And then she glanced upwards and realised immediately, seeing the huge dark outline of the ship, that their problems weren’t over, not by a long shot, and she headed back into the Tower to work.
She wondered if that nice Welsh bloke was downstairs and if he might fancy another cup of coffee…
Up in the ship, everyone was still staring in horror at the button the Doctor had pressed.
‘You killed them!’ shouted Alex.
‘Oh shut up! Don’t be so stupid,’ said the Doctor. Then he stopped himself. ‘Blimey, this rudeness thing is out of control. Sorry!’
He turned to the Sycorax Leader.
‘What do you think, Big Fella? Are they dead?’
The Sycorax Leader, for once, seemed thrown. ‘We… allow them to live.’
‘Allow? You’ve no choice!’ crowed the Doctor. He turned back to the baffled humans. ‘I mean, that’s all blood control is—a cheap bit of voodoo. Scares the pants off you, but that’s as far as it goes. It’s like hypnosis—you can hypnotise someone to walk like a chicken or sing like Elvis, but you can’t hypnotise them to death. Survival instinct’s too strong.’
The Sycorax Leader turned round and hissed. ‘Blood control was merely one form of conquest. I can summon the Armada and take this world by force.’
The Doctor was toying with him now. ‘Well, yeah, you could, yeah, you could do that, of course you could. But why? Look at these people. These human beings. Consider their potential. From the day they arrive on the planet and blinking step into the sun. There is more to see than can ever be seen. More to do than… No, hold on…’ He stared to the side for a moment.
‘Sorry, that’s The Lion King. But the point still stands. Leave them alone!’
‘Or what?’ said the Sycorax Leader.
The Doctor glanced around. ‘Or…’ Suddenly, he grabbed a sword straight from a stone container. He charged down the steps and stood in front of the TARDIS, then he raised the sword high into the air like a warrior.
‘I challenge you!’ he shouted.
Rose, staring aghast, wasn’t at all expecting what came next: a huge roar of approval from the Sycorax, which echoed throughout the amphitheatre. The Doctor, however, was completely unperturbed.
‘Oh, now that’s struck a chord,’ he said. ‘Am I right—the sanctified rules of combat still apply?’
The Sycorax Leader slowly descended the steps, unsheathing his huge sword. He was much, much bigger than the Doctor. ‘You stand as this world’s champion?’
The Doctor thought for a moment. ‘Thank you.’ He took off his dressing gown and threw it to Rose, who caught it easily. ‘I don’t know who I am—but you just summed me up.’
He raised his sword.
‘So. You accept my challenge? Or are you just a krallak pelle dalla sheestok?’
The audience rose to its feet, howling and chanting. The Leader looked around.
‘For the planet?’ he growled.
The Doctor grinned and nodded. ‘For the planet!’
With a bloodcurdling scream, the Sycorax Leader swung his broadsword.
The Doctor blocked the Sycorax Leader’s sword stroke with his own blade. Sparks flew as the huge, heavy old instruments of war sung together.
The leader launched himself at the Doctor, his blade swinging as the Doctor parried. There was no grace or finesse to the way they fought with the broadswords; nothing like Rose had seen on films. It was raw, clunking and loud, the huge weight of the heavy broadswords clanging on the raw metal of the spaceship floor. The Doctor lost the first skirmish, driven back towards the TARDIS doors.
The Sycorax were yelling and screaming as if they were at a sports match, which perhaps they were; the humans cowered into themselves, hypnotised by the fight. Rose thought she’d be horrified. But she found she was also excited as the Doctor and the Sycorax Leader circled each other, wielding their huge weapons in fury.
Suddenly the Doctor was besting the Sycorax leader, bearing down on him, pushing him back with stroke after bone-ringing stroke. His teeth were gritted. ‘Thing is, I still don’t know who I am. Am I fighter? Am I a swordsman? Am I an expert? Am I the sort of man who could happily slaughter you, have you thought of that?’
He was on top of the Sycorax Leader now.
‘What if I’m a killer?’
In a tremendous push, the Sycorax Leader hurled him off, and fought back in a flurry of blows; and now it was the Doctor on the back foot, taking a pummelling.
CRACK! went the swords in the air.
‘What if I’m not?’
CRACK! and his arm was forced down again.
