Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin [42]
The Time Lords allowed you to leave?
I...
The young teacher, whatever his name was, wouldn’t stop asking questions. The Doctor whirled to face him.
Have you ever thought what it is like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles... Susan and I are cut off from our own planet, without friends or protection. But one day... we shall get back. Yes, one day...
one day.
These accounts contradict one another.
Memories often do.
I want to know what is happening.
‘If you would be so kind as to come with me?’
‘Who are you?’ He was so old, but there weren’t any old people any more. He walked through the cloister with the aid of a stick, a knobbled stick with strange writing on it.
There was a dark shape drifting behind him in the shadows. Outside the Capitol was burning.
‘I couldn’t possibly tell you that, oh no.’
‘You wear my husband’s ring.’
He held it up to the candlelight, examined it, then clutched it to his chest. ‘Yes. So I do.’
‘Please stop them – they are trying to find my daughter-in-law, they are going to kill her child.’
He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Your granddaughter was born ten minutes ago, I was there at the birth. She is safe, quite safe.’
‘A girl? Where is she?’
‘She will be taken away from here, away from this madness I will take her far from this world of vampires and valeyards. First, however, we must get you to safety.’
‘Me?’
He took her hand. ‘Come, my dear.’
This memory is faint.
It was a long time ago. I’m not even sure it’s one of mine.
The truth.
A lot of what happened before my second regeneration is hazy. Great chunks of my life are missing. It was all so very long ago.
Your second regeneration?
‘How far, Doctor? How long have you lived?’ An oversized claw snapped open and shut, a human hand clasped a rail. A brain within a tank, red eyestalks glaring at him. A patchwork monster with a gurgling voice. ‘your puny mind is powerless against the strength of Morbius, Back! Back to your beginning!’
You can’t... not that far... I won’t let you.... Not even I...
Here and no further.
A cold wind.
A mountainside.
It is dark.
An old man stands there, alone.
He raises his fist.
‘Is this how it began, or how it will end?’ the female voice asked without breaking the silence.
A third voice spoke. ‘It is both. Time is relative. History repeats itself, and repeats itself again. Father to son.’
The Doctor turned to see who had spoken. There was no one else there. Just him, the woman and the... the other.
When did this happen? Tell me!
But the Doctor was staring at the other.
‘You!’ the Doctor shouted.
The other smiled.
‘You!’ the Doctor shouted.
Adric leapt over to him, clamping a hand over his mouth. ‘They’ll hear us,’ he whispered into the Doctor’s ear. The Doctor struggled free, his hand thrashing out towards the cryogenic tube. A crack had appeared along its length, and spread along the transparent plastic. It splintered. Blue fluid exploded across the room. Adric ducked instinctively, felt himself pelted with shards of plastic, great gobbets of cryogenic fluid. When the last fragments had clattered to a halt, Adric turned. The Patient had sloshed from the tube, and now lay on its back like a broken heap on the floor. The wires had snapped, and hung twitching in the shattered metal tube. Foul-smelling blue liquid was congealing over the floor and medical equipment.
The Doctor was slumped against the tube. Adric’s hand was wet. He pulled it away from the Doctor’s face. Blood was dribbling from the Doctor’s nose. He seemed oblivious to his surroundings.
A bony claw caught Adric’s wrist. The Patient’s head creaked around, its jaw dropping open. It rasped, a sound like a child’s rattle. Its lipless mouth was curled into a sneer or a smile.
Adric stared at it, saw the expression of raw fear in the Patient’s eyes. He tried to speak, but couldn’t.
The Doctor screamed.
Part Three
Patience
7
Changing Faces
The Doctor screamed.
Adric scrabbled over to him. ‘They’ll hear you,