4.Rescue (hopefully)

There was a brilliant flash. For a dreadful moment, Chris thought it was moonlight on moving steel.

Then he saw it was a disc of gold and red, cartwheeling across the gra.s.s, accompanied by a whizzing roar.

The samurai were looking around in bewilderment. They didn't know what the light was either. With a violent pop, another flash erupted in the nearby trees, accompanied by a great puff of foul-smelling smoke and a shower of red sparks.

There was a sharp crack. The samurai recognized that sound all right. 'Find them!' shouted their leader.

The youngest samurai s.n.a.t.c.hed up a brand from the fire and ran towards the shower of red sparks. He yelled as another of the spinning yellow wheels erupted at his feet. A third landed in the fire and exploded with an almighty bang.

' Oni-bi! Oni-bi! ' shouted Kiiro. 'Demon fires!' ' shouted Kiiro. 'Demon fires!'

There was a volley of shots, over their heads. 'Demons!' shouted the leader.

'We haven't got a chance in the dark!'

The young samurai ran up to Chris, and grabbed the rope trailing from his wrists. He pulled on it, hard enough for Chris to lose his balance and fall over in the gra.s.s.

'Leave the prisoners!' shouted the leader. He was already loosing the horses.

'Leave them, Aoi, they don't know anything!'

The man grabbed the young samurai and practically threw him on to his horse. A beam of red light burst out from behind the trees, roving the clearing, cutting through the drifting, brimstone-flavoured smoke. The three warriors thundered away.

Chris rolled over, and saw that the Doctor was still kneeling in place, his back to the h.e.l.lish light. The Time Lord was looking over at the gra.s.s, where the yellow sparking thing was spinning its last.

37.Two figures came out of the trees. Chris squinted into the fierce red light. 'I really, really hope this is a rescue,' he said.

The shorter figure marched over to them. It was holding the source of the red light. Chris stared. It was a big handheld flashlight, with a torn square of red cellophane stickytaped in place over it.

The figure shone the light down on to the Doctor. 'Catherine wheel,' the Time Lord said.

'Miss Penelope Gate,' said the small figure. She was wearing what looked like a Victorian safari outfit, holding a musket in her gloved hands. She handed the torch and the gun to her companion, a slender man with red hair. 'Bear with me I have a pocket knife somewhere. . . ah.'

She knelt beside the Doctor and sliced easily through the rope. 'Thank you,'

he said, gathering up his belongings from where Kiiro had dropped them.

'Have we met, Miss Gate?'

The woman was peering at him through a pair of round spectacles. 'I don't believe so,' she said. 'Are you a member of the Royal Society?'

The Doctor grinned broadly. 'I am indeed,' he said. 'And, since it won't be founded for another century, I'll be very interested to know how you came to join it.'

The man cleared his throat. 'That's all very well, Doctor,' he said, 'but I think we'd better get out of here before they decide retreating wasn't honourable.

Or something.'

'Joel Mintz!' said Chris.

'Yeah,' said the redhead. 'Hi, Chris.'

Penelope looked back and forth between them. 'The plot thickens,' she said.

'Explanations and exchanges of pleasantries can wait until we're safely away.'

She helped the Doctor to his feet. The Time Lord shook Joel's hand, beam-ing. 'You've grown,' he said.

''Tis to laugh,' said Joel. 'This is too strange. We must have achieved infinite improbability, or something.'

'Um,' said Chris. 'Could someone please untie me?'

Aoi bowed to his father. 'May I ask you a question?'

They sat beside the fire. Kiiro was snoring, his back to a tree. The horses were still restless after their fright, snorting and stamping in the dark. They had ridden for almost an hour before Aoi's father felt certain the demons were not pursuing them.

Father said, 'You want to know why we ran away.' Aoi bowed again. 'The superior man does not needlessly expose himself to peril. There's no dishonour in fleeing from demons.'

38.'But Father,' said Aoi, 'isn't it also so that you can never be a true swordsman if you are concerned for your own safety? That is what you taught me if you stop to worry for yourself, or think about death, in that instant your opponent will cut you down.'

'That is true when you are in battle,' said his father. 'But a warrior must also know when not to fight. Then the sword that gives death becomes the sword that gives life.'

'How can a sword give life?' Aoi wanted to know, but his father smiled, and would not answer.

They followed Penelope along a narrow trail, silently, guided by the red beam from her torch. With any luck the samurai had ridden madly off in all directions and wouldn't be looking for them tonight.

'The village of Hekison,' announced the short woman, as they emerged into a clearing.

A little distance away, at the edge of the forest, there was a good-sized collection of huts and houses. The sound of a single flute accompanied by singing drifted across with the woodsmoke from dozens of hearths.

'I think we'll make our introductions in the morning,' said Penelope. 'We've been staying here for some days. There was an empty house. We did a few repairs. Not quite enough, I'm afraid.'

Chris and Joel glanced at each other. 'How long has it been?' they said simultaneously.

Chris grinned. 'Not long for me, maybe a couple of years.'

'It's been thirteen years for me.'

'Last time we met, you were younger than me.'

'Yeah.'

The house's sliding doors were torn, and there was a hole in the roof, but otherwise it was in reasonable shape. There were a few tatami tatami, and a small pile of anachronistic camping equipment neatly stacked in the corner. Joel started lighting oil lamps.

They sat in a circle on the floor, on sleeping bags and mats. For a moment the four of them just looked at one another.

