Doctor Who_ The Room With No Doors - Kate Orman [97]
‘Did I ever tell you,’ said the Doctor, around a mouthful of half-stripped copper wire, ‘about lkkyu and the teacup?’
‘No,’ said Chris. Joel knelt down in the dust beside him. Their eyes were fixed on the Doctor’s hands, moving slowly and surely over the machinery.
Chris realized he was patting Joel’s arm, like a vet calming a dog that’s about to be put down. He wasn’t even scared. They were doomed.
‘Ikkyu was a Zen master,’ said the Doctor. He poked the primitive electric wire into the pod. ‘The teacup incident happened when he was just a boy.
Screwdriver.’
Penelope handed him the tool. They could hear shouts in the distance, the sound of rocks falling. ‘His Roshi had a valuable antique teacup. It would have been the kind they use in the tea ceremony, an ancient, simple piece with all its imperfections preserved. Paperclip.’
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Joel spotted a paperclip amongst the stuff from the Doctor’s jacket pockets, and passed it over. The Doctor went on, ‘One day, Ikkyu accidentally broke the teacup – just as his teacher was coming back into the room. He snatched up the broken pieces of the cup and hid them behind his back, thinking fast.’
Chris was staring towards the wall. Figures scrambled through the narrow breach, kicking the shattered stones aside. He felt so calm.
‘When the Roshi appeared, Ikkyu asked, “Master, why must people die?”’
The Doctor glanced back at Penelope’s time machine, frowned, and pushed a hand deep into the pod’s workings. ‘The Roshi answered, “Everything has to die, and has only a certain amount of time to live.” Does anyone have a piece of chewing gum?’
They looked at one another. ‘How about this?’ said Joel, picking up a fluff-covered toffee from the pile.
The Doctor took it and pushed it into place, somewhere inside the pod.
‘Ikkyu took his hands from behind his back and smiled, showing the Roshi the pieces of his cup.’
Gufuu-sama was striding up, hand on the hilt of his katana, followed by a dozen samurai. Chris, Joel, Penelope and Talker all watched the warlord as he came towards them. The Doctor didn’t look up from his work. ‘“Master,”
said Ikkyu, “it was time for your cup to die.”’
There was an almighty hiss and a puff of bitter cold. As one, the five of them jumped back from the pod as a steaming rectangular crack appeared in the surface, like a hidden door suddenly revealing itself.
‘Suddenly,’ breathed Joel, ‘the lid fell off.’
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Kami Chameleon
Gufuu-sama watched with furious calm as the lid of the pod lifted and swung open. Great clouds of bitter-smelling stem were billowing out, freezing cold.
‘Is it dangerous!’ Chris shouted over the sound of rushing vapours.
‘No,’ said the Doctor. ‘If my improvisations work correctly, the coolant pumps will gradually equalize the internal and external temperatures.’
‘And if they don’t work correctly?’ said Joel.
‘The pod will become an instant heat sink and snap-freeze everything within a mile radius,’ he said. ‘I hope that toffee holds.’
The white clouds were already starting to diminish, rolling away across the ground, driving dust and dirt before them. The Doctor inched closer to the pod, an arm raised to protect his face from the frost, trying to see inside the machine.
Gufuu had held his ground, the white clouds boiling around his ankles. His retainers had backed away, but only a little.
The Doctor regarded the warlord for a moment, as if trying to read his intentions, or perhaps daring him to act. They stood there, everyone staring at the two of them.
Then the Doctor reached down into the gap in the pod. A moment later, he was pulling his arm back, and everyone gasped as they saw a black, feathered hand gripping his wrist.
Talker rushed forward and helped the Doctor to haul Psychokinetic’s shivering form out of the pod. The skinny Kapteynian was naked, his feathers slick and sticky with cryogenic fluid.
He opened his beak, but no sound came out. He made a strangling, cough-ing noise.
‘Don’t try to speak,’ said Talker. ‘That’s my job, Talker, hey.’
‘Thank,’ coughed Psychokinetic.