Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin [0]
An original novel featuring the Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan.
'The entire universe is at stake and I'm locked in here with another incarnation of myself, and not even one of the
good ones!'
More than one TARDIS lands on a barren ice world. The fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan find a once ordered society on the verge of collapse, as rebels wage a dirty war with Scientifica, the ruling elite. All that stands between order and anarchy is the massed presence of an Adjudicator peacekeeping force.
But is peace the only reason for the Adjudicator garrison? What exactly has been discovered deep below the planet's surface? Who are the mysterious Feratu? And why is telling a ghost story a criminal offence?
The fifth Doctor sides with the cause of justice and fairness as always. But, as a threat to the universe unfolds, he finds himself in conflict with his past... and his future.
This adventure takes place between the television stories CASTROVALVA and FOUR TO DOOMSDAY and between the New Adventures Return of the Living Dad and The Death of Art.
This is Lance Parkin's third Doctor Who book, and that's just this year. This latest one has more robots than his first and fewer footnotes than his second.
ISBN 0 426 20489 1
COLD FUSION
LANCE PERKIN
First published in Great Britain in 1996 by Doctor Who Books
an imprint of Virgin Publishing Ltd SF 332 Ladbroke Grove
London W1O 5AH
To my wife, Cassandra May:
as beautiful as Princess Leia and as smart as Yoda Copyright © 1996 by Lance Perkin
The right of Lance Parkin to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
‘Doctor Who’ series copyright © British Broadcasting Corporation 1996
Reproduced, printed and bound in Great Britain by Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd, Aylesbury, Bucks ISBN 0 426 20489 1
Cover illustration by Alister Pearson
Typeset by Galleon Typesetting, Ipswich Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham PLC
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Thanks to the usual Time Team: Cassie, Mark Jones, Mark Clapham and Michael Evans. Special thanks to Jonathan Evans and David Pitcher for fixing my computer when it broke halfway through Chapter Twelve. Thanks also to Lisa Brattan.
Drinking song lyrics courtesy of Mark Jones and John Binns.
CONTENTS
Part One - Distant Music
1 Ghostwatch
2 On the Rocks
3 Off the Rails
Part Two - Scientifica
4 Take Me to Your Leader
5 Behind Closed Doors
6 The Patient
Part Three - Patience
7 Changing Faces
8 Angels and/or Devils
9 Escape to Danger
Part Four - A Bit of the Other
10 Snowfall
11 Fusion
12 Staring into the Abyss
Part Five - Breakthrough
13 Crossing the Line
14 Convergence
15 Downtime
Part Six - Deus Ex Machina
16 The Empire Strikes Back
17 The Face of the Enemy
18 The Day After Yesterday
Part One
Distant Music
1
Ghostwatch
High, high above the trees the night sky was creaking and clattering.
Out here, among the mountain communities and the farmsteads on the ice plains far from the Strip, people explained that it was the chatter of all the souls ever lost to the avalanche, drifting over the horizon with the clouds.
The scientists claimed that it was simply the sound of the wind buffeting billions of snowflakes together and that everything could be expressed in terms of air currents acting upon frozen droplets of water.
Underneath the forest canopy, the Doctor was sheltered from the worst of the blizzard, and at last he knew that he had reached his destination.