Doctor Who_ The Fall Of Yquatine Part 29

'So you see, they were almost upon me when I realised what they wanted. They wanted me to rescue them they knew I could reprogram them. They, ahem, thought I was a Master.'

The Doctor had an attentive audience President Vargeld, the senators, Fitz and Compa.s.sion all stood on the observation gallery, as the reprogrammed Omnethoth wheeled and arced in the s.p.a.cedock.

'They're now totally tame, and pose no threat to anyone,' said the Doctor, waving indulgently at the creatures.

The President's face curled into an expression of pure disgust. He raised his arm and spoke into his comms unit. 'Destroy them.'

The Doctor lunged forward. 'No!'

But it was too late. The ionisation weapons sparked into life, and within seconds all that was left of the tamed Omnethoth was a pall of dirty grey smoke, which sank slowly to the floor of the s.p.a.cedock.

The Doctor's face was white with anger, his voice choked with emotion. 'There was no need for that!'

President Vargeld stepped right up to the Doctor. 'Yes, there was, Doctor. Those things killed millions of people. We cannot tolerate their existence even if you have reprogrammed them. Some madman might steal them, remake them into weapons. Or they might reprogram themselves. How can we even know for sure that you're not working for them?'

The Doctor waved a dismissive hand. 'Oh, this is stupid!'

'There is going to be a full enquiry into your backgrounds,' said the President. He walked up to Fitz. 'And don't think I've forgotten about you and Arielle. There's still a lot I don't know about what you were doing with her.'

Fitz met the Doctor's eyes. The Doctor flicked his gaze towards Compa.s.sion. Compa.s.sion nodded. The Doctor mouthed a phrase silently. Time to go. Time to go.

Fitz thought of Arielle, folded up in the giant leaf within Compa.s.sion. He would never see her again; he'd never got to kiss her, let alone make love to her. And neither would anyone else. She was free now, a victim of the universe.

Anger made Fitz brave. 'Wouldn't you like to know!' cried Fitz, giving President Vargeld a shove which sent him sprawling into the troopers.

Fitz dived towards Compa.s.sion as she opened herself up.

The Minerva System had been the life's dream of two thousand pioneering idealists. Julian de Yquatine and his followers had dreamed, planned and built it.

And now it was shattered, broken. a fallen paradise. Something evil had struck out from the past and brought it down.

The Doctor ached to stay and help resolve matters. But it was time to go. They'd been in one place and time, near enough for too long, easily long enough for the Time Lords to get a fix on them.

They had to leave the System to its uncertain fate. To the chilling indifference of the universal process.

And, with a pang of sorrow, he realised he didn't have time to say goodbye to Lou Lombardo. Oh well. They'd meet again, somewhen. Probably.

With a wave at President Vargeld, the Doctor stepped into Compa.s.sion. He wished the best for Vargeld, he really did, and he forgave him his suspicions. After all, Compa.s.sion was difficult to explain.

He found himself in front of the console, right in front of the Randomiser he'd installed. He winced at the sight of it. And then he stared up at the crystal column.

Would she forgive him?

Compa.s.sion faced President Vargeld, the Senate and the troopers, Fitz and the Doctor safe within her. Well, within her at any rate.

The troopers were looking around the observation gallery, disbelief evident on their faces.

'They're inside her, you idiots!' cried the President.

They stared at him as if he was mad. He certainly looked mad: his eyes were b.u.t.ton-bright blue, his face unshaven. Maybe his time inside her had unhinged him.

Inside her, the Doctor was standing at her console like a priest before an altar. He was shouting at her to dematerialise.

But that meant giving herself up to the whim of the Randomiser, the yawning eternity of the vortex.

The Doctor looked so small, so puny. Fitz was lolling about on one of the walkways. He was even more delicate than the Doctor. His mind had come close to being broken. Did she need such beings? Could she not exist on her own?

The Doctor called again for her to dematerialise.

President Vargeld ordered the troopers to surround her, but not to shoot. He walked right up to her. 'No one here knows that you saved the day in my name,' he whispered. 'So let's keep it that way, huh?'

