The End of the Road VII

35. INT. CHAPEL (DAY)

Tasembaker sits in the chair, leaning forward, having just stopped crying.

TASAMBEKER
I don’t know why I like him, Great Healer. But I do. So much. He makes... makes me feel better. It’s worth getting out of bed just to hear his voice.

GREAT HEALER
And then, with that voice, he insults you.

Tasambeker lowers her eyes.

TASAMBEKER
It’s better than nothing.

GREAT HEALER
No. You are wrong. It is worse than nothing. You are worth more. You are better.

TASAMBEKER
I’m not.

GREAT HEALER
Do you care for my opinions?

Tasambeker looks up, almost hurt at the suggestion of otherwise.

TASAMBEKER
Yes, Great Healer.

GREAT HEALER
Truly? Then you will believe me when I say you have a potential that Jobel never had – even when he was not insane. Today, I offered him immortality.

TASAMBEKER
Did you?

GREAT HEALER
Yes. It is within my power to bestow. And Jobel refused. Do you think him a fool?

TASAMBEKER
For wanting to die? Of course he’s a fool.

GREAT HEALER
An arrogant fool who makes you suffer even though he must know how you feel about him?

Tasambeker sobs.

TASAMBEKER
Yes, Great Healer.

GREAT HEALER
You are in pain. More than physical pain.

TASAMBEKER
Yes.

GREAT HEALER
Then there is only one solution.

TASAMBEKER
What?

GREAT HEALER
Remove the source of your pain. Let us watch Jobel. See him from a distance, from outside your heart. We will use the security cameras to observe his activities. And we shall see if he can still stir your affection.

Tasambeker stares up at the image of Jobel.

TASAMBEKER
I don’t want to feel this anymore.

GREAT HEALER
You will not. I will heal you. I give you my word.

The screen activates, showing the reception area.


36. INT. RECEPTION AREA (DAY)

The attendants are putting the final touches to the decorations – unrolling a blue carpet before the doors out of the reception area. Lilt enters and approaches Jobel, who is circling the sarcophagus. Lilt opens his mouth to speak.

JOBEL
Yes, I know it hasn’t warmed up yet, Mr. Lilt. The Great Healer’s experiments require most of Tranquil Repose’s power. It should reach optimum soon. Do you think we need more of the weed flowers?

Lilt shrugs.

LILT
They always said Mrs. Ronya loved the fragrance of nature.

JOBEL
Yes. And this flowers refuse to wilt for some reason. Now the President’s ship is on its final approach. Is the landing port ready to accept the space vessel?

LILT
Still getting ready, sir – the snow needs to be cleared.

JOBEL
I do despise this planet, Mr. Lilt. What do you want?

LILT
The three guards that have been murdered...

JOBEL
By the body-snatchers?

LILT
Yes.


37. INT. CHAPEL (DAY)

Tasambeker watches.

JOBEL
Any other victims?

LILT
Not that we know of.

JOBEL
And Tasambeker? Did she survive the trip to the Great Healer?

LILT
Yes, sir.

JOBEL
Pity. I would have hoped she would have been murdered as well.

The screen freezes.

GREAT HEALER
He insults you behind your back. You still feel affection for him?

Tasambeker looks miserable.

GREAT HEALER
Do you love him?

TASAMBEKER
Yes.

GREAT HEALER
He does not love you. In fact, he despises you.

Tasambeker shakes her head.

TASAMBEKER
No... It’s just a joke. He always jokes with Takis and Lilt. It’s his sense of humor.

GREAT HEALER
He constantly teases and ridicules you. He hates you. Yet you overlook this.

Tasambeker sobs again.


38. INT. RECEPTION AREA (DAY)

Lilt and Jobel move down the area to where three stretchers on trolleys lie, carrying shrouded bodies. The blue cloth is stained with blood. Jobel pauses to adjust his toupee in a mirror.

JOBEL
What about these murders?

LILT
The bodies were badly damaged and require cosmetic embalming.

JOBEL
What would you know, anyway, Mr. Lilt?

Jobel crosses and lifts the nearest shroud. He blinks and drops it.

JOBEL
Yes. Well. He IS in a mess. Take them through to my preparation room. I don’t want stray corpses littering the corridors when the President arrives.

He picks up a silver tray of implements.

JOBEL
Pity Tasambeker isn't here. I could get her to deal with them.


