Doctor Who_ Set Piece - Kate Orman [76]
She slapped him across the face, once, hard. ‘What are you doing?’ she shrieked. ‘What the cruk do you think you’re doing?’
But he just laughed, his pupils expanded to huge black circles, a look of giddy ecstasy crossing his features. Ace realized she couldn’t hear him laughing.
His head lolled back suddenly. She let go of his lapels.
The rift was still open. Worse, it was getting bigger, blowing up like a balloon, bringing the rushing chaos of the Vortex with it. The air was full of butterfly colours and a raging noise so loud she hadn’t even heard it. Her linen dress was no protection against the slicing wind.
The Doctor lay limp on the grass, hyperventilating. There was dew or condensation forming on his face and hands. Time twisted and twitched in Ace’s 149
belly.
She found the pistol in a hollow in the lawn. Late nineteenth century.
The rift was a swelling sphere, throwing up clumps of seared grass and soil as it bit into the ground. Its edge blew outwards, towards the Doctor.
The Time Lord rolled onto his side, still laughing – but there was something about the way the air was crumpling and his body was twisting and space was folding up around him and he thrashed soundlessly and clawed the air, a piece of animated origami, assaulted by time, drowning in it – and the Ants were going to come through and she had to stop it, she had to stop it, all she had to do was –
Ace snapped up the pistol, took careful aim, and shot the five-year-old child between the eyes.
Benny ran out into a storm of colour and sound. The wind almost slapped her off her feet. She grabbed for the TARDIS and leant hard on it, trying to take in her surroundings.
There was a gaping hole in the air, flickering fitfully, on and off. It was closing, snapping out waves of random energy: scarlet, aqua, gold, white, heliotrope, lime, vermilion. She ripped her eyes away from it.
She was just a few seconds too late.
The Doctor, Ace, and a small child were lying in a strange triangle on the grass. Bernice started running to them through the dying timestorm. She stopped short when she saw that the boy wasn’t going to need her help. Just a few seconds late.
Ace was trying to push herself onto her knees, the pistol still in her hand.
Benny marched over to her and pulled the weapon out of her fingers. ‘Doctor . . . ’ said Ace indistinctly.
Benny hurled the gun away and hauled her to her feet. She was freezing cold, condensation all over her flesh; the grass underfoot was covered in frost, as though the rift were trying to suck all the heat out of its surroundings.
There was suddenly a woman at Bernice’s side. Period dress – continental.
‘What year is this?’ shouted Benny.
The woman didn’t hear. ‘I’ll take her inside,’ she shouted, leading the dazed Ace away towards a country mansion.
At last, with a tremendous pop, the rift closed.
Benny blinked rapidly, trying to get the spots out of her field of vision. She knelt beside the Doctor. There was ice in his hair and a thin layer of frost on his face. He was trying to roll over, hands pressed to his ears, wearing a crazy grin.
She took hold of him, helped him into a sitting position. ‘Doctor,’ she said sharply, ‘Doctor!’
150
His eyelids flickered. ‘Hello, Bernice,’ he said, the words blurring together.
‘Is that you? I was trying to daydream, but you know, my mind just kept wandering . . . ’
‘Shut up, you git,’ she said, ‘you’re half-frozen.’
‘Is that all?’ She hefted him to his feet, and caught him as he stumbled. ‘I thought I was caught in the chronon backwash of an interdimensional implosion. Just shows how wrong a person can be. It’s good to see you.’
‘You too. Now be quiet.’
The woman in the dress had come back outside. She averted her eyes from the dead child lying on the lawn.
‘Oh God,’ said Benny. ‘Was it yours?’
The woman shook her head. Wordlessly, she helped Bernice take the Doctor inside the house.
Nicolas was eating something in the kitchen. Kadiatu had interrupted his usual rounds; she needed to get back to the farm. She sat in the living room,