Doctor Who_ Corpse Marker - Chris Boucher [3]
The therapist read from her screen: ( Matter-of-factly) ‘Perhaps.
( Double-beat pause) You have no idea what happened to you ( Beat pause) on Storm Mine Four?’
‘No idea at all. I thought that’s what I just said.’
Following the instructions she was given on the screen, the therapist reached into her pocket and produced a small disc of iridescent red plastic. She reached forward and stuck it on to the back of Poul’s hand. ‘Do you know what that is?’ she asked quietly.
‘No,’ he said flatly. And then he began to scream.
Chapter One
The TARDIS finished balancing the transdimensional flows, pulled an infinity of options together into a single focus and settled into its new place. When the non-sound howling and the unmoving motion had passed and gone the Doctor stared at the image on the screen above the door and announced: ‘This looks disappointingly familiar.’
The picture showed that the TARDIS had come to rest inside an enclosed multi-storey space, the metallic walls of which were lined with gantries and ladders. Nowhere was there any sign of life. At regular intervals along the gantries there were doors, each with an observation port back lit with sharp green light.
Nothing moved.
‘Of course,’ the Doctor went on, ‘when you’ve been around for as long as I have almost everything does look disappointingly familiar.’ He pulled the newly repaired long scarf from the pocket of the coat he always wore and looped it round his neck.
‘It’s always a happy surprise when it turns out not to be.’ From the hat stand he retrieved the wide-brimmed felt he invariably favoured and clamped it over his unruly curls. Routinely unchangeable in the slightly eccentric outfit which would alter finally only when he himself did, he beamed down at Leela. ‘ I do love surprises, don’t you?’
‘No,’ Leela said. ‘In my world surprises bite.’ She was shorter than the Doctor; lighter, slighter and altogether more aggressive.
‘But you’re not in your world now,’ the Doctor chided.
‘Even though you still insist on wearing that rather primitive ensemble.’
‘Ensemble?’ Leela did not take her eyes from the screen.
‘The hide tunic, the skin boots, the knife?’
Automatically Leela put her hand on the hilt of her long-bladed hunting knife as though she half expected an attempt to take it from her. ‘You do not like my...ensemble?’
‘It is not appropriate for every occasion. It does look a bit odd sometimes.’
‘But what you are wearing does not look odd sometimes.’ It was almost a question but not quite.
‘Well-tailored clothes are never out of place,’ the Doctor said. He smiled his quick, wolfish smile. ‘And I am not threatening. I don’t frighten people.’
Leela glanced away from the screen and scowled at the Doctor. ‘I do not frighten people.’
‘You don’t think so?’
Leela thought for a moment. ‘I do not think so,’ she said finally. ‘Fear is the enemy of reason.’
‘Who told you that?’
‘You did.’
‘It must be true then,’ the Doctor said, operating the TARDIS’s door control. ‘Shall we go and see if there are any surprises left out there?’
‘We should wait longer,’ Leela began.
‘I know, I know,’ the Doctor interrupted. ‘We should wait for movement so we can identify the predators.’
‘Dangers,’ Leela corrected. ‘This does not look as though it is a likely place for predators.’
‘I don’t suppose you want to leave the knife behind then?’
the Doctor suggested.
‘No,’ Leela said flatly.
Nodding to himself, the Doctor headed for the door. ‘Don’t blame me if the locals are hostile.’
Leela trotted after him. ‘That is why I will not leave the knife behind.’
‘I thought it was part of your warrior cult,’ the Doctor said, stepping out and sniffing the dry air of a dust-free, climate-controlled environment.
‘Who told you that?’ Leela asked.
‘You did.’
‘I said it was part of my training.’
‘Exactly,’ the Doctor said. ‘Let’s take a look at those gantries, shall we?’
He strode off briskly, his shoes ringing dully on the highly polished metal floor. Leela padded silently along beside him.
The Doctor had already started climbing the ladder to the first-level