Doctor Who_ Legacy Part 32

The Doctor turned to Benny and winked, but she wasn't there.

He caught up with her seated in her room, packing away her diary.

'Penny for them?'

She looked up and smiled. 'Oh, I don't know. I was just thinking. Wondering what the real Nic Reece was like. Wondering if he could have ever imagined it would come to this. Thinking about poor Centauri and his future back in civilization. It all seems rather pointless. We fought to save this planet and Tarrol just chucks us out.'

'Us? Thinking of joining the Federation?'

'You know what I mean.'

'He's actually being very brave,' the Doctor said. 'It's not easy throwing away a hundred years of help and protection. Besides, I'm rather pleased.'

' Why?'

'Because in about thirty years time, a ma.s.sive Dalek war will start. The Galactic Federation itself will be torn apart and, when it's all over, forced to re-evaluate itself. With Peladon not being part of it, the Daleks never trek out here. The planet will be safe.'

Bernice stood up, throwing her satchel over her shoulder. She reached over and kissed the Doctor on the cheek. 'Rhukk has sent a s.h.i.+p. Savaar and I are leaving before the ceremony. I'll see you in a few months. Make sure you come and get me.'

'How will I know where you are? In three months you'll have long finished on Phaester Osiris.'

'Just contact me through the Braxiatel Collection.'

The Doctor shoved a hand in a pocket and produced a small green sphere.

I tell you what,' he said. 'You call me when you get bored.'

Bernice looked at the golfball-like TARDIS Tracer and weighed it in her hand. Okay.' She stuffed it into her satchel.

They held each other for a few moments longer and then Bernice slipped away.

Four hours later and the restatement vows ceremony was underway. For the first and last time GFTV-3 was able to record a Pel state occasion.

The Doctor wasn't there.

He was standing three miles to the east of Mount Megeshra. In a few hours he, Kort and Sskeet would be on their way back to Io, and Ace. That made him smile. He'd missed her.

However, right now he stood amid a small amount a wreckage. A shuttle.

Most of it had been blasted completely out of existence by the Bruk's firepower. But a few odds and ends existed.

The Doctor kicked at a charred but otherwise intact adamantium vacuum case. The computer locks were scorched away and it was empty.

A few other bits and bobs, most twisted beyond recognition.

But he knew. He looked around the wasteland, over rocks and boulders.

Up to hillocks and ridges.

'Where are you?' he suddenly yelled. 'Show yourself!' There was no response.

I know you're still out there somewhere. I'll be waiting, don't you worry' The Doctor shoved his hat back on his head angrily and started the long walk back to the mountain.

A few seconds after he had finished shouting, a black skeletal hand pulled itself up over the crest of a ridge. Sightless sockets in a chipped and burned skull seemed to watch him go. A few fused lumps of blackened flesh hung on to odd portions of the ribcage and thighs. One or two strands of wiry hair hung down from the back of the skull.

Once, there had been lush red hair. Once blue eyes had stared from the empty sockets.

Once it had been alive.

Instead there was now just a mobile charred skeleton crouching in few rocks. Across the forehead was a circlet, encrusted with blackened and chipped jewels.

Deep within the sentience that lived in the circlet, the sentience that animated the bones of Siobahn Sadler, mocking laughter rang out.

The Diadem wasn't destroyed.

Merely recuperating.