Doctor Who_ Winner Takes All - Jacqueline Rayner [41]
He just smiled at that, as he pushed open the blue double doors; didn’t confirm or deny.
Rose was sort of used to coming into the TARDIS now, in the same way Alexander Graham Bell’s friends must have grown used to the miracle of being called up on the telephone after the first few times, but she still got a rush from it, the casual wandering into a wonderful alien environment, a machine that was, amazingly, bigger on the inside than the outside. That would have been astounding enough in itself, even without the whole ‘travel to anywhere and anywhen’ thing.
The Doctor held out a hand for the winning scratch‐card as they walked up the ramp into the dark control room, and she pulled it out of her jeans pocket again, hoping the slight crease it in wouldn’t have harmed whatever strange technology it was concealing.
She passed it over, and the Doctor stuck the card into a slot in the console. The TARDIS always seemed to have exactly what was needed. Rose suspected that it somehow adapted itself to the Doctor’s requirements, but she’d never managed to catch it out; never managed to spot something that she knew hadn’t been there before, or found anything to be absent that had previously been present.
‘Won’t be long,’ said the Doctor.
Rose hoped so, you really didn’t want too much time to reflect before plunging into deadly danger. The Doctor flicked a few switches, and the thin column in the middle of the console began to pulse up and down, bathing the room in blue‐green light. That meant they were in flight. That they were, as far as she could understand it, more or less nowhere. Travelling in the TARDIS was more like the Quevvils’ teleportation than a rocket to the moon: you didn’t have to take a detour round Saturn or risk getting stuck in a spaceship jam at the edge of the Milky Way, you just… Well, actually, she’d leave the details to the Doctor. Just take it on trust for now.
The Doctor was mooching round the console, his hands in his pockets, occasionally peering down at something. He did not thrive on inactivity. ‘Be there any second,’ he said.
‘Good,’ said Rose, ‘I –’ But she suddenly found herself flying across the room. The TARDIS had lurched violently, like it had given a sudden enormous hiccup. She grabbed at one of the strange sculptures that decorated the room, a sort of Y-shaped thing that looked like a cross between a tree and a statue, and it arrested her flight. Using it for support, she managed to drag herself back to her feet.
‘What was that?’ she asked, shaken.
The Doctor was examining the console. ‘We were repelled by something.’
‘The force field around the Mantodean stronghold!’ Rose realised. ‘No teleporting, no TARDIS.’
The Doctor nodded. ‘So that’s Plan A out of the window.’
‘Well, we were making it up as we went along,’ said Rose, to sort of comfort him. ‘We’ve landed somewhere, anyway.’
‘Mm,’ said the Doctor, getting his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket as if to check he still had it, then putting it back in again. ‘I expect it’s gone into default mode, taken us to exactly where the winning‐card holders materialise. But the best way to find out –’
‘Is to go out,’ completed Rose.
The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors, and Rose followed him outside.
* * *
THIRTEEN
There were about fifteen people in the room. There were fourteen now, fourteen exactly. There always seemed to be about fifteen, because as fast as they took people away, new ones appeared. When the people materialised out of thin air they were usually upset and confused. If you’d been there for a while, you had to explain what was happening. Not that you really knew. Sometimes people had barely arrived before Percy the Porcupine came in and took them away. Sometimes, like Robert, you could be there for hours. No one knew where they took you, but everyone was scared, no one wanted to be picked.
His mum had done this really embarrassing thing, crying and screaming for them to take her instead of him, trying to throw herself in front of him and stop the monsters from getting near him.
Some people said they probably