Doctor Who: Molten Heart

by Una McCormack

  “And the rest?” said Ash. “The shrinking seas? The cooling down?”

  “All connected somehow,” said the Doctor. “We need to take a closer look.”

  “All this time,” Quartz said softly. “I thought some of what Basalt was saying might be true, but…” He laughed. “Well, look at you all! You’re so…”

  “Alien?” suggested Ryan.

  “So what do you think we should do, Quartz?” Ash said.

  “I don’t know.” He looked worriedly at the Doctor and her friends. “We can’t hide them here forever—”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t plan on hiding here at all,” said the Doctor.

  “It’s not as simple as that,” said Quartz.

  “People say that to me all the time,” said the Doctor. “And you know what? It usually is pretty simple.” She turned to Ash. “I want to speak to your father. Find out what he’s learned.”

  “That isn’t possible,” said Quartz. “He left ages ago.”

  “We can follow him,” the Doctor said.

  Quartz shook his head. “That isn’t—”

  “Possible,” said the Doctor. “Yeah, I know. But I think we should try. Ash, did your father leave a map? Details of what route he was planning to take?”

  Ash looked round the room and held her hands up, helplessly. “There’s years of work here – all his notes about the cooling down, and his measurements of the lights in the sphere, his work on crystals… There’s so much!”

  Ryan was already on his feet and moving things around. “What would a map look like?” he said. “Do you even have books here?”

  “Doc,” said Graham. “Wouldn’t it be easier to go and find the TARDIS? Use that to hop up to the surface and find out what’s going on?”

  “It might,” said the Doctor, “if we knew how to get to it. Er, Quartz,” she said, “I don’t suppose anyone has mentioned a big blue box to you? Sort of this high…” She reached up her hand over her head. “Well, quite a lot bigger, actually. But blue. You’d know it if you saw it.” She opened and closed her fist. “Big flashing light on the top.”

  “I know what you mean,” he said. “Emerald’s people have it.”

  “Emerald,” said Yaz. “That name keeps coming up. Who is Emerald?”

  “Our ruler,” said Ash. “Not very fond of my father. Thought he was a troublemaker.”

  Quartz looked pained. “It’s not as simple as that, Ash…”

  The Doctor was eyeing Quartz thoughtfully. “It’s handy you knew about the TARDIS,” she said. “Handy that you know so much of what’s going on.”

  Quartz gave her a glittering smile. “Yes, well, I’m very well connected.”

  There is something creepy about him , thought Yaz.

  “And in point of fact,” Quartz went on, “Basalt did tell me his plans for the start of his journey. He left me some of his notes.” He glanced at Ash, who had a somewhat hurt expression on her face. “I think he was trying to keep you safe, Ash.”

  “I suppose so,” she said. “Although it was a little late to start thinking about that.”

  “He knew how hard all this had been on you,” Quartz said.

  “I believed in him,” said Ash, simply. “It wasn’t that hard. Not really.”

  “So where was he going, Quartz?” said the Doctor.

  Quartz took out a small crystal, and handed this across to Ash. She ran her fingertips across it. Gentle sounds emerged, as if several people were humming sweetly together, each at a different pitch. “Oh,” said Ash. “First he intended to take the White Way.”

  “That sounds pretty,” said Ryan. “The White Way. Nice. Moonlight and stars—”

  “They’re white-hot lava rapids,” said Ash.

  “Oh,” said Ryan.

  “Sounds pretty and remarkable!” said the Doctor. “Can’t wait!”

  Ash looked doubtfully at the Doctor and her friends. “I’m sure everything will be fine.”

  Four

  They took some time to pack some supplies. “Rope,” muttered the Doctor. Ash searched the room and found half a dozen lightweight coils, like the one she had used to help them escape their makeshift dungeon. The Doctor sat for a while with her sonic, analysing their composition, and they waited for the night cycle to begin.

  As the darkness settled again, they set out. Yaz noticed a strange and beautiful music all around. “What’s that sound, Ash?”

  “Those are jet-flies,” Ash said. “They come out to welcome the night.”

  “Like crickets,” said Yaz.

