by Doctor Who
He blew grit from his lips. ‘ Bleah. That’s it, from now on I am staying out of caves.’
Martha’s eyes prickled, and it wasn’t from the dust. ‘You had me worried for a minute, there.’
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‘Who, me?’ He gave her a lop-sided grin. ‘Nick-of-time escapes are my speciality.’ She punched him on the arm and he made a face. ‘Ow!
What was that for?’
‘For scaring us like that.
Next time, don’t cut it so fine.’
She
frowned. ‘Or let yourself get taken over by a mad alien super weapon.’
‘OK,’ he agreed. ‘I’ll try not to let it happen again. No promises, though.’
Martha turned to study the crater and the pillar of dust that was all that remained of the old iron mine. ‘You don’t mess about, do you?
Dropping a hill on someone.’
The Doctor frowned. ‘They didn’t leave me with any other option.’
‘How did you do that?’
He patted his pockets, sending up fresh puffs of dust. ‘When we ran into the mine and I collapsed the entrance, I scanned the resonant frequency of the rock formations. . . ’ He pulled handfuls of dust and small stones from the crevices of the coat, his frown deepening. ‘I set the Clade power matrix to overload at the same sonic interval. . . ’ The Doctor paused, and fumbled at his holster, only to find it had been ripped open in the escape. ‘I’ve lost it. My sonic screwdriver, I had it right here. Oh, not again.’
Nathan stooped and dug something long and silver out of the rockslide. ‘Looking for this?’ He offered the wand-like device to the Doctor.
His face lit up. ‘Oh, yes! Nathan Blaine, eyes like an eagle!’ The Doctor ruffled the boy’s hair.
Nathan looked up at the clear blue sky. ‘Doc, just now, that flash of light –’
‘That was my handiwork, yes,’ he admitted, leading them back down toward the tumbledown remains of the old mine head. ‘I inserted a program meme into the Clade systems just before I disconnected myself from it to neutralise the memory transfer from –’ The Doctor glanced at Nathan and saw that the boy hadn’t understood a word he was saying. ‘I made the bad dreams vanish,’ he continued.
‘If I did it right, the pulse will reach for miles in every direction, and hopefully touch everyone that Alvin Godlove healed. No more nightmares. . . ’ He blew out a breath. ‘Well, at least no more alien ones.
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Can’t really help you with the normal humankind.’
Nathan smiled. ‘Oh, I reckon you have, Doc. I get the feelin’ as long as you’re around, nothing will ever seem scary again.’
As the evening drew in, they buried Walking Crow by the mine and Martha shed a few tears for him as the Doctor spoke in the Pawnee’s tribal language, calling for the Great Spirit to watch over him and thank him for his sacrifice.
Then, with Nathan guiding them once more, they made their way back to Ironhill where a wary citizenry were waiting for them. The Doctor organised hotel rooms for the three of them and, more importantly, a bath. Nathan later remarked that he’d washed off enough mud to coat the roof of the schoolhouse, and Martha had to admit she hadn’t been that grubby since Leo had pushed her in the river when they were kids.
The Doctor sat out on the balcony of the hotel where they stayed, watching the stars all night long. Martha and Nathan slept, and they did not dream at all.
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Jenny Forrest and the recently appointed Sheriff Loomis Teague greeted them a day later, the three of them back in Redwater to a hero’s welcome.
‘I knew you were coming back,’ Jenny explained, as they walked toward the alley where the TARDIS stood. ‘There was this strange summer lightning in the sky, and after it passed. . . ’ She trailed off. ‘I knew you had saved us.’
Teague nodded. ‘Doc, I won’t pretend to know what kinda mumbo-jumbo took place hereabouts, but I’d be a fool if I said we didn’t all owe you our lives.’
The Doctor gave a wan smile. ‘You know, Nathan’s the real hero here.’ He gestured to where the teenager was talking animatedly to Zachariah Hawkes and Joe Pitt. ‘That young man faced a very difficult choice. . . and he made the right one.’
‘I’ll see to him,’ promised Jenny. ‘He has no blood relatives still living, but the townsfolk will treat him like family.’
Martha nodded. ‘That’s good to know. And how about you?’
Jenny gave a sideways glance to Teague that was loaded with subtle signals, and Martha had to bite her lip.
