Something Borrowed Read online

  ‘Do you think you could –’

  ‘– do this?’ He pushed a button, and the force field vanished. I sagged in relief, feeling as though I’d suddenly emerged from being underwater.

  ‘Yes, thank you.’ I gave Wira a quick check, but mostly she seemed scared, with no signs of physical damage. Wrapping her arms round herself, she sat down against a nearby wall and looked about her in disbelief. I gave her a small pat on the shoulder before turning my full attention to the Doctor. ‘How did you know about the Rani?’

  ‘From her little winged calling cards. I’ve seen some of her creations before, both the kind she breeds, like the ones we encountered outside, and the ones she manipulates – like those poor saps on the floor. That gold sheen is a side-effect of the process.’ He paused to push a few buttons and read what came up on a display. ‘Anyway, I could’ve written that off as a coincidence until I started hearing all that talk about Jonos’s “brilliant and cultured” alien bride. Those certainly aren’t the words I’d use to describe her, but she is a scientific genius … so I suppose convincing others that she’s pleasant might be only a little harder than genetically modifying reptiles.’

  ‘But why is she doing it?’ I asked. I stood by him as he scrolled through information on a computer, but most of it made no sense to me. ‘What in the world do pterodactyls have to do with tricking someone into marrying you?’

  ‘Tricking?’ asked Wira. She lifted her head up from where it had rested on her knees. ‘What do you mean?’

  That earlier love I’d sensed in her shone through her eyes, and it broke my heart. ‘It’s like I told you before,’ I said gently, ‘Lania’s not who she seems. She’s misled all of you as part of some plot to get Jonos to marry her.’

  ‘But why does she need to trick anyone?’ asked Wira. ‘Jonos already loves her.’

  ‘What Peri is being too delicate to say is that she – the Rani – isn’t in love with poor Jonos. Or should I say lucky Jonos.’ The Doctor shuddered. ‘Can you even imagine a lifetime shackled to that woman? He’s really dodged a bullet, assuming we can get to the church on time to save him from some untimely demise. Tell me, what do you make of this?’

  It took me a moment to follow the topic change and drag my gaze from the stricken Wira. I leaned closer to the Doctor and tried to understand what he was showing me. ‘You could have been a little more tactful with her,’ I whispered.

  ‘I told her the truth.’ The Doctor made no attempt to regulate his volume.

  ‘We don’t know that he’s going to meet an untimely demise.’

  ‘No, but most likely. Remember who we’re dealing with.’ The Doctor was still playing flippant, but I again caught a ghostly hint of worry in his eyes. ‘Now, look at what we have here. A mess of biological data – and I do mean mess. There’s no order to it, just a jumble of entries, genetic records. The only thing I can tell for certain is that it’s all Koturian.’

  ‘But if she doesn’t love him, why would she marry him?’ moaned Wira.

  The Doctor gave her a brief, irritated look before returning to the data. ‘Probably something to do with his Phasing, if I had to guess. Although, guessing the Rani’s thoughts … Well, that’s something few have ever had success at. It’s amazing that she was able to collect so much data without anyone noticing.’

  I stared at the screen without really seeing it. ‘Because she didn’t collect it herself. The pterodactyls did. They took skin and blood from their victims and brought it back to her. And they took some of the actual victims too.’

  An eager gleam filled the Doctor’s eyes. ‘So help me, Peri, you might be on to something. None of the Koturians thought to connect the attacks to Jonos’s fiancée. Why would they? Most people expect the claws to come out after marriage. Creative choice of data collection, I’ll give her that.’

  ‘Is it?’ I asked wryly. ‘When we last left her, you trapped her in her TARDIS with a T. rex. Maybe she found a way to pass the time.’

  ‘Did I?’ He arched an eyebrow. ‘Yes, I suppose I did. Well, never let it be said the Rani can’t make lemonade out of lemons. Or efficient biogenetically engineered research tools out of a frightening prehistoric encounter.’ Straightening up, he began pacing the room. ‘The Rani isn’t the type to collect that information without a reason. There’s a purpose; we just need to find it. She’s deposited the raw data here. But her actual work … that’ll be somewhere else. Here, help me.’

