by Doctor Who
‘Release gravity locks.’
‘Releasing.’
For a moment everything seemed to be frozen. And then the Doctor eased, the control joystick forward slightly and the ship began to rise.
Rose realised that things had gone quiet. She raised her head and looked back down the stairs. Kendle was still concentrating on the stairwell. Despite the lack of pursuit sounds, he remained suspicious.
‘Perhaps he’s given up and gone away?’ Rose said quietly.
Kendle shook his head. ‘I doubt it.’
Then, from some way below, they heard crashing and banging.
Rocks and debris were falling from the exterior of the tower.
‘What’s it trying to do? Bring the tower down?’ Rez asked.
‘I don’t like the sound of that,’ commented Kendle, taking a cautious step down the staircase. ‘Whatever it is, I think I should go and. . .
well, try to persuade him to stop.’ He took another two or three steps and began to disappear around the stairwell.
‘Be careful,’ called out Rose.
‘And you,’ he shouted back.
Rose looked across at Rez, who was leaning on the wall and staring out over his world.
‘Just you and me, then,’ she said, getting to her feet and joining him.
It was a magnificent sight. It must be nearly dawn – the sky was beginning to lighten. Just like the Doctor had told her, Rose could see for miles in every direction. And, even after the earthquake, it was beautiful. Suddenly she became aware of something in her peripheral vision. She looked down and saw to her horror that the Witiku was on the external staircase. It must have knocked a hole through the wall to get out there and was now rapidly closing in on their position from outside.
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Rose pulled Rez away from the edge as it reached a position just a metre or so from the base of the observation platform. But now a new noise was filling the air and a dark shadow was blocking out the rising sun. Rose protected her face with an arm and squinted up. It was the Humphrey Bogart! The Doctor had come back for them!
The battered ship was approaching in hover mode. Rose could see that the airlock was open and, inside, she could make out the professor and Hespell. Slowly the ship edged sideways towards them.
‘Our ride’s here,’ Rose called down to Kendle.
‘And so’s our other friend,’ added Rez, in a tone of panic.
Rose turned and saw that the Witiku was standing in the gap that allowed access to the external staircase. She recognised the fancy necklace hanging around its neck.
‘It’s Brother Hugan,’ she gasped, as the creature leapt forward, swinging its arms down towards them, determined not to let them get away again.
Rose and Rez dived to either side as the creature’s talons scraped into the stone floor, sending sparks flying. They scrambled to their feet as it turned for a second attack.
The spaceship was now a metre or two away from the observation platform. It was a spectacular display of precision flying. One mistake now and the Doctor would send the ship into the tower, making a bad situation worse rather than better.
From inside the airlock the professor called out to them. ‘Jump!’
Rose swallowed hard. Was she serious? The professor was screaming into the intercom now. ‘Closer!’ she ordered whoever was piloting the ship. Rose guessed it had to be the Doctor.
Rez took a look at the leap and grinned. ‘Now or never,’ he shouted to Rose, and started to run. He took off like a long-jumper and seemed to hang in the air for eternity. And then – clang! – he was landing on the metal floor of the airlock and Professor Shulough was hauling him in. ‘Your turn, Rose!’ he called back across the gaping chasm.
Rose crossed her fingers and ran. She ducked past the creature and jumped into space. A moment later she felt the professor and Hespell 162
grab hold of her and pull her to safety. She turned to look back across at the platform.
The transformed Brother Hugan was snapping at her heels. And then the creature lurched and fell to its knees. Behind it stood Kendle, weapon in hand. Unbelievably, the Witiku just rolled over and got back on his feet.
Rose and the others could only look on in mute horror as the old soldier and the transformed Layloran confronted each other. Kendle raised his weapon and fired again, but the Witiku just kept coming.
Kendle fired repeatedly, but the Witiku only swiped impatiently at the blaster with a sweep of one of his powerful arms.
