Ghost Light by Marc Platt

Author:Marc Platt [Platt, Marc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Doctor Who (Fictitious Character)
ISBN: 9780426203513
Publisher: Target Books
Published: 1990-11-14T08:00:00+00:00

The lift jolted to a halt. The Doctor slid back the gate and directed Josiah out with the Geiger counter. From the far end of the passage came a tremulous pulse of sound and a glow made almost tangible by the mist that hovered there. Josiah clutched at the wall in fear. ‘Light!’ he choked.

‘... at the end of the tunnel,’ added the Doctor.

He paused to examine the paintings on the curved walls.

The brushwork was fine and detailed, even nineteenth century gothic in style.

‘Palaeolithic cave paintings,’ he mused, ‘but done in oils. Nimrod must be getting homesick.’

The Doctor urged Josiah further on until they reached the veil of light that marked the entrance to the inner chamber.

From the outside, the Doctor could make out the contours of the chamber which was lit by flickering screens whose shifting patterns coloured the mist blue to green to gold. The walls groaned their protest as vents around the chamber jetted steam into the area. At its heart, from which all its power stemmed, the giant oval membrane throbbed with piercing luminescence.

Josiah held back at the mouth of the passage. He was close to panic and taking short gulps of air. He warily eyed the scene until the Doctor pushed him into the centre. The penetrated veil emitted its shrill cry, either of alarm or acknowledgement, and it was like standing in the heart of a living jewel. Colour and light shimmered and darted around Josiah and the Doctor, it silhouetted the figure that rose from beside the membrane and moved towards them.

Ace flung her arms around the Doctor and demanded to know where he had been.

‘Where haven’t I been?’ he replied, slightly embarrassed at this show of affection in front of his prisoner. ‘I came as quick as I could,’ he added brusquely.

Josiah ignored the Doctor’s gun and rounded on Ace.

‘What have you done to my observatory?’ he accused.

‘It’s what it nearly did to me!’ she retorted.

The Doctor glanced around the chamber, taking in the Victorian furnishings in their archaic surroundings.

Through the hissing jets of steam he could see two motionless shapes standing hunched by the closed door of a cell and a figure that knelt before the huge membrane and stared deep into its glowing heart at the shadow that stirred there.

The Doctor turned sternly back to his protegee and said,

‘Ace? Have you been tampering?’

‘It was an accident!’ she protested.

Josiah was not slow to shift the blame and attention from his own shoulders. ‘All my work could be ruined!’ he declared.

‘That’s my girl,’ the Doctor said proudly. He handed her the Geiger counter.

Ace studied it for a second before the Doctor removed it from her grasp, turned it round, gave it back and directed her aim towards Josiah.

‘Keep him covered,’ said the Doctor before he sauntered across the chamber towards the figure that knelt beside the membrane.

One of the jets of steam spurted out and almost caught the Doctor in the face. He scooped up a brass waste-paper basket from the floor, caught the jet in it and plugged the basket over the vent on the wall.

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