Doctor Who_ Longest Day - Michael Collier [70]
The sky was still warm and still.
'Wait, Doctor - we're not where we were!'
Wiping more thick brown hair off his forehead, he looked around. They were at the foot of a slope. 'We probably would've reached here in a few minutes.' He looked at her meaningfully. 'If you hadn't been with me you might have become a part of that landscape.'
'Perhaps.' She nodded. 'But at least I wouldn't know what was happening to me. That's got something going for it.'
'Well, I hope that's true. But given the mental state of poor George...'
'You mean these people are aware of everything that's happening to them, over and over again?'
The Doctor smiled bleakly.'Like I say, I hope not.'
He held her close as they went up the steep incline. Soon they realised the path was coming to an end. When they reached the edge, and stared through the thin mist, Anstaar gasped.
There was a steep drop into a smaller version of the natural arena they'd come across earlier, but this one seemed impossible to clamber down into.
A huge excavation machine - or what was left of it - lay rusting and ancient against the far cliff wall. There was more of the strange spongy vegetation covering a lot of the floor of the basin, but one area was bare and blackened, the rock more like powder, the air itself seeming to spark all around it. In the centre of the charred ground was a metal object, roughly spherical and about half the size she was. It looked as if it was tarnished with age, pitted with tiny goosebumps on its pale silvery skin. Telescopic legs curled round in sections into the air, as if it was a huge metal insect lying on its back. Looking through a pair of strange glasses she'd taken from the Doctor's proffered hand, she could discern banks of instrumentation in the sphere's upper hemisphere. She didn't know why, but it frightened her.
The Doctor was peering above and beyond the far side of the arena's rim.
'Wait a moment,' he breathed. 'Look! That must be the neighbouring zone.'
A softly crackling haze of pale light reached up from the lip of the crater.
Flecks of light danced about it and the sky seemed darker above it.
'Doctor, surely it's dangerous to be so close to one of the time dividers?'
Anstaar's voice was timid.
'Undoubtedly,' he whispered. 'But fascinating nonetheless. Wait.'
The lights flickering in the haze died down, sporadically, and they could discern more of what lay beyond. It was a bizarre kind of forest with huge trees stretching into the distance. The trunks had an almost metallic sheen to them, and while some of the trees were clearly saplings, others were thick and gnarled. Fat, thick leaves fanned out over branches covered in huge clusters of berries, strange fruit glowing with a dark powerful light.
The Doctor gave a short, hollow laugh. Time trees.' His eyes became distant.
'I'm sorry?' Anstaar looked over at the sinister forest swathed in the warm, pale, crackling light and shuddered instinctively.
'So am I. I've only ever seen one before. You pull on the berries. Spatially you remain in the same location, but you and the tree move back through time.'
"That's ridiculous.'
'Possibly. Who was it that said "The universe is ridiculous to someone who thinks, but tragic to someone who feels"?'
'I have no idea. Do we really need more questions, Doctor?'
'Here's one answered, for me. The waste product from your terraforming, the heavy metals dissolving into the soil, the time disturbance... Of course!
Perfect conditions. Oh, your Homeworld have a lot to answer for.'
'They wouldn't know about that,' protested Anstaar automatically.
'Maybe not. But it's another profitable enterprise for TCC, no doubt.' The Doctor's lip had curled in disgust.
'Look, Doctor, what about that thing down there? Surely that's more important to us right now?' Anstaar found herself looking into the Doctor's eyes, now. They were blue - no, grey-green.