Doctor Who_ Father Time - Lance Parkin [130]
Was he testing her?
‘I wouldn’t know what to do with an army. I’m my father’s daughter... Father. I’m taking supreme power, but I’m not going to use it, I’m taking it so that no one else does.’
‘You’re going to be magnificent. Children of the Revolution, eh? I envy you.’
She hesitated. ‘Come with me. They’ve forgotten. They’ve been ruled by the cruel and the cowardly for so long that they’ve forgotten how to be anything else themselves. And dismantling the Galactic Empire isn’t going to be quick, or easy.’
‘Rome didn’t fall in a day,’ the Doctor agreed.
‘You could teach them so much.’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘You can teach them. Seeing you in action here, I’m pretty sure you could teach me. You... you go forward, I’ll catch up with you.’
She looked at him. ‘Are you sure?’
‘I’ve an appointment to keep,’ he reminded her. ‘In a little over eleven years, I’ve got to meet Fitz. Whoever Fitz might be.’
‘I could get Computer to run a check on him – find out who he is, what he wants. Even what that police box of yours is. Ferran was obsessed with you, so I’m sure it’s all in the databanks.’
The Doctor laughed. ‘After so long, that would feel a bit like cheating, to be honest. Like checking the back of the book for all the answers instead of working them out for myself.’
He hugged her.
‘I’ll visit,’ he promised.
‘You’d better,’ she said sternly.
* * *
By the time Miranda had got back to the flight deck, Atlantis had left the hangar.
An image of the space shuttle, orbiting alongside Ship hung in the air beneath Computer. Retro rockets were firing, and the shuttle was easing itself back into its normal orbit.
Miranda took her place in the command chair. She thought she would be crying, but she wasn’t. She felt ready. Ready to start work.
‘Ship status?’
Space-time co-ordinates to the Needle have been calculated and laid in,’ Computer intoned. ‘Vortex scanners indicate a clear path. Estimated journey time, twelve standard days.’
She had no idea what a standard day was, and, for the moment at least, she couldn’t care less.
‘Computer, show me Atlantis. Close-up on the cockpit.’
‘As you wish.’
Her father was there, looking straight at her.
‘Goodbye,’ he mouthed.
‘Never,’ she whispered.
The shuttle pulled away, descending to a lower orbit.
Miranda laid her hand flat on the green panel in front of her, and It lit up.
She took a deep breath.
‘Time machine go,’ she said.
And she smiled.
* * *
‘Houston, Atlantis is now back in the scheduled orbit,’ Captain Fairchild reported.
‘Roger that.’
Above the space shuttle, the Ship was manoeuvring, turning until it faced away from the Earth and pointed out into deep space. All the crew had been given a chance to look round, Miranda had offered them a five-course meal in one of the banqueting suites, and Fairchild hadn’t made himself popular by reminding them that it would disrupt their carefully calculated nutrition regime.
It was a vast ship, a city. Further in advance of Atlantis than the space shuttle was to the first wheel.
Some people might have looked at it and despaired, or fallen back on superstition or uncomprehending awe. But the astronauts had talked about it, and they saw it as a goal to aim for. One day, their distant descendants would fly vessels like that, and it would have been because of pioneers like them, the first crews of humans into space. It was an affirmation of everything they believed, not a negation.
The Ship leapt forward and then turned on an axis it didn’t have.
There was a howling blue vortex around it for the barest moment, and then it was gone in a burst of light.
Mather turned to the Doctor, who was watching this, proud of his daughter.
‘You OK, Doctor?’ he asked.
The Doctor nodded.
‘Time to go home,’ the pilot told him.
The Doctor looked out at the Earth, the terminator crawling over the Atlantic. Then he looked up at the stars. They were sharp points of light here, all distinct colours. The sky was pitch-black, the light here was harsh, pure. There were millions