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.The Doctor tutted to himself.Once they reached the Faction’s shrine, they’d be safe from the Krotons, but he had no idea what would happen then.He imagined the bidders sharing out the Relic between themselves.An arm for the Celestis, a leg for Homunculette, a pancreas for the Faction.‘What’s a Warspear?’ Sam queried.The Doctor stopped pontificating.‘I’m not sure.I’ve met the Krotons before, but only isolated units.I think it’s safe to assume the reinforcements are going to be heavily armed, though.’‘What about Kathleen?’ Sam asked.‘And what about Marie?’ wheezed Homunculette.The Doctor waved the questions aside.‘We’ll pick them up as we go.But we’re running out of time.Keep moving.’The Relic is the important thing.The Doctor nodded.‘Exactly.The Relic is the important thing.’The Relic has a message.‘The Relic has a message,’ the Doctor repeated.‘Sorry, what?’ said Sam.‘I said, the Relic –’The Doctor stopped.Stopped dead.Stopped dead? Stupid expression to think of, at a time like this.The Relic has a message, and it’s very important.The Doctor shook his fist in front of his face.‘Stop it,’ he insisted.‘Stop what?’ asked Sam.‘Not you.’The Relic is.‘I said, stop it!’ He closed his eyes, and started walking again, letting his feet find the steps on their own.He felt himself cross the landing on the first floor down, then move down the staircase towards the lowest level, brushing aside the remains of the retinal webs on the way.Sam’s voice drifted back into his consciousness.‘Doctor? You’re picking up telepathic stuff again, aren’t you?’‘Yes.Yes, I am.’ The Doctor slipped, almost fell down the steps, but he recovered himself in the nick of time.Behind him, the bidders started muttering anxiously.‘Sam, please.Don’t talk to me.It’s hard keeping the voice out of my head.The closer I get to the casket.’The closer you get to the casket, the closer you get to the future.I don’t know why you’re so afraid of your own body, Doctor.Think of it as a point of certainty in your life.A cornerstone.Everything else is so vague, these days.So changeable.‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’I think you do.You used to be so careful, as well.You always did your best to stop anything happening to the timeline.Remember when Adric drove that freighter full of antimatter into the Earth, and wiped out the dinosaurs for you? You felt like you’d lost so much, but let’s be honest, you won that day.You did what you always do.You looked after history.You made sure the dinosaurs died out, dead on schedule.‘That’s not true!’I know, you’ve made a few small.let’s not call them changes, let’s call them improvisations.You’ve made sure a few people survived who wouldn’t have survived.You’ve saved the odd human colony here, the occasional endangered species there.But wherever you went, you always made sure time ran its course.Until now, that is.Until this regeneration.You’re not even thinking about the consequences anymore.‘Meaning?’Just after you regenerated, remember? You went back and visited all your past lives.Changed your own timeline by doing it, too.‘It wasn’t exactly my doing,’ the Doctor protested.You’re blaming Rassilion?‘Well.if you like.’Isn’t that a bit like a Christian blaming God for all his mistakes? Let me try another approach, maybe you’ll see what I’m getting at.Sam thinks of you as a function of the universe.Really, that’s the way she sees you.Not a person, exactly, more a kind of built-in feature of existence.‘That’s not true,’ said the Doctor.Actually, he had no idea whether it was true or not.Let me finish.Think back to that time when you went to see your previous selves.What was the first thing you did, once you’d finished playing with your timeline? What was the first thing that happened, once you were sure you’d got your identity back? I’ll tell you, if you can’t remember.You met up with Sam and took her on board the TARDIS.Almost as if some part of you knew what she represented, and had to complete the process.‘I don’t understand.What does Sam represent?’‘Who, me?’ said Sam.‘Shhh.I asked you a question.’You know what Sam represents [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]