Doctor Who_ Loving The Alien Part 48

'You can deal with the fine tuning later, Doctor! Just get the d.a.m.n thing working!'

The Doctor stabbed at a control and the wall began to ripple and soften before them. The Doctor caught hold of Rita's hand. 'Make a wish...'

'I guess it worked for Dorothy...'

Rita shut her eyes tight as the flickering wall of energy engulfed them.

The sudden blast of cold air made Rita gasp. She staggered and almost fell.

The Doctor caught her arm.

'Did it work?' she asked.

'There's no place like home...' said the Doctor.

Tentatively Rita opened her eyes. They were in a graveyard. Grey headstones jutted out from the snow; leafless trees were nothing more than spindly silhouettes against the night sky. Rita s.h.i.+vered.

'And this is no place like home. Why would Limb come here?'

'Because this is where his time machine finally broke down and catapulted him back to his own era. This is the day that he planted the evidence on Ace's body for me to find.' The Doctor's face was grim, 'Look.'

On the far side of the graveyard Rita could see a squat black shape, not unlike an upturned child's spinning top, steaming quietly in the snow.

'So let me see if I've got this straight.' Rita's head was reeling. 'That 237 thing... is a time machine.'

'Correct.'

'That George Limb has just used to come from the past.'

'Yes.'

'But it broke and sent him back to where he started.'

'Yes.'

'But Limb has always known the exact time and place when he would catch up with the machine that has been waiting for him in his future.'

'Exactly!' The Doctor beamed at her. 'You have an excellent grasp of temporal mechanics!'

'But lousy timing. Look...'

From the trees on the edge of the graveyard Limb and Jimmy were making their way towards the time machine.

'Come on. We've got to get to it before them!' The Doctor hared off across the graveyard. Rita stumbled after him, heels slipping on the wet gra.s.s.

Limb looked up in surprise as the Doctor dodged and weaved through the headstones. With a burst of speed that belied his age, he darted forward, pulling open the hatch on the top of the machine.

'George, wait! You don't have to do this,' the Doctor bellowed.

'Too late, Doctor. You can't stop me now,' said Limb.

With a lazy puff of his cigarette, Jimmy pulled a revolver from his pocket. The Doctor skidded to a halt, breathless and panting. He could see Limb connecting the dimensional stabiliser to the instruments in the time machine. In seconds the machine would be working again.

'George, please. Stop this now and I can help you. We can work something out.'

'I don't need your help, Doctor.' Limb didn't look up. 'With this machine operational again I can go back and make a few... tweaks, a few changes. I can avoid that dreadful reality and create a better one.'

He stared through the window of the machine. 'It's only a matter of time.'

The Doctor started forward but Jimmy stepped into his path, the gun pointed directly at the Doctor's head.

'Leave him alone, Doctor.'

'You have no idea what damage he is doing with his meddling, do you?'

Jimmy shrugged. 'It worked out OK for me. I coulda died in a car crash. This seems a d.a.m.n sight better to me' He took a long drag on his cigarette. 'Hey, if he creates another reality, I might even end up as president. How about that, eh? An actor as president of the United 238 States.'

'G.o.d forbid,' said Rita.

'Do you want to know another alternative that Mr Limb has denied you?' The Doctor's voice was low and dangerous. 'Fatherhood.'

'What?' Jimmy frowned. 'What are you talking about?'

'A father, with a healthy baby daughter.'

'I haven't got any daughter.'

'Jimmy, don't you listen to him.' Limb sounded snappy.

'Ace's baby.' The Doctor's voice didn't waver. 'Did you know that she was pregnant, Jimmy? Did you know that she was carrying your child when he shot her in the head?'

Jimmy shot an anguished look at Limb. 'I...'

The old man was fumbling with the controls, frantic and clumsy.

'Did you!' shouted the Doctor.

Jimmy let the gun drop. You're lying. She couldn't have..? Tears were rolling down his cheeks. 'You shouldn't have told me.'

Screaming with anger, he swung the gun towards Limb.

' You You should have told me!' should have told me!'

'Jimmy! No!'

The Doctor lunged forward as the gun went off. At the same moment Limb activated the time machine.

A piercing shriek tore through the night air. The Doctor saw the bullet slow to a standstill, caught in the temporal field generated by the machine. Jimmy stood, frozen, lips drawn back in a vicious snarl. Rita was caught tumbling backwards, high heels slipping on the ice-slick ground.

