by Doctor Who
She left the Doctor at his work and, joining her brother, saw that there were people down there. Not just people. Their parents.
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DOCTOR WHO
'Mum!' she said. 'Dad!'
Not thinking twice, Vienna and Jake ran from the Climate Control Centre, with Wallace following close behind. As the door closed behind them with a thud, the Doctor looked up from his computer and found himself alone. He looked over at the wall of monitors and saw, in the gardens, Mr and Mrs Carstairs and the other residents.
'Oh no,' he murmured. 'Really bad idea.'
Hitting one last button on the console, he ran and followed them down the stairs and back into the gardens.
Jake and Vienna were already there, and they ran to their mother, heedless of the black ooze beneath their feet, their arms open and ready to embrace her.
Mrs Carstairs, in return, looked upon her children with an icy glare.
Jake and Vienna stopped running, and their arms fell to their sides.
'Mum?' said Jake.
Seeing his children, Mr Carstairs came forward. He smiled, but they could see a sadness in his eyes. Their father looked scared.
'Jake, Vienna,' he said. 'Stay there. Please.'
'Dad?' said Vienna. 'What's happening, Dad?'
Behind them the Doctor came skidding to a halt, almost losing his balance as his feet slid in the black sludge.
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The Doctor,' said Mrs Carstairs with a venomous smile.
'It's over,' said the Doctor. 'You must know what happened to Wallace. He's not one of you any more.'
Then we must leave,’ said Mrs Carstairs, still smiling. 'Perhaps, Doctor, you would be so kind as to aid our escape with that TARDIS of yours.'
'I can't do that,' said the Doctor.
Mrs Carstairs' expression changed quite suddenly from a smile to a bestial grimace and she lunged forward, seizing Vienna by the throat.
'Really, Doctor?' she sneered. 'Even if there is a human life at stake?'
'Let her go,' said the Doctor. 'Let her go now.'
Mr Carstairs leapt forward, reaching out towards his wife and daughter in anguish, but was knocked back as if he had run into a force field.
This, then, is the weakness of the Time Lord,' said Mrs Carstairs, the menacing smile returning to her lips. 'For all your cunning, you cannot bear to see another living creature suffer. A saving grace to some species, Doctor, but not to us. Take us to the TARDIS
and away from this colony and we may just spare your life and the lives of the humans.'
'Oh, I don't think so,' said the Doctor, only now it was he who smiled.
'Really, Doctor?' said Mrs Carstairs. 'You seem very sure of yourself.'
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The Doctor craned his head back and breathed in deeply through his nose.
'Ah,' he said, still smiling. 'Nothing like the sweet smell of fresh air, is there?'
'What do you mean?' asked Mrs Carstairs.
'Smell it,' said the Doctor. 'Nitrogen, oxygen, a pinch of argon, a soupçon of carbon dioxide and a squeeze of H2O. But no ammonia. Mmm... Lovely, isn't it?'
Mrs Carstairs tightened her grip on Vienna's throat.
'No,' she snarled. 'You can't have. The system was locked.'
'Oh yes,' said the Doctor. 'It was. And to be honest, if I'd been here on my own I wouldn't have stood a chance. Thankfully that daughter of yours has a brain the size of Jupiter.'
He looked at Vienna, and winked, before returning his gaze to Mrs Carstairs. His smile now faded.
'Only she's not your daughter,' he continued. 'She's Mrs Carstairs' daughter. It's over.'
Mrs Carstairs let go of the young girl and threw her forward, staggering back towards the rest of the group.
Her movements were clumsy and awkward, her hands bunching up like talons.
The others were now doubled over, each of them gasping for air as if there were none to breathe, clutching at their throats and their chests.
'What's happening?' said Mr Carstairs, looking up at the Doctor. 'What have you done to them?'
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Vienna and Jake ran to their father's side.
'It's OK, Dad,' said Vienna. Trust me. It's OK.'
