Doctor Who_ Father Time Part 14

Squawk.

'But you must have some guesses.'

The Doctor didn't tear himself away from the door control. 'If Fitz put that note in my pocket, inviting me to meet him over a century later, then Fitz is obviously an immortal like me. A product of the same experiment, or bloodline, or evolutionary breakthrough or... well, I suppose, the same sort of alien.'

'And Miranda is, too?'

Squawk.

'Yes. She must be. Two hearts, a lower body temperature. Like me. She's the only other person I've ever met like that. But she's ageing at a normal rate, her parents, or at least her mother, is perfectly normal and now the Prefect tells me she's from a million years in the future. It's so frustrating.' Squawk. Squawk. 'I have the horrible feeling this is all some elaborate joke at my expense.' 'I have the horrible feeling this is all some elaborate joke at my expense.'

'Time travel,' Debbie said, everything suddenly clear.

Squawk.

'What about it?' the Doctor said, clearly irritated by his failure to open the door.

'Well... what if this Fitz knows knows you meet him in 2001? What if he's a time traveller? He could have written the note you meet him in 2001? What if he's a time traveller? He could have written the note after after you met, then travelled back in time to deliver it. You'll meet because... well, it's already happened.' you met, then travelled back in time to deliver it. You'll meet because... well, it's already happened.'

The Doctor stopped what he was doing and turned to stare at her.

'That... works,' he said. 'Wait! Why just the note? If you were this Fitz person, wouldn't you just wake me up and talk to me in the past?'

'Well... if he's met you in the future, he knows that he didn't do that. That's all history as far as he's concerned. It's like I know you don't build a time machine and go back to my wedding and tell me I needn't go through with it, I'm going to have a misca'

'That's brilliant!' the Doctor said, grabbing Debbie and almost dancing around the room with her.

He leapt back to the control panel, slapping in a new combination.

And Debbie wasn't remotely surprised when the door slid open.

The Deputy activated two hoverdiscs from their wall-mounted control panel.

They rose a few centimetres from the metal floor of the hangar. The ramp set into the floor began sliding silently open.

'I have the co-ordinates,' he told the Prefect.

The Prefect climbed on to his hoverdisc, took hold of the handrail. The Deputy did the same.

'Hold it there!' a voice shouted.

The Deputy turned. It was the Doctor, framed in the doorway to the hangar, the human woman behind him.

Without thinking, the Deputy spun round and aimed his machine pistol. Even as he squeezed the trigger, he cursed himself for giving the Doctor enough time to slam his fist down on the door control. The metal door slid up in front of the Doctor as the bullets arrived, and they just bounced off.

Only then did he allow himself the luxury of wondering how the Doctor had escaped.

'Leave him,' the Prefect ordered, ducking to avoid one of the ricochets.

The Deputy shot out the door control, to be on the safe side, then keyed the launch sequence.

The discs lurched forward, then sped down the ramp, out into the winter evening.

The Doctor flinched as the bullets rained into the door in front of his face, but none of them got through the thick metal.

Once the sound had died down, he tried the controls again.

'You can't go back in there,' Debbie bawled at him.

A door behind them and to the right slid open.

Thelash stood there, annoyed. 'What the cruk is that noise?' she asked, addressing the question at no one in particular.

She saw the Doctor and Debbie and dived back behind the doorframe.

It was an act that could have been mistaken for cowardice, but a moment later she reappeared, a bulbous gun in her hand.

There was a sound like a whipcrack as she fired.

The wall behind the Doctor and Debbie exploded into a shower of sparks. Rum was behind Thelash now, trying to get a clear shot with an identical weapon.

Thelash's second shot hit the locked door, blowing it open.

'Run!' the Doctor told Debbie, pus.h.i.+ng her through.

Barry squirmed to get comfortable in the pa.s.senger seat of the Mini. He was too big to be in such a small car.

When he looked over at the driver it reminded him why he was here. She was wearing a cheap silk blouse and tight jeans. She was smiling, and had too much make-up on, because she wanted to look older than she was. The cigarette in her mouth was meant to have the same effect. Barry smiled back at her, because he thought that seventeen was just the right age. 'Nearly there,' he told her.

'This is a long way to go for a walk,' she said, and the way she said 'walk' made them both laugh. 'It's going to be dead cold. Why can't we go to your house, like last time?'

'I'll keep you warm,' Barry chuckled.

As the Mini approached the lay-by, it became clear that there was a problem. Two cars were parked there.

'I thought you said it would be quiet here,' she said, annoyed with Barry. 'There's more people here than at a City match.

