Doctor Who_ Just War - Lance Parkin [62]
‘Well, there’s the cat. Er, look, the Doctor owns the TARDIS, and it only looks like a police box.’
‘It must be very crowded in there.’
‘No, it’s bigger on the inside than the outside.’
‘Is it now?’
‘It all sounds a bit silly now I say it out loud, I admit.’
She was beginning to see now that her strange story wouldn’t hold up.
‘You make it sound like Skidbladnir.’
Kitzel and Wolff both looked puzzled, until Summerfield said, ‘He means Frey’s magical ship in the Norse myths. It could contain all the gods, their horses and weapons while still fitting in Frey’s pocket. The reason he brought it up is that a real archaeologist would probably be familiar with the myth.’
Summerfield was right of course, but she didn’t realize how much she was revealing with her sarcastic response. It was a not-quite-successful attempt to appear unafraid, but it proved that she was still very much in charge of her faculties.
Most importantly, it was clear that Summerfield thought she was more intelligent than he was. She was trying to play psychological games with him. Very well. Steinmann changed the subject. ‘How does a “TARDIS” work?’
‘I’m not sure about the technicalities. In layman’s terms the TARDIS removes itself from Minkowski space, then integrates itself into a fifth dimension. It travels through something called the Vortex, a transdimensional spiral built by the Doctor’s people which encompasses all points in space and time. Then, the TARDIS just reorientates itself at the other end, and reestablishes a plasmic real-world interface.’
Steinmann laid his pen down, and glared at her. When he spoke his voice was just a touch harsher than before.
‘Professor Summerfield, I am a scientist. What you have just said is meaningless nonsense.’
‘Is it? Damn. As I say, I take it for granted.’ Summerfield shrugged apologetically.
Steinmann changed tack once more. ‘Can you describe something more mundane? Something from the future?’
‘No. I can’t.’ Her answers were curt again.
‘Can’t? Not won’t?’ Steinmann challenged.
‘Don’t get pedantic on me, Oskar. I’m from the future, but I can’t tell you about it. It would risk affecting established history.’
Steinmann’s eyes narrowed. ‘If I were to learn the future, I might be able to change it?’
‘Well, yes. If you took knowledge you had now back to the last war, you could have altered the outcome. You could have sent Heinkels and Dorniers against London, not Zeppelins. You could have sent Panzers into the British trenches.’
‘You wouldn’t need to do that,’ suggested Steinmann.
‘Just a few pieces of information would be enough: we could check our historical records, have a complete list of where the weak links in the Allied defences were in the last war, warn our people precisely where and when the enemy would attack. Even with only a few grains of random knowledge, we could draw conclusions about the future. If we knew the exchange rate between the dollar and the mark in — what year did you say?
— 1976, or who holds the record for the fastest seaplane, or who the King of England is then we’d have a way through the chaos. We’d be able to negate the Butterfly Effect.’
‘You know about that? Then you know why I can’t tell you even the slightest detail about the future,’ Summerfield said stubbornly. Wolff and Kitzel were watching this exchange.
‘Sir, you are beginning to talk like this crazy woman,’
Wolff said flatly.
‘Shut up, Standardenführer. It’s too late, Professor Summerfield. You talk of Inner Worlds and Outer Planets.
You talk of Galactic Centre and Human Space. So, man has reached the stars?’
‘Yes,’ she admitted. ‘So you’ve already described the future. Tell me something specific.’
‘No, I can’t.’
Steinmann leant over, and said gently, ‘Have you ever been to my home city of Stuttgart?’
‘Yes, when I was a child. I refuse to describe it.’
‘So Stuttgart still exists in 1976 and it’s still called that?’
‘I’m not from... look. I’m not saying anything more.’
‘But you have said so much. You see,