Doctor Who_ Hope - Mark Clapham [108]
Vowing to return at the head of an army, Silver turned and jumped headfirst into the Hypertunnel, leaving his home and his enemies behind.
Dave watched Silver disappear into the Hypertunnel, the air rippling on impact. He looked down at the Doctor, who seemed on the verge of death, battered and bloodied.
One of the Doctors eyes flicked open, searching the room eagerly. It rested on Dave.
Has he gone? asked the Doctor chirpily. Dave nodded.
Good! said the Doctor, jumping to his feet as if his fight with Silver had barely left him with a scratch. Only a wince of pain gave away the agony he was trying to conceal. Help Anji up, he said, holding a hand to his bruised ribs. We havent got much time.
There was dislocation Silver floated through the void, briefly without substance or place. His consciousness stretched, his atoms spiralling through the emptiness. It felt like death, or something very similar. Then Silver reached the end of the Hypertunnel, and his existential moment ended, consciousness snapping back into his physical form as he tumbled out of the other end, rolling on the dusty ground.
It took a few moments for his enhanced senses to recalibrate themselves, and he was left lying face down in the dirt. That was the problem with sensitivity it was all too easy for senses to be overloaded with unfamiliar information. Typically, it was Silvers basic, human senses that returned to him first. A chill on his skin. The taste of ash in his mouth. Although there were logical reasons for these sensations the citys furnaces doubtless spewed out tons of ash, which probably blocked out the sun, causing the cold atmosphere together they had the aura of premonition about them.
Silvers senses returned to him, his internal systems scanning the area around him. His robotic arm damaged at the elbow where the Doctors microblade had sliced through cables and circuitry hung useless at his side, so Silver had to push himself to his feet with only his human arm to steady himself. He rose to find his Silverati around him, waiting for instructions, their metallic skins reflecting the pure moonlight.
He looked beyond the Silverati, at the city. It wasnt the hectic industrial city he had seen through the Hypertunnel before, with its pistons and furnaces. It was a silent city of ruined buildings, gutted and crumbling structures piercing the starstrewn sky. Around him was nothing but a desolate grey wasteland. No life, only ruins. His memory instantly compared his surroundings to all his records. He wasnt on the Throneworld at all, but on A2756, a planet without any surviving civilisation. A graveyard of a planet, without usable resources of any kind, sapped of energy and life.
Silver turned to the Hypertunnel, but it was too late. It was receding into itself, and although he grasped at the room behind it, his hand simply went through the tunnels entrance as if it were a hologram.
Come back here, Doctor, he screamed into the Hypertunnel. Come back and fight like a man!
Tsk, said the Doctor, leaning his aching body against a bank of controls as he slid the power gauge down to OFF. The Hypertunnel receded, Silvers furious image reduced to a shadow, until there was nothing there but a wall.
Dave, said the Doctor. Do you have that piece of paper I gave you?
Dave nodded, lifting up the note.
Tear it up, said the Doctor. Then burn it. He walked over to the navigation controls, and pressed the reset button. We dont want anyone getting Silver back, do we?
Anji staggered over. She had bruised her head slightly when Silver threw her.
Where did you send him, anyway? she asked.
A little place I spotted on his starcharts, some way away from his desired destination, said the Doctor smugly. He winced as