  He began running his hands over every smooth surface on the consoles and counters he could find. I immediately followed suit, not knowing what I should be looking for until, a few minutes later, my fingers ran over an almost imperceptible bump in an otherwise flat surface. ‘Doctor?’

  Excitement filled his eyes as he walked over and saw what I was pointing to. When he ran his hand over it in a circular motion, a square indentation appeared in the metal. He tapped the surface, and it slid open, revealing a small compartment.

  ‘And here we are.’ Triumphant, he lifted a small tetragonal crystal. ‘The Rani, while unpredictable in many ways, is also predictable in others. She’s set this lab up like the one in her TARDIS, and she’s too paranoid to leave data on anything she can’t easily take with her. This is going to have our answers.’ He strode over to another computer and inserted the crystal into a slot I hadn’t noticed.

  Another loud sigh came from Wira. ‘Poor Jonos.’

  The Doctor grimaced at the interruption to his brilliant reveal, but mercifully left the girl alone. ‘As suspected,’ he said. ‘Here’s where the order is. She’s got their genetic information organised by age and gender, as well as how far along they were in their Phasing windows.’

  ‘So you know what she’s doing?’ I asked.

  ‘Not a clue,’ he admitted. ‘But it doesn’t matter. It’s safe to assume she’s up to no good, so we’ll stop her now and ask questions later. If she took you, she knows I’m here.’

  I nodded. ‘She doesn’t know what you look like, though. She asked if you’d regenerated since the last time we saw her – she’s not a fan of this appearance, you know.’

  He chuckled. ‘Yes, she’s made that very clear before. You think she’d be kinder about it, though, seeing as she knows as well as I there’s not much we can do about it. Besides, I think it’s clear that I just keep improving.’ Studying his reflection in a monitor, he gave a decisive nod.

  ‘It’s so sad,’ said Wira. I wasn’t even sure if she was talking to us at this point. ‘Jonos will be wasting his one chance at Phasing on a woman who doesn’t love him.’

  That seemed to finally make the Doctor snap. ‘Honestly, are you going to keep –’ He froze in shock, and I took a few steps towards him.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘That. This.’ He held up the crystal he’d taken from the console. ‘That’s why the Rani’s studying the Koturians. She’s trying to affect Time Lord regeneration somehow. She must suspect – or perhaps she’s found – a connection between our respective transformations.’

  ‘Is there one?’ I asked, startled. ‘They’re completely different processes. Theirs comes from love. Yours from death.’

  ‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘But both result in a complete transformation of the body. And if anyone can find connections between things that have no business being linked together –’ he paused and gave the lizard-men a meaningful look – ‘then it’s her. Come on, we have to stop that wedding.’

  Without waiting to see if I, or Wira, was coming, he hurried to the double doors and pulled on one of the handles. There was a bright flash of light, and he jumped back with a cry of surprise.

  ‘We just can’t get a break today,’ I said, running over to him.

  ‘The Rani apparently didn’t want to take any chances,’ he said, scowling at his hand. ‘It’s a credit to you, really, that she thought you’d escape both the sizian field and her minions.’

  ‘She didn’t seem to give me much credit,’ I said. ‘She kept saying I was stupid and silly.�
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  ‘Don’t let her get to you,’ said the Doctor, kneeling down to study the door. ‘You’re not stupid in the least.’

  ‘Can we climb out through the ceiling?’ Wira asked.

  I turned and was surprised to see her beside me. She’d wiped away her tears and a determined expression gleamed in her eyes. The Doctor gave her an appraising look.

  ‘Well, you’ve already undergone a transformation of your own, haven’t you?’ he said.

  She held her head up higher. ‘If we can stop Lania from taking advantage of Jonos, then I want to help. Just tell me what I need to do,’ she said fiercely.

  I could see a smile start to curve at the Doctor’s lips and then he put on a stern mask. ‘Right, then. We could go through the ceiling, but it’d take longer … and be a lot more uncomfortable. No, ladies, we simply have to blow this door up.’

  ‘Blowing something up is simple?’ I asked.

