A HIGHWAY OF DEMONS - CHAPTER SIX

The Doctor is back with a vengeance - but has he made it in time?

A HIGHWAY OF DEMONS by Whispering Jack

CHAPTER SIX - HARD RAIN

Life in the world of the Time Lords was idyllic. We were stationed on Gallifrey which was the Doctor's home planet, located in the constellation of Kasteriborous at galactic coordinates ten-zero-eleven- zero-zero by zero-two from galactic zero centre". This put us at a distance of some 250 million light years away from Earth and way outside our Milky Way galaxy. The Doctor went to great lengths to point out that his home was really situated in a different universe altogether - the Whoniverse.

We arrived by means of time travel in the Tardis but had we wanted to return to Earth by conventional means it would take 29,000 light years. I once told the Doctor that we must be a long way from my home but he corrected me saying, "No, we're a long time away from your home". At the time I was unaware of the significance of he was telling me but I would learn.

The Citadel of the Time Lords is a vast, sprawling compound of odd- shaped constructions manufactured from sandstone mined in the quarries found at the base of Mount Perdition, one of Gallifrey's Mountains of Solace and Solitude of which there were twelve. The Doctor called them the "misty mountains" as they were constantly shrouded in a fine damp mist. While we generally had a free run of the Citadel and its surrounds, we were forbidden from visiting this particular region, known as the planet's Death Zone because it was controlled by The Master, a renegade Time Lord who was not only "evil" but rumoured to be in league with the dreaded Cybermen.

The Doctor explained that the Cybermen were a genetically engineered race of beings that strived to achieve physical perfection. During the process of their evolution, it was considered necessary to rid them of all weaknesses. Emotion was removed from their brains to empty any vestige of love, hate, anger or fear. The Cybermen were ruthless killers and it was considered wise counsel to avoid the quarry at the edge of the misty mountains.

The sun shone constantly in Gallifrey's pale green skies. The absence of night was the result of the planet's delicate positioning in a binary system so that one of its suns would always set when the other rose. The constant sunshine, the flawless weather, the endless array of fine food and drink (especially the fruity nectar known only as "the Juice") and the agreeable company made time pass quickly. I enjoyed many outings with my new-found friends. We basked in the orange glow of sunlight from the dominant star and, under a canopy of dark green trees, we would feast on the fruits that grew in khaki- coloured fields and orchards in the lush valleys below the Citadel.

The Doctor hardly ever joined us as he was mostly preoccupied with the Time Lords Conference, a seemingly endless series of meetings and discussions carried out in hushed tones by the eight Time Lords in residence at the Citadel. Something was happening but the Doctor would not let us in on the secret.

My happiness on Gallifrey was overshadowed by the blackness of the dreams. Although there was no night on the planet, the hours of sunshine, the gravity of two suns and the constant daily activity induced a form of tiredness I had not previously experienced in my short lifetime on Earth leading to long hours of sleep accompanied by the most vivid of dreams. It was those dreams that I descended into a separate world and, in that world there were Demons and I led a dark grey existence that was totally at odds with life as I knew it on sun-drenched Gallifrey.

In my dreams Romana would come to my room. She would lead me by the hand to the Doctor's stables to chose two ponies to guide us along one of the six highways that led out of the Citadel and into the surrounding countryside. K9 always accompanied us but would keep a reasonable distance somewhere to the rear as if it was guarding us along the dirty, dusty and crooked roads. There were times when the Brigadier and Richie would also come along but never Buddy or The Big Bopper. The Budster, as he preferred to be called, spent most of his time at the Time Lords Bowl trying to emulate his three strikes while the Bopper preferred to take a bath.

Splish, splash!

My dream journeys always evoked dark images and disturbing scenes that seemingly lasted for days and that would always end the same way - an awakening in a fitful state bathed in sweat, my ears ringing with the loud sound of a black dog barking its lathery foul-breathed cry of utter madness.

The dread and the fear brought on by my dreamtime experiences marred my otherwise delightful existence on the Doctor's planet and I grew to loathe the onset of tiredness that brought sheer terror into my "nighttime" Gallifreyan dream world. Then came the last dream.

The signpost simply read, "Highway 64. The Highway of Demons" and there was nobody else on the road as we embarked on our journey. K9 kept its distance as usual at the rear (he wasn't really a body but a robotic dog).

The distant sound of thunder seemed to roar out an ominous warning silence fell as we moved along the floor of a valley into the depths of a deep, sad and dark forest with black-branched trees. Was it a trick caused by the thickening mist that made their branches appear to be dripping with blood? Romana remained unconcerned.

Another crooked turn of the highway that took us into a clearing and the sudden realisation that we had entered forbidden territory. We had reached Mount Perdition and were at the edge of the sandstone quarry situated its base.

Inside, a battle was taking place. The fight was a one-sided contest between an army of giant hawk-like birds and a small squadron of robotic creatures that matched the Doctor's description of the Cybermen although most of them were of a younger and smaller version than I had imagined as they appeared not yet fully developed. The birds were well armed and they slaughtered their unprepared prey, leaving them to die in the mouth of what was to become a giant graveyard.

I sensed the presence of a stranger and, as turned to face the shadowy figure now standing ominously beside me, I knew it could only be one person. The renegade Time Lord known as the Master. He was gray haired, balding and wore a red and blue jacket.

"You've come to watch as I train the Cyberlads. Good. They need to get some experience into their legs if they are ever to become ruthless killers."

I was shocked but The Master seemed to be reading my mind.

"We know what we're doing. We've been doing this for 100 trillion years and it works. After this, we're really going to throw them to the wolves. Or is it the Cats and the Dogs. I don't really know!"

He was barking mad. His young charges were being obliterated and he was speaking as if he was if it was Sunday afternoon at the market. He approached and made as if he was about to slap me and I awoke.

The real Doctor was slapping me to bring me out of my fitful state.

"Wake up. We have to leave now. We're going to the end of the material universe, a point so far forward in time that nobody, not even a Time Lord has ever travelled there," he bellowed.

"Why?" I blurted out in a hazy voice. I was starting to awaken.

To save your beloved Demons, that's why!"