Phantom Ch 13C

"Alanna, I think the time has come to take you up on your generous offer," the Doctor said, as he headed to the control room, with his IIR in hand.

My offer?

"You've been itching to go into the Captain's body and kill whatever ghoul has nested in there. Well, go to it."

But will you let me back into your body when I'm done?

"Well... yes."

Doctor, do you promise?

The Doctor sighed. "I promise."

*********

When the Doctor entered the bridge, he found it... empty. Everyone was gone.

Check the Captain's Ready Room.

The Doctor, gun in hand, stepped in.

He found Captain Esteban there, smiling up at him. "Ah, Doctor. I was wondering when you would be showing up. Please, come in, have a seat."

The Doctor looked around the room to make sure there was no one else there, then took a seat on the other side of the Captain's desk. "Your crew is dead or taken over, Captain."

"Not

my

crew, Doctor," said the Captain, grinning from the corner of his eye.

"Who are you?" said the Doctor, holding up his Infinite Infinity Repeater.

"Don't you know? I've already given you so many clues."

"You're the Penguin."

Captain Esteban laughed. "Doctor, you disappoint me. He told me you were much smarter than that."

"You've spoken to the Penguin?"

"Yes. He tried to recruit me on his little side quest to destroy the world," said Esteban, rolling his eyes. "As if loyal God-fearing Laquintans should be subject to the same fate as Infidels. Tell me, where's the justice in that?"

"You... you're the one who was in the body of the Iraqi Health Minister," said the Doctor. "You're the one who raised the dead in the valley of Moktar by filling it all with sewage."

"Finally, a glimmer of recognition," said Samaraa, in the body of Captain Esteban.

"So what in the world are you doing on this planet?" the Doctor asked.

"I received a summons," said Samaraa.

"From whom?"

"From Laquinta himself."

"What?" said the Doctor.

"The Great God of Blood touched my mind. He told me he was trapped, inside this pyramid, and that I should come and free him."

"You believe... you believe your God is trapped inside of there? How can a true God be trapped anywhere?"

"It is not for lowly believers to question," Samaraa said sternly. "I was told to come here, and bring a starship."

"What does your God need with a starship?" the Doctor asked.

"He will use it to bring his essence to Earth, to bring about the long foretold Day of Blood, when the blood of unbelievers will flow in every street in the land," said Samaraa.

"You're mad," said the Doctor. "Don't you see that this is some kind of alien creature? Don't you see that you're being manipulated?"

"It is the God of Blood's will," said Samaraa, acting as if she didn't hear his words. "He needed four, he said. Four special servants. And now, he has just acquired his fourth."

"He has?"

Samaraa smiled. "Crewman Katherine Voight. She serves the Great God of Blood now. In a short time the four, working together under the Great God's guidance, will figure out the combination to the restraints which bind him and free him from his unearthly shackles."

"Listen to me! This is not the God of Blood. It's an alien creature who will destroy the Earth!" said the Doctor.

"I was so glad when you came aboard," said Samaraa. "So glad to have you every step of the way. You will be a witness, Doctor, a Witness to the first of many Days of Blood."

"I think it's time to rid the world of you," said the Doctor, raising his IIR.

"Is it?" Suddenly the IIR was yanked from his hand, and ended up in Samaraa's. "You didn't know I could do that, did you? I'll bet there's a lot you didn't know. I, on the other hand, am much better informed about you, Doctor. Alanna, how are you doing?"

"You know I'm here?" Alanna said, using the Doctor's voice.

"I can sense you. I always did," said Samaraa. "You, on the other hand, were totally ignorant of me, even when I was inches away." Samaraa hefted the IIR. "It's so tempting. To rid myself of both of you, in one shot." She paused, considering. Then she shook her head. "No." She pressed a holobutton. "Bring her."

Two armed men came into the Ready Room, half-dragging Sophie Astor.

"Sophie! So good to see you," said Samaraa. "Did you know, your Captain felt so terrible about deceiving and mocking you?"

"Who am I speaking to?" Sophie asked.

"My name is Samaraa. I am in control of your Captain's feeble body," she said.

"You... you're a ghost? So the Doctor was telling the truth?"

Samaraa laughed. "You look such the fool, Sophie! If only you could have heard the whines and the mewling of your Captain! I dominated his simple mind quite easily, but his cries of anguish amused me greatly." She looked up, and raised her voice. "Great One, we are ready."

