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By Root 878 0

kicked himself for not even being able to look at a babe without thinking of the Doctor – and then mentally kicked himself extra, extra hard for thinking of an adolescent as a babe). It was the Nefertiti girl, but now dressed in a flapper outfit of fringed dress, high heels and beads long enough to lasso with. He tried doing a really small wave so Venna Durwell wouldn’t notice. She didn’t, but neither did the girl. So, was she an android? She hadn’t acted like one. But then, he, Fitz, didn’t act like an android as far as he was aware, and it hadn’t stopped Durwell and her screwdriver. The androids here were obviously pretty History’s What You Make It

35

good. Maybe this wasn’t the girl he’d met before, but they’d just used the same mould or whatever to make her. He thought he’d test the water.

‘That flapper kid,’ he said. ‘She looks a bit familiar. Have you only got, like, a few models?’

Durwell sniffed. ‘The infinite variety of the human form is represented in EarthWorld. We have androids of all shapes, sizes and colours, and no two are the same.’

‘Oh,’ said Fitz. It must be the same girl after all, doubling as a quick-change artist.

‘Except for that design,’ the woman continued. Aha! ‘The President of New Jupiter’s daughters –’ she sniffed again – ‘insisted on making a number of the androids in their own image. The girls are confined to the palace and unable to visit the centre, although they were responsible for a lot of the technical groundwork, so this was understood to be an acceptable compromise.’

‘I see,’ said Fitz, who didn’t really. A few hours later he would be really, really wishing he’d taken the opportunity to ask a few more questions.

‘Are we all clear on the plan? First we escape, then I go and find these princess triplets who built the androids –’

‘The president’s daughters are princesses,’ Anji muttered. ‘There’s democracy for you.’

‘– and work out how to stop the robot revolt, while you four infiltrate the theme park using those handy devices your “supporter” so thoughtfully sent you and rescue poor Fitz from the killer androids. Once the park is safe again there’ll be no need for the President to execute you, so I’ll just give him a quick talk about the importance of maintaining one’s own identity, and then we can all meet up back here in the palace for free pardons and tea. All right with everyone?’

The ANJI boys were staring at the Doctor as if Superman himself had come among them. The cynical teen act had fled completely; hero worship was here.

‘Yes,’ they breathed, awestruck.

‘Oh yes,’ Anji agreed. ‘Fine by me. Just one thing: how do we escape?’

The Doctor’s face fell as though she’d snatched his sweeties away. ‘I’m not sure.’ Then as quick as a flash he was beaming again. ‘But I know I’m really good at this bit usually,’ he said. ‘Let’s look for secret passages!’

He began to tap the walls hopefully. The ANJI boys joined in. After a moment, so did Anji, shaking her head resignedly.

***

36

EarthWorld

They were at Venna Durwell’s office. Fitz knew that, because the door had a big sign saying VENNA DURWELL, CURATOR. PRIVATE on it. They’d gone through one of those energy barriers again to get here – Durwell had used a zappy gadget like the one the Nefertiti girl had had. The office was in the control centre, a sort of reception-cum-control room-cum-gift shop, with nice carpets and a lot of switchboard sort of things. No people there.

Inside the office, Durwell shut the door. ‘So,’ she said. ‘Does anyone know you’re here, in EarthWorld?’

That sounded to Fitz like a particularly dodgy leading question, the sort villains always ask to see if it’s safe to bump you off. He backed off a few steps.

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Lots of people.’

‘Which means no. Good.’

Fitz backed up a bit more, and fell back over Durwell’s desk. ‘Don’t kill me!’

he squeaked.

She snorted. ‘Of course I’m not going to kill you. Don’t be ridiculous.’

He breathed a sigh of relief, and sat up.

‘You’re going to give me every scrap of information you know about the twentieth century. And when I’m acknowledged as the