One by one, Mrs Carstairs, Mr Pemberton and the others fell to the ground, rolling around in the dark slime, twitching and shuddering until all at once they were silent and still.
'You've killed them!' said Mr Carstairs, falling at his wife's side, stricken with grief. 'You've killed my wife...'
The Doctor waited. Though he would never say as much, a small part of him was worried that Mr Carstairs might be right. What if the Rutan spores were so enmeshed with the humans' DNA that the sudden starvation of ammonia could kill them? What if he had made a mistake? What if, right now, there were humans collapsing and dying all around the colony?
His two hearts began to beat a little faster, and he closed his eyes, fearing the very worst.
'Brian?'
The Doctor opened his eyes once more to see Mrs Carstairs, sitting upright, cradled in her husband's arms.
'What happened?' asked Mrs Carstairs, bewildered.
'Where are we?'
All around them the other residents were now waking, many of them looking at the vile sediment covering their clothes with disgust.
Mr Carstairs helped his wife to her feet and then 211
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threw his arms around her, kissing her and stroking her hair and holding her as tightly as he could. Jake and Vienna embraced their parents, so that the four of them now stood together, laughing and crying.
Their moment of joy and relief was interrupted, very suddenly, by the sound of marching feet.
The Doctor turned and saw General Kade emerging from the darkness of one of the corridors, flanked by two of his soldiers. The General marched out into the gardens, a glass dome containing a single bright blue flower under one arm, and approached the Doctor.
'Ah,' said Kade. The Doctor. I suppose you are happy that you have jeopardised our mission and handed victory to the Rutans? Was that all a part of your plan?'
'Actually,' said the Doctor, 'far from it. You see—'
'Silence!' said Kade. 'Once again you assume that you have bested us, Doctor, but I can assure you that is not the case. Sontarans... Prepare weapons.'
The two Sontaran soldiers lifted their rifles and aimed them squarely at the Doctor.
'No,' said the Doctor. 'No no no... Wait... You see...'
The General took a deep breath, ready to give the order to fire but, before he could speak, Mr Carstairs had stepped forward, between the Sontarans and the Doctor.
Unnoticed by either, Mr Carstairs took a deep breath. He hadn't thought this through properly; it was a
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decision forged in a moment of sheer panic, an idea that had come to him so suddenly he hadn't given himself proper time to consider just how ridiculous it might be.
Remaining perfectly silent, his eyes open but glazed over, his face without expression, he lifted up his open hand, just as Mr Pemberton, his wife and the others had done in Miramont Gardens.
'General Kade,' said one of the Sontarans with a gasp. 'He's one of them, sir...'
'A Rutan...?' said Kade, staring at Mr Carstairs aghast.
He turned to his guards and ordered them to lower their weapons with a single gesture of his hand. The Sontarans followed the command.
General Kade turned back to the Doctor.
'Very well. If you wish to pick a side in this war, Doctor, so be it. It will not change your predicament.'
Still dazed by what Mr Carstairs had done, the Doctor gathered his thoughts and walked towards General Kade.
'Oh yeah?' he asked. 'And what predicament would that be, then?'
Kade laughed callously.
'A subtle manoeuvring o
f the flotation panels and an adjustment to the coordinates, Doctor. You have heard, perhaps, of that which the humans call the Great White Spot?'
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His brow furrowing with growing concern, the Doctor nodded.
'A storm larger than the Earth itself,' said Kade, still smiling. 'A storm into which this colony, and all of its inhabitants, will soon be drawn and dashed into atoms. So, you see, this victory is ours, Doctor. You cannot hope to save all of the humans in that machine of yours. You must leave them all to die or stay and join them in their fate. I bid you farewell, Doctor. It has been an honour.'
The General reached up to the collar of his armoured suit and pressed a small button.
Within a split second, the three Sontarans were engulfed in a flare of bright red light, and in the blinking of an eye they were gone.
The Doctor turned to Mr Carstairs.
