16 - The Janus Conjunction.pdf - Doctor Who novels - KotwGlanach

DOCTOR WHO

The Janus Conjunction

An Eighth Doctor Ebook

By Trevor Baxendale

Contents

Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . Escape and Evasion

Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Fire in the Sky

Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Escape to....?

Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Janus Prime

Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Menda

Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . Strange Radiation

Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zemler's World

Chapter 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Runner

Chapter 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Spider Fight

Chapter 10 . . . . . . . . . Here We Go Again

Chapter 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lock-up

Chapter 12 . . . . . . . . . . Regarding Henry Chapter 13 . . .Thanks for the Memory

Chapter 14 . . . . . . . . . . Return to Menda

Chapter 15 . . .The Moons and the Star

Chapter 16 . . . . . . . . . . .No Turning Back

Chapter 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .The Worst

Chapter 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Moonfall

Chapter 19 . . . . . . . . . . . .The Last Death

Chapter 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . The Hard Road

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Escape and Evasion

They were waiting for a dawn that would never come. Not the warm, bright arrival of a new day, but rather the

first glimmer of hope that they might actually survive the night.

And there was a sad, sick irony to that, too, thought Julya as she sat clutching her rifle and staring up at the

black sky. Because it was a black sky, not a night sky. The burnt-orange ring she could see above her was

the faint corona of Janus Prime's bloated sun, hidden by the planet's single fixed-orbit moon. A permanent

eclipse. Never-ending night.

The distant fire of a sun with only half a million or so years left to burn could do nothing, therefore, to

illuminate the planet. The only light came from the ground at their feet - luminous sand giving off the faint blue

glow that lent everything on Janus Prime an insubstantial, ghostly quality.

The face opposite her reflected this eerie luminescence from chin and nose, reminding Julya of childhood

pranks, fooling around with torches and lamplight. But Lunder looked deathly pale, and there seemed to be

fear even in his eyes.

Suddenly, Lunder began to move.With the barest rustle of combat fatigues, the commando clambered up the

slope that led out of the basement and took up position by the observation point.

When Lunder peered through the hole in the wall, he could see three of the roving spider cyborgs. They were

crawling slowly through the ruins, keeping to a strict military search formation. The nearest one was so close

he could hear its sensor equipment clicking and whirring.

As quietly as he could manage, Lunder slid down the rubble to where Julya waited. She was looking up at

him, her dust-grey face expectant.

'Three spidroids,' he murmured, his voice barely a whisper. Even at this distance, hidden in the ruins, voices

could be overheard by the droids' sensitive aural detectors. 'Stay low. They may pass.'

Julya looked suitably disgusted. She was impatient to move on. Sitting in a hole like this, waiting to be found,

would be nerve-racking for even the most seasoned veteran. For Julya, never trained for combat, the pressure

was beginning to show.'Can't we move now? They won't be expecting it.'

'Quiet,' whispered Lunder.

Julya fiddled nervously with her rifle. A heavy silence fell like a blanket over the ruins, but if they listened

carefully they could pick up the gentle hum of the spidroids, sensors sweeping, tracking, computer brains

calculating possible hiding places and scanning every inch. It could only be a matter of time before they were

discovered.

Lunder moved across to Julya and crouched down beside her. 'Keep your cool. We'll be all right if we stay

calm and just wait for Vigo.'

Julya shook her head.'He's not coming back. Vigo's gone. He's dead, or he's captured.' She looked up at

Lunder, her green eyes imploring him to do something. But Lunder had no answers. He checked his

chronometer so that he didn't have to meet her gaze any longer.

Vigo was the team's point man; he had been gone for far too long now. Lunder told himself that, most likely,

Vigo was trapped, like they were, waiting for a squad of spidroids to pass by before he could rejoin them.

Radio communication was impossible, so they had no option but to sit it out. One thing was certain: they

couldn't leave him behind.

***

Thirty kilometres away, a short-range airship took off from the blast-hardened landing pad with a howling

scream. The noise of its VTOL engines reverberated through the vessel, and the twenty men sitting in its

belly could feel the heavy vibrations through their boots. The spidroids had the Mendans cornered, and now it

was their turn to get some exercise at last. They had been cooped up in the base for long enough.

Sergeant Jon Moslei was not in a good mood. In his opinion, the Mendans should never have been allowed to

get out of the base area in the first place, and this ridiculous chase was just wasting valuable resources.

It was hard to believe that he'd been here only a year. He knew he'd be trapped here for the rest of his life,

however long that turned out to be.

Invisibly, behind the reflective red visor of his helmet, Moslei closed his eyes and killed that particular line of

thought. It didn't pay to think ahead any more. All you could hope for was a quick death, and the chance to

choose how it came. On Janus Prime, both were unlikely. But as the Craab-class troopship banked away

from the base and headed for the ruins, Sergeant Moslei stared at the rows of soldiers before him and felt a

small grudging thrill of pride; this kind of exercise wouldn't be much of a challenge for them, he knew, but it

was good to see the lads in action. Maybe one last time.

***

Lunder picked up his ripgun and quickly examined it, checking it was in full working order. There could be no

room for mistakes, no faulty equipment. He checked the magazine, the firing mechanism, the power charge,

and then Julya.

She was tired, drawn, and the sweat had turned the dust into grey streaks down her face. Her hair, black and

tied into a short bunch on top of her head, was in need of washing. She looked gorgeous, he thought.

