Doctor Who_ Human Nature Part 30

The woman smiled. 'I'm flattered, John, that you regard me as an old flame. That was your interpretation of what I was doing in your memories. But I think you're on rather dangerous ground. I'm one of the Doctor's dreams, an icon, a female custodian of something that's deep inside him. I was the only piece of himself that he left behind in his head. I'm important to him. He hardly listens to me, mind you.

And he never returns my telephone calls.'

'Do you want to tell me what you told John in the glade this morning?' the Doctor asked. 'What you were trying to whisper in his ear for so long?'

'You still don't know? I don't see why I should tell you now. You employed me, after all, to defend and take care of your deepest memories, and then you failed to take heed of any of my warnings.'

'I didn't, you mean,' Smith interjected.

'There are things down there in my unconscious that even I don't know about, memories from before I was born,' the Doctor explained. 'I couldn't get rid of all of them and Smith was certain to start accessing some of it. I just thought that there ought to be somebody in there who knew who I was.'

'Couldn't she have appeared earlier and saved me all that bother?' Smith asked.

Verity patted him on the shoulder. 'I wasn't allowed to. That was the frustrating thing. I couldn't intrude into your consciousness. I could only appear when you'd got it sorted out for yourself.'

'So what did you say to him?' the Doctor asked.

'That he believes in good and fights evil. That, with violence all around him, he's a man of peace. That he's never cruel, or cowardly. That he is a hero.'

Smith closed his eyes for a moment. 'It felt good to hear it confirmed. Of course, that's not a definition of me. That's you, Doctor.'

The Doctor reached out and touched him on the shoulder. 'As I believe you said, being me is a state of mind. Six other people apart from you and I have had a go.

You were rather good at it.'

Smith looked at him again and managed a smile. 'Perhaps I taught a few more would-be Doctors how to do it.'

'Perhaps. But I wonder how many will remember when they grow up?'

Verity waved a hand between them. 'Sorry to interrupt. Look who's here.'

Death looked at them all, sniffily. 'You deal with me again, raven Time Lord, possibly for the last time.' She put a hand on Smith's shoulder. 'This one belongs to me, now. I told you long ago, Doctor, that I would take a life from you in return for that of your companion. Our business is now concluded.'

Smith shivered at her touch. 'What's going to happen to me?' he asked.

'Another owl for Lord Ra.s.silon?' the Doctor asked.

'That is not for you to ask,' Death replied.

Verity kissed Smith's forehead. 'It'll be fine. b.l.o.o.d.y Eternals think they own the universe. They don't know everything.'

Death began to fade, and Smith with her, the man looking around himself in wonder.

'Give my love to Time and Pain,' said the Doctor.

'If it wasn't for Time, I would never entertain you.' Death glared at him. 'But you cannot let family down.'

She clicked her fingers.

The Doctor opened his eyes.

Joan was standing in front of him, staring at the ring on her finger. 'When - whatever that was - happened, the ring saved me. I could feel it, protecting me, holding me here like a sort of anchor.'

'Good.' The Doctor went to the bank of controls, and pulled a long electrical cord from it. He peered at the globe where the two timeframes spun around each other, then hopped over to where the Pod lay, still in August's dead fingers.

'That poor man,' Joan whispered. 'He must have turned against his fellows at the last moment. He gave his life for his conscience.'

The Doctor bit his lip, pulling the Pod from the cold hand. 'Yes...' He connected the Pod to one end of the cable, and the timeframes to the other, then hit a few switches. The timeframes faded and he spun the Pod in triumph. 'Good, that's Hoff in the Pod as well. Now...' He pulled the cloth from the vortex disc, and reset the controls, so the b.u.t.terfly tunnel spun off in another direction. 'The Monks of Felsecar guard some of the most dangerous artefacts in the universe. I'm sure they'll appreciate another item for their collection. Who knows, maybe one day they'll let those two out.'

'Why, John, what do you mean?'

The Doctor winced again, secretly. 'Nothing. I'm still confused.' He tossed the Pod into the vortex, and watched it spin away into the distance. Then he switched off the cabinet. 'Shall we go?'

'Where?'

'About three hundred yards away. Out of range of the self-destruct mechanism.'

'Oh,' said Joan.

From the diary of Prof Bernice Summerfield In the clearing in the forest, I watched as the woman walked up to John Smith and whispered something in his ear.

She vanished soon afterwards and Smith turned and walked away into the darkness.

I think. When I came to write this all up... Listen, if you're a historian, you know you can't trust a diary, right?

Well, it felt like the woman was just a character I'd made up. Perhaps I'll just start this whole account with the words: 'Long ago and far away.' I got back to the campfire and walked round and round it, hugging myself.

Hutchinson was still in mid-rant when the time barriers. .h.i.t us.

We got to our feet after they'd pa.s.sed, feeling as if a ghost had gone by, or that we'd just missed a fast aircraft at an air display.

Tim blinked. 'I feel like - like I've just woken from a dream,' he said. 'Goodness, Anand, what a strange few days this has been.'

Hutchinson stopped talking, tried to pick up his place and started to flounder. I have a feeling, if my own experience was anything to go by, that he has a smell of mud and iron in his nostrils.

