Doctor Who: Nightshade Part 3

Vijay swung round his torch in an arc and the perimeter There it was again. A definite shape this time, bunched up fence loomed into view, gobs of rain splashing off its and k.n.o.bbly. There was a strange smell too, like bad meat.

barbed-wire top.

Vijay turned up his nose and, without a second thought, ran 30 31.back to the station. The darkness seemed to chase him all 'Well, boys and girls,' she said. 'It looks as though our the way like the collapsing walls of a tunnel.

waiting has paid off.'

He pulled open the doors and stumbled gratefully inside.

With theatrical timing, the chattering of the computers The klaxon was still blaring away.

and the scratching of the ink tracers stopped. There was a 'Can't we shut that thing up?' It was Dr Cooper's voice.

slow, mournful whine as the machinery eased up. The harsh Vijay was grateful she'd arrived, however bad-tempered, lights in the long room flickered briefly and then flared into because she could always keep the loathsome Hawthorne at full life again.

bay. He strode into the control room.

It was over.

'Well?' said Hawthorne gruffly.

Cooper laughed. 'Plenty to get on with, anyway!'

'The fence has been breached. Great big hole torn in it.'

Vijay slid gratefully into a chair whilst Holly went to the Cooper looked up from the still-chattering computers.

phone. Cooper and Hawthorne were deep in conversation 'See someone?'

like schoolkids cramming for an exam. There would be time 'I saw something,' said Vijay pointedly.

enough, Vijay decided, to get excited about all this. Time Cooper furrowed her brow and dug her hands into her enough. In the morning. He felt his heavy lids closing.

pockets. She was a big, middle-aged woman with cropped, The moor was still solidly shrouded in darkness. Only the steely-grey hair and fearsome blue eyes. There was brilliantly illuminated dish of the telescope, spreading its something very likeable about her no-nonsense manner to chilly glow in a wide circle, was discernible.

which Vijay warmed, although he often felt the rough edge of her tongue.

A good mile away from the station, on the old road which 'Any sign of Shaun?' asked Holly. Vijay shook his head.

led to St Hilda's monastery, Billy Coote was beginning his 'Well, we might as well turn off the alarm, until we've day. He always got up early, even in this weather, folding found out what's going on. Shall I call the police?'

away the stinking blankets and newspapers which had kept Holly turned off the klaxon and a blessed, peaceful silence him warmish through the long night. He missed the old descended like a blanket of rose petals on to the room.

papers with their heavy broadsheets. The new ones might Cooper nodded absently.

be easier for people to read but they weren't nearly as good 'Er... yes, yes, you do that, Holly. We're all up and about cover. It was a shame more famous people didn't get shot, now, anyway. Vijay, come over here and log these readings, he thought maliciously. The supplement under which he'd would you? Incredible. I can't make head nor tail of it.'

slept after Bobby Kennedy kicked the bucket was so thick Vijay slipped off his parka and picked up a sheaf of paper.

he'd hung on to it for weeks.

Dr Cooper turned and beamed at her team like a successful The soaked, peeling green planks of the old bus shelter football coach.

hadn't been so uncomfortable after all, despite the draughts and the none-too-pleasant smell emanating from the corner.

32.33.But as Billy himself had largely contributed to that, he Morning came slowly to Crook Marsham, the monastery, wasn't about to complain.

the tracking station and, although no one knew it at the time, He rummaged through his straggly grey beard and ran a to the TARDIS, whose old blue paintwork glistened in the hand through the remaining hairs on his sunburnt head.

fine drizzle of new rain.

This was what he liked to call his 'ablutions'.

It was going to be freezing cold again, he could tell, with more rain or maybe even snow on the way. He sniffed the crisp air disdainfully.

In the summertime, he would watch the sun clawing its way over the horizon. He loved the way it came up behind the monastery. Made him feel all spiritual.

