Doctor Who - The Dark Path by David A. McIntee

Author:David A. McIntee [McIntee, David A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

of course,’ he enthused. ‘This is, er, Koschei, one of my oldest and

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dearest friends. We were at. . . school together, you see. Koschei, this

is James Robert McCrimmon. He and Victoria Waterfield travel with

me these days.’

‘Yes, the charming Miss Waterfield is just back there.’ He pointed

towards a trench in the ground. ‘Likewise, I gather you have met my

friend Ailla.’

‘Yes. As a matter of fact, your TARDIS is just outside the pyramid

now. Where did Victoria say that girl was from?’

‘Earth in the twenty-eighth century,’ Koschei supplied helpfully. ‘She

has the greatest computer skills you could hope to see. Very useful in

situations like this.’

‘Yes. . . That’s something I’d been meaning to ask: they allow you

to wander around like this?’

‘Do I detect a hint of jealousy, Doctor?’ Koschei shrugged. ‘They’ve

never said anything untoward to me.’ He looked back at the distant

amphitheatre, which seemed to curve around the hilltop they were

on. ‘If my TARDIS is just outside, perhaps that is more useful. If you

will excuse me, I’ll leave you to rejoin Miss Waterfield.’

Victoria was exploring amidst the huge coolant pipes, since she was

afraid to touch any of the consoles or even the monoliths for fear of

what effect it might have. Voices were echoing strangely from the

smooth curved walls, and she looked for a place to hide, until she

realized that one of the voices had a distinct Scottish accent.

Since all of the Imperials had a strange accent of their own, there

was only one person it could be, and she raced back to the main hall

to find the Doctor and Jamie coming round the comer. ‘It’s like a castle

inside out,’ Jamie was saying.

‘Or a planet inside out. Victoria!’ They both came over. ‘You really

should have stayed in Koschei’s TARDIS, you know.’

‘Yes, I know, but I thought you would want to know what that Terrell

was up to. I thought that if I could find out –’

‘And have you?’

‘Koschei says that this Darkheart place is keeping the colonists im-

mortal.’

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The Doctor nodded understandingly. ‘I suspected as much.’ He

went over to the pearlescent structure that Koschei had called a time-

flow analogue. ‘This is certainly some kind of temporal stasis. . . ’ The Doctor poked at the monolith, watching as ripples of light spread out

from where his fingers touched it. ‘I’ve never seen anything on quite

this sort of scale, though.’

Victoria wondered whether she should pull the Doctor’s hand away

from the smooth ore. ‘Doctor, be careful. Koschei said this was very

precisely balanced.’

‘Did he?’ The Doctor cleared his throat. ‘Well, he’s always been a

terrible old fusspot, you know; he doesn’t like to actually do anything

until after he’s prepared and planned and measured and all of that

sort of thing.’

Which was exactly the sort of proper preparation that Edward Wa-

terfield had taught his daughter. ‘That sounds quite sensible to me.’

‘Yes, but really there’s no substitute for, er, you know, having a

go and seeing what happens.’ He flexed his fingers and cracked his

knuckles, like a pianist about to embark on a long and complicated

concerto. ‘Now don’t worry, Victoria, I know what I’m doing.’

‘Then you know what this is?’

‘Oh yes.

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