CHAPTER ELEVEN
BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD
***
‘I warn you,’ The Manager hissed. ‘I did not agree to any of this. What you’re doing is
genocide!’
‘Maybe so,’ The Dr. said darkly, through the Video Link. ‘But Cerellia was right … this is
the only way to ensure that the universe never has to hear of their kind again.’
‘You’re risking everything!’ The Manager exclaimed angrily. How could the High Council
be so foolish? To create a device so powerful and entrust it to that bleeding-heart? What
on Betamax had they been thinking?
‘I rather think that’s the point,’ The Dr. said sadly. ‘I don’t like it either … but it’s the only
way …’
‘NO!’ The Manager exclaimed, digging deep into his mental reserves, allowing his
telepathic energies to well up inside him and project at The Dr. ‘You will listen to my
voice! You will listen and you will obey! You will act on my command! Heed my voice!
Become the subject of my will! You will obey me! I command you to cease! What you
are doing! You will not detonate the device! You will not destroy me!’
‘ … After all this time, you still don’t realize that your little hypnotic trick won’t work on me,’
The Dr. said with that absent-minded little smile of his that always made The Manager
want o tear the little upstart’s lips off. ‘This is for the best,’
‘NO!’ The Manager shouted, dashing around to the other side of the control console of his
RETARDIS. ‘Stop now! We’ll find another way!’
‘You mean you’ll find another way to conquer the galaxy once they’ve all been destroyed,’
The Dr. said sharply. ‘I don’t think so. This day will see an end to your evil ways and an
end to their tyranny.’
The Dr. was many things and perceptive was one of them. The Manager had to
admit that. But how could he not see that this was the absolute perfect opportunity? The
High Council had been destroyed. Betamax had been burned to ashes and the legacy of
the Video Lords lay in ruins. This was the optimum point for them to begin again. For
The Manager to create a new lineage. To make The Video Lords into the supreme beings
of the Universe they always should have been.
He looked up as The Dr.’s voice echoed through the audio link.
‘You are a fluke in the Universe, you have no right to be here.’
Oh no, that crazy fool was making a final speech. The Manager had to do
something. A blast rocked his RETARDIS violently, sending him skidding across the
control room. The vessel tipped and The Manager found himself clinging to the floor for
dear life.
‘And whether you know it or not, The Universe is laughing behind your back.’
The Manager dug his fingers into the ground and dragged himself forwards, back
up to the controls as his ship tipped again, doing the job for him and sliding him back to
his terminal. He grabbed the base and tore his Fusion Screwdriver from his emerald suit
jacket, igniting the end and ripping off the access panel. He had one chance and one
chance only.
‘So make peace with your god, whatever you perceive him to be.’
The Manager tore the wires that led into the Central Matrix and soldered them
back on themselves into their origin in the drive motors. All of the RETARDIS’ had been
aligned together at the beginning of the war so that that they could be maneuvered
together, transported away from danger if necessary. But now the central controls on
Betamax were gone, and those controls were essentially useless. Worse than useless,
they were actually lethal. It would be through these controls that the full force of the
bomb would travel, deep into the core of every RETARDIS and use their engines to add to
the blast.
‘Hairy thunderer or cosmic muffin.’
The Manager desperately rewired the conduits.
‘For all its hopes, dreams and urban renewal.’
Not yet. Not yet, he wasn’t ready. He couldn’t die here. He couldn’t die like this.
‘The world continues to deteriorate.’
He thrust his Fusion Screwdriver deep into the heart of the mechanism as he
reached up to the console and pulled the activation lever. He hadn’t set any co-ordinates,
but in the scheme of things, anywhere or anywhen was a better place to be right now.
‘Give up …’ Came The Dr.’s voice one last time, then there was the dull thud from far out
in space where the device was activated.
VROOOOOOOOOOOOK! VROOOOOOOOOOOOK! VROOOOOOOOOOOOK! VROOOOOOOOOK!
Slowly, a deep bass throbbing started to build deep within the bowels of the time
machine, a vibration that set the surroundings rattling, shaking everything in his control
room.
It would be close.
VROOOOOOOOOOOK! VROOOOOOOOOOOK! VROOOOOOOOOOOK! VROOOOOOOOOOK!
***
‘Well,’ Danny scowled, lifting a piece of debris off of himself. ‘Any more bright ideas
Elion?’
‘A few,’ Elion mused, brushing what seemed like an endless supply of concrete dust from
his hair. ‘And they’re all still better than your nuclear bomb plan.’
