Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book Two - Lawrence Miles [20]
CREATURE: Then your friend will join us. Will be as we are. Will be at one with our purpose.
[The DOCTOR pauses.]
DOCTOR: All right. I’ll do it.
[The DOCTOR retreats, back towards the control section, not taking his eyes off the CREATURE. The CREATURE seems to relax a little.
[Instantly, SAM moves. She breaks free of the CREATURE’s grip, hurling herself at the wall of the airlock.]
DOCTOR: Sam –
[But it’s too late. SAM slams into the airlock wall, ramming her fist into a small control pad set into the black panelling. Immediately, a dark metal shutter slides across the airlock recess. The DOCTOR springs forward, but the shutter has already closed, cutting him off from SAM and the CREATURE.
[He bangs his fist on the shutter, to no avail. A small computer display on the shutter lights up with the words, OPENING SEQUENCE ENGAGED.]
DOCTOR: No!
* * *
Scene 40. Inside the Airlock
[We see SAM and the CREATURE, shut into the tiny space between the shutter and the outer hatchway. The CREATURE hisses, and throws SAM aside. It presses itself against the shutter, clawing at the metal with its skeletal fingers.]
SAM [softly, to herself]: Sorry Doctor. Couldn’t let you do it.
[There’s a loud clicking noise, then the grinding of heavy machinery. The CREATURE freezes, and listens. Slowly, a grin breaks out across SAM’s features.]
SAM: Goodbye, Doctor. Goodbye, everyone.
[Then the outer hatch of the airlock slides open. The CREATURE shrieks, a high-pitched, almost ultrasonic sound, as the air floods out into the vacuum. The CREATURE is flung across the airlock, clawing desperately at the walls.
[It’s sucked out of the ship. SAM follows it, not even trying to resist. We can still make out the hint of a smile on her face.]
* * *
41. The Corridor
[The DOCTOR hammers at the shutter. We can hear the sound of the hatchway opening on the other side of the barrier, the whoosh of escaping air.]
DOCTOR [scream of anguish]: Sam!
* * *
Scene 42. Space
[Utter silence, as two humanoid shapes float out of the ship and into the void. The first of the shapes thrashes wildly, trying to get a grip on the hull, but failing miserably. The second seems calm, drifting gracefully out into the darkness.
[Then both shapes buckle and twist, their bodies depressurising in the vacuum.]
* * *
‘I don’t get it,’ said Compassion.
‘Sacrifice,’ said Guest.
They’d moved to one of the lower platforms in the transmitter tower, for the simple reason that there were seats here, overlooking the ground floor of the building. You were supposed to be able to relax on this level, but Compassion didn’t feel any better than she had half an hour ago. She and Guest were both tuned in to the part of the media that had absorbed Sam, and now they were monitoring the signals the sphere was dredging up out of the girl’s head.
‘The images are in a kind of order,’ Compassion pointed out. ‘This is what they call “narrative”, isn’t it?’
‘Yes. The media’s extracting the concepts we’ve lost over the years. Finding out whether there’s any point reintroducing them to the culture.’
‘Pff,’ said Compassion. ‘Anything we’ve already got rid of can’t be worth having.’
‘Possibly. Possibly not. Evolution is never straightforward. Right now, the media seems to be focusing on the concept of “sacrifice”.’
‘I know what sacrifice is.’
‘You know what the word means. I doubt you understand the complexities.’
Compassion scowled at that. She couldn’t stand it when Guest got messianic.
‘The girl has principles,’ Guest went on, more to himself than to her. ‘She believes in causes. We don’t have any causes, which is why our understanding of sacrifice is so limited.’
‘We’ve got a cause,’ Compassion protested. ‘We want to find the Cold.’
‘Would you die for that cause?’
‘Don’t be stupid.’
‘But in the… narrative the girl Sam sacrificed herself. An exaggeration of what she’d do in those actual circumstances, I’m sure. But even so…’
Compassion wasn’t impressed. ‘Any idiot can do that. Even animals