Doctor Who_ Loving The Alien Part 49

It was true men were pouring onto the s.h.i.+ps, and the s.h.i.+ps were streaking off into the breach. Crawhammer let out a heavy breath.

'Thank G.o.d,' he said.

Drakefell smiled. He felt bold for the first time in his life.

An end to it.

He pushed forward, shouldering General Crawhammer aside, threw himself at the b.u.t.tons that held the code that opened up h.e.l.l' and deftly triggered the sequence.

'Drakefell!' Crawhammer bellowed. 'Get away from there!'

'Too late!' he sang. 'Too late!'

He was vaguely aware of Crawhammer drawing his pistol, aware of the noise, aware that he'd been shot. The last thing he heard was the 242 automated voice of rocket control confirming a successful launch. The warheads were in flight.

The Doctor sat cross-legged in the snow, eyes closed, palms pressed against the crackling ball of energy that flickered around the time machine. Rita watched nervously. The Doctor hadn't moved for a while, and the tremors shaking the graveyard were getting stronger.

'Doctor?' She reached out and tapped him on the shoulder. 'Doctor are you all right?'

The Doctor opened his eyes and stared at her sternly. Miss Hawks, I am attempting to break through a temporal force field. It is a complex and delicate operation that requires quiet and a great deal of concentration. Now, if you don't mind...'

Rita backed away. 'OK, OK! Sorry...'

The Doctor took a deep breath and placed his hands back on the force field. Inside the bubble she could see Limb poking at controls, his face as determined as the Doctor's.

Suddenly the ground began to tremble. Rita stared around her as a throaty roar filled the air.

'Doctor...'

'Shhh!'

'No, really Doctor, I think we should go.'

'Not now, Rita!'

'No time to argue, Doctor.'

Grabbing him by the collar of his jacket Rita hauled him backwards across the frozen ground.

Before the Doctor even had time to argue, something huge and silver flashed before him.

The Porsche 550 Spider slammed into the energy bubble at eighty miles an hour. Rita saw Limb throw up his hands in horror as the sports car sliced through the bubble of energy, glancing off the time machine and sending it spinning across the graveyard. Headstones shattered as car and machine tumbled end over end. Rita stared in horror as the Porsche landed on its roof and burst into flames.

The Doctor scrambled to his feet. 'Of course, there is always brute force and ignorance to fall back on.'

The Doctor and Rita picked their way through the shattered graves and burning wreckage to the twisted remains of the two machines. The sports car was an inferno: there was no way that anyone could possibly have survived. The Doctor waved at Rita to stay back as he approached the blazing wreck. Rita saw him reach down and pluck something from the snow. He came back grave-faced, shaking his head. 'There's 243 nothing we can do...'

Rita glanced over at where the remains of the time machine lay amongst a tangle of brambles. 'And Limb?'

'Let's see, shall we?'

Pulling the brambles aside, the Doctor heaved open the hatch of the battered machine Limb, bruised and bloodied, stared up at him with baffled eyes.

'I can put it all right you know... in time...'

The Doctor reached inside the machine and tore the dimensional stabiliser free of the old man's hot-wiring.

'I think you've done enough damage.'

There was a distant roaring. Rita could see vapour-trails in the sky, at least two dozen, all blazing skyward' all converging on the shrinking chasm of light in the sky. And there were no enemy craft left to stop them.

'They did it,; the Doctor gasped. 'The idiots! It was just a bluff! I begged Crawhammer...'

He turned to Limb. 'I hope you're satisfied,' he whispered icily.

Limb caught hold of his arm. 'You don't know' Doctor... You don't know how many times I've watched myself die cold and lonely and in pain. You understand that, don't you? I know how I'm going to die, and I can't bear it... There has to be another way.'

'There is.' The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out a revolver.

Rita held her breath. That was what the Doctor had plucked from the snow. Jimmy's revolver.

'Your fate is set, Mr Limb, the same as everyone else's. You can try to break free from the clutches of time, but in the end there is no escape. Whatever you do, however many alternatives you create, the end will always be the same. Destiny.'

He handed the old man the revolver.

'This is the only solution I can offer you,' said the Doctor. 'I will stay with you, if you wish.'

'Thank you, Doctor,' said George Limb. 'I would appreciate that and I imagine you would appreciate knowing that I am actually dead.'

The Doctor smiled mirthlessly, then turned to Rita.

'Why don't you make your way out, he said gently 'I'll catch you up: Rita flashed the Doctor a shallow smile. She couldn't look at the old man. She turned and limped wearily away towards the exit.

Behind them in the trees she heard a single gunshot. Rita closed her eyes and clenched her fists.

244.

