Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time by Paul Cornell

Author:Paul Cornell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

10

Heart of Glass

‘What are those things?’ asked Bill.

The Doctor had hoped that they wouldn’t attract this much attention, but like that was ever going to happen. ‘What we came here for,’ he said. ‘The biggest database in the galaxy.’ Bill stared at him. To her it must be as if Wikipedia had suddenly grown tentacles. ‘They’ll settle down in a moment.’

They did. With no new targets venturing close to the darkness they loved, the creatures gradually skittered away. They were pack animals at heart, after all. No individual courage was to be found in them. The Doctor turned to check on Archie, who was being tended to by the First Doctor. ‘Come along, my dear chap, you’ll be fine.’

‘Get him back into the TARDIS,’ said the Doctor. There was no reason this man had to be forced to confront more monsters.

‘Oh, did someone put you in charge of this little expedition, hmm?’ said the old man. However, he did as he was told, helping the only slightly protesting soldier back towards safety.

Bill had gone to watch the creatures skittering around, running for cover, upwards, sideways, into the cracks, wherever they usually hid in the ruins. The Doctor surveyed them too. They had evolved so far from their usual commanding selves, and were, at the same time, just like them.

‘So, do we talk to them?’ said Bill. ‘Ask them questions? How does it work?’

‘We don’t do anything,’ said the Doctor, grabbing her arm and hauling her back towards the TARDIS, hoping to get her there before she started yelling too much. ‘I do.’

‘Oh no, no, no!’

‘You’re going to wait in the TARDIS.’

‘Why?’

He’d led her to the doors of the TARDIS. He found he could still hardly look at her. She was like his conscience made flesh, mostly in that her existence was unreliable. ‘I need you to look after the Captain.’

‘You’re lying. You think I’m a duplicate, a trick.’

‘I don’t know what I think.’

‘You don’t trust me. You don’t think I’m really me. Tell me the truth!’

In this incarnation, the Doctor could never have resisted that invitation to honest bluntness. ‘I don’t trust you, and I don’t think you’re really you.’ He saw the effect his words had on her; he’d known what they would do. ‘But if there is the slightest chance that Bill Potts is alive and standing in front of me, I will not, under any circumstances, endanger her life again.’

‘Seriously. You’re looking right at me. And you don’t even know I’m here.’

‘Correct. I ask you to respect that, and to respect me—’

‘You’re an arse, you know that? You’re a stupid bloody arse.’

‘—as I have always respected … you.’

There was an anguished silence between them.

The door of the TARDIS burst open, and the First Doctor stuck his head out, wagging a finger at Bill. ‘If I hear any more language like that from you, young lady, you’re in for a jolly good smacked bottom!’ He slammed the door behind him and vanished back inside.

The Doctor and Bill continued to look at each other.

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