Doctor Who_ Head Games Part 27

'Sorry. But there's no choice. You have to grow up now.'

, 'I know,' said Jason, blinking back tears. When he looked up again, Dr Who had gone.

' Concentrate. Ten little words! Concentrate. Ten little words! ' He rubbed his eyes and those words swam into his vision, as though he had never forgotten them. ' He rubbed his eyes and those words swam into his vision, as though he had never forgotten them.

Ten words, in red biro on a sc.r.a.p of white paper. Ten words with which to rescue a world.

' Jason woke up and it had all been a dream. Jason woke up and it had all been a dream. ' '

The Doctor stood, long-faced, and watched the time rotor go through its undulations. 'I like the new one,' Ace was saying.

209.

'Forrester. She told me what you've been putting her through. I gather I missed the mutant ninja turtles again.' He didn't respond, so she raised her voice. 'You're quiet, considering you just saved all our lives.'

'Jason simply needed to hear some common sense.'

'What about that business at the end?'

The Doctor shrugged. Sometimes, he delighted in making explanations. Right now, though, Ace could see that it was a ch.o.r.e. 'I made him concentrate on reversing what he'd done.

Only by seconds - Bambera and her troops will have stormed the Throne Room to find n.o.body there.'

'He must be powerful to manage that.'

'Yes.' The Doctor turned away. 'There's work to do.'

'There always is.' Ace smiled. 'I've a few things on the agenda myself. I might check out the rest of my list, keep my hand in. Six more weird happenings. Any you could recommend?' She thrust the print-out beneath his nose. He scanned it and handed it back.

'You might find number eight quite interesting.'

'I was wondering about the last one. Got any ideas why Canary Wharf Tower changed shape on the first day of 2000?'

'You should steer clear. And don't discuss it in front of Mel.'

Time to lay it on him. 'And who shouldn't I tell about Kadiatu?'

He flinched. 'That's not fair.'

'No? This dimensional rift you're worried about - it's her fault, isn't it? She caused it when her time machine burnt out of control. When she punched a corridor through s.p.a.ce-time, she sc.r.a.ped the sides. But you're keeping her name out of it because you don't want any awkward questions about her.' She studied the Doctor's face, finding perverse pleasure in the knowledge that she had hit a nerve. 'You've seen her, haven't you? Since she vanished into the vortex and we thought she might be dead?

But you haven't told Benny.'

'I have a decision to make, alone.'

'Fair enough. Just don't abandon her.' She almost added: Like you did Mel. She decided to spare him that for now.

210.

Bernice and Melanie arrived in the console room together, and Benny brightened as she set eyes on Ace.

'Hi, you. It's been a while.'

'Not quite that long,' the Doctor chipped in. 'Ace left our future selves a few days ago, in December 2001.'

'In trouble again, I expect?'

Her cheerfulness turned to surprise as Ace charged across the room and enveloped her in a hug. She sounded tearful. 'Benny, of course. I forgot . . . you're alive in this time period!'

The older woman's mouth worked but no words would emerge. She gaped at Ace, who pulled back self-consciously - then, catching her expression, began to rock with laughter.

'Gotcha!

'You utter b.i.t.c.h!'

They laughed together, but Benny saw that Mel didn't join in.

She stood, resentfully avoiding the Doctor's look. He had noticed too.

'I need two people,' he said gruffly, 'to enter the crystal and help seal the rift.'

'Fun's over,' Benny said, attempting to sound jovial.

'I can't let you go. Or Chris. It would mean taking a second mindblocking pill and the results of that could be most unpleasant.'

Ace c.o.c.ked an eyebrow. 'Do I detect a hint that my a.s.sistance is requested?'

'You, me and Roz.'

'I'm sorry. I can't.' Benny turned to see that the two former Adjudicators had arrived. Chris hung back and allowed Roz to do the talking. 'I've promised Chris that we'll go to Detrios.

There's somebody he wants to see there before . . .' She faltered.

'Before you murder everyone,' Mel leapt in spitefully.

The Doctor was clearly upset. 'You can't go back. Apart from all the other reasons, there simply isn't time.'

'Drop us off before you land on the Miracle,' said Roz. 'Pick us up when it's over. You can get back before the oxygen goes.'

'I need you in the crystal.'

211.

'And I've told you, I can't go. I made a promise.'

Chris shuffled forward. 'I only want to save one life,' he said.

'She's special.' Benny almost cried for him. She couldn't imagine that even the Doctor could be unmoved by the appeal in those blue eyes.

Mel interrupted at the wrong moment. 'And don't think of asking me to do your dirty work for you, because I shall refuse too.'

'I hadn't considered it,' the Doctor said pointedly.

