Instructions. I think they’re actually referring to a real guide, to codified information that the original colonists left behind to cover all the details of operating and maintaining the systems.’

‘I reckoned that too,’ Rory agreed. ‘It’s such an important part of their lives, they treat it as a sort of holy text. I’ve heard them calling it “Guide Emanual”.’

‘Emanual, or e-hyphen-manual?’ the Doctor asked, intrigued.

‘Exactly,’ said Rory. ‘E-manual. An electronic manual. I think it’s stored digitally. There’s a place adjoining the hall called the Incrypt. That’s where they keep it.’

‘I need a copy,’ the Doctor said.

‘Well, they won’t let me in there,’ Rory replied.

The high-pitched dentist’s drill whine had started howling on the other side of the hatch. The Ice Warriors were right outside.

‘Come on!’ Samewell said to Amy and Bel. ‘We’ve got to go! Right now! Doctor says so!’

‘Doctor?’ Amy said to the Doctor.

‘Rory, I need the e-manual,’ the Doctor said.

‘I understand that,’ Rory replied, ‘but they won’t let me near the Incrypt.’

‘You’ve got to try, Rory,’ said the Doctor.

‘OK.’

‘Rory, I mean it,’ the Doctor said. ‘We can’t stay here. It’s not safe any more. We’ve got to go. I’m going to try to find another telepresence terminal like this one. Soon as I can, I’ll contact you again. Please, have the e-manual ready for me then!’

‘I’ll do my best, Doctor!’

‘I know you will,’ the Doctor said.

‘Doctor, we’ve got to go now!’ Amy yelled.

‘Amy!’ Rory called out, trying to see her past the Doctor. ‘Please be careful! Just be careful!’

‘You know me,’ she called back, waving to him as she tried to pull the Doctor away. She hoped he couldn’t see the tears in her eyes. It wasn’t fair she could see him but not touch him. It wasn’t fair that they were going to have to say goodbye and start running. It wasn’t fair that she might not actually get to see him properly ever again.

‘Go! Go!’ the Doctor told Amy. ‘Get Samewell and Arabel out of here and run!’

‘Not without you!’ Amy protested.

‘Oh my god!’ cried Rory, utterly powerless to act.

‘It’s not a choice. All of you run!’

‘I’ve got to disable this terminal so the Ice Warriors can’t access it,’ the Doctor said. ‘Amy, go!’

Reluctantly, Amy ran across to the far door where Samewell and Arabel, both trembling with fear, were waiting. ‘Come on, Doctor!’ she yelled.

The Doctor was adjusting the remote control, resetting the systems of the main console. ‘See you later, Rory Williams Pond,’ he said, grinning at Rory’s holographic image.

‘Please, Doctor, go!’ Rory said to him, looking anguished and helpless.

Something exploded. It made a loud noise like a gunshot. A sudden stench of burning metal filled the chamber. The drill had bored all the way through the lock.

The hatch shunted open and two Ice Warriors shoved their way into the telepresence chamber. One had a broadsword. The other had an ornate battleaxe, the haft and blade all forged from one gleaming piece of metal.

Arabel screamed.

‘Doctor, run!’ Rory and Amy both yelled at the same time.

The Doctor turned, and saw the Ice Warriors bearing down on him. Two more had come into the room behind the first pair. The Doctor threw the remote-control handset at the Ice Warriors in an attempt to distract them, and then made to dart away sideways to reach Amy and the two Morphans.

The Ice Warrior with the axe hurled his weapon with extraordinary strength and grace. Superb martial skill sent the gleaming axe spinning through the air, making a chopping, swishing sound as it flew. It was thrown wide, not to kill the Doctor, but to force him back and cut off his escape.

The Doctor recoiled with a cry of alarm as the axe whooshed past him. It struck the console and buried itself, blade first, in the control bank. The impact blew out the power systems. The holographic image of the assembly hall, of the frantic Rory and the speechless Sol, blinked, flickered and vanished. A hot shower of sparks blew out of the console in a small explosion that knocked the Doctor to his knees.

Amy wailed, ‘Doctor!’

The Doctor tried to get up. A massive green pincer clamped his right wrist. He cried out in pain.

‘Go! Amy, go!’ he yelled, struggling to pull free.

She was in the hatchway, staring at him in utter horror. Samewell and Arabel were trying to pull her out of the room, but she was fighting them off.

‘Doctor!’

‘Get out of here!’ the Doctor bellowed back.

‘Not without you!’

‘Lock the door and get away! Save Bel and Samewell! Run!’

The other Ice Warriors were advancing on the doorway. In another few seconds, they would have her, and the door would be wedged, and they’d all be prisoners of one of the Doctor’s most implacable adversaries.

‘Please, Amy,’ the Doctor cried. ‘ Please.’

His eyes met hers. One last look.

One last communication that was beyond words.

Amy cried out in despair, and finally allowed herself to be dragged back through the hatchway by the two young Morphans. She rammed her hand against the palm-checker, and the hatch slammed shut in the faces of the Ice Warriors.

It closed with such force, a single woolly mitten on a severed strand of elastic fell onto the deck.

Chapter

13

Brightly Shone the Moon

That Night

The Doctor got to his feet. This was not an entirely voluntarily action. The Ice Warrior holding him by the wrist raised its arm, and the Doctor had no choice but to follow. It was either that or have one of his four favourite limbs snapped off.

The Ice Warrior that had hurled the axe plodded over to the smouldering console and wrenched the weapon out. A spatter of sparks, like the spill of a foundry bucket, followed it and fizzled on the deck.

The other Warriors formed a loose and menacing semicircle around their prisoner.

‘Hello, everyone,’ the Doctor said, trying to seem friendly and open to any options. ‘Why don’t we go around the room so that everyone can introduce themselves? You start.’

The Warrior with the axe returned and faced the Doctor. He raised a large pincer fist and shoved the Doctor in the chest. With a grunt of surprise, the Doctor was driven backwards into one of the padded chairs.

‘Sit?’ the Doctor gasped, the air having been rather compressed out of his lungs. ‘Excellent idea. Excellent.

I’ve been on my feet all day.’

The Ice Warrior brought the axe down across the Doctor’s middle. It came so close to cutting him in half, the Doctor yelped and breathed in hard. The axe blade bit into one of the chair’s arms so that the handle was fixed across the Doctor’s body, like a solid metal seat belt. The Doctor was pinned behind it. He wriggled his arms back behind the haft so he could press his palms against it and keep it at bay. There wasn’t much room for movement.

‘What, um, happens now?’ asked the Doctor, looking up at his towering captors. Impassive red-lensed eyes glared down at him.

‘Oh dear. I have this horrible hunch that it’s going to involve killing me, or lopping bits of me off,’ said the Doctor, ‘and if that’s the case, I just want to say, you know, that’s not necessary. Or cool. I’m a reasonable sort. I’m sure we can talk about this—’

‘Wordsssss!’ hissed the Ice Warrior who had pinned him in place with the axe. The pronouncement was arctic. It was as though every single letter had been chipped out of glacial ice and then forced from the Warrior’s downturned slit of a mouth by a blast of polar air.

‘W-words?’ asked the Doctor.

‘Your elimination isss inevitable,’ said the Ice Warrior, ‘but firssst, there will be an exchange of wordsss.’

Each syllable of the statement could not have been any colder if the Warrior had personally fetched them from a walk-in freezer. They seemed to smoke in the air like dry ice. The sibilant lizard-hiss of the Warrior’s voice sounded like the scrape of a blade being worked on an oiled whetstone.