Doctor Who_ Longest Day - Michael Collier [69]
The driver swerved hard to avoid them. For a sickening moment, Sangton knew he was going to be thrown from the transporter. He gripped on tight but it was no use: the driver had swung the controls in the opposite direction in an attempt to rebalance the vehicle, and Sangton's frail body shot out like a wiry projectile, hitting the dusty earth and rolling over and over.
Blinded by dust and frozen with shock, Sangton felt pain start biting at his body. He heard the transporter screech to a halt. He waited for the sound of it slipping into reverse to come back and pick him up.
He waited for quite some time but the only noise was a scream from the guard that ended in an unpleasant splitting noise.
Sangton slowly pulled his cloak more closely round his battered body, lifting his head a fraction, then burying it in the soft, dark folds of his cloak. He closed his eyes against the sting of the dust, nuzzled up against the thick, dark fabric. Perhaps they would think he was dead anyway and leave him be.
His reports had told him there were no indigenous bipedal life forms here, but the information was clearly wrong. That was typical of the way things were going. Everything was so different now, and if he made it back, if he held on to his honour, his retirement speech would be to warn the Houses of the dangers of sitting back and allowing the young their turn and command unfettered by the ruthless discipline of procedure. Had he not lived by the scared vows of his House all his life, with relentless devotion?
How they would applaud his final sentiments...
When the huge foot stamped down on his spine, Sangton was glad he couldn't see what was happening any more.
Chapter 9
Fallen Apart
'Look!'
The Doctor was grimly marvelling at yet another display of time's elegant torturing of this region. Anstaar had already passed enough sights to haunt her for the rest of her life, but apparently the Doctor seemed to feel her scientific curiosity should be rearoused by every fresh horror.
She'd already stared at two patients attacking each other again and again as if preserved for ever on a looping holovid, watching the same pained expressions on their faces reappear every few seconds. She'd seen a young boy whose arms had withered away to little more than ancient bones, his face frozen in a mask of terror. There'd been another officer walking along in slow motion on patrol. They'd tried talking to her but the Doctor had decided she was caught in a bubble of time drifting backward.
She couldn't answer them because she was moving back through her own past, and so the present had no meaning.
Now a patch of odd-looking plants were growing - well, backward and forward, shrinking into the earth, then bursting back out into pale yellow flower. Tendril-like vines being sucked into the soil then spat violently back out.
Anstaar sighed. 'life in a loop. Are we going to go the same way if we keep going?'
The Doctor smiled half-heartedly at her. 'Brings a whole new meaning to
"watch what you step in". Stay close to me. I'm a Time Lord.'
'Well, I think you should exercise your responsibilities with a bit more care!'
she retorted,but he continued regardless.
'I'm usually more or less immune to this kind of temporal embolism.
Hopefully my biofield will help protect you too.' He placed an arm round her, held her close as they walked awkwardly along, but she wasn't complaining now. The Doctor still seemed confident they would find a way out of this nightmare. The closer she was to him, the better her chances of some of that optimism rubbing off on her.
They walked through an area where a bird remained frozen low in the sky, mid-flight, where the water in the air seemed heavier and harder. Then the nausea hit her.
'Anstaar! Are you all right? What's happening?' It seemed to be taking him hours to say the words. She clung on to him until the sickness passed.
Then with a loud screech the bird resumed its flight; moisture