Doctor Who_ The Gallifrey Chronicles - Lance Parkin [66]
He throws the emergency dematerialisation control, and the TARDIS doesn’t need telling twice. It powers away from the planet.
Moments later, the pressures in the core of the planet prove too much and the world explodes, hurling fragments out into the Shoal in every direction at nearly the speed of light. The energy released is, for the first time in this region of space, equivalent to that of a star and it burns for several days.
136
Chapter Eight
WWDWD?
The Doctor pulled himself away.
‘That was. . . that wasn’t what I wanted to see,’ he said.
You said you wanted answers. Those were answers.
‘They may well be, but not to the questions I have. Was that who I once was?’
No.
‘Then. . . Why show it to me?’
You feel cheated?
‘Well, yes, I suppose I do.’
You wanted a moment where you opened a magic box and a set of neat solu-tions to all the awkward questions you have ever had came pouring out?
‘No. I know life isn’t like that.’
No, it isn’t.
‘You can give me my memories back?’
Yes. Like. . . that. Would you like me to?
The Doctor hesitated. ‘No.’
Why not?
‘I don’t know. I just know that. . . ’ His voice trailed away. He stood there for a moment.
‘Now I’ve seen what I did, it was terrible, but I don’t know what I’d have done differently.’
If you had your time again.
‘You could send me back, give me a second chance?’
Yes. Like. . . that. Would you like me to?
The Doctor hesitated. ‘No.’
Why not?
‘I don’t know. I just know that. . . ’ His voice trailed away. He stood there for a moment.
‘You have the power to restore Gallifrey?’
Yes. Like. . . that. Would you like me to?
The Doctor hesitated. ‘No.’
Why not?
137
‘I don’t know. I just know that. . . ’ His voice trailed away.
He stood there for a moment.
‘I know you,’ the Doctor said.
This is a mere echo of me. The ghost in the machine.
‘The serpent in Eden.’
The fallen angel. You did what I tried to do but never could, you swept away Gallifrey and the Time Lords. Cracked the dome of heaven, toppled its towers, put the gods to the sword.
‘For the greater good.’
Booming laughter rolled off the stone walls of the crypt.
Marnal doesn’t know how to punish you. You never had a problem with the pithy sentence, though, did you, Doctor? You threw me into this black hole, knowing that at the singularity there is infinite power; infinite command, everything I’ve ever dreamed of. More. Here, I am the master; I am the alpha and the omega. You also knew that those powers only work here, and here you imprisoned me. Condemned me to godhood, with no chance of parole.
The Doctor hurried back towards the control panel.
But you misunderstood me, Doctor, you always did. I didn’t want power for its own sake. I wanted power so that I could take my revenge. You always denied that to me. Until now. Marnal may not know how to hurt you, but I do. I have, by using all my power to trigger the fusion device. An eye for an eye. Vengeance is mine, sayeth the –
The Doctor pulled the lever, cutting the voice off and sealing the breaches.
Only then did he turn back. The iron sphere was set in the floor, inert. Time and space had returned to normal.
This was his punishment? The destruction of some of his knickknacks and being forced to watch a digressive bit of space opera? He didn’t think that was so bad, he seemed to have been let off rather lightly. He didn’t feel as though a weight had been lifted. Which left him wondering what he’d missed.
The Doctor checked his watch. An hour had passed since he’d entered the crypt.
‘YOU HAVE TO PROVE YOUR HOSTAGE IS SAFE,’ the loudhailer told Marnal.
He’d been sitting slumped in a garden chair. He was just looking at the police box. An hour ago he’d told her that entering the TARDIS had been suicidal for the Doctor, that he would be dead in a firestorm that would burn for days. That was just about the last thing that Marnal had said or done.
Rachel could have made a run for it, but didn’t want to be picked off by some overeager police marksman.
The police couldn’t see into the garage – there was only one window,