‘Actually I don’t think I am.’
KKLAK!
‘Definitely not a killer, no. Which, if you a think about it, is a good thing.’ The Doctor tripped over his own feet, stumbled over backwards. ‘Ah. But not right now…’
The Sycorax Leader swung his sword. Swift as lightning the Doctor rolled out of the way as the blow came down, missing him by inches.
‘Look out!’ Rose couldn’t stop herself from screaming.
‘Oh yeah, that helped,’ the Doctor yelled. ‘Wouldn’t have thought of that otherwise, thanks.’
The Sycorax Leader hadn’t stopped pressing his advantage, forcing the Doctor back once more against the dripping, rocky edge of the amphitheatre. The Doctor was obviously weakening; his legs looked ready to fold like those of a new-born fawn, and there was nowhere else to run. He glanced behind him at the wall—and then he saw it.
‘Bit of fresh air?’ said the Doctor. And he slammed his fist on the large wall button, which immediately opening a sliding door—leading out into the open air, onto the great, sprawling wing of the vast ship.
The sky was blazing blue around them; the wind cut like cheese-wire, the air thin and freezing. London was plainly visible, far far below, and all of the humans, and some of the Sycorax, ventured out to watch the fight play out. There was, Rose noticed with alarm, no barrier around the open space at all; nothing to stop them all plummeting miles to their deaths. She tore her gaze away from the Doctor long enough to glimpse the familiar landmarks below, then quickly stopped as her stomach twisted. It twisted again as she saw the Sycorax Leader still had the upper hand; she started forward but the Doctor immediately held up an arm to stop her.
‘Stay back!’ he snarled. ‘Invalidate the challenge and he wins the planet!’ The Sycorax Leader landed a blow that nearly knocked the sword from the Doctor’s grip. ‘Oh, you’re just nasty. You know, I’m not even wearing slippers!’
The Doctor rallied once again. The two warriors were so different, but both were furiously wrestling for control, grimacing at one another.
Finally, with a bellow, the Sycorax Leader simply shoved the Doctor away with all his might. The Doctor staggered back, out of control, fell flat on his back at the very edge of the spaceship’s wing.
The Sycorax Leader raised his blade and sliced down with horrible force—cutting straight through the Doctor’s sword arm, severing it at the wrist. The Doctor watched in utter disbelief as his hand, the sword still clutched in dead fingers, skittered over the side of the ship and fell towards the Earth below.
18
Happy Xmas (War is Over)
The Sycorax Leader started laughing. Mickey and Alex had looked away, unable to watch any longer.
Rose burst into shocked tears, but couldn’t turn her back on the Doctor.
The Doctor stared at the space where his arm had been; the empty sleeve. ‘You cut my hand off!’
The Sycorax Leader let out a horrible toothy grin of triumph. ‘Yah! SYCORAX!’ he snarled, raising his sword high.
Then there was no sound but the wind on the floating platform. There was, Rose noticed, no blood. She had always wondered. If he bled.
The Doctor got to his feet. His face, strangely, was triumphant.
‘And now,’ he said. ‘Now, I know what sort of man I am.’
The others stared at him.
‘I’m lucky.�
��Cos quite by chance … I’m still within the first fifteen hours of my regeneration cycle. Which means I’ve got just enough residual cellular energy… to do this…’
And he held up his empty sleeve. And in front of everyone’s eyes, a glowing, golden cloud of matter, of raw regeneration energy, filled the space where his hand had been. Pink, quivering flesh quested out through the sleeve and started to turn, quite clearly, into a hand. A brand new hand, flexing, alive.
‘WITCHCRAFT!’ shrieked the Sycorax Leader.
‘Time Lord,’ the Doctor corrected him.
Without wasting a second, Rose grabbed another sword off the nearest Sycorax.
And for the first time since he woke up, she called him by his name. ‘Doctor!’
The Doctor caught it by the hilt with his brand new hand and turned to face her. ‘So, I’m still the Doctor, then?’
Rose grinned. ‘No arguments from me.’
The Doctor smiled back because, of course, he knew that there were always going to be arguments from Rose Tyler.
He turned back to the Sycorax Leader. ‘Want to know the best bit? This new hand…’ He put on a cowboy voice, just to see if he could do one, which he could, just about. ‘It’s a fighting hand!’
