The Doctor knew he was on shaky ground. Sontarans held honour above everything, but they did not always accept that it applied to other races too.

He was lucky. Stenx gave one of his whole-body nods, and Slorr hurried forward to remove Karl.

‘Thank you,’ the Doctor mouthed as the sprinter was led away. Karl had been willing to die so the Doctor could live. There was no question that the youth was a hero.

They’d both been lucky, though. The Sontarans wouldn’t let the Doctor get away with the same trick twice.

His troubles were just beginning.

Chapter Eleven

THE DOCTOR GOT to his feet. ‘Do I get my medal now?’ he asked Stenx.

The Sontaran sneered at him. ‘There are many races to come, Doctor. But I thank you for the data you have provided. We now know the speed that humans and Time Lords can reach. We can make use of fast creatures. A running target may draw the enemy’s fire, for example.’

The Doctor said nothing, but he was fuming inside.

‘Now for the long jump!’ called Stenx. ‘It will be useful to find out how far humans can jump. Oh, and Time Lords too.’ His thin mouth curved up in a cruel smile. ‘Lieutenant Skezz, bring the humans.’

Skezz nodded to the major and moved over to the stands. Captain Skeed pushed the Doctor towards a sandy area. The long jump pit.

Soon, the Doctor was lined up behind five students. He hadn’t met any of them before. That didn’t mean he was willing to see harm come to them, though.

A line had been drawn across the pit, about six metres along. ‘You will cross this line,’ Stenx told them, pointing to it.

The first jumper, a tall, blonde-haired girl, seemed very scared. She stumbled as she began her run, but soon picked up speed. She reached the board, took one long stride then another, and sailed through the air. Her heels came down just over the line, and she began to sob with relief. For a few moments she just lay on the ground, shaking with sobs. In the end, Skezz forced her out of the pit at gunpoint.

The second athlete seemed less nervous. He gave the others a look that said ‘you might be in trouble, but I’m not’. He started his run-up, pounding along as fast as any of the sprinters. He took one huge stride. He took a second, bringing his left leg forward, ready for the jump.

Something went wrong. His feet seemed to get tangled up, crossing over each other. He still jumped, but it was clear that he’d never reach the line.

He thudded into the sand, only a few metres along the pit.

For a second, he just looked cross with himself. Then something changed.

He began to scream.

The Doctor tried to run to him, but Lieutenant Skezz grabbed his arms.

Things were coming out of the sand. They were tiny, black and furry, and they had very pointed teeth. Soon they were swarming over the pit, all the way from the board to the line.

They were all over the failed athlete. But in less than a minute, there was no athlete left at all.

‘Sontar Sand Shrews,’ Skezz told the Doctor. ‘Food is scarce in the deserts of Sontar, so they eat anything.’

The Doctor couldn’t bring himself to speak. He could still hear the young man’s screams in his head. Although now there were other screams too, from the watching crowd.

The next long-jumper in line, a young woman, was crying. ‘I won’t do it!’ she sobbed. ‘I won’t, I won’t!’

‘You will jump,’ Stenx told her.

‘No, no, no,’ she said.

‘You can’t expect them to jump, not after seeing that!’ the Doctor cried.

‘I can,’ said Stenx. ‘Because if they don’t, this is what will happen to them.’ Before the Doctor could react, Stenx had raised his wand-like gun. Red light spurted out of the end, and the crying girl fell to the floor.

The Doctor rushed to her, but it was too late. He stood up. All four Sontaran guns were pointing at him.

He couldn’t think of a way out.

‘We have to jump,’ he told the other two. ‘That way, we have a chance. If we don’t jump, we have no chance at all.’

‘But—’ began a scared-looking youth.

The Doctor shook his head. ‘No buts. You can all do this. You wanted to go to the Globe Games! Imagine the pressure there! World records at stake. TV cameras all over the place. Your family and friends watching. This should be a piece of cake compared to that!’

He was relieved to see them almost smile.

‘That’s it,’ he said. ‘You can do it.’

He was right. The two of them both made it over the line.

The Doctor gave a sigh of relief. His joy didn’t last long, though. It was now his turn.

A blast from Skeed’s gun shot over the Doctor’s head, and he began to run. He knew he had to build up as much speed as he could. Nearly there. One huge stride, then another. His toe almost touched the fault line as he bent lower, preparing to jump.

He jumped . . . and soared away. He brought his back leg forward, bending so he was almost sitting in mid-air. It felt as if he spent hours above the ground, days, not mere seconds. Then he could feel himself slowing, getting lower. He was nearly at the line. He was going to make it!

Down, down, down . . .

His heels thudded into the sand – just before the line. Sand Shrews exploded out of the pit, snapping fiercely. They lunged at his feet . . .

Chapter Twelve

THE SAND SHREWS fell away, their teeth bouncing off the Doctor’s heavy boots.

The Doctor almost felt sorry for them, as he jumped across the line, out of their reach.

The students were cheering from the stands. The Doctor felt like cheering himself. A few laser beams flying over the crowd soon shut them up, though. That made the Doctor serious again. He wondered what warped event he would have to face next.

Lieutenant Slorr had gone back inside the gym. Now he came out again, carrying a long, thick rope coiled over his arm. Skezz led forward seven students, all stocky and muscular. The Doctor felt very skinny as he was pushed into the middle of them. The eight of them were made to take hold of one end of the cord. ‘If you let go of the rope, you will be killed,’ the lieutenant told them.

‘Tug of war,’ the Doctor said. ‘But who are we tugging against?’ He knew that the Sontarans came from a world with much higher gravity than Earth. They had devices in their suits to help them adapt to the gravity of whatever planet they were on. Even so, the huge muscles they built up on their home world would help them win through.

The Doctor really hoped they weren’t facing the Sontarans.

They weren’t. They were facing something worse.

The Doctor looked on in shock as a huge robot came towards them. It stood high on bent metal legs. Black eyes on stalks snaked out of a wide head, perched on a blocky body. As they watched, eight metal cords sprung out of its sides, like long, thin arms.

These feelers weaved their way forward, then grasped the rope. First a left feeler, then a right feeler, all along the other end of the cord.

Beneath the centre of the rope was a red line. The Doctor dreaded to think what would happen to anyone who crossed it.

‘Right,’ he said to his team. ‘You all know how a tug of war is played. You’ve all seen what happens to people who lose a Sontaran game. So we are going to pull and pull and pull, and we are going to win.’

There were murmurs of ‘yeah’ around the team.

‘I can’t hear you!’ called the Doctor. ‘We’re going to win!’

‘Yeah!’ they cried.

There wasn’t time for a longer pep talk. Skeed gave the signal, and the tug of war began.

It went well at first. Slowly but surely, the Doctor’s team were forcing the robot towards the red line. Closer and closer it came. Almost there . . .