Godengine

by Craig Hinton

  ‘The colonists are coming back to Jacksonville with us. And Sstaal has promised us supplies – the seminary has an extensive hydroponic garden. We might be able to sit this war out after all.’ His smile was infectious.

  ‘Ah ... yes,’ the Doctor replied uneasily. Roz could sense that he was holding something back, but decided that now wasn’t the time to ask. The Doctor indicated the TARDIS. ‘We really must go, Mr McGuire.’

  ‘Of course.’ He grabbed the Doctor’s hand. ‘Thank you, Doctor. Thank you for everything.’

  It seemed to Roz that the Doctor couldn’t wait to get away. Within seconds, they were inside the TARDIS, the Doctor fussing over the console with almost unseemly haste. As the time rotor began its rise and fall, Roz slammed her fist on one of the panels.

  ‘Okay, Doctor – what was all that about? Why the rush to leave? And are you ever going to tell us what really happened to the TARDIS?’

  The Doctor stood up and shrugged. ‘Very well.’ He looked at both Roz and Chris. ‘As you know, the TARDIS was destroyed because it stalled when a subspace infarction – Rachel and Felice’s attempt to break the blockade – hit it; the Vortex rupture – the result of the disruption of future history which would have happened if Falaxyr’s plan to destroy Jacksonville had happened without my interference – exploded beneath it.’

  ‘So what were those ghost TARDISes all about?’ asked Roz.

  ‘Even though the TARDIS was destroyed, there was still a minute possibility that the destruction of Earth – and therefore the Vortex rupture – could be prevented. This created a minor time paradox, which in turn permitted the formation of future reflections of the TARDIS – the “ghosts”, each one representing a possible future. They were hanging – floating – around because there was a chance that the TARDIS might not have been destroyed. By detonating the power source of the GodEngine, I provided that chance; as well as preventing the destruction of Earth, I also provided the energy that they needed to come back into existence.’ He waved a hand around the ship. ‘Everything happened as it was meant to.’

  ‘But what about Charon?’ asked Chris. ‘They were all supposed to die when the Daleks attacked, weren’t they?’

  ‘Everything happened as it was meant to,’ the Doctor repeated, his hands flitting over the controls.

  Chris wasn’t that easily dissuaded. ‘Come on, Doctor; I shattered the web of time – you told me as much.’

  ‘Very well. You’re both old enough and ugly enough to face up to the truth.’ The Doctor reached over to a keyboard on one of the console panels and tapped a few keys before pointing at the monitor screen above it. ‘Look and learn,’ he muttered.

  Roz and Chris leant forward and read the information that was presented on the monitor; from the title, Roz could see that they were looking at a list of those who had perished during the ten-year occupation of the solar system; specifically, those inhabitants of Mars who had died.

  Certain names had been highlighted, presumably by the Doctor; Roz could see the reason why, but it still seemed a sick thing to do. The highlighted entries consisted of familiar names like Rachel Anders, Felice Delacroix, Antony McGuire... She had no reason to doubt what she was reading – even the Doctor wouldn’t do something that cruel. She looked up at him, her anger at the unfairness of the universe colouring her voice.

  ‘Why?’

  The Doctor walked over to the door which led into the TARDIS interior, his face impassive. ‘It’s the web of time, Roz. Cosmic book-keeping.’

  As he left them to their thoughts, Roz remembered the wedding of Esstar and Sstaal; how hopeful everyone had been about their plans for the future.

  Except that they didn’t have one.

  She turned to Chris, tears in her eyes. ‘Why, Chris? Why?’

  He shrugged, and she could see the pain behind his own eyes. ‘I wish I knew,’ he mumbled.

  Roz’s eyes were drawn to the interior door. ‘Yeah, but I bet he bloody well does.’

  Epilogue

  Finished Business

  As the last strains of the dematerializing TARDIS echoed around the ruined waterfront, the young woman turned away from her past and buried her tear-stained face in his chest. For long moments he held her, comforted her; he was her future now. Arm in arm, they set off to build that future.

  Susan Foreman and David Campbell were well out of earshot when the TARDIS reappeared in exactly the same spot as it had vacated only minutes before. But it was a very different Doctor who stepped through the open doors into the clean air of twenty-second-century London.

