Doctor Who: Festival of Death: 50th Anniversary Edition (38 page)

‘Romana?’ said the Doctor.

‘Yes?’

Romana tiptoed across the floor, her eyes fixed on Hoopy. He let out a long sigh.

‘I think we have to go back in time again.’

‘Which is why I saw you leave in the TARDIS. There’s been two of you running around the G-Lock at the same time.’

Romana beckoned K-9 forward. He trundled out from behind the coffin, and wheeled his ungainly way through the floor cables.

‘Two of me? A future me and a present me? Aha! Until such time as I become the future me, when the present me will become the past me and the future me will become the present me. D’you see?’

K-9 at her heels, Romana took another step towards the necroport. It was so near, she could almost reach out and touch the entrance hatch.

‘Naturally,’ said Romana’s former self.

Romana suddenly remembered what was about to happen. She waved to K-9 to get back under cover. He reversed into the shadows and she dodged behind the coffin that the half-asleep Hoopy was sitting on.

‘Which also explains why there’s one of you here, and one of you down there.’ Romana’s former self turned towards the necroport and pointed.

‘Yes. Ah. You said the TARDIS was down there as well?’

‘Of course, that’s it!’ Thankfully, Romana’s former self turned away again. That had been close. ‘You must have travelled there from the observation lounge. Or, at least, you will do. That’s where you were going! It all fits.’

Romana pulled herself upright, waved to K-9, and sprinted over to the necroport. K-9 skidded across the floor after her.

The Doctor suddenly directed his attention to the Repulsion; it was a shadow shifting in the fog. ‘And what will happen to me?’

‘You will remain here. Trapped in an eternal nondeath. And throughout that eternity, you will know that you were the one who gave me the means to enter your reality. You were the one who allowed this to happen. You alone are responsible,’ sneered the Repulsion, gliding towards him without touching the ground. ‘Every person I kill, Doctor, I will kill in your name!’

Hoopy was having trouble staying awake. He shuffled around on the casket. After a Beautiful Death he would normally have popped
a
few Novovacuous to lessen the comedown. But now his loaf was throbbing, his stomach was queasy and he had prickly flushes.

At the other end of the hall, the Doctor and the lady Romana were talking. Bored, Hoopy turned towards the necroport and almost choked on his tongue.

Another Romana was opening the hatchway. At her feet there was some sort of comedy robot dog wearing a tartan collar.

Hoopy blinked. And, just to make sure, blinked again.

He turned back down the hall. Romana was talking to the Doctor. He turned back to the necroport. Romana was lifting the robot dog through the hatch.

Hoopy removed his sunglasses, cleaned them and put them back on. There was no doubt about it. There, in front of his eyes, were two Romanas.

This was totally freak-out double-mad. This was Whacked and Ungroovy, capitalised. Bad chemicals. It had to be bad chemicals, messing with the Hoopster’s brain.

Hoopy screwed his eyes shut and breathed deeply. He looked again. Romana – the Romana entering the necroport – returned his gaze. She looked across to her counterpart and back at Hoopy, and put a confidential finger to her lips. ‘Shh.’

Hoopy hopped down from the coffin and shambled over to the necroport. But by the time he got there, Romana and her canine friend had disappeared inside, shutting the hatch behind them.

‘I’m imploring you. Don’t do this. What you are intending is unspeakably evil.’

The Repulsion stood framed in the ruined archway. ‘It is too late, Doctor. Much too late.’ Its voice boomed out across the sky like cracking thunder. ‘Only the Repulsion may live!’

Paddox was pointing his pistol directly at Harken’s face. He held it there, trembling, and then changed his mind. He walked up to the Doctor’s coffin and lifted the headset off the Doctor’s head. He rotated the mesh in his hands and poised it over his own skull, his
eyes
streaming. ‘Now. At last. The moment of my redemption!’

A thin beam of buzzing light appeared from behind the blue box, and hit Paddox on the side of his face. He screamed, staggered halfway across the room and slumped to the floor. He gave a final howl of defeat, and fell silent.

‘What the –’

Romana appeared from behind the blue box, a metal dog under one arm. The dog’s gun-barrel nose retracted with a satisfied hum. ‘Well done, K-9,’ said Romana, patting its head.

‘Romana!’ exclaimed Harken. ‘You’re back! Again! And with a robot dog!’ He rattled his chains, his wrists aching. ‘Oh, my luckiest stars! Quick, get us out of here!’