Perhaps it was just his wax-clogged ears playing tricks with him but, just at that moment, Billy Coote swore he heard a strangulated, grating whine like rusty chains being dragged across gravel. It seemed to be coming from quite close to the shelter. After a few seconds, the noise died away with a crump like the explosion of a Great War sh.e.l.l, and Billy looked about in confusion. He crept around the side of the bus shelter and peered into the darkness. There was something tall and solid, with a light flashing on top, standing there.

Billy walked out of the shelter and up to the structure which was barely visible in the murky darkness. As he drew closer, however, he recognised the thing as a police telephone box. This came as a great surprise because he was sure it hadn't been there the night before.

Intrigued, he looked the tall blue box up and down, gazed in at the frosted-gla.s.s windows and, after rubbing his grubby hand against the sleeve of his jacket, pressed his palm against one of the doors. He jerked back in shock. It was warm. And it was humming...

34.35.back together again. These days he seemed happier playing scratchy old records on his gramophone than talking to her.

Ace had a thought. She'd never seen inside the Doctor's room. He seemed guarded and defensive whenever the Chapter Two subject was raised. Would it be full of mementos? Home?

Childhood? Family? Or did the Doctor have too many memories to keep track of? After all, he did claim to be over nine hundred years old. You'd tend to ama.s.s quite a bit of junk after all that time.

Not for the first time, she speculated on how the Doctor coped with his frenetic, nomadic existence. On one of the rare occasions when she and her mum hadn't been at each The Doctor, Ace decided, was in need of a change. Not of other's throats, they'd talked about what it must be like to clothes, nor of face (she was beginning to understand live forever.

something of his regenerative powers) but of environment.

'Couldn't bear it, Dory,' her mum had said. 'All those Of late, he had grown irritable and sulky, fond of pacing the friends, all those people you'd love. You'd have to watch console room and the corridors of the TARDIS with hands them all get old and die. And you'd just go on and on. Start thrust deep in pockets, mumbling and sighing. From time to all over again.'

time his bushy eyebrows would twitch and his heavily lined Ace shuddered at the thought. She switched off her tape forehead would crease into a thoughtful frown as if deck and gazed absently about the room. She was a striking inspiration had seized him.

young woman with clear, soft skin and a heart-shaped, Ace had begun to retreat to her own little room, playing 'I almost Edwardian face. Her thick brown hair flowed down wanna be adored' very loudly in the hope of stirring her the back of her T-shirt.

strange companion into some sort of activity, however There were footsteps in the corridor outside. Ace jumped hostile. In all their adventures together she'd never known off the bed and threw open the door. 'Doctor?'

him so moody and sullen.

Ace glimpsed movement out of the corner of her eye and set off after it.

Having nothing to do, Ace's mind turned to the drab, She came upon the Doctor in a little room off one of the roundel-indented walls of her own room. She'd never been main arterial corridors. He was lounging on a high, padded one for feathering nests, even back on Earth, and the hectic chair, staring into s.p.a.ce. Cold, pale grey light from some pace of her life with the Doctor precluded any thoughts of hidden source reflected off his elfin face.

making a real home in the TARDIS. But they hadn't been 'Doctor?' said Ace in a quiet voice.

anywhere exciting since the Doctor had pulled his old ship 36 37.He was wearing a long, muslin nightshirt and a shot-silk seemingly unending stock of bundled papers, scrolls and blue dressing gown, but his legs and feet were bare.

ancient, leather-bound tomes, all tied up with waxed string, 'Running a bath, Professor?' said Ace cheerily.

piled against doors or sprawling like paper waterfalls down The Doctor ran a hand through his tousled hair but gave the library's spiral staircases.

no indication of having noticed Ace's presence in the room.

'Books,' said the Doctor casually.

She began to feel awkward and looked around the grey Reaching a junction point where four roundeled corridors room which was full of dust and yellowing papers. The branched off, the Doctor paused to get his bearings.

Doctor sat amidst it all like some somnolent Buddha.

'We've been this way before,' sighed Ace.

