Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book One - Lawrence Miles [94]
SAM: It’s not true. You heard what he said. ‘The Faction was right.’
MARK: Is there a problem?
SAM: You’ve already told me about Faction history, remember? Faction Paradox is just a political movement, you said. It’s not really an old cult, that’s just what it wants people to think. It didn’t exist back in the days of Rassilon.
MARK: Yeah, well. It’s historical drama. You’ve got to change the facts a bit if you want a good story.
SAM: This is the Faction’s version of history. They’ve rewritten things to suit their image.
MARK: The image is everything, remember?
SAM: This isn’t the way things really were.
MARK [nodding over Sam’s shoulder]: Just watch the pictures and don’t ask questions. It works for the Remote.
* * *
Scene 28. The Gallifreyan Ship
[SAM turns, and finds herself back on the bridge. She faces the viewing screen.
[Across the universe, we can see stars winking out of existence, collapsing in on themselves, becoming spheres of pure black. The screaming becomes louder with every implosion.]
THE ENGINEER [losing it]: We’ve made a dent in the continuum. It’s causing a chain reaction. Stars, planets –
RASSILON: How wide is the area of effect?
THE ENGINEER: Does it make a difference? It’s the end, Rassilon. We can’t –
RASSILON [losing his temper]: How wide?
THE ENGINEER: I don’t know! It could be the whole galaxy, or –
[Suddenly, something huge and black fills the viewing screen. The claw‐hand of one of the things from the black hole scrapes against the other side of the screen, trying to tear its way into the ship. The bridge rocks. SAM yelps.]
RASSILON: We’re under attack!
[On the screen, beyond the fingers of the monster, we see specks of black drifting from the holes in the other stars. More of the creatures, flocking across the galaxy. RASSILON seems entranced by the image.]
RASSILON: War.
[From outside the ship, there’s an inhuman scream, the roar of the thing that’s wrapped around the prow.]
RASSILON: We’ve started a war.
* * *
Scene 29. Anathema
[SAM looks up, at the things pushing against the other side of the sky.]
SAM: What was it? What was it controlling the monsters? The Cold?
MARK: You saw the drama.
SAM: Yeah, but I don’t know how much of it’s just lies. What’s the Cold? I mean, what’s the Cold for?
MARK: It’s for not existing. Ask any scientist. Ask your physics teacher at Coal Hill. You know. The one you keep telling yourself you really, really, really don’t want to get off with. He’ll tell you. There’s a thing called heat. It’s a kind of energy, it’s one of the fundamental forces. But there’s no cold, not really. There’s just the absence of heat. Cold doesn’t exist, in this universe.
SAM: So you’re saying –
MARK: I’m saying the Cold isn’t a thing. It’s an anti‐thing. Typical of the Faction, that. Anything to mess up the fundamental forces. Look, there’s another good example.
SAM: Look? Look where?
MARK [pointing at the sky]: There.
* * *
Scene 30. Space
[Cut from MARK’s pointing finger to a new view of the galaxy. We’re not focusing on the black sun any more. Instead, we pan across a kind of battlefield. From the left of the scene, the dark, half‐seen things flap across the skies, possibly in their hundreds, possibly in their thousands. To the right is a fleet of ships, evidently of Time Lord design, perhaps adapted versions of the science vessels. There are huge spikes fitted to the prows of the ships, glittering gold in the light from the nearest stars.
[The two forces clash in the middle of our field of vision, the ships impaling the monsters on their spikes, the creatures ripping into the vessels with their teeth and claws. Huge, blood‐drenched corpses float past the camera, as do fragments of twisted metal. We see several Time Lord bodies explode in the vacuum.]
* * *
Scene 31. The Gallifreyan Ship
[Both RASSILON and the hologram of THE ENGINEER stand before the viewing screen, observing the progress of the battle.