Romana ignored him and dashed over to the Doctor’s coffin. She took one look at the Doctor’s dead body and placed the dog on the floor beside it, facing it towards Harken and Evadne. She then reached for the discarded headset.

‘Romana!’ yelled Evadne. ‘You’ve got to –’

‘Be quiet, both of you!’ Romana shouted, collecting the cable off the floor. ‘There isn’t much time.’

‘Goodbye, Doctor,’ called the Repulsion. The shadowy figure slowly faded away. ‘I am entering your being.’

The Doctor stood frozen, his mouth open in terror. ‘No!’

‘Goodbye.’

The Doctor was alone, surrounded by bare grey cliffs. A wind chilled him, and he wrapped his scarf around his neck, thumping himself for warmth.

Romana wrenched the back of K-9’s head-casing open, exposing the muddle of transistors, valves and circuit boards. She jammed the cable directly into his brain output socket. The connection fused, burning her hand, but it held. She backed away, and crossed her fingers.

K-9’s head was completely enclosed in the necroport headset. His ears waggled affirmatively. ‘Report. Repulsion entity now entering memory circuits.’

Romana crossed over to the Doctor’s coffin. She glanced at her watch. He had been dead for almost thirty minutes.

‘Excuse me,’ coughed Harken. ‘Would you mind helping us now–’ His jaw dropped.

Thick smoke was billowing out of K-9’s casing. The robot dog’s whole body was shaking. His ears were whirling furiously, his probe telescoping back and forth, his tail waggling. His eye visor was glowing intensely, a hideous, malevolent, bloody shade of red.

‘Mistress, Repulsion now taking control –’ K-9’s voice suddenly became a booming growl. ‘I AM THE REPULSION!’

Romana ran across to ERIC’s brain chamber and yelled inside. ‘ERIC. Download the contents of K-9’s brain, now!’

>
Leave me alone. I want to die
.

‘Please!’

>
The Doctor said he would deactivate me
.

‘We need your help!’

>
But now he’s dead. Missing comma
.

‘WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?’ screamed K-9. The mesh was jiggling over his head. ‘THIS IS NOT THE DOCTOR!’

‘ERIC, if you do this one thing for us, I promise I will help you die.’

ERIC considered the offer at length. >
You promise?

‘Yes!’

>
All right then
, said ERIC. >
Attempting to access K-9’s memory. Searching
.

K-9 was surrounded by a circular red heat haze. ‘THIS IS K-9!’ He extended his nose laser.

‘Help!’ gibbered Harken.

>
Searching
.

‘Oh, come on!’ urged Romana, pounding the air with both fists.

>
Searching
.

Evadne screamed, desperately trying to angle her body away from K-9. ‘No, stop it, stop it, get that thing away from me.’

‘THE DOCTOR HAS TRICKED ME!’ rasped K-9. ‘YOU ALL SHALL DIE!’

A beam of light fired across the room, hitting Evadne square in the chest. She yelled in agony and slumped forward, her body hanging from her chains, her eyes closed.

There was a sudden burst of electronic noise, a screech followed by a groan.

>
Loading
, announced ERIC triumphantly. >
Now downloading Repulsion consciousness into brain centre. Bad hex
.

Romana dashed back to the Doctor, taking care to avoid K-9’s gun barrel.

‘NO!’ yelled K-9, hidden by smoke. He fired his laser again, this time destroying a section of wall. ‘YOU CANNOT –’

>
Download complete
, said ERIC. >
Data? Block? WHERE AM I NOW? WHAT IS THIS PLACE?

Romana crouched down beside K-9. She wrapped the end of the Doctor’s scarf around one hand, wrenched the smoking cable out of the robot dog’s brain and threw it to the floor. Next, she prised the metal mesh off of his head. K-9’s circuitry was smouldering.

‘Are you all right, K-9?’ asked Romana.

K-9 coughed. ‘Damage to…’ He cleared his microphone. ‘Damage to personality and speech circuits. Loss of motor functions. Power supply depleted…’ His voice dropped in pitch and his head and tail drooped, his eye visor dimming.

>
THIS MIND IS SENILE AND CORRUPTED
, yelled ERIC. >
Syntax error. Can I die now? Please, put me out of my misery
.

‘Oh, K-9,’ sighed Romana. She placed the headset back on the Doctor. She crossed over to the instrument panel and flicked some switches.

‘Excuse me –’ said Harken indignantly, then fell silent under Romana’s glare.

Gallura reached out a hand, the sea breeze ruffling his fronds. ‘It is time for you to go, Doctor.’