39. INT. CHAPEL (DAY)

Tasambeker looks up, hopefully.


39. INT. RECEPTION AREA (DAY)

As before. He and Lilt head for a set of double doors. Lilt pushes the nearest trolley.

JOBEL
Then I could have her discharged for ruining the corpses with her relish. Then I could just throw her outside and have that long-awaited sweepstake about how long that blubber mountain could survive the Long Cold.

Lilt laughs.


40. INT. CATACOMBS (DAY)

Natasha and Grigory are stumbling through the corridors. Frost is on their hair and they are only half conscious. Grigory shakingly hands over the flask and Natasha sips from it, before coughing loudly. They keep moving.

NATASHA
N-n-nearly... there...

GRIGORY
Aaron Grigory... child prodigy... I was only ten when my parents... dumped me at medical school. They called me a genius, they did. And the professors... Said I had a bright future... Not like that kid I hit on the jet sled cruiser... My friends were there. Never said anything, you know. But it was my fault...

NATASHA
S-stop t-t-talking...

GRIGORY
When I took up the v-voxnic. And what happened? Next day, someone comes in for some minor surgery... and I killed them too. They shouldn’t have struck me off the register. No. They said it was for incompetence. But they shouldn’t have struck me off. They shoulda shot me dead there and th.. then... I couldn’t die... here... and now.. clever, eh?

They turn a corner.

NATASHA
Grigory... I don’t want... to... die... listening... to you...

GRIGORY
W-when did you ever l-listen? You sh-shoulda left your father here... Got on with your life... But oh, no, you had to join the anti-TR group... work out the whole c-conspiracy... that was stopping them giving back your l-loved ones.

NATASHA
It IS... a conspiracy... The company would lose revenue if they woke them up... so they don’t... we were... were supposed to get proof...

GRIGORY
YOU... were supposed... to get... proof. Why did you want me?

NATASHA
You... volunteered...

GRIGORY
No, I was volunteered by someone ELSE...

NATASHA
I needed a surgeon... and you knew how to c-c-crack locks...

They reach a pair of doors. They crack open, stiff with frost.

NATASHA
Th-the way... the way out...

They pull the door open to reveal a corridor beyond.

GRIGORY
Even... if we don’t die of... cold... they’ll hang us...

NATASHA
We’ve got t-to t-try...

They stagger stiffly down the corridor.


41. INT. TR CORRIDOR (DAY)

The Doctor, Takis and Peri stand beside the open casket. The Doctor is peering inside.

TAKIS
This level is devoted to people from Talok, the next planet in Pherran system.

PERI
And who was in this casket?

TAKIS
Stengos his name was. An agronomist working in turn with the Great Healer to solve the plague effecting plant life. It’s even here on Nekros.

PERI
Those purple plants outside were doing well.

TAKIS
Those are weed plants, nothing kills them, I should know. I’ve tried often enough.

DOCTOR
This Stengos chap – why did he want to be frozen?

TAKIS
Usual pattern. Got infected by a virus, had only a few weeks to live. Because he was on the Great Healer’s payroll he was allowed to be interred here at discount. Several relatives have applied to his body removed, but the courts refused.

PERI
And you couldn’t let them have him anyway. He’s gone.

TAKIS
The body-snatchers have taken him.

DOCTOR
No, I don’t think so. Look.

Takis peers inside.

DOCTOR
There’s a second hatch at the back of this unit. It’s just possible that there’s a back door fitted to every casket in Tranquil Repose – which would explain why these bodies have gone missing without you seeing them go.

PERI
But what’s with the green slime?

DOCTOR
Not sure.

The Doctor starts searching his pockets and finds a snapped off car radio aerial, which he extends. He places it in the casket and prods around. There is a hiss and some steam.

DOCTOR
Ahah.

He raises the aerial. The tip is now green and bubbling. The effect fades.

DOCTOR
Fascinating. An aggressive mutagenic compound!

PERI
The metal’s turned green...

DOCTOR
Oh, mild discoloration. But the fact that such a small amount of residue could cause that... imagine what would happen when the casket was pumped full of this.

TAKIS
‘Pumped’?

DOCTOR
Yes, pumped. There are miniature taps all through the casket, just above the cryo-generators. After a good long soak in that, I doubt Stengos would be feeling himself. It might explain the secrecy. Taking a body out of a casket would be hard to explain, but to take out a completely different life form to what went it, well, even I would find that tricky. Open the others.

