Cold Fusion - Lance Parkin [61]
The cabin was about six feet high, meaning that the Doctor and his Time Lady friend couldn’t quite stand up straight. The woman moved to sit in one of the chairs, the Doctor indicated that Tegan could sit in the other. She did so before he began feeling less chivalrous. It wasn’t very comfortable, but it took the weight off her feet.
‘This is all very civilized, isn’t it?’ the Doctor piped up.
Tegan found that she could almost agree with him. The woman was smiling. Oh, this was hopeless...
‘Doctor, who is this? What’s her name?’
‘I don’t know. I’ll see if I can find out.’ He shuffled over to the other woman. ‘May I?’ he asked her, brushing aside the hair at her temple, touching the back of his fingers to her head. It was a tender move, almost a caress.
‘Contact,’ the Doctor said. As she watched them, Tegan realized that the Doctor was communicating with her on some mental level. She could almost see his thoughts passing down through the fingers, down the nerves and veins of the woman’s body, into her brain. He was smiling at some intimacy, and then so was she.
‘Is she cold?’ Tegan asked, slipping her coat off. The cotton gown the Time Lady wore was thin enough to see that she wasn’t wearing anything warmer underneath it.
‘No’ the Doctor responded.
‘Can she speak?’
‘Her memories are fragmented.’
‘Can you find her name?’ Tegan asked as she tugged her coat back over her shoulder.
‘No.’ The word hung in the air for a moment. ‘No need to worry,’ the Doctor continued. ‘Her memory has been damaged, but it should heal. That must have affected her language and speech centres. In the meantime we’ll just call her “the Patient”.’
‘Patience?’ Tegan asked.
‘No, “the Patient”. It’s the only identification given on the medical report. Although come to think of it, Patience is a better name.’
‘What happened to her?’
‘She has just regenerated for the first time.’
‘You are certain? You know it’s the first time?’
He nodded again, looking puzzled that Tegan needed to ask a second time.
Realization dawned as she spelt it out for him: ‘She remembers that much. So she’s not lost all her memories.
Is there anything else in there?’
The Doctor grimaced, trying to piece together something. ‘She was born of Blyledge, one of the Senior Houses of Glorious Gallifrey,’ he said after some hesitation.
‘Anything more useful?’ Tegan asked, a little bemused.
‘Can she remember anything about the house? Can she describe it?’
The Doctor closed his eyes, letting the memories come to him. ‘The House is old, older than the hill on which it stands. It is angular. Dark. A small dark building beneath an orange sky. Inside it is large and the walls are white, with a regular circular pattern on the floor. There is a walled garden in the centre of the House, a quadrangle filled with silver trees. The birds sing a pretty song and there’s always music in the air. Our youngest children play in the courtyard.’
‘Our?’ Tegan asked.
‘ Their,’ the Doctor corrected. ‘I’m sorry, it’s sometimes difficult to disentangle my thoughts from hers. She has thirteen children.’ Tegan was shocked by this, until she remembered that Time Lords lived forever, and that, despite her appearance, this woman wasn’t really in her early thirties. ‘I... can’t find their names. She can’t remember the names of her own children. I should be able to...’ The Doctor seemed lost again.
‘Can she remember anything about the father?’ Tegan prompted.
The Doctor said his name, then paused. ‘No, no. Quite impossible,’ he declared.
‘You’ve heard of him?’ Tegan asked him.
‘Oh yes, but it’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. He was a pioneer and leader among my people, one of