Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin [109]
‘Contact.’
The sphere twitched, then sprouted open, morphing upwards, filling out until it resembled a small tree, a sapling. Medford glanced out at the Machine. The new apparatus almost resembled the crashed TARDIS in miniature. Branches curled out towards the Doctor and Patience, delicately wrapping themselves around their heads like crowns. The process could have been a violation, but instead it was almost tender. After moments, the Doctor opened his eyes and began breathing again.
‘There.’
‘It’s done?’
‘The TARDIS is now primed.’ The Doctor was bent over Patience, checking that there was contact between the metal branch and the woman’s skin.
‘Explain precisely what you have done,’ Whitfield said.
‘A TARDIS and its owner are almost symbiotically linked. Before any flight, a TARDIS needs a little telepathic coaxing. In this case, the ship hasn’t operated for aeons, poor chap, so the process was even more complicated than it might have been.’ He ran fingers across the circlet around his own head, then withdrew them, apparently satisfied.
‘You have successfully booted up the TARDIS’s mainframe and programmed its navigation computer with the co-ordinates of the planet Gallifrey,’ Whitfield said coldly.
‘Indeed.’ The Doctor held his palm against a portion of the frame, and a tiny switch appeared. ‘The dematerialization control,’ he said. ‘Now, once I’m connected up again, I’ll lapse back into a telepathic trance.
All you’ll have to do is flick this and the crashed TARDIS
will head back to the exact point in time and space from which it originated.’
‘How long will the journey take?’ Medford asked. ‘Oh, a good ten minutes,’ the Doctor guessed. His hand hovered over the switch.
There was someone else in the room, one of the ghosts.
Medford recognized it as the first to materialize at the Waystation. Although he couldn’t be certain of it, this looked like the ghost he had confronted in the life support chamber at the Scientifica pyramid. It was solid now, somehow more human than before. it stood on the ground, rather than hovering.
‘Doctor,’ the ghost said, its voice a calm whisper. Its skin was pale, drawn.
The Gallifreyan stepped forward, feigning surprise.
‘You know me? Then you have the advantage of me.’
The ghost cocked his head to one side, confused by the question, ‘You do not know of us?’
Medford moved forward, interposing himself between the Doctor and the ghost. ‘I am Provost-General Medford the commander of the military forces on this planet. Once again, I ask you to state your business here.’
‘You do not concern me,’ the ghost stated, matter-of-factly. It was looking straight through him at the Doctor.
‘Only the time machine concerns me.’ It took a step forward.
Medford didn’t move. ‘This planet and everything on it is under the protection of the Divine Empress. If you attempt to interfere with the Machine or this colony, then I will destroy you.’
The ghost watched him for a moment measured his response. Medford stood perfectly still. The ghost was hairless, with thin, almost transparent, skin. Other than that it might have passed as human.
‘You threaten us?’ it asked finally. Its tone was more one of curiosity than anger.
‘If force is needed to remove you from this world then I shall not hesitate to use that force.’
The ghost’s expression hadn’t changed. Then there was a sudden movement. The left arm lashed out.
The other two Adjudicators in the room had drawn their sidearms when they had first registered the ghost’s presence. Now they fired.
The energy bolts streaked towards their target at the speed of light. But they were slowing down, along with everything else in the room. The Doctor and Patience were reeling in slow motion, the others were statues.
Medford looked around at the tableau. There was a bubble of air around him, outside it time had stopped. The energy bolts continue inexorably towards the ghost, but now they were crawling through the air no faster than a snail would.
The