  “‘Crickets’,” Ash repeated, softly. “That’s a pretty word. There aren’t so many differences between us, I think. We tell children that jet-flies sing to make their dreams sharp and bright.”

  Yaz smiled. “That’s lovely.” Yes, she thought, we’ve more in common than it seems on the surface. She liked Ash, and was looking forward to getting to know her better over their journey. “We say, ‘sweet dreams’. But the meaning is the same.”

  Ryan was fascinated by the crystal that Basalt had left. “Does that really hold all his notes? And it’s all done by sound?”

  “How else would you keep notes so that you could refer back to them?” Quartz said.

  “Well…” Ryan looked stuck.

  Yaz laughed, wondering how he was going explain paper when there weren’t trees. “Go on, Ryan,” she said. “Tell him about voice notes.”

  “Never mind,” Ryan said.

  “How much of your father’s plan is on there?” the Doctor said. “Where was he going beyond the White Way?”

  “I’m not sure Basalt entirely knew himself,” Quartz said. “His aim, when we last talked, was to find his way around the sphere of the world to the long threads of light we’ve seen. But nobody has been that way.”

  Yaz was startled. “What? Never?”

  “It’s a long way from even our furthest outposts,” said Ash.

  “But it’s only up there,” said Yaz.

  “That’s a long way,” said Quartz.

  “We have our paths and our patterns,” said Ash. “We have everything we need. Why should we go any further?”

  “Don’t you want to know what’s there though?” said Yaz. “I mean, it’s right there, in front of you!”

  Ash smiled. “You sound like my father.”

  “Not everyone wants to go on dangerous quests,” said the Doctor. “Some people are happy to stay near home. Wouldn’t work for me, but there you are. Takes all sorts.”

  “I’m happy to stay near home,” said Ash. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know the truth about the world.”

  “Sometimes people have gone adventuring,” said Quartz. “For a few days or nights.”

  “So there’s been nothing like this trip of Basalt’s in your history?” said the Doctor.

  Quartz shook his head. “Nothing.”

  “That’s amazing,” said the Doctor. “And now we’re following in his footsteps.”

  Yaz gently touched Ash’s arm. “This is very brave of you.”

  “I just want to find him,” Ash said. “Make sure he’s safe.”

  Their first check came not long after they set off. Yaz became aware once again of that strange stillness in the air. She edged up to the Doctor, and saw that she had her sonic screwdriver out, discreetly covered by one hand.

  “I don’t know what you’re thinking,” Yaz said, quietly. “But I’m thinking about tsunamis again.”

  “Yeah, me too,” said the Doctor. “I’ll have a word with Ash.”

  “Not Quartz?”

  The Doctor glanced back to where Quartz and Graham were walking together. “You know what, Yaz? I’m not a fan of the big fella. Keep an eye on him for me, eh?”

  Yaz nodded. She watched the Doctor slip ahead to join Ash and Ryan, and held back to wait for Graham and Quartz.

  This meant that they were split into two distinct groups when the pool opened. Yaz heard the same sound that she had before, a sort of crumbling and ru
mbling and fizzing, and she stopped in her tracks. “Doctor!” she yelled ahead. “It’s coming!”

  The Doctor, hearing her, pushed Ryan and Ash on ahead, and sprinted off into the gloom. Yaz ran back to Graham.

  “What’s up?” he said, when she reached him.

  “One of those pools is opening! We’ve got to get back!”

  Graham moved surprisingly quickly for a man his age. Quartz could shift too, Yaz noticed. They made for some high ground, a ridge of rock they had just crossed, and looked back to see the jet of water surge upwards, and then flood the narrow piece of low land where they had just been walking.

  “Ryan?” yelled Graham. “Where are ya?”

  It was all Yaz could do to stop Graham jumping into the boiling water to swim after his grandson. She grabbed his arm. “Graham!” she said, calmly, but clearly; her copper’s voice. “He’s safe, look! Look!”

  Her tone did the trick. Graham stopped pulling at her and he looked across the new river that had opened up. On the far bank, about thirty feet away, safe on another ridge of rock, were Ryan, Ash, and the Doctor. Ryan waved at him.