And gleefully, brilliantly, he ran hard at the Sycorax Leader and the fight began once more with a new and incredible energy, the sound of the swords clanging like an alarm, the Leader now defensive, the Doctor utterly unstoppable; thrusting the hilt of his sword into the Leader’s stomach so that the creature doubled over, even as the watching humans winced.
With one final massive swing from the Doctor, the Sycorax Leader’s sword went flying from his hand, slithering across the wing deck like a rat fleeing light. The Leader fell onto his back, panting for breath, dangerously close to the edge and the dizzying drop beyond.
The Doctor stood over him, breathing heavily. He pointed his sword at the Sycorax Leader’s throat. ‘I win,’ he said simply.
‘Then kill me,’ said the Sycorax Leader, still defiant.
The Doctor blinked. ‘I’ll spare your life if you’ll take this champion’s command: leave this planet and never return. What do you say?’
‘Yes,’ croaked the Sycorax Leader immediately.
The Doctor leaned in low; quiet and deadly. ‘Swear on the blood of your species.’
‘I swear,’ said the Sycorax.
There was a pause. Then the Doctor straightened up, grinned, and his tone lightened immediately. ‘Well! There we are then! Thanks for that! Cheers, Big Fella!’
And he prodded the sword into the metallic ground, as if slightly embarrassed, and turned back to the others, leaving the Sycorax Leader standing behind him.
‘Bravo!’ shouted Harriet Jones, giving him a round of applause, as Rose rushed forwards, brimming with emotion.
‘That says it all,’ she said in a quieter tone. ‘Bravo!’
‘Yeah, not bad for a man in his jim-jams,’ said the Doctor. Carefully, Rose helped him back into his dressing gown. It was quite the oddest thing; his proportions had changed. And yet somehow, when you were close to him, he felt exactly the same.
‘Very Arthur Dent,’ said the Doctor, looking down. ‘Now there was a nice man,’ which would have surprised Arthur tremendously if he’d heard it, seeing as every time they’d met, the Doctor had appeared almost outstandingly uninterested in killing Vogons, before beating him at Scrabble whilst simultaneously sharing long boring reminiscences with Ford about wild nights out they’d had together at college.
The Doctor stuck his new hand in his pocket to try it out. ‘Hang on, what have we got here?’ It emerged holding a satsuma, and Rose giggled as he furrowed his brow.
‘Ah, that friend of your mother’s, he does like his snacks, doesn’t he? But doesn’t that just sum up Christmas?’ He tossed it in the air, and his new hand caught it perfectly. ‘You go through all those presents, and right at the end, tucked away at the bottom, there’s always one stupid old satsuma. I mean, who wants a satsuma? What are you ever going to do with a satsuma?’
Suddenly, behind him, the wounded Sycorax Leader got to his feet and seized the Doctor’s broadsword, roaring and charging towards the Doctor, hell-bent on only one thing: his destruction.
The Doctor didn’t even turn around.
As the Sycorax Leader raced towards him, he simply lobbed the satsuma at the wing switch on the side of the spaceship. Instantly, the flaps dislocated directly beneath the Sycorax Leader, and he vanished, simply dropped down into thin air; plummeting towards the Earth miles below with a dying scream.
The Doctor kept on walking. He still didn’t turn around. His voice, when he spoke, was grim.
‘No second chances,’ he said coldly. ‘I’m that sort of a man.’
19
Follow the Star
Harriet, Alex, Rose and Mickey followed the Doctor back into the amphitheatre, victorious. The army was cowed as they lined up in front of the TARDIS; the Doctor stood in the middle as he addressed the people of the Sycorax.
He spoke slowly and clearly, in no mood to be misunderstood.
‘The Sycorax will leave,’ he commanded, ‘leave and never return. By the ancient rites of combat, I forbid you to scavenge here for the rest of Time. And when go you back to the stars and tell others of this planet… when you tell them of its riches, its people, its potential… When you talk of the Earth, then make sure that you tell them this.’ His gaze swept the entire room and his voice grew louder still. ‘It. Is. Defended.’
The engines whirred clunkily and a strange noise like gears grinding came out of nowhere, as the TARDIS rematerialised on an empty street.
