Doctor Who_ Earthworld - Jacqueline Rayner [58]
Hanstrum took the lead now, as they worked their way past peasants, dinosaurs and a giant mouse that was definitely, Anji thought, a copyright violation.
‘So, these princesses are the heirs to the throne, yes?’ she asked.
‘Yes.’
‘And you think they’re fit for the job?’
He half smiled. ‘What does that have to do with it?’
‘Well, it’s fairly important, I’d say!’
‘Would you?’ He seemed to be amused. ‘Would you really? How lucky, then, that you have little saboteurs like James here to overthrow the centuries-old system and make New Jupiter a better place.’
‘We are trying to make it a better place,’ muttered Xernic.
‘How sad, then, that there are only three of you.’
Anji was getting wound up. ‘It only takes one person to start a revolution, if it’s the right person,’ she said.
‘Yes,’ agreed Hanstrum. ‘You’re right.’
She was surprised. ‘I am? I mean, I know I am, but you agree?’
‘Yes,’ he said again. ‘That’s why I’ve been feeding these ANJI children information and providing them with equipment.’
Anji and Xernic just gaped at him.
Several guards had rushed in – independently of each other – to see what was happening in the throne room. The Doctor had shooed each one out again.
There were several doors to the room, so he’d made it into a bit of a game, trying to anticipate which entrance a guard would come through next and be stationed there ready. So far he’d had a one-hundred-percent success rate.
Six guards later, the President was sitting upright and silent again. The Doctor abandoned his current door and went to sit on the steps to the throne again.
‘They might have been innocent all these years,’ said Hoover. ‘And I had them locked away.’
‘Yes, well, what’s done is done,’ said the Doctor. ‘You can’t –’ and here he began to speak more slowly – ‘turn. . . back. . . time. . . ’
‘No.’ The President nodded. ‘Doctor – can you. . . that is, would you. . .
Doctor, find out what happened to her? Whether she was ever my Elizabethan or just. . . just an android?’
106
EarthWorld
‘Would it matter to you now? You thought she was a person back then.
Would knowing change anything?’
Hoover shook his head despondently. ‘I don’t know. But I think I have to find out. Will you help?’
The Doctor took his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. ‘Apparently I can do wonders with this,’ he said, turning it over in his hand. ‘So I could do with some more practice.’
The Doctor had persuaded Hoover that he really didn’t want to see what was going to be done to his wife’s body, and as Hoover felt that in that case, the guards shouldn’t be looking either, the Doctor was now on his own. He’d been provided with piles of medical equipment, and, having whispered privately to a guard in an attempt to spare the President as much as possible, a hacksaw.
Then he’d got down to work.
Now he was just sitting by the bed, looking at the woman lying there. And she was – or at least had been – definitely a woman. Most of her was still flesh and blood. He could reassure Hoover of that, at least. He could also see how the electronics worked, and exactly what he had to do to isolate the circuit, let it run on its own power, and block out any waves of interference. Quite how he was going to do that was another matter.
He examined the sonic screwdriver. He could see the principles it worked on
– but what he didn’t know, without an instruction manual – and there wasn’t one – or handy labels (also absent), was exactly which bits did what. For example, if he twisted it here. . .
‘Ow!’ he cried, dropping the red-hot metal on the floor. Gingerly, folding his coat over his hands, he picked it up and twisted it back again.
There was a banging on the door. ‘Are you all right in there?’ a guard called, beginning to open the door.
‘Yes!’ shouted the Doctor, not wanting to be disturbed. He hastily triggered the electronic lock with his sonic screwdriver.
Ah.
Anji had been right. He knew exactly how to use this thing, despite having never