‘Well,’ Gmac frowned, wiping a splodge of chocolate gateaux from his shirt. ‘We can’t
keep wasting time on stupid ideas. We need to get rid of that Titan now!’
‘I agree,’ Duffy added, ducking under the place where a rather sharp-looking piece of a
1992 Ford Dodge had embedded itself. ‘This is pointless. My bomb is ready to be used.’
‘Alright!’ Elion said, holding up his hands for silence. ‘I admit it, that wasn’t the best plan
I’ve ever come up with. Give me one more chance to do this in a sane and rational way,
and if that doesn’t work, then I’ll step back and let the inmates run the asylum.’
‘I really can’t believe that didn’t work though,’ Richy mused.
‘Who’s going to break it to Elmo?’ Blacky mused as he swiped away a piece of charred red
fuzz that was still floating from the sky.
Do you want to talk about it?’ Manhunter asked, peering around the door of Freaka-
chu’s room.
The Video Lord looked up at him sternly.
‘What is there to talk about?’ He replied wearily from where he had collapsed in a large
winged armchair by an unlit stone fireplace. A computer on a large wooden desk to his
left pinged.
‘Come on,’ Manhunter persisted. ‘You haven’t said two words since we got back in here.
We still haven’t budged an inch by the way. Norman say’s we’re spoiling his view.’
The computer pinged again. Freaka-chu let out an exasperated laugh.
‘Oh, right. Isn’t that just typical of humanity?’ Freaka-chu scowled, thumping the
mantelpiece. ‘The world is about to end and Norman is concerned about his landscaping!’
Freaka-chu tore past Manhunter out into the corridor where his footsteps echoed
off the gridiron flooring.
‘Well, wallowing in self-pity about it isn’t going to help anybody!’ MM called after him.
Freaka-chu stopped dead in his tracks and turned on his heels.
‘Self pity?’ Freaka-chu spluttered. ‘Self-Pity?’ He repeated, storming back up the corridor
towards Manhunter. ‘Chris,’ Freaka-chu furrowed his brow. ‘Do you know why there
aren’t any more Video Lords?’
‘Yes,’ Manhunter nodded. ‘They were all wiped out in the war with the Darlin’s.’
‘Do you know how?’ Freaka-chu rasped. ‘How it happened.’
‘There was some sort of a bomb,’ Manhunter replied. ‘A large explosive device that wiped
out both fleets entirely.’
‘Yes,’ Freaka-chu nodded. ‘But that’s not why there aen;t any more Video Lords … there
aren’t any more because that bomb had to be detonated by somebody … by a person that
agreed to do it should the need arise … there are no more Video Lords because of me,
Chris.’
Freaka-chu rubbed a hand down his face. ‘It was me … I pressed the button … I
killed them all … I shouldn’t have survived … but here I am … and apparently, not alone
…’
‘Dr.,’ Manhunter said quietly. ‘It was not your fault.’
‘Oh yes, it was because of the Darlin’s they died. It was because of the Darlin’s that the
high council had a nuclear matter disintegrator bomb commissioned. But I’m the one that
pressed the button Chris! I’m the one who destroyed my own race in order to destroy
another and now! NOW I find that race I was trying to wipe out weren’t wiped out at all! Not
only that, but the ONLY surviving member of my race is my oldest enemy who will stop at
nothing to destroy me, everything that matters to me, and eventually the Universe if he can’t
claim it as his own! Self pity Chris? I don’t deserve pity. Self or otherwise. And I’m not
wallowing,’ Freaka-chu said as he started back up the corridor. ‘I’m thinking Chris. I’m
thinking about how I’m going top wipe EVERY LAST STINKING DARLIN’ OUT OF
EXISTANCE, SAVE THE WORLD AND SEND THE MANAGER TO HIS WELL DESERVED
GRAVE!’
Freaka-chu rounded the corner with Manhunter in pursuit. They passed by the
giant library, through the hall of a million and five mirrors, across the moat, through the
waterfall garden, down the fifth of the seventeen grand stairways, down three more
corridors and finally back into the control room where Freaka-chu shooed Asawin and
CooCooKaJoo away from the main controls and pulled a monitor towards him.
‘Tell me,’ Freaka-chu said as he began to type furiously as a keyboard he produced from
under the control panel. Another computer screen gave a BING! Noise the same as the
one in Freaka-chu’s quarters. He ignored it and continued to type.
‘Who are the forums best World of Warcraft players?’
‘What?’ Asawin replied, confused.
