Part 25 (2/2)

'And that in failing he will be responsible for the entire situation he tried to prevent.'

'Right.'

'But he doesn't know that, does he?' 'No.'

'No. Or he wouldn't have bothered to try to stop it in the first place, would he?'

'Er, no. I suppose not.'

'Of course he wouldn't. There wouldn't have been any point, would there?

But if he hadn't gone then what actually happened wouldn't have happened at all, and you'd probably still be drinking warm Pepsis in Dogubayazit instead of having this conversation.'

'But that would be a paradox.'

'Exactly.'

'But paradoxes are impossible.'

'I prefer to use the word embarra.s.sing.' He winked conspiratorially. 'They're less threatening that way?'

'Am I supposed to laugh at that?' 'Do you want to?'

'Would it make a difference?'

'Probably not.'

I chuckled. 'So what's your point?'

'Only this: that by exercising his free will, Jason has in fact become an agent of predestination.'

'And that's what you wanted to tell me? That my husband is probably responsible for the destruction of the Earth and the deaths of countless millions, and that I should try to understand and forgive him?'

The Doctor looked up from the console with a surprised expression on his face. 'Actually no, I wanted to tell you Jason is guilty and upset about not living up to your expectations of him as a husband and father, and that you should try to understand and forgive him.' He thought for a moment,then looked even more surprised. 'But I suppose it works both ways.' He beamed. 'Actually, that's quite clever. Did you see where I put the soldering iron?'

'In the toolbox.'

'Ah. Thanks.'

A thought occurred to me. 'How did you know I'm -'

He looked up. 'Are you?'

I thought about my reply very carefully. 'So what's the matter with the TARDIS?'

He shrugged. 'Long story. Had to adjust the dimensional stabilizer so Chris could fly Sven's chopper in through the doors to avoid a nuclear explosion.

Thing is, the chopper was infected with Agent Yellow. I thought I'd deleted the infected area, but apparently I missed a bit.'

'Missed a bit?'

'Mmm, that's right.' The Doctor chewed thoughtfully on the soldering iron, yelped, flipped it over, stuck it back in his mouth and chewed again. 'Either that or. . .' He thumped the console suddenly. :Thhuh uhhh!' He spat out the soldering iron, caught it in mid air and flipped it back into the toolkit.

'That's it! Jason and Chris were infected, but they're still alive? They must be carriers.'

'Is he - I mean, are they going to die?'

'Probably not. But you never can tell. But even if they don't die, they'll just spread the infection everywhere they go. Unless they live the rest of their lives in a force field.' The Doctor looked at me suddenly. 'How exactly did Jason ”go”?'

'He took my ring.'

'He touched you?'

'I suppose so. I -' I stopped.

The Doctor said grimly, 'If he is a carrier and he's infected the TARDIS, then . . .'

It didn't take a genius to finish his thought. 'Everyone here is infected as well.'

I was about to get really nasty when Chris bounced into the TARDIS and said, 'Hi. The umbrella's working fine. I've disarmed the warheads.'

I frowned. 'Talk about losing a s.h.i.+lling and finding sixpence.'

Chris framed a reply and was about to speak when the door opened again.

Jason was standing there. He looked gaunt, shocked, for all the world on the verge of a breakdown. My heart leapt out for him but somehow I just couldn't move.

He said, 'Has anyone got any food? I haven't eaten in a thousand years.'

My sympathy vanished almost immediately.

The Doctor said, 'Gentlemen, brace yourselves. I have some bad news ...

and I have some bad news. Which do you want first?'

The Doctor went through it all one more time for Chris and Jason. At the end of it Chris looked faintly puzzled. 'There was something Roz said ... in the helicopter ... I can't quite ...'

Jason added, far too importantly, I thought, 'I was serious about that food.

You've no idea what I've been through.'

The fact that both of them seemed for a moment incapable of addressing the real problem - or even of being aware that they were the problem - just made me see red. Of course I picked on Jason.

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