‘I can’t hold this position much longer.’ It was the Doctor’s voice cackling out of the intercom speaker. ‘There was only time to part-charge the engines.’
The Doctor’s problems were becoming evident as the ship began to rock violently.
‘Just one more minute,’ urged the professor desperately.
‘Get clear,’ shouted Kendle, and jumped forward, surprising the Witiku with a frontal attack. He swung both fists up and his double punch connected with the creature’s jaw.
As the ship bobbed up and down, it was hard for Rose to see exactly what was happening but the next thing she saw haunted her for a long time. The two combatants, the ex-marine and the bestial Witiku staggered to the edge of the platform and then fell together, still locked in combat. The fall seemed to happen in slow motion, the two figures crashing again and again into the widening tower, bouncing off like rag dolls before finally coming to rest on the shattered roof of the temple.
Without a word the professor hit the control to close the outer doors and the ship moved away to find a safe place to land.
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Rose stood at the entrance to the tent and looked out at the storm.
Although it was daylight, the sky was dark with clouds and the rain was coming down in sheets. A heavy rumble of thunder was followed by a sharp crack of lightning, splitting the deep purple of the sky. The storm had been raging for hours now and showed no signs of abating.
‘So much for paradise,’ she commented, turning back to where the Doctor was sitting with Mother Jaelette and some of the village elders.
‘As soon as the storm breaks the Humphrey Bogart will take off,’
promised the Doctor confidently. ‘But they are not going to risk their shields in the kind of lightning out there right now,’ he added.
‘Is that what made them crash in the first place?’ Rose wondered.
‘Hespell said it was some kind of electromagnetic pulse. My bet is that’s another way the planet reacts to anything alien. The same thing that damaged Guillan’s ship fifty years ago.’ The Doctor shook his head in disbelief. ‘It really is the most hyper-allergic place I’ve ever seen. Anyway, once the ship takes off things will get back to normal.’
‘What about us?’ Rose asked.
The Doctor grinned. ‘Well, obviously we have to get going too. I’m sure Laylora is as allergic to us as she is to the crew of the Humphrey Bogart.’
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‘That still leaves me, though, doesn’t it?’
Rose had forgotten Rez, who was sitting with Kaylen at the rear of the tent. In his Layloran clothes, Rez looked at first glance to be no different from any of the other natives, but of course he was no more a native than Rose was.
‘It’s all my fault, isn’t it? The bad weather, the earth tremors. . .
Everything started when I arrived, didn’t it?’ Rose could see that Rez already knew the answer to his question and was resigned to it.
The Doctor knew it too. ‘I think so. The older you got, the worse the allergic reaction. The arrival of the Humphrey Bogart was the straw that broke the camel’s back.’
‘I don’t know what to do. All I’ve ever known is life on Laylora.’ Rez sounded genuinely heartbroken.
‘I’m sure we can take you somewhere you’ll be happy, can’t we?’
Rose looked to the Doctor for approval, but he was on his feet and at the tent flap.
‘Looks like the rain’s stopping,’ he muttered, avoiding the question.
> ‘Let’s go and see the Humphrey Bogart off.’
Rose turned and shrugged apologetically at the others before following him.
The Doctor was right, as usual. The rain quickly became drizzle, then stopped altogether and the more usual sunshine began to appear. By the time the Doctor and Rose had reached the spaceship, the weather was back to the summer holiday paradise that they had first landed in. The heat of the sun quickly evaporated the dampness left from the last of the rain.
At the Humphrey Bogart they were greeted by Hespell and Baker, who told them that the ship was ready to launch and that the professor was completing the final checks. The Doctor said that he needed a word with her and disappeared, leaving Rose with the two young crew members.
Hespell and Baker were standing together, not holding hands or touching but clearly a couple.
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‘I hear congratulations are in order,’ Rose said with a smile. Both Hespell and Baker blushed. ‘Hey, it’s OK. Nothing wrong with a little office romance,’ she told them.
