Doctor Who_ The Infinity Doctors - Lance Parkin [102]
Helios gave a faint smile, held out a closed hand. ‘I’d tell you that I know, that the door is unlocked anyway, and –’ he opened his hand, revealing an identical key.
‘You know the truth, but still you won’t open the door?’
‘I know what I have been told, but I have faith. I believe that my God is behind those doors, awaiting me.’
‘So why not open the doors?’
‘What?’
‘Why resist? What are you so worried about?’
‘I…’
‘Go on. If you’re that sure, then…’
‘What if I were to open the gates –’
‘Yes?’
‘What if I were to open the gates and God was not behind them? What if there was no God, after a hundred thousand centuries of waiting? As long as those doors remain closed, there is always a possibility. Open that door, and the possibility might evaporate.’
‘Schrödinger’s God,’ the Doctor chuckled, slotting Savar’s key into the lock. ‘A very cruel thought experiment, I’ve always thought, one for the imaginary animal rights campaigners. Imagine locking a cat up in a box and trying to poison it. Time to let your god out for a stretch and a chance to use his litter tray, I reckon.’
‘You cannot be allowed to open the doors,’ Helios shouted, brandishing his stave.
The Doctor turned the key, unconcerned. He reached for the handle.
The stave parted the air in front of the Doctor’s hand, then it swept back, until its tip was hovering an inch from his face.
The Doctor fell back, his hand slapping down onto the ground for support.
‘Almost made it,’ he concluded.
Helios turned away, tapping the doors with his staff.
‘Whatever is beyond the doors, it is a power that no man should possess.’
‘The universe of anti-matter,’ the Doctor explained as he got to his feet. ‘A spacetime continuum like ours, equal but opposite, reached via a singularity. Normally, if I’d opened the doors, the two universes would have come into contact.
There would have been annihilation.’ He held up a small cylinder. ‘But this is a Rutan device that converts anti-matter into matter and vice versa. It will stabilise the gateway. I know what I face, Helios, and I’m not afraid of it.’
Helios shook his head. ‘You don’t know. You don’t have the slightest idea. If you did you would run away from here, screaming, cowering.’
The Doctor studied the old man’s face.
‘I know you,’ he realised.
‘Yes,’ Helios said simply. ‘As I know you.’
‘Do you remember what happened? Why you are here?’
‘Not all of it,’ Helios admitted. ‘But I think that is for the best. I remember my wife and my family. I remember names and times. I know that I came to the Needle to continue my father’s work… I can say no more.’
‘If you know me, you know why I have to open these doors,’ the Doctor said.
Helios caught the Doctor’s arm, stared deep into his eyes.
‘There will come a day when all is lost.’
The sincerity in his voice alarmed the Doctor. ‘Today?’
‘No. What you face now, the universe will survive. But you have already taken your first steps on…’ he stopped himself.
‘You have seen glimpses of what is to come. You read the scrolls, you’ve seen the enemy. Step through those doors, and that future is set in place.’
‘The future can’t be fixed,’ the Doctor said firmly. ‘There’s always hope, there is always a way out. Forewarned is forearmed.’
‘I can’t say any more,’ Helios insisted.
‘Then step out the way,’ the Doctor suggested, reaching for the handle again. ‘I know what I’m doing. If there is a power here, it can be harnessed, used to our advantage.’
This time Helios didn’t stop him.
‘You knew,’ the old man said quietly. ‘Remember that as the universe falls around you. You knew what you were doing, it was your choice. I have lost everything now, everything but my faith. I tried.’ Hellos straightened. ‘I saw the future, I knew that I was destined to fail to convince you. But I tried.