‘Well?’ asked Aleena. ‘Can you do anything to change it? To make it’s safe to use without killing some innocent person on the surface?’
‘No,’ said the Doctor solemnly. ‘I can’t.’
‘Seriously?’ asked Caroline, who had joined Aleena by the Doctor’s side.
‘Seriously. I’ve read the manual twice, taken this thing apart and put it back together again and looked at some way of changing things, but I can’t.’
Matthew was standing in the doorway. ‘Use me.’
‘I beg your pardon?’ said the Doctor.
‘Use me. Drain the life force from me and regenerate yourself.’
‘It doesn’t work like that,’ said the Doctor. ‘Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to do it. It’d just be a stop-gap. Something to delay the inevitable. It still wouldn’t rebuild the regenerative cells. They’re safely stored away inside you, Matthew.’
‘Then take them out of me.’
‘That’s what we’re going to do,’ said the Doctor, ‘but doing it is a different matter. This machine is permanently fixed to the Xanji-For. There’s no way I can adapt it anymore. It’s worthless. And it needs to be destroyed.’
‘Jettel’s already got a team on the way to sort it out,’ said Aleena sadly. ‘Is there no way-’
‘No,’ said the Doctor. ‘All we can do now is see if your scientists can help in anyway.’ The Doctor looked at the rest of the group. ‘Would you mind leaving me alone with Matthew for a few minutes?’
‘Of course,’ said Caroline as they exited the chamber to join Danny.
The Doctor walked over to Matthew and then leaned against the wall. ‘Why are you doing this?’
‘Doing what?’ asked Matthew.
‘You were a little bit ambivalent towards helping me earlier. The longer you’re out and about, the more you’re developing your own personality and becoming…well, a real person.’
‘I was against it,’ said Matthew, ‘and I still have my reservations. But today made me realise what you are. You are the Doctor,’ he said, jabbing his finger into the Doctor’s chest. ‘You need to be complete. You’ve taken down an entire corrupt world in about - what? Five mintues? - and you’ve already helped them to start to put it all back together. The universe needs you.’
The Doctor smiled. ‘Sometimes I wonder…’
‘Sometimes you wonder what?’
‘If I haven’t gone on too long. Maybe this is Time’s way of telling me I need to stop; that I need to let myself fade away.’
‘And I’m sure that’s your reasoning in your head. Because you feel guilty that you’re trying to find a way to fix yourself, knowing full well that the person who is me - Matthew Cole - will be gone in the process.’
The Doctor nodded. ‘I like you, Matthew, and it’s not fair that this has happened.’
‘Life’s not always about what’s fair. Sometime’s it’s about doing what is right.’
The Doctor and Matthew were both lying next to each other on hospital beds in the lab when the scientist - Palen - returned from getting the results.
Caroline, Danny and Aleena were also in the room, watching and waiting anxiously.
‘Well?’ asked the Doctor, sitting up. ‘Which is the best way for us to go about this? Can you do anything?’
‘As you know, we still have a lot of records dating back to the Time War. We have a lot of information relating to Time Lords and it has become part of our medical studies over the centuries.’
‘Get to the point, pal,’ said Matthew.
‘The point,’ said the slightly irked scientist, ‘is that nothing about your physiology compares to that of the Doctor, Mr. Cole.’
‘I beg your pardon?’ said the Doctor.
‘Mr. Cole is not you.’
‘We know that!’ snapped the Doctor. ‘He’s a humanised Watcher. He’s an echo of my future self.’
‘He’s not,’ said Palen. ‘He was never a Watcher.’
‘I…I don’t understand,’ said the Doctor.
Matthew remained silent.
‘We’ve stripped back the layer of Human DNA and our results say that he was never you and he will never be you.’
The Doctor got up off the bed and crossed to the window overlooking the observation area. He turned back to face Palen. ‘He was there at Manchester Airport. He has my memories. He and I have a connection. When he touched me it was like…it was like we were the same person.’
Palen shook his head.
The Doctor looked like he was about to burst. ‘Can you at least try and explain to me what’s going on then?’