Suddenly...

something

... appeared in the Ready Room. It was like a miniature whirlwind. It stood in front of Sophie.

"She is yours, Master," said Samaraa.

Blue lightning bolts flew out of the whirlwind. They touched Sophie's head, breasts, and groin. Sophie gasped and shuddered like a puppet as the bolts manipulated her. The breeze from the whirlwind caused her hair to ripple strongly.

"Fight it, Sophie!" the Doctor shouted.

But Sophie's face was blank as more bolts sank into her body. Finally, it was done, and the whirlwind vanished.

"I... understand," said Sophie.

"I knew you would," Samaraa smiled. "Doctor, as I said, you will be the witness to His Greatness returning to the Promised Land. The path of pain and death will be recorded in your retinas." Samaraa handed Sophie the Doctor's IIR. "Sophie, I have an important job for you. Take the Doctor here to confinement. Just remember that there's a ghost inside of him. If the ghost starts to come out of him, or makes any hostile move, shoot him."

Sophie nodded. She and the other two men led the Doctor out of the Captain's quarters. The last thing they heard was, "And thanks for the girl balls!"

********

The Doctor was in a cell. The force field wasn't up, but Sophie and two men stood there with weapons raised. She had informed him in no uncertain terms that if he took one step out of the cell, he would be shot.

"Fight it, Sophie," said the Doctor.

Sophie stared at him blankly.

"Don't let it control you. Fight for control of your mind."

I don't think it's going to work, Doctor.

"Come on, Sophie, I know you're in there!" said the Doctor. He frowned, and bit his lip. "Sophie?"

She looked at him expectantly.

"If you help us, I'll give you a girl ball. Brunette. Brunette is your favorite flavor, Sophie." The Doctor gave a toothy smile as he spoke in a low, seductive tone.

Doctor, do you really expect-

Sophie frowned, and in rapid succession elbowed the man on her left and right in the face. They went down even as Sophie grabbed one of their compression pistols, reset it to stun, and shot them both.

The Doctor ran out of the cell. Sophie handed him his IIR. "What happened?"

"I felt the entity in my mind," said Sophie. "It was trying to restructure my mind to suit itself. It was looking for a certain set of responses to stimuli," said Sophie, checking the power lever on her compression pistol. "Once my mind provided the set of responses it was looking for, it stopped trying to change me."

"Your mind is so disciplined that you were able to fool the creature?"

"Doctor, I am a Passive Observer. Discipline is our second nature."

"I guess your first nature is sweetness and light," said the Doctor.

Sophie blushed! She fought hard to keep a smile off her face as she looked up at him. "Doctor, what do we do now?"

The Doctor ticked off the plan on his fingers. "Step 1, get Nova Bomb. Step 2, go to the pyramid, and set it to detonate."

"I hope there's a step three, Doctor," said Sophie, putting a hand on his.

Was she flirting with him?

Doctor, focus!

"Step three, get to the

Hudson Bay

before it detonates, and get off this planet," said the Doctor.

"Doctor, I told you I looked at the engines briefly. They

seem

to be functional. But that is far from guaranteeing they will actually work."

"We'll just have to do our best," said the Doctor.

"And then there is the matter of getting the Nova Bomb."

"Can you get access to it?"

Sophie nodded. "I can get into the special ordnance locker. But as I told you, I don't have the codes for the Nova Bomb. Only the Captain has it, and I don't think he's going to help us."

"Somehow I don't think he will either." The Doctor scratched his head. "All right, we'll figure it out as we go."

"We'll figure it out as we go? Doctor, there's a whole crew full of zombies between us and our goal, we need a bomb we can't activate and ship that may not fly. I'm not used to executing such flimsy plans," said Sophie.

"You're right," said the Doctor. "My plan isn't well thought out. There are many unknowns and it's likely to be very hazardous." He tipped his hat and stared at her. "So what's your plan?"

Sophie rolled her eyes. "This is an impossible situation. I have no plan!"

"Well then, let's get started."

**********

The crew might have been turned into zombies more or less under the control of the lifeform in the pyramid, but they didn't seem to be

organized

. The Doctor shot one in the corridor, and Sophie shot two more two levels down.

"They do not seem to be behaving logically," said Sophie. "If they rushed us as a group, they would be more effective."

"Sophie, not everyone is a logical thinker like you. Lifeforms are motivated by all kinds of passions and irrational sentiments. Look at Samaraa. She's doing this because she thinks she's freeing an imprisoned God. Trying to chide an alien lifeform with radically different thought processes for not behaving rationally is itself irrational," said the Doctor.

