Doctor Who_ Beyond the Sun - Matthew Jones [114]
He wanted to wear the mask for ever. They knew he was gay. Bernice. Tameka. All of them.
And now he knew too.
He’d always known of course, deep down, but somehow he’d managed to avoid actually admit-ting it to himself. Somehow he managed to keep his thoughts and feelings apart. He’d fancied boys. Oh he’d ached after a couple of boys who lived on the relay station. Fallen into month-long depressions when they’d moved away or met girls. But he’d never thought about it consciously.
Never let himself acknowledge it.
How the hell had he managed that? How had he lived like that? Was he so screwed up that he didn’t even know what he felt?
He’d been such a liar.
Emile was distracted by the Sunless lifting the huge covered cargo crate. His eyes widened as he realized it was the one Scott and Michael had hidden in. From his hiding place beneath the pipes, he saw grey-uniformed figures marching out into the storm, the heavy tarpaulin of the device flapping in the wind.
Where were they taking them?
He had pulled his mask away from his face and mouthed What do we do? at Tameka, when Bernice appeared with Jason behind her.
‘Come on. And keep your respirators out of sight.’
Emile fell into step beside Tameka and behind Jason. The four of them marched down out of the ship and found themselves at the bottom of the strangest building he’d ever seen.
He’d only glimpsed it from the hold. It was built, if it had been made by people, out of huge ruby-red crystal struts which reached up high into the stormclouds. He couldn’t tell if they actually were red or whether it was the strange light which changed everything. He was staring up at the huge glasslike needles, trying to see where they ended, when Tameka kicked him hard in the shin.
He glanced over to her, but kept walking. Her bald head looked as pink as a baby bird in the light.
‘Like Sunless, remember,’ she hissed. ‘Not like bloody tourists.’
Oh yeah! Immediately he looked straight ahead as he marched and tried to look blank, but he couldn’t get the huge building out of his mind. Building wasn’t the right word, but there wasn’t another which fitted. It was as if it had grown on the surface of the planet. Like crystal gardens in jars at school or the dark, uneven lesions that had grown on his mother’s hands and arms before she had died.
It was cold and getting hard to breathe.
A woman appeared from beneath two of the crossed crystal spears and walked towards the Sunless, who were busy setting down the equipment at the edge of the structure. The woman’s hair was almost pink in the strange light. She was wearing a respirator, which covered her face, and a large, heavy fur coat.
Emile glanced at Jason, who was still marching towards the entrance. Was this the woman he had left Bernice for? She would only have to glance in their direction to recognize him! There was no way that a bit of make-up and a haircut was going to fool her. This wasn’t like Go-Go Girl, who only had to remove her glasses and change the way she parted her hair to fool her boyfriend into thinking she was plain old Maggie Chascarrillo.
A man followed the woman out. He had the same flaming hair and was dressed in similar heavy clothes. They pulled off their respirators to talk. He heard them arguing loudly as his party began to march past. The woman and the man were sheltering next to the equipment the other Sunless had brought out of the ship.
‘Where can she have gone?’ the woman exclaimed, angrily.
‘I don’t know.’ The man glanced across the icy plain. ‘It doesn’t matter now that we’ve got the other visionary. We don’t need her any more.’
‘We still might need her help if we run into problems activating the device.’
Emile was now directly level with them.
‘Wait!’ the woman said, and planted a hand on his shoulder.
It was shocking to suddenly become involved in the scene he had previously only been observing. Emile ignored her command and tried to