Palen crossed to Matthew and looked at him. ‘At best guess, he appeared at the same time you did. A being of immense power. Can you remember what triggered your previous regeneration?’
‘It was the TARDIS. Something had…I don’t know…collided with it. I never did find out what it was. I tried to repair the console and I got a shock. I was enveloped by energy from beneath the time rotor. I quickly landed the TARDIS and then stepped out and regenerated. That’s when Aleena rescued me.’
‘I think the being was Matthew. He collided with your ship and then followed you down to this Manchester airport.’
‘But then how do you explain my lack of regenerating cells? Surely they were past over and became one with Matthew?’
‘By all accounts you had your regenerating cells, but the incident caused them to burn out when you regenerated. A freak accident.’
‘But he remembers everything!’ the Doctor was trying not to shout. ‘He even looked like a Watcher.’
‘Not a Watcher. I think he’s a proto-form Time Lord.’
‘A what?’ asked Caroline.
‘During the Time War, history says that your people grew new Time Lords. In labs. When it became apparent that they were running out of warriors, they began to grow their own. One of the many ways your people acquired new battle fodder. Because of their similarity to the Watchers, it’s understandable that you could confuse the two. They begin as pale, almost translucent figures and slowly absorb and morph into a walking, talking Gallifreyan.’
‘So you think Matthew is a remnant from the Time War?’ The Doctor knew there were things even he wasn’t privy to during the War.
‘No,’ said Palen, ‘but I do think that he’s been created using the same technology. At best guess, someone created him to use as a weapon against you. Aim the being at your TARDIS and then attack you once you’re out. Absorb your memories and finish forming into the final product.’
‘But why?’ asked Aleena. ‘It doesn’t make any sense. Why not just send a Dalek or something to kill him? Why go to all the trouble of using a proto-form Time Lord and absorbing his memories and everything?’
The Doctor crossed over to Matthew who had gone silent. ‘Every time he touched me, he absorbed my memories. Every single time.’
‘Indeed the initial impact,’ continued the scientist, ‘would have been enough to have kick-started the process. Almost like he became a Human clone of you. That was the mistake. Aleena took you away and instead of morphing into a Time Lord, he went the other way and became Human. There’s more connecting your two people than you think.’
‘Doctor…’ said Matthew, slowly.
‘You don’t know any of this, do you?’
‘I have your memories.’
‘But you’re not me. Having my memories doesn’t mean that you’re me.’
‘This doesn’t answer anything,’ said Danny. ‘We still don’t know who’s done it or why.’
‘I have a few ideas.’
‘Who?’
The Doctor turned to Palen. ‘If he’s now fully complete-’
‘He’s not,’ interrupted Palen.
‘Then what next? Surely there must be another stage.’
Palen pulled out a map of Cole’s brain. All along his brain were lines of blue, but in the centre, was a glowing blue dot.
‘This,’ said Palen, pointing to the dot, ‘is the final stage. Once this particular part of his brain is activated the rest of these lines will turn red, the remnants of Humanity will strip away and Mr. Cole will become the person he is supposed to be. The Time Lord DNA within him will take over.’
‘What will it take the activate them?’
‘It could be anything,’ said Palen. ‘Maybe even something as simple as allowing him to touch anything on your TARDIS console.’
‘I don’t understand any of this,’ said Matthew, unable to comprehend what was going on.
‘You’re not me,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’ve already told you that.’
‘What do we do?’ asked Caroline.
Get him out of here and into the TARDIS. Don’t let him touch anything. In fact, blind fold him. Take him deep into the centre of the TARDIS and put him back into suspended animation. And lock the door. Don’t let him have any chance of escaping.
‘Doctor, this is insane!’ said Matthew, as Danny and Aleena grabbed him by each arm.
‘Are you sure about this?’ asked Aleena.
The Doctor’s eyes narrowed and he looked at Cole. ‘You’re in there, waiting like a spider to bite,’ said the Doctor, leaning in close to the struggling Matthew, ‘but I’m not going to let it happen. Do you hear me?’
