Doctor Who_ Atom Bomb Blues Part 27

'Impossible.'

'I don't mean set her free to be a fugitive from justice. I mean, clear her name.'

'No chance.'

'On the contrary, I think there is every chance. You have the true leader of the spy ring now.' The Doctor nodded at the broken body lying below the window. 'You can make the case for Silk just being an innocent dupe who was in his power and terrorised by him. After all, it's the truth.'

'Is it?' Butcher turned and looked at the frozen woman standing across the room. Her eyes met his. She seemed to be taking in everything, understanding what was happening but helpless to take any action.

'Show him, Ray,' said the Doctor. Ray took a sheet of paper from the stack in his lap and carried it over to where Silk was standing. He peered at her helplessly for a moment.

'She's paralysed, man,' he bleated.

'Oh, for G.o.d's sake,' said Ace. She went to Ray and took the paper from his hand and carefully tucked it between Silk's frozen fingers. As soon as Ace let go of it, the woman twitched and came to life again. But she was no longer holding the piece of paper.

And she was wearing the raincoat again. 'Please don't send me back there,'

she said. 'Please let me stay here. I don't care if you put me in jail. Don't send me back there again.' The Doctor went to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

He looked at Butcher.

'Of course you can stay here,' he said. 'And if Major Butcher acts on what he's seen tonight, what he knows to be true, then you won't have to go to jail.

In time you'll even be able to resume your singing career, as if none of this ever happened.'

Lady Silk began to cry, folding herself against the Doctor like a broken blossom. Ace rolled her eyes. 'Here we go,' she said. Butcher looked at her.

'I don't understand,' he said.

'What else is new?' said Ace.

177.'That umbrella-gun the Doctor had he could have used that at any time.'

Butcher stared at Ace. 'Why didn't he just shoot Imperial Lee as soon as he turned up?' She just shrugged and didn't reply. Instead she looked at the Doctor. Butcher looked at him, too. The Doctor gently disengaged himself from Lady Silk and turned to them.

'There would have been very little point shooting Lee as soon as he turned up, since I specifically asked Ray to perform the calculations that enabled Lee to turn up.'

'You brought him here?' said Butcher.

'I needed to put paid to the threat that Imperial Lee represented to this world. To do that I needed Lee to fail and I needed Lady Silk ' he nodded at the woman who stood close to him drying her tears ' not her, but the other other Lady Silk, to witness his humiliating failure. And then return to her home world where she spread news of the debacle to any other members of their kamikaze movement. Which I fully expect her to do in her home dimension as soon as the effects of the paralysing pellet wear off.' Lady Silk, to witness his humiliating failure. And then return to her home world where she spread news of the debacle to any other members of their kamikaze movement. Which I fully expect her to do in her home dimension as soon as the effects of the paralysing pellet wear off.'

'So,' said Butcher, cursing himself for even falling into discussion of this nonsense, as if any of it was real, 'is the threat over?'

'As over as it ever is,' said the Doctor.

178.Epilogue.

Trinity Ace said, 'So how did you know that the atom bomb would be detonated a day later in this universe?'

'I didn't,' said the Doctor. 'In fact, it wasn't. It was originally scheduled to take place on exactly the same day, at exactly the same time, as in your universe.'

'What happened to change it, then?'

The Doctor just smiled and said nothing. After a moment, Ace said, 'You mean it was you?'

The Doctor shrugged modestly. 'Through rather clever manipulation of my calculations I managed to cast some doubt on the exact geometry chosen for Kistiakowsky's explosive lenses, which are used to detonate the fissionable material.'

'Just enough doubt to delay them by one day?'

'Exactly. Kistiakowsky was very annoyed.'

Ray Morita came up behind them. 'Hey cats, Zorg says we're in position now.' The Doctor and Ace turned and followed him down the winding transparent corridor to the spherical chamber that was the control room of the s.h.i.+p. Here the obscene crablike form of Zorg crouched over the transparent hemisphere of the c.o.c.kpit. Below, Ace could see the tiny toy-geometry form of the hundred-foot tower with the 'gadget' suspended on it on the desert floor below.

'Is it safe here?' said Ace.

'We are hovering in dense cloud cover,' said Zorg. 'With just our c.o.c.kpit protruding at the cloud base. They cannot see us, and their instruments can't detect us.'

'No,' said Ace. 'I meant, are we safe when that thing goes off?'

'Fear not, Zace,' said Zorg. 'We are sufficiently distant to be unaffected by the physical impact of the blast, and our radiation screens will cut in at the exact instant of detonation.'

The Doctor took out his pocket watch and scrutinised it. 'Which is. . . well, more or less now now,' he said. They all gathered around the c.o.c.kpit and stared 179down. There was a blast of white light. To Ace it looked like the flashbulb on G.o.d's camera going off.

The transparent dimple of the c.o.c.kpit suddenly darkened, like those sungla.s.ses that change in bright daylight. Ace looked at the Doctor. Was that it?'

she said. The Doctor nodded. Ace kept staring down, as the painfully brilliant light faded and the mushroom cloud built itself in tiers in the sky. After a few minutes she became bored even with the Luciferian majesty of this terrifying spectacle and turned away. The Doctor followed her as she wandered from the c.o.c.kpit, leaving Zorg and Ray staring down through it.

'So, no chain reaction, then,' she said to the Doctor. 'Teller was wrong.'

