Doctor Who_ Set Piece - Kate Orman [75]
‘Blast,’ he said.
‘What happened?’ said the Frenchwoman.
‘That was meant for Ship.’ The Doctor blew out a long sigh. ‘Thank you, Genevieve.’
‘Will there be any more explosions?’
‘No. No more.’ There was no sign of Thierry; the blast must have drawn him in, like an aeroplane passenger being sucked out through a window. The Doctor wondered whether or not to tell his wife. It could wait.
A small red ball rolled up to the edge of the hole, right under the Doctor’s nose.
The Time Lord climbed up out of the hole. ‘Stay here,’ he told Genevieve,
‘and whatever you do, don’t look.’
The littleboy was standing on the lawn, perhaps twenty feet away. The Doctor walked slowly towards the child.
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The first ripple in the time field was a tickling at the top of his spine, drawing quivering fingers up the back of his neck. Like someone walking over his grave. He kept walking.
The second ripple crashed out from the littleboy in a wave. Time slipped a groove, just a fraction of a second, enough to turn the Doctor’s stomach and make tiny fish swim in his field of vision. He started to take the pistol out of his pocket.
With the third ripple time shorted out, stood still, ran backwards and forwards. The Doctor was holding the pistol, it was still in his pocket, he was taking careful aim at the red-headed child standing on the lawn in front of him, he was taking the pistol out of his pocket.
A great ball of searing light appeared in the air directly above the child, blanketing the countryside with a roaring, hissing silence. The ball of light floated down, surrounding the child in a carousel glow. In the centre of the light was a jagged hole, growing larger and larger, becoming more defined.
The Doctor filtered out every sense until all he could see was those pale eyes watching him. He aimed carefully between them.
Then time came bursting out of the hole, gushing out like blood from a cracked clock-face, shattering in his skull like a lightbulb. His hearts misfired, syncopated, forget-getting which beat was supposed to to come next as reality stut-stuttered.
He started to lose his grip on the pistol. He started to lose his grip on the pistol. He start-started to lose lose his grip on the pistol.
Something heavy slammed into him. He lost his grip.
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Third Piece
On a Wing and a Prayer
The skillful fighter wins by making no mistakes.
That means having already established that victory is certain – conquering an enemy who is already defeated.
(Sun Tzu)
Chapter 12
In which Ace Traverses a Tunnel Through the Space-Time Vortex, Unprotected by a Force Shield and Un-certain of Whether the Walls of the Tunnel Will Collapse
Fish! Was this how oil on a puddle, FISH out of puddle erupting in rainbows water felt? Colour swirling away, spinning hands and feet TOO FAR away, swirling away, too far away – her HEART was fluttering. God! Swirl flutter by flutter by – Oh, God! Oh, mother! Oh, GOD!
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Chapter 13
Intersection of Three Sets
The Healer and the Warrior
Were walking hand in hand;
The Warrior asked the Healer
If he knew what he had planned.
‘To see the future and the past,’ she said,
‘It must be grand!’
(Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, non-existent manuscript)
She broke through the surface tension at the tunnel’s end and burst into air and sunlight and flopped on the grass, gulping air, tears streaming down her face. Her jittering hands were afire, her whole body glowed like a ghost, the air cracking and popping around her.
She dragged her head up, forced herself up onto her knees. Her heart was trying to rip its way out of her chest. Nearby, a young boy – five? six? – was regarding her incuriously, hands in his pockets.
The Doctor stood not ten feet away. He was going to shoot the boy.
With a wordless shriek, Ace threw herself at him and thwacked him with the cattle prod.
They tumbled to the ground, both weapons bouncing away across the grass.
Jesus, some of the things she’d seen the Auxies do, but you didn’t kill children,