She got up and walked carefully across the broken masonry to join him. 'So. What do you really think? D'you

think they've got him?' she asked.

'I told you.Vigo will come through in a minute. Soon as it's safe.' Julya picked up her own gun and examined

it in a brief echo of Lunder's own check. 'Have you thought of calling him? Just to be sure?'

'No chance. The spidroids would pick up the signal burst straight away. There's enough of them out there now

to triangulate our position in a second. We'd be dead before I'd finished transmission.'

He saw the fear in her eyes then, knew he'd been too harsh. More softly, he added, 'Look, weVe got this

far.We can't afford to mess it up now. Let's just sit tight and play it safe - at least for now.'

The sudden roar filled their ears like cement, blocking out everything else. The noise was painful, damaging,

and Lunder had to drop his gun so that he could clamp his hands over his ears. He saw Julya doing the

same. The noise abated, but its painful echo lingered in their ears like a jackhammer, reverberating,

thunderous.

Lunder shouted something to Julya, but he couldn't even hear himself. Julya was staring at him, wide-eyed

and afraid. They both knew what it was, were already looking upward at the lowering black shape in the sky:

the patrol vessel was directly overhead, flying without engine mufflers. The ship had not been built with any

such refinements, the end result being a craft that could burst eardrums from a kilometre away.

The Craab touched down several hundred metres away, the landing ramp already unfolding as the

afterburners ignited. The pilot was operating with reckless bravado, as certain as any of his crew that he was

going to die on this miserable rock.

Moslei stepped down on to the luminous sand and cursed. Every day this rotten tooth of a planet caused him

more pain. He had long ago passed the stage where the glowing ground and pitch-black sky made him feel

nauseous, but there was always a lingering feeling of unease - something alien, something wrong, with this

world.

Concentrate on the job at hand, he told himself. The environment is immaterial. He knew Captain Zemler

blamed him for the escape of the Mendans. Moslei was used to dealing with many more men than he

presently had available on Janus Prime, and a slight miscalculation in the guard-duty roster had given the

Mendans the chance they needed. The Mendans were as cunning as rats - had to be - and this particular lot

had displayed sound tactical sense by making for the ruins. Without a doubt the ruins made a

search-and-destroy mission like this very difficult. The ancient broken-down buildings and crumbling walls

proved effective barriers to the spidroids' sensors, for one thing. There were also the strange energy fields

generated by the planet itself to contend with. They were invisible and harmless, but wreaked havoc with the

cyborgs' sensors. The spidroids were useful, amazingly sophisticated really, but in the end merely tools, and

as such they had their limitations. Moslei had no doubt that in the end it would be a man who found the

Mendans and a man who slew them.

***

Fighting a wave of nausea, Lunder picked up his gun and got to his feet. He helped Julya up.

'Come on, we've got to move now,' he said, and then realised he was bawling to overcome his own deafness.

"That was a landing approach. They're here in force.'

'Vigo must be blown.'

'We can't leave without him. It would be like signing his death warrant.'

'We can't afford to wait any longer ourselves.' Julya stopped when she saw the blood trickling from Lunder's

right ear. She unslung a medipac from her belt kit and selected a painkiller, shooting it into his arm in one

motion. "The longer we stay here,' she continued, 'the less chance there is of us getting back home alive.'

Lunder wiped the blood from the side of his face. 'We're not leaving Vigo,' he said firmly.

***

'Platoon!' Moslei snarled into his helmet microphone.'This is your sergeant speaking. Report!'

The receiver crackled in his battle helmet and he heard the voice of one of his men: 'Sarge! Varko here. We

have three spidroids patrolling Sector Seven, but as yet no fix on the Mendan fugitives.'

Varko was an excellent trooper, but Moslei made sure that his own reply in no way betrayed that fact: there

was no chance of any progression through the ranks on Janus Prime.'They mustn't escape,Varko. Increase

the search parameter!'

'Already done, Sarge, but the planet's energy field is disrupting the spidroid sensors and the Mendans are

maintaining radio silence. It's impossible to triangulate their position.'

'Of course, lad. They may be Mendans, but one of them is a professional, remember.' Behind the visor of his

helmet, a smile parted Moslei's sticky lips. "They won't elude us for much longer. They're hiding in the ruins,

waiting for their chance to run. They won't get far. Maintain contact.'

Moslei turned and indicated to the troopers still with him which way he wanted them to go. 'Report directly to

me at the first sign of the Mendans,' he said. He wanted to be in at the kill. His comlink buzzed and Varko's

voice said, 'Sarge! We have contact. Streenus has found 'em.'

***

They both heard the scrape of a combat boot against concrete. Julya was facing the right way so she saw

him first, the pale grey armour glinting in the faint light of the sand.

She pulled her rifle up to her shoulder, aimed, squeezed the trigger. The beam flashed across the intervening

six metres or so in a fraction of a second and caught the trooper on the shoulder, spinning him round. He

staggered but remained upright, the thick armour impervious to low-level blaster fire.

The only weapon they had that was fully effective was the ripgun. Lunder aimed it, pulled the trigger, felt the

satisfying recoil and watched the hole appear in the armour. Half a second later the explosive shell blew and

turned the trooper's innards into mincemeat. He thrashed around in the dust for several moments and then lay

still.

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