Doctor Who: Shining Darkness by Mark Michalowski

got all the bits already, or are they going to be searching for ever?’
    ‘Your guess is as good as mine, Doctor. All we know – all we
believe
,’ Li’ian corrected herself, ‘is that when Khnu died, the Cult went into a panic and scattered the pieces of the thing around the galaxy, scared that robot sympathisers would find them and destroy them.’
    ‘Ahhh…’ The Doctor smiled. ‘That’s why you didn’t want to go barging in, isn’t it?
You
lot want them to find all the bits, put it together, and
then
you can go barging in and collect the whole set, ringbinders and all!’
    ‘Ringbinders?’
    He waved his hand.
    ‘Don’t worry about it.’ He leaped out of his seat suddenly, making Li’ian flinch. ‘Right! Let’s get this party started!’
    And before Li’ian could stop him he was halfway to the door.
    ‘Thanks for not telling me to bring a cardy,’ Donna muttered as the rock above them swung back into place, cutting out not only the drizzling sand and the gusting wind but the searing heat of the red sun. It suddenly felt cold and clammy. Mesanth produced a torch from his shoulder belt and flicked it on, illuminating broad, sand-silted steps leading down into the Stygian darkness.
    ‘You humans are remarkably susceptible to changes in environmental temperature, aren’t you?’ he said over his shoulder as he began the descent.
    ‘
Some
humans,’ grunted Ogmunee from behind Donna.
    ‘At least some of us have the decency not to go around half-naked,’ muttered Donna. ‘Anyway, what’s this segment thing look like?’
    ‘You’ve already seen the second one – the artefact from the gallery.’
    ‘Oh, that! Right. So we’re looking for another one of those, are we? Shouldn’t be hard to spot. And why’s it here?’
    ‘Safekeeping,’ said Mesanth cryptically, and then fell into silence as, out of the darkness beneath them, came a hideous roar that echoed on and on and on.
    Donna took a deep breath. ‘That sounds
very
safe.’
    ‘You said this place smells of home,’ Donna whispered as they descended. ‘Where’s that, then?’
    ‘It’s called Lota. Lovely planet – dry, dusty.’ Mesanth gave a little sigh.
    ‘So how come you got mixed up with Garaman?’
    ‘I worked with one of his associates a few years ago. She… introduced me to Garaman and Ogmunee here and the others. She offered me a job.’
    ‘Headhunted, eh? Better than temping, I bet. What kind of work?’
    ‘Are you always this full of questions?’ grunted Ogmunee from behind her.
    ‘Only when no one’s bothering to give me answers, yes. Why? Got a problem with that? Something to hide, maybe?’
    ‘Stop it!’ warbled Mesanth.
    ‘You don’t like conflict, do you?’ asked Donna as the stairs began to curve around to the right.
    ‘The Lotapareen have evolved from highly communal herbivorous ancestors: violence and conflict are alien to us.’
    ‘Must make all this adventuring a bit of a nightmare.’
    ‘Mesanth knows what has to be done,’ came Ogmunee’s voice again.
    ‘And what
is
that, exactly?’
    No one answered her. Abruptly, the steps ended and Mesanth’s torch beam revealed that they were in some sort of antechamber, blank stone surrounding them. As the ellipse of light from the torch flitted about the walls, Donna caught sight of something.
    ‘What’s that?’ she asked, taking the torch from him.
    Most of the wall was taken up with a primitive, scribbled drawing of a huge, tentacled mass with a single, monstrous eye and a slavering mouth. And, to give some sense of scale, four of its tentacles held what looked like squat little stick figures. One of them was being thrust into the toothy mouth.
    ‘Tell me that this isn’t one of those “Beware of the dog” signs,’ she said.
    ‘The Jaftee probably worship this creature as a god,’ said Mesanth with a vague air of fascination.
    ‘The Jaftee?’
    ‘The inhabitants of Karris. Primitive ape-like creatures. No offence,’ he added with a