Doctor Who_ Trading Futures - Lance Parkin [7]
‘Look!’ the Doctor said suddenly, waving a finger at one of the displays.
‘It’s moving again.’
‘Yes.’
‘And you didn’t touch it?’
‘No. You were watching me. We’ve changed course again.’
‘Could you have started a pre‐set sequence running or something like that? Like a washing machine?’
The Doctor scowled at her. ‘A washing machine? You’re comparing the TARDIS to a washing machine?’
‘Yes,’ Anji insisted. ‘Look, it’s possible, isn’t it? You could have switched on the autopilot, or the cruise control, or accidentally programmed it to do whatever it’s doing at a set time. I mean you don’t really understand how the TARDIS -'
A glare from the Doctor had shut her up. He didn’t like to admit that his piloting of his time machine was essentially a series of educated guesses. And Fitz and Anji certainly didn’t like to think about that. So there was an unspoken pact that no one ever said it out loud.
The Doctor turned to see Fitz, noticing him for the first time. ‘You’ve not touched the controls?’
‘No,’ Fitz told them.
‘Neither have I,’ the Doctor said thoughtfully.
‘So where are we heading now?’ Fitz asked.
The Doctor studied the readings, appeared to do some mental arithmetic. ‘We’re heading out,’ he said.
‘Out?’
‘The far future?’ Anji asked. ‘Or out of the galaxy?’
‘Both,’ the Doctor said, after a moment’s consideration. ‘I’m sorry Anji, but I won’t be taking you home to the twenty‐first century today. We are travelling into unknown realms. We have already left the universe with which we are familiar. The journey will be a long one. Hours at least, maybe days. We should all get some sleep while we have the chance.’
The TARDIS had landed on a beach full of sunbathing tourists before they’d reached their bedrooms.
The Doctor had spent a little while insisting that this was merely a simulacrum of Earth, like EarthWorld had been. He stayed in the TARDIS to calibrate the instruments, to work out their exact location in time and space. Fitz and Anji had popped out to buy ice creams.
They’d worked out roughly where and when they were almost before they’d stepped from the ship. The hotels and shops were in familiar styles, give or take, but the fashions – what there were of them on the beach – the electric buses and the animated billboards all provided evidence that they were a few years after Anji’s time.
When they’d got back to the TARDIS, they handed the Doctor a copy of The Times, with the date on it, which they’d found at a small newsstand. The Doctor had held up his notebook, and told them that the equations he’d scrawled down led him to the exact same conclusion, although he’d flipped it closed when Anji asked to see that for herself. The Doctor had gone on to say that there was a time machine in operation in the area. He produced some sort of portable oscilloscope as evidence. He’d seen the same patterns before, and it meant displacement in the time field, which, in his experience, invariably meant trouble.
The Doctor headed for the door, suggesting they explore and try to find the time machine. His plans didn’t extend past that. Anji had tried to pin him down, to focus a bit more on specific objectives. She’d got it into her head that there was a pattern to their travels, that there was a bigger picture they were all missing. She didn’t go on about it this time, but she’d mentioned her theory to Fitz a few times, and from the glazed look in the Doctor’s eye, he’d copped for the same conversation, too.
Fitz had his own theory, and he was the last to leave.
Something was nagging at him.
He told the others he’d left his red suede jacket in his room. Once he was sure he was alone, he went to the back of the TARDIS, the point furthest from the door. It was through a couple of doors, at the end of the corridor that didn’t lead anywhere.
He’d heard something scratching against the other side of this wall once, like a wild animal trying to get out. The TARDIS had once been bigger than this. Infinite, according to the Doctor. Perhaps the rest of the ship was still there, trapped behind doorless walls.