Doctor Who_ Earthworld - Jacqueline Rayner [11]
Beezee frowned, but obliged. ‘The President’s descended from the leader of the first colony, way back years ago. John F Hoover, his name is.’
‘What does the “F” stand for?’ asked the Doctor. Showing he was taking an interest; gaining their sympathy. He was leaning slightly forward too, palms upright and open. Anji had done a seminar on body language in the workplace and knew what he was up to. Mind you – radical thought – maybe the Doctor was finding the story fascinating, and really did want them to open up to him, trust him, be his friends.
Whatever, the effort in appearing interested wasn’t appreciated. Beezee gave the Doctor a ‘you are dumb’ look. ‘What are you talking about? It’s the Presidential F. It doesn’t stand for anything.’
‘Oh, I see,’ said the Doctor, as if that made perfect sense. ‘Please, carry on.’
Beezee shrugged. ‘Well, he’s just really into the whole Earth thing. Our ancestors came from Earth, therefore we’re spiritually Earthmen. We’re made to feel second class –’
‘At least,’ interrupted Zequathon.
‘Mmm, more like tenth class,’ added Xernic, the first time Anji had heard him speak, ‘if there were only nine classes.’
The Fluffy Frog in the Sky
23
‘– because of us happening to be born a few hundred thousand light years away from our spiritual home. It’s not as if he’s even saying he’s better than us, even though he’s from one of the first families – that’d be more understandable
– just that we’re all inferior to some stupid faraway Earth types. Who care about us so much that they haven’t lifted a finger to help “their” people here, now we’ve no money or trade.’
‘’Cept now Hoover’s got this amazing plan to save us all with Earth’s help,’
said Zequathon.
‘I was coming to that.’ Beezee glared at him. ‘Yeah, Earth do stuff when there’s something in it for them.’ He turned back to the Doctor. ‘Hoover’s got Earth Heritage to set up one of their theme parks here. You know, “imagine what it would have been like to live in Earth’s Golden Times”, all that stuff.
Which I suppose is all well and good in that it’ll bring in some cash. But –’
‘And it’s a big but,’ put in Xernic.
‘Just like Xernic’s,’ said Zequathon irrelevantly, earning himself a punch.
‘ But, it makes us yet another little profit-making enterprise for Earth Heritage, who are the biggest load of money-grubbing gold-diggers around; it makes everyone go “ooh, Earth is so, great”, and it completely ignores the fact that we do actually have some New Jupitan heritage of our own. But we can’t have a theme park about that, oh no. We don’t even have a poky little backstreet museum about our heritage.’
‘And ANJI. . . ?’ asked Anji.
‘We want to be independent from Earth. We can’t rely on them for anything, so deferring to them in everything is just holding us back. Why should they get our taxes when they don’t provide us with anything in return?’
(‘Ah, taxes,’ muttered the Doctor in an aside to Anji.)
‘The people of New Jupiter should be proud of their own planet, not forever spouting on about some distant ancestry.’
‘And it’s not just us who think that,’ said Zequathon. ‘There are even people in the government who support us.’
‘Really?’ said the Doctor. ‘Who?’
‘Why should we tell you?’ snapped Beezee, at the very same moment that Xernic said, ‘We don’t actually know who, exactly.’
‘ Anyway,’ continued Beezee, ‘the fact is that we have support, and we’re going to show the stupid “Earthmen” of New Jupiter that ANJI means business.
The New Jupitans aren’t going to let Earth leech off them for ever. We’ll show
’em all!’
24
EarthWorld
‘When you get out of this cell, of course,’ the Doctor reminded him kindly.
‘And when is that exactly? When will they let you out?’
There was no answer. All three boys looked sheepishly at the ground, the ceiling, anywhere but at the Doctor, Anji or each other.
Anji began to have a bit of a sick feeling in her stomach.
The Doctor was leaning even further forward. ‘Tell me,’ he said. It was red-haired Xernic who answered, sounding nervous.