Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book Two - Lawrence Miles [74]
Guest stopped in the entrance to the TARDIS.
‘I don’t need your help,’ he said. ‘I can lay in a course myself.’ There was a shocked pause from the Doctor. ‘The TARDIS navigational system… it’s incredibly complex…’
‘I know the coordinates,’ Guest pointed out. ‘And I know enough about TARDIS systems to use them. You see, Doctor? I do know what I’m doing.’
The Doctor muttered something else. Guest couldn’t make it out over the background noise, but it didn’t sound very constructive.
* * *
Guest was standing at the controls when Sam stepped into the console room. She’d felt the TARDIS take off and land again while she’d been in the corridor, so she knew she was too late to stop him. One of the Ogrons stood nearby, as did Kode, who – curiously – seemed to be using his gun to re-enact the best bit out of Blazing Saddles. And standing next to him, watching proceedings with a tired and cynical eye, was a figure Sam very nearly didn’t recognise. His hair was matted with dirt, his face was a mess, and the overcoat just didn’t suit him at all.
‘Doctor!’ Sam yelped.
Before he could even speak, Sam had bounded over to him and engaged him in a massive God-Emperor‐Teletubby-sized hug. He smelled funny, but she didn’t let it spoil things. The Doctor made a variety of embarrassed noises, which wasn’t exactly reassuring, and Sam had no idea why he didn’t hug her back. Perhaps he thought she might break.
Or perhaps he thought he might break.
‘Where’s Fitz?’ she burbled.
The Doctor cleared his throat. ‘Yes. Well. I’m afraid the answer to that might turn out to be rather complicated.’
‘And what happened to you, anyway? Come to think of it, what happened to your coat?’ Sam detached herself from him, then took a step back and examined what he was wearing. ‘That coat, it’s… hang on a minute.’
The Doctor looked away, a little hurriedly. ‘Sam –’
‘No, wait. That coat. I know it from somewhere. Isn’t it –’
‘Sam!’ snapped the Doctor.
Sam jumped. When she looked up at the Doctor’s face, it was set in stone. Battered, rough-edged stone.
Then he smiled. The old good-times‐just-around‐the-corner smile.
‘Time for another costume refit,’ he said. ‘I know a nice little boutique in the 1960s. I’m sure they’ll have something in my size.’
Sam smiled too. The Doctor nodded towards the scanner. ‘Anyway, there are more important things to think about than my dress sense. Unbelievable as it may seem.’
So Sam followed his gaze. Her jaw promptly dropped.
The scanner was full of faces. The same faces she’d seen in the Cold, when the skin of the stuff had swallowed her up and told her the Faction’s story. Half-finished features were pressed against a sticky black membrane, moaning and wriggling, but never breaking through. The scanner image was in 3-D, so it almost looked as though the things were growing from the ceiling of the TARDIS, eating their way into the ship.
‘That’s what’s outside?’ Sam asked.
‘That’s what’s outside,’ said the Doctor.
‘Perhaps you’d better point that at the girl,’ mused Guest.
He was talking to Kode, apparently. Kode considered the idea for a moment, then lowered the gun from his own face, and aimed it at Sam instead. Sam turned to Compassion, but the woman was staring up at the scanner image, an enormous frown pulled across her big freckled cheeks.
Guest stroked the door control, and the doors swung open with their usual polite hum. Sam half expected the faces to come rushing into the ship, but nothing happened. There was pure silence from outside.
‘You can join me if you like,’ Guest told them. Then he stepped out of the TARDIS.
The Doctor looked at Sam. Sam looked at the Doctor.
‘After you,’ he said.
‘No, after you,’ she said.
* * *
Even by the standards of Anathema, it was breathtaking. It took Guest’s eyes a few moments to adjust to the perspective, but he soon realised he was standing inside an enormous sphere, probably half a kilometre from side to side. The walls were smooth and dark, speckled with tiny globes of light. There were