'Way to go, Mr C!' he shouted, holding up his hand for a 'high five' which never came.
The recovering residents were still brushing the noxious mulch from their clothes.
'What was all that about?' asked Mr Pemberton.
'I'm not sure,' said Mr Carstairs, smiling bashfully. 'I don't know what came over me, really.'
'Well it did the trick!' said the Doctor. 'Only problem now is, we're about to crash into one of the biggest storms in the solar system. We need to get to the Docks. Come on! Allons-y!'
As the Doctor led the Carstairs family and the others 214
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out of the botanical gardens, Mrs Carstairs turned to her husband.
'I'm sorry, dear,' she said, 'but do you have the faintest idea what's going on?'
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NINETEEN
From the moment the sirens started there was chaos. It was a siren the residents knew well from the colony's monthly drills. Only this was not a drill.
They were evacuating Chelsea 426.
Led by the Doctor, Jake, Vienna and their parents ran from the Oxygen Gardens to the Western Docks.
Every thoroughfare and corridor was clogged with residents fleeing in every direction, some of them dragging hastily packed suitcases or clutching framed photographs under their arms. When they got to the loading bays at the Western Docks, they found the placed swamped with panicking crowds of residents and Newcomers alike.
'Humans,' the Doctor muttered under his breath.
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'Inventors of the queue, but they hear a siren and all hell breaks loose.'
As he made his way through the teaming masses with the children and their parents close in tow, the Doctor came eventually to Mayor Sedgefield, who was talking to Captain Thomas.
'Please, man... You must have room on that ship of yours,' the Mayor begged.
'I'm telling you, Mr Mayor, we have neither the supplies to feed extra passengers nor the oxygen for them to breathe. You must have life rafts?'
'Not enough,' the Mayor cried, his face a mask of frustration. The women and children? Surely you could begin taking them on board...'
The Captain shook his head forcefully.
'I'm sorry, but there simply isn't enough time to start processing your residents as well as our passengers.'
In one last desperate gesture the Mayor reached forward, grabbing Thomas by his lapels.
'Do you want us all to die? Please... I am begging you—'
'Er, hi...' said the Doctor, interrupting the Mayor mid-sentence. 'Remember me? Name's the Doctor. We met in your office. What's happening?'
The colony...' said Mayor Sedgefield, his eyes red with the promise of tears. 'We're off course... The Great White Spot... There's not enough room on the ships and we don't have enough life rafts...'
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'Not enough rafts?' asked the Doctor. It was a pointless question, he knew that much; but even so it took a second or two for the enormity of what the Mayor had said to hit him.
'Not enough rafts...' he said again, only this time it wasn't a question. It was a cold, hard fact.
Breaking away from the Mayor and Captain Thomas, the Doctor began pacing in what little space he could find among the masses of people swarming towards the exit gates.
Jake and Vienna ran to his side.
'What is it?' asked Jake. 'What's happening?'
'I need to think!' said the Doctor, hitting himself on the head with both hands. Think! Thousands of people, not enough ships... Not enough room on the ships. Not enough time to get everyone on the TARDIS. Wait... The TARDIS... I could use the TARDIS to... No... That's no use...'
'Use the TARDIS to what?' asked Vienna.
'Well,' said the Doctor, and then in one breathless sentence: 'I can't use the TARDIS to tow the colony away from the storm it's anchored to Saturn if I tried pulling it away it would break up - oh COME ON!' He struck his head once more. 'Great big colony... Not enough ships... There's got to be something...'
'Er, Doctor.' It was Jake, standing at his side and tugging at his sleeve.
'Not now, Jake, I'm thinking...'
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'But I think I've got an idea.'
The Doctor looked down at him.
'What's that?' he asked.
'I said I think I've got an idea.'
'Really? What?'
The ships,’ said Jake. There aren't any rockets on the colony. We move about using the flotation panels and the fusion candle, but the ships have got rockets.'
'Wait a minute,' said the Doctor. 'Are you thinking...?'
