Doctor Who_ Full Circle - Andrew Smith [3]
Romana let out a despairing sigh that chilled the Doctor. Sitting up and swinging her legs onto the floor, she explained, 'Doctor, I don't want to spend the rest of my life on Gallifrey. After all this, all the different kinds of everything outside Gallifrey, one planet becomes so tiny. I want to go on learning, Doctor. Life on Gallifrey is so static and futile.'
'You can't fight the Time Lords, Romana.' There was a grim finality in the Doctor's tone.
Romana stood and crossed to him. 'You did - once,' she reminded him.
The Doctor lifted his head from the book, staring into nowhere, allowing the bitter-sweet memories to wash over him. His days as a fugitive from the Time Lords were long behind him now. 'I lost my fight, Romana. Remember that.'
Romana ran a hand despondently through her long blonde hair. The Doctor had made his point. There could be no question of ignoring the summons.
A Time Lord summons cannot be ignored.
'Then there's nothing more to discuss, is there?' she said. 'We have to go.'
The Doctor nodded, sorry for her. 'I'm afraid so.'
K9 circled the TARDIS console, stopped, and extended his antenna towards one of the control facets. Flight data flowed into him instantly.
'Course set and holding. ETA on Gallifrey - thirty-two minutes. Flight path is clear.'
Then, an anomaly. In a gesture that was endearingly human, K9's head rose up slightly. 'Wait. Sensors indicate - no vocabulary available. Cannot comprehend. Cannot...'
The peculiar blue London police-box shell of the trans-dimensional TARDIS suddenly exploded, an eruption of myriad slivers of blue light racing away in all directions. There was not the slightest sound, and when it was done the TARDIS remained impossibly fully intact, but distorted, continually shifting its shape, its dimensions seemingly totally out of control.
Within the craft, exactly the same was happening. The control room lengthened and shrank, its colours shifting through every spectral possibility.
K9 himself was being distorted along with the room. Though no one heard, he reported, 'I have lost control of the TARDIS.'
Wherever the TARDIS was headed in this inexplicable condition, it was beyond anyone's ability to do anything about it.
In Romana's room, the Doctor and Romana clutched desperately for some support as the room dipped and swayed and blurred before them. They saw the same insane dimensional instabilities in one another.
'Doctor... what's happening?' Romana called.
The Doctor was looking round, wide-eyed and.afraid. 'I don't know.'
Then it stopped. As abruptly as it had begun.
Normality was refreshing, and more than a little reassuring. The Doctor and Romana made sure they were both all right, then ran for the control room, the Doctor's long legs getting him there well before Romana. As he skidded to a halt by the console, K9 came whirring towards him. 'I have regained control, master,' he reported. 'The TARDIS has stabilised. Course realignments have been computed and laid in.'
'But what happened, K9?' the Doctor asked impatiently.
'Cannot explain.'
A concerned frown creased the Doctor's forehead. Behind him, Romana ran in, making straight for the console and running her learned eyes over the instrumentation.
'All right,' said the Doctor, turning again to face K9. 'Just give me the data.'
'Cannot comply.'
The Doctor and Romana exchanged a look of almost tangible unease. 'There must be some data,' countered the Doctor.
'Substantial data was received, master, yes. However, I am unable to assimilate it.'
The Doctor stroked his chin ponderously, trying to establish some kind of conclusion from all this. 'Give me a report of all damaged parts.'
It took K9 less than three seconds to conduct a systems check via his affinity programming with the TARDIS console. 'No damage,