Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book One - Lawrence Miles [95]
THE ENGINEER: We started it, you know.
RASSILON: So you keep reminding me. How far away are they now?
THE ENGINEER: A couple of light years. Maybe less. They won’t get this far, though. There are only a thousand or so left. We’ve got enough bowships to hold them off.
RASSILON [scornful]: ‘Bowships’. Whose idea was that, anyway?
THE ENGINEER: Yours, officially. Seen enough?
[RASSILON nods. The screen flickers, the image of the battle replaced by the scene directly outside the ship. In front of us is another black sun, surrounded by Gallifreyan science vessels. This sun is smaller than the first, perhaps the size of a typical MG‐type planet.]
THE ENGINEER: There it is. Do you want to do the honours, or shall I?
RASSILON: Just get on with it.
* * *
Scene 32. Space
[From this angle, we can see the formation of the ships around the black sun. There’s the hum of building power again, the ships preparing to activate their ‘weapons’.
[Then there’s a flash of darkness. The black sun quivers, as if about to explode.]
* * *
Scene 33. The Gallifreyan Ship
[RASSILON and THE ENGINEER watch the black sun through the screen. The surface of the object is still dark, but now it’s perfectly smooth, and apparently made of normal matter.
[Across the bridge, we can hear a sigh of relief from the technicians.]
THE ENGINEER: There. That’s the last one plugged. We’ve cut off their way in.
RASSILON: And their way out. We haven’t found the swarm leader yet. Don’t forget that.
THE ENGINEER: It’s not the swarm leader we’ve got to worry about.
RASSILON: Meaning?
THE ENGINEER: The things on the other side of the hole. The things those monsters get their orders from. Whatever they are, they’re intelligent. Probably more intelligent than us.
SAM: I don’t believe he said that. That’s Faction propaganda, or I’m Welsh.
RASSILON and THE ENGINEER [to SAM]: Shh!
SAM: Shush yourselves.
RASSILON [to THE ENGINEER, ignoring SAM]: Then we’d better hope your containment shells work, hadn’t we?
THE ENGINEER [defensively]: They’ll work. In a couple of thousand years, you won’t be able to tell that from any other planet. [Indicates the black sphere on the screen.] The only risk is if someone blows it up. Those things have still got followers in this universe, remember. Half the Council still thinks they infected you.
[RASSILON rubs his neck. He looks uncomfortable.]
RASSILON: I prefer to think of myself as ‘inoculated’. And we’ll just have to look after this planet’s wellbeing, won’t we? The same goes for all the other shells. We’ll make sure we keep monitors here. Get some of our agents to keep an eye on things.
[With that, he turns, and moves back towards his throne.]
RASSILON: Now. We should get back to Gallifrey. We’ve still got that manipulator of yours to work on. We’ll try a supernova next time. Should be easier to predict the consequences.
THE ENGINEER: You still want to go ahead? After all this?
RASSILON: We don’t have a choice. We have a responsibility to the future. What we do, we do for –
THE ENGINEER: I’ve heard the speech, thank you.
[RASSILON sits in his throne. THE ENGINEER stares at the ‘planet’ on the other side of the viewing screen.]
THE ENGINEER [to himself]: Let’s just hope nobody ever tries drilling through to the core, either.
* * *
Scene 34. Anathema
[Exactly as we left it. MARK is still pointing at the sky. SAM takes a moment or two to find her bearings, then looks up.
[Two of the fighter craft tear past, leaving great red scars across the clouds. From ground level, it almost looks as if the sky’s bleeding.]
SAM: The fighters?
MARK: What do they run on? Had you wondered that?
SAM: Um… no, not really.
MARK: Ask Compassion. Go on. Ask her.
[SAM looks around. COMPASSION stands at her side, screaming into the sky.]
SAM: Compassion? Those fighters. What do they run on? [The second she hears her name, COMPASSION stops screaming. She meets SAM’s gaze.]
COMPASSION: What? Oh. Missing matter.