Doctor Who_ Set Piece - Kate Orman [61]
‘Ace had hibernation sickness,’ he said. ‘She might have been blinded, or had brain damage. If the thawing was uneven, the ice crystals might have burst her heart –’
I came to rescue you both, said Benny, more seriously. I know what I’m doing, don’t worry.
‘But we were separated in the rift. I felt it happen, felt you lose your grip.
The damaged areas of space-time are full of powerful, random forces flinging us off in different directions.’
Which is why you have to stop the Ants. Stop the forces leaking out of the cracks and destroying the universe. What are you going to do about Kadiatu?
‘She seems to have learnt her lesson as far as the time experiments are concerned.’
But do you trust her?
‘Why not let her think she’s in control for a while?’ The Doctor had made a long snake of apple peel. He put it carefully down on the table. ‘She’s trapped.
And trapped animals are the most dangerous.’
We’re all trapped, Doctor. You included.
‘At University,’ said the Doctor, ‘they warned us never to talk to the dead.’
There was a single wail, rising and falling into silence. It came from somewhere downstairs – the cellar – a woman’s voice echoing eerily from the bricks. Scuffling, furniture noises, the sound of a blow landing. Silence again.
Listen to us. It’s up to you to set us all free. Ace picked up the strip of apple peel and swung it around in the air, playfully. So get on with it, eh?
For instance, said Benny, raising an eyebrow, you might want to stop talking to ghosts. I only mention it.
‘I can’t help it,’ said the Doctor softly, and now the pain was back again, the sharpness in his shoulder he had been ignoring. He repulsed the insane urge to stick the knife in the itching pain, cut it out of his body. ‘I’m not myself.’
116
Must be something you drank, said Benny pointedly.
What did they add to you? said Ace curiously.
‘Do you remember the organic matter that infected the TARDIS, after we repaired it with Goibhnie’s protoplasm?’
Hell, that was a long time ago. I remember. The cat tried to warn us.
‘And then I was in two minds, as it were. For months. I couldn’t talk to you properly because I was fighting the virus that had infected the TARDIS’ mind.
My mind.’
Is this like that? said Ace.
Evidently not, said Benny. In fact, he’s positively chatty.
‘That virus altered my biology. It changed the way I thought. It was a subtle form of possession.’
Ace spun the apple peel slowly from her fingers. The Ants’ technology is organic, she said. To them, we’re the machines. And you’re wondering what tinkering they might have done under your hood.
‘They would understand Kadiatu perfectly,’ he said, biting into his apple.
‘Nerves for wires, genes for programs.’
Bernice was shuddering. Possession, she said. It seems to be a bit of an occupational hazard.
Nature of the universe, said Ace, people are always trying to turn you into what you’re not. D’you think they did something to you while you were aboard Ship?
‘No,’ he said, ‘it must have been afterwards.’
And now you’re not yourself.
‘No.’
That’s Kadiatu’s excuse, isn’t it?’
The Doctor looked up at Ace, sharply.
‘Am I out of my mind? Would I know?’
You’re the one talking to yourself.
‘What if this – Paris, Kadiatu – is all an illusion? A sanctuary I’ve created inside my own mind? How would I be able to tell the difference?’
Ace laughed, a silent, imagined laugh. Been there, done that, bought the postcard. Go stub your toe on a rock and see if it hurts.
‘Hold on. I’ll come for you,’ he promised. ‘I’ll come for you both.’
And if it’s too late? said Bernice. Will there be white lilies at the funeral?
Never mind, Professor. Ace winked at him. When you’re short of everything except the enemy, you know you’re in combat!
In the kitchen doorway, the littleboy was watching the Doctor talk to himself. The child looked about five years old: red hair, perfect skin, a precise spattering of freckles. It was not wearing nightclothes, but the same little suit