Chris could see the Joel he'd known in this older man. He was still skinny and bespectacled. Under his heavy jacket he was wearing a T-shirt with a slogan Chris couldn't read. Penelope was also a redhead, a little plump. Her grey eyes were constantly moving, taking in the details of her surroundings.

'You first,' the Doctor prompted her. 'I'm dying to hear this.'

'You are time travellers,' said Penelope, 'as we are. I presume you have also invented a time vehicle.'

39.'Invented?' said the Doctor. 'You're Victorian, surely. What does it run on, steam? Static electricity?'

Penelope adjusted her round spectacles. 'Are you familiar with the a.n.a.lytical Engine?'

'Vaguely,' said the Doctor, grinning. Chris nudged him.

'I shall show you my conveyance in the morning. I take it,' she repeated, 'you have invented a similar device?'

'No,' admitted the Doctor. 'I stole mine.'

He took the rainbow egg out of his pocket. 'This, on the other hand, is my own work.' He handed it to Penelope. Its shifting colours were reflected in her gla.s.ses.

'What untellable technology is this?' she breathed.

'Look,' the Doctor told Chris. The whole surface of the egg was turning white in her grip, blue lines erupting and blurring into the burning light.

'Can I?' said Joel. The Doctor nodded, and Penelope reluctantly handed the egg to him. The white receded, becoming just a flare around his fingertips.

'Hey,' he said. 'How do I make this thing work?'

'It's working perfectly,' said the Doctor. 'I'd say we've found our temporal anomaly. Has either of you been mistaken for a deity, by any chance?'

'Oh no,' said Penelope. 'Though we did have to dissuade the villagers from worshipping us after we first appeared out of thin air. No, this "G.o.d" of theirs arrived three days before we did.' Penelope was staring at the egg. 'What precisely is that device?'

'It detects minor fluctuations in the timestream,' said the Doctor. 'Which is what Chris and I came here to investigate in the first place.'

'In your stolen time machine.'

'In my stolen time machine.'

Penelope returned his smile. 'I look forward to exchanging notes with you, Doctor,' she said. 'In the meantime, we'd better get the fire lit.'

Chris and Joel got stuck with getting the dinner. Joel struggled with the fire pit while Chris chopped up vegetables with Penelope's pocket knife. 'So how is everybody in Little Caldwell?'

Joel glanced at the Doctor. 'Oh fine. Up to our collective a.s.s in aliens as usual.'

The Doctor and Penelope were deep in a discussion of Newton. Chris grinned. 'So how does this time machine work?'

'I'm not sure, exactly. It runs on electricity Penelope actually used a light-ning bolt to power her first jump, like something out of Frankenstein! Frankenstein! She was aiming for the year 2000, and landed in May of 1996. Right in the middle of the magic roundabout, causing the worst traffic jam in Wiltshire history. She was aiming for the year 2000, and landed in May of 1996. Right in the middle of the magic roundabout, causing the worst traffic jam in Wiltshire history.

40.And guess who got booted out of HQ to take care of it, two days before the Professor X Professor X movie premiered?' movie premiered?'

'So you've been working for the Admiral all this time?'

'Yup. Well, up until I got aboard Penelope's time machine. I couldn't talk her out of continuing her "experiment", so I figured I'd better go along and keep an eye on her. Tony whipped up a battery for it. d.a.m.n thing only goes backwards now, though, no matter how she sets the dials. She jumped all the way to the middle of the twenty-first century, then back to '96, then back to 1743, then here.'

'You want a lift home?'

'Oh. . . yeah, of course. Thanks. I wanna find out whether they went ahead with the X X series or not. So what have you been up to? Where's Roz?' series or not. So what have you been up to? Where's Roz?'

'Roz died,' said Chris evenly.

'Oh s.h.i.t!' said Joel. 'Oh man, I'm so sorry. On Earth we had a thing called tact. . . '

'It's all right,' said Chris. 'It was a long time ago.' He pushed the vegetables into a cooking pot.

Neither of them said anything for a while. Chris glanced over at the Doctor and Penelope, whose discussion had turned into an argument. She didn't look like she would take any c.r.a.p from him. Good for her.

'We've been doing the usual stuff,' he told Joel. 'Saving the universe. You know. So, have you seen this G.o.d?'

'n.o.body's allowed in the shrine but the priest.' Joel shrugged. 'The villagers call it Kannon.'

'The Bodhisattva of compa.s.sion,' said Chris.

'Oh, you've been doing your homework.'

'I had to impersonate a monk a while back. I did a lot of reading. But it was mostly for appearances. I don't think I understand Zen at all.'

'You're so deep.'

'Ha ha.'

Out The Doctor stood at the door of the house. Penelope considered him for a moment. 'What is it?' she asked.

'Can you hear that?'

'No,' said Penelope.

He turned to look at her, as though she were a student who had given the wrong answer. 'Thanks for the rescue,' he said.

'We were expecting you,' she said. Behind them, at the fire pit, Mr Mintz and Mr Cwej (which was p.r.o.nounced Kwedge Kwedge, he had told her) laughed at 41 some shared joke. 'A woman visiting her mother in Shuuraku village brought back news of your arrival there, and Mr Mintz recognized you immediately from your description. He did not seem surprised at your arrival.'

'And less surprised that we needed rescuing,' said the Doctor.

'He told me a little of your adventures,' said Penelope. 'Tell me, Doctor. . . ?'

'It's just Doctor,' he said.

'Tell me, why have you come here?'

'As I said, I detected a fluctuation in the timelines,' he said. 'Nothing major.

I thought this would be a bit of a holiday, actually.'