Free Doctor Who BBCN17 - Sick Building by Doctor Who Page B

the noise and the confusion, it seemed that every single device in the room was working at full tilt of its own accord. The taps 59

    thundered into the sink, the microwave pinged madly and steam was churning out of the kettle.
    ‘Stop this at once!’ Tiermann roared, when he reached the doorway.
    It was as if he thought that everything would respond to the sound of his voice.
    Martha hurried over to Solin, who was trying to calm his mother.
    ‘It’s just a malfunction, Mum,’ Solin was saying.
    Silence!’ howled Tiermann. ‘You will all be silent for your master!’
    Amanda Tiermann struggled to control her panic. Her breathing slowed and she looked wildly at Martha and her son. ‘Everything is breaking down! Don’t you see? We depend on these things working.
    We can’t survive with malfunctions! We are going to die!’
    ‘Mum,’ Solin said, taking hold of her. ‘It’s nothing bad. Just a few malfunctioning –’
    But just at that moment Martha was staring out of the plate-glass windows into the garden. The ring of fire was still burning out there, but there was a bulky shape moving through the streaming flames, heading impossibly towards them. ‘Uh, Solin,’ Martha said. ‘This looks pretty bad, actually.’
    The creature put its head down and came charging through the fire.
    It tossed its huge ivory horn and thundered through the flames, arriving swiftly on the other side, and in the grounds of the Dreamhome.
    The bear-like creature roared its triumph and swung round to stare at the house. Its savage eyes fixed straight on Martha, Solin and Amanda, standing in the tall window.
    Martha jerked back at the sight of that sheer, animal greed.
    ‘They’re getting in,’ Solin whispered in a deathly voice.
    60

    The Doctor had been led to a secret exit, hidden away on Level Minus Thirty-Nine. Matter-of-factly, Barbara extended her telescopic arms and popped open the door, revealing a dusty and disused staircase. ‘Takes us down to Level Minus Forty,’ she said cheerily, ‘Home of the Domovoi, bless her.’ She and Toaster made as if to lead the way.
    The steps looked quite steep to the Doctor: his new robot friends were going to have a tricky time lowering themselves down.
    ‘Who is this Domovoi?’ he asked. ‘Another Servo-furnishing? Someone who can help us fix the lift?’
    ‘Oh, no, no, no,’ Toaster said, his bulbs lighting up the gloomy stairwell as he chuckled. ‘You make her sound so humble and common-place. Oh, but she isn’t. She’s a marvel, is the Domovoi.’
    ‘Let me explain, Doctor,’ wheezed Barbara, angling her bulk around a narrow landing. Several cans of pop inside of her had fallen free and they were rolling about and thunking against her sides. The Doctor wondered if that hurt her. ‘The Domovoi is a computer,’ she said.
    ‘But, to put it that way does her a great disservice. She is Tiermann’s finest creation. She is the spirit and heart and intelligence of the Dreamhome itself. She controls everything. She is amazing.’
    61

    ‘I see,’ said the Doctor. ‘I get it. Does she control all of you lot as well?’
    Barbara looked somehow uncomfortable. ‘Not all the time. She could if she wanted. All of our minds are linked, you know. But, like any decent goddess, she allows us to have free will. Isn’t that lovely?’
    ‘Lovely!’ grinned the Doctor, wishing fiercely that his friends could hurry it up. They’d only managed it down about ten steps as they talked. For all her ungainliness, Barbara was proving more nimble than Toaster. With every step the sun bed took downstairs, the Doctor was gritting his teeth: imagining the glass of his body shattering everywhere.
    ‘And will the Domovoi help us?’ the Doctor said. ‘She is Tiermann’s creation. Surely she will do his bidding?’
    Barbara looked at him very darkly. ‘Our minds are linked, Doctor.
    I have an inkling of what the Domovoi is thinking. And she isn’t best pleased.’
    ‘No?’
    ‘Oh no,’ said