Doctor Who_ Prime Time - Mike Tucker [84]
She placed the gun on Lukos’s forehead.
‘Ace, no.’ Gatti’s voice was trembling. Ace didn’t look around.
‘He’s a monster, Gatti, and the Doctor and I have always fought monsters.’ She could feel the tears starting to roll down her face. She pressed the gun forward, forcing Lukos’s head against the floor.
‘You have paraded me in front of your audience like some kind of toy, made me face up to things that no one should ever have to face. You have humiliated me, tried to break me, torn away everything that I ever believed in. You have tried your best to destroy my life, but guess what, Lukos?’ She smiled thinly. ‘I’m still standing, you’ve failed and I’m going to be the last thing t you ever see.’
Her finger started to tighten on the trigger.
The surgeon general stretched his arms wide, a horrible smile stretched across his scarred face.
‘Immortality, at last.’
Saarl held up the key, a lecherous smile on his lips.
‘The secrets of the Time Lords ladies and gentlemen. A TARDIS, a technological absurdity from an ancient and powerful race, revealed for you here, live, on the Roderik Saarl show!’
He slipped the key into the lock.
Chapter Twenty-Two
An alarm went off.
The surgeon general struggled around, his smile fading.
‘What is the matter? What is wrong?’
Technicians struggled frantically with controls. ‘We have a system error. Something is infecting the machine.’
The background throb of the machinery was getting erratic, fading in and out. A dull shudder shook the gallery.
The Master grasped hold of the railing.
‘The Doctor,’ he hissed.
There was another thump from below them and a console exploded in a sheet of flame. The Master staggered to the surgeon general’s side. ‘Disconnect the Doctor from the machine.’
The surgeon general shook himself free, eyes blazing.
‘No! He is all that stands between us and extinction!’
‘He is causing that extinction!’ bellowed the Master.
‘Look.’
Down below in the forge the Doctor’s body was bubbling, dissolving. The DNA sequencer gave a deep wrenching groan.
Gouts of flame erupted from the machinery, fireballs rolling towards the ceiling.
‘That isn’t the Doctor!’ The Master staggered to the control console. ‘He’s tricked us. Tricked me!’ His hands danced over the complex controls, trying to stabilise the disruption.
The surgeon general shambled to another console. ‘Our transmitters! Our equipment on Blinni-Orkos! Quickly before we lose power completely.’
The technician shook a scarred head. ‘All readings at danger level, Surgeon General. We cannot control the chain reaction.’
‘No!’ The surgeon general thrust the technician aside. ‘We must have new flesh!’
He punched at the transmitter controls.
The transmitter tower exploded, a silent emption of oranges and yellows, the colours momentarily making the distant colours of the Brago nebula seem muted and soft.
Slowly the massive structure began to topple, metal twisting and buckling. Crackling ribbons of energy danced wildly across the airless surface of the moon as the Fleshsmith machinery torn apart. With a final plume of dust the tower crashed to the floor, another explosion tearing through it, sending shrapnel tumbling over and over into the void.
Saarl stared in disbelief through the open door of the TARDIS.
It was a shabby collection of timber and fibreglass, the light on roof lit by nothing more than a heavy vehicle battery. A prop, scenic construction.
The audience started to laugh and boo. Saarl barely even he the announcement that they were off the air. He slumped to knees, the jeers of the audience ringing around him.
The Master punched at the Fleshsmith machinery in frustration. ‘This is futile. He has infected your entire planetary infrastructure. It’s too late to stop it.’
Another distant explosion shook the control room. He clambered out of his seat. ‘Time for me to leave, I believe.