  “Big wave,” Graham whispered, and gave Ryan a big wave back.

  “See?” Yaz said, authoritatively. “He’s fine.”

  Graham took a deep breath, and relaxed properly. “Yes, yes. Thanks, Yaz love. You’re a great kid.”

  “Eh,” she said, gently thumping his arm. “Less of the kid.”

  “All right, officer! Fair cop!”

  They grinned at each other. It could, Yaz thought, have been a lot worse.

  She became aware of Quartz standing beside her. He also looked shaken. “That,” he said, “was much too close.”

  “You don’t need to tell me that,” said Yaz, sharply, earning a puzzled look from Graham. “All right,” she said, “how do we get across to join them?”

  Quartz was peering over the new lake. “I’m not sure we do,” he said. “Look.”

  Yaz was resisting the urge to bristle back at him, and then she saw the Doctor. The Doctor was pointing at her chest, and at Ash and Ryan, and then pointing behind her. Next she flapped both hands in their direction, as if to send them away: Shoo! Then she pointed at them, pointed to her side of the river, and shook her head and arms wildly. Then she started the whole routine again.

  “Now I’m not a professional code-breaker,” said Graham, “but I think she’s telling us that they’ll go on.” He peered at the Doctor. “Now what is she doing?”

  The Doctor had her hand over her head. She was opening and closing her fist.

  “I think she wants us to find the TARDIS.”

  “And now what?” said Graham.

  The Doctor had her hand on her forehead, the fingers splayed out, like the crest on a cockerel. She wiggled her fingers about, and then shook her head, pulling a stern face. Yaz thought she knew what she meant: Watch out for Quartz.

  Yaz held up both thumbs. The Doctor was now going through her routine from the top. “All right, Doctor. You can stop now. I think we get the message.” Yaz flashed her hand over her head and put her thumb up. Then she mimed the crest and put her thumb down. Then she held both thumbs up high. Message received. The Doctor lifted her fists above her head and shook them about, like a champion winning a race, mouthing: Yay!

  “So we should find the TARDIS,” said Yaz. “But that’s easier said than done. Where would Emerald’s guards have taken it, Quartz? Any suggestions?”

  “I think I should take you to the City,” said Quartz. “To my house.”

  Yaz thought carefully. They needed to go that way to find the TARDIS, but the Doctor didn’t trust Quartz – and yet at the same time she had mimed to Yaz to keep an eye on him. “Won’t we stand out?” she said. “I mean, we’re not exactly like the rest of you…” She didn’t want to be led into a trap. She liked almost everything about travelling with the Doctor, but wasn’t a huge fan of the cells and dungeons.

  “I know some back routes,” said Quartz, with that smooth confidence that Yaz was starting to dislike. “My house is very big.”

  Good for you, thought Yaz.

  He must have caught her look of disapproval. “I simply meant that you can hide there, if necessary.”

  “Hmm,” said Yaz. She was aware of Graham’s confusion, but not exactly placed to explain.

  “It makes sense,” said Graham. “Maybe we can find out where the TARDIS is. Get it back.”

  Yaz looked across the lake. The others were already on their way. She sighed. “All right,” she said. “Let’s get to the city. Is it far, Quartz?”

  “I’m not sure how you measure either time or distance,” he said. “But we will be there shortly.”

  Yaz didn’t like uncertainties, but she followed him as he led the way. Graham hung back to speak to her.

  “What have you got against our friend?” he said, nodding ahead at Quartz’s glittering back.

  “The Doctor didn’t like him.”

  “Oh, he’s a bit of a show-off, yes, but he’s all right. Besides, we’re stuck, aren’t we? There’s no-one else here who can help us.”

  Yaz sighed. He was right; and she didn’t like that one bit.

  “Right,” said the Doctor, looking up at the ridge of rock rising steadily ahead of them. “The only way is up.” She stopped. “Hey, that’s quite catchy.”

  “Someone’s done that song already, Doctor,” said Ryan, helpfully.

  “Yeah? Oh well, never mind.” She turned to Ash. “How far to the White Way?”

