Doctor Who_ Peacemaker - James Swallow [64]
She went to the boy, who stood panting and doubled over. ‘Are you OK?’
Nathan looked up at her and nodded. ‘Yeah. Yeah. ’ A smile crossed his face. ‘That flash of light. . . it made me. . . feel better.’
Martha paused, thinking. She had to admit, she felt it too. As if some dark shadow playing at the back of her mind had been blown away by the wind.
‘They ain’t there no more,’ Nathan continued, musing.
‘Miss
Martha, the bad dreams, the things I remembered. It’s like they’re gone.’
She didn’t answer him. Her gaze was stuck on a shape moving through the clouds of red dust, coming towards them with careful, loping steps, intent and with purpose. Martha’s heart leapt as the Doctor trudged out of the crumpled crater and came to a halt before them. Like Nathan and Martha, he was caked in dirt.
‘Look at me!’ he said, spreading his hands. ‘Twice in the same day.’
He blew grit from his lips. ‘ Bleah. That’s it, from now on I am staying out of caves.’
Martha’s eyes prickled, and it wasn’t from the dust. ‘You had me worried for a minute, there.’
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‘Who, me?’ He gave her a lop-sided grin. ‘Nick-of-time escapes are my speciality.’ She punched him on the arm and he made a face. ‘Ow!
What was that for?’
‘For scaring us like that.
Next time, don’t cut it so fine.’
She
frowned. ‘Or let yourself get taken over by a mad alien super weapon.’
‘OK,’ he agreed. ‘I’ll try not to let it happen again. No promises, though.’
Martha turned to study the crater and the pillar of dust that was all that remained of the old iron mine. ‘You don’t mess about, do you?
Dropping a hill on someone.’
The Doctor frowned. ‘They didn’t leave me with any other option.’
‘How did you do that?’
He patted his pockets, sending up fresh puffs of dust. ‘When we ran into the mine and I collapsed the entrance, I scanned the resonant frequency of the rock formations. . . ’ He pulled handfuls of dust and small stones from the crevices of the coat, his frown deepening. ‘I set the Clade power matrix to overload at the same sonic interval. . . ’ The Doctor paused, and fumbled at his holster, only to find it had been ripped open in the escape. ‘I’ve lost it. My sonic screwdriver, I had it right here. Oh, not again.’
Nathan stooped and dug something long and silver out of the rockslide. ‘Looking for this?’ He offered the wand-like device to the Doctor.
His face lit up. ‘Oh, yes! Nathan Blaine, eyes like an eagle!’ The Doctor ruffled the boy’s hair.
Nathan looked up at the clear blue sky. ‘Doc, just now, that flash of light –’
‘That was my handiwork, yes,’ he admitted, leading them back down toward the tumbledown remains of the old mine head. ‘I inserted a program meme into the Clade systems just before I disconnected myself from it to neutralise the memory transfer from –’ The Doctor glanced at Nathan and saw that the boy hadn’t understood a word he was saying. ‘I made the bad dreams vanish,’ he continued.
‘If I did it right, the pulse will reach for miles in every direction, and hopefully touch everyone that Alvin Godlove healed. No more nightmares. . . ’ He blew out a breath. ‘Well, at least no more alien ones.
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Can’t really help you with the normal humankind.’
Nathan smiled. ‘Oh, I reckon you have, Doc. I get the feelin’ as long as you’re around, nothing will ever seem scary again.’
As the evening drew in, they buried Walking Crow by the mine and Martha shed a few tears for him as the Doctor spoke in the Pawnee’s tribal language, calling for the Great Spirit to watch over him and thank him for his sacrifice.
Then, with Nathan guiding them once more, they made their way back to Ironhill where a wary citizenry were waiting for them. The Doctor organised hotel rooms for the three of them and, more importantly, a bath. Nathan later remarked that he’d washed off enough mud to coat the roof of the schoolhouse, and Martha had to admit she hadn’t been that grubby since Leo had pushed her in the river when they were kids.
The Doctor sat out on the balcony of the hotel where they stayed, watching the stars all night long. Martha