Part 43 (2/2)

One of the the other Doctors had picked up the gla.s.s he needed for his reticular vector gauge at a market on Heaven, and had never visited Androzani. One had ruled the Earth with a tyrant's hand for centuries, posters of his face everywhere. One 300 was wors.h.i.+pped as a G.o.d on Lalande 21185, and had to settle there to stop the incessant religious wars.

The dead ones were the worst. They sought out the Grandmaster like Valkyries. One had stuck to his principles and had his throat cut by a hungry alien. One had had his brain fried by a computer, subst.i.tuting for a dead synch-op. One had been beheaded by an Ice Warrior, a hideous moment of blood and bone before it vanished, embracing a small dark woman. A champagne gla.s.s dropped out of her hand and broke apart on the floor.

Chris concentrated on the sound.

Twenty deaths out of thousands.

Crack clink crack.

Hundreds of happy endings.

One had gone home to Gallifrey and was organizing the first bloodless revolution in Time Lord history. One lived in another dimension and visited Earth from time to time, sparking rumours that King Arthur was about to return. One had been stranded in the Eocene era and was happily tinkering in an Earth Reptile laboratory. One was alive and well and living in San Francisco with his wife.

They poured out of the Nexus. Everyone the Doctor could have been at that moment in time.

Crack clink crack.

Chris put his face in his hands. It was all a bit much.

When the storm was over, he looked up again.

Just the one Doctor was standing in the middle of the room.

The Grandmaster were gone, along with their tables and their fingerfoods.

The Doctor wore a Paisley waistcoat. He was looking at his pocket watch.

'Is it you?' breathed Chris. 'It is you. The real you.'

'Yes,' he said, staring at the watch. 'The alternative Chris helped me hide in there.'

'Hide in there?' Chris stared at where the Nexus had been. 'So who was that?'

'That,' said the Doctor, 'was a Doctor who hadn't worked out what to do. Luckily, he had me up his sleeve.'

301.

'Come on,' said Chris. 'We've got to get back.'

The Doctor closed the pocket watch with hands that Chris suddenly could see were shaking. 'In there,' he said. 'From that vantage point. From inside the Nexus, you can see everything.

Every possibility, each choice that's made, every outcome.'

'We need to get back,' said Chris. 'We'd better go give Roz a hand.'

The Doctor just tucked his pocket watch away. His eyes had a terrible, blank look. He didn't move.

'Oh no,' said Chris, in a tiny voice.

He ran for the lift, but he knew it was already too late.

Valhalla The dome loomed above them. Walid's cutters were leaving them the h.e.l.l alone, this close to his private ecosystem. All the fire was coming from the Rim.

Vincenzi was screaming at them to lie down every dozen steps.

The sh.e.l.ls and smart bombs whistled overhead, looking for their head signatures, confused by the mimetic armour. Usually.

In the shelter of a small crater's rim, Roz asked Vincenzi, 'This isn't b.l.o.o.d.y working, is it?'

He was pulling together a throwaway grenade launcher, hands moving in a blur over the parts. 'No it b.l.o.o.d.y isn't,' he said.

'We've lost half the company. We can't fight our way in with this few soldiers.'

Roz peered over the rim of the crater. The fire was blossoming out of a single point on the Rim. Another missile launched silently into the air. She traced its course with her eyes, heading for the Victoria Victoria. So far she'd taken three hits from the ground-to-orbit defences.

'I've got an idea,' she told Vincenzi.

'I'm open to suggestions, ma'am,' he said.

'We don't fight our way inside. We change objectives. That GTO station.'

'Keep talking,' he said, sliding the grenade into the launcher.

'Advantages,' said Roz. 'Surprise. They're expecting us to get into the dome, not to try and grab a heavily armoured outpost.

Munitions. If we gain control of the post, we can attack their 302 s.h.i.+ps with their own weapons, give the Victoria Victoria a fighting chance.' a fighting chance.'

'Better than that,' Vincenzi said. 'We can bring in the rest of the troops under cover of fire from the Rim. We'll have the numbers we need. Big problem is, we'll probably all be killed getting up the Rim to the station.'

'We'll be under their line of fire.'

'True, but their foot soldiers will have the advantage.'

'All right,' she said. 'Either we all get killed trying to break in through an airlock, or we all get killed trying to hit that GTO station.'

'You lead,' said Vincenzi.

Roz switched her comlink back to broadcast. 'Listen up!' she said. 'We're going to switch objectives. Repeat, we're going to change objectives. We're going to take the GTO station at the top of the hill. You can't miss it. Do not attempt to penetrate the dome. Do not take any additional risks. Do not attempt to draw fire. The aim of the game is to get to the top alive.' She took a deep breath. 'Acknowledge.'

'Yes, ma'am!' came the voices, one after the other. 'Yes, ma'am! Yes, ma'am!'

Roz glanced back at Vincenzi. He nodded, bulky helmet tipping as though he was bowing.

'Follow me,' said Roz. She jumped over the rim and started running.

And went up the hill into history.

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