‘Where are we?’ said Rose.
Mickey bundled out through the door. ‘We’re just off Bloxom Road—just round the corner from where we left. Look, no one up on the rooftops. Everything looks all right.’ He was so happy he was practically jumping up and down. ‘We did it!’
The Doctor held up a hand. ‘Wait a minute… wait a minute…’
Above them the great Sycorax ship started to thrum; its engines shaking the ground. Very slowly, the great mass began to lift; accelerating away; leaving the Earth behind. A wind swept over them: backdraft. Papers and dust flew around, but nobody cared; they were all too busy celebrating.
‘Go on, my son! Oh yeah!’ shouted Mickey.
Rose jumped on his back cheerfully. ‘Yeah! Don’t come back!’
“IT. IS. DEFENDED!’ quoted Mickey in a fair impression of the Doctor that made him frown. Rose jumped off him and threw her arms around a rather surprised Alex.
Meanwhile, the Doctor approached Harriet Jones.
‘My Doctor,’ she said proudly.
‘Prime Minister,’ he replied, and they hugged.
Harriet’s mouth twitched. ‘Absolutely the same man,’ she said.
They turned to look up at the sky.
‘Are there many more out there?’ she asked.
‘Oh, not just Sycorax,’ the Doctor replied. ‘Hundreds of species. Thousands of them. And the human race is drawing attention to itself. Every day you’re sending out probes and messages and signals. This planet: it’s so noisy. You’re getting noticed… more and more.’ He turned to look at her. ‘You’d better get used to it.’
Harriet looked away.
‘Rose?’ Jackie came charging up the street, relief and crossness fighting for possession of her face. ‘Rose! Oh, my God…’
‘Mum!’ cried Rose.
‘Oh, talking of trouble,’ the Doctor grinned, but Rose was already in her mother’s arms.
‘You did it, Rose!’ Jackie murmured.
‘He did it, Mum!’ shouted Rose. ‘He’s the Doctor, and he did it… and you did it too!’
Jackie’s eyebrows shot up. ‘What?’
‘It was the tea! Fixed his head.’
‘That was all I needed: nice cup of tea,’ said the Doctor supportively.
Jackie looked suddenly overwhelmed. ‘I said so!’ she exclaimed.
>
‘And look at him!’ said Rose.
She looked at her daughter’s starstruck face, sensing trouble. ‘Is it him, though? Is it really the Doctor?’ Then she clocked Harriet Jones. ‘Oh my God! It’s the bleeding Prime Minister!’
The Doctor smiled. ‘Come here you.’ And in a way that, frankly, made Jackie doubt his Doctorish credentials more than anything he’d done yet—he hugged her.
Meanwhile, Alex beckoned Harriet Jones over to look at his phone. The telecoms satellites were back up, it seemed, after the sonic shockwave.
He glanced up at her. ‘It’s a message from Torchwood. They say they’re ready.’
Harriet looked over at the five happy people. She didn’t want to do this. But she was Prime Minister. She had a duty of care—a responsibility that went well beyond her own wishes. As the others chatted excitedly about pulling together a Christmas dinner, she took a deep breath.
‘Tell them to fire,’ she told Alex.
Alex looked at her for only a moment, then spoke softly into his phone. ‘Fire at will.’
And she looked at the sky, and she looked at the group of happy people, and she stood her ground, and closed her eyes, and waited for what she knew must come.
Suddenly, a beam of light shot through the sky, emanating from somewhere in Docklands. It joined with another beam of light from a location south of the Thames.
The Doctor looked round, horrified.
Then another point of light joined it, and another, until Rose, and Mickey and Jackie and Alex were all twisting round to see where it was coming from.
All of them except Harriet, who knew so very, very well.
Above London the five points joined in the middle, forming a huge, intensely powerful pulse, which punched up through the atmosphere and burst into space, where the Sycorax ship was already gliding away into the void.
It slammed into the ship, which burst apart.
From the Earth they could see it: parts of the disintegrating vessel, like a shower of meteors in the sky. Jackie had a hand over her mouth.
‘What is that?’ Rose was crying. ‘What is it?’
Harriet glanced at Rose who was staring at her in disbelief. Then she gathered her courage and looked at the Doctor.
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