Doctor Who_ The Gallifrey Chronicles - Lance Parkin [60]
‘A cold-fusion generator.’
The Doctor touched the side, then withdrew his hand. ‘It’s hot.’
‘You’ve broken it,’ Marnal said, incredulous.
‘Broken it?’
‘The regulators have failed. The energy is increasing exponentially.’ Marnal was already heading for the TARDIS.
‘There’s going to be an atomic explosion?’ Rachel screamed.
‘You could come with me,’ Marnal offered, almost as an afterthought. ‘Even immobilised the TARDIS is indestructible. We’ll be able to ride out the blast.’
He unlocked the TARDIS door, and opened it. ‘I’m sure the Doctor can defuse the reactor. If not, then. . . well, I doubt he’ll feel anything.’
‘Your books will be destroyed,’ the Doctor countered.
Marnal’s foot hovered over the threshold. ‘I –’
‘Don’t worry about the books. One of you do something before a million people die,’ Rachel shouted.
‘No one dies,’ the Doctor replied.
He unclipped the fusion reactor and tossed it through the open TARDIS
door.
‘What are you doing?’ Marnal cried.
‘Close the door!’ the Doctor yelled.
125
Marnal was paralysed, but Rachel grabbed the door handle and yanked it shut.
The Doctor hurried over and patted the TARDIS.
‘Brace yourself, old thing.’
They didn’t hear the explosion and the outside of the TARDIS didn’t so much as shake.
Inside, the heart of a star appeared just inside the door, a light so bright it obliterated everything. The books and the bookshelves and the antique furniture and the candles and the kitchen and the food machine and the fault locator and the lamps and the hat stand and all its hats, scarves, coats and the shaving mirror and the carpets and the gramophone player and the chairs and the wine rack and the chess sets and the ormulu clock and the full-length mirror and the table and the tea set on the table and the butterflies and the tool kit and the cuddly toys didn’t have time to catch alight, they were simply gone.
The column in the centre of the room was made of sterner stuff – the forces at the heart of a sun were nothing compared with its usual fare – but the console blistered and caught fire. The walls were tough and swirled the energy around and then out of the room, through the one open door leading off into the depths of the ship.
An irresistible wall of flame surged down the corridor, seeking any opening.
Flames rolled around Fitz’s room melting every record, every souvenir, every trace that he or Trix had ever been in there.
The fire crashed through the TARDIS laboratory, smashing every piece of equipment and the benches they were on.
A wardrobe the size of an aircraft hangar became an inferno, rack after rack of clothes catching alight, the racks themselves twisting and melting.
The swimming pool boiled dry, the cloisters were scoured clean of ivy.
The firestorm raged on.
Marnal was shaking.
‘What have you done?’
‘He saved the entire population of London,’ Rachel answered.
‘WE HEARD SCREAMING. YOU HAVE TO SHOW US THAT YOUR HOSTAGE
IS SAFE.’
‘There are billions more human beings – that’s the last surviving TARDIS in the entire universe.’
‘This is just a thing, not a person.’
The Doctor was barely aware of them. He was counting. When he’d waited precisely long enough, he turned the key to open the door.
126
‘Wait!’ Rachel shouted, but the Doctor didn’t. He flung open the door and snatched the key out of the lock, then stepped aside for a second to avoid the blast of burning air. A backdraught of new oxygen fanned the flames, which quickly subsided.
The Doctor pushed his way through the door, eyes closed. The floor was crunching beneath his feet. He knew his TARDIS, and the distance to the console, but the smell of ash and the sheer heat of the air were terrifying. He was ready for the step up on to the dais in the centre of the control room, and groped his way around the console. He snatched his hand away from a red-hot piece of brass, and briefly lost his bearings. So many of the buttons and instruments had been wrecked. He risked opening his eyes, and forced them to stay open in air so dry it