Doctor Who_ The Gallifrey Chronicles Part 36

He was fading.

The Doctor leant in: 'You were my childhood hero,' he whispered.

Marnal's eyes widened, then closed.

Rachel returned to see that Marnal had already gone. She put the medical kit down and knelt beside him, holding his hand. She had seen once before what happened next.

Marnal's skin glowed, faintly at first. His features bleached out and then there was no face, just the light, and within a minute even that had faded.

Nothing remained of him, not even the clothes.

Rachel was surprised to feel more upset than she had the first time.

'The first Time Lord for two million years whose memories won't be stored in the Matrix,' the Doctor noted matter-of-factly. 'His secrets die with him.

Now, come on, we need to get going.'

A small robot dog was gliding towards Rachel with what looked like a gun sticking out of its nose.

'Intruder, master,' it said.

'Don't worry about Rachel, K9. How are the repairs going?'

'Proceeding ahead of schedule. List follows: the main '

214.

'Can we take off?' the Doctor asked, cutting him off.

'Affirmative.'

The Doctor moved around the console, dialling, twisting, pus.h.i.+ng, pulling and slapping controls. The central column began rising and falling.

'I thought the Vore could '

The TARDIS rocked violently, as though someone was grabbing it.

'They can. In fact, I'm banking on that.' He tapped a control and the TARDIS dived to one side. Although Rachel couldn't work out quite which side it was.

'It'll keep them busy. Feint with the left, strike with the right. The Vore are attracted to flaws in the s.p.a.ce-time continuum. They exploit the flaws, use them to pull their whole planets through s.p.a.ce. They don't get any choice, they're moths to a flame.'

'Master. . . ' K9 warned as the TARDIS lurched again.

'I know, I know. I need you to do something, K9. When I give the signal, I want you to deactivate the s.h.i.+p's defensive systems.'

'Deactivate, master?'

'You heard. Rachel, could you come over here a minute? Every three or four seconds, press that black b.u.t.ton, would you?'

Rachel looked down at it.

'Oh come on, it's not that difficult,' the Doctor complained. 'I'll do it,' Rachel muttered.

She tapped the b.u.t.ton, and the TARDIS seemed to go into free fall for a few seconds. She turned to ask if it was meant to do that, but the Doctor was leaving the console room.

'Wait! Where are you going?'

The Doctor grinned. 'Infinity and beyond, as it happens. That's another three seconds, you've missed your cue.'

Rachel pressed the b.u.t.ton again. This time, the TARDIS spun on its axis.

The Doctor entered the power room and strode up to the control panel on the back wall. The iron sphere sat in the middle of the room, as normal, completely inert. The floor shook as the s.h.i.+p completed another random evasive manoeuvre. He checked his pocket watch. It told him three different times, all at once.

He pulled the switch that opened the eye.

I know you, the presence trapped there told him. the presence trapped there told him.

'Bully for you.'

Why this is h.e.l.l, nor are you out of it.

The Doctor shook his head, almost pityingly, at the misquote.

Your precious Earth has been devastated. A threat on a scale that not even you can deal with. Do you appreciate the irony, Doctor? You summoned the Vore can deal with. Do you appreciate the irony, Doctor? You summoned the Vore 215 215 to Earth. The atomic explosion damaged the eye, your hesitation in pulling the lever that would seal it off, your desire to know your past, allowed the creation lever that would seal it off, your desire to know your past, allowed the creation of a cicatrix. A small one, but it was enough to attract the moths to the flame. of a cicatrix. A small one, but it was enough to attract the moths to the flame.

'Yes, I know. I was there,' said the Doctor, without looking over his shoulder.

He opened the eyeboard, and got it to display the s.h.i.+p's current coordinates and to set up a communications link with the main console.

A lever that you didn't pull because you doubted yourself.

'Yes, dramatic irony, poetic justice, hoist by my own petard, history repeating. How very clever of you.'

In times gone by, Doctor, you would have called on the Time Lords to help sort out a threat of such magnitude, but now you are truly alone in the universe. out a threat of such magnitude, but now you are truly alone in the universe.

The Doctor checked his watch again.

He looked round for the first time. Fully open, the eye filled the room with a blue swirling light so bright that it roared. He couldn't conceive of the power involved, the energies being released. Had there really been Time Lords who looked into this and saw a mere source of energy to be harnessed? Were they as G.o.ds, or just lacking any imagination whatsoever? a.s.suming they couldn't be both. The TARDIS shook.

Your companion is dead.

The Doctor was jolted from his thoughts.

'Which one?'

The male. He died saving the female. Is that hesitation, Doctor? Do you finally realise the extent of my victory over you? realise the extent of my victory over you?

The Doctor took a deep breath. 'Oh, don't worry, I recognise a victory when I see one. You might want to budge up a bit.'

A cicatrix was forming, a scar on s.p.a.ce and time itself. The Doctor winced, as though it was a paper-cut to his own eye.

He sent his signal to the control room.

With no force fields or other defences operating, there was nothing to stop the Vore from stepping right into the TARDIS and taking the cicatrix. A hypers.p.a.ce corridor wide enough for a small moon to pa.s.s through it duly opened up, right in the centre of the power room. Time and s.p.a.ce expanded to ac-commodate it, but not without screaming in protest.