'In fact, I don't want anything to do with this evil errand of yours. I don't want to be here. I insist that you take me back to Earth this minute!'

The Doctor looked at them all then, his companions through this regeneration. And Benny saw in a moment of poignancy that he too had been hurt by all this.

What did he think of them all? Mel, the symbol of what he had once been, unable to accept what he must be now. Ace, foisted on him by Fenric but moulded until she became his own personal army. How did that make him feel when lie looked at her? Then there was herself, his first real choice; she thought of them as friends, but she had so often chosen to overlook rather than to understand. How far did he trust her? And Chris and Roz, the latest soldiers in his war. Finding out the hard way just how dirty that war could be. He had tried to stop them finding out the truth. Was he worried about what they might think? Did he want their friendship or did he merely need their loyalty?

Did he rely on humans through choice or by necessity?

Benny started as the Doctor jerked into motion and petulantly flung his umbrella to the floor. She had scarcely seen such fury in him before. 'Leave me then. Go your own ways, like all those before you. I'm only trying to save your universe!'

The potency of the Doctor's outburst froze and silenced them.

The six travellers stood, divided, and no one knew how to cut through the awkwardness of that terrible moment.

Then a polite cough came from the doorway. Benny looked.

She had all but forgotten Jason, but he was there now, head bowed, hands fumbling. 'I'll do it. I want to make up for all the 212 trouble I've caused.'

The deadlock lasted a moment longer, more easily now. Then Mel pushed past the young man and strode into the ship's bowels. The Doctor accepted Jason's offer with a nod and turned back to the console. But it wasn't yet over.

'Doctor,' Roz cautioned, leaning over him, her tone allowing no room for argument. The Doctor turned and Benny expected further remonstrations. But their gazes locked and their postures softened. As, perhaps, each began to see the other's point.

'We have to do this,' Roz said firmly. 'It's for Chris. Because he's our friend.'

And the Doctor, finally, seemed to understand.

He set the coordinates for the planet Detrios.

213.

23.

Crystal Tears

Kat'lanna came to a breathless stop and wrung her hands wretchedly. 'We've missed them!'

'What is all this about?' asked Thruskarr in irritation. He had kept pace easily during Kat's mad dash through the tunnels, but he had been unable to get a word from her.

'Didn't you hear what Kersh'r said? Rokk's disappeared, along with two others.'

'So you think they've come down here. I follow that. But why pelt after them?' The lizard man c.o.c.ked his head and regarded her through narrowed yellow eyes. 'You're not beginning to believe the so-called "Undying One" yourself, are you?'

'Don't be ridiculous!'

'So why not let Rokk do what we both think he's attempting?'

'Because of something a . . . friend of mine told me.' Kat squinted into the darkness. 'Rokk was right about one thing,'

she commented. 'This is the most open the cultists' quarter has been. We're near enough that, any other time, we'd have been picked up already.'

'And killed,' said Thruskarr pointedly. 'I am so glad you noticed. I was about to remark myself.'

Kat shifted nervously from one foot to another. 'You know, I've really been trying to talk myself out of this.'

'Of what?' asked Thruskarr warily.

'Of stopping Rokk from killing Enros.' She gripped her companion's arm to stifle a despairing groan. 'Believe me, Thruskarr, I'm convinced it is the only way to save this planet!'

214.

Ryallen, recent convert to, but devoted follower of, the undying One, stopped two fellow cultists as they shambled into the church area. The foremost of them was struggling to carry a third robed man in his arms.

'What are you doing here? Why aren't you fighting for Our Lord?'

'Our brother is injured. I am returning him for medical treatment.'

'You heard Enros's orders,' said Ryallen sternly. 'You should have left the fallen to his reward in the afterlife. Only winning this crusade is important.' He turned suspiciously to the third man. 'And why are you here too?'

'Praying for his recovery?'

Ryallen reached forward and s.n.a.t.c.hed back the leader's hood.

'Wait a nanoseg - you're Myrg! The traitor!'

'You can talk!' said Rokk, who was cradled in Myrg's arms.

He thrust a knife upward between Ryallen's ribs.

Four servants of Enros burst into the Security Chief's office.

They checked themselves at the sight of the man who was reviled and feared by Detrians only slightly less than the Superior herself. He was kneeling, his black pate turned towards them and his hands clasped in an unaccustomed gesture of humility.

'Praise be to the Undying One,' he intoned.

One of the cultists stepped towards him, her knife extended but shaking slightly in an uncertain grasp. 'It is too late for conversions. You should have joined us earlier.'

The Security Chief kept his eyes meekly downcast. 'I wished to do that, I swear it. But I felt I was more use to Our Lord here.