Compa.s.sion nodded. 'All right.'

'Now are you going to let me have the Doctor and Fitz back? There are some serious questions I need them to answer.'

Compa.s.sion shook her head. 'Sorry, Mr President.' She reached out and took his hand. 'Good luck with everything. Sorry about Arielle.'

A shadow of pain flitted across his face.

Compa.s.sion waved goodbye, and then FEAR.

Fitz landed face down on the grating in the console chamber.

The Doctor was at the console. 'Dematerialise!' he yelled.

The floor lurched beneath Fitz, and the roofs.p.a.ce showed a dizzying golden whirlpool. The vortex.

The Doctor sagged over the console.

Fitz held his breath. Would Compa.s.sion force the Doctor to remove the Randomiser? He stood up, leaning on the railing.

The Doctor looked weary. 'I went to all that trouble to save a few Omnethoth. All for nothing.'

Fitz remembered the acid rain dissolving the buildings of Yendip, the grotesque shape of the transmitter. Arielle, her broken body fading to nothing. He was glad the Omnethoth had been wiped out. 'You can't blame the President. Doctor. How would you feel if your home planet was destroyed?'

The Doctor shot him a dark, unsmiling glare, his face lit up blue by the time-stuff below. Then he turned to the console. 'Compa.s.sion?'

There was a rumble, like distant thunder.

Here it comes, thought Fitz, bracing himself against the railing.

Compa.s.sion spoke. 'Doctor. Remove the Randomiser.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'I can't. It's part of you now. It would cause you even more pain to remove it.'

Another rumble, louder this time. 'Do not lie!'

'I'm telling the truth, I swear to you!' He glanced desperately at Fitz. 'And even if I could remove it I wouldn't because it's still our best hope of evading the Time Lords.'

The rumbling faded away. 'Doctor.' Compa.s.sion's voice was full of pain. 'You hurt me.'

The Doctor nodded sadly. 'I know. And this won't help, but it was for your own good.'

The light faded and the stuff below began to churn. 'Do not patronise me, Doctor!'

Fitz swallowed, a nervous hand at his throat. He wouldn't put it past her to cut off the air supply again.

The Doctor looked scared, his face upturned to the ceiling, his voice imploring. 'Compa.s.sion, if you hadn't run away I would have been able to help you integrate the Randomiser circuit!'

The time stuff below boiled in anger. Fitz could feel the grating shuddering beneath his feet.

Her voice became a booming echo. 'I was trapped in the vortex for decades thanks to you. And you say this was for my own good?'

The Doctor dropped to his knees, arms outspread. 'Compa.s.sion!' he roared over the thunderous echoes. 'I'm sorry!'

'Sorry?' Her voice escalated to a howling scream.

Fitz ran up to the console, wis.h.i.+ng there was a face he could talk to, shout at, not this grotesque mushroom of black metal. 'Give him a chance, Compa.s.sion! We're all on the same side, supposedly.'

All at once there was silence, and all was still.

The Doctor stood up. 'Compa.s.sion?' He adjusted a dial on the console. 'She's retreated within herself,' he said, averting his face from Fitz.

Fitz let out a sigh of relief, and looked nervously around the console chamber. 'I think you ought to know that she threatened to kill me to force me to remove that thing.'

The Doctor shot him a look of pure horror. 'No!'

'It's all right,' said Fitz, 'I hope. I don't think she knew she was doing it. The Randomiser's really b.u.g.g.e.red her up, you know.'

They both stared at the black box on the console. 'It's all my fault,' muttered the Doctor. 'She'll never forgive me. I'm going to have to leave her to fulfil her own destiny.'

Fitz stared up at the dark roofs.p.a.ce. 'It might not come to that.'

'We'll just have to wait until she comes out of herself,' said the Doctor, pacing up and down before the console. 'Now what's all this stuff about being trapped in the vortex?'

