Doctor Who_ The Gallifrey Chronicles - Lance Parkin [25]
He didn’t finish the sentence. Instead he turned round and headed back to the ship.
Fitz sat for a moment, not saying anything.
‘Sam was a schoolgirl when they met,’ he said, finally.
‘He wouldn’t put a kid in danger, would he?’ Trix asked.
‘He puts us in danger.’
‘We’re old enough to understand the risks, though.’
‘I was thinking about this the other day. He can go into the future, he knows everything about it when he gets there. So who’s to say he didn’t know the exact date Sam died?’
Trix’s mouth twitched. ‘You’ve been to the future. As far as you’re concerned, this is the future. So have you ever looked for your own death certifi-cate or gravestone?’
‘No, but. . . ’
‘Would you want to? Don’t you feel just a little uncomfortable knowing the things you do about the future already? It’s weird, but you get used to it. We all die, Fitz. It would be a bit depressing to –’
‘Sam was so young when she died, Trix.’
‘She’d left the Doctor. However short her life was, think of all the places she went and people she met. We do more in a week than most people do in a lifetime.’
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‘Think, Fitz, that she’ll reappear in the future, as part of our travels. She wasn’t confined between 1980 and 2002, whatever that gravestone says,’ the Doctor agreed.
The Doctor’s words hung in the night air for a moment. Neither Trix nor Fitz were sure when he’d returned, or what he’d heard. ‘I thought you were going back to the TARDIS,’ Fitz said.
‘Um, I was. It’s just that it seems to have gone.’
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Matrix projection, extrapolated from current time line. History has been altered following the destruction of the cicatrix. In the first draft, the creatures evolved to became an advanced, benevolent race. In the redraft, the creatures have scattered, and migrated. They have swarmed across and occupied much of the galaxy, evolving along aggressive lines.
First draft, they were not a threat to Gallifrey. Now the Matrix projects a final stand between the Time Lords and these creatures. Time Lord fa-talities were 20 to 40 per cent of the total population. This is a possible Last Contact.
Matrix Projection
date index 309456/4756.7RE/1213GRT/100447TL
Chapter Four
Acquisitions
The lorry, Trix realised.
They’d heard it while they’d been over by Sam’s gravestone, and she knew now that they’d walked straight into a heist. Someone had lured the TARDIS
here, then led its crew just far enough out of the way for it to be loaded on the back of a lorry and driven away.
There were tyre tracks in the mud, right next to the square imprint the TARDIS had left. No footprints. The lorry must be one with a hydraulic grabbing claw on it. It wouldn’t make a very good getaway car, and it was probably still within a couple of miles of here. But it was dark, they didn’t have any transport, and so the thieves might as well have beamed the TARDIS to Pluto.
The Doctor didn’t seem unduly concerned. ‘We’ll find it,’ he assured them.
Fitz and Trix exchanged glances.
‘Like that?’ Fitz asked.
‘We’ve just walked into a trap,’ Trix said.
‘And we’re still standing,’ the Doctor pointed out.
‘Aren’t you worried?’ Fitz asked, speaking for both himself and Trix.
‘Whoever’s taken the TARDIS can’t get inside. We’ll find it.’
‘You hope.’
‘What do we do now?’ Trix asked.
‘We find somewhere to sit down, I think.’
The warning siren of the lorry as it reversed into Marnal’s garage would wake up all the neighbours, Rachel was sure of it.
Marnal had never learnt how to drive, so she’d been behind the wheel of the lorry. Rachel imagined it counted as a heavy goods vehicle, meaning she didn’t have a licence to drive it, and she knew for a fact that she hadn’t been insured. Marnal had spent the entire return journey glancing back at the police box they’d stolen, and was practically salivating.
Now they were home he was straight out of the cabin and on to the back of the lorry. When Rachel caught up with him he was running his hand down the front door of the police box. He tried the handle, but it wouldn’t budge.
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