Doctor Who_ Blue Box - Kate Orman [45]
‘Oh, I get it,’ I said. ‘The aliens. The UFOs are going to come and get us if we don’t return their toys’
‘A distinct possibility,’ he said. ‘Though I’m far more worried about what human beings might do with Eridani technology.’ He raised a hand to stop me before I could ask again what the devices were supposed to do. ‘A cageful of mischievous and belligerent monkeys. And someone throws in a hand grenade for them to play with. There’s one more component out there. One more. I’m convinced Miss Swan knows where it is. She will be more determined than ever to keep it out of our hands, to discover its secrets.’
‘How much harm can Swan do?’ Where the hell had he put the lit cigarette? ‘Even if she finds the last pieces, won’t it be useless on its own?’
‘It may actually be more dangerous without the other components to control it.’
‘Doctor,’ I said, ‘did you invent it? Is that what this is all about?’
He give me one of his piercing blue looks, and suddenly that safe lambswool feeling of the darkness just flew away, and I had the same feeling I had had with Swan: this was a person who could look right through you and see all your secrets. He lived on another plane, rich with information, with a million data points you had no way of accessing like a four-dimensional monster that can see you when you can’t see it.
‘Still trying to come up with an explanation you can put into print,’ he said.
‘Well, I’ve already decided you can’t be a Ruskie, or you’d have found some way of getting rid of me.’ I had a sudden flash of being chucked down the side of the mountain in the dark. ‘Before now,’ I added.
‘I see,’ said the Doctor. And what are your other theories about my identity?’
I ticked them off on my fingers. ‘Corporate agent.
Industrial spy. UFOlogist. Undercover military investigator.
Pseudologue. A major unknown hacker – that goes without saying. Art thief.’
‘Art thief?’
‘Well, the “devices” really could be stolen artworks for all I know. So, am I getting warm?’
He just smiled, and went back to stargazing.
‘Which of those is Epsilon Eridani?’
The Doctor’s finger swept up to point instantly at the star.
‘That one,’ he said. ‘The “Eridani’s” jumping off point for your volume of space.’
I suddenly seemed to see the lines between the stars, the paths taken by all those imaginary starships, hopping from one to the next to the next to the next. ‘So how come they haven’t taken over the world?’
‘Without faster-than4ight travel? Very uneconomical.
Besides, the ecology is all wrong. Mars would be more their cup of tea, if It wasn’t already taken.’ He spoke not with the feverish excitement of a true believer, but casually; like a lecturer sketching in the basic details for a student.
‘So I suppose they’re the source of all the UFO sightings.’
‘Certainly not. The Eridani have been slingshotting craft through your solar system for centuries, studiously avoiding drawing attention to themselves. It’s only now that the human race has developed radio that this mighty bungle has occurred.’
I was getting interested despite myself. His story was so straightforward – no ancient civilisations, no higher planes of consciousness. ‘So why did they screw up?’
‘They simply didn’t notice that anyone was here. It only takes eleven years for radio signals to reach Eridani from Earth, but by the time they get there, distance has watered them down to a billionth of their original strength. Put simply; they didn’t care and they weren’t looking. To them, the Earth is just the equivalent of an interplanetary traffic cone.’ I had to laugh at that, but he looked deadly serious. ‘And just about as disposable. There must be a world for Peri to come home to,’
he breathed.
The back door of the campervan creaked. I saw Bob climbing out, stretching his gangly limbs in the freezing morning air.
The Doctor reached behind my ear and extracted the cigarette, still lit, with a flourish.
‘Doctor,’ said Bob. ‘There’s something I need you to take a look at.’
He took a roughly folded sheet of paper out of his pocket and uncrumpled