‘World of Warcraft,’ Freaka-chu replied. ‘You know, millions of people wandering round
an online realm pretending to be elves and dwarves and knights! Going on quests, killing
demons, having no social lives to speak of whatsoever! Who’s the best player in the
Mercury Rooms guys?’ Freaka-chu looked up expectantly, snapping his fingers in furious
succession.
‘Err,’ CooCooKaJoo scratched his waddle. ‘I think Will-ko and Jazz probably.’
‘Huh,’ Freaka-chu stopped and adjusted his long scarf. ‘Wouldn’t have thought Jazz was
the type,’ he said to himself as he continued to type. ‘Right then!’ Freaka-chu smiled
broadly, pulling a large lever next to him, causing the central glass column to illuminate.
The computer on the other side of the main controls made a BING! Noise again. ‘Do we
know which Moderator they went with?’
‘Jeebus!’ Asawin said quickly. ‘Remember, they were going to go through all the porn
sites.’
‘Awe!’ CooCooKaJoo puffed. ‘I wish I’d gone with them now.’
‘Okay,’ Freaka-chu interjected, massaging his temples. ‘There’s millions of pornography
sites out there, literally billions, billions, billions of them. Good lord, they must be mad!’
Freaka-chu said as he marched across the metal walkway towards the door. ‘It would
take us years to find them!’ Freaka-chu threw open the metal hatch in the wall.
‘NORMAN!’ he called out into the rock garden.
‘Youtube!’ Nigel’s voice echoed back.
‘Cheers!’ Freaka-chu waved politely and slammed the door shut, racing back to the main
controls.
BING!
‘Right then, Youtube!’ He grinned, madly flipping switches and turning dials. ‘Here we
come!’ He cried, his hand hovering over the large red button at the top of the controls.
BING!
‘What is that?’ Asawin interrupted before Freaka-chu could start up the machine.
‘What’s what?’
BING!
‘That,’ Asawin frowned.
‘Oh,’ Freaka-chu said, pulling the suspended monitor towards him and squinted into the
screen. ‘Hmmm,’ he said after a moment’s reflection and began to re-adjust various
knobs and dials.
‘What’s going on?’ Manhunter asked as Freaka-chu scooted past him to turn a large blue
lever.
‘That’s a little bit out of the ordinary,’ Freaka-chu coughed as he smacked the large red
button, causing lights everywhere to flash and the colourful crystal circuitry in the
central column to begin moving. ‘Very strange indeed,’ he continued as the RETARDIS
shifted ever so slightly to the left.
VROOOOOOOOOOOOK! VROOOOOOOOOOOOK! VROOOOOOOOOOOOK! VROOOOOOOOOK!
‘WHAT’S STRANGE?’ Manhunter thundered.
Freaka-chu looked up from the screen.
‘Hmm?’ He asked absent mindedly. ‘Oh, that … It’s rather odd, but Buster is trying to
add me as a friend on Myspace.’
***
He stumbled out of the strange wooden thing, the doors snapping shut as he fell
through the hangings into the sand. Who was he? Where was he?
He shook with pain as he tried to move. Everything hurt. There was such pain
inside him that he cried out with a hideous yell that echoed off into the plains of the
desert. He pulled himself to his knees. Whoever he was, he knew that he did not belong
on the floor. He was a being that stood tall. He was a being of greatness. He was a being
of power. That thought forced him to his aching feet that simply didn’t feel right in the
shoes he wore. They were far too large. His emerald suit hung off him as he stood in the
centre of the desert next to the dark wooden box with its gold symbols.
What had happened to him? How had he gotten here? There was nothing but
confusion in his mind. A jumble of strange thoughts that made no sense. But there was
an overpowering force that rumbled deep within his soul. The need to conquer. He knew
it instinctively. He knew that his purpose was to conquer, overthrow, enslave.
He was definitely a revolutionary. A being of vast power and, as such, he needed
respect. He would take that respect wherever he travelled.
Whoever he had been, whatever he had done, it was obvious that it was all part of
this. All part of his desire, his lust to be the ruler of everything. But there was something
else also. Side from the lust for power, there was something else. A great anger. A terrible
pain that he couldn’t put his finger on. A longing, a sheer inescapable hunger for
something else.
Somebody had wronged him. Somebody who’s name escaped him, but that was it.
That was what he felt. It was a need that almost overpowered his will to rule. His need for
revenge. To conquer and to get revenge. His only ambitions in life and he had no idea
why. But he would get both. He would get both and all the Universe would know of his
deeds. He would be forever remembered as he who conquered. As he who took the most
bloody and severe revenge …
***