Hadleman and Alexander clutched each other. Alexander looked at the other man and I saw a strange, hopeful, smile on his face. 'I don't know why,' he said, 'but I suddenly feel quite hopeful.'

While I was doing all this observing, and the sun was coming up too - by the way, I'm really quite thorough about background - I realized that I'd started to cry. Or laugh. Or something.

What a strange life this is.

At any rate, by the time the Doctor got there, I was smiling.

Diary Entry Ends

Chapter Fourteen.

Cat Heaven

The Doctor stepped into the circle of boys. 'h.e.l.lo. I'm the Doctor.'

'Are you?' Bernice leapt to her feet and grabbed him, looking joyfully into his eyes.

'So- '

'I used the Pod before I got to the dome. August didn't know that. He was prepared to fight off Time Lord biodata, not human nature. Smith took over his body.

August and Hoff are now in the Pod themselves, off to safekeeping.'

'And what about Joan?'

The Doctor's face clouded. 'Smith died saving her. I think he was fond of her. I sent her back to her house.'

Tim ran forward and beamed up at the Doctor. 'So you beat them?'

'Yes. And I didn't kill them. So I won. Talking of which...' He wandered around the tree and smiled gawkily up at the naked Greeneye. 'What are we going to do with you?'

'I don't care. You can torture me -'

'No. I think I'll have you locked up. I did that once to an immensely powerful other-dimensional sorceress. She got out immediately, but the experience left her feeling sheepish.'

'But we can't have him getting away,' Hutchinson objected. 'He ought to be b.l.o.o.d.y well hung!'

Bernice raised an eyebrow and Alexander burst out laughing.

Alton wandered up. 'I appreciate how you feel, but don't you think that this man's powers go beyond the army's ability to hold him? We could just shoot him and bury him here.'

'Don't be barbarous. Oh, he might get away' - the Doctor tapped his umbrella handle against his chin - 'but what will he do? He's got no weapons, no technology, and a life span of, what, ten more years at the most? That's the thing about such powerful biosystems. They burn themselves out.' His face darkened. 'I think killing him would be far too merciful.'

'You dog!' Greeneye spat. 'You took away our last chance!'

'Did I? I only just got here.'

Hadleman tapped the Doctor's shoulder. 'Erm, Doctor?'

The Doctor turned, suddenly beamed and pumped Hadleman's hand with two of his. 'Richard Hadleman! Pleased to meet you!'

'We've, ah, already met.'

'Yes.' The Doctor's face fell. 'But you shouldn't know about that. Oh, you mean Smith. He wasn't me. Much. If at all. What?'

Hadleman laughed, bombarded by the Doctor's swift collection of thoughts and postures. 'I just wanted to tell you, there's an army convoy outside the village. We could give him to them.'

'Yes, now the barrier's down, that's very apt. Very neat.'

Hutchinson had been watching the conversation, his hands on his hips. 'I'm just wondering, Smith, or Doctor, or whatever you're calling yourself, how you're going to answer to that same convoy for what you did to the school.'

'Me? I'm going to answer in the same way I answer every message that I don't want to hear. I'm not going to be at home.' He flipped up a finger and pressed a spot above the boy's nose. 'Now fall over.'

Hutchinson did, out cold. Anand and Merryweather looked down at the body, then shook hands.

Smith glanced around the group. 'Well, I'll leave it to you two' - he indicated Alexander and Hadleman - 'to hand our villain over to the authorities; tell them he mustn't eat meat, by the way. And you boys can take yourselves down to the bakery in town.' He threw a bagful of coins on to the ground. 'That's a train fare home, a bun and probably a hug each... Then we can go home.'

Bernice peered at him, but decided not to mention it at the moment. She went to Alexander and Hadleman. 'I hope you'll be very happy,' she told them. 'If Alex's womanising doesn't get in the way.'

'Your what?' Hadleman frowned.

'My protestations...' the bearded man muttered. 'They may have been a little too successful.'

'And have you considered an American holiday?' asked Bernice. 'Very soon?'

Alexander kissed her cheek. 'We won't run away, loved one. Give my regards to the future.'

Hadleman shook her by the hand. 'Am I going to understand any of this?' he asked.

'Quite possibly.'

Merryweather approached Bernice cautiously. 'Will we meet again?' he asked hopefully.

Bernice framed an uneasy smile. 'Time will tell.'

The Doctor was shaking Tim's hand earnestly. 'Thank you for keeping things safe for me.'

'Thank you for being brave. I've decided that I'm going to be brave too.'

'So what are you going to be when you grow up?'

Tim glanced down at Hutchinson's body. 'Not a soldier.'

They finished their goodbyes, and Benny handed the Doctor the TARDIS key. She wasn't sure just what his intentions were, but, when he began twirling it around his finger and whistling as they walked away, she thought she had a pretty good idea.

When they'd walked far enough from the clearing not to be heard, she disengaged herself from the Doctor's arm. 'Right,' she said.

'What?' The Doctor stopped. 'Is there one thing you don't understand?'

'I'll say. You said that you "sent Mrs Redfern home". Are you leaving it at that?'

The Doctor frowned. 'I thought we'd slip away. It's usually best.'

'Usually, but not when you've promised to go and see somebody and explain everything to her.'