Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book Two - Lawrence Miles [118]
‘Now,’ said the Doctor.
Sarah jumped, just for a moment wondering whether that was her cue to do something important and dangerous. But the Doctor punched one big button on the console when he said it, and suddenly the air was full of a wheezing, groaning noise, the sound of the TARDIS’s engines pulling open the universe like a zip. Except that the ship wasn’t going anywhere. The floor wasn’t humming, not like it usually did when they took off.
‘It’s broken down,’ Sarah heard herself say. But the Doctor’s eyes were fixed on the scanner, where something was taking shape in the centre of the square, holding back the maelstrom and folding itself around the twelve show people.
‘Well, well, well,’ Sarah heard the Doctor mumble. ‘He was right. It works.’
* * *
Number Thirteen had been slightly distracted by the arrival of the TARDIS, and paused for a few moments to grow sensory organs through which it could examine the ship’s structure properly. It knew what a TARDIS was, and it knew there was no point trying to eat one. As with a coconut, what was inside wasn’t worth the fuss and bother of breaking through the shell.
It was therefore both surprised and annoyed when it looked back down again, and saw that there was a second TARDIS standing in the centre of the square. Furthermore, this new TARDIS had taken on exactly the same shape as the first: a little blue box, with a long and distinguished history that Number Thirteen frankly wasn’t interested in. The second TARDIS had not only appeared out of nowhere, it had materialised around the twelve showpeople, robbing Number Thirteen of its intended prey.
It wasn’t happy about that. It ignored the hovering TARDIS completely, and started lashing out at the one in the square, battering the vehicle with every limb at its disposal. This was one coconut Number Thirteen was determined to crack.
* * *
‘What?’ said Sarah.
The Doctor had already turned his attention back to the console. He was standing halfway between the new control panel and the usual navigational systems, with his legs spread wide to cover the distance, moving his head from side to side as he tapped away at one panel or the other. He really did look much too old for this sort of thing.
‘It’s the travelling show,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’ve linked it up with the TARDIS. The two systems are busy talking to each other now.’
‘It looks like the TARDIS,’ Sarah pointed out.
‘The show’s travelling techniques are different from ours,’ the Doctor said, with his head still bobbing backward and forward. ‘Some of the processes are compatible, though. I.M. Foreman said they would be. I wasn’t sure until a moment ago.’
‘It looks like the TARDIS,’ Sarah still pointed out.
The Doctor looked up, but he kept his fingers hovering over the controls. ‘Yes. It does, doesn’t it? That’s because I’ve used the TARDIS systems to pull the show together. To put it all into a little box, so to speak. The show’s usual method of transportation was a bit slow for what we had in mind. The show must be copying the TARDIS’s shape as well as her protocols.’
‘It looks like the TARDIS,’ Sarah persisted in pointing out. There wasn’t really anything she could add to that.
‘Theoretically, I should be able to steer the travelling show from this console,’ the Doctor concluded. ‘Let’s see if it works, shall we?’
‘It looks like the TARDIS,’ agreed Sarah.
* * *
10
Control
(everything falls into place, more or less)
Father Kreiner couldn’t hear the sound of the TARDIS over the thrashing of Number Thirteen, but it didn’t matter. Faction Paradox had pretty much turned him into a Time Lord alarm system when it had taken him under its wing, so the moment the ship arrived in the square he could feel it, like an itch that was spreading all over his body, even through his crippled arm. He found himself on his feet again, although he wasn’t sure how he’d managed to get up. He stumbled forward, back towards the square,