Part 8 (1/2)

'You'll really have to ask him.'

'So, Ms Gordon, you're not from the future?'

'No. I'm from this time zone.'

'So how did you and Baskerville meet?'

'He contacted me when he arrived in this time. He had access to historical records, and he knew from them that we were destined to meet.'

'That must be quite rea.s.suring.'

She c.o.c.ked her head. 'How so?'

'To know you make your mark in history. Did he tell you how your adventures together ended?'

'No.' She hesitated. 'The records are fragmentary, and history can be changed.'

'I see.'

She turned her attention back to the control box. 'We're ready for the demonstration.'

Anji mulled it over. With the whole of history to choose from, where would you go? She'd had this conversation before, back at school, then at university. Then again with Dave. Her boyfriend had wanted to go a few years in the future, but when pressed why, he'd mumbled something about wanting to buy all six Star Wars Star Wars films on DVD in the sales. And here she was a few years in her future, an experienced time traveller. Ironically, as soon as she'd stepped into a time machine, the only place she wanted to go was back home. films on DVD in the sales. And here she was a few years in her future, an experienced time traveller. Ironically, as soon as she'd stepped into a time machine, the only place she wanted to go was back home.

'This is a precise process? You could take me anywhere?'

Baskerville nodded. 'To the square metre and the second. But I think you've got somewhere in mind.'

'I have,' she admitted.

Anji realised she could go home. Proper home. February 2001. Or perhaps a day or two earlier. Turn back the clock. Go back to Dave. She needn't change the course of history, she realised. When she'd met the Doctor he'd been fighting some monsters called the Kulan well, she could help him out, tell him how to win.

'The turn of the millennium, Europe,' Baskerville guessed.

'How did you know?'

'Your clothing. Millennium retro. It must have cost you a fortune.'

'Looking at those old TV shows, I'm sure I'd feel right at home there,' Anji told her.

'Malady, are you sure?' the Doctor asked. She could hear the anger in his voice.

'It's what we agreed, remember?' Anji said quickly. 'There's no catch?' she asked Baskerville.

'This is the demo, of course,' Baskerville told her. 'It only works for ten minutes at a time.'

'All right,' she heard the Doctor say. 'Ten minutes. No more. I don't see the harm in that.'

She could still send Dave a warning. She had her mobile. No, wait don't send Dave anything. Send herself herself a text message. But what? She wouldn't believe it. More than that wouldn't she remember getting the message, if she'd sent herself one? a text message. But what? She wouldn't believe it. More than that wouldn't she remember getting the message, if she'd sent herself one?

'Er... sorry, hang on.' Anji found her phone.

'We have as much time as you need,' Dee chuckled, pleased with her pun. Then she saw the phone. 'Excuse me, what are you doing?'

'Just checking something.'

'That's a phone.'

Yeah, well done, Anji thought then she realised that by now mobile phones were probably the size of matchsticks.

'You're not to make phone calls from here.'

Anji had a plan.

'I want to make one from there there. It's a pre*arranged signal, to prove your machine is genuine.'

'Explain.'

'In the past, I will use this, er, antique phone to send a text message to a prearranged number. Then, when I get back to this time, I can check the records to see if the message really was sent.'

On the other side of the gla.s.s, she could see Dee and the Doctor mulling it over.

'I don't think that will count as interfering in history or anything,' Anji added quickly. 'It's just a simple code phrase. It's a dead letter number. Otherwise well, this could all be a fake, couldn't it?'

She'd come up with the ideal message to keep Dave out of harm's way.

DAVE, GO TO HMV, THEY'VE GOT CHEAP STAR WARS DVDS Dee nodded. 'OK. So what are the exact co*ordinates?'

'Brussels, February 2001.' She gave the precise time and date.

'Brussels? You've got the whole of history to choose from, and you'd go to Brussels in February? According to this, it's raining there.'

Anji shrugged and smiled. 'It's probably raining in Paris, too.'

Chapter Six.

Time Trip 'So, how do you steer a time machine?' the Doctor asked, looking for pointers.

Dee indicated the control panel. 'It will take a few minutes to align the four dimensional vectors.'

'You can work the machine on your own?'

'Baskerville taught me. The operating principles are very simple.'

'I can hear my ears burning,' Baskerville said, his voice relayed by a tinny speaker. 'I taught Dee everything she knows.'