Doctor Who_ Father Time Part 48

The Doctor was standing behind her chair, a proud grin on his face. 'You've not done badly for a girl without any O-levels,' he told her.

'I'll walk back to the shuttle with you,' she told him.

Atlantis sat in the hangar bay, looking absurdly quaint. sat in the hangar bay, looking absurdly quaint.

'It's not as impressive as the Supremacy Supremacy, is it?' the Doctor asked.

'It's not called the Supremacy Supremacy,' Miranda said. 'That was Ferran's name for it, and it... sends out the wrong signals. From now on, it's just the s.h.i.+p that's how it likes to be known.'

The flight crew were shaking hands, making their goodbyes. Commander Fairchild was already inside, running pre-flight checks.

Miranda and her father had pa.s.sed through the corridors, past clean-up crews slaves and guards working together. There wasn't a hierarchy, not yet. There would have to be one, of course. At the very least there would have to be co-ordination. Anarchy was possible, she thought and not in the tabloid definition of riots and looting, nor the naive student political sense of hoping everyone got along and a.s.suming someone else was growing all the food and was.h.i.+ng all the dishes, but in the truest sense: an abolition of law and property, because such things weren't needed any more. But it would not be an easy option: there was a lot of hard work ahead, and once people realised that...

She wasn't so arrogant as to think that she had all the answers. These were questions for the future, and there were still a few left from today.

'Mrs Castle...' Miranda began. 'Ferran killed her. Can you really forgive him for that?'

The Doctor took a deep breath. 'You don't make peace with your friends, do you? I killed his brother. We've all done things to hurt others. We can draw a line or we can destroy one another. We've made our choice. I talked to him. He wants to start a garden. He wants to go home and keep bees and grow roses. I gave him some tips.'

'Mrs Castle's body... I'll take it with me,' she told him, 'bury her with full honours.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'Bury Debbie somewhere quiet, somewhere where the first snow of winter is always falling.'

Miranda offered him a handkerchief, which he accepted gratefully.

The Doctor looked her up and down. 'You could be a great leader. You could command armies.'

Was he testing her?

'I wouldn't know what to do with an army. I'm my father's daughter... Father. I'm taking supreme power, but I'm not going to use it, I'm taking it so that no one else does.'

'You're going to be magnificent. Children of the Revolution, eh? I envy you.'

She hesitated. 'Come with me. They've forgotten. They've been ruled by the cruel and the cowardly for so long that they've forgotten how to be anything else themselves. And dismantling the Galactic Empire isn't going to be quick, or easy.'

'Rome didn't fall in a day,' the Doctor agreed.

'You could teach them so much.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'You can teach them. Seeing you in action here, I'm pretty sure you could teach me me. You... you go forward, I'll catch up with you.'

She looked at him. 'Are you sure?'

'I've an appointment to keep,' he reminded her. 'In a little over eleven years, I've got to meet Fitz. Whoever Fitz might be.'

'I could get Computer to run a check on him find out who he is, what he wants. Even what that police box of yours is. Ferran was obsessed with you, so I'm sure it's all in the databanks.'

The Doctor laughed. 'After so long, that would feel a bit like cheating, to be honest. Like checking the back of the book for all the answers instead of working them out for myself.'

He hugged her.

'I'll visit,' he promised.

'You'd better,' she said sternly.

By the time Miranda had got back to the flight deck, Atlantis Atlantis had left the hangar. had left the hangar.

An image of the s.p.a.ce shuttle, orbiting alongside s.h.i.+p hung in the air beneath Computer. Retro rockets were firing, and the shuttle was easing itself back into its normal orbit.

Miranda took her place in the command chair. She thought she would be crying, but she wasn't. She felt ready. Ready to start work.

's.h.i.+p status?'

s.p.a.ce-time co-ordinates to the Needle have been calculated and laid in,' Computer intoned. 'Vortex scanners indicate a clear path. Estimated journey time, twelve standard days.'

She had no idea what a standard day was, and, for the moment at least, she couldn't care less.

'Computer, show me Atlantis Atlantis. Close-up on the c.o.c.kpit.'

'As you wish.'

Her father was there, looking straight at her.

'Goodbye,' he mouthed.

'Never,' she whispered.

The shuttle pulled away, descending to a lower orbit.

Miranda laid her hand flat on the green panel in front of her, and It lit up.

She took a deep breath.

'Time machine go,' she said.

And she smiled.

'Houston, Atlantis Atlantis is now back in the scheduled orbit,' Captain Fairchild reported. is now back in the scheduled orbit,' Captain Fairchild reported.

'Roger that.'

Above the s.p.a.ce shuttle, the s.h.i.+p was manoeuvring, turning until it faced away from the Earth and pointed out into deep s.p.a.ce. All the crew had been given a chance to look round, Miranda had offered them a five-course meal in one of the banqueting suites, and Fairchild hadn't made himself popular by reminding them that it would disrupt their carefully calculated nutrition regime.

It was a vast s.h.i.+p, a city. Further in advance of Atlantis Atlantis than the s.p.a.ce shuttle was to the first wheel. than the s.p.a.ce shuttle was to the first wheel.

Some people might have looked at it and despaired, or fallen back on superst.i.tion or uncomprehending awe. But the astronauts had talked about it, and they saw it as a goal to aim for. One day, their distant descendants would fly vessels like that, and it would have been because of pioneers like them, the first crews of humans into s.p.a.ce. It was an affirmation of everything they believed, not a negation.

The s.h.i.+p leapt forward and then turned on an axis it didn't have.

There was a howling blue vortex around it for the barest moment, and then it was gone in a burst of light.

Mather turned to the Doctor, who was watching this, proud of his daughter.

'You OK, Doctor?' he asked.

The Doctor nodded.

'Time to go home,' the pilot told him.

The Doctor looked out at the Earth, the terminator crawling over the Atlantic. Then he looked up at the stars. They were sharp points of light here, all distinct colours. The sky was pitch-black, the light here was harsh, pure. There were millions of stars, and around them were millions of planets.

'I am am home,' the Doctor said. home,' the Doctor said.

He would be coming back. He knew that now. Perhaps all that talk of destiny was rubbing off, but the Doctor now knew that he'd be looking down over the Earth again. One day he would be planting footsteps in the soil of other worlds, exploring strange cities, talking to s.p.a.ce monsters, watching alien suns rise.

Soon enough.

About the Author.

LANCE P PARKIN has, perhaps surprisingly, only had one novel published by the BBC before, the thirty-fifth anniversary story has, perhaps surprisingly, only had one novel published by the BBC before, the thirty-fifth anniversary story The Infinity Doctors The Infinity Doctors, although he did write four and a half books for Virgin Publis.h.i.+ng. He's kept himself busy contributing to short story collections, writing scripts for audio and video, and was a storyline writer on Emmerdale Emmerdale. He also edited the diaries of his close friend Mandy Dingle, and these were published last year.