Doctor Who_ Camera Obscura - Lloyd Rose [107]
‘The wave function collapses,’ he said tonelessly. She looked at him again. His eyes were hooded and his face very still. ‘The cat lives or dies.’
He’d lost her. ‘I suppose so.’ He suddenly struck her as smaller, and very young. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Sorry?’
‘I mean, after...’
‘Oh, that. I’m fine.’
He didn’t look fine. He looked worn and ill. Like a man who’d nearly died the night before. Cut the ‘nearly’.
‘You’ve got to stop doing that,’ she said, a little more shakily than she meant to. He raised his eyes.
‘I’m sorry.’ He sounded sincere.
‘You can’t just keep on...’
‘Risking my life?’
‘Grinding me up like that. It’s horrible. I don’t know you’re going to come round. We have to watch you, me and Fitz, lying there looking like you’re in agony. You don’t know what it’s like. You don’t,’ she insisted, though he hadn’t tried to say anything. She felt tears at the edge of her eyes and squeezed them shut angrily.
‘You’re sick of this sort of life,’ he said quietly, ‘aren’t you?’
She rubbed her eyes with her sleeve. ‘I’m just tired.’
‘No. You never chose it. You’ve always wanted to get home.’
‘Well, that might be a moot point now, mightn’t it?’ To her embarrassment, she sniffed loudly. ‘I mean, if time explodes or the universe uncurls or whatever’s going to happen.’
He shifted uncomfortably, crossing his arms and looking at his feet.
‘Sabbath could have at least given us a ride in that timesub of his,’ she added, a bit sulkily.
‘No, he was right. It was important for someone always to be at the site.’
‘It would only have taken five minutes.’ He didn’t respond. ‘What can you do in London, anyway? Is there really something in the TARDIS that will help?’
‘Probably not. I had another reason for wanting to get back.’
‘What?’
‘I’d like to fetch that mirror.’
‘Scale’s?’
‘Yes. I wasn’t worried about it when I thought we were going to find the machine quickly. But now I don’t like the idea of its drifting around loose. I want to take it to the TARDIS.’
‘And smash it, right?’
‘Mm.’ The Doctor tapped a foot thoughtfully. ‘That’s going to be a bit of a problem, I think. It’s not glass. I’d be very surprised if it’s any substance that can be broken with a simple blow, and it could be impervious to material force altogether.’
‘Then what can you do?’
‘I imagine a confluence of certain energies could shatter it. The question is, which ones? I’ll need to run tests.’
‘Tests...?’ she said uncertainly.
He smiled. ‘Oh, there won’t be any danger. Not in the vortex. Anyway, that’s not an immediate issue. I’d just like to get it out of that exhibit at the carnival.’
‘Mm. Sabbath doesn’t know about this extra mirror, does he?’
‘Well... no.’
‘Plan to tell him about it?’
‘There’s not really any reason to.’
Fitz opened his eyes and looked around sleepily. ‘Everything still here, I see. So far so good. You know, I’m kind of getting used to the idea that I’m going to twist out of existence any second now. I suppose you get used to anything, after a while, just to keep the blood vessels in your brain from popping.’
‘Are you always this chatty when you first wake up?’ said Anji. Fitz smirked.
‘One way to find out.’
‘Eew,’ she said, imitating a thirteen-year old. ‘As if.’
‘You know, “The universe is going to blow up” has got to be the most persuasive pick-up line in the history of everything.’
‘Well, you can spend your last hours finding out if that’s so.’
The Doctor was regarding them with benign tolerance, like a parent watching quarrelling siblings. Fitz thought he shouldn’t have been quite so calm. Running in frantic circles and waving his arms would have been more appropriate. On the other hand, that wouldn’t actually help any more than just sitting there.
‘I suppose it’s a good sign that you’re not leaping about in panic.’
‘I never leap about in panic. I tend to hold