Doctor Who_ The Gallifrey Chronicles Part 38

'You did the right thing,' Fitz said, 'from what I understand of it.'

'I killed a lot of people.'

'Saved a lot, and a lot more since.'

The Doctor rubbed his lip. 'The one doesn't excuse the other. I destroyed Gallifrey. I'm not off the hook for that, and even if I save the Earth from the Vore that won't redeem me.'

'What will?'

'That, my dear Fitz, is the right question.'

'Are you going to take it easy now. Keep yourself out of harm's way?'

'Not really my style.'

'What about them them?' Fitz asked.

'Let's sort out the Vore first.'

'And. . . er. . . that little robot dog thing? Is he coming with us?'

'I'm sending K9 off on a little errand to Espero, to see if he's any good as a bloodhound.'

The Doctor paused, looked distracted.

'Are you OK?'

'It's odd. I've been having the most unpleasant sensation. I can't remember Gallifrey, but it hurts when I try to think about it. Wanting something to be the way it never was, and never can be again.'

'You've never felt nostalgic before?'

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The Doctor shrugged. 'It's a pretty meaningless concept when you're a time-traveller.'

'The pain of returning.'

'Pardon?'

'It's the literal meaning of nostalgia. From the Greek.'

'I have to say, since you died, your general knowledge has radically improved.'

'Everything changes, a Time Lord even more so. Everything and everyone is changing, all the time. There's sticking to your guns but if you stay as you are, and you don't grow or take risks. . . you still change. But it means you seize up, end up just repeating yourself. Become your own museum or descend into self-parody. What's happened has happened. It can't be undone.

Even if some weird timestormy parallel paradoxy universy thing came along, and outer s.p.a.ce went all wobbly and Gallifrey came back, just as it was. . .

well, you'd still be the man who did what you did. All you can do now is go forwards.'

The Doctor nodded. 'And you? What about you and Trix?'

'We're going forwards together.'

'Good for you.'

The doorbell rang.

The Doctor stood. 'That will be General. . . er. . . Lethbridge-Stewart, I think he said it was. Fitz, could you round up the others?'

A little over a day later they'd reached the Ill.u.s.trious Ill.u.s.trious.

Rachel and Trix needed to freshen up after enduring hour after uncomfortable hour in a succession of transport planes and helicopters. The Doctor and Fitz stood on the deck. Around them Harriers were being readied. The deck was long and ended in what looked like a ski jump. It was a warm evening.

The sea and sky were both a deep, rich blue.

They were a mile off the coast a thick, flat sand-and-green line. The Doctor had acquired an impressive navy-issue pair of binoculars. Fitz could make out the Vore mountain without them. It was quite a way inland, more of a column than most mountains, and leant to one side. All the better, the Doctor said, to catch the sun.

'It's not quite as tall as Kilimanjaro. Apparently it is still growing, though,'

he added.

'How many monsters will be in there?'

'Lots,' the Doctor said, after running out of fingers.

He handed Fitz the binoculars.

Like all tall mountains, the top was obscured by clouds. Uniquely, these consisted of giant insects as well as water vapour. Every so often, a new ma.s.s 228 of Vore flew in. There was something like a stack at a major airport as the arrivals waited their turn to land.

'We can't negotiate, we can't come to terms. There's nothing in the Vore hive to negotiate with. They can't compromise, any more than a plague of locusts can. They have a right to exist, but not here. Not at this cost.'

'Couldn't we just bomb it?' Fitz asked.

'There's a reason why terrorist warlords and Western military commanders alike build their shelters under mountains. Conventional rockets and missiles would just bounce off. A nuclear weapon. . . Well, that would kill a lot of people too, in the short and long term, and would bury a lot of Vore underground. If they really are laying eggs, like all the insect experts seem to think, I'm not sure that's as definite a conclusion as I'd like.'

'I think c.o.c.kroaches are meant to be able to survive a nuclear war, anyway, aren't they?'

'Oh yes. I've been to planets where that's happened. Never had the c.o.c.kroaches start the war before now, though.'

A pair of RAF planes roared overhead. Fitz swung the binoculars round and watched them go, saw the other ships of the small Royal Navy task force a little further out to sea, nearly blinded himself looking into the sun by mistake.

'The planes are keeping their distance. Sensible.'

'Yes,' concluded the Doctor. 'We'll have to get closer.'

'How close?'

The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

It is the next morning, and they are standing above the clouds on the flattened top of the Vore mountain in the Tombali region of Guinea-Bisseau. It is dry, and sand lifted up by the hot harmattan harmattan wind obscures the view to the east. wind obscures the view to the east.

To the west is the sea, dotted with the ships of the Royal Navy task force. It is the first time Rachel or Trix has been to Africa, and they both regret dressing for a British summer.

