Doctor Who_ Father Time - Lance Parkin [122]
The Doctor smiled and opened up a side panel. ‘Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be adjusting the neutron flow.’
‘Ah,’ Miranda beamed, ‘a multiphase pulse on neutron frequencies might override the security interlocks on the blast doors.’
The Doctor patted his daughter on the head. ‘Actually, the modifications I’ve made work on a slightly different principle. Stand back.’ He hefted the rifle up, pulled the bolt back and fired.
* * *
Ferran smiled at his Deputy, determined to savour her last moments.
But she was smiling. She knew something he didn’t.
And behind him there was a roar like an oncoming storm, or the voice of the gods. The door on to the flight deck exploded inwards, showering the bridge officers with fine metal dust and debris.
Ferran turned, instinctively, and immediately flinched. The light was so bright, so pure.
He fell back, tried blinking the red blotches from his eyes.
He could hear the Deputy scrabbling away. He fired in her direction, heard the beam carve a scar in the deck.
She wasn’t important. The door was important.
The light was fading. There was a figure clambering through the hole where the door had been, careful not to touch the thick, white-hot sides. A silhouette. A lean figure with shoulder-length hair, wearing a long black coat.
‘I killed you,’ Ferran screamed. ‘I killed you.’
He could see there was another one. Another one with long hair and a long coat. Back to back with the first, slightly taller.
‘No,’ he said. ‘No! This is impossible.’
The Doctor’s people were demons, he remembered. They only looked like people, but they were impossible to kill, and their cunning was unrivalled. They destroyed worlds, they destroyed universes.
‘I killed you!’ Ferran shouted at the shapes. ‘This isn’t fair: I killed you.’
As the smoke swirled away, he saw the Doctor, standing back to back with his daughter.
Miranda strode out first, the Doctor following. He dropped the smoking remains of a neutron rifle.
‘I’m afraid it’s good for only one shot,’ the Doctor told the large man who had followed them through the remains of the door. A slave! Here on the flight deck. Ferran bristled at the thought.
The Doctor and Miranda stood shoulder to shoulder.
‘Hello, Ferran,’ they said together.
‘Jinx!’ the Doctor giggled.
Ferran raised his pistol.
Miranda had a gun of her own, and was holding it straight out in front of her. She shot Ferran’s pistol out of his hand, then aimed at his head.
The Doctor placed his hand on her shoulder, and shook his head. ‘Weapons are the tool of the cruel and the cowardly. We strive to be better than that. We do not need them.’
Miranda nodded, then tossed the pistol at Ferran, who caught it.
He looked down at the gun, unsure, then aimed it at Miranda.
No. Not her.
He shifted ground slightly, got a good aim at the Doctor.
The Doctor was smiling.
‘It’s a trick,’ Ferran said. ‘You’ve tampered with the gun. If I fire, it’ll blow my arm off. I won’t fall for it.’
He started circling round them.
‘You saw me fire it,’ Miranda reminded him, taking another step towards him.
‘That was part of the trick. You set it to fire once, then to backfire. All part of the trick.’
His bridge crew sat in their seats, reluctant to move.
The giant had helped the Deputy to her feet and she stood alongside him.
‘Computer: transfer all command codes to the Doctor and Miranda,’ the Doctor said, in Ferran’s own voice.
‘Implemented.’
Ferran spun to face Computer. ‘Cancel that order!’
‘Unable to comply: command codes have been transferred.
Miranda laughed. ‘Computer: restore life support to all areas of the ship.’
‘Implemented.’
‘Is it possible to broadcast pictures and sounds from the flight deck throughout the ship?’
‘It is.’
‘Do so.’
‘Implemented.’
Ferran turned to his bridge crew. ‘What are you waiting for? Kill them!’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘You have lost, Ferran. You’ve got the gun. You’re at the heart of your empire: the flight deck of the most powerful ship in the universe. You have your Deputy, your most loyal crew. I... I am not