Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [83]
The Doctor’s pupils contracted to points. Yellow raked at him, over and over, gripping his hand fiercely, until at last the barrier between them collapsed like an eggshell cracking inside a fist.
He was called the Doctor but his Gallifreyan name had thirty-eight syllables and he had destroyed a fleet of Chelonian ships to kill an entire species and he had once caught a fish with the Venerable Bede and he had caught snowflakes on his tongue in the Little Ice Age and he had nearly been caught in the universe’s birth trauma and he had been on his way to meet a giant rabbit a pink elephant and a purple horse with yellow spots and he had covered Lady Lovelace’s napkins with scribbled diagrams while they talked into the wee hours and he had burst a living sun like a fat yellow balloon.
The five minds crashed down over him like a tidal wave, poured into him like a flood.
He opened his mouth. The cry wasn’t a sound. It was a great burst of energy, knocking the lieutenants aside, making White roar with surprise and pain, blasting into the sky like a blazing beacon.
And he screamed, ‘WAKE UP!’
Part Three
The Phoenix and the Turtle
Who was it said the living are just the dead on holiday?
Never mind.
(The Doctor, Destiny of the Daleks) 19 Yellow
‘All right,’ said Benny. ‘What are our assets?’
‘Well,’ said Cinnabar, ‘there’s a dampening field around the room, so we can’t get any of the telepaths or psychokinetics to do anything.’
‘It also means they can’t eavesdrop, though. What else?’
‘We don’t have any weapons,’ said Cinnabar. ‘They’ve removed all the computer terminals.’
‘Mm-hmm.’
‘It’s been almost an hour since we got here. We don’t know where the Doctor is, and they’ve taken Chris and Roz off to do goodness knows what to them.’
‘Check.’
‘Just about everyone in here is exhausted with stress and lack of sleep and food.’
‘Right. So, as far as assets go, I’d say we have — and this is just a rough estimate, mind you — none whatsoever.’
‘Maybe we could dig our way out,’ said Cinn.
Benny rolled her eyes. ‘Listen. Both me and Roz are infected with an altogether new virus. One which will switch off the unwanted psi abilities.’
‘The cure,’ said Cinn. ‘You mean—’
‘Hopefully, if no-one here has any powers, the troopers won’t have a reason to stay.’
‘Something else,’ said Byerley. They turned to look at him. He’d been sitting, staring at nothing. ‘We might not have any More powers, but there’s something else. The inside of my brain’s heating up like a bonfire.’ Cinnabar squeezed his shoulders. ‘I’ve got to get out.’
Everyone in the common area turned as the main door slid open. It was one of the lieutenants. The nearest troopers saluted, but he ignored them, scanning the room.
‘Dr St John?’ he called.
Cinnabar held onto his hand as he got up. ‘Don’t do anything stupid,’ she whispered. ‘Please.’
Lieutenant Chesinen cowered back against the wall with her arms thrown over her face. Her head was still ringing with the force of the telepathic blast.
She lowered her hands, shakily. The Doctor and White sat in their chairs for an instant, their eyes still locked together. Then the little man’s eyelids fluttered and he crumpled to the floor. There was a tremendous sound of shattering. Chesinen flinched back.
When she looked again, he hadn’t broken into pieces. He was surrounded by the fragments of the wine glass he had knocked off the table. The chair had tumbled away, fetching up against the wall. The Doctor’s eyes were half-open, focused on nothing. The blast must have lit up the inside of his head like a nuke.
White roared, GET BACK IN THERE!
The lieutenants looked at him. None of them moved.
White jumped out of his chair. He stalked round the table and crouched down beside the little man. The Doctor didn’t react as White tugged off a glove.
Chesinen found herself jumping forwards, her fingers closing around the Colonel’s wrist even as he reached for the Doctor’s temple. ‘No, sir!’ she shouted, her voice echoing in the narrow room.
White snarled and tried