Short Trips by Stephen Cole

Author:Stephen Cole [Cole, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 1998-03-30T22:00:00+00:00

Mondas Passing

by Paul Grice

Ben decided he didn’t like the hotel room. OK it was warm, providing shelter from the cold drizzle of the early evening, but it seemed somehow claustrophobic despite its agreeable size.

He switched on a wall-light and it shone upward on to the red sheen of the wall, filling the room with a dull, lazy glow that seemed comforting against the darkness encroaching from the window.

Crossing over to the bed, he opened his suitcase and took out a miniature bottle of rum. He needed a drink after the long drive down.

After all, it was New Year’s Eve – New Year’s Eve, 1986.

He couldn’t believe how quickly the year had gone, moving inexorably towards December, the time it had all happened – or rather would happen. The Zeus spacecrafts had started their launches early in the year. He’d even seen the Snowcap base and General Cutler on the news. Poor old Cutler…

The thoughts sent chills through his whole body. Ghosts from his past enacting events that were really only just happening. How many times had he had the nightmare of the Cyberman advancing on him in the Projection Room? Waking up in a sweat shouting, You didn’t leave me no alternative! Hard to explain to the wife… And if it wasn’t that, there were the dreams of ‘her’. He could hardly tell the wife about that, could he? Of course, he felt guilty leaving her alone tonight, but he just had to be here.

He told himself it was stupid: he knew the Cybermen didn’t win in 1986, just as they wouldn’t win on the Moon in 2070. Twenty years ago he had helped to save the world he lived in today. Now he was middle-aged and world-weary. His eyes had lost a lot of their cocky self-assurance, and his expression now constantly seemed somehow troubled or slightly hurt.

God, he wanted his youth back. Wanted her. Somewhere at the South Pole around now they were together and he ached for that time.

He couldn’t be sure exactly when it was; he remembered only that the calendar had said December 1986. But there had been no mention of a tenth planet lately, no reports of any energy drains, so it couldn’t have happened yet. Unless it had been covered up. Yeah, maybe –

His thoughts were interrupted by the knock on the door. He froze.

This was sooner than he’d let himself dare hope for – he’d only been there himself half an hour. He frantically checked himself in the mirror: oh God… oh God…

‘It’s the staff,’ he told himself, ‘checking the room’s OK. That’s all.’

But the knock came again, a presumptuous knock, familiar still after all these years. Breathing in deeply, stomach held firmly in, he opened the door.

‘Hello, Duchess.’

‘Ben!’

The warmth of Polly’s hug surprised him. Maybe she had been dwelling on things as much as he had. Or maybe this was how she greeted everyone now; he hadn’t seen her for years… Her hair was still long, and almost the same colour blonde – must be dyed now, of course, he mused.

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