Doctor Who_ Earthworld - Jacqueline Rayner [90]
Anji reached down and picked up a lump of metal – part of the Memory Machine’s casing. ‘My daughters will succeed. . . ’ she muttered, and raised the metal above her head. . .
‘No!’ Fitz realised what she was intending just in time, and dived forward.
He grabbed the metal rod from behind, and pulled it down, Anji with it. He pushed her to the floor and sat on her. ‘Help me!’ he cried, as she struggled beneath him. Xernic came over and held down her arms, shushing and cooing.
Behind them, the Doctor stood still, staring at the door.
The President was frowning, seemingly unaware of what was going on. ‘Elizabethan. . . ’ he was saying. ‘Guy? Not my children. . . ’
‘Stay down, Anji!’ Fitz yelled. ‘Whatever it is, we’ll sort it. Does anyone here know how to do an exorcism?’
Xernic caught his eye. ‘I think it was the Memory Machine,’ he said. ‘You heard the princess say they’d found all these old memories inside, their mother and that. I think the Doctor and Anji were inside those memories when the machine exploded, and they sort of. . . stuck. For a bit. I think it should fade, though. I expect they just should have come out of it slowly, that’s all.’
‘You’d better be right,’ said Fitz, grimly.
But Anji was indeed stopping struggling, and in a few moments her eyes closed again. Fitz and Xernic got off her, and turned to look at the Doctor. ‘So he should be all right now too?’ Fitz said.
‘I think so,’ said Xernic. ‘But – well, I think he thinks he’s dead now.’
‘What?’
‘What they were doing – that really happened, I think. That was the President’s wife, and Mr Hanstrum. He killed her, the princesses didn’t. And that must be why he shot the machine, when he found out those old memories could be inside. He didn’t want to be found out after all these years of safety.
So the President’s wife – well, she’s not a part of it any anymore. She’s not in the memory, except dead. So the Doctor’s not got a part to play. These must be Mr Hanstrum’s memories, what he remembered doing.’
Dear TARDIS...
165
Anji’s eyelids were flickering open again. ‘Hold her arms again, just in