The pair exchanged a look. ‘It’s not really what we expected to find on this mission,’ confessed Hespell.
‘Isn’t that the best kind of discovery?’ asked Rose. ‘You came looking for paradise and ended up finding each other. That’s a result, isn’t it?’
Baker grinned and slipped an arm around her new boyfriend. ‘Yes, I think it is.’
The bridge was deserted but the Doctor guessed where the professor would be and headed for her quarters. As expected, Professor Shulough was looking through her paradise files, slowly putting all her material back in boxes. The Doctor knocked politely on the open door and stepped into the room.
‘I’m sorry about your uncle,’ he said.
The professor looked up and he could see that she had been crying.
‘Thank you. He died a soldier’s death, protecting others. It’s what he would have wanted.’
For a long moment there was silence as the Doctor watched her putting away the artefacts and mementoes that had ruled her life for so long.
‘You know that this place has to be taken off the maps again, don’t you?’
The professor nodded sadly. ‘Shame, isn’t it?’
‘Better paradise lost than paradise never seen,’ suggested the Doctor kindly.
She laughed. ‘I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.’ She was silent for a moment, then said more thoughtfully, ‘You were right the other day, you know, when you said we were being attacked by environmentalists. We arrive somewhere wonderful and instantly destroy it, just by being there. Humans should be the social outcasts of the cosmos.’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘You’re being too hard on your race.
Humans are incredible. Go anywhere in the known universe and you’ll 167
find their traces. You’ve achieved so much, gone so far. From one little planet. I think it’s remarkable!’
‘But everywhere we go, don’t we ultimately bring destruction?’
The Doctor couldn’t go along with that conclusion. ‘No, that’s just not true. You make mistakes, sure, but you never give up. That’s what I love about the human race. I wouldn’t have hung around with you lot for this long if I didn’t believe in “humanity”.’
The professor placed Guillan’s journal back in the box on top of her other papers and put the lid on. When she rose she was smiling.
‘Thanks,’ she said with genuine warmth. ‘That makes me feel better.’
‘There was one more thing,’ the Doctor added, and then hesitated before continuing.
‘You’re going to ask me about the boy, aren’t you?’ She looked quizzically at the Doctor.
‘He’s got no one.’
‘He has now,’ the professor assured him. ‘I’m probably too old to be much of a mother. That was never going to be my story. But I can be a guardian and a guide.’
‘He’ll need that,’ the Doctor said, smiling.
The professor sat down and put her face in her hands. Something about her seemed to have changed since her adventures in the temple.
‘It hurt me so much, when my parents died,’ she began to explain in a quiet voice. ‘I promised myself I’d never feel like that again.’ She looked up at the Doctor with tears in her eyes. ‘I thought if I didn’t allow myself to get close to anyone, I’d be protected.’
The Doctor nodded sympathetically.
‘But I was wrong, wasn’t I?’
‘Life hurts,’ agreed the Doctor. ‘Things change, people come and go, nothing lasts. But if you don’t engage with people, if you don’t allow yourself to care. . . ’ He stopped and let the thought hang in the air for a moment. ‘Well, if you do that, then you’re not really alive, are you?’
The professor looked into the Doctor’s eyes and realised that all the pain she felt when her parents died was nothing in comparison to the heartache this alien had known. She looked away, not wanting to intrude.
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‘I’ll see what I can do,’ she said after a long silence. ‘About the boy.’
The Doctor headed for the door. ‘Thank you,’ he whispered, and then he was gone.
Rose found Rez sitting at the edge of the clearing made by the Humphrey Bogart when it first landed. The Doctor had returned the ship to precisely the same spot it had originally occupied, to minimise the impact on the sensitive planet. Rez was looking at it now, a curious expression on his face.
Rose sat down beside him on the soft grass. ‘Penny for them,’ she asked.
He frowned, not understanding.
‘It’s an expression,’ she explained. ‘It means what are you thinking?’
