Doctor Who_ Return of the Living Dad - Kate Orman [12]
The radiation would help to mask the Tisiphone as she shot around the back of the small planet, used its gravity to increase her speed, and attacked the Dalek ships from behind.
He hadn’t been running away.
He hadn’t been running away!
Benny whooped. The Doctor turned to say something, but suddenly the ship rolled madly, throwing them both to the ceiling.
Benny tumbled down the wall and hit the floor with a thump that knocked the breath out of her. She felt the Time Lord grab her, pull her upright. ‘That’s four minutes!’ he yelled, over the strained roaring of the engines. ‘We’ve got to go!’
Benny mutely pointed to the front screen.
There was a large yacht sailing past one of the Dalek ships.
‘I think you’re right about those hallucinations, sir!’
shouted the pilot.
We have to go!’ shouted the Doctor. He caught Benny’s arm and pulled her along behind him, winding back down the access tunnel.
She nearly cannoned into him when he stopped suddenly, a hatch slamming shut ahead of them, sealing off a breach.
Instantly he was pulling her down another corridor, stumbling through the smoke and flame, homing in on the TARDIS by instinct. He all but threw her inside.
Her ears rang in the sudden quietness. ‘I would have gone!’ she coughed. STAY CALM! ‘I would have gone anyway!’
The Doctor didn’t have time to answer her, hands darting over the console. Jason put his arms around her, but she shrugged him off as they dematerialized. ‘What happened next?’ she yelled at the Time Lord. ‘What happened?’
He nodded at the viewscreen.
They were in space, watching the battle as though it was on television.
The Tisiphone emerged from behind the moon, cannons blazing. A Dalek ship burst like an opening flower. The Tisiphone flew through expanding wreckage.
A massive rip appeared in the blackness, right in front of the Tisiphone, venting butterfly colours.
They didn’t even have a chance to turn before it gulped them down and vanished.
Benny found she didn’t have the energy to get up a good yell. ‘What?’ she said, faintly.
‘The Ants’ tunnels?’ muttered the Doctor. ‘A Dalek time corridor?’ The readouts flashed in his eyes. ‘Neither.’
‘Their hyperspace drive?’ asked Chris. ‘It might have misfired or something.’
‘No, look at the energy patterns.’ The Doctor glanced up at the viewscreen. A smudge of colour still hung in space.
‘Whatever it is, it’s still there.’
Benny grabbed his arm. ‘Can we tell where they went?
Can we follow it?’
The Doctor turned to her, took her hands. ‘We can try,’
he said. ‘But they may not have gone anywhere. That wormhole could terminate in a black hole, or the heart of a sun, or nowhere at all.’ He squeezed her hands, gently, as though he was frightened of breaking them. ‘We’ll be protected in the TARDIS. Do you want to know?’
Benny nodded fiercely.
‘All right then,’ said the Doctor. ‘We can try to follow the ship’s transponder signal through the wormhole.’ He closed the viewscreen. ‘Hold on, everyone.’
5 Little Caldwell appreciates careful drivers
And they landed in December, outside a post office.
6 Dad on arrival
Little Caldwell, Berkshire, 10 December 1983
Joel woke up an hour before his alarm was set to go off.
He rolled out of bed, knocked a pile of comics off his clock radio, and switched it on. Static.
Joel closed his eyes, breathing hard. This was stupid.
He pushed his thumbnail into the grooves of the tuning dial and moved it until the noise turned into the strains of
‘Safety Dance’.
He sat back on the bed, breathing out a cloud of white mist, letting his thumping heart slow back down. Civilization as he knew it was still there, or at least Radio One.
Joel reached under the bed and fished out a packet of cigarettes. His hands shook a little as he lit up the first smoke of the day.
It hadn’t been the nightmare that had woken him up.
Some big noise, outside.