Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [31]
Very Short Dream Sequence
Argh, thought the Doctor. At least this time I know I’m dreaming.
Blackness.
Argh again. Certain kinds of blaster worked by pushing energy into the nervous system. Adjust the setting, and you could confuse, paralyse, stun, burn out the brain in a sudden jolt of input.
Hallucinations were a normal side-effect of —
Blackness.
‘How many people are you going to kill?’
‘What?’
A sort of muddy greyness.
‘How many people die this time?’
‘None. No-one.’
‘Except...’
‘Except?’
‘Except anyone who needs to die.’
‘No,’ said the Doctor. The greyness was shot through with red and black. ‘No deals with the darkness. No-one dies.’
‘If you can’t do better than that,’ said the other voice patiently, ‘I’m going to have to remove your eyes.’
Blackness.
‘So take them,’ said the Doctor. ‘What business is it of yours?’
‘I’ll make you a wager. I’ll bet that you can’t keep everyone alive. Villains, innocents, everyone.’
‘It’s not much of a challenge. That’s what I normally try to do.
‘Except if someone needs to die.’
‘All right,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s a bet.’
‘What do I get if I win?’
‘All the angst you can eat. And me?’
‘All the angst I can eat.’ ‘You’re on,’ said the Doctor.
Blackness.
7 Fire with Fire
For a long time Chris wasn’t anywhere in particular, drifting softly in the blank mental state the Doctor had left him in. The first thing he became aware of was that the Time Lord was no longer with him.
The second was that his mouth was full of the taste of ashes. He sat up, convulsively spitting out black dust.
He was alone in the centre of one of the blast patches.
The Doctor had just left him there. Probably until he pulled himself back together.
He pushed the palm of his glove against his forehead.
Forrester was going to be disgusted with him. The fact that he’d know everything she was thinking wasn’t going to help.
Something exploded.
Chris jumped to his feet and ran towards the sound. He was into the narrow band of trees that separated the two clearings before he saw what it was: the new dome, the one they’d been building this morning, had burst into flames.
It twisted inside him at the sight of the fire. Impact.
Shrapnel. Wreckage. Raining down all around.
He didn’t stop running until he was within thirty feet of the burning dome, close enough to feel the heat. There were people running around and yelling everywhere. There was Benny, running up with Dr St John, lugging a spare first-aid kit. Two people were lying on the grass. They had first-degree burns at least, by the look of them.
Roz and one of the colonists had hold of a struggling woman who kept screaming, ‘I didn’t mean it! I didn’t mean it!’
Roz saw him and yelled, ‘For Goddess’ sake, give us a hand here!’
Chris grabbed one of the woman’s arms, and the two of them pushed her, face first, into the ground. ‘What happened?’ he asked.
‘She’s the pyrokinetic,’ said Roz. ‘They were installing a fuel cell.’
‘Oh, great! Whose brilliant idea was that?’
The woman was sobbing into the grass, all the fight gone out of her. Chris looked around. Benny was passing Byerley equipment from the kit, while one of his assistants did mouthto-mouth on the other colonist. Colonists stood around as though paralysed, some of them watching the medic, some of them staring at the burning dome.
‘Where’s the Doctor?’ said Chris.
Roz looked at him. ‘I thought he was with you.’
He didn’t answer, staring at the fire. Great clouds of black smoke were gushing out of the top of the incomplete dome. The flames followed the shape of the half-sphere, dancing in and out of the plastic supports. Something in there was very flammable. The fire was red. Yellow. Orange. Blue.
Roz was saying something. He didn’t hear it.
Impact. Shrapnel. Wreckage. Raining down all around.
He got up and ran into the burning building.
The Doctor came round with a start. He managed to keep his eyes closed. Listen.
Wind in trees. Damp grass beneath him. Someone sitting nearby, watching. Waiting for him