Doctor Who_ Alien Bodies - Lawrence Miles [145]
Sam jumped to her feet, and hurried over to the Time Lord’s side like a little puppy. She took the Lieutenant’s arm, then led the woman towards the nearest available chair. The Doctor collapsed against the frame of the archway, looking exhausted.
‘I see you, er, got the stiff back,’ Qixotl ventured.
The Doctor stared at him.
The stare was horrible. Really, really nasty. Qixotl could see things in the Doctor’s eyes, terrible churning things, trying to break free of his head.
‘Don’t trust him,’ gurgled the Lieutenant.
‘Don’t trust who?’ said Sam.
The woman raised her hand, and pointed an accusing finger at the Doctor. Her face was a deathly white, Qixotl saw, and her limbs were seriously shaking. ‘He’s one of them. One of the dead. He’s got the mark. I saw it. I saw it happen.’
‘Oh, hell,’ said Qixotl.
Sam gawped at the Doctor. ‘Doctor...?’
He shook his head. His face was scrunched up like a piece of old wrapping paper, and for the first time, Qixotl realised he was actually in pain, not just gurning for comic effect.
‘The Matrix,’ he hissed.
‘The what?’
‘The world of the Celestis. Pure information. Outside the physical universe. It’s like the Matrix. The same technology. The Celestis must have used the Matrix to build it.’
Qixotl tried to figure out what the Doctor was talking about. Yeah, they said the Matrix was more than just a computer the Time Lords used to predict the future; they said it was a whole mini-universe, made out of solid facts. And yeah, from what Qixotl had heard about the Celestis, their home – Mictlan, right? – was the same kind of set-up. But so what?
‘I’m an ex-President of the High Council of Gallifrey,’ the Doctor continued. The words sounded forced, like they’d got themselves stuck in his windpipe, and it was taking him all his strength to cough them out. ‘I’ve worn the Sash of Rassilon. And the Coronet. The Coronet of Rassilon. It puts you in direct contact with the Matrix. My biodata... my biodata contains the codes for manipulating the Matrix. That’s how I got to Mictlan. The Celestis opened an aperture for Trask. I managed to... to force my way through it... while it was still open...’
Suddenly, Qixotl got the point. ‘You mean, you can manipulate the Celestis’ place, as well? Whee. Impressive.’
The Doctor clenched his teeth a little harder. ‘No. Not all of it. But their science... Celestine consciousness... there’s a link. An affinity. I built a cage. In my mind.’ He tapped his forehead, just in case anyone didn’t know where he kept this mind he was talking about.
Sam looked from the Doctor to Kathleen to Qixotl, obviously not following most of this. ‘A cage for what?’
‘The Shift.’
‘The Shift’s in your head?’
‘Yes. Yes. Trapped.’ The Doctor gripped the frame of the arch, to steady himself. ‘Trask tried to mark me. Pure Celestine consciousness. Pushed it. Right into my mind.’
And then, despite the pain he seemed to be in, despite the fact that his legs looked ready to give up and dump him on the floor at any moment, a grin broke out across his face.
‘He missed,’ the Doctor said.
Qixotl’s jaw dropped. ‘He marked the Shift?’
The Doctor nodded.
‘But the Shift works for the... er, for the enemy.’
‘I know. The enemy marked the Shift when they created it. The Celestis have marked it again. The Shift’s becoming schizophrenic. The conflict of interests is tearing it apart.’ The Doctor put his hands to his head. ‘It’s taking my mind to pieces. Rattling the bars of the cage. I’m afraid I’m going to go mad.’
He wobbled on his feet. Sam rushed up to him, and kept him from toppling over. ‘What do we do?’
‘We have to get back to the TARDIS. I can download the Shift into the telepathic circuits, seal it inside one of the memory cells. You’ll have to help me.’
‘Right.’ Sam took the Doctor’s arm, and the Doctor turned, to face the corridor