'Yeah,' said Jake, hesitantly. 'We could use the ships as our rockets. The ones facing north could fire their rockets to steer right, and then the ones facing south could fire their rockets to steer left.'
The Doctor thought about this for a second and then laughed.
'Yes! Jake... you're a genius!'
He grabbed Jake by the head and shook him vigorously, dazing the young boy, before running across the loading bay to where Captain Thomas was now guiding passengers onto his ship.
'Captain!' he shouted, over the din of the crowds and the sirens. 'Wait! I've got an idea. No... hang on... I don't have an idea, but that boy over there... That genius over there does have an idea.'
The Captain turned to the Doctor.
'What's that?'
'I SAID THAT GENIUS OVER THERE HAS AN IDEA.
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We need you and the Captains of the other ships to use your rockets to steer the colony.' 'I'm sorry... What did you say?'
'I SAID WE NEED YOU AND THE CAPTAINS OF THE OTHER
SHIPS TO USE YOUR ROCKETS TO STEER THE COLONY;
'Steer the colony? Are you insane?'
The colony doesn't have rockets,' said the Doctor, squeezing through the thronging crowd until he was within earshot of Captain Thomas. 'But you do. If you keep your ships moored but fire your rockets, we can steer the colony back onto its course, and away from the storm.'
The Captain frowned and bit his knuckle in concentration.
'Come on, Captain,' said the Doctor, impatiently.
'Can you cogitate a little quicker? Clock ticking and all the rest of it.'
'Yes,' said the Captain, at last. 'You know that might just work. A little like they do with the mining platforms on Neptune. Yes... That's a damned fine idea, Doctor.'
'Like I said,' said the Doctor, beaming, 'not my idea.
His...'
He pointed at Jake.
'Now come on, Captain, we've got, ooh, about twenty minutes to save a few thousand people. Chop, chop!'
The Captain nodded and ran to his ship, barking orders at the crew, much to their confusion.
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The Doctor turned to Mayor Sedgefield.
'Mr Mayor... Did you catch any of that?'
'I... er... Yes. I think so. Spaceships as rockets?'
Then tell the other c
aptains.'
'Of course...'
'Now.'
As the Mayor left them and called out to the captains of the other ships, the Doctor turned to Jake and Vienna.
'Right!' he said, 'We need to get to the control tower!'
Jake nodded.
'I think it's this way,' he said, pointing to an enormous and impossible-to-miss sign at the other end of the loading bay that read 'CONTROL TOWER'.
'Oh yeah,' said the Doctor. 'Brilliant!'
As the Doctor ran, the children joined him with their parents, still dazed and confused, following closely behind. They passed through sliding doors and climbed a narrow metal staircase that rose high above the loading bay until they came to the large, disc-shaped control room.
From its wide, semicircular windows they could look down upon the many ships that were moored at the Western Docks, including the Pride of Deimos, and out over the vast, pale vistas of Saturn. There, drawing ever closer, a colossal blemish on the cloudscape, was the swirling grey vortex of the Great White Spot.
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'OK,' said the Doctor. 'Have you guys ever seen a boat race?'
All four members of the Carstairs family met his question with puzzled frowns.
'Right... Of course not. Never mind. OK... In a boat race there are usually four people rowing like mad and one person with a megaphone telling them to row harder.
Basically,
we're the person with the
megaphone!'
He turned to the control desk, pressed a number of switches and buttons, and lifted up a microphone.
Testing... testing...' he said. 'One-two. One-two. Ha!
You wait your whole life to say that and then you get to do it twice on the same day. Marvellous. OK... Are you all receiving me?'
From the desk there came a number of voices, speaking in many different accents, each of them responding that they could hear him loud and clear.
'OK,' said the Doctor. 'Pride of Deimos... You're furthest south and pointing north. We need you to fire on the count of three, but take it easy. Got that?'
'Aye aye, Doctor,' said the Captain of the Pride of Deimos.
'One... two... three!'