  ‘Simple, yes. Easy, no.’ He peered around the lab. ‘Too bad she didn’t leave any explosives or fuel lying about.’

  I pointed. ‘What about the guards’ guns?’

  ‘Unfortunately, their deadliness comes more from a signal to disrupt biological functioning than any sort of brute-force destruction.’

  ‘But they must have a battery or fuel source, right?’ I insisted. ‘Is there some way we could ignite it?’

  The Doctor retrieved one of the guns and dismantled it, revealing a silvery rectangular object. He held it up to the light. ‘Yes and yes. Go get the other one.’

  I hurried to comply. Meanwhile, he knelt down in front of the doors and carefully set the battery in front of them, pressed right up to where they met. He laid another object on top of it and then placed the second battery on top of that. I tilted my head to get a better look.

  ‘Is that your sonic lance?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He turned it on, sprang up and grabbed my hand. We reached the far side of the lab just as the batteries exploded and took out a good chunk of the doors’ lower halves. He returned and gripped hold of the new openings. The doors gave easily.

  ‘Your lance is in pieces,’ I pointed out, kicking a fragment with my toe.

  ‘I have a spare, and I’ll be careful not to blow it up. Now, come. We have no time to lose.’ He turned to Wira who was scurrying over to join us. ‘You can take us to the wedding?’

  She still had that fierce air about her and pointed upwards through the house’s labyrinth. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘It’s being held in the chapel over at the Flamingo.’ And she sped away.

  6

  We followed Wira through the twisting corridors and up the stairs to the grand entrance hall.

  ‘The Flamingo? That’s another Vegas place,’ I observed, hurrying to keep up with the newly motivated Wira. I could see the Doctor was having the same trouble.

  ‘It’s the most exclusive place on the Swathe,’ Wira said as she reached the massive front door. ‘Their chapel has the largest Imori stone ever found on our planet. Only elite families are allowed to use it.’

  ‘No doubt part of the Rani’s motivation in choosing her paramour,’ the Doctor muttered. ‘Go big or go home.’

  ‘Wira said the stones are divine. But I’m guessing not?’

  ‘No,’ he told me. ‘They’re an elemental combination found only on this planet. A similar one is found on Azzarozia, which they use as rocket fuel. Here, the Imori stones help provide energy to power the accelerated metabolism needed during the Koturian transformations. I’m sure the Rani’s obtained some samples for her research as well, but probably with less bloodshed – unless she decided to biologically manipulate a drill.’ He seemed pretty pleased with his joke, but my next question dimmed his enthusiasm.

  ‘What about the victims who were taken whole? Some may still be alive.’

  ‘I know,’ he said grimly. ‘And my guess is they won’t be once she’s decided to wrap up her research.’

  Wira led us back to the crowded Swathe, and all of us were running by now, driven by the urgency of our task. Evening had fallen, and all the buildings had come to life with dazzling displays of light. We found the Flamingo and entered through its main door, cutting across a casino full of sequin-clad gamers and servers who glared at us when we had to push them aside. The layout was nearly as confusing as Evris’s house.

  I was gasping by the time we reached the white marble doorway leading to the chapel. Leaning over, resting my hands on my knees, I discovered I’d torn this dress too. The Doctor came to a halt beside me, panting as well.

  ‘Looks like we may have to do more conditioning when we’re back in the TARDIS,’ he observed.

  ‘More?’ I asked. ‘As opposed to what we do now?’

  Two servants in Evris’s yellow livery stood guard at the door. They seemed simply ceremonial, with no weapons, probably because no one expected a deadly villainess to show up at a wedding, let alone be a major player in it.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ one of them was saying to Wira, ‘but we can’t let you in – not when it’s already started.’

  ‘This is important!’ she exclaimed. ‘Jonos is in danger.’

  The two exchanged uncertain glances, but the Doctor had no patience for anything more. He simply strode up to the doors and pushed them open. With an apologetic look at the servants, I quickly followed him and sensed Wira right behind me. I didn’t really know what we’d be walking into and had a horrifying fear of everyone turning to stare.

