Doctor Who_ The Infinity Doctors - Lance Parkin [89]
Larna had already found her place at the control panel.
The Doctor joined her. He needed both hands, so he pulled the Sash over his head. They didn’t need to speak. Remove the safety interlocks. Done. Activate an eyeboard. Done.
Access the power control systems. Done.
The Doctor stared into the retinal scanner. This wasn’t as straightforward as altering a couple of settings, as it had been when he’d used the eyeboard on the Castellan’s desk. This required total immersion. The soft blue glow filled his vision, like the sky. The sense of movement and freedom in three dimensions felt like flying.
One of the Castellan’s aides hurried into Main Temporal Monitoring with the case that contained the Great Key. The Castellan was at one of the consoles, surrounded by Technicians who were prompting him. He, and he alone, as Acting-President, had the authority to do this.
He placed the case reverentially on the console, opened it up. Just looking at the Key, it was difficult to imagine that this was one of the most powerful artefacts in the universe. In times of great emergency, it allowed the President of the Time Lords to unlock some of the Time Lords’ self-imposed restrictions, it allowed them to break their own rules. The Gallifreyans had weapons and techniques at their disposal that could never be used lightly.
The Castellan took the Key from the case, slotted it neatly into its allotted place on his console. He turned the Key, then placed his eye over the eyeboard.
‘They’ve got the Great Key!’ the Doctor called.
The datascape around him had just changed beyond all recognition. It had been like a clear sky before, and now there was a vast storm cloud t here, and he was floating towards it.
‘They will try to configure a conduit,’ Larna told him.
Although she was standing a foot away from him, her voice seemed to come from a million miles away, or from a dream.
The sky was churning.
The Doctor was still squinting into the scanner. ‘I’ll try to stop it.’
‘There’s someone trying to stop me,’ the Castellan whispered.
The Technicians merely murmured.
‘Well,’ he demanded, ‘what do I do?’
‘You are the only man with the necessary authority,’
Pendrel assured him.
The Castellan began altering the settings, saw the conduit forming. But there was still someone in here trying to block his every move. Sad blue eyes.
‘It’s the Doctor!’ the Castellan yelled. He checked the readout. ‘He has to be in the Power Room. Send the Watch down there.
‘He’s seen me,’ the Doctor sighed.
‘Don’t worry, you’re slowing him down.’
‘He’s got the Key, it’s too powerful.’ The sky was black now, the tip of a tornado swirling down and down. The Doctor knew not to get too close. But how could he stop it forming?
The Castellan’s eyes appeared in the air in front of him.
‘Give up Doctor, there is no way that you can win.’
The Doctor stared back. ‘I have to. You’ll destroy us all.’
‘I am the President of the Time Lords, with the full backing of the Council, and the Great Key itself at my disposal.’
The conduit was almost fully formed.
The Castellan kept staring at it, and the harder he stared, the more solid the conduit became.
The conduit snapped into place. Power began flowing down it. The hum of the machinery in the power room changed pitch.
‘He’s done it,’ Larna cried. ‘All he needs to do now is calculate the spacetime vector.’
‘Which console is he using?’ the Doctor asked, without taking his eyes away from the scanner.
‘I –’
‘Hurry!’ he ordered.
He could hear her moving around. ‘Console Five, Main Temporal Monitoring.’
The Doctor gave the eyeboard a single command.
The spacetime vector equations began resolving themselves.
The Castellan watched the datascape as mathematics of crystalline clarity began to appear.
The Castellan