The air is thin here, at the summit. All around the plateau are dotted great vents, fifty yards wide, chimney shafts that go straight down as far as the eye can see. Ammoniac air wafts up from depths of the mountain, thick with heat and carbon dioxide and sulphur.

'This is how they keep the temperature and oxygen content of the hive constant,' the Doctor explains, staring right down into the pit. 'Cold, fresh air will be sucked in at the base of the mountain, the waste gases get expelled here.'

'So what now?' Trix asks.

The Doctor looks at his three companions. 'You tell me.'

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Rachel takes a deep breath. 'We all die. The Vore find us here, murder us like they murdered Marnal. They go back and wait, feeding on the people they've already killed. They breed, safe in this mountain, able to ignore anything we throw at them, from a squad of troops to a nuclear bomb dropped straight down one of these holes. Then probably sooner than we think possible they fly out of these holes, kill all the people, kill all the animals, kill all the plants, kill all the other insects, until it's just them and their mushrooms left. The whole world becomes a hive, they find a way to pilot it around like they did that moon, and the cycle starts again.'

Fitz has a lopsided grin. 'You really haven't been paying attention, have you, love? They're monsters, he's the Doctor. There's only one way this is going to end. Look this is a whopping great ventilation shaft ventilation shaft. It's a way in. The Doctor leaps down it, coat tails and hair flapping, lands, finds out what the Vore are planning, discovers their weakness, he confronts them, and then he kicks their a.r.s.e. An hour from now, we'll all be watching from a safe distance as this mountain explodes, taking every Vore with it.'

'"Leaps down"? Falls down, more like. No one could survive that.'

'The Doctor could.'

'I can't even imagine how he hopes to beat them.'

'That, Rachel, is your problem, not his,' Trix tells her.

'Nothing ever ends,' Fitz says. 'Especially not him.'

'He'll die.'

'It he does, he'll do it saving the Earth and then he'll come back, all-new and better than ever.'

'With a bit of fashion sense this time,' Trix suggests.

The Doctor has been listening to them. He can also hear the monsters down there, millions of them at home in the darkness. The Vore are ma.s.sing.

Soon, unless stopped, they will emerge and bring the darkness out with them.

There are countless more like them all across the universe those that have destroyed more than they have created. They must be fought. A man cannot fight them all, though, not without becoming the worst monster of the lot.

One day, the Doctor knows as he gazes down, he will fall.

He tugs at the lapels of his frock coat, perhaps for the last time. 'I have a plan, but I can't beat them alone.'

Fitz smiles, takes Trix's hand. 'You won't have to.'

'Shall we?' the Doctor asks.

And he leaps. . .

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Fitz's Song Contains Spoilers I've travelled to the past, sweetheart, And I've been to the future, too.

Once, a few hundred years from now, I thought I'd ask after you.

An obvious formality Because our love was oh so true.

Together for eternity.

That shows how little I knew.

I saw your file in black and white Describing everything you'll do.

And read you won't wait for me.

I would have waited for you.

We used to talk of destiny.

And in the future you still do.

The sting in the tail is that I'm Not the man you'll say it to.

When I say that you are history, Well, it is literally true.

They only seem like choices, love.

I've seen just what you'll do.

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You'll sometimes be spontaneous Would you like to know what you'll do?

I know how long you've got with him Can't take that away from you.

You'll leave me, but no hard feelings.

Because I've had my sneak preview.

You've moved on in your life, so I Won't spoil its twist ending for you.

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The Gallifrey Chronicles The Alb.u.m 1. 'The Wheel Rolls On', Archie Bronson Outfit 2. 'Brain Stew' (G.o.dzilla Remix), Green Day 3. 'One Armed Scissor', At the Drive-In 4. 'Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town', Pearl Jam 5. 'Horse Tears', Goldfrapp 6. 'The Becoming', Nine Inch Nails 7. 'The Story of Our Life So Far', Salako 8. 'This Mess We're In', PJ Harvey 9. 'Aenema', Tool 10. 'Pets', p.o.r.no for Pyros 11. 'Last Cigarette', Dramarama 12. 'Non Zero Possibility', At the Drive-In 13. 'Eraser', Nine Inch Nails 14. 'Escape from the Prison Planet', Clutch 15. 'h.e.l.lo s.p.a.ceboy', David Bowie 233.

About the Author.LANCE PARKIN has written a number of books and other things, including the first-ever original Eighth Doctor novel, The Dying Days The Dying Days (which is available for free on the BBCi site, and for rather more than that on eBay), and the BBC (which is available for free on the BBCi site, and for rather more than that on eBay), and the BBC novels The Infinity Doctors The Infinity Doctors, Father Time Father Time and and Trading Futures Trading Futures. His most recent works are the science-fiction novel Warlords of Utopia Warlords of Utopia, and (with Mark Jones) Dark Matter Dark Matter, a guide to the author Philip Pullman.

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