Doctor Who_ Prime Time - Mike Tucker [25]
The picture changed to show the Doctor outside the Channel 400 gates.
‘This was taken this morning.’
Trasker peered at the screen.
‘Different girl.’
‘Yes. Answers to the name of Ace, apparently.’
Lukos leant across the desk, his piggy eyes running over Trasker’s body. ‘I want you to find out everything that you can about this girl, Rennie. Where she comes from, how long she’s been with him, what planet her parents live on. Everything.’
Trasker nodded. ‘Deadline?’
‘As soon as possible. I’m expecting my first transmission very, very soon.’
Trasker stood, slipping the pad into her pocket.
‘I’d better get started then. I’m to report to you?’
‘Directly.’
Trasker crossed the office and opened the door. Lukos’s eyes never left her back.
‘Rennie?’
She turned at the threshold. ‘Yes, Mr Lukos?’
‘I don’t care how much it costs, or how far you have to go, just get me that information.’
Trasker nodded, and the door slid closed.
Ace looked up at the mountain looming above her, her eyes shining. Gatti was unpacking her rucksack.
‘How long since you’ve done any serious climbing?’
Ace shrugged. ‘Dunno. A few years.’
She thought back to the youth club that had introduced her to it. Not a proper rock face, one of those climbing walls. She had been hooked from day one. It was so simple. It was you against the rock face. If you climbed it, you won. There were no hidden tricks, no others trying to stop you, it was a straightforward test of skill and ability and Ace loved it.
She started rummaging through her own rucksack which the Doctor had gone to fetch from the TARDIS for her. Some of the stuff hadn’t been used since Yorkshire – the rock climbs on the beach with Jean and Phyllis. Before the Haemovores got them. Before they died.
She took a deep breath of clean mountain air. ‘Clean out those bad memories, girl,’ she murmured.
‘Hmm?’
Gatti was looking at her.
Ace smiled. ‘Nothing.’
Gatti handed her a harness. ‘If you’ve not been climbing for a while then you are going to be seriously out of practice.’
‘Hey!’ Ace was indignant. ‘I’m fit enough.’
‘Yeah, in all the wrong places.’ Gatti grinned at her.
‘You’re going to ache tomorrow.’
The Doctor pulled out his paisley handkerchief and mopped his forehead. The walks back and forth across the cornfields had taken him longer than expected. He had already been out here once, getting the bits and pieces Ace had wanted. Perhaps it had been a mistake to park the TARDIS so far out after all.
He could just see its lamp sticking out above the com ahead of him. Stuffing the handkerchief back into his pocket he pushed his way forward.
He unlocked the door of the TARDIS, stepped inside and hung his hat and umbrella on the hat stand. He crossed to the console and his hands danced over the hundreds of tiny controls. The background hum of the time machine changed in pitch and the grating roar of dematerialisation filled the control room.
Satisfied that the TARDIS was on course, the Doctor crossed to a tall elegant wardrobe that stood in one corner. It hadn’t been there before. He smiled. The TARDIS always seemed to be able to second-guess him. The wooden door opened with a creak. Inside hung half a dozen elegantly simple spacesuits, their bubble-like helmets arranged neatly on a shelf.
The Doctor pulled one of them out. ‘Now then, let’s see if you’ve got one in my size.’
Blinni-Gaar’s only moon scorched under the blaze of the distant sun. The dusty grey surface rolled for miles, featureless and dead, the jet-black sky above threaded with colour from the distant nebulae. A single structure dominated the landscape: a slender tower, its arms dotted with hundreds of aerials and dishes, that rose higher than any structure on the planet below would be able to.
The dust at the base of the tower, unsullied by wind or rain, suddenly began to swirl,