Doctor Who_ Alien Bodies - Lawrence Miles [146]
‘Kathleen?’ he said.
The UNISYC Lieutenant stared back at him. She didn’t speak.
‘You remember the alien you saw in Mictlan? The one wearing the robes?’
Kathleen nodded.
‘That’s the enemy,’ the Doctor said. ‘Try to forget you ever saw it. I know I will.’
She nodded again.
‘Qixotl?’
Qixotl swallowed. The Doctor gave him another one of those scary looks.
‘If you see Marie, give her my thanks. Tell her I couldn’t have done it without her. And one more thing.’
‘Er, yeah?’
‘Later,’ said the Doctor, meaningfully. And with that, he staggered away down the corridor, Sam keeping him more or less upright. The Relic moved aside to let them pass, then floated after them. The last thing Qixotl saw of them was Sam’s face, looking back at the hall, and mouthing something to the UNISYC Lieutenant. Qixotl didn’t see what the message was. Some kind of goodbye, he guessed.
A few minutes later, the rest of the bidders started wandering back into the conference hall. They weren’t in a very good mood.
Homunculette pressed his hands against the emergency console, feeling the pulse of the engines under his palms. Strictly speaking, type 103 TARDIS units were designed to respond to vocal commands, there was no need for him to set the controls manually. But it seemed appropriate. This was Marie’s first proper journey since the repair job, and Homunculette felt she ought to have it easy. Just this once.
He realised he was starting to get sticky thoughts again. He distracted himself by concentrating on something that made him feel bitter and twisted.
‘He betrayed us,’ he grumbled, out loud.
‘The Doctor?’ queried Marie. Her voice echoed around the dome of her control room. The room was looking good now, if you could overlook the scars across the access panels.
Homunculette grunted in the affirmative. ‘He knew how much we needed the Relic. He should have handed it over. He’s a Time Lord, he’s supposed to be on our side.’
Marie sighed, and the sigh filled the room with fresh, clean, ion-scented air. Homunculette felt it brush against his face, and was surprised how good it felt. ‘He couldn’t involve himself,’ Marie insisted. ‘Not in his own future. The Seventh Law of Time, remember.’
‘Seventh?’
‘I think it’s the seventh.’
‘Then why did he take it with him? Why didn’t he just leave it alone? The Relic was our last chance, and he knew it.’ Homunculette dug his fingernails into the skin of the console. ‘I’ll tell you what really gets to me. He was the worst interventionist we ever had. He was supposed to be famous for the way he kept sticking his nose in. And all of a sudden, he’s lecturing us about causality.’
‘I don’t think you’re being very fair,’ Marie cooed. ‘He did save our lives.’
Homunculette ignored her. ‘We’ll get that body. Don’t you worry. We’ll get that body if we have to kill him ourselves.’
‘I hope you’re not serious,’ Marie said. But Homunculette had already given the dematerialisation order.
Manjuele kicked some of the dust out into the corridor. The dust had once been a Kroton war machine, he’d been told, but the Doctor had done something or other to make it fall to pieces. Manjuele hoped the process had hurt. Anything that looked like a Canadian Home Guard riot-tank with arms deserved to die in agony, as far as he was concerned.
By the dais, Justine picked up the biosampler, slipped it over her fingers, and rolled up her sleeve. She hadn’t said a word since they’d left the conference hall. Manjuele got the feeling she was going to freak out on him any second.
‘You ’kay?’ he said. He’d never asked the Cousin anything like that before. He wondered if he was getting soft. What the hell, maybe he’d have a better chance with her if he acted all cute and concerned.
‘We failed,’ Justine told him. And there was no feeling in her voice at all.
Manjuele shrugged, although Justine had her back turned to him. ‘We can stiff the Doctor. Need bigger guns, s’all.’
‘The Doctor did what he had to. As we all must.’ Justine