Doctor Who_ Nightshade - Mark Gatiss [105]
mounted his horse and galloped away.
He strolled over to the cold stone walls. ‘My guess is that Ace could feel the heat blasting against her as the castle the Sentience will follow the fossil radiation back to when it became virtually transparent. Halos of blistering fire roared was new, by going back through Time. To this evening.’
through the masonry.
‘But how can you be so exact?’
‘This is it!’ cried the Doctor. ‘The Sentience leaving Earth
‘Another guess. This is Marsham Castle, in which our to find its star. Come on!’
friendly local Cavaliers are currently being frightened out of He pushed open the doors of the TARDIS and ushered their wits. Ah, there they go!’
Ace inside. Seconds later, the old ship protested out of solid The castle gates burst open and the Royalists ran out, existence.
screaming in terror.
The castle reached optimum brightness and then erupted The Doctor pointed up at the battlements, where a ball of into an immense fireball with a sound like planets colliding.
fiery light was forming. Ralph Grey looked over, his face a mask of horror, and then threw himself into space. Ace The Doctor fussed over the console, mumbling to himself.
grimaced.
He glanced at the scanner and then whooped with delight.
‘It must’ve returned to its normal state now,’ said the
‘There!’
Doctor. ‘And remained undisturbed as its future self They were in space now, and the roundel screen was arrives.’
dominated by an incredible outpouring of light and energy.
He looked about. There was silence. The Doctor checked The Bellatrix double comprised a white dwarf star and its his pocket watch.
companion. In the course of time, the companion star had Phillip Jackson rode up to the gateway, dismounted, grown enormously, but its evolution had been halted by the stepped over Grey’s body and disappeared inside the castle.
proximity of the white dwarf.
The air was suddenly alive with power. Ace felt the hairs Material began to bleed from the companion on to the on her arms and neck stand up.
dwarf until it reached its maximum permissible mass. At
‘Here it comes,’ whispered the Doctor.
this point, the Chandreskhar limit, the dwarf underwent a The castle began to seethe with light, the old stones massive thermonuclear explosion.
themselves rippling and blurring.
The Sentience, however, knew nothing of this. All it could feel, all it could taste, was the bounty of the exploding star.
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DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
It slipped free of Earth’s atmosphere and sped across the Ace regarded the Doctor steadily. ‘Where’s it going?’ ‘Out galaxy at incredible speed, throbbing with power.
of the galaxy,’ said the Doctor wonderingly. ‘Out towards In an instant, it was there, writhing and wallowing in the Andromeda.’ He looked up and smiled. ‘M31. The Great astonishing blast of energy.
Spiral.’
‘Need!’ it sang to itself.
‘And what’s it looking for? Another nova?’ The Doctor leant on the console and looked at her. ‘No, better than that.
‘It’ll stay there until the star has exhausted itself,’ said the A supernova.’ He checked his instruments. ‘Yes, there it is.
Doctor. ‘Let’s nip forward a bit...’
It’s found one. A big one too.’
His fingers danced over a row of buttons.
Ace checked her watch. They’d been gone a good while The Sentience groaned with delight as the energy from the now but this was a time machine, after all. The Doctor could blazing red star flooded into it. If it could go on discovering drop her off only a minute after they’d left. She thought of these sources, these dying stars then, perhaps, the need Robin and smiled. The Doctor glanced at the scanner and would be fulfilled. Perhaps it might rest, at last..
frowned. ‘It’s gone.’
‘What about the star?’
The Doctor chewed his fingernails anxiously. ‘We’ll go
‘Finished. Dead.’ He stabbed at a display before him.
forward in Time again and see what it’s up to.’
‘Wait, I’ve got a trace. We can follow it.’
He cast a glance at the scanner