Doctor Who_ Earthworld - Jacqueline Rayner [7]
EarthWorld
where? There was no rocky plain on the other side. Whatever Anji might have expected – not that she really had any clear ideas – she had at least thought that the plain would continue. That they’d seem to be on the same planet, in the same world, perhaps with a few DO NOT ENTER: TRESPASSERS WILL BE
PROSECUTED signs stuck up. Instead they were somewhere else – no longer prehistoric, she could see a city in the distance – and when she turned to look behind her, the barrier had gone and the industrial landscape carried on as far as she could see. They were also surrounded by armed men. Human men. Was it Area 51? Or something worse? ‘Have we. . . transmatted or something?’ she had gasped at the Doctor, worried.
‘No no no,’ he had said. ‘Remember Fitz? We’re on the other side of the barrier – it’s just that this barrier was quite a substantial one. Hello, there!’
The last had been said to the guards around them. She just knew they were guards. For a start they were in uniform – one-piece purple-and-silver outfits
– and she knew uniformed men surrounding you with hard expressions and raised guns just had to be guards in the same way she knew that the beautiful female alien would definitely fall in love with Captain Kirk.
The guards had led the Doctor and Anji to a black-box-looking car thing, and the Doctor had kept smiling reassuringly at Anji, and she noticed with some surprise that she still had hold of his hand.
The Doctor had asked the guards where they were; who they (the guards) were; what planet they were on; whether they were being arrested for something and if so what; and where they were being taken. The guards had accused the Doctor and Anji of being terrorists, but wouldn’t say what they were supposed to have been terrorising, or answer any of the Doctor’s other questions.
They just waved their guns and forced the two into the car. Two of the guards got in, too, and continued ignoring the Doctor’s queries. The car started off, but the windows were blacked out so Anji had no idea where they were heading; she assumed the distant city. The Doctor (finally letting go of her hand) had tried to open one of the doors with his sonic screwdriver, but it hadn’t worked.
They’d sat more or less in silence for the whole journey. Anji had wanted to ask more questions, but wasn’t sure if she was ready just yet for the answers. And anyway, she was just so relieved to be off her blistered feet that they could be taking her more or less anywhere and she wouldn’t care.
Upon arrival, the guards had marched them out of the car, and Anji barely had time to see they were outside a large, dirty white building before they were bundled inside, herded down a few fairly grotty carpeted corridors (would anywhere but Earth have carpet?) and then – to her horror – the Doctor had The Fluffy Frog in the Sky
17
been led one way, and she another.
‘Doctor!’ she’d called after him, totally anguished, her only anchor in this sea of madness suddenly swept away, and he’d called back that everything would be all right, he’d see her soon.
But how did he know?
And now she was sitting in a bare white room, sitting on an uncomfortable plastic chair with a desk lamp pointed at her face – although it wasn’t switched on, so she was able to see clearly the two purple-uniformed men pacing up and down in front of her, firing out questions. They kept saying she was a terrorist, and asking for details of her organisation, and looked incredulous when she tried denying it. They also kept telling her she was Anji, which confused her – she assumed they’d worked it out from the gold name necklace she was wearing, but every time she agreed with them they shouted at her some more.
But the shouting was actually a good thing. She’d been scared – pushed along, threatened with guns; she was close to tears. But unreasoned shouting –
that she could deal with, because it was something she didn’t take from anyone.