Blind Terror (short story)

Summary
Having destroyed three of four Rutan craft encountered in the Sol system, Commander Churl pursues the fourth damaged craft down to Earth accompanied by Lieutenant Stavv. The Rutan craft had crashed on a remote farmhouse killing one woman when the roof collapsed and leaving a male dead from a surviving Rutan attack. Leaving Stavv to retrieve information from the Rutan science ship, Churl pursues his hunt. Churl encounters a blind girl. Dismissive at first, the girl directs him to a barn which turns out to be empty. In a moment Churl loses the girl and returns to the Rutan craft. But Stavv is not there. The terminal Stavv was using displays files for the Metamorphosis Technique, a new flawed technology that enables a Rutan to assume a body copy from a tissue sample. The technique usually creates a flaw (a disability) distinct from the original copy and, the shape can not be held if the Rutan decides to kill its prey with its 'electric' sting. Returning to the farmhouse Churl meets up with Stavv who is dragging a wounded leg. Stavv declines Churls offer to use the tissue rectifier, preferring to carry the scars as a badge of honour and bravery, and a reminder of being beaten. With Churl in the middle, the Sontarans face the blind girl at the farmhouse who has armed herslf with a gun. Stavv realises he must choose quickly which of the two is the Rutan copy. He fires the tissue rectifier at the girl which restores her eyesight. Pointing her gun at the Sontarans before her, she sees 'Stavv' reverting to his Rutan form, as Churl moves aside the girl fires the gun and kills the Rutan responsible for her father's death. Churl explains that a real Sontaran would only carry wounds as a mark of victory in battle, other wounds would be healed in readiness for the next battle. Churl commends the girl for avenging her family with honour and asks her to bury the body of his lieutenant with due ceremony when he has gone. Commander Churl leaves in his scoutship to rejoin the war, watched by the girl.

Characters

 * Churl - Sontaran who hunted down Rutans from a scientific scoutship when it crashed on Earth.
 * Skarr - Sontaran who died on Earth at the hands of a Rutan. The Rutan made a copy of his body in order to defeat Churl.
 * Young girl - left orphaned on Earth by the Rutans when they crashed at her farmhouse home. She was given back her sight after blindness from an illness some years ago by Churl using his tissue rectifier.

Continuity

 * The ongoing Rutan-Sontaran War is an established Doctor Who storyline.
 * The Metamorphosis Technique in its early flawed development stage was a central theme in the only televised Rutan story, DW: Horror of Fang Rock.

Timeline

 * Blind Terror occurs after:
 * Blind Terror before: