Doctor Who: The Eight Doctors

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Doctor Who: The Eight Doctors Page 18

by Terrance Dicks


  'We can't leave yet,' said the Doctor.

  'There's still something to be done.'

  'What?'

  'Some unknown enemy has got a fix on me - you - us. They're using some kind of Timescoop to dispatch assorted nasties.'

  'Obviously. So?'

  'So it's got to be stopped.

  'How?'

  'I think we should send them a message.'

  ***

  Ryoth had lost track of how long he had been labouring over the Timescoop. Yet still the red line on the tempograph showed that the Doctor remained obstinately alive.

  'He can't have survived a Raston Warrior Robot and a squad of Sontarans,'

  muttered Ryoth. 'He can't'

  He decided to make one last try. This time whatever he dispatched must be utterly invincible - invulnerable. He began studying the scrolls again.

  Suddenly he stopped. 'Of course. This really is the perfect choice!'

  He started to adjust the controls on the Timescoop once more. A desolate landscape appeared on the screen, a muddy swamp obscured by drifting mists. He scanned the swamp until he found what he was looking for - a line of bubbles. And then, there it was! A monstrous head came roaring out of the mud.

  'Now let's see how the Doctor deals with you!' muttered Ryoth.

  ***

  Tegan and Turlough watched from the TARDIS door -neither wanted to get too far away from it - as the two Doctors set up a complicated-looking piece of machinery on top of the nearby hillock.

  Its most conspicuous feature was a set of scanners, shaped like the wings of a giant metal butterfly, which revolved on top of the thing.

  The Doctors walked back to the TARDIS and surveyed their work.

  'It's a bit of a lash-up,' said the Doctor critically. 'But it should go on working for a while yet. What we need is for our unknown admirer to get impatient and send us another little present.'

  'I'm not entirely happy about this,' said the Fifth Doctor.

  'It's another trap, isn't it, like with the Sontarans?'

  'Purely a defensive measure,' said the Doctor. 'And very necessary. Do you want to spend the rest of your travels wondering which particular old enemy is going to materialise in your lap?' He paused, then nodded. 'Well, neither do I!'

  'Any chance of your telling us what that thing does?' asked Tegan.

  'It sets up a Temporal Reverse Feedback Field,' said the Fifth Doctor.

  'If anyone sends us another surprise package, that little gadget will reverse the polarity of the temporal flow and -'

  'Something's happening!' criedTurlough.

  The air at the foot of the hill blurred and shimmered and a monstrous creature appeared. It looked rather like a giant worm with a savage, dog-like head and row upon row of teeth. It scented them immediately and began rushing towards them like an express train...

  'Drashig!' yelled both Doctors. 'Run!'

  Turlough was already inside the TARDIS, but before Tegan and the Doctors had time to follow, the creature shimmered and vanished.

  The Doctors heaved a collective sigh of relief. They went up the hill and returned, carrying the gadget between them.

  'Well, it worked!' said the Fifth Doctor.

  'Just as well,' said the Doctor. 'I must confess, I didn't reckon on a Drashig!'

  'Still,' said Tegan uneasily. 'We'd have been safe enough inside the TARDIS - wouldn't we?'

  'Don't bank on it,' said the Fifth

  Doctor. 'Drashigs are omnivores. It would probably have eaten the TARDIS!'

  'Come off it, Doctor!'

  'They ate a space freighter once,' said the Doctor. 'Mind you, there were several of them.'

  Turlough came cautiously out of the TARDIS. 'So, thanks to that gizmo of yours, that horror has gone back where it came from?'

  'Not exactly where it came from,' said the Doctor. 'It's gone back to whoever sent it.'

  Turlough nodded thoughtfully.

  'Someone's in for a surprise.'

  ***

  Ryoth's surprise was horrifyingly brief. One moment he was alone in the vault, the next the Drashig was suddenly, terrifyingly there...

  Ryoth screamed.

  The Drashig ate him.

  It chomped up most of the Timescoop as well, and then began hurling itself against the too-small door of the vault.

  ***

  'So, goodbye again,' said the Doctor.

  He shook hands with his other self, shook hands with Turlough and kissed Tegan's cheek.

  'What about you?' she asked. 'Aren't you coming? We can't leave you stranded.'

  'You won't. When they're this close, the trans-temporal TARDISes merge.

  When you leave yours will split off, leaving one for me - I hope!'

  The Doctor stepped back and waved goodbye.

  The Fifth Doctor's TARDIS

  dematerialised with the usual sound effects, leaving the Doctor's TARDIS

  behind. He stepped inside and, a few moments later, his TARDIS too faded away.

  ***

  'I've never seen anything like it,' Castellan Spandrell told Lady Flavia as they walked along the Capitol corridors.'Security picked up some kind of temporal disturbance in one of those old vaults down below, went down to investigate and then sent for me. When I got down there I found this horrendous monster stuck halfway through the door, screaming and roaring.'

  'How very distressing,' said the President. 'What did you do?'

