Part 44 (2/2)

Chapter Thirty-one.

A giant, collective shout seemed to rise up from Callisto as the heavens exploded in spectacular light.

Trix stared, awed and terrified at the incredible patterns. It's the magnetic It's the magnetic field, field, she thought, she thought, it's bursting through the atmosphere, we're all going to be it's bursting through the atmosphere, we're all going to be dead! dead!

Behind her, Tinya was staring up too in baffled terror. And people in the street, whether they were cowering or raging or chewing each other's ears off they all broke off to watch, to wonder and to fear.

Trix recovered enough of her wits to knock the gun from Tinya's limp hand.

The woman snapped back into life with a hard shout and a spiteful look but Trix was already running full pelt.

The Doctor was knocked clear over the console as Mildrid's kick connected with his chest. He crashed against the huge viewscreen as flaring brilliant white engulfed it. He saw Halcyon staring, transfixed, Mildrid readying herself for another go.

Then, the first shockwaves crashed into the station.

Sook raised the cane, ready to plunge it hard down through Kreiner's eye socket.

She hesitated, wondering for a moment.

Then she used the end of the cane to push off his thinkset first. He should know what was coming.

As his eyes snapped open and focused on her, the s.h.i.+p tipped up and they were both sent flying.

If Trix had to die, she'd made up her mind it would be as far away from that b.i.t.c.h as possible.

But running through the bright streets was a weird, unsettling experience.

The fighting had stopped. A beatific look had settled on the people. As the sunbursts of white light turned s.h.i.+mmering yellow and pale blue before the backdrop of endless night, people were weeping and shaking and holding each other. They were scrambling to their feet, or staggering out of hiding, or staring at their b.l.o.o.d.y hands, blank-faced.

241.

A great rus.h.i.+ng babble of mutters and whispers and heart-tugging wails started up; the sounds of full horror sinking in. People questioning, crying, asking for help, letting out their pain.

Aware. Repulsed. Disbelieving. Messed up.

Themselves again, and trying to cope.

Sook woke up on her back, shaken and s.h.i.+vering. Kreiner was on all fours, scuttling towards her. His eyes were wide open and staring.

He reached out for her and gathered her up into a hug.

'Are you OK?' he whispered.

'I won't be if you squeeze much harder,' she hissed, 'I'm only held together with plasters and glue.'

He started to sob. She held him as it all came out, and found she was crying too.

As the control room stopped pitching like a kayak in rapids, the Doctor raised his head cautiously above the console. 'Everyone OK?'

'I'm alive, if that's what you mean,' said Mildrid coldly.

'Well, that's a start, anyway,' he said, rubbing his aching chest. 'Halcyon?'

'That shockwave must have knocked us halfway back to Callisto,' groaned the decoratiste decoratiste. He was staring at the screen, where carnation sprays of incredible colour were still blooming and bleeding. His dark gla.s.ses had cracked down the centre. Cautiously, he broke them apart, and blinked myopically in the brightness.

'For nothing,' said Mildrid, her voice worn and cracked. 'All Gaws and I did. . . All the planning and the skimping and sacrificing and the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p-cleaning for nothing.'

'My grand orchestration,' breathed Halcyon. 'The likes of you called it a folly. And yet it has provided the means to save so many souls.'

'She's a forgiving old thing,' the Doctor remarked.

'I am not not,' huffed Mildrid.

He half smiled. 'I was talking about the universe,' he said.

They watched the glittering colours spiral and spatter through the blackness of s.p.a.ce.

'You know what?' said Halcyon flatly, rubbing his eyes. 'It's actually not anything like like as impressive as I'd imagined it would be.' as impressive as I'd imagined it would be.'

Falsh stared up at the impossible flashes and charges in the sky, a grim smile of satisfaction on his face. That took care of that, then. The Doctor had done 242 it and NewSystem would collect a small fortune for bringing off the largest-scale demolition in the solar system. A fortune Falsh would siphon off as a first step towards refilling his coffers.

He'd done it, pulled it off. He'd survived. The fire in the compound was still raging; no one could have escaped that. No one could hold him accountable now. If Klimt still lived he wouldn't risk his liberty coming after him. And the Doctor's evidence was circ.u.mstantial at best any good brief could crush it in a single hearing.

Falsh smiled. It was like magic. No one could trace a thing back to him now.

Little glints of light drifted through the patches of night between the flares and starbursts. Were they part of the patterns, or little s.h.i.+ps flocking to Callisto to clean up this unholy mess? Falsh didn't know. And he didn't care.

He'd hole up, contact Nerren, get a s.h.i.+p rushed over and get away scot-free.

Trix ran through the wreck-strewn streets, through desolate, sobbing crowds and happy reunions, through sandbanks of the dead. Heading for the colossal domes of the Medicean Stadium. The entrances were gaping wide, unguarded, thick with spilled blood.

She had to reach the TARDIS, drag it down from the sky somehow, get inside. Shut out all this rawness, this pain and emotion. Retreat, retreat and wait for Fitz and the Doctor to come back to her, if they could.

Only when she reached the dim and darkened s.p.a.ce hangar did she pause for breath. An eerie sea of s.h.i.+n-height foam glistened and winked all around her.

She hesitated, panting for breath.

Perhaps there was another way through?

She turned and saw Tinya creeping up behind her.

Swearing, she waded into the slippery foam, holding the phial of precious mercury high above her head.

'You're not getting out of it, Trix!' Tinya shouted. A blaze of light burned over Trix's head, a warning shot. 'I will have your blue box!'

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