Free Doctor Who: Transit by Ben Aaronovitch Page A

up for another twelve metres before levelling off into a corridor vanishing into darkness.
    Naran hit the dead end first, Mariko heard a thump and then a groan. She found him lying on his back clutching his nose. The corridor terminated in a wall of solid rock. Mariko felt it with her hands. There were long grooves etched horizontally across its face. Mariko guessed that they'd been made by the laser-tunneller before it was turned off.
    Naran sat up. 'What now?' he asked.
    'Did you see any turn-offs?'
    'No,' said Naran. 'I think I've broken my nose.'
    'Then we wait here until it goes away.'
    'Did you see it?'
    'Yes.'
    'What was it?'
    Mariko looked down the corridor. The down ramp at the end was a rectangle of muted light.
    'A ghost train.'
    Naran snorted and started his nose bleeding again. 'Assuming it does go,' he said, 'how do we get out of here?'
    'There's bound to be a communications relay point on the station somewhere, we patch into that and call for help.'
    There was a noise from the platforms below.
    'What was that?' asked Naran.
    'Shut up, Naran.'
    They heard a muttering and then a harsh metallic squeal.
    'That's feedback,' said Naran. 'Someone's using the PA.'
    The squeal tailed off, there was a noise like someone coughing down an amplifier.
    'My fellow citizens.' The voice echoed up the ramp.
    Naran's face had gone blank with fear.
    'The station of the nation is the question.'
    'It's the President,' said Naran.
    'Ask not what your nation can do for you,' boomed the voice, 'but rather what can you do for your nation.'
    Light exploded up the ramp and came boiling down the corridor towards them. Mariko saw her board caught up in the wave of light, whirling towards them like a leaf in a storm. Naran was screaming as the light picked them up and transfixed them to the wall. The board banged into the space between them and stuck upright. It was hard to see in the intensity, but through slitted eyes Mariko made out the silhouetted figure of a man coming towards them. He came on at a brisk pace, walking with an assured authority that was somehow horribly familiar. There was something wrong about the man's lower face; it bulged outwards as if his mouth had been stuffed with a dinner plate.
    The man stopped directly in front of Naran and Mariko and put his hands on his hips. Then he leaned forward, face thrust ahead to inspect them. There was enough light reflected from the dull surface of the wall for Mariko to see his face. It really was the President, only someone seemed to have shoved a loudspeaker down the famous bull neck. The famous green eyes peered over the distorted rim of his lips at Mariko and Naran. There was a click from deep inside the speaker and then an electrical hum.
    'Attention!' The volume made Mariko's teeth rattle.
    'All of those unwilling to volunteer for transmogrification - take one step backwards.'
    Mariko squirmed against the unyielding concrete of the wall.
    'Excellent,' said the President, 'that's what I like to see.' He stretched out both hands and plunged them into their chests Mariko looked down and saw his index finger sinking into the flesh between her breasts as if it were putty. She felt the knuckle scrape against a rib as it was pushed in.
    I feel no pain, Mariko said to herself, I must be in shock She said it again and again, a mantra against madness as she felt the fingers scrabbling about like rats in her chest cavity She saw the President set his shoulders and push.
    Then there was pain.

    Lunarversity
    The Doctor dreamt of Ace running under the brilliant blue sky of Heaven. In his dream her eyes were the colour of amber, slotted like a cheetah's, and her hair flew behind her like a mane. Not a cat, thought the Doctor and the words rang in his dream ears, never that self-absorbed. You were always a wolf to me, proud and headstrong, tireless and loyal. Out on the open plain Ace threw back her head and howled. The sound floated over the ranked graves of the planet, full of pain and