But Barry didn't care about that.

'Stop the car!' he shouted.

'Here? No. We'll find somewhere else.'

Barry glared at the girl, and she stopped the car.

'That's my Cortina!' Barry told her, pointing to it.

She laughed. 'Perhaps your wife's gone for a walk up here.'

This time, the way she said 'walk' made Barry very angry. He got out of the Mini and strode over to his Cortina. It was empty, and so was the black Beetle parked next to it.

The girl had followed him out. She had her hands crossed over her chest, and was s.h.i.+vering, but the temperature wasn't what was bothering Barry.

'I'll kill her,' he snarled.

'For what?' she shouted back. 'For doing what you were planning to do?'

Barry told her that was precisely why.

The girl was about to say more when something shot out of the woods and over their heads. An aircraft. No too small for that.

'What was that?' she asked.

Before they could decide, another one came straight for them. Lower this time. It was a man standing on a disc. The disc was flying about six feet off the ground and at about sixty miles an hour. Barry barely had time to register that the man was wearing a green jacket before the disc had vanished over the hill.

Barry looked around.

'You saw that?' the girl asked.

Barry nodded, but he wasn't sure he had. It didn't seem like the sort of thing he would see.

'Someone's coming,' she warned him.

Barry could hear footsteps, crunching through the snow. There were people running towards them.

The Hunters stopped at the foot of the ramp.

'Wait. We shouldn't be chasing after them,' Thelash declared.

Rum stopped peering out into the winter's night and lowered his neutron gun. 'You're right. This isn't part of our mission. You heard the Deputy: our mission hasn't changed.' He hesitated. 'But if we do capture the Doctor, it'll look good when it comes to our pay negotiations.'

Thelash shook her head. 'They'll just say we shouldn't have let him escape in the first place.'

Rum was convinced.

'Besides,' Thelash reminded him, 'the Doctor won't get past Mr Gibson.' She smiled. 'Let's watch from the comfort of our chamber.'

Debbie and the Doctor came running out of the wood.

Barry let them get to the car. Both of them were out of breath, red-faced. He shook his head very slowly at his wife.

'Barry, not now,' Debbie told him. She looked over at his friend. 'Who are you? Hang on don't you work at the Co-op?'

The Doctor stepped between them. 'Did either of you see... discs? Flying platforms made of metal, with people standing on them?'

Barry grabbed the Doctor's s.h.i.+rt. 'Look, mate, that's not your biggest problem right now.'

There was a clunk to their right. From the Beetle.

They all turned to look at it.

'I think you're right,' the Doctor said softly.

Barry let go of him and took two steps over to the car. He peered in.

'There's no one in the car,' he concluded, standing up.

'Stay back!' the Doctor warned.

The car was matt black, almost invisible in the failing evening light. It had fat sports tyres on it, and Barry was sure he'd find a great big chrome exhaust round the back.

The Doctor was scowling at him, but followed him over. 'We're in the gravest danger.'

'From someone that drives a VW? Doubt it. Nice bodykit on it tres sporty.' He turned back to the Doctor. 'You're right about you being in trouble, though.'

Barry slapped his hand down on the Beetle's roof, to prove his point.

'Get your hands off,' a deep, almost musical voice said calmly.

Barry looked around, but there was no one around. There was definitely no one in the car. He turned to face the Doctor. 'Here, are you throwing your voice or something?'

The Doctor shook his head. He pointed back to the car. There was a strange noise, like a hydraulic piston.

Barry turned, and saw the Beetle standing up.

It was an odd sight. It bent in the middle, the fat sports wheels sliding to the back of the car. The side panels opened up and slid out, almost like arms, but with ma.s.sive biceps like Popeye. They propped the car up. Now it looked like a man on all fours pus.h.i.+ng itself up. The bonnet slid down to become a chest plate, the chrome b.u.mper was now slung at the thing's waist, like a belt. It stood upright, legs forming from the rear of the car, giving it feet like moon boots. Hands like boxing gloves slid out of housings. Finally, a boxlike head swung up and out, locking into place. Its headlamp eyes blinked, it flexed its arms and made a hesitant step forward.

The Volkswagen had become a robot. It was around twelve feet tall, and was a bulky, solid thing.

'Cease and desist,' it ordered in a megaphone voice.

The Doctor stepped in front of Barry. 'Of course. Which would you like me to do first?'

The giant robot bent down, peering at the man he so easily dwarfed.

The Doctor smiled. 'Good evening. You, I presume, are the elusive Mr Gibson.

'Indeed. Greetings.'