Takis hits a control. The others in that section open up.

PERI
More green stains.

DOCTOR
Yes.

The Doctor peers at the labels.

DOCTOR
And no sign of Stengos. Or Carnavon. Or Aarglok, Tasker, Morlko, Darak, Ficus, Darin... You realize what this is, Mr. Takis? This is no glorified tomb – but a mutation generator. Put in organic material and pull out something completely different.

TAKIS
But there are thousands of people here!

DOCTOR
There WERE. Assuming they’re not metamorphosing as we speak, they’ve already been collected and removed. The cryo-circuits reactivate and as far as anyone knows, the bodies are still here.

TAKIS
Stay here.

Takis turns and hurries off. The Doctor blows out his cheeks.

PERI
What is it?

DOCTOR
Netora.

PERI
Netora?

DOCTOR
My final resting place according to this Great Healer.

PERI
You know it?

DOCTOR
Yes, I do. It’s a bad place to be. Bleak, dreary, gloomy and superstitious, like a graveyard on a rainy afternoon. Lots of chronal instabilities and the such. No self-respecting TARDIS would ever land there.

PERI
Unless you wanted to go there. Look, this is getting convoluted – we know you don’t die on Nekros, this Healer guy THINKS you MIGHT have died on another planet altogether! You’re not still letting this get to you?

DOCTOR
No. You’re right. I might be destined to die here, there, anywhere or not even have a destiny at all. The only thing to be certain of is that I’m wasting what time I do have worrying about my future. And if you do that long enough, you run out of future to worry about in the first place.

There is a muffled grunt nearby. They hurry down the corridor and turn the corridor to find Natasha and Grigory sprawled on the floor, unconscious. The Doctor whips off his cloak and turns to Peri.

DOCTOR
Find Takis and get some help. I’ll do what I can for them.

Peri runs off and the Doctor crouches beside Natasha, trying to revive her.


42. EXT. ABOVE TRENCH (DAY)

Lytton makes his way through the snow, a look of determination on his face.


44. INT. RECEPTION AREA (DAY)

The Doctor leads Natasha, now wearing his cloak, in. Lilt roughly supports Grigory, having got his flask. Peri follows. Takis and Jobel are waiting.

TAKIS
Body snatchers caught, Mr. Jobel.

JOBEL
Excellent.

Lilt lets go of Grigory and he collapses with a groan. Peri moves to help.

PERI
Hey!

She stops when Lilt takes out a knife and approaches Natasha.

LILT
You’ve killed three of my friends today.

He grabs Natasha. Before the Doctor can do anything, Lilt thrusts the dagger against her cheek, drawing blood.

LILT
Don’t worry. I’m not going to kill you. Just mark you.

DOCTOR
That’s enough!

TAKIS
Lilt. Easy.

DOCTOR
This won’t go down well in a trial, Takis!

JOBEL
Oh, don’t worry, Doctor. It will be perfectly staged managed. Others must get it into their thick skulls that trying to steal from my Tranquil Repose will be punished with excruciating death.

TAKIS
The due process of the law will be seen to be done!

DOCTOR
There are no bodies in Tranquil Repose – it’s empty bar her three victims! You cannot prove they were snatching bodies without providing bodies for them to steal and just where do you intend to get them?

Jobel looks at Takis.

JOBEL
Tranquil Repose must maintain its credibility.

Takis looks at Lilt, who nods and releases Natasha. The Doctor lowers her gently to the floor. She is almost conscious now.

DOCTOR
Now perhaps we can talk like civilized life-forms...

The Doctor cries out as Takis twists his arm. Lilt grabs the Doctor’s throat and pours the contents of Grigory’s flask down his throat. The Doctor chokes and splutters.

PERI
No!

Jobel grabs her and holds her back.

JOBEL
Don’t look, pretty one, it is an unpleasant sight. Lethal alcohol poisoning. He’ll never be an admissible witness, assuming he’s alive to be considered in the first place.

Lilt throws the empty flask on the floor. The Doctor suddenly lifts his limp head and spits the stuff in Lilt’s face. He cries out. The Doctor twists and flips over Takis, flooring him. Peri breaks free of Jobel. Natasha and Grigory look around, dazed. The guards raise their weapons.

- to be continued...