All around time was suspended, held in check by the faulty circuits of the Cybermen's time machine. Wave after wave of temporal energy buffeted the Doctor, trying to hold him within its grasp. Inch by inch he forced himself forward. He could see Limb inside the machine, wrestling with the controls, staring incredulously as the Doctor fought against the tides of time.

Suddenly there was a flare and the ground and the air stretched and popped and seemed to collapse, then tumbled back to tranquil normality. The Doctor collided with a spherical ball of energy thrown up around the s.h.i.+p. Jimmy threw himself forward, pounding uselessly against the force field Limb had created.

Rita fell backwards into the snow.

Through the portals of the time machine the Doctor could see Limb blinking in bemus.e.m.e.nt. Whatever he had managed to do was by luck not design. The man was playing, operating something he didn't understand by pressing every b.u.t.ton in sight until something happened.

239.

It was like watching a six-year-old trying to drive a car.

With a scream of anger, Jimmy vanished into the night. The Doctor called after him, but the actor was gone.

There was a sudden cry of pain and frustration from the graveyard.

The Doctor hurried over to where Rita struggled in the snow. He stretched out a hand and hauled her to her feet.

'What the h.e.l.l is going on?' She vainly tried to brush the snow from her coat.

The Doctor nodded at the time machine encased in its flickering ball of energy. 'Mr Limb has activated his machine, with limited success.'

'You mean he's failed? We can stop him?'

A shuddering roar shook the ground around them. Rita reached out for the Doctor in alarm.

'No,' said the Doctor. 'I rather think he's made things worse.'

240.

Chapter Twenty-five.

Captain Frank Williams punched at the ground in anger and frustration.

The last few hours had seen his entire operation go to h.e.l.l. First the ambush by primates in the hospital that had left him half dead, then the attack by giant ants, and now a sixty-foot tomboy with a big mouth making a mockery of him and his troops.

From his fallback position on the far side of the square he could see her squas.h.i.+ng the ants with her thumb and sending soldiers tumbling as she struggled to reach the prisoner in the wheelchair that they had captured.

He raised his rifle and fired, watching with satisfaction as she grasped at her arm, wincing.

'I'm warning you,' she bellowed. 'If you don't stop that, I'm going to stick you all in a big jar with some of these ants.'

Willams tried to concentrate, sending a coms-pulse back to control.

He'd heard nothing from them for nearly fifteen minutes now He winced as static blared in his skull. 'Williams to control. Report please.

Report!'

Finally through the static he thought he could hear something.

'Control!'

'BEEEE LIIIIKE UUUSSSS> YOOOOU WILLL> BEEEEEEE>'

He shut down his remote link as the slurred voice threatened to overwhelm him. He was getting reports from all over London about the same problem with control.

The ground heaved abruptly beneath him, sending masonry cras.h.i.+ng to the floor.

And then an emergency channel opened itself up. That only happened in the event of a complete systems breakdown. Its signal was clear and brief Evac Plan Alpha. Total abortion of mission. It was time to leave.

He took a deep breath and confirmed the recall signal. Engage the bridge and evacuate. Retreat.

McBride watched from the rooftops as the energy tear in the sky suddenly flared with light. As he watched, it seemed to pulse and 241 swell.

'Holy mother of G.o.d...'

The airs.h.i.+ps that had been hovering over London since the attack began suddenly wheeling around in the night sky. Searchlights blazing, they shot like arrows into the dimensional breach in a surge of energy.

McBride's head rang as Ace gave a cry of triumph.

'Hey! Can't take it, can you? Well, get lost then!'

Shafts of light started to sweep across the ground, s.n.a.t.c.hing up soldiers and sweeping them into the rift.

Ace cheered and bellowed. McBride could see a small figure clutched in her hand. A small figure in a wheelchair.

He felt a wave of relief wash over him. Ace had got Mullen.

Drakefell was two feet from Armageddon. He felt its power. It soothed him.

Only inches away from Armageddon, General Crawhammer was sweating. His deadline was long past, with no word from the other side of the breach. Crawhammer couldn't do it, Drakefell knew.

But Drakefell could.

All he could think about was the voice that had replied to their broadcast' that had swept across all their loudspeakers at once. The man who had preyed on his madness. His friend. Dr John Hopkins. Or George Limb, or whatever he was called.

And Drakefell's fears and torments had collapsed into a singularity.

He represented the sum of Drakefell's fears. The Ministry of Augmentation. The Cyber process that had tormented him for years, writ large across the land. And Limb at its head.

A chance to destroy him. And more a blow against the brute vastness and endless chaos of the truth...

'They're retreating, sir,' said Bill Collins. 'Look.'