Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin [127]
‘They were only fighting for their survival,’ the fifth Doctor said.
‘So were we, Doctor. The difference is that we won.
There was the barest hint of remorse in the Provost-General’s voice, though.
‘Have we?’ Whitfield asked. ‘With the Machine gone, the Senate will withdraw your peacekeeping force and all their research grants.’
Medford put his arm around her, and began to lead her out of the observation dome. We’re not going anywhere for the moment, Juno, the planet is surrounded by a billion tonnes of radioactive shrapnel. The peacekeeping force will help you to rebuild. Besides, Earth will see us as traitors now. It’s as well that they can’t get to us just yet.’
‘Thank the Goddess for radioactive shrapnel,’ Forrester said archly.
The Chief Scientist seemed almost broken and didn’t react to Medford’s attempts to comfort her. ‘I’m not sure I can trust you, Lian.’
‘I did this for you,’ he said, aware how weak the words sounded. Whitfield didn’t react, simply walking from the room. Medford hurtled after her, oblivious to everyone else.
Forrester and the seventh Doctor were following them out of the observation dome. Adric paused at the doorway.
His Doctor was standing in front of the Ferutu.
‘Could you do me a favour, Adric?’ he said softly. ‘Could you get back to the Scientifica and round up Tegan and Nyssa.’
‘What will you be doing?’ Adric asked.
‘I have a little unfinished business here,’ the Doctor replied.
The Ferutu were silent, some were asleep. Their leader was standing, watching over them. The chamber was dark lit only by dull blue emergency lamps.
‘You are still here.’ Its voice was calm.
‘Yes. I didn’t know what he was planning, really I didn’t. I will do everything in my power to release you.’
The Feruru’s expression didn’t change. ‘You know your future. You use your knowledge to imprison us and destroy all that we have known. That promise was broken before you made it.’
The Doctor nodded sadly, remembering the future. ‘I’m sorry. But I am a Time Lord: I have many destinies, many future selves. He won’t be the last.’
‘We would have done the same as him. If we were released we would find a way to re-establish the true course of time. We know that today, like ourselves, you have also lost your past and future.’
The Doctor nodded, picturing Patience framed in the window of the Nightingale Facility, the weak light behind her blonde hair. Then he saw his future self sneering as he condemned an entire universe to death.
He picked up her nightgown. The blood had dried into Rorschach patterns: question marks and owls and stars.
‘It is not the first time you have met her, It will not be the last.’
The thought filled the Doctor with hope. ‘Thank you.
Tell me of your people.’
‘I have, I will.’
The Doctor nodded. ‘I have to go now. He is not my only future.’
He hesitated before folding up the nightgown, He would take it with him. The Doctor left the observation dome, keying the sequence that closed and locked the door. As the chamber sealed behind him, the Doctor did not look back.
The Doctors lifted the panel back into place on the side of the transmat control terminal. The seventh Doctor bent over and fastened it shut with his sonic screwdriver.
Chris materialized on the platform. ‘Hello, everyone,’ he said cheerily. They had restored the radio link a quarter of an hour ago and quickly established that everyone was all right. The Provost-General and the Chief Scientist had left, separately.
Cwej helped up the fifth Doctor. The young Time Lord thanked him. Roz passed him back his frock coat. ‘There’s something I don’t understand,’ Cwej said.
‘Hmmm?’
‘Well, if he’s your future self, why don’t you remember all this from first time round?’
‘Does everything have to have a reason?’ Forrester asked.
‘Perhaps it’s magic.’
‘No, no,’ the fifth Doctor said, ‘the rules of time travel are very precise, and Mr Cwej here has a good point. Now, on both occasions that