  ‘This is it? I was expecting something a bit more, well, modern,’ complained Chris. The Doctor had waited for a decent length of time before returning to the console room, allowing them to begin to come to terms with what they had learnt. Chris knew that the deaths of Rachel and Felice would haunt him – but he also knew that life went on. In fact, that was why they were where they currently were; the Doctor had insisted on what he called ‘closure’.

  ‘Be fair,’ admonished Roz. ‘The planet’s been occupied by Daleks for the last ten years. They aren’t exactly renowned for their urban renovation programmes.’

  Ah!’ sighed the Doctor, taking deep breaths. ‘It has been so long since I was last here... or it might have been only minutes.’ He smiled. ‘That’s the problem with time. It is all a matter of perspective.’ Chris couldn’t help shivering as the Doctor talked about time.

  The three of them walked over to the banks of the sluggish grey Thames. ‘Look!’ The Doctor pointed towards the twilight sky with his umbrella. A burnt yet noble starship was descending from orbit, its antigrav landers glowing bright blue. ‘If I am not mistaken, that’s the Colonial Warship Dauntless. Its commander, Jarvis, broke the physical blockade of the Solar System – after that, it was a fairly simple mopping-up exercise.’

  ‘A hero’s welcome, eh?’ complained Chris. ‘What about us? We saved Earth as well.’

  The Doctor reached up and patted him on the shoulder. ‘We will get our reward in heaven, I am sure. The important thing is we are all still here. Literally.’ He glanced back at the TARDIS, and Roz caught the warm smile.

  ‘Do you still distrust the Ice Warriors?’ asked Roz gently.

  The Doctor gave a slight shrug. ‘I don’t know, Raz. But if Abrasaar was able to renounce his heritage, there is always hope.’ He waved a hand to encompass London. ‘It was hope that kept humanity going during the occupation, and hope which will sustain it through the coming millennia,’ he said grandly, before laughing. ‘Oh dear; that was a bit pretentious, wasn’t it?’

  A loud cheer erupted from the vicinity of the heliport where the Dauntless had landed. ‘Our cue to leave, I think.’ He started walking back to the TARDIS with a bounce in his step that had been missing for too long.

  Chris caught up with him. ‘There’s one thing I’m not clear about, Doctor; ten years ago, the Daleks thought that they were getting a super-weapon from the Ice Warriors and started digging out Earth’s core. Didn’t they realize that it was a waste of time?’ he asked.

  ‘That was why they invaded Mars, Chris; they never stopped searching until the Dauntless broke the physical blockade, and I ruined their chances here on Earth – I and some very special people.’ For a moment, the Doctor’s thoughts were elsewhere – or elsewhen. ‘And that was a very long time ago.’

  He ushered the Adjudicators into the TARDIS before looking back at the newly liberated London. He searched the ground in front of the TARDIS for over a minute with his umbrella, trailing it through the rubble until he saw what he was looking for, a shining piece of metal lying in the dust.

  Susan’s TARDIS key.

  The Doctor went over and grabbed it, his face a melancholy smile. As he entered the TARDIS, he paused. London would survive. Earth would survive. But life was more than grand gestures; the little things were often just as important.

  For a brief second, he wondered whether he should run around the corner and see the young woman
who was so very much a part of him. Then he looked down at the discarded key, and shook his head with infinite sadness.

  ‘Finished business,’ he muttered, before stepping into his ship.

  And then, for the second time in less than ten minutes, the TARDIS left an Earth that was looking to the future.

  Now that it had one.

  Craig’s bit – more of the same...

  That makes three books on the trot in which I’ve done something nasty to the TARDIS. Can we spell the word ‘obsessive’, people?

  No long preamble this time, just a list of people. No reasons, no explanations, except to say that you wouldn’t be reading this book if it wasn’t for them. So, in absolutely no particular order...

  Eddie Thornley, Mike Ramsay, my muckers at EMAP, the TransCo lot – especially Robert Wilkinson-Latham – Justin Richards, Peter Anghelides, my mum, Kevin Gibbs, Andrew Hair, Alex Musson, Berkeley, Peter Elson, Mike Tucker, Andy Lane, Rebecca Levene, Lance Parkin, David Richardson, Ben Aaronovitch and Gary Russell.

  If I’ve forgotten anybody, I apologize. Despite what the back cover says, I am only human.

  Unlike the Ice Warriors. A special thanks to Brian Hayles, for inventing the most wonderful race of aliens ever seen in Doctor Who. I just hope I did them justice.