Matthew looked terrified as Aleena and Danny stood him up and escorted him out of the room. The Doctor continued to watch on, a blank look on his face.
Caroline crossed over to him and grabbed his arm. ‘Doctor, do you know more than you’re letting on?’
‘I don’t want to find out. I don’t want any of us to find out.’
‘Then give me a clue.’
The Doctor turned to Caroline. ‘There have been good Time Lords and there have been bad Time Lords. And there have been Time Lords who will stop at nothing to survive. They will go to any lengths to make sure their life continues. Matthew could well be one of those.’
‘Then what are we going to do in the long term?’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘I don’t know, Caroline, I just don’t know.’ He turned to Palen. ‘And me? What about me? Obviously Cole isn’t me, so is there nothing that can be done to save me? Is there no way I can force a change?’
Palen shook his head sadly. ‘Your regenerating cells have burnt out, Doctor. You’ve not got much hope. All you can do is postpone the inevitable.’
‘Which is?’ asked Caroline, already knowing the answer.
‘It means that eventually I am going to die. And there’s nothing we can do to stop it.’
The Doctor had stayed behind for a few days to help Jettel and Aleena with the Justice Department. There had been chaos after the revelation of the Council’s lies, but it had at least been organised chaos. The Justice Department had taken control and promised to put things back together.
‘It’s going to be difficult,’ said the Doctor to Aleena and Jettel, ‘but eventually people will come to realise that just because Ireel and Deela were a lie, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t an afterlife. It’s the greatest mystery, isn’t it? What happens after death?’
And so they had begun the task of rebuilding their world.
Later the Doctor was standing beside the TARDIS with Aleena. Caroline and Danny had said their goodbyes and headed into the console room.
‘Doctor,’ said Aleena, ‘thank you.’
The Doctor smiled. ‘Thank you, Aleena.’
She opened her mouth to say something and then stopped herself.
‘What’s wrong?’ asked the Doctor.
‘I just…I just feel like that’s it. That it’s over.’
‘What’s over?’
‘You and me. Our friendship.’
‘Our friendship will never be over.’
‘Do you think I’ll ever see you again?’ she asked, not holding back the tears now.
The Doctor smiled sadly. ‘You know, as well as I do, that I have so very little time left now. And you have a new purpose. You and Jettel need to help these poor people to rebuild their beliefs.’
‘But what about you? What about Matthew?’
‘Matthew I will deal with. As for myself…?’ The Doctor smiled. ‘I’ll put my affairs in order. Those drugs you gave Danny will keep him going for a bit longer. I’ve got enough of a supply for myself, and I’ll take the both of them back to Thornsby and help them. As soon as that’s done, well, maybe I can rest at last.’
‘But…you can’t die.’
‘Life is long, Aleena. Life is long and sometimes…sometimes you need to say goodbye. Sometimes you need to pass on responsibility to someone else.’
The Doctor stumbled slightly and fell back against the TARDIS door.
‘Here,’ said Aleena, handing him an ornately carved, oak walking stick.
‘Thank you,’ he said, taking it and steadying himself. ‘Don’t remember me like this. Remember me as the man who flew through space and time, battling Daleks and Cybermen and Apparites. Remember me as your friend.’
He turned, took one more look at Aleena, and then stepped into the box. Aleena put her hands to her mouth as she watched the TARDIS dematerialise from her life for what was probably the last time.
And then she fell to the floor. Jettel ran over to her and held her tight as the sound of the TARDIS engines faded.
Deep within the TARDIS, in the suspended animation chambers, Matthew Cole remained, sleeping, still and silent. And, strangely, the hint of a smile on his face.
And somewhere…somewhere…he could hear a laugh. An evil laugh. Whatever was buried inside this strange man was waiting. Waiting to strike.
THE END
Next time:
Paragrim, the bounty hunter from "The Lighthouse" returns.
Our 50th anniversary story "The First Eleven" begins. Paragrim, recruited by the Eyeglass to track down the Doctor, is sent through time to recover each of the first 11 incarnations of the Doctor. But is all as it seems?
No comments:
Post a Comment