Doctor Who_ Psi-Ence Fiction - Chris Boucher [100]
The Doctor could not remember when he had last seen anything so hugely destructive and so horrifyingly dangerous. 'You idiot,' he said. 'What have you done?' It was possible that the damage the machine was doing right now was already irreversible, and he could see that this was supposed to be its steady state. It was not even in use.
'I don't expect you to understand what it is you're seeing,' Finer said.
'We have something in common then,' the Doctor murmured. 'I don't expect you to understand it either.'
'What you're looking at is a time machine,' Finer explained.
What I'm looking at isn't a time machine,' the Doctor contradicted.
'I know it's difficult to believe, particularly without the appropriate education and training,' Finer changed the angle of the image with the wand, 'but I promise you that's what it is,' he said, more than a little smugly.
The Doctor said, 'It's half a time machine at best. The half that draws together the time lines and collapses the multiverse. What you appear to be missing is a transdimensional containment and a semisentient control system. Without them your machine will go on collapsing the multiverse for ever. It will feed on it, in it, and through it.'
You have no idea what you're talking about,' Finer said.
'No,' the Doctor said. 'You have no idea what I'm talking about. Put it this way. If you took every bomb and every explosive device of every kind ever made and set them all off in the same place at the same time, the destructive capacity would be minuscule compared to what you have there.'
'I'm sorry you feel like that.' Finer smiled. 'I had hoped that by answering your questions frankly I could persuade you to be a pioneer of time travel. I was planning to use the machine to send you back through time.'
'You cannot use that machine,' the Doctor said, urgently. 'You cannot increase the power it's getting already.'
'You think not?' Finer stared at the screen with genuine pride. His voice took on a tone tinged with awe. 'That is one of science's holy grails. It's the perpetual motion engine, it's the cold fusion process, it's action without reaction.
You get more power out of that machine,' he pointed at it triumphantly,
'than you put into it.'
'Of course you do,' the Doctor said witheringly. 'But it's not magic, man. It's not something for nothing!'
'When I've done what I have to do,' Finer went on, 'it will be my gift to the world.'
The Doctor raised his voice. 'It's already in a feedback loop which you may not be able to reverse,' he said slowly and distinctly.
'Nothing will be the same ever again,' Finer exulted.
'Nothing will ever be again!' the Doctor raged.
'I can't talk you into it then?' Finer flicked the wand and the image of Barry Hitchins was restored. He was pacing about outside the locked revolving door. 'I was afraid the irritating little bugger might be persistent.'
'Are you listening to me?' The Doctor was suddenly feeling disconnected.
Finer wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. He'd put it simply enough. Surely the man must have understood?
'There may have to be a brief delay,' Finer said. 'In the meantime, let me tell you about a really useful drug my biotechnology company has developed. It's a contact tranquilliser. Stable enough to put on any nonporous surface.'
The water bottle, the Doctor thought. Finer hadn't missed that catch. He just didn't want to touch the body of the bottle.
'Concentrated it becomes an anaesthetic of course,' Finer was saying.
'You'll be feeling a bit disorientated I expect.'
Darkness slipped across the Doctor's eyes. It reminded him of the drifts of black blocks
Chapter Fourteen