'Unfortunately, yes,' said the Doctor. Ace stared at him, appalled, and the Doctor chuckled. 'Honestly, the expression on your face,' he said. 'You should see yourself. Obviously I didn't mean that it was unfortunate that this world wasn't destroyed by the bomb. What I did did mean was that it was unfortunate that Teller clung tenaciously to his wrongheaded view, right up until the very end.' mean was that it was unfortunate that Teller clung tenaciously to his wrongheaded view, right up until the very end.'

'You never managed to get him to change his mind, then?'

'No,' said the Doctor. 'Not for all my arguing and reasoning. I made no impression at all.'

Ace shrugged. 'But what difference does it make? He was wrong, and the Earth survived, and that's all that matters.'

'Unfortunately it's not as simple as that. Because being wrong will have a profound effect on Teller. He will feel humiliated that he was wrong, that he argued against detonating the bomb. And, as a result, he will undergo a one hundred and eighty degree turn in his ideology. Effectively, Trinity was his experience on the road to Damascus.'

'Road to where?'

'It means a complete change of heart. From being anti-bomb to pro-bomb.

He will become America's most influential advocate for nuclear weapons. He will stifle and discredit Oppenheimer. Teller will become the "father of the hydrogen bomb", building ever bigger and more terrible weapons and setting America and the world walking along the tightrope of proliferating nuclear arms.' The Doctor sighed. 'And I hoped all that could be avoided.'

'If you could have changed his mind?'

'Yes, if I only could have convinced him his chain reaction was impossible, then he would have abandoned his argument and he would have been spared the bitter humiliation of being proved wrong. Which in turn might well have stopped him over-compensating and becoming the apostle of nuclear annihi-lation.' The Doctor shrugged again. 'That was my real mission here. . . And I failed in it.'

180.'Your real mission? What about stopping Imperial Lee from blowing up this entire universe?'

The Doctor smiled a melancholy smile. 'I was never entirely convinced that such a thing could have been achieved.'

Ace stared at him, more appalled than before. 'What do you mean? We saw how they used Ray's equations.'

'To travel between dimensions, yes. But I am far from certain that they could have used their peculiar blend of physics and magic to enact such a grandiose doomsday scenario.'

'Well if you didn't think they could pull it off, why did we try so hard to stop them?'

The Doctor's smile was warmer now. 'Because, unlike Oppy, I decided we couldn't afford to take the chance. After all, there was an entire universe at stake.'

'A universe that we saved,' said Ace. 'Quite possibly.'

'Yes, quite possibly. Luckily, we will never know.' The Doctor wandered to the far end of the control chamber where a familiar tall blue shape stood waiting for them. 'It really was very good of Zorg to look after the TARDIS for us.'

'Are you changing the subject?' said Ace.

'Yes, I suppose I am. I'm also broaching the new subject of our leaving.

Because it's time we did just that.' Zorg overheard this and came scuttling over on his big fat transparent claws.

'Truly, Zoctor. Must you go?'

'I fear so.'

'But perhaps you could linger just a few moments longer to hear a little of my poetry?'

The Doctor looked at Ace. There was a glint of mischief in his eyes. 'What do you think?'

Ace shook her head. 'Sorry Zorg. We have to breeze.'

Ray hurried over to join them. 'Did I hear you cats say you're going now?

And am I right in remembering that you're offering me a lift back to my own dimension?'

'Yes, Ray,' said Ace wearily.

Cosmic Ray Morita hesitated, holding his yellow shoulder bag tightly to his chest. 'And can I bring my records with me?'

'Yes, Ray,' said Ace, even more wearily.

The big man loped towards the TARDIS, tears of grat.i.tude in his eyes.

181.

About the Author.

Andrew Cartmel was the influential script editor of Doctor Who Doctor Who during the Sylvester McCoy (Seventh Doctor) era. He has also worked as script editor and lead writer on the cult sword and sorcery TV series during the Sylvester McCoy (Seventh Doctor) era. He has also worked as script editor and lead writer on the cult sword and sorcery TV series Dark Knight Dark Knight for Channel Five. He wrote the for Channel Five. He wrote the War War trilogy ( trilogy ( Warhead, Warlock, Warchild Warhead, Warlock, Warchild) in the Virgin Doctor Who Doctor Who New Adventures series, and New Adventures series, and Foreign Devils Foreign Devils, a Who Who novella (which featured a guest appearance from William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost Finder). His other books include novella (which featured a guest appearance from William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost Finder). His other books include Script Doctor Script Doctor, a memoir about his days on Doctor Who Doctor Who at the BBC and at the BBC and The Wise The Wise, an original novel. His stage thriller End of the Night End of the Night had a successful run in London in 2003. He has recently had a screenplay optioned and is currently working on film scripts and more novels. had a successful run in London in 2003. He has recently had a screenplay optioned and is currently working on film scripts and more novels.

183.Doc.u.ment Outline Front Cover Contents Prologue: The Girl on the Sofa 1: Three Days Earlier 2: At the Party 3: Cactus Needles 4: Lady Silk 5: By the Pond 6: A Warm Night 7: Into the Desert 8: On Board the Craft 9: Breakfast with the Duke 10: Chapel of the Red Apocalypse 11: California Death Cult 12: The Well of Transition 13: The Devil Epilogue: Trinity About the Author