Sophie frowned, then nodded. "That was a very logical statement, Doctor."

"Thank you."

"Have you ever given any thought to becoming a Passive Observer?"

"No, I prefer being the more active kind," said the Doctor, as he shot another zombie crewmember who came around the corner.

They eventually reached the special weapons locker. Sophie keyed in the combination, and opened it. Sophie removed a sphere perhaps 18 inches long and six inches wide.

"That's it?" said the Doctor. "I always imagined Nova Bombs being... bigger."

"They get bigger when they explode, Doctor," said Sophie.

"Was that a joke, Sophie?"

Stop flirting with her!

They made their way to the airlock and got suited up. They were both relieved when they cycled out of the airlock and found no one waiting for them. They decided to take one of the land rovers to the pyramid; the pyramid was only a few hundred feet away, but they would need the rover when they headed to the

Hudson Bay

, afterwards.

"Once we get to the control room, I will try to circumvent the nova bomb's security systems and tap into its activation program," said the Doctor.

"I hope you don't inadvertently detonate the bomb prematurely," said Sophie.

"I hope so too," said the Doctor.

Doctor, do you really know how to circumvent the security system on a Nova Bomb?

How difficult can it be?

It could be impossible.

Impossible is a word used by small children who go hungry because they cannot figure out how to open a box of cake.

When they got to the pyramid, they stepped into the pressurized area and took off their helmets. "See? Everything is going according to plan," said the Doctor.

"Yes," said Sophie. "All you have to do is figure out how to activate the bomb, set a delay, get us to the

Hudson Bay,

and launch the ship before the bomb goes off."

"Yes, we're almost done," said the Doctor.

They went to the control room.

They were not alone.

There was someone in each of the four alcoves. In one was Lieutenant Walter Nicholson. He had a blank expression on his face and a vortex in his chest. In the second was Ensign Marla Shasta, with the same expression, and same vortex. In the third and fourth were Crewmen Manual Gomez and Katherine Voight.

"Doctor, there are four of them," said Sophie.

The Doctor went over to one of the virtual displays, careful not to get near any of the four.

"What does it say?"

"If I'm reading it correctly, they've solved three quarters of the locking mechanism," said the Doctor. "The first, second and third dimensions. All they need is the fourth." He pointed to the indicator of the constantly reforming cube. "They know how to put it together, but not how to keep it together, all at the same time. But they're very close."

"We've got to stop them," said Sophie, drawing her compression pistol.

The Doctor shook his head. "They're part Monumental now. I don't think they would even notice it. My IIR didn't work the first time I tried. Even my girl balls had no effect." He paused. "Maybe... maybe if I tried my IIR on the highest setting, the setting made to vaporize psychic energy."

"Will it work on them?" Sophie asked.

"There's one way to find out," said the Doctor. He approached one of them, Crewman Katherine Voight. "Excuse me," said the Doctor.

Voight continued to rapidly manipulate the holocontrols in front of her. On her holoscreen was an image of the cube, reforming and changing position at a rapid pace. Her hands moved like a blur, as they worked in coordination with the other three.

"Excuse me, I say," said the Doctor. "I was wondering if you'd mind stopping what you're doing. It's going to release a very terrible creature who will terrorize the Earth, you know, and we can't have that."

"I don't think she can even hear you, Doctor," said Sophie.

"It never hurts to try," said the Doctor. He turned back to Voight, "All right, I'm going to have to shoot you now. Speak up if you have any objections?"

Voight's eyes were glued to her holographic console, her hands continuing to move rapidly.

"No? I didn't think so." The Doctor raised his IIR and fired. A blast of energy went towards Voight, and then was bent and sucked into the vortex in her chest.

"Handy thing, having your own personal black hole," said the Doctor admiringly. He put his IIR back in his coat. "I don't think that's going to work. Would you like me to try a girl ball again?"

"Doctor!"

"All right, back to plan 'A'." The Doctor turned to the Nova Bomb. He started manipulating the controls.

Sophie felt increasingly nervous. "Doctor, are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"To the contrary, I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing," the Doctor grinned. "But you can relax. How could things get possibly worse?"

