why don't you kill him first? What you're doing is cruel!" Nick looked at the smiling creature, then turned back to Plerr. The man clearly had no idea what had been going on, so Nick decided he needed to make the man accept the facts. "Can't you see, it's doing it for fun!" "No, I need food," the creature whined, and grabbed Danneth off his feet. He screamed, but to no avail. The creature merely smiled at the sounds, and began twisting him into different shapes. "Don't do that!" Plerr cried above the terrible screams. The creature seemed fascinated by the different shapes that Danneth could be contorted into. "Why?" "It's horrible! I gave you them because you need them for food, so at least kill them quickly." Nick could not believe that Plerr had still not understood. As they were speaking, this creature was torturing someone. "You said it didn't take any people for three years, why would it suddenly need so many? Can't you see? It's evil; it wants them to suffer; it's not eating to survive, it's torturing people!" he exclaimed exasperatedly. "But..." "Plerr." The hunched creature began over the screams of the contorted Danneth. "I need these people to live. Is it not my right to survive? I am an intelligent creature, am I not?" The confusion on Plerr's face was clearly visible. "But... you're causing them great pain..." "Do not worry, I shall not hurt you," the creature called over softly, making as if to put his arm on Plerr's shoulder consolingly. Instead of a gentle pat Plerr was clearly expecting, the arm met Plerr's neck and snapped it before he could react. "There, that didn't hurt." Its smile twisted further into a picture of evil. It sent a shudder down Nick's spine. Nick now knew how fast it could react, and did not much rate his chances for reaching the way back out of here. He looked across at the still struggling figure on the floor, it was certainly not the Doctor, but he could not quite make out who it was in the dark. A gag had been placed over their mouths, and so the cries were muffled. As for the still suspended Danneth, however, he was still giving out terrible shrieks of pain. The creature had made gashes across his chest and blood was gushing onto the floor. The screams were getting weaker already, but Nick had no idea how to help him. Wait; Plerr's body was just a few feet away, still holding the gun. If he could just get to that, perhaps he would be able to stop this creature. It shot him a look, and spoke. "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you." It looked back at Danneth and took a few bites out of his chest. Nick winced, but knew that this would be his only chance. He took it and dived for the gun. He picked it up effortlessly, but then skidded and almost fell on the growing pool of blood, only just managing to keep his balance. This had attracted the attention of the creature, which snarled and moved cautiously towards him. Nick saw it poised, ready to spring even as he aimed the gun. "You wouldn't fire at me, would you?" the creature asked in a deep growl, discarding the limp form of Danneth. "Wouldn't I?" Nick growled, and fired. The aim was good, and the shot hit the creature squarely in the chest. Unfortunately, the gun designers had clearly had a much less well armoured victim in mind when they had designed it, as it had no discernable effect whatsoever. "Damn." Nick managed in a small voice. The creature looked down, looked up, and then smiled. "Someone's in for a treat," it snarled, and leapt for him. The next few seconds seemed like a blur, as Nick saw the creature fly through the air at him in slow motion. Just before Nick was met by wrenching arms, a myriad of strange images superimposed themselves on his vision. There was a green and purple haze all around, which was clearly affecting the creature too, as it fell on top of him rather than slicing him to pieces. The creature's weight still knocked the wind out of Nick, though he knew that this was much better than the alternative. The haze receded, and he felt the creature sliding off him. Was it going to attack again? No, it was limp. Nick looked over it to see that someone was dragging it. He recognised the person as a Qux, dressed in the uniform of station security. "Are you hurt?" the Qux asked, being helped by another security officer to drag the creature to the floor. Nick shook his head, but looked around the room at the hunched dark forms around the edges. "No, but I think you're too late for most of them." "Uh, well." The security officer looked uncomfortable for a second, before continuing. "We had an idea that you may have been part of the disturbance; after all, you have been in trouble a lot considering what a small amount of time you've been here. We had a bug put on you." "Oh." Nick considered this for a moment, remembering the bug he had put on Flemboosso. It was hardly as though he could complain, and reflected this with his expression. The officer seemed relieved. "Well, I suppose it helped. What was that... green haze?" "We used our telepathic abilities to prevent this-" he indicated the corpse of the creature. "-thing from harming you. We are now removing it for disposal." "Is it dead?" "Yes. It was a threat to lives on the station, and so we took care of it." "It killed all of those people." "No danger of it doing that again," the Qux stated. "No." Nick looked around. "The Doctor!" Nick rushed over to the pile of bodily remains, looking for some part that he could identify. No part of the Doctor was anywhere to be seen. Surely the creature had not eaten all of him? It looked as though it had left all the other heads, from what Nick could make out. Where was the Doctor, then? "If you could just answer a few questions, we'll let you go. We realise that this must be very stressful, so this won't take long." The tone of the officer's voice seemed to say otherwise, clearly sceptical that Nick could get involved in police business so much within these few days without actually being guilty of anything. Nick reckoned that they probably wanted him off the station as soon as possible, and would soon say so. "Let's get over with it, then." *** A few hours later, Nick moved through the throng of people moving around the station, and Nick stepped back into the restaurant. The place was empty except for one person, sitting at the bar, looking confused. "Doctor!" Nick cried out, almost leaping with joy. "Nick. I thought you might come back here." "You've missed a hell of a lot while you've been away!" Nick exclaimed enthusiastically. "Where've you been?" "I..." the Doctor tailed off into silence. "That's rather difficult to explain." Nick looked at the Doctor, seeing the eyes distant. He snapped back into reality. "I have a bad feeling about this place. All this commotion - something has the locals panicked," the Doctor said. "Tell me about it!" Nick thought of all the events that the Doctor had missed. "Wait 'till I tell you what's been happening to me!" The Doctor seemed preoccupied and hardly responded to Nick's voice. "I think we should leave now," the Doctor said quietly. As they made their way to the docking bays, Nick was conscious of the Doctor periodically looking over his shoulder at the Qux security guards, with an odd expression on his face. Next Episode: Severed Dreams CAST Brian Blessed as The Doctor Nick Pereira as Nick Tim Sykes as the Ogron Jamie Armstrong as the Bouncer Jenny Hodgson as the Girl Ben Eaton as the Waiter Steve Pemberton as Jabez Reece Shearsmith as Danneth Mark Gatiss as Plerr Anthony Stewart Head as Flemboosso Arnold Schwarzenegger as Horatio | Season One Index | Season Two Index |