Doctor Who_ Relative Dementias - Mark Michalowski [113]
‘And?’
The Doctor leaned close in to Ace. ‘And bang!’ he said softly.
Ace flinched. ‘Taking most of Scotland with it, I should imagine.
A safety feature to prevent people from simply destroying the control sphere to gain access. I rather suspect that none of them thought of this, otherwise they wouldn’t have been taking it with them,’ he added.
‘Will they feel anything?’ she asked curiously.
The Doctor pulled a face. ‘Not for long, I imagine. Opening the transmat into the stasis chamber will probably give them a few seconds of sensory awareness. After that... just darkness, Ace.’
‘So what about them?’ Ace tipped her head in the direction of Connie and Jessie. ‘Bit of luck them arriving when they did -
although a few hours earlier would have been nice.’
Ace looked back at the Doctor, who was wincing, his eyes deliberately trying to avoid hers.
‘What?’ she asked. ‘What’s going on...?’
‘I’m sorry Ace,’ he said sheepishly. ‘They’re not actually Annarene.’
‘Then why did they say they were?’
The Doctor gave a sigh. ‘I’d originally intended for them to come and rescue us. Then when Michael here kindly got us out and I realised I could direct the transmat into the stasis chamber, I knew that I had to find some way to panic Sooal and the Annarene into jumping through the transmat without checking the settings.’ He reached down and picked up the silvery hairnet that had fallen from under his hat when he’d collapsed. He turned it over in his hands. ‘I cobbled this together from the implant I removed from Joyce – it’s –’
‘I know what it is,’ Ace said hotly, realisation dawning on her. ‘It’s the thing that connected her up to the computers on board the ship, isn’t it?’
He nodded.
‘And Connie and Jessie still have theirs in their heads, don’t they?’
He nodded again. ‘I’m sorry Ace,’ he said again. ‘It was the only thing I could think of. I had to panic them. I couldn’t take the chance that they’d check the transmat settings.’
‘Hello?’ interjected Michael. ‘Us normal people are still here, you know.’ He looked at Ace, eyebrows raised.
‘Ask him,’ she spat, and turned away from the Doctor.
‘While we were locked in the storeroom,’ the Doctor explained, his eyes on Ace as she crossed to Jessie and Connie and began reassuring them, ‘I used this to forge a temporary mental link to Connie and Jessie.’ He twirled the silver mesh in his fingers. ‘A bit of a strain, but it was my only option. I asked them to do a bit of play-acting for me – which they did marvellously.’ He turned to the two ladies, trying hard to be cheery and matter-of-fact about the whole business. But Ace – at whom, she knew, his jollity was really directed – sullenly ignored him. His face fell.
‘So they’re not Annarene at all?’ Michael asked. The Doctor shook his head.
‘No, just two very game ladies – who’ve probably saved your planet from slavery. Now... who’s for tea?’
The sky was pale grey, the morning was cold and wet, and in the Orkneys, Ace was fishing about in her rucksack, wincing as she accidentally put her weight onto her damaged knee. She found a pen whilst Alexander searched amongst the bits and pieces left around the camp and found a blank envelope. He handed it to her, mystified.
‘You do realise,’ he reminded her as she stuck down the flap and began to scribble on the back, ‘that it’s going to be Friday before that’s even collected by the supply boat. And then it’s got to find its way to the Doctor.’
‘Trust me,’ Ace said, signing her name with a flourish and an exclamation mark. She pressed it into his hand. ‘Can you add the longitude and latitude of the beach when you get back to the boat?’
Alexander nodded as he read the card: Wish you were here.
Now! Love, Ace! He noted she’d added the date and time (about an hour from now, he realised) at the bottom. The front bore the address of a post office box in London.
‘And promise me,’ she said, ‘that whatever happens, you’ll make sure this card goes.