inferno fiction 11: the cult of vartax page 3

'Listen, all of you! This man is not Tobias Takmore! He is a renegade Time Lord known as the Master. Now do any of you know the codes that can save Earth?' the Doctor appealed, 'Please, you have to tell me!' The Doctor’s voice was lost in the hubbub of rhythmic chanting. He pushed past them and ran to the cryogenic chamber.

'Controls, controls…' The Doctor muttered to himself. He got on his knees and opened a small section under the console. His eyes gleamed. 'Of course! If I reverse the polarity…' He was cut off by the feeling of a gun being pointed into his back.

'Not so fast Doctor. You aren’t destroying my plans just yet…' The Doctor got up. The Master, or rather Takmore’s body was slowly beginning to decay. His face looked like a half decaying corpse.

'Master, you can’t do this. Whatever demands you have for Earth they won’t accept them. They will fight you.'

'I don’t intend to get some kind of ransom, Doctor. I intend to blow the planet up. I will take all of its energy to rejuvenate this new body of mine.' The Master motioned with his gun for the Doctor to move away from the console.

'You know you’re quite mad, don’t you?' said the Doctor, edging away from the console. 'Your plan will never work. For all you know the humans may have destroyed your beam. Or, even the Daleks could have done it.' The Doctor could see from the corner of his eye, K9 slowly moving behind the Master.

'The Daleks are too busy fighting with the Movellens to care about an insignificant little planet like Earth.'

'Oh really? Well that is interesting. But you see you've been a sleep for over millennia!'

The Master coughed struggling to get his words out, 'You lie!'

'Take a look for yourself, there's nothing left to rule!' at which the Doctor pointed to the readings displayed on the console panel before them.

The Master moved to the console for support and to look at the readings for himself just as the Doctor shouted: 'Now, K9!'

The Master swirled around as K9’s blaster sent a bolt of red energy straight to the Master’s body that instantly fell to the floor.

'K9, keep guard, I need to stop this before it destroys the Earth.' The Doctor sat back in his original position. He grabbed a hold of a section of the console and took it out from the rest of the console. 'Ah, well I didn’t expect that.' He took out his sonic screwdriver and shoved it into a square section of a data bank. A small, red button on the side of it began to glow. 'No! That’s not right. Or is it? Hang on.' He jumped up and ran to the other side of the console and began to punch several of the keys on the console. 'If I can just reverse the polarity… Yes!' The Doctor flung down an upright lever and sparks instantly flew from the console.

K9 backed away slightly. 'Master?'

'Oh just reverse the flow of… Oh no! I’ve reversed the location of the air compression…It's going to hit the ship!'

The Doctor leapt up. The Master’s body had decayed even more. He was now little more than a rotting corpse.

'C’mon K9, there’s nothing we can do for the Master. We can help the poor fools that followed him though.' The Doctor stood up and ran down the corridor towards the TARDIS 'Everyone, get inside! Now!' He shouted, opening the doors and forcing them all inside.

'What is going on?' shouted one man.

'I’m saving your lives! Now get in!' Slowly all the members of The Cult of Vartax had entered the TARDIS. Slowly it began to fade away only leaving behind it a wheezing, groaning sound.

The corridors echoed by the increasing sound of energy and the buckling of metal as the pressure from outside the ship increased even more.

Seconds later, a second wheezing, groaning sound could be heard, followed by the echoes of an evil cackle and an explosion so bright appeared in space as the spaceship was destroyed.

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