  'We rigged up an emergency transmat beam and sent it off to the heart of the Death Zone. Apparently it was something called a Drashig - eats everything. With any luck, it will eat up all the other horrors in the Zone.'

  'Did you discover any explanation?'

  'Once we'd got rid of the monster, we checked the vault.

  We found a few metal chunks, later identified as Timescoop machinery, and a few flesh-and-blood scraps that turned out to be what was left of Councillor Ryoth.'

  'How very curious...'

  'Isn't it?' said Spandrell grimly. "The official story is that Ryoth was experimenting with an illicit Timescoop and came to a deservedly sticky end. It might even be true -though I doubt it. Ryoth wasn't acting alone. He had help.'

  'I'm sure he had. Do you have any theories?'

  'Only that Ryoth was involved in some piece of dirty work which backfired on him.'

  'Do you think the Doctor was involved?'

  'I'm positive,' said Spandrell. 'A Drashig in the Capitol? It's just got to be the Doctor!'

  They turned into the Temporal Control Room and found the Chief Controller waiting by the monitor screen. The red line was moving steadily towards the sixth blue one.

  'It appears that the Doctor has concluded his business with his fifth self, Madam President, and is now on the way to visit the sixth.'

  'So I see,' said President Flavia. 'I wonder what will happen next...'

  ***

  In the Eye of Orion everything seemed still. Then, in the blood-soaked grass, the torn-off head of the Raston Warrior Robot began rolling gently to and fro. It worked its way slowly across to its body and rested against the stump of the neck.

  The solid metal flowed like quicksilver, and suddenly the robot's head was back on its body.

  It rose and surveyed the stiffening corpses of its enemies.lt blurred and vanished, reappearing on top of the little hillock, resuming its unending vigil.

  Sometimes a strange thought passed across its consciousness and it wondered if its vigil would ever end, if it would ever know the peace of oblivion.

  But it was a Raston Warrior Robot. It only knew how to guard, to fight and to kill.

  It did not know how to die.

  Chapter 17

  Death Sentence

  The Trial of a Time Lord was coming to an end. To one of its ends, anyway.

  The Tune Lord in question, commonly known as the Doctor, was now in his sixth incarnation. He had changed greatly. Gone was the patriarchal dignity of the First Doctor, the puckish charm of the Second, the dashing el
egance of the Third. No trace remained of the easy-going bohemianism of the Fourth Doctor, or the gende dignity of the Fifth.

  This Sixth Doctor was someone to be reckoned with - a big, powerful fellow with a tendency to put on weight.He had a roundish face, full-lipped and sensual, with an obstinate chin. Only the jutting beak of a nose recalled earlier selves. The face was crowned with a mop of curly fair hair.

  The personality was as powerful as the physical frame. Strength, aggression and anger radiated from him in waves. His clothes reflected all the assertiveness of his nature. Yellow trousers, a multicoloured coat in which red, yellow, green, purple and pink clashed horribly, a bright red cravat with large white spots. The whole ensemble was finished off with green boots surmounted by orange spats.

  The Sixth Doctor stood in the dock in a huge vaulted courtroom. Although it was actually housed in what appeared to be a space station, it had the air of some ancient cathedral.

  Opposite him was the Prosecutor's podium, where stood the lean, malignant, black-clad figure of the Valeyard. Between the two was the bench of the Court Inquisitor -an imperious looking dark-haired female in an ornate headdress, a white dress and a red sash of office.

  The rear of the courtroom was dominated by an enormous screen.

  The screen was linked to the Matrix, the all-encompassing repository in which was stored the experience and knowledge of those Time Lords who had exhausted their regenerations and passed on.

  Nor was that all. The Matrix was telepathically linked to the mind of every living Time Lord. Which meant that everything the Sixth Doctor had ever done or said, everything he had ever thought or felt, was available for question and review.

  Between the screen and the court officials sat the elaborately-robed Time Lord Jury. Swivel chairs enabled them to watch either the evidence on the screen or the proceedings of the Court.

  By now the trial was drawing to a close. There had been much heated discussion, not to say wrangling, between the Doctor, who was conducting his own defence, and the prosecuting Valeyard.

  Evidence of the Doctor's past adventures, misadventures and alleged crimes had been shown on the screen. During the process the charges against the Doctor had escalated from conduct unbecoming a Time Lord to genocide -specifically, to the wiping-out of theVervoids, an intelligent mutated plant species.

  The charge had apparently been proved by evidence shown on the Matrix screen.

  The Doctor had admitted to the crime, justifying it by the need to save the planet Earth. He also contended that some, at least, of the evidence against him had been tampered with.

