Doctor Who_ Cat's Cradle_ Times Crucible - Marc Platt [12]
"OK." Ace wondered if the Doctor was delirious or just normal. It wasn't always easy to tell. "Well, how do we reach it then?" she asked cautiously.
He shook his head.
"Miss?"
The policewoman was crouching beside her.
"Clear off, will you?" Ace said testily. "We're not causing any trouble."
"I think your friend would be better off in hospital."
"I said, naff off!"
She was not going to be outwitted by a bunch of out-of-order dimensions. In desperation, she tried to be practical. "It's just a door, Professor. Suppose we both go round opposite ways and catch it at the back?"
He dismissed her idea out of hand. "No, that'd never work."
"Fine." She hated defeatists. What was he going to do? Sit on the pavement all day until the problem solved itself?
He eyed her guiltily. "Ace. Why has the TARDIS locked me out?"
"The TARDIS? You said it had been invaded."
"Hmm. It's locked me out, but it wants me back inside." He looked up at the two police constables and said loudly, "I must know why."
Ace stood up unsteadily. The air was getting hazy again in a fresh drift of molecules The TARDIS'sbeacon seemed to thrum in her head in time with her own heartbeat. She was not sure what the Doctor meant by "beyond perception". How could she tell what was real if she couldn't trust what she saw - or thought she saw? All she knew was that the Doctor had to be got into his ship, and whatever was in there had to be got out.
She thought she saw two police constables. She nodded at the police box. "Is this yours?" she said.
The constables glanced at each other.
"Because it wasn't here yesterday, was it?" she went on. "And I bet they didn't say a word about it down at the nick."
The WPC was starting to get annoyed. "You know something about it, do you?" she said.
Ace shrugged. If she concentrated on one object at a time, in this case the policewoman, she could blot out the flux of dimensions blizzarding through the rest of reality. "Dunno. It's what's inside that bothers me."
She was dimly aware of the policeman reaching into the car for the radio handset. "Get an ambulance out to us, will you?" he was saying. "And while you're at it, what have you got on an old-style police box at the corner of Bleasdale Avenue?"
There was a pause followed by a crackle of communication.
"Well, there is now," retaliated the PC.
The thrumming in Ace's head was reaching rock-concert proportions. The scrabbling was setting her nerves on edge. She reached out a hand to steady herself and found support on the Doctor's shoulder.
"You did that without looking," he muttered, deep in his feverish thoughts.
"If you know what's in there, it would be a good idea to tell me," the policewoman said.
Ace smiled balefully. "Help yourself."
The WPC studied the walls and peeling blue paint of the police box, walking round it just as Ace had done. She looked increasingly puzzled.
"It's working on them too," Ace whispered. "They can't see the door either." She squeezed the Doctor's shoulder in a sort of comforted excitement.
"It's some sort of joke, isn't it?" said the WPC. "Where did you find it? In a museum?"
The Doctor looked up with a vexed expression. "That's my TARDIS you're talking about." His irritation had imposed a fresh vigour.
"Oh. Feeling better then, are we, sir?" the WPC went on. "I think you'd better get this moved now, before I book you for causing an obstruction."
"In Perivale?" laughed Ace.
"Ace, I told you," warned the Doctor. "The virtual reality our perceptions are being fed is becoming a true reality."
Thunder seemed to rumble under the ground. The police constables both started in fright as a bolt of blue lightning seared across the swirl of the sky.
"They didn't forecast rain, did they?" the policeman said.
The WPC took Ace by the arm. "Come on, I want you two down at the station now."
"Naff off! We can't leave the TARDIS." Ace wrenched herself free and turned to find the Doctor already standing. His new-found strength seemed to be growing.
"Before we go," he said, "I believe I am entitled