He nodded his head in the direction of the spaceship.
‘What’s it like out there?’ he asked her.
Rose hesitated. How could she possibly answer that? The Doctor had explained to her that he thought it best if Rez went with the crew of the Humphrey Bogart and she realised that he was probably right.
Poor Rez. No wonder he was looking scared. What a challenge!
‘You’ll love it,’ she said finally, after long consideration. ‘It’s an adventure.’
Rez smiled. ‘Have you been travelling for a long time?’
‘It’s hard to say,’ she confessed, ‘but however long it’s been, it’s not been long enough. There’s so much out there to discover. Some of it is dangerous and some of it is ugly, but it’s never dull.’
She reached out and patted his hand.
‘You can trust me on this.’ And she smiled to herself, thinking of her own father. ‘You never know, you may have family out there, waiting to meet you.’
When the time came for the final round of goodbyes it seemed to take for ever. Watching it all, Rose realised why the Doctor preferred to slip away normally rather than get caught up in protracted farewells.
On this occasion, however, he had declared that they had a duty to stay and see things through to the bitter end.
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Hespell and Baker had disappeared into the spaceship to take their places, leaving the professor waiting for Rez. He was doing an endless round of hugs with various Laylorans, finally coming to his adopted mother and sister. Both Jaelette and Kaylen had tears in their eyes, but, despite a trembling lip, Rez was managing to hold it together.
Jaelette and Kaylen gripped Rez tight and squeezed hard, knowing that they were unlikely ever to see him again.
Finally Rez prised himself loose and joined Professor Shulough, who led him into the airlock. As the doors closed, Rez looked back one last time at his paradise home and then turned away.
The Doctor and Rose ushered Jaelette, Kaylen and the other Laylorans away from the ship as Hespell ignited the manoeuvring thrusters and the huge metal ship slowly lifted off the ground.
Surprisingly graceful, it gained height and then speed as it cleared the trees and reached the open sky. Then, shifting to antigravity engines, it accelerated and quickly headed off into space. Within a minute there was nothing to
see but a dot in the sky and a moment later even that had disappeared completely.
The Doctor and Rose walked back to the TARDIS in silence, deep in their own thoughts. Rose took the opportunity to take one last look at the wonderful planet and her heart went out to poor Rez, who had been forced to leave this paradise.
‘Will he be all right?’ she wondered out loud.
‘I think so,’ the Doctor answered after a moment or two. ‘Humans are very adaptable.’
‘But this is all he’s ever known.’
‘Until now.’ The Doctor smiled. ‘Anyway, it’s the only way this place can get back to its normal state.’
‘A paradise planet that no human can ever visit. That’s a bit sad, isn’t it?’
The Doctor shrugged, searching in his pocket for the TARDIS key.
‘You know that feeling on a winter’s day, when it’s snowed in the night and you come downstairs and everything is different. There’s a blanket of white and it’s all perfect, untouched?’
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‘Yeah,’ Rose said, ‘and you want to go out in it but at the same time you don’t, ’cause then it’ll get mushy and covered in footprints and. . .
spoilt.’
The Doctor nodded. ‘It’s the same thing here. Nothing lasts for ever, not even the Paradise Planet. But it can last for a bit longer yet.’
He opened the door and stepped through into the impossibly cavernous console room of his own ship. Rose hesitated for a moment in the doorway, looking back at the beach.
‘Oh, well,’ she said, following the Doctor and closing the TARDIS
door behind her, ‘there’s always Clacton, I suppose. Not much call for a bikini there, though.’ The Doctor was already at the controls, setting switches and preparing to dematerialise.
‘I think we can do a bit better than that,’ he said, grinning. He pulled at a lever and set the central column in motion. ‘Let’s go and explore!’
Between the beautiful beach and the fantastic forest a wind whipped up out of nowhere and, with a wild trumpeting sound, the blue police box exterior of the TARDIS gently faded from view.