OK Doc p. 9
The boy turned, swiped up a battered straw hat from the ground, and strode off. The Doctor and Rose followed him out into the desert.
The land around Tombstone was mostly flat, hardpan desert with a few clumps of rocks and scrub. It was cool, now, still morning, but a lingering heaviness in the air promised it would grow into its normal blistering heat later on.
Rose watched the boy’s straight back as he marched purposefully on, not much of a talker. “He looks like Huckleberry Finn in that hat,’ she said softly to the Doctor.
“Hmm,” he agreed absently. “About the right time for it.”
“So, have you figured out what that thing down in the mines is yet?” To anyone else, the events of the morning would have pushed the mystery completely out of their minds. But Rose knew the Doctor was capable of thinking of many different things at once. That’s one of the reasons why he was so confusing.
“Not yet.” The Doctor scanned the cactus-studded landscape. “Although we do seem to be heading toward the center of it.”
Rose looked around in surprise, expecting to see some landmark, but the device was buried deep underground. “So why did that thing shock you? Was it some kind of early warning device? Like a car alarm?”
The Doctor grinned at her. “Possibly, but I doubt it. Otherwise the miners would have triggered it off. No, silver is simply very conductive, the most naturally conductive element on your planet. I should have thought of that before I used the sonic screwdriver on it. I’ll remember next time.” He shrugged.
“So what is this thing? An Indian spirit, an alien, what?”
“Is it an alien masquerading as Kokopelli, or it the thing that the legends are based on?” he clarified. “Could be either, it depends on how long he’s been here.”
“Can’t you tell? Couldn’t the Tardis carbon date the silver or something?” Rose asked.
“It could, but that would only tell us how old the silver is, not how long ago it was reconfigured that way. No, this whole thing could be eons old, or only months.”
“Why months?”
“Oh, Rose. Think! The miners have been mining that vein for months!”
“All right! Don’t get squidgy with me! Besides, Billie says he’s been chasing that rabbit for two months. So maybe, whatever it is, just got here.”
“Very possibly. What have we here?”
Billie was standing in front of them at a split in the ground. As Rose and the Doctor drew level with him they saw it was the beginning of a long ravine, a small canyon or wash.
“I seen him mostly down there,” Billie said, pointing down the tumbled slope. “I looked for his den, all up and down the cliffs, but I never found nothing. Some snakes, and a badger, but nothing big enough for him. And there’s a really cool big rock down there!” He said excitedly. He dug around in his pockets, stressing his suspenders. “I figure it’s some kind of Indian sacred rock or something. Here, see?” he shoved a small black triangular stone at the Doctor.
The Doctor took it and examined it. It was no larger than his thumb. “Where did you find this?”
“Come on,” the boy said, scrambling down the cliff scree. “I’ll show you.”
They scrambled down the cliffs, the Doctor having to stop and help Rose every once in a while as her skirts kept getting in her way. At the bottom they found that the cliffs were only about three times their height, though it was old, with clumps of brush and dry grass growing from crannies up the walls.
They boy’s boulder was at the far end of the ravine, where the walls abruptly lowered, merging back into the lower flat expanse of the desert. The boulder stood just inside the last of the walls on one side, tan desert stones tumbled down around it, as if it might have been brought down by a rockslide. But the stone itself was black, shiny jet black, with an almost metallic sheen. It was a perfect pyramid.
“That’s got to be alien,” Rose said.
The boy ran up and patted it possessively. It was nearly as tall as he was.
“Interesting.” The Doctor strode over and crouched down, studying it. He smoothed his fingers over a circle of black scree that surrounded the boulder’s base. He held a piece out to Rose. It was a perfectly triangular black rock. The source of the boy’s lucky stone.
Rose took it. The stone was smooth to the touch, slick. It reflected the light with a silvery blackness, like a black mirror. She looked up at the boulder. It was huge, probably over three hundred pounds, and on closer examination she saw that it wasn’t a pyramid, not exactly, unless it had another, upside-down pyramid stuck to its base. “It’s a... What do you call that shape?” she outlined the many sided diamond shape with her hands.
“A polyhedron,” the Doctor supplied.
“But what is it?”
“It’s magnetite.” He stood up, hands on his hips with an oddly satisfied look on his face.
“Like a meteor?” Rose asked, looking back at the ravine that could be the result of a meteor plowing to a halt. If she squinted hard and tilted her head just right.
“No. Magnetite is another natural Earth element, although it’s usually found farther east.”
“So what’s it doing here?” Rose asked, inching closer and studying the stone. She could almost see her reflection in it. “I mean, a black pyramid? In the middle of the American desert?”
“It’s not a pyramid.” The Doctor rummaged in his pockets. “I’ll show you. Here,” he held up a metal washer and flipped it to her with a snap of his thumb. “Catch.” It arced over the stone toward her, she held out her hands. It abruptly veered down and stuck to the rock. She stared.
The Doctor grinned. “It’s magnetic.”
Rose glared at him, then leaned closer, peering at the washer. It was stuck flush to the smooth facet of the stone, she nudged it with her fingernail, and it slid sideways, but stayed stuck. “That’s...”
The rabbit appeared on top of the pyramid.
Rose shrieked and fell backwards. It had been only inches from her face. It crouched on the stone, hunched over, staring at her. It’s fur was the dun/grey color of the desert, it had the triangular head and long ears of a rabbit, but its eyes were human.
Rose was petrified to the spot.
“He’s mine!” the boy yelled, and launched himself at the rabbit that was nearly as tall as he was.
The strange creature leaped from the stone, easily avoiding him. The boy kept coming. The rabbit bounded away in long strides, veering in a long curve out into the desert. It turned and looked over its shoulder at the Doctor. “Leave, Stranger.” Rose flinched as the words reverberated in her mind. “This world is mine!” On the fourth bound the giant rabbit disappeared in midair.
“Damn!” Billie landed in the dirt from his last flying tackle. He rolled over and scanned the desert. Empty. “How’d he do that?”
The Doctor leaned down and helped Rose up. She stood and brushed off her skirts shakily. That voice, in her head. She was sure the message was meant for the Doctor, but she’d heard it, like an echo. It was warped, twisted. Wrong.
She shivered.
“You okay?” the Doctor asked.
“Yeah. Did you hear it?”
The Doctor nodded, distracted. He looked out over the desert, tracing the terrain with his eyes, he looked back up the ravine. He seemed to be looking for something, but Rose didn’t think it was the rabbit. He reached in his pocket absently and pulled out the sonic screwdriver.
He set the screwdriver and scanned it over the stone, he followed whatever readings he was getting, out into the desert, right to the boy. Billie looked up from his own perusal of the desert and saw the device.
“What’s that?” he twisted to get a good look at it.
“It’s a dowsing rod,” the Doctor said off handedly, he scanned it in a wide arc over the desert, his eyes seeming to follow invisible lines that they couldn’t see. He jumped back up the sloping hill beside the ravine and continued the 360 degree scan. The screwdriver pinged at irregular intervals. Including when he pointed it at Tombstone.
“I see,” he said to himself. He pocketed the sonic screwdriver and looked down pensively at the magnetite pyramid below him. He turned and looked at Rose. “The ring, underground?”
“Yeah?” Rose asked.
“I know what it is.”
Her eyebrows rose in eager question.
“It’s a hyperphase gate.”
next chapter - previous chapter