Doctor Who_ The Gallifrey Chronicles - Lance Parkin [101]
Marnal pulled the gun away. ‘You’re lying.’
The Doctor shook his head. Marnal was clearly concerned by the sudden movement. His whole attitude to the Doctor had changed in an instant, become full of concern.
‘I don’t understand,’ Rachel said.
The Doctor clutched his lapels and looked insufferably smug.
‘So please explain,’ Rachel added.
‘You spent all that time concentrating on what isn’t in there. Not once did you wonder what was there instead. I had memories.’ He paused to chuckle.
‘Oh boy, did I have memories.’ The Doctor paused, a little theatrically. ‘My brain contains the entire contents of the Matrix.’
‘It’s impossible,’ Marnal said, but his gun was down and he was swaying uncertainly.
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‘No, it was simple. Before Gallifrey was destroyed I edited out my own memories using the TARDIS’s telepathic circuits, and downloaded every Matrix file into the space I’d cleared.’
‘One brain couldn’t contain all that information. How many Time Lord minds would be stored there?’ Marnal asked.
‘One hundred and fifty-three thousand eight hundred and forty-one of them,’ the Doctor replied instantly.
‘You’ve counted?’
‘The maths is simple enough. You just have to remember to subtract five at the end.’
‘All those minds can’t be talking to you. You’d go mad.’ Rachel said, although she’d always had her suspicions.
‘No. They’re supercompressed and stored away. I can’t access them. If I tried. . . Well, it wouldn’t be pleasant. I suspect it would kill me.’
‘Are they alive in there?’ Rachel asked.
The Doctor shrugged. ‘They’re dormant. They sleep in my mind. Beyond that. . . well, we get into metaphysics, and I try to avoid all that.’
Marnal was staring right at the Doctor’s forehead. ‘How are you planning to wake them up?’
‘I only worked out they’re in there a few hours ago. A cerebral scan made by an instrument that once accessed the Matrix, so knew what to look for, confirmed it.’
‘You must have a plan.’
‘I’m sure I did, but I must have accidentally deleted it with the memories. All I was left with was a very strong built-in aversion to opening the floodgates.
If I probe what is in there too hard or, heaven forfend, get my memories back, the Matrix databanks will be overwritten and all the information will be lost forever.’ The Doctor grinned. ‘Of course, if you have any ideas how to get them out. . . ?’
‘The Matrix was corrupted by Faction Paradox,’ Rachel said. Marnal and the Doctor turned to look at her.
‘It was – we saw it happen when we watched that recording of Gallifrey being destroyed. What you have is infected by –’
‘When I pulled the lever the future version of Faction Paradox was erased from the time line. It never existed to corrupt the Matrix. There was a tiny window of opportunity – less than a minute – after that, but before the energy beam destroyed Gallifrey.’
Marnal raised the gun, a little half-heartedly. ‘You’re bluffing.’
The Doctor bent over and pressed his temple against the muzzle. ‘If you’re sure of that, then go for it. I won’t mind.’
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Marnal snatched the gun away and the Doctor had to pull himself up to avoid falling over.
‘So where are your memories now?’ Rachel asked.
‘Gone,’ the Doctor admitted. ‘Gone where, I don’t know,’ he added thoughtfully.
‘Do you want all those other memories in there?’ Rachel asked.
‘Clearly I must have thought I could find a way to get them out. I’ve checked, and the TARDIS circuits aren’t compatible so I can’t just download everything into the old girl. But that’s got to be the basic idea: find or build a computer that can hold the files and run the programs. I didn’t save Gallifrey, but I did save all the Time Lords. That’s got to be better than nothing. Home is where the hearts are, that’s what I say.’
‘We must dedicate ourselves to the task of building New Gallifrey,’ Marnal said. ‘Nothing else matters.’
‘Millions are dying back on Earth,’ Rachel said, shocking the Doctor. ‘If you can do anything to help them, you have to do it.’
‘Why didn’t you say. . . ?’ the Doctor asked, pale. ‘Marnal