Doctor Who_ The Infinity Doctors - Lance Parkin [117]
‘He’s planning to remove it from spacetime, he’s been itching to do it all night. Talk to him.’
The Magistrate nodded. She released the control.
‘– to them. See to it, Pendrel.’
‘I can hear you now, Castellan,’ the Magistrate announced.
The tall hologram turned around, clearly pleased that the link was open again. ‘I’m still the Acting-President, Magistrate. It is good to see you. We feared that you had been destroyed. Our countermeasure is primed and ready for launch’.
‘The situation here has stabilised. Hold your fire.’
Voran was clearly annoyed. ‘A pre-emptive strike might –’
‘The Doctor is down there,’ the Magistrate insisted.
‘Right now, Magistrate, that statement is more likely to make we to –’ The Castellan sighed, a little melodramatically.
‘If you are sure…’
The Magistrate was nominally still talking to the Castellan, but turned to Larna. ‘The Doctor managed to reach the surface of Needle, but we don’t know what has happened to him since. We’ve no got detailed maps of the Needle, including its defences.’
The Castellan was nodding. ‘You seem to have the situation under control there. Good. There are a number of matters that “demand my attention here on Gallifrey. We will continue to monitor your situation, and of course you may have any men or resources that you feel are necessary. I will send reinforcements to you, Magistrate, but I’m afraid that Lady Larna must now return to the Capitol.’
The young woman gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. The Magistrate stepped between them. ‘The Lady Larna’s expertise is needed here, Castellan. We need to form a plan of action.’
Voran sighed. ‘Very well. I want that plan from you within the hour, I’m keeping our other option on standby, Magistrate, and I want the Station and the remaining TARDISes to go to Demat configuration. The situation there still endangers Gallifrey, don’t forget that. That’s it, Pendrel.
Thank you.’
The image of the Castellan was gone.
‘Thank you,’ Larna said. ‘What’s the Doctor planning?’
‘I was rather hoping that you would tell me that.’
‘He wouldn’t tell me.’ There was disappointment on her young face. ‘But there’s power down there. I don’t think he wants it for himself but it’s such a temptation.’
The Magistrate pointed out a section of console. ‘Thanks to Lord Hedin, we know that the Doctor managed to reach the surface, we even know roughly where he is.’
She was already moving towards the instruments. ‘I’ll see if I can pinpoint him.’
‘I haven’t been able to,’ Hedin said, shaking his head.
Larna smiled down at him. ‘Lord Hedin, you are clearly on the brink of exhaustion,’ she whispered, ‘and it has probably been a while since you have created an Infinity Chamber model, rather than just manipulated one.’
‘Besides,’ the Magistrate began, impressed by her lack of modesty, ‘you should find it much easier to locate his telepathic traces.’
Larna blushed, and both Hedin and the Magistrate chuckled.
He hadn’t slept for many weeks.
Savar’s dual existence robbed him of sleep, of dreams.
His other self, the blind one, had no sense of the loss. It fuelled his insanity, served his purpose. His dark master was returning. This Savar sensed it, he had to prevent it at all costs.
He could sense the powers of evil and darkness drawing closer. Not just the trapped god. He was merely the first. His defeat might ward off what was to follow, though, delay the inevitable.
There had been a time when Savar had doubted the existence of evil, seen it as a construction of an ordered society or of that society’s elite. Darkness then had simply been the absence of the light. But not anymore. He was evil, or a part of him was, at least. He knew that as night fell a version of him emerged with dark hearts. He could feel that evil within him now, locked into his blood, his marrow, his DNA. But was that evil within everyone or just him? If it remained locked away, then was that just the same as it not being there