Doctor Who_ Atom Bomb Blues - Andrew Cartmel [77]
Finally he said, ‘If you didn’t know I was here, why did you come, daddy-o?’
‘We were looking for Lady Silk,’ said the Doctor. ‘So I suppose it should come as no surprise that you turned up as well.’
‘Oh, don’t put me in the same bag as them, man. That Lady Silk and Imperial Lee. They’re fanatics man, they’re fanatics.’
‘And what are you, Ray?’
‘Just a lost soul,’ said Ray morosely. ‘A long way from home.’
‘That’s a very sad story, Ray,’ said Ace. ‘Why don’t you untie us while you tell us all about it.’
‘Sorry Ace baby. I can’t. I want to, but I can’t.’
‘Why not?’
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‘Because Ray is doing the bidding of the people who are holding us prisoner.’
The Doctor stared at him coldly. ‘Don’t expect him to think or act for himself.’
‘That’s not fair man. You make me sound like some kind of flunky. I’m no flunky.’
‘Then untie us,’ said Ace.
Ray shook his head sadly. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t help. I never should have come up here. But I had to take a look. To see if it was you cats. From what they were saying, it sounded like you. I was hoping it wasn’t, though.’ Ray turned and walked ponderously back towards the spiral staircase.
‘Wait,’ said the Doctor.
‘I told you, I can’t untie you, man.’
‘Don’t untie us then,’ said the Doctor in a calm, persuasive voice. ‘But just stay and talk to us.’
Ray hesitated, his hand on the wrought-iron stair rail. ‘Just talk, man?’
‘That’s right. Tell us about yourself. After all, you have nothing to hide now.’
Ray turned and came back into the room and stood between the Doctor and Ace. ‘I’d offer you a chair,’ said the Doctor. ‘But there only seem to be two, and they’re currently occupied by Ace and myself.’ Ray shook his head and sat down on the raised section of floor beside the telescope. He took the record bag off his shoulder and carefully set it to one side.
‘You want me to tell you about myself?’
‘That’s right, Ray,’ said the Doctor soothingly. ‘We just want to know a little more about you.’
‘But you must know everything about me, man.’
‘Not at all.’
‘But didn’t they send you after me? From back home I mean. Didn’t they send you to try and stop me?’
The Doctor smiled. ‘Not exactly, Ray. For a start, there is no “they”. Ace and myself are free agents. No one sent us. And we didn’t exactly come from back home. Or at least I didn’t. Ace did.’
‘What?’ said Ace.
The Doctor turned to look at her. The angle of their chairs after their futile attempt to move across the room meant that he had to stare across his shoulder at an awkward angle. Nonetheless, he made an attempt to smile. ‘You come from the same place and time as Ray.’
‘But he comes from another dimension.’
‘So do you, Ace. The same dimension.’
‘But you said –’ Ace paused. She forced herself to think. The Doctor and Ray stared at her as she sat there, fiercely silent, trying to put it all together in her head. ‘No,’ she said slowly. ‘You didn’t. You never said that this was our own dimension. Our own universe. I just assumed it was.’
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‘So you guys dig the multiverse theory,’ said Ray. ‘That’s a relief. You understand there’s an infinite number of dimensions, all of them tiny variations on each other, man. And the possibilities are exhaustive, baby, exhaustive.’
‘Well, I’m exhausted anyway,’ said Ace bitterly.
‘What Ray means is that every imaginable possibility exists, every variation of the universe, all nestling together and even overlapping. Isn’t that correct, Ray? Isn’t that how you came to be here?’
Ray shook his head dolefully. ‘I don’t know any more, man. I used to think it was all physics. A matter of where the two dimensions overlap, and the probability of it. But now I’m beginning to think it’s magic man, like black magic.’
‘Clarke’s law,’ said Ace. The Doctor gave her an approving look.
‘What’s that, man?’
‘At a certain point science and magic become indistinguishable,’ said