Epilogue.Mama's Bar was alive with the babble of conversation and the beat from the jukebox. The Doctor sat at a table near the window sipping at a gla.s.s of red wine, watching the people around him.

Over at the bar McBride was arguing with Mama.

'That's the lousiest excuse I ever heard in my life, McBride,' the big black bar-owner growled. 'Ten years you ain't set foot in the joint, then you roll on in with a story like that.'

'I swear to G.o.d it's true!' McBride protested.

'Buuulls.h.i.+t,' Mama drawled. 'You always were full of it, McBride.'

The Doctor smiled. Temporal scarring. Anomalies.

Ace, hunched over to avoid cracking her head on the low ceiling, was trying to play pool with O'Brien, while the crowd gawped openly.

She was shooting b.a.l.l.s like bullets across the table, and like bullets they ricocheted into the crowd.

It had been nearly two days since the dimensional rift had sealed itself had swallowed the nuclear a.r.s.enal and since then she had been steadily regaining her normal size. At the moment she just topped seven feet and dwarfed the pool table. Mama had joked about keeping her on as a bouncer.

'Hey, Doc...'

McBride was standing next to him.

'Cody.'

McBride slumped into a chair and took a long swig of beer. He nodded over at Ace 'How's she doing?'

'Oh, she'll be back to her usual size by the end of the evening.'

'That's not what I meant. Does she remember anything?'

The Doctor stared at his young companion. 'She remembers everything or she thinks she does. As far as she's concerned, nothing has changed. She is Ace. The only Ace. To all intents and purposes she is the same Ace that she was before, barring one or two small details.

She doesn't have a tattoo saying "Ace and Jimmy" on her back, she doesn't like peas and she has trouble remembering what her correct surname is...'

245.

'And she was never shot in the head...'

'No... that rather important detail never happened.'

'And Limb?'

The Doctor suddenly looked oddly drawn.

'I buried him in Ace's grave,' he said, then smiled sadly. 'Time's way of putting things right. One life saved, another taken to balance it.'

'Well, Time might be tidying things up, Doc, but she's being a mite slapdash about how she's doing it.

The Doctor frowned. 'Oh?'

McBride glanced around the room. 'As far as I remember, this place got hit by a V2 towards the end of the war.'

'Ah...' The Doctor gave a secretive smile. 'Well, I'm sure a few things might be a little out of step with the way they were. Infinite possibilities, remember...'

A figure slipped into the Doctor's view.

'Miss Eyles!' he cried. 'I'm very glad you came.'

Sarah Eyles looked sadly at him. 'I didn't have much else to do,' she said. 'Uncle George... gone. My employer dead...'

'Doctor Drakefell?'

'Apparently General Crawhammer shot him. It was Drakefell who fired the missiles. Crawhammer couldn't bring himself to do it.'

The Doctor blinked and thought about the two men.

'Doctor, what about... the people on the other side of the rift?'

'It must be h.e.l.lish over there,' said the Doctor gravely. 'But they have an advanced technology, and all the dubious advantages of the Cyber process. I imagine they will bounce back... And how are you?'

he asked Sarah gently.

'I'm... a little lost, to be truthful, Doctor.'

'You will come through' Sarah. 'Your great-uncle '

'Please ' Sarah interrupted, 'I don't want to know. I want to believe he was loyal and brave and kind. And that in some way he died working for his country, not against it.'

'A part of him did,' said the Doctor. 'I was going to say he was the Strongest, brightest, most resourceful human being I believe I have ever met. I'm sure you have inherited his better qualities.'

Sarah smiled.

The Doctor took another sip of wine. 'There are realities out there where the skies are water, the trees are made of air and the people speak in rhyme, realities where...'

'Oi!' Ace lumbered over and tapped the Doctor on the knee. 'What have I told you about getting all poetic? This is meant to be a party, remember?'

246.

She handed him a set of spoons. 'Rita's going to be here any minute and you promised to be the percussion section.'

The Doctor waved his hands at her in irritation. 'Yes, yes, yes!'

Ace loped over to the door and peered out into the night.

McBride grinned. 'It's our Ace all right. As bossy as Rita and twice as sa.s.sy.'

The Doctor gave McBride a sideways glance. 'Our Miss Hawks is a very brave lady, with a great deal of affection for you. You could do a lot worse, you know.'

McBride gave an embarra.s.sed smile. 'Yeah, I know.'

Ace bounded back into the room. 'They're here. Everyone ready?'

Mama snapped off the lights and a giggling hush descended on the little bar.

A shaft of cold light arced across the room as the door swung open.

A gruff Irish voice broke the silence.

'For G.o.d's sake, woman, there's no one here. You must have got the date wrong.'

'If you're not careful, I'll take you back to the hospital,' said Rita.