Free Death of the Doctor by Gary Russell

Santiago (the Doctor shook his hand as he introduced himself), then – ‘Oh, hullo,’ he said. ‘A Groske. How nice!’
    The Groske jumped out. ‘No smell anymore,’ he said to Clyde.
    ‘That’s comforting,’ Clyde muttered.
    ‘Listen,’ snapped Santiago.
    There was a hum, steadily rising, coming from some way away.
    Rani touched the bedroom door. ‘Vibrating.’
    ‘That’s a lot of power building up,’ the Doctor said, yanking the door open and pelting off in the direction of the noise. Towards the Funeral Chamber!
    Inside the Chamber, Colonel Karim was operating the computer console for one of the Memory Weaves, into which Sarah Jane was strapped.
    On the opposite side of the room, Jo was strapped into the other one, and Aureolin was placing the wired-up helmet on her head, while Azure operated the controls.
    Amaranth fitted Sarah Jane’s helmet.
    ‘I never trusted you, Colonel,’ Sarah Jane said.
    Karim raised her eyes heavenwards. ‘Like I care. Frankly, I’ve never met anyone so staggeringly pious in all my life.’
    ‘The Doctor will stop you,’ Sarah Jane said.
    Karim sighed. ‘Oh, give it a rest. The doors are sealed. This room was originally designed as a bunker in case Mount Snowdon, and this base specifically, was attacked. He’d need so much dynamite to blow those doors apart, he’d bring the mountain down on his head first.’
    Jo, however, was staring at the TARDIS, the lead coffin lying discarded to one side of it.
    ‘I never thought I’d ever see the TARDIS again,’ she breathed.
    ‘That’s what this is all about,’ the Colonel said to her from across the room. ‘The TARDIS and you two.’ She looked at Azure. ‘Activate the Memory Weave.’
    Azure flicked a switch with his great talons, and Colonel Karim did the same on her console.
    And simultaneously, they turned similar dials. The hum got louder.
    ‘So, come on then,’ Sarah Jane said bravely. ‘What does a Memory Weave do?’
    ‘Cos I warn you, sweetheart,’ Jo said, just as bravely, ‘at my age, the memory’s going.’
    ‘You only need to remember one thing,’ said Amaranth, now strumming the Cradle again. ‘The TARDIS key.’
    Karim explained. ‘The Weave takes the memory out of your head and makes it real. It weaves matter – a physical key from your thoughts.’
    ‘And then,’ Azure said, extending his massive wings in victory, ‘we will have access to the TARDIS! The most miraculous machine in creation. And it shall be ours!’
    ‘But you mustn’t,’ Jo said.
    Azure ignored her. ‘We have seen so much death. The Claw Shansheeth have presided over infinite funerals. We see the pain, and the suffering, again and again and again. But with the TARDIS we can stop this, we can intervene to prevent such loss of life on a universal scale. A noble quest to stop the endless, endless weeping.’
    ‘You’re going to stop death?’ Sarah Jane was appalled. ‘That’ll change the whole of history. That’s why creatures like you can’t have time machines, you’d wreck the entire universe.’
    Colonel Karim threw Sarah Jane a look. ‘What did I say? Pious.’
    But Sarah Jane was furious. ‘I’d rather be pious than vile. Talking of which, what do you get out of this, Colonel?’
    ‘A bigger horizon. Cos there’s nothing for me on Earth anymore. So the Shansheeth are going to take me to the stars.’ And with a cruel smile, she turned the dial up more.
    At which point a furious hammering began on the door, from outside. Then a voice – the Doctor’s, calling their names anxiously.
    ‘They want the TARDIS key,’ Sarah Jane bravely called out to him. ‘They’ve got your TARDIS and a Memory Weave!’
    ‘You’re too late out there,’ Karim yelled, her voice cracking slightly, a tone of mild hysteria in it. She was getting stressed as her plan neared completion. ‘You can’t stop us…me!’
    And she turned her dials up further.
    Azure did the same, as Amaranth strummed the Cradle and the Memory