Doctor Who_ Earthworld - Jacqueline Rayner [10]
‘Um, hello,’ called Fitz. The girl frowned, and came out from behind the coffin. She was only about thirteen or fourteen, but quite a looker anyway.
And, um, slim but, well, um, reasonably developed. For her age. Or so it would seem from a casual glance.
‘Are you lost?’ she asked.
‘Uh – yes,’ said Fitz. ‘Very.’
‘Thought so. You look like you’re from the twentieth century.’ Fitz gaped at her.
‘Would you like me to take you back there?’
‘You can do that?’
The Fluffy Frog in the Sky
21
‘Well, yes. Just don’t tell anyone. Come on, this way.’ She scurried off.
Fitz, dodging cats and ibises and apparent embodiments of ancient gods and goddesses, followed her.
‘ANJI.’
‘Yes?’
‘No no, not you, them. Apparently it stands for –’
‘The Association for New Jupitan Independence,’ supplied the blond boy. ‘A collective of right-minded people who want to see New Jupiter go forward in its own identity, not kowtowing to ridiculous ancient ties.’ He sounded as though he were quoting from something.
‘There, you see!’ said the Doctor, beaming at Anji. ‘Well, I’m all for own identities.’
New Jupiter. ‘I’m pretty sure there was only one Jupiter back where I come from,’ Anji said. ‘So this must be New Jupiter named after the first Jupiter, like New York or New Jersey. Which means. . . this is the future after all. Oh.’
‘Well, a bit of it,’ the Doctor said. ‘There’s actually rather a lot of it, you know.
And tomorrow, it’ll be part of the past.’
‘I mean, it’s my future,’ said Anji. ‘If I were on Earth now, it would be later than AD 2001.’
One of the boys – Bee Gee? No, Beezee – spat on the ground. The Doctor tutted benevolently. ‘That’s rather unhygienic, you know.’
‘You didn’t mention you were Earth-lovers,’ the boy sneered. ‘That’s what I call unhygienic.’
The Doctor gazed at him, frowning. ‘What a strange insult,’ he said. ‘Were you just copying what I said? Although I suppose you could call loving the Earth unhygienic – the oceans are terribly polluted for a start, and I don’t suppose anyone’s washed the ozone layer recently –’
Anji raised her eyes to the ceiling.
‘Shut up!’ yelled Zequathon, the blond boy. ‘Are you working for the President? Trying to find out our plans?’
The Doctor made an elaborate ‘zipping’ gesture across his mouth.
‘If you refuse to tell us, that means yes,’ said Beezee, coldly.
The Doctor raised his hands in the air, a pleading look in his eyes. Anji decided to intervene. ‘I think he means,’ she said, shaking her head (the Doctor knew how to be irritating), ‘that he’s shut up because you asked him to, and so can’t answer any of your questions without un-shutting-up. Look, just tell him he can speak.’
22
EarthWorld
‘All right! Speak!’ said Zequathon. ‘Answer me!’
The Doctor unzipped his mouth. ‘I don’t know who the President is, and even if I did I doubt I’d be working for him. I didn’t know about you until I was put in this cell, I didn’t know you had any plans until you mentioned them, and unless you’re going around blowing people up I’m probably on your side anyway. Now, could you imagine that I’m telling the truth and we really don’t know what’s going on – any of it – and tell us all about it? You don’t have to talk about any of your plans,’ he added kindly.
The boy paused for a second. He probably wasn’t too bright, Anji thought.
‘OK,’ he said at length. ‘You tell the tale, Timothy.’
Anji couldn’t help laughing at the look of anger and consternation ‘Timothy’
shot him.
‘Beezee!’ Zequathon (or maybe that wasn’t his real name) corrected himself hurriedly. ‘I meant Beezee.’
‘Beezee’, with another angry look, started to tell the tale. ‘Well, some of us got fed up with always being told how Earth was so much better than New Jupiter, so when the President started coming up with plans for this park thing, we –’
‘Just a minute,’ the Doctor interrupted. ‘Could you go back