Doctor Who_ Father Time - Lance Parkin [39]
‘Time travel,’ Debbie said, everything suddenly clear.
Squawk.
‘What about it?’ the Doctor said, clearly irritated by his failure to open the door.
‘Well... what if this Fitz knows you meet him in 2001? What if he’s a time traveller? He could have written the note after you met, then travelled back in time to deliver it. You’ll meet because... well, it’s already happened.’
The Doctor stopped what he was doing and turned to stare at her.
‘That... works,’ he said. ‘Wait! Why just the note? If you were this Fitz person, wouldn’t you just wake me up and talk to me in the past?’
‘Well... if he’s met you in the future, he knows that he didn’t do that. That’s all history as far as he’s concerned. It’s like I know you don’t build a time machine and go back to my wedding and tell me I needn’t go through with it, I’m going to have a misca‐’
‘That’s brilliant!’ the Doctor said, grabbing Debbie and almost dancing around the room with her.
He leapt back to the control panel, slapping in a new combination.
And Debbie wasn’t remotely surprised when the door slid open.
* * *
The Deputy activated two hoverdiscs from their wall-mounted control panel.
They rose a few centimetres from the metal floor of the hangar. The ramp set into the floor began sliding silently open.
‘I have the co-ordinates,’ he told the Prefect.
The Prefect climbed on to his hoverdisc, took hold of the handrail. The Deputy did the same.
‘Hold it there!’ a voice shouted.
The Deputy turned. It was the Doctor, framed in the doorway to the hangar, the human woman behind him.
Without thinking, the Deputy spun round and aimed his machine pistol. Even as he squeezed the trigger, he cursed himself for giving the Doctor enough time to slam his fist down on the door control. The metal door slid up in front of the Doctor as the bullets arrived, and they just bounced off.
Only then did he allow himself the luxury of wondering how the Doctor had escaped.
‘Leave him,’ the Prefect ordered, ducking to avoid one of the ricochets.
The Deputy shot out the door control, to be on the safe side, then keyed the launch sequence.
The discs lurched forward, then sped down the ramp, out into the winter evening.
* * *
The Doctor flinched as the bullets rained into the door in front of his face, but none of them got through the thick metal.
Once the sound had died down, he tried the controls again.
‘You can’t go back in there,’ Debbie bawled at him.
A door behind them and to the right slid open.
Thélash stood there, annoyed. ‘What the cruk is that noise?’ she asked, addressing the question at no one in particular.
She saw the Doctor and Debbie and dived back behind the doorframe.
It was an act that could have been mistaken for cowardice, but a moment later she reappeared, a bulbous gun in her hand.
There was a sound like a whipcrack as she fired.
The wall behind the Doctor and Debbie exploded into a shower of sparks. Rum was behind Thélash now, trying to get a clear shot with an identical weapon.
Thélash’s second shot hit the locked door, blowing it open.
‘Run!’ the Doctor told Debbie, pushing her through.
* * *
Barry squirmed to get comfortable in the passenger seat of the Mini. He was too big to be in such a small car.
When he looked over at the driver it reminded him why he was here. She was wearing a cheap silk blouse and tight jeans. She was smiling, and had too much make-up on, because she wanted to look older than she was. The cigarette in her mouth was meant to have the same effect. Barry smiled back at her, because he thought that seventeen was just the right age. ‘Nearly there,’ he told her.
‘This is a long way to go for a walk,’ she said, and the way she said ‘walk’ made them both laugh. ‘It’s going to be dead cold. Why can’t we go to your house, like last time?’
‘I’ll keep you warm,’ Barry chuckled.
As the Mini approached