listening in now –’ he waved the sonic screwdriver vaguely – ‘because I’d know about that. But your memory and theirs is all… overlappy. Overlappy-mnemonic-psychic-not-really-a-human-person person. Ompnarap. That’s a proper alien name, that is. What, still no? All right. Anyway—’
She waved him into silence. To her amazement, he actually shut up.
‘What do we do?’ It came out rather more desperate than she had intended.
‘Well, normally at this point I like to go and talk to whoever’s trying to destroy the universe and ask them not to.’
She wanted to say that was absurd, that he should just go straight to whatever terrible thing he did instead when the answer was given, because she was afraid. She could see it was terrible. He hated it. He
obliterates
things, she realised. He shatters them. They think they’ve won because he’s a bit vague and he waffles, but that only goes so far. It’s his shell, like a tortoise, if a tortoise was soft on the outside and dangerous on the inside. That’s how the Time War ended: he got to the bottom of his patience, and he took two entire civilisations out of the universe and locked them away, and one of them was his own. That’s how sharp his sense of obligation is.
And he lives like that. He does it all the time.
She really hoped Jonestown wasn’t that sort of threat. That she wasn’t. ‘So why don’t we do that? Let’s go and ask nicely.’
‘Because I don’t know where to go.’
‘I thought this Mr Heidt…’ she said.
He nodded. ‘Oh, me too. But what I don’t know is: do I go after him – it – in here, or back to the TARDIS and try to get into the mine outside?’
She shrugged. ‘If you can’t tell where we are now, does it matter any more?’
‘Yes, because one’s in here and one’s out there. That one is where the mine started out, but its operating intelligence could be in here. It could be Heidt. Or all this could just be a reflection and I’d be talking to the air. The whole point of Jonestown could be so that I waste time in here when I should be out there.’
‘But you said that this thing is twisting space and time and trying to tear everything apart, even though that’s not how it’s supposed to work.’
‘Yes.’
‘And the TARDIS is a time machine, it tunnels…’ She screwed up her face in thought. ‘The bubbles are bigger than the cheese. It makes one bubble after another around itself.’ She stopped again.
‘I never told you that.’
She brushed this aside. ‘But is it true?’
‘Yes.’
She had the distinct impression that he was getting flustered. ‘And the temporal mine is the same thing. A TARDIS without a heart. All rage and no poetry.’
He was definitely staring at her now. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Exactly.’
‘So with the TARDIS fighting the mine… what makes you think there’s any difference any more between what’s in here and what’s out there?’
She had the immensely satisfying experience of seeing his mouth drop open as if she’d smacked him with a kipper.
*
Heidt House stood on a pinnacle of stone jutting straight up from the middle of a vast chasm. It was absurd, a half-mile across, and the bottom was a very, very long way below.
Not-Christina was looking out of the window and seemed to be thinking very hard. The Doctor frowned. She was getting cleverer all the time, as if she’d been asleep when he first met her but was now waking up, and while that was quite interesting and just a little bit attractive it was also rather worrying because his past experiences with rapidly accelerated cognition and intelligence expansion in near-human entities had been a bit negative. They tended to do things like go mad and try to destroy causality. Or they wanted to consume all the information in your brain, or they became telepathic and accidentally dominated entire star systems, or occasionally their conceptual mass just ran too hot and they flat out exploded, which was not only
She waved him into silence. To her amazement, he actually shut up.
‘What do we do?’ It came out rather more desperate than she had intended.
‘Well, normally at this point I like to go and talk to whoever’s trying to destroy the universe and ask them not to.’
She wanted to say that was absurd, that he should just go straight to whatever terrible thing he did instead when the answer was given, because she was afraid. She could see it was terrible. He hated it. He
obliterates
things, she realised. He shatters them. They think they’ve won because he’s a bit vague and he waffles, but that only goes so far. It’s his shell, like a tortoise, if a tortoise was soft on the outside and dangerous on the inside. That’s how the Time War ended: he got to the bottom of his patience, and he took two entire civilisations out of the universe and locked them away, and one of them was his own. That’s how sharp his sense of obligation is.
And he lives like that. He does it all the time.
She really hoped Jonestown wasn’t that sort of threat. That she wasn’t. ‘So why don’t we do that? Let’s go and ask nicely.’
‘Because I don’t know where to go.’
‘I thought this Mr Heidt…’ she said.
He nodded. ‘Oh, me too. But what I don’t know is: do I go after him – it – in here, or back to the TARDIS and try to get into the mine outside?’
She shrugged. ‘If you can’t tell where we are now, does it matter any more?’
‘Yes, because one’s in here and one’s out there. That one is where the mine started out, but its operating intelligence could be in here. It could be Heidt. Or all this could just be a reflection and I’d be talking to the air. The whole point of Jonestown could be so that I waste time in here when I should be out there.’
‘But you said that this thing is twisting space and time and trying to tear everything apart, even though that’s not how it’s supposed to work.’
‘Yes.’
‘And the TARDIS is a time machine, it tunnels…’ She screwed up her face in thought. ‘The bubbles are bigger than the cheese. It makes one bubble after another around itself.’ She stopped again.
‘I never told you that.’
She brushed this aside. ‘But is it true?’
‘Yes.’
She had the distinct impression that he was getting flustered. ‘And the temporal mine is the same thing. A TARDIS without a heart. All rage and no poetry.’
He was definitely staring at her now. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Exactly.’
‘So with the TARDIS fighting the mine… what makes you think there’s any difference any more between what’s in here and what’s out there?’
She had the immensely satisfying experience of seeing his mouth drop open as if she’d smacked him with a kipper.
*
Heidt House stood on a pinnacle of stone jutting straight up from the middle of a vast chasm. It was absurd, a half-mile across, and the bottom was a very, very long way below.
Not-Christina was looking out of the window and seemed to be thinking very hard. The Doctor frowned. She was getting cleverer all the time, as if she’d been asleep when he first met her but was now waking up, and while that was quite interesting and just a little bit attractive it was also rather worrying because his past experiences with rapidly accelerated cognition and intelligence expansion in near-human entities had been a bit negative. They tended to do things like go mad and try to destroy causality. Or they wanted to consume all the information in your brain, or they became telepathic and accidentally dominated entire star systems, or occasionally their conceptual mass just ran too hot and they flat out exploded, which was not only
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