The Story of Martha Page 17
‘No, sir,’ said the ADC cautiously. ‘There’s been an incident in Honshu.’
‘Honshu? Japanese Honshu? I don’t like the sound of that. I’ve got a lot of interests in Honshu. Show me.’
The ADC handed him the report. He read it over rapidly.
‘The whole zone?’ he asked. ‘The whole zone? All of the guidance plants?’
‘Yes, sir. Power has been down for sixty-four minutes, sir.’
He took a deep breath and scratched his forehead. ‘I’m really going to be obliged to kill someone about this,’ he said.
‘I’m certain you are, sir,’ the ADC said. ‘There is another factor for your consideration.’ She handed him another sheet of paper. ‘Transcript of a phone conversation I took thirty minutes ago. I thought you’d want to see it.’
He read the sheet.
‘The Drast? The Drast? Here?’ he said. ‘Those fortune-hunting, glowy-glowy, entrepreneuring nobodies? The Drast? Did you know anything about this?’
His last remark was aimed at the wizened old man sitting in a wheelchair by the window. The wizened old man didn’t reply.
‘Still, the Drast?’ he said, leaning back and cocking his head to one side. ‘I’ll teach the Drast to mess with me. Bioluminescent idiots. And I was starting to like Japan so much.’ He looked at the ADC. ‘Calm your pretty head,’ he said. ‘I’m not angry with you. Who could ever be angry with such a gorgeous thing? Summon the Toclafane swarms. I want the Drast to know, without any qualification, who’s Master.’
‘Yes, sir.’
He pursed his lips and chewed his jaw to and fro for a moment.
‘Burn the islands,’ he decided. ‘Yes, burn them. We can build guidance somewhere else.’
‘Yes, sir.’
He looked at the wizened old man in the wheelchair. The old man’s eyes were glaring, hooded by extreme time, painfully disapproving.
‘Oh come on,’ he cried, enthusiastically. ‘Vengeance can be so much fun!’
Martha Jones watched, from a container ship leaving the port of Yokohama, as Japan died. Swarms of Toclafane screamed in, unleashing laser death. The cities began to burn.
Knowing that the Master’s attention had turned on Japan, knowing that he would be furious about the Drast, Martha had skipped onto the first boat out, unseen, thanks to her perception filter.
She knew she couldn’t be anywhere near the Master’s focus. The container ship was heading for San Diego. She would make landfall in the USA in a few weeks. In her hurry to escape, Martha had left Hito, Tokami and the other volunteers to cope in the hinterlands behind Koban plant.
She had known the Master would be angry. She had known he would be vindictive. She had hoped he would send forces in to seize and dismantle the Drast plant at Koban.
She had underestimated his venom. She had underestimated it too much.
He wasn’t going to be vindictive. He was going to be genocidal.
The islands of Japan burned.
The islands were on fire. Gigantic plumes of flame gushed up out of Tokyo and Chiba. Though the ship was far out at sea, flakes of soot fluttered down onto them.
For the first and only time in her year of walking, Martha allowed herself to cry.
She cried for a long time.
The streets were burning.
Gun in hand, Griffin stumbled out into the open. Smoke was everywhere.
Two Toclafane globes zipped down to meet him.
‘I’m clear! I’m UCF!’ he shouted. ‘I was the one who brought you here! Come on now!’
‘This person is unidentified,’ chuckled one globe.
‘Let’s kill him,’ giggled the other.
‘I’m the one!’ Griffin yelled. ‘I’m the one who brought you in!’ He opened his phone. ‘ADC? Where’s that extraction you promised? I’m in a fix here!’
The hovering Toclafane snapped out their blades.
‘That’s not soon enough! ADC! For God’s sake!’
The globes whirred forwards.
Griffin shrieked.
It felt as if the whole world was made out of night.
Their small boat was racing the swell against an invisible coast. The sky was starless and dark, and the sea was like black glass.
The little outboard motor chugged. The enclosing night was cool, and smelled of brine and Channel breezes. The year was almost up. She had walked the Earth, and witnessed things that she would never forget.
A small, blue-white light appeared in the darkness ahead of them, tiny but stark. It was a halogen lamp, flashing once, twice; a little cold star shining on an unseen beach.
‘There!’ she said.
The light began to swing, gently, from side to side.
They came in through the breakers, the outboard throbbing. She felt the boat’s belly scrape and rumble across the shingle. She got up and jumped out. Cold water sucked at her legs.
She looked back at the men wrangling the small boat. She couldn’t see their faces. She wished she could.
She ran up the beach towards the light. Her wet boots crunched over damp sand and pebbles. A young man was waiting for her on the foreshore, a halogen lamp in his hand.
She came up to face him, slightly out of breath.
‘What’s your name, then?’ she asked.
‘Tom,’ he said. ‘Milligan. No need to ask who you are. Famous Martha Jones. How long since you were last in Britain?’
‘Three hundred and sixty-five days,’ Martha replied. ‘It’s been a long year.’
Acknowledgements
Dan Abnett would like to thank Justin Richards, Steve Tribe, Gary Russell and Russell T Davies.
David Roden wishes to express his gratitude to: Nikki Smith; Kevin Myers; the brilliant team at BBC Wales; Pauline and Barrie Mansell; and last, but by no means least, particular special thanks must go to Guy Siner, for counsel and comradeship, red wine and being an all-round good egg.
Steve Lockley and Paul Lewis would like to thank Mark Morris for the introduction, and everyone who has made Doctor Who the show we know and love.
Robert Shearman’s thanks go to Ian Mond and Liz Myers.
Simon Jowett thanks: all the usual suspects for reviving Doctor Who with such energy, joy and sheer chutzpah; and Mina, my little girl, for reminding me what it’s like to be transfixed, taken over and utterly transported by a piece of cracking Saturday night telly.
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