• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

AH.

‘Stop!’ he yelled. ‘Stop it!’

Albinex knelt down beside the bed, so that his face was level with the Time Lord’s. The Doctor was shaking violently, his arms thrown up in front of him as though to ward off the attack.

MMMMMMNNNNNNNNNN.

‘That’s more like it,’ said the Navarino. ‘You’re enjoying this,’ said M’Kabel. Albinex gave him a dismissive glance.

‘I’ve got a tape recorder here,’ he said. In a single’ fluid movement’ the Doctor pulled his whole body into a foetal position, arms thrown over his head. ‘Can he escape you?’

HE’S TRYING TO. The ghost’s voice was thick with ecstasy.

‘Then make it stronger.’

I CAN’T

The Doctor said something’ his voice muffled. ‘What was that?’ ‘ Please,’ sobbed the Time Lord. He was weeping for joy. Albinex switched on the tape recorder. ‘Any time you’re ready.’

M’Kabel unlocked the door of the stateroom and slipped inside. The Doctor lay on the bed’ awake. His eyes were dark and empty. ‘I’m sorry,’ whispered the Tzun. He wondered what it must be like to come down from a high like that. ‘It’s over now,’ he said. ‘You’ve given him the codes.’

The Doctor had bitten out a long, long series of numbers.

Albinex didn’t let the ghost stop until he was sure he had the whole of the codes safely recorded. M’Kabel had spent the last hour checking them for errors. They were all valid.

‘No one can blame you. Nobody could have stood up to that.’ Behind them’ the door opened. Albinex marched in.

‘What

are you doing?’ ‘I’m not doing anything,’ said M’Kabel.

Albinex pushed past him and hovered over the Doctor. ‘Get up,’ he said. When the Time Lord didn’t move, he reached down and wrenched him upright by his collar. The Doctor didn’t try to resist.

‘I was very worried you’d try to trick us.’

‘Don’t talk to me,’ said the Doctor hoarsely. ‘Just kill me.’

M’Kabel looked at Albinex. ‘You wouldn’t,’ said the Tzun.

Albinex dragged the Doctor off the bed and pulled him across the room. M’Kabel caught up with them in the hallway and took the Doctor’s arm, steadying him. ‘Where are we going?’ the Tzun demanded weakly.

‘To the airlock,’ said Albinex.

‘We’re going to let you go now,’ the Tzun reassured the Doctor.

It wasn’t far. Albinex slapped a panel, opening the inner door of the airlock. He dropped the Doctor onto the floor inside. For a horrible moment, M’Kabel thought they were in space.

But the sensors registered normal pressure. The outer door opened.

They were still above the lake. M’Kabel looked out, cautiously.

Thirty metres above the lake.

The Doctor murmured something. ‘Last words?’ said Albinex. ‘I can’t hear you.’ He leant closer.

The Doctor lifted his head and kissed Albinex on the end of the nose. He fell back, grinning.

Albinex blinked at him. M’Kabel watched the pair of them, almost dancing from foot to foot with anxiety.

The Navarino pulled the Doctor to the door. The Time Lord peered out at the darkness. At the water, far below them, the hovering ship’s anti-gravity beam forcing strange ripples across its surface.

‘Don’t you have any mercy?’ whispered M’Kabel.

Albinex glanced at the Tzun. ‘Yes,’ he said. He twisted his hand in the Doctor’s hair and smacked the Time Lord’s head against the door frame, hard, twice.

The Navarino lifted him by the collar, shoved him out into the air.

M’Kabel screamed as the airlock door slammed shut.

PART FOUR

THE END

Be like the chameleon — keep one eye on the past and one on the future.

Malagasy proverb

Falling

Towards a black mirror.

Angry eyes watching him fall. His last self ‘No. I don’t forgive you. Not yet.’

The air ripped past him.

‘Serves you right for killing me just so you could exist. Is it murder? Suicide? Patricide?’

Tumbling, head down, unable to get a breath.

‘You’ve been staving off Number Eight for so long.

Haven’t you, “Time’s Champion” ? What will he be capable of?’

The mirror shattered around him with a terrible sound.

‘That’s the trouble with regeneration. You don’t get to choose your next face.’

The Doctor surfaced.