The Doctor clasped Gallura’s hand. ‘Goodbye, Gallura.’ He took a few steps back, and grinned, slowly fading away to nothing. ‘Until next time!’

The sound of seagulls continued to play, and the waves crashed over the rocks. But the beach was empty.

Romana jammed down the lever, sending a surge of psychothermal energy back into the Doctor’s corpse. The necroport throbbed. She moved to the side of the casket, resting her hands on the metal casing. ‘Come on, Doctor.’

The Doctor remained utterly still, his face muscles relaxed, his skin deathly pale.

Something was wrong. Romana checked the connections, following the wires back to their plugs.

Steam was rising from the Doctor’s body. His cheeks twitched, and his back tensed lifting him partly out of the coffin. Then he fell back, shuddering violently.

Romana checked the life monitor. Two horizontal green lines. Perhaps it was too late. ‘Doctor!’

The Doctor continued to shake as the throbbing rose to a high-pitched whine.

In her frustration, Romana thumped the life monitor. It beeped. And beeped again. A double heartbeat.

The Doctor stopped moving. Romana noticed colour returning to his face. His fingers stretched. And then, at last, he gave a hearty groan, and his chest rose and dipped contentedly in time to the beeps.

The Doctor was alive.

Romana switched off the necroport controls and immediately the whine dropped to a low rumble. Next, she removed the head mesh, placing it delicately to one side.

‘The Doctor…’ exclaimed Harken. ‘He’s coming back to life!’

The Doctor’s nose twitched. His eyes opened. His lips curled into a wild, toothy grin. ‘Romana?’ he said, gazing up at her.

‘Yes, Doctor?’ Romana sighed with relief.

‘Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated!’ He laughed and sat upright. He rubbed his forehead curiously and surveyed the necroport: Harken chained up, Evadne hanging next
to
him, K-9 standing deactivated and Paddox curled up unconscious on the floor. ‘My plan worked, I assume?’

‘Yes,’ smiled Romana.

The Doctor swung his legs round into a seated position, and dropped them to the floor. He staggered against the coffin. ‘Oh, my legs. I feel… I feel like death warmed up.’

‘You’re bound to experience some after-effects, you were deceased for quite a while.’

‘I’m never, ever going to go through that again. Well, perhaps one more time,’ the Doctor said. ‘Now I suppose I’d better deal with ERIC.’

Romana nodded. As the Doctor disappeared into ERIC’s brain centre, she walked over to Evadne. She placed a hand under her chin, feeling for a pulse.

‘Well?’ said Harken. ‘How is she?’

‘She’s alive. K-9’s nose laser was running low on power. The blast only stunned her.’ Romana wiped her hands and investigated the chains. ‘Right. Now I suppose I’d better set both of you free.’

Harken almost fainted with delight.

>
THIS IS THE SHIP’S COMPUTER
, spluttered the Repulsion using ERIC’s voice. >
HOW DID I GET HERE?

The Doctor bounded over to the interaction terminal. ‘Hello, ERIC!’

>
DOCTOR! YOU HAVE TRICKED ME!

‘Oh, it’s you,’ muttered the Doctor. He levered out the circuit breakers one by one, and then tapped on the keyboard. ‘ERIC, are you still in there?’

>
Are you going to end my suffering, Doctor?

‘Yes!’ The Doctor pulled a bunch of wires from ERIC’s innards, and there was a splutter of sparks followed by an ominous whine, and the brain centre filled with smoke. ‘I’ve fused the control linkages. I think.’

>
At last! Switch my central processor to a direct power input
, pleaded ERIC. >
Do it now! Kill me! Blow my mind! Please! No such procedure
.

The Doctor straightened up, brushing his hands.

>
NO!
yelled the Repulsion.

The Doctor’s eyes alighted on a large box of twinkling lights. The central processor. He rubbed his lips, examining each of the connections.

‘ERIC,’ said the Doctor. ‘Do you know any songs?’

>
Songs?

‘You know, songs. It would help me concentrate.’ The Doctor wafted aside the smoke and flicked the switches on the processor, one by one. ‘This is a very delicate operation. One false move and you might not explode.’

ERIC gave a burst of static. >
My old man said follow the van
, he began hesitantly.

>
I CAN DEACTIVATE THE LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS
, interrupted the Repulsion. >
STOP NOW OR I WILL KILL YOU ALL!

‘Concentrate on singing the song, ERIC,’ shouted the Doctor. ‘Don’t let the Repulsion control your mind!’

>
and don’t dilly-dally on the way
–

>
NO!