Doctor Who_ The Infinity Doctors - Lance Parkin [107]
Peltroc snorted. ‘That sounds like the sort of line the elite would come up with to keep the rest of the population happy with their lot.’
‘Perhaps. But why do you think they spend all their time performing rituals and ceremonies, why do they spend so much time plotting against each other and awarding each other honorary degrees? Because when you live for ever and can do anything you want, you might as well do nothing at all.’
The two Watchmen leaning against a market stall faded from the cracked glass. For a moment it was a mirror once more, showing nothing more than a vast form hunched forward in his throne. It was a monster, it must not be faced.
A new image began to form, sunlight banishing the golden glint of metal and dissolving the red glare of his eyes.
A man and a woman, walking in a garden. He was a little over average height, with a long face and closely cropped hair. He wore a baggy silk shirt and tan, narrow-cut trousers.
A blue woollen jacket was draped over his arm. He was wearing Argyle socks, with no shoes. Her hair was loose. He recognised the flowing white dress, noting that the wide belt she usually wore with it was missing.
They were walking briskly, businesslike, along the main path leading to the castle. It would be a matter of minutes before they reached the drawbridge. The man wore a serious expression. Behind them was nothing, nothing at all. If either of them were to turn their heads, then the garden would be there for them to observe. But otherwise… it… didn’t exist except as a thought, but this was all there was here: his mind, and who was to say that it was real and who was to say that… he could not… The throne room began to dissolve, fade into nothing as he began to think the unthinkable.
He reasserted his thoughts, concentrated on the new arrival.
This was the Doctor, here in the universe of anti-matter.
He was staring up at the castle, clearly impressed by the architecture, the ramparts and battlements, the solid stone of the walls. But it was a castle of the mind, it had only existed for an instant before he’d turned the corner, it would cease to exist as the Doctor and his wife crossed the threshold.
‘Are you the only one here?’ The Doctor asked. His voice was soft, he swallowed his words.
Her voice was clear, like music. ‘Yes. Apart from Omega, of course.’
‘He’s keeping you here against your will.’
She smiled. ‘I’m not his prisoner. He intervened to rescue me. I was right on the brink of death in the matter universe.
When he brought me here he converted me into anti-matter, repaired the damage. His will sustains me. It’s the reason that I can never leave.’
‘We’ll find a way,’ the Doctor promised.
Omega laughed, leaned towards the mirror. If anyone in the universe could make good that promise it was the Doctor.
But first things first.
The Doctor was thinking aloud. ‘So he brought you here.
That means that Omega can affect our universe.’
‘The breach in spacetime caused by Savar’s TARDIS
allows him to observe, and a degree of influence.’
‘How long have you been here?’
‘When we dream, it’s only for a second or two at a time.
We can have dreams that seem to last for ever but they all take place in a single second.’
‘Not strictly true,’ the Doctor corrected her, ‘the rapid eye movement phase of sleep in which dreams occur can last up to an hour and a half a night.’
‘But you understand what I mean?’ she said, mock-exasperated. ‘You understand that I have no way of telling whether I have been here for a day or a thousand years.’
‘Has Omega changed since you knew him?’
‘He’s not mad.’
‘That isn’t what I asked.’
She hesitated, aware of the eyes upon her. ‘He’s been trapped here all this time.’
‘That’s not what I asked.’
‘No. No, he hasn’t changed.’
‘He still loves you?’
A hand, trapped in its gauntlet,