'Well, if you're going to ignore me ...' she began.

'What?' The Doctor's tone was irritable.

The Doctor looked up at her and fixed her with a 'We've been this way already. I'm sure of it. We're lost.'

penetrating stare.

The Doctor bristled. 'Lost? Me! I know this ship like the 'What do you say to a bit of exploring?'

back of... the back of...' He gazed distractedly up and down Ace was relieved. 'Anything's better than just hanging the corridor, '... beyond.'

around inside the TARDIS.'

Ace rolled her eyes and plunged her hands into her Levis.

'Good, good. I think... I think I can promise you 'Maybe we should've left a trail like that Greek bloke with something a little recherche.'

the minah bird.'

'Re... what?'

'Minotaur,' said the Doctor, sucking his finger. 'Anyway, But the Doctor was on his feet and off down the corridor we're not lost, I've found it.'

without another word. Ace shrugged and walked after him, 'Found what?'

but he was covering ground at such an extraordinary rate Just to one side of them was a large, pearl-grey door, that she found herself racing to keep up with the little man.

indented with the usual roundel pattern but possessed of a 'Where are we going, Professor?'

big, old-fashioned doork.n.o.b.

'There's something I want you to see,' the Doctor called The Doctor bent down a little and slowly, almost over his shoulder.

reverently, opened the door.

And so they plunged deeper and deeper into the heart of Ace stepped back a little as a wave of icy air hit her face.

the TARDIS, taking in more shuttered rooms, alcoves and Then another sensation seemed to steal over her. A deep niches than Ace had seen in her short life. There were and profound stillness. She was reminded of her first visit to occasional delights and surprises: a big red room entirely church as a child when the sense of ritual and holiness full of hats, a patch of what appeared to be open almost overwhelmed her.

countryside (which she could only presume the Doctor The room beyond the door had six crumbling stone walls, reserved for picnics) and a glimpse of the vast, mahogany-their solid roundels dappled by a warm green light. In the panelled TARDIS library. Ace stared in disbelief at the centre stood a ma.s.sive granite console, elaborately carved 38 39.[image]

like a Gothic altar. Nests of tiny, winking instrumentation The Doctor said nothing.

crowded its pillars and panels.

Ace turned her attention to the rest of the room. In a corner, where clumps of wisteria were winding their way up the wall, she discovered a full-length mirror mounted on a beautiful ebony stand. She grinned at herself in the mottled silver surface.

Hanging from and scattered about the old mirror were ma.s.ses of clothes. This must be some of the Doctor's centuries of junk, thought Ace. She glanced over at him but he was absorbed in his work. Shrugging, she picked up a few garments and held them in front of her.

There was a big brown duffel coat of the type the Doctor was fond of wearing, a thick donkey jacket, a funny red thing which looked like a Roman toga (and probably was), several pairs of gloves, five collapsible opera hats and a tweed waistcoat splashed and stained with green ink.

Ace pulled a face. Then her eyes alighted on a rather drab 'It's like sitting at the bottom of a swimming pool,' she grey tunic. There was a little badge embroidered on the said, gazing at the arched ceiling in awe.

ap.r.o.n and Ace smiled as she recognised it. As quickly as The Doctor was already busy at the console, checking that possible, she struggled into the garment and turned to face the antiquated machinery was still operational.

the Doctor.

'It has a certain charm, I suppose,' he said grudgingly.

'Ta, da!' she announced happily.

'But it always seemed too tucked away for ready use.'

'Hmm?'

'What is it?'

Ace smiled hopefully. 'Gross, isn't it?'

'Tertiary console room. Not bad, eh?'

The Doctor's face set in a rigid frown.

'Not bad? It's beautiful!'

'Take it off,' he said in a quiet, dangerous voice.

The Doctor seemed to be warming to his theme which 'What?'

pleased Ace immeasurably.

'Take it off.' snapped the Doctor, swinging back to the 'Oh yes,' he said, fussing over the console, 'a little spatial console.