Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin [18]
There was a crunch and scrape from behind the pedestal. Adric leant round to catch a glimpse of the woman, to see what she was doing. She was kicking the park bench, trying to dislodge it. Adric watched her for a moment. She aimed a couple of powerful kicks at the leg of the bench, but it didn’t budge. She bent down to examine it, to see how it was fastened to the platform. She began scrabbling at the base of the leg. Finally, she gave up, standing, turning to face the oncoming train.
To Adric’s astonishment the Doctor was standing in front of her. ‘Hello,’ he said cheerily, ‘I’m –’
He was bathed in light and fell.
‘I don’t care who you are, as long as you weigh more than twenty-five kilos, you’ll do,’ the woman scowled, pocketing her pistol. She rolled the Doctor’s body off onto the icy track. He sloshed down the side, his momentum causing him to slide a couple of metres down the track.
The Doctor was in the path of the train.
It was vast now, the front engine a rounded cylinder ten metres in diameter. The headlamp now poured light over the whole station, the clattering of the carriages reverberated around the platform. It wasn’t travelling very fast, fifty kilometres an hour at most, but it was relentless: so big, so wide. The ground was shaking, the roar from the engines was blotting out every other sound, the glare from the light was dazzling now, almost bleaching out the Doctor’s prone body. Adric calculated that the train would reach the Doctor in eight seconds.
‘No!’ Adric screamed, rushing forward.
Seven.
Adric leapt after the Doctor, trying to pull him clear.
Six.
The woman grabbed his shoulder.
Five.
She pulled him away from the edge of the platform.
Four.
‘Not smart,’ she yelled, restraining him.
‘But the –’ Adric’s mind was racing, trying to open up possibilities. Thinking of a way to save the Doctor.
Three.
The Doctor was beginning to stir. Adric opened his mouth to shout. Anything he said was drowned out by the noise of the tram.
Two.
The Doctor squinted in the glare of the train’s light. He raised his hand, half to shield his eyes, half in an attempt to protect himself.
One.
The train had stopped and the engine noise was beginning to die down. Vents on the engine’s roof opened and steam hissed from them, billowing across the park.
The woman said, ‘Relax, kid. I needed to stop the train, but I managed to misplace the override. The train’s able to detect an obstruction on the line. It brakes automatically when there’s anything that weighs more than twenty-five kilos in front of it. I tried using the park bench, but it wouldn’t move. Your colleague was much more co-operative.’
‘And you knew for a fact that it would be able to stop in time?’ Adric demanded angrily.
‘Yes, she did, Adric,’ the Doctor’s groggy voice. drifted up. ‘The train has an inertial damping system, using the same sort of gravitronics fitted to warpships to stop, people being squashed flat by superlight velocities. Adric leant over the edge of the platform. The Doctor stood, centimetres from the front of the tram, the light from the headlamp framing him like a spotlight. He prised off one of the array of small discs clipped to the front of the tram in a triangular pattern and handed it to the woman. ‘I was never really in any danger.’
‘Gravity discs are one hundred per cent reliable,’ the woman noted, holding up the disc so that Adric could see it. ‘Well, almost. If they were totally reliable, I’d have jumped down myself.’ The Doctor’s face fell.
‘I’m afraid I can’t stop to chat. Please don t get in my way again.’ The woman sprinted down the platform. Adric moved over to help the Doctor up.
‘Well don’t just stand there, Adric, try to stop her.’ The Doctor skated over to the edge of the platform and tried to gain enough footing to hoist himself back onto it. Adric nodded, and headed after her, slipping a little in the ice.
She had already reached the carriage, and was examining a sign on the side. Adric moved to get a better look at it, and her. She was