  “Not far now. Over these ridges, then down into the valley.”

  “Lava rapids here we come,” said Ryan. “A bit intrepid, your dad, wasn’t he?”

  “Isn’t he,” said Ash, pointedly. “He is intrepid.”

  “Yes, of course, sorry, Ash. I didn’t mean—”

  “It’s all right, Ryan.” Ash sighed. “I’m worrying about where we go after that. His notes don’t tell me much more…”

  Ryan patted her arm. “The Doctor will work it out.”

  They walked on. Ash led the party, with Ryan next, and the Doctor at the rear, ready in case anyone lost their footing. They soon crossed the rocky ridge, and, to Ryan’s relief, there was a smooth path leading down the other side. They could hear the crashing of a river in the distance.

  As they walked down the valley, Ryan quizzed the Doctor. “Why didn’t you want the others to try and join us?”

  “Well,” she said, “for one thing, that new river looked pretty dangerous. For another – I’m hoping they’ll go back to the City and find out what’s going on there. Maybe even find the TARDIS.” She sighed.

  “But?” said Ryan.

  “How did you guess there was something else on my mind?” the Doctor said.

  “You had one of your faces. Your ‘I’ve-got-something-else-on-my-mind’ face.”

  “I’m starting to wonder how many faces this body has got.”

  “They’re all nice faces,” Ryan said, gallantly.

  “Ooh, you charmer!”

  “I try! So – what’s the matter?”

  “I’m not too sure about Quartz. I’d rather he was here where I could keep an eye on him.”

  Ryan frowned. “Will Yaz and Graham be all right?”

  “I’m hoping they can give him the slip… Anyway, those two can look after themselves,” said the Doctor. Ryan walked on, trying not to worry. He wouldn’t like to get on the wrong side of Yaz in a dark alley and as for his granddad – well, he’d lasted this long more or less intact, hadn’t he? And Yaz would keep an eye on him, Ryan consoled himself.

  As the dark began to lift, they came to the head of the rapids.

  “Look around,” Ash said. “We’re looking for a boat. A coracle.”

  They hunted around. The Doctor found it, calling to the others to help her carry it. The boat was bowl-shaped, hollowed and smoothed from stone, with oars made from what Ryan, touching one, realised was a kind of tough fibre, much thicker than whatever Ash’s people used
to make their ropes. He wondered what kind of plant it came from.

  “Are there always boats here, Ash?” the Doctor said.

  “People come this way sometimes, on their way round the sphere,” Ash said. “There are usually several boats. My father must have taken the others.” She smiled. “That’s good news.”

  “Have you been here before?” Ryan said.

  “Yes, with my father.”

  Ryan looked out at the crashing white waves. It’s not water, he thought.

  “What do you think, Ryan?” said the Doctor. “Shall we give it a go?”

  “As long as Ash steers,” said Ryan. “Hey, Ash, how many times have you done this?”

  “Once,” said Ash.

  “Oh. Well. Better than nothing, I suppose.”

  “I mean this once,” Ash said.

  The Doctor laughed out loud. “Oh, Ash! You’re very dry!”

  “I’m made of rock,” she said, her eyes gleaming.

  They clambered into the boat, and paddled out slowly. Ash seemed to know what she was doing, Ryan thought – which was more than he felt he could say for himself. “Doctor,” he murmured, “I’m not sure I’m cut out for this—”

  “Give it a go,” she said. “Ash will be doing the bulk of the work. We’re just here to help push the boat forwards.”

  And then they were off, caught in the flow of the white-hot lava. “Oh my days!” shouted Ryan, as the world whipped past. “Oh man!”

  They sped along. Ryan whooped out loud with delight, and the Doctor whooped at least as much, if not more. Then, from the corner of his eye, Ryan saw huge domed shapes rise up from the magma. Ash was doing a good job of dodging between them, but Ryan’s oar brushed against one. It came out sticky. He was about to reach out to touch, when he heard Ash’s voice, shouting out above the roar of the rocks. “Jellyfish!” she cried. “Don’t touch them! They give a nasty sting!”