There was a loud crack, like the sound of thunder. The Doctor and Sophie both instinctively turned their head to the door at the end of the corridor, the door with the little window set in it. They could see flashes of light, inside the window, bright light, flickering more and more insistently. The room felt like it was sliding down, sliding down into the windowed doorway. It took an effort for the Doctor and Sophie to resist its pull.

"What are you doing, Sophie?"

Sophie turned to see Aunt Diana.

Dirty Diana

, the prosecutor had called her at the trial.

Aunt Diana stared at Sophie with a sultry grin. "It's time to play the drawing game, Sophie," said Aunt Diana.

"No," said Sophie, taking a step back.

"But you love the drawing game, Sophie! Remember how it was our little secret, together, all those long, wonderful years?"

"No, Aunt Diana! I don't want to play the drawing game again!" Sophie cried

"But you do, dear," said Aunt Diana. "I'll do the first one." She took a finger, and then slowly traced a shape over her crotch. "That's a pussy, see? Now you draw it."

"No!" Sophie cried again, trembling like a leaf. "This is not real!"

"It's not real until you draw it. Would you like me to draw it on you, baby girl, just like old times?" Aunt Diana asked. She raised her finger, and smiled menacingly.

********

The Doctor saw Yael again, but this time she was pregnant, with a big, bulging belly.

"You didn't know, did you?" said Yael. "I wanted to wait until I was sure before telling you."

"No," the Doctor whispered.

"I was pregnant, Ben," said Yael. "Pregnant with your son."

"No. It's not true," said the Doctor.

Yael smiled knowingly. "It is. I waited, Ben. I didn't say a first word after I missed my period the first month. But then the second month came and went. Every morning I woke up, expecting a bloody mess in my panties, but there was nothing. So finally one day, after you went to work, I took a pregnancy test. It came back positive. I was going to tell you, Ben, that night, but you killed me before I could tell you."

"No!" the Doctor cried.

"You killed me, Ben, and our unborn son." She cupped her belly. "He would have been beautiful, don't you think? I'll bet he would have looked just like you."

"No, Yael, it can't be true!" the Doctor cried.

*********

"Why can't I have a baby?"

The speaker was a young arab girl, perhaps not older than 18 years of age. Her dark eyes bore into Alanna. "Why?" she asked.

"I... I don't know," said Alanna.

"You do. You do know," the Arab girl insisted. She was joined by several others, young men and women. "It's because you did something to us. You did something to all of us, when we were children."

"No," said Alanna, shaking her head.

"You ruined the lives of 54 children. You made sure we could never have children of our own. What did we ever do to you?"

"It... it was a mistake," said Alanna.

"And because of your mistake, we could never have children," said the Arab girl. "How will you repay your debt? How will you restore life to our barren wombs, to our empty nutsacks?"

Alanna tried to talk, but no sounds came out. She was gripped in a panic attack.

********

"Lower your pants, little girl," said Aunt Diana. "Lower your pants, Sophie, so we can play the drawing game."

"NO!" Sophie cried.

"Sophie! Focus on me!" said an invisible voice. "Sophie! Look into my eyes! My eyes, Sophie, focus on my eyes!"

Suddenly a face came into view. A face couched by a floppy hat and dark curly hair, a face of green eyes and a large nose. "Doctor?" she breathed.

"We've got to get out of here, Sophie. We've got to get out now."

Sophie blinked and looked around. The ghostly crewmembers were still working in their alcoves. The door at the end of the room seemed to flex and buckle.

"We don't have much time, Sophie. They're going to figure out the final sequence soon," said the Doctor. "We can't set the bomb here. The influence of that creature is too strong in the pyramid. We'll have to take the bomb with us. Help me carry it out."

Sophie nodded. She took one end of it, and the Doctor took the other. They walk/ran back down the corridor.

Alanna, are you all right?

Doctor? What happened?

We can talk about it later.

They ran for the exit, pausing only briefly to affix their helmets onto their spacesuits as they got closer to the entrance of the Pyramid. "What about the Nova Bomb?" Sophie gasped, as they ran.

"We'll launch it from orbit, once I've cracked the code," said the Doctor.

When they got outside, they found a surprise awaiting them.

Just behind their land rover, in a semi circle, was the crew of the

Talent

. The entire crew, in spacesuits, just standing there, looking at them, in complete silence.

"I don't suppose any of you would like a girl ball?" the Doctor asked.

The space suited figures started to close on them.

"Close your eyes, Sophie!" the Doctor shouted, as he rapidly reconfigured his Infinite Infinity Repeater.