Doctor Who_ The Infinity Doctors - Lance Parkin [131]
Larna leant over to get a better look at what he was doing.
‘Would you like me to check your work?’ she asked softly.
‘That will not be necessary,’ he replied, shifting a little, blocking her view.
‘These are complicated equations, I could –’
‘No,’ he replied firmly.
He touched a control, and the panel closed itself up. ‘I’m done here. Throw that switch, would you?’ He pointed over to a large lever on her right.
Larna hesitated. ‘Are you sure this is the right thing to do?’
‘Throw the switch.’
Larna shook her head.
He moved towards her. ‘Do it,’ he commanded. He grabbed Larna’s wrist in one hand, and before she could prevent it he’d grabbed her other wrist, too. He pushed her back, pinning her to the console, then slowly turned his hands, twisting her wrists, hurting her. She broke from the grip and lashed out at him, her hand balling into a fist as it did so. Larna had always been strong: the strongest of her Cousins, the strongest of her classmates.
She hit him hard, right in the face, and he went down.
Larna examined the control panel Omega had been working at and checked the new settings. He was planning to close the aperture. If the energy was sealed in the containment globe, it would increase exponentially; the pressures would pent up and before long the globe would explode. The singularity at the core of the black hole would be exposed, but the energy released would certainly destroy the Capitol Dome, it might enough to destroy Gallifrey.
Larna reached forward to disable the controls.
A hand grabbed her from behind, an arm was around her throat, pulling her away from the controls. She tried pushing him away, but he was too strong for her. She bent her knee, trying to wriggle free, but that didn’t work either. He punched her hard in the stomach. She sank to her knees. Omega strode towards the lever.
Larna looked around for a way to stop him.
She still had the Magistrate’s gun. She could feel it on her hip. Although that was the Doctor’s body, it wasn’t the Doctor.
She mustn’t think of it as the Doctor, mustn’t let her memories stop her from destroying the body. Larna reached round, felt the warm metal. Her fingers wrapped around it, finding the trigger. Omega was holding out his hand to grab the lever.
She raised the gun. There was no time to aim it.
The Doctor – Omega – dived out the way as she squeezed the trigger. The end of the device opened up and glowed, an energy bolt sizzled out. It shot off into the depths of the chamber, with little effect.
Omega was down on her before she could fire the second shot. He stood on her wrist, already hurt in the fight with the Needle People. He kicked her with his other foot. She dropped the gun, and he caught it with one hand.
He lifted her, carried her over to the lever.
‘THROW THE SWITCH,’ he commanded, dropping her onto it. She fell shift beneath her back, and she scraped down it.
Omega had stepped out of the way.
Larna scrabbled around for the lever, tried pulling it back down, then up again, then down. It was too late.
Behind her, the aperture was closing, the column of energy was fading.
Voran was staring into the Infinity Chamber.
The two remaining TARDISes and the Station hovered in their positions at points around the Needle. The energy still crackled from the surface of the artefact, it seemed to have intensified.
‘Lord Hedin, has there been any contact with the Magistrate or the Lady Larna since they departed?’
‘No, Acting-President,’ Hedin admitted, ‘Our sensors suggest that the defensive grid has been deactivated. There was also a suggestion of a TARDIS launch, but the breach in spacetime is now interfering with our sensors.’
Voran steepled his fingers and drummed them together.
‘Worrying, worrying.’
‘We could send down another TARDIS?’
‘And risk another loss? No. Stand by for further instructions.’
Pendrel hurried over. ‘A communication from the Sontaran fathership sir. It is Chief of Staff Grol once again.’
Voran shook his head. ‘I suppose I’ll have to talk to them.’
The squat