  Now, after only the briefest of deliberations, the jury was about to deliver its verdict. A scroll was passed to the Inquisitor. She studied it for a moment and then read it aloud in a firm clear voice:'The verdict of this special Court is that the Doctor is guilty of all charges against him.' She turned to face the Doctor. 'It now falls to me to pronounce sentence. Even the lesser charge of conduct unbecoming aTime Lord, specifically in undue interference in the affairs of other lifeforms, carries severe penalties. But these are now almost irrelevant. The charge of breaching Article Seven, the commission of genocide, carries one mandatory sentence - death.' She paused impressively. 'Doctor, you are sentenced to summary execution for the crime of genocide. The sentence will be carried out immediately.'

  The Doctor leaped to his feet. 'That's outrageous. I insist on lodging an appeal!'

  'There is no provision for any appeal against the decision of this court,' said the Inquisitor impassively. 'Take him away!'

  A squad of guards marched into the room. The two leaders seized the Doctor by the arms and almost dragged him from the Courtroom.

  The Valeyard rose. 'With your permission, Sagacity, I shall see that the sentence of the Court is properly carried out.' And with that, he followed the Doctor and his guards from the room.

  ***

  The Doctor was marched along the ornately decorated corridor by which he'd arrived, and then along a plainer, more functional one. This corridor led into a cavernous metal-walled open space.

  'A docking bay,' said the Doctor, speaking his thoughts aloud. 'Am I going on a journey?'

  'I'm afraid not, Doctor,' said the Valeyard mockingly. 'On the contrary, this is journey's end. If you'll be good enough to stand against that wall?'

  The Doctor was shoved against a metal wall and the guards lined up in front of him, blasters drawn. The blasters were heavy military models, the Doctor noted, set, no doubt, on'kill'.

  His entire torso would be blown apart, both hearts destroyed.

  'Let's do this the traditional way, shall we, Doctor?' said the Valeyard gloatingly. 'Can I offer you a blindfold or a last cigarette? Though I'm sure you don't smoke, it's so terribly bad for the health.'

  'So is blaster-fire,' said the Doctor.

  The Valeyard smiled. In actual fact, these blasters had been massively augmented. The Valeyard wanted this Doctor dead, but desired his remaining regenerations. This 'execution' was but the first step in his plan.

  'Any last words?' asked the Valeyard, rousing himself. 'No? Very well then.'

  He raised his voice. 'Ready...aim...' He paused, savouring the moment.

  'Goodbye, Doctor!'

  As the Valeyard opened his mouth to give the final command, a strange wheezing, groaning sound filled the air and a blue box materialised close by.

  'The TARDIS has come to rescue me,' murmured the Doctor. 'It'll never work though, they'll shoot me down before I can reach the door...'

  The TARDIS door opened and a tall young man with longish brown hair stepped out. His eyes met the Doctor's and time froze...

  All the Sixth Doctor's memories flooded into the Doctor's mind - including, of course, the most recent ones, those of the events that had led to his present predicament.

  'Call that a trial?' said the Doctor outraged. 'Genocide? That's absolute rubbish. The Vervoids were a dangerous experiment, not a genuine species. It's all a farrago of preposterous nonsense!'

  'I managed to work that out for myself,' said the Sixth Doctor sharply. 'What in the blue blazes are you doing here? I'm in trouble already and you're -

  we're -committing a major temporal crime. They'll probably add it to my charge sheet.'

  'It's a long story,' said the Doctor.

  'Several long stories in fact. Look, let's get away from here, shall we, and see if we can make sense of all this chaos?'

  The Sixth Doctor looked doubtful.

  'Back to the courtroom?'

  The Doctor shook his head.

  'Back to Gallifrey. Where do you think all this started?' The Doctor indicated the open door of the TARDIS.'We'd better hurry. I'm never sure how long these time bubbles will last.'

  With a final indignant glare at the frozen Valeyard and his equally frozen execution squad, the Sixth Doctor walked across to theTARDIS and disappeared inside.

  The Doctor followed and minutes later the dematerialisation noise filled the air. TheTARDIS vanished.

  So too, surprisingly, did the Valeyard and his guards.

  ***

  Inside the TARDIS the Sixth Doctor looked around curiously. It was still his TARDIS, and yet it wasn't, and even the minor changes in decor irritated him.

  He wasn't mad about this latest Doctor either. Far too self-assured - and offensively thin.

  Hasn't got my dress sense though, thought the Sixth Doctor complacently.

  Out loud he said, 'So you're my replacement?'

  The Doctor looked up from the TARDIS console. 'Not exactly. As I understand it, we're separated by one more incarnation.'

  'Just as well. Be a bit embarrassing otherwise.'

  The Doctor was still busy at the controls. 'Would it?' he asked absently.

  'Why?'

  'Never mind.' The Sixth Doctor chuckled. "There'll be some consternation in the courtroom when the poor old Boneyard tells them I've vanished.'

  'I doubt it,' said the Doctor. 'Not if my theory's correct, anyway.
As far as they're concerned, you never left and the trial is still going on.'

  The Sixth Doctor sighed with exaggerated weariness.'Do you think you might possibly condescend to explain that singularly baffling remark?'

  The Doctor grinned at his irascible other self. 'Can you remember what happened in Court immediately before your sentence?'

 

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