  They didn’t because no one even noticed us. The ‘chapel’ was so huge and so vast that our entrance took no attention away from the drama unfolding up at the front. The room actually looked remarkably like a cathedral from back home, with pews and stained-glass windows, save that it was all done in more of those cringe-worthy colour schemes. Up where an altar would have been sat enormous urns of flowers, towering over those gathered below. A glittering purple rock that I assumed was the Imori stone stood between them, about the size of a kitchen table. Waiting on each side of it, their profiles to the audience, were Jonos and the Rani. He had lavender hair like his father and was as handsome as Wira had said. Some sort of officiant – dressed astonishingly like Elvis Presley – raised his arms in the air, and I just barely heard the word, ‘Commence.’ At the same moment, Jonos and the Rani reached for each other and held hands over the stone. I didn’t entirely know what was happening, but Wira did, and she rushed forward.

  ‘No!’

  But it was too late. A piercing yellow light began to shine from where the couple’s hands were clasped. It grew and grew until it spread over the rest of the rock and over them. Soon, the entire front half of the chapel was too blinding to look at, and I put a hand over my eyes. It lasted for almost thirty seconds, and then steadily the light faded. I still couldn’t see right away, not after all that radiance, and I had to blink black spots away. When I finally focused on the couple again, I wondered if my vision had been harmed.

  Because Jonos looked the same.

  The gasps and startled reactions of the couple and the congregation soon showed me that I wasn’t the only one who’d noticed the lack of transformation. Wira, bold before, had retreated back to us. Her eyes were wide, her face pale.

  ‘It’s impossible,’ she whispered.

  ‘What is this?’ demanded the Rani, her angry words echoing. ‘Why didn’t you change?’

  Jonos, looking as stricken as everyone else, examined his hands and then touched his face. ‘I … I don’t know. The stone came to life. I felt it. I felt the reaction begin in me, but then … it just didn’t work.’

  ‘The fault isn’t in you. It’s in your blushing bride,’ announced the Doctor, striding forward. His voice rang through the vaulted room.

  Evris stood up in the front row. ‘Doctor! What are you doing?’

  The Rani’s face twisted into a sneer as she removed her veil. ‘Of course. Of course you’re behind this.’

  The Doctor came to a halt and casually stuffed his hands in his pockets. ‘No,
actually. This was all you, I’m afraid. Lovely dress, by the way. I like the blue trim. Do you have something new and something borrowed tucked away as well? It goes without saying that you yourself have the “something old” more than taken care of.’

  ‘They said this would work without two Koturians!’ cried the Rani. She levelled glares at everyone, including her groom. ‘You all said it would. You said he’d transform even if he wasn’t marrying a Koturian.’

  ‘It’s true that your body doesn’t matter for his transformation.’ The Doctor looked like he was on top of the world, probably because he loved both an audience and one-upping the Rani. ‘But your heart does. Your figurative one, that is. Not your physical ones. The chemicals that churn through the body of someone in love are what the stone responds to, what spins up its energy cycle. But it needs two sets to drive it – and, alas, there’s only one person in love in this relationship. Only one person even capable of emotion, really. Considering the number of lacklustre marriages in the world, I’m guessing the stone has a pretty low bar for some type of regard, but you couldn’t even get that high, Rani.’

  Jonos looked between his bride and the Doctor in obvious confusion. ‘My darling Lania … what is this about?’

  ‘Her name’s not Lania,’ said the Doctor. ‘And “darling” probably isn’t the best adjective. She’s Gallifreyan like me and hoped to take advantage of your Phasing for her own devices. What was it, Rani? Couldn’t glean enough from your prehistoric research team’s random sampling? Did you need someone who’d specifically transformed because of you and whose DNA would therefore reflect your influence?’

  The Rani pointed accusingly at him. ‘Don’t act like it’s such a ridiculous idea, Doctor. You can’t tell me you haven’t wanted more control over the regeneration process. Most Time Lords are at the mercy of fate after death. But imagine if we could definitively control the outcome! These people are the best lead I’ve found. They not only control their transformations but also improve in mind and body. Surely you’d be interested in that?’