Doctor Who_ The Algebra of Ice - Lloyd Rose [103]
Looked like a cave. Sort of. At any rate, a few yards down, the passage opened out into a larger space. She crept towards this.
The first thing she noticed was the domed ceiling. The second was the machine.
Incredulously, Ace stepped into the room. At its centre rose an extraordinary structure of gears and levers and pendulums, all intricately fitted together and all of ice, or something that looked like ice. None of the elements was moving
– perhaps it wasn’t a machine at all, but a sculpture. As she watched, the Doctor trotted around from the back and paused to polish a bit of cog with his handkerchief.
‘Professor!’
He looked up, smiled in happy surprise, and waved. Then he went back to fussing over the cog. Ace went towards him slowly – something was very, very wrong.
‘Hello, Ace!’ he said cheerfully, his Scots burr stronger than usual. ‘Excellent to see you. How are you?’
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‘Better than you,’ she muttered. Raising her voice, she said, ‘What’s this then?’
He clasped his hands in front of his chest, admiring the device. ‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’
‘What’s it do?’
‘Do?’ he said vaguely. ‘What should it do?’
‘It doesn’t move, then?’
He shook his head violently. ‘Movement,’ he explained in a low voice, ‘is to be discouraged.’
Round the twist. Well, nothing she couldn’t handle. ‘Very pretty. Let’s go then.’
‘Go!’ he said in alarm.
‘Yeah, go, Professor. Back to the TARDIS.’ She took his arm. He knocked her hand away.
‘Don’t be silly. I’m not finished yet!’
‘Right,’ said Ace supportively, considering how best to proceed. ‘Sorry. I forgot. So, when will you be finished?’
‘Never,’ said a toneless voice from across the room.
Ace stared at the tall, white, thin thing. A bloody worm, she thought. Only with hands and a head. ‘What are you? One of those scumbags who’s caused all the trouble?’
The Doctor climbed inside the machine and began smoothing bits with his pocket laser. She glanced at him worriedly. The thing crossed to her, stately, even dignified. She didn’t like the way its colourless eyes blurred and cleared.
‘Aren’t you supposed to he numbers?’
‘I am numbers. What you see is –’
‘– an illusion. Right. Been there. What have you done to the Professor?’
‘Simply released him to be himself.’
She snorted. ‘That’s not him.’
‘No?’
‘I mean, it’s him, but it’s not him. He’s not some nutter building a useless machine.’
‘It’s not useless, Ace,’ said the Doctor from within. ‘Beauty is not useless.’
‘It’s not beautiful, either.’
He poked his head out between two gears. ‘How dare you!’ he screamed.
Ace flinched. The Doctor’s head vanished back inside.
‘All right,’ she said to the thing. ‘What’ve you done to him?’
‘You ought to go,’ it said. ‘This is no place for you.’
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The Algebra of Ice
‘Him neither.’ Ace ducked under a lever and began to climb up to the Doctor.
‘Professor. . . ’
He was straddling some sort of axle and planing a gear edge just so. ‘Leave me alone.’
‘Look, something’s happened to you.’ The substance was certainly slick as ice, and gripping it chilled her ungloved hands. ‘You need to get out of here.’
He turned a furious scowl on her and she stopped, shocked.
‘Out of here? Out of here?!’
‘You’re only upsetting him,’ said the thing.
‘Shut up!’ Ace screamed. ‘Professor. . . ’ He was back at work. She climbed closer. ‘Listen to me. It’s all right. Only. . . ’
She touched his arm. He spun and hit her, and she crashed down through the gears, landing in fragments of ice. ‘Professor!’ The Doctor ignored her. ‘You’ve done this!’ she yelled at the white thing. ‘Put him back like he was!’
‘This is how he was. It simply didn’t show. Look how happy he is. Order, cleanliness, stasis. Everything in place. No grit in the timeline. No bumps in the universe. He has what he’s always wanted.’
‘You’re lying!’ she yelled. She felt stupid and helpless, like a tantrumy child.
‘You’re lying! Put him back!’
‘Has he ever hit you before?’
‘That wasn’t him!’ To her fury, she had begun to cry. ‘That was you!’
It shook