Doctor Who_ Transit - Ben Aaronovitch [117]
The Benny/Fred image began to separate, pushed apart by the combined force of the Doctor, Benny and the Hitchhiker. The Doctor got a vague impression of a malformed humanoid shape in the moments before the leopard ate it.
A second image squeezed out of Benny's back and rezzed up. A tall man with artificially good looks.
'This is interesting,' said Yak Harris.
'Is that all of you?' asked the Doctor.
'Most of me,' said Yak Harris. 'There might be a few subsets left back in the transit system. I always did have trouble keeping track of them.'
'Are you going to stay here?'
'That's the general idea,' said Yak Harris. 'I think this is a better place for me to realize my potential.'
'Good,' said the Doctor.
Benny was still on the throne, her eyes closed, still breathing the imaginary air, which meant still alive. The Doctor remembered a small piece of rope and used it to tether himself to Benny.
'Everybody who wants to leave should leave now.'
Three pairs of slotted cats' eyes stared at him.
The Doctor crouched down and held out his hand to the green cat. 'What's your name then?' he asked. The green cat sniffed his hand once and then bit his finger.
Acturus Terminal (Stunnel Terminus)
Lambada was still running towards the gateway when the Doctor came back out. He had a woman cradled in his arms and as they fell on to the platform he twisted his body to take the impact on his back.
The gateway was beginning to implode, its diameter shrinking in on itself. Lambada reached out to pull the Doctor and the woman away before the snap back irradiated them both.
'Kadiatu,' said the Doctor.
Old Sam was suddenly there, grabbing the Doctor by his collar and dragging him roughly out of the gateway's line of sight. The spinning bronze disc was down to half its original diameter.
Lambada watched as the centre started to bulge outwards into a convex shape. She'd never seen a gateway do anything like that and she doubted it heralded anything good.
'Kadiatu,' moaned the Doctor, an old and broken sound.
The spinning gateway was cone shaped now. Lambada got the impression of immense pressure.
'It's going to go,' yelled Credit Card.
It was column-shaped, a cylinder one metre wide and three long. The greasy copper surface was shot through with streaks of black and gold. Lambada smelt ozone and gunpowder. She thought she saw something within, a silhouette like a running animal rushing up from the gateway's spinning heart.
'There's something in ...'
The gateway exploded in a blaze of white light. Lambada staggered back, arm held across her face to protect her eyes. There was a wash of heat as the released energy interacted with the trace argon in the air. When she pulled her arm away the gateway was gone.
Something crawled on the ground.
'Sam,' shouted Lambada, 'for chrissake shoot it.' Why wasn't Sam firing?
'What are you talking about?' asked Sam.
Kadiatu crawled on the ground in front of Lambada. Her hair extensions had come loose and fell over her face. Lambada wondered what she had seen in those first moments. A black leopard with burning eyes? She stepped forward.
'No,' said the Doctor, 'leave her alone.'
Kadiatu crawled on hands and knees, her limbs moving in painful inhuman jerks and spasms. Lambada felt a terror that propelled her all the way back to the Amazon Reserve.
Flickering torch light and Macumba drums in a clearing. The dancer's spastic limbs as the spirits of the dead took possession of the body.
Kadiatu crawled until she reached the place where Blondie lay. With each metre her movements became more human until she became just another woman.
She took the respirator off his face. His mouth looked very pale contrasted to the smoke-stained skin of his face. Kadiatu bent over him and kissed him once, on the lips. Then wearily she rose to her feet, dragging him upright with her. With a frown of concentration she lifted Blondie in her arms and carried him out of the station.
'What happened?' Old Sam asked the Doctor but he just shook his head. 'Should we go after her?'
'That wouldn't