Doctor Who_ The Algebra of Ice - Lloyd Rose [24]
‘The Doctor! Something’s wrong!’
He staggered forward on his knees, fell into her. ‘Where is he? What’s –’
‘Hold on to him!’
‘Where the hell is he?’ His voice broke with pain.
‘Follow me!’ she cried. The Doctor still hadn’t moved, yet she somehow felt him slipping away. ‘I’ve got his leg. Find something to hold on to.’
He scrambled awkwardly over her. ‘I’ve got his jacket.’
‘No! Something stronger.’
‘He’s not even moving. We don’t need –’
‘Oh shut up, shut up!’ She was sobbing desperately. ‘Get his other leg, get his arm, get his bloody finger! He’s going, I tell you, I can feel him going!’
‘But –’
‘Just do it, do it!’ she screamed. ‘Do it now!’
She heard him scrambling again. ‘Right. I’ve got his arm – Oh God!’
‘Hang on!’
‘Oh dear God! What is this?’
‘Don’t let him go!’
52
The Algebra of Ice
‘He’s going to take us with him!’
‘No. He. Is. Not,’ she said through gritted teeth. ‘No he is bloody not!’
In spite of the unmoving leg she held, Ace sensed a terrifying motion in the Doctor, upward, spiralling, as if there were a whirlpool in the sky. Around them, the hard darkness was quiet, almost peaceful, which was so wrong it made her feel like screaming. The Doctor was so cold that it hurt where she hugged him to her. She wished he’d make a noise, even a groan. Was he unconscious?
Trapped in a force so powerful it absorbed all sound?
Then it ended.
The Doctor fell in a heap, jerking Ace and Ethan down too. They lay half on top of him, panting for breath. The moon shone, the stars glittered and the night was noisy again – cars in the distance, light wind in the trees, the cry of an owl. Ace looked around her. Like some huge gameboard, fresh lines of ice lay across the field. She felt for the Doctor’s pulse. It was firm. ‘He’s alive.’
‘What was that?’ Ethan whispered. ‘What was it? He wasn’t moving, but he was being. . . It was like something inside of him was being sucked out.’
‘Yes.’
‘But what –’
‘I don’t know. Stop asking me.’ She got to her knees and rolled the Doctor over. His breathing was even but he was shivering violently. Ace pulled off her jacket and laid it over him.
‘Is he all right?’
‘He’s terribly cold.’ She hugged him to her. ‘Terribly. . . terribly. . . ’
The Doctor sat up.
‘Professor?’
‘I feel dreadful,’ he said in a perfectly ordinary voice. ‘Something tried to hoover me.’
‘What?’
‘Haven’t the faintest.’
‘Can you stand up?’
‘Why would I want to stand up? It’s quite comfortable sitting here. Except that I seem to be freezing.’ He got up. ‘Ah, not as bad as I feared.’ He trotted off along one of the new tracks. Ace turned to Ethan. He’d rolled onto his back and was gulping in air. ‘You all right?’
‘No,’ he snapped.
That was good enough for Ace. She grinned and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder, then ran after the Doctor.
‘What happened to you? Are you all right?’
Chapter Six
53
‘I’m not sure and I seem to be.’
‘Well, guess, then. We were clinging to you like you’d take off, but you weren’t moving. Only you were. We could hardly hold you.’
He stopped, looking thoughtfully at the ground. She wished she could see him better. ‘It’s difficult to describe. Something essential, something fundamental was being. . . drawn out of me. Thank goodness you were here, Ace.’
‘Too right. You should have told me.’
‘Yes, I know. I’m sorry.’
Sorry? This was a historic moment. ‘Well, all right then,’ she said inadequately.
‘Did you feel anything?’
‘Only you.’
‘Hm.’
‘So whatever was trying to get through, didn’t?’
‘No.’
‘You said this has happened before?’
‘Twice.’
‘Why doesn’t it, they, make it?’
‘I believe we had something to do with that this time.’
‘You mean you? When it was getting at you?’
‘That would be flattering myself.’ He pointed with his umbrella and she saw that the lines running towards the circle turned sharply away as they came up to it.
‘Your circle did that?’
‘Mm.’ He nodded, tapping his chin with the umbrella handle. ‘Interesting, isn’t it? I’m very angry with you, Ace,’ he went on, his voice flat. ‘You could have been killed.’
‘So could