Fitz suddenly realised he had a heck of a lot to tell the Doctor. He thought back to Il-Eruk's tavern, Arielle, the St Julian St Julian. the Internment Centre, Muath while his experiences had taken a month, the Doctor had been around for only a few days. Where to begin? 'Yeah, erm. well, when the Omnethoth attack started we jumped back a month, and she abandoned me. The Randomiser wouldn't let her come back to Yquatine, and it took her quite a long time to track my biodata.'

The Doctor tapped his lips with a bony finger. 'And during that time you met Arielle?'

Fitz blinked. He didn't want to think of Arielle, not now. 'Yeah. he said dully. I met Arlene.'

The Doctor rubbed his hands together. 'Yes, well, we have got a lot of catching up to do.'

Fitz closed his eyes and sighed.

Suddenly the temperature dropped, and a voice came from all around them. Compa.s.sion's voice, an ice-queen breath, a brittle thing of frost. 'You are forgiven. Doctor.'

Fitz s.h.i.+vered. 'Well, that is a relief.'

The Doctor smiled, but his eyes were sad. 'Thank you. Compa.s.sion.'

There was a deep, heavy sigh, which surged around them like the sound of the sea. Fitz was sure he could feel a light breeze tickling his face. 'I accept that what you did was for the best.' The Doctor visibly relaxed at the contrition in her voice. 'But you must never do anything like that again, Doctor. You mustn't interfere with my systems without telling me. As Fitz said. we are all on the same side.'

'Yes, of course,' said the Doctor, stepping up to Compa.s.sion and adjusting a few dials and switches. 'We're in the vortex now, drifting,' he mumbled. 'Probably best if we let Compa.s.sion decide when she's going to materialise.'

'Definitely best,' said Compa.s.sion.

The breeze faded. And was it just Fitz's imagination, or was it a shade lighter, a tad warmer now, as if Compa.s.sion was trying to make them more comfortable?

'So,' said Fitz, a smile spreading across his face. 'We have no idea where the h.e.l.l we're going next.'

'No,' said the Doctor, returning his smile. 'And neither do the Time Lords, Faction Paradox, the Daleks, the Cybermen, the bloke down the road or his cat!'

Fitz realised with a shock that he felt really quite pleased. The moment he'd seen the Doctor emerge from the Omnethoth s.h.i.+p, all his plans to stay behind in the Minerva System had vanished just like that. Then he realised with an even greater shock that this Goth wet dream called Compa.s.sion was now home. She was like a scary new girlfriend with dark secrets you stuck with because you were afraid of the alternatives. Also like a haunted house in which you were forced to shelter.

Some home.

Fitz yawned and stretched. 'That's fine, then.'

The Doctor came over to Fitz. There was an unsettling look of feverish enthusiasm on his face. 'I think you'd better tell me everything that happened to you on Yquatine. I'm especially interested in what you got up to with Arielle. If my facts are right, she was the carrier of the Omnethoth spores.'

The last thing he wanted to do was explain about Arielle. 'She was she was...' He sighed. He was tired and he wanted to be alone. 'Oh, Doctor,' Fitz groaned, 'right now, I need a bath, a pot of coffee and a few hours in bed, more than anything else in the universe.'

Fitz could see further questions in the Doctor's eyes, ready to burst from his lips. But instead he nodded, smiled and reached out, patting Fitz's shoulder. 'Yes yes, of course you do.' He looked up at the ceiling. 'I've got a few things I need to discuss with Compa.s.sion anyway.'

Fitz patted the Doctor's hand. It was, after all, b.l.o.o.d.y great to see him again, pain that he sometimes was. Great to be back in the mad flight through time and s.p.a.ce, destination unknown. Who knew what fresh h.e.l.ls they would face when they next landed?

The thought of more action filled his limbs with aching tiredness. 'See you later.'

The Doctor nodded absently. He had already turned away, examining the dials and displays on Compa.s.sion's console.

Yawning hard enough to crack his jaw, Fitz walked from the console chamber and trudged down the wood-panelled corridor towards his room on the dark side of Compa.s.sion.

The Eighth Doctor's adventures continue in Coldheart by Trevor Baxendale, ISBN 0 563 55595 5. published March 2000.