Doctor Who_ The Infinity Doctors - Lance Parkin [90]
The Castellan’s console beeped.
‘What is that noise?’ he asked.
The Technicians weren’t sure.
‘Tell me!’ he commanded, unable to move his head without breaking the connection.
‘It’s… look away! Look away!’
The Castellan scowled. ‘The equation is nearly ready.’
He looked into the datascape, saw the new power configurations in place, saw the co-ordinates fading up as the answer appeared.
There was a flash of light so powerful it felt almost solid. It shot up through the eyeboard, shutting down every safety feature as it came. The light pierced the Castellan’s eyes, lunged down his optic nerve.
The Castellan lurched back from the console, clutching his face, crying out load. The Technicians moved to catch him.
He couldn’t see. He swore he could smell burning.
‘Finish it!’ he ordered, rubbing his eyes. ‘Finish it!
Someone take over!’
‘Only you have the authority,’ one of the Technicians reminded him.
The pitch of the humming began winding down, and almost immediately the column began to fade a little. Like iron in a fire it would be a little while before it had cooled down completely.
‘You did it,’ Lama exclaimed. ‘The timegate is shutting down. They won’t be able to launch the blackstars or anything else, not now.’
The Doctor leant back, catching his breath.
‘How?’ she asked.
‘He blinked first.’
As the eyeboard retracted, the Doctor stood and took a step towards the time column. Larna had also worked her way around her console, now she was between him and the column of energy. Together they watched as the power began to bleed away.
Larna clasped the Doctor’s hand. ‘They’ll have to work all day to get that running again.’
‘Well done,’ he said.
The door chimed. Someone was trying to get in.
‘I…. need to get past you,’ he said.
‘Wait,’ Larna said, moving to block him.
The Doctor hesitated.
‘I know what you’re planning,’ she said.
The Doctor bit his lip.
There was a banging at the door. ‘Doctor! This is Constable Sapro! Open this door!’
She glanced over her shoulder. ‘You are planning to be the last thing through the timegate before it shuts down.
You’re going to the far future, because you want control of the Effect for yourself. You want to change the past.’
The Doctor didn’t reply.
‘Take me with you.’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘Well, look at you… you’re not even wearing shoes.’
She glowered at him.
‘It will be too dangerous.’ He paused. ‘You won’t be in any trouble here. You can say that I forced you to help me. Larna, I haven’t much time.’ He could hear the power levels dropping. Behind Larna, energy column was fading a little. It was only a matter of moments before the timegate powered down.
She moved closer to him, filling his field of vision. Behind her the column was diminishing more and more as every second went past. ‘Doctor, I’m not stupid.’
He took her hand, held it to his hearts. ‘I never said that you were, I–’
‘I know what you want to do. You know I can’t let you.’
The Doctor caught his breath. ‘You can’t stop me,’ he said.
‘I only have to delay you,’ she replied. ‘Just a few more seconds. You’ll thank me, Doctor.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said.
‘I –’ Larna glanced down, saw the blood on her waistcoat.
In the Doctor’s hand was the force knife, hilt deep just below her left breast.
‘A single blow to the primary heart,’ the Doctor explained, lowering her tenderly to the floor. ‘The guards will be through that door in a moment, it’ll only take a surgeon an hour to fix you up. But you’ll have to take it easy for that time. And that’s only as long as I need. It’s for the best: they’ll think that I was forcing you to help me. I’m so very sorry.’
Right on schedule, the iron door began to reverberate as staser blast after staser blast began slamming home.
Larna shook a little, the shock was beginning to hit her nervous system. ‘Very neat,’ she said. ‘No loose ends, no complications. You always win, don’t you, Doctor?’
‘No, no. Not always. If there was another way