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‘I have. . . friends,’ said the schoolteacher. ‘For all the horrors of the past days, the experience has brought us all closer together. Redwater is more a community now than it ever was.’
Teague nodded. ‘You were right, Doc. We stood together.’ He extended a hand and the Doctor shook it. ‘You and Miss Jones, you’re welcome in this town anytime the winds blow you back this way.’ He tapped a finger to the brim of his hat and then walked away, his spurs clicking behind him.
The Doctor chuckled. ‘Hard to believe he’s the same guy who was cheating at cards and skimming off the ante a few days ago.’
‘But you saw the potential in him,’ said Jenny. ‘I think you do that with everyone you meet, Doctor.’ Martha saw the teacher watching her, and the other woman looked sad. ‘And now you’re both going to leave us,’ she said.
Martha nodded, trying to keep a light tone to her voice. ‘Places to go, people to see.’
‘Best this way,’ said the Doctor. ‘I hate long goodbyes, don’t you?’
‘Hey, Doc!’ As the three of them approached the police box, Nathan came bounding up to them. ‘Hey, uh, listen. Mr Hawkes tells me my pa left the house to me and all. . . ’ He chewed his lip. ‘I was thinkin’, you and Miss Martha might want to stay a while?’ He nodded at the TARDIS. ‘A lot more room than in there, I’d reckon.’
‘You’d be surprised,’ Martha smiled.
‘That’s a kind offer, but we’ve got to move on.’ The Doctor had the hat that Mr Vogel had given him in his hand, and he flipped it around his wrist and placed it on Nathan’s head. ‘Look after this for me, will you?’
‘Sure,’ said the youth, nodding reluctantly.
As Martha unlocked the TARDIS door, the Doctor gave Jenny a hopeful look. ‘One last thing. Just for the sake of propriety, could you do me a favour and make sure Mr Hawkes back there keeps us out of his newspaper? I think history can roll on just fine without us cropping up where we shouldn’t be.’
‘I’ll do that,’ Jenny promised, ‘but I’d beg to differ. History needs all the help it can get.’
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The Doctor gave her a final nod and followed Martha into the TARDIS and shut the door behind him, closing off an all-too-brief glimpse of a strange, impossible room ranged inside.
For a long moment, Jenny and Nathan stood watching in silence; then the youth spoke. ‘So, uh, what happens now? Is that shack there gonna sprout wheels and roll away?’
Jenny smiled ruefully. ‘Given what I’ve seen of the Doctor, anything is possible.’
Abruptly the door opened a crack and the Doctor leaned out with a book in his hand. ‘Jenny! Almost forgot, I have something for you.
You liked Jules Verne, right? You’re going to love this guy, then. Bit political at times, but some brilliant stories.’
He pressed the book into her hand and the teacher opened it at the first page. ‘ The Time Machine,’ she read aloud, ‘ An Invention. By H.G.
Wells.’ Jenny saw something in the text and frowned. ‘How odd. That must be a misprint. The publication date is ten years hence.’
‘Yes, must be,’ agreed the Doctor. ‘I wouldn’t go lending it to anyone else, though. Well, maybe Nathan. . . But when you’ve read it, things will make a bit more sense, I promise.’ He smiled again. ‘Bye!’
He left them there in silence; then the sound of mighty engines of infinity wheezed into action, and the TARDIS vanished into t
he fading light of the sunset.
Inside the time ship, the Doctor circled the central console and fiddled with the controls, patting and tapping the machine as one might stroke a cat, while the central column rose and fell, rose and fell.
Martha jerked her head in the direction of the doors. ‘Was that a sensible thing to do, giving Jenny a copy of a book that hasn’t even been written yet?’
‘Ah, it’s OK,’ he said airily. ‘I mean, what’s she going to do? It’s not like she can post spoilers on the internet, is it?’
‘Good point,’ she agreed. Martha’s fingers strayed to the hem of her leather jacket and she suddenly realised she was toying with the spot where Tangleleg’s energy blast had hit her. She drew in a sharp breath, and from the corner of her eye she saw the Doctor pause.
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‘I’m glad you’re all right,’ he told her, the mirth fading for a moment.
‘I’m only sorry it wasn’t enough. There’s always some who slip away. . .
The Sheriff, Walking Crow, Alvin Godlove. . . ’
‘Him?’ Martha blinked. ‘But he was a scumbag!’
‘Really?’ The Doctor eyed her. ‘Have you forgotten about all the people that man cured of smallpox, and who knows what other illnesses while he was carrying the Clade? I know he was motivated by greed, but a life saved is still a life saved.’
Martha paused, mulling it over.
Perhaps the Doctor was right.
Godlove had just been a quack con-artist with loose morals; she shuddered to think what could have happened if someone really dangerous, a true killer, had found the Clade in the woods that night.
‘In his own warped sort of way, Alvin Godlove was trying to do the right thing. He was just. . . too weak to stand up to it.’ She heard him sigh. ‘The Clades have the power to heal or to kill.’ He looked at the holster still belted around his waist and with a frown, he took it off and put it aside. ‘Any kind of technology, it’s always the same. It’s not black or white, good or evil. It’s how you use it, the intention behind it, that’s the important thing.’
‘Peacemakers,’ said Martha, thinking.
‘Yes,’ replied the Doctor. After a moment, he crossed to where he’d dumped his brown coat in a heap on the chair and dipped into a pocket, his hand returning with her cell phone. His expression was troubled. ‘I. . . I thought you might want this back.’ He tossed it and Martha caught it out of the air. ‘Just in case, y’know, if you wanted to call home.’
Martha opened the phone and her finger hovered over the keys.
Whenever she had a bad experience in the past, it was Tish that she called, Tish who she moaned to, Tish that listened to her cry when she was dumped or just emotional over something. Martha thought about those moments after she had been injured, thinking of her family and wanting to see them again.
But what could she tell her sister if she called her? I’m just phoning from the Wild West to tell you how I got zapped by a space alien super gun with a mind of its own. She gave a slight shake of her head and 164
snapped the phone shut again.
The Doctor was still watching her. ‘After what happened, I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to, you know. . . call it a day.’
‘Call it a day?’ Martha repeated. ‘You mean, go home?’ She nodded at the door again. ‘Are you throwing me out?’
‘What?’ The Doctor was abashed. ‘No, never. You’re a brilliant house guest. You do your share of the washing up and you don’t leave dirty kilts everywhere, not like some people.’ He paused, taking a breath. ‘It’s not that at all. I meant go home if you want to,’ he said, without weight. ‘It’s not all fun and games, is it? It’s risky, being a wanderer in the fourth dimension. I’d totally understand if you’d had enough, if all that was too much for you.’ He sighed. ‘It’s not every day you stare death in the face. I’m sorry that had to happen to you, Martha, I really am.’
‘It’s not the first time I’ve been there recently. And if I stay, it could happen again, couldn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ he admitted, careful and serious. ‘It could. And the next time you might not be so lucky.’
A slow smile crossed her face, turning into a grin as the Doctor’s expression became one of mild confusion. ‘You know what? I lived through that. Me, Martha Jones, Medical Student. I lived through it and I was never afraid, not even for a second. Do you know why?’
He was starting to smile again. ‘Tell me,’ he said.
‘Because I trust you. You’re the Doctor.’
He shook his head and chuckled. ‘And you’re a rare one, Martha Jones.’
‘I am,’ she agreed, walking across to lean over his shoulder and study the monitor screen. ‘So,’ she asked, ‘where next?’
The Doctor matched her grin. ‘Let’s follow the trails of time, and see where that takes us. . . ’
The TARDIS blazed on through the coruscating fires of the temporal vortex, across the depths of space and time, with a million new adventures ranged out before it.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My thanks to all these folks in the many domains of Doctor Who for their support and confidence:
Justin Richards and Russell T Davies for giving me the opportunity to tell a Tenth Doctor story.
John Ainsworth, Nick Briggs, Sharon Gosling, Simon Guerrier, Ja-son Haigh-Ellery, Alan Barnes and everyone else in the Big Finish crew.
Keith Topping, David McIntee, David Howe, Ben Aaronovitch, Marc Platt, Joe Lidster, Nick Wallace, Steven Savile, David Bishop, An-drew Cartmel, Paul Cornell, Caroline Symcox, Tony and Jane Kenealy, Shaun Lyon, Clay Eichelberger, Tara O’Shea, Jill Sherwin, Kathryn Sullivan, Stewart Vandal and David Gould for counsel and comrade-ship.
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Document Outline
Front Cover
Contents
Prologue
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Acknowledgements
Back Cover