The Doctor, to one side of this, suddenly felt very small indeed. This close the edge of the wormhole was a vertical horizon, perfectly straight.

Then the Vore moon pa.s.sed through the corridor like a bullet through a rifle barrel, straight into the eye, the Vore heading for the cicatrix out of sheer instinct. Making a beeline. The moon was either dwarfed or shrank physically as it dropped into the swirling energy. It s.h.i.+fted a little as it tried to jump free, but despite its size it couldn't ama.s.s the force needed to escape, couldn't even disrupt the hurricane flow of its surroundings.

216.

No! No! NO!!!!

The Doctor shrugged. 'That's your opinion, and you're ent.i.tled to it.'

He pulled down the lever, sealing off the eye. The room snapped back to its normal, cavernous dimensions.

The TARDIS shot up almost throwing the Doctor from his feet. Three seconds later it swooped down, just as dizzyingly.

'You can stop pressing that b.u.t.ton now, Rachel,' the Doctor shouted at the intercom.

From the Earth, this is how it appeared.

Trix and Mrs Winfield were still in Marnal's house. They were in the library, looking out of the small window up into the night sky. The two moons were both beginning to wane. The second moon's light was redder than Earth's own moon, the colour of sandstone.

'I'm getting used to it,' Mrs Winfield said. 'I'm not sure I'll ever get used to them, though.'

Then the second moon exploded, in a flash of blue light that bathed the whole hemisphere facing it. Then there was nothing left.

Trix and Mrs Winfield ran outside and stared up into the sky, looking at nothing. Trix felt a sense of elation throughout her whole body, the sort of emotion that only comes when you realise that every other human being watching will be feeling the same way. For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all the people of the Earth were truly united. Trix was rooted to the spot, staring up, tears in her eyes. One moon, pristine. Perhaps there was something in astrology after all. Now that the second moon wasn't in the third house of Mars, or whatever, it felt like the world was right.

That's where the Doctor had been, and he'd won, Trix realised. Sacrifices had not been made in vain. Humanity had won, and the war without end had ended.

And then, throughout the world, the Vore retaliated.

One leapt out of the sky and down at Trix, maw mas.h.i.+ng, four arms out-stretched, ready to grab her.

Trix rolled out of the way but the thing was on her, punching down, sharp claws embedding themselves in the soft lawn, ripping their way out and stabbing at her again.

Mrs Winfield was running inside. On the threshold she hesitated.

'Bolt the door!' Trix shouted, as half a dozen Vore alighted on the patio.

The door slammed shut. The Vore immediately started pummelling at it, and the wood began to splinter.

217.

Trix's hand found a rusty garden trowel. She dug it into her Vore's left eye, sc.r.a.ping it down.

The Vore didn't even register pain. It lashed out, batting her away, then hopped over to her, stretching its wings for just a second or two to carry it along. Its comrades had all but broken down the back door, but Trix couldn't worry about Mrs Winfield for the moment.

The monster's mouth was working away in two different directions. It was watching her, like it was deciding what to do. It took a while, but then it followed its decision through so quickly she could barely see it. Others were landing now. All around, Trix could hear screaming and dogs barking. The Vore weren't rasping that white dust over everyone, they were just slicing and battering away.

Instinctively, Trix brought her elbow down on the Vore's forearm. There wasn't a self-defence teacher in the country who'd say it was a bad move. She nearly broke a bone on the hard carapace.

The creature pulled her round, then let go to get a better attack in. Its claw sliced towards Trix, who realised that this was where she died.

A hand caught the Vore's claw.

The creature hissed, tried to push down. But the hand stayed firm. The Vore s.h.i.+fted its ground but couldn't get any leverage. Hand and claw were locked in place. The Vore tilted, and c.o.c.ked its head to get a good look at the man in its way. Its compound eyes twitched, adjusted.

It stared into the man's eyes.

More than that, it understood what it was looking at.

Then, for the first time, the Vore took a step back. All around it all the other Vore were doing the same. They were ma.s.sing for a last attack, Trix thought.

Strength in numbers.

Now, though, the hand released its grip. The Vore took another step back.

A moment later, as if frightened by a loud noise, every Vore was airborne, spiralling away.

'I'm back,' the Doctor said.

He helped his companion up and nodded an acknowledgement to a startled Mrs Winfield.

'How the h.e.l.l did you do that?'

'They're running. It's what you're meant to do when you see a monster a fact you seem to have forgotten.'

'It was you that destroyed the moon? Wait. . . but didn't you just come from inside Marnal's house?' Trix had seen movement from the corner of her eye.

'Never mind that. Have you seen Fitz?'

It took a moment for her to find the words.

'He's dead,' she told him.

218.

'But have you seen him?'

Trix looked up, finding it hard to imagine the Doctor could be so cruel to her.

The Doctor took her hand.

'I saw him die,' she said. 'The Vore just struck him down, hissed poison over him. He was doing it to save me,' she sobbed. 'But I know you. . . '