Doctor Who_ Match of the Day - Chris Boucher [81]
„I‟ll trade places with you,‟ Sita said. „See how you both feel then.‟
The Doctor heard in her voice that she was giving herself up to the calm numbness of terror. He knew from experience that the calm numbness of terror could give way to the thrashing hysteria of terror with only the briefest of ear-splitting screams by way of transition. The screaming he could put up with, indeed he had come to expect it from his travelling companions, at least before Leela, but thrashing about could jeopardise the success of what he was doing. The area of the band around the head of the sonic screwdriver was actually beginning to stretch and swell. It wasn‟t coming apart as he had hoped but it was bloating flaccidly and loosening around the ankle.
„Ready,‟ Ronick said and the cutter began to whine again.
„It‟s hopeless,‟ Sita said, but there was a small hope in her voice.
It‟s not a good time for a change of mood, the Doctor thought. When hope returned could thrashing hysteria be far behind? The place on the ankle band into which he had been feeding power from the sonic screwdriver was continuing to stretch, expanding out into folds on either side of itself. He stopped and eased the folds open, pulling the whole ankle band into a wider loop. It looked big enough, he thought.
Quickly he took off her shoe and slipped the loop down over her foot and off. He dropped the band onto the seat beside him. „Let me see your other foot,‟ he commanded.
Without comment Sita pulled her shoeless foot out from between the seats and pushed her other foot through the gap. It was a moment or two before she realised what had happened. „You got it off.‟ There was disbelief in her voice.
„You got it off. How did you do that?‟
On the seat beside the Doctor the discarded band was moving. It had started to contract. Time‟s up, he thought without bothering to look at the runner‟s timer. „Hold still,‟ he and Ronick both said, almost in unison.
„It‟s happening,‟ she said. „I can feel it. They‟re tightening up.‟
The bands were no longer inert and it was possible, the Doctor realised, that the anti-tamper circuits might be triggered by what he and Ronick were doing. They might be speeding things up, hastening the inevitable, actually making things worse: except that there was no way to make things worse. It was this or nothing. The area of the ankle band he was working on was expanding as before but this time as fast as the sonic screwdriver generated extra space the slack was taken up by the general contraction.
„It‟s beginning to hurt,‟ Sita gritted.
The Doctor wasn‟t sure whether she was talking about her ankle or her wrist or both.
„Nearly there,‟ Ronick said and the whine of the cutter deepened as he pressed harder and harder. „I‟ll get it off you if I have to cut your hand off myself.‟
„Joke,‟ she gasped, „bad time... bad taste... no round of applause from me.‟
„Everyone‟s a critic,‟ Ronick muttered. „I thought it was worth a hand myself.‟
For the moment all the Doctor could do was to keep up with the contraction round the ankle, neutralising its effect by continuously generating more unfolding band. There had to come a time he hoped when the expansion had weakened it so much that the band would tear itself apart; or the band would reach some sort of design limit and simply stop contracting; or preferably both.
„Done it, done it,‟ Ronick almost shouted. „Gods there‟s a lot of blood. I must have nicked a vein or something.‟
Sita was elated. „It doesn‟t matter,‟ she exulted. „Blood I can replace. Here get the binding seals from the medical kit. I owe you, Driftkiller.‟
„Talk‟s cheap and getting cheaper all the time,‟ Ronick said.
„And it‟s Ronick, or Lars, or even Sergeant. Not Driftkiller all right? Driftkilling was my old man‟s profession and as it happens he was a scuffling scuffwit. How‟s it coming Doctor?‟
„Keep her still,‟ the Doctor warned. „Keep your leg still, Sita, I haven‟t finished yet.‟
„I thought I felt you take the band off,