Doctor Who_ The Infinity Doctors - Lance Parkin [103]
He turned, and walked from the room.
The Doctor hesitated, but only for a moment. The doors were humming, he could hear whispering around him.
Meticulously, he placed the Rutan Converter at the top of the doorway, slotted the key into the lock and stood back as the doors slid smoothly open.
A column of fire burst between the open doors, throwing him to one side. A column of flames rose up to the ceiling.
The heat was intense, and the Doctor backed away a little before it started to singe him.
There was someone within the flames.
‘I have come here for you,’ the Doctor said. ‘I know who you are.’
‘And who is that?’ a voice asked calmly from the fire.
The Doctor straightened. ‘You are one of the greatest of all our race, you are Omega.’
There was laughter but not the booming, mocking laughter the Doctor had been expecting. A woman’s laugh.
‘You don’t know a hart from a hind.’
She stepped forward from the centre of the flame to its edges. Fire flickered up between her toes and around her long legs, reaching up as far as her navel. She was backlit by the flames, and there were amber shadows over her body Blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders, covering her. Her lips were red, her eyes were blue.
And for a fleeting moment she was a smaller, fuller, woman with short, dark hair, green eyes, freckles on her shoulders and a birthmark on her ankle.
Blonde again, she smiled down at him.
‘You are here already,’ the Doctor said, laughing, hardly daring to believe it. He stepped towards the fire, hot air blasting over him. ‘I came here for you. I was going to ask him –.’
‘I know.’
She held our her hand.
‘He has been expecting you.’
Together they stepped into flame.
Chapter Ten
A King of Infinite Space
The Doctor stepped through the garden, the woman at his side.
He had got used to the cold of the Librarinth, and how musty the air had been, and the darkness. Only now did he realise how few colours there had been at the end of the universe. The world had been sepia, drained of colour and light. His new surroundings were dazzling, the fresh air blew against his face. It was difficult taking it all in at once.
It was a warm spring day here, light was streaming through the trees. They were walking hand in hand along the banks of a stream, on even, weedless, grass. The stream ran through a carefully ordered garden, where every tree, statue and flower had apparently conformed to some vast design.
The flower beds, statues and pathways were all spotlessly neat, although there was no sign of any gardeners. There was music like birdsong in the air.
The Doctor flexed his anti-proton fingers, tapped his lips with them.
‘An anti-matter body feels exactly the same as one made of matter,’ she assured him.
‘This body is much like my old one,’ the Doctor agreed.
‘Whereas you, on the other hand…’
She was wearing a loose-flowing gown in ivory silk and lace, with bare shoulders, gathered at the waist by a wide belt. Her long blonde hair was held up by a gold clasp, and swept down to the small of her back. She wore a necklace of white flowers, and held a feather fan. She was his height, a little taller as her feet were bare and he was wearing shoes.
She smiled. ‘I regenerated.’
‘Only Time Lords regenerate when they die,’ the Doctor objected. ‘The Gallifreyans of old avoided the problem by never dying.’
‘It came as a surprise to me, too,’ she said, laughter in her voice. ‘I was born a Gallifreyan, but I’ve lived long enough that I may just have evolved beyond that.’
The Doctor looked over at her, unsure about her. If it was her. ‘How did you end up here?’ he asked.
‘Omega brought me here. He has made this his domain.’
At that moment, they turned a corner and, ahead of them, massive, was Omega’s castle. It was the size of a mountain, as dark as a storm cloud. It appeared to have been piled there, layers of buttresses and battlements upon layers. The walls were either sheer rock faces or solid blocks of stone.
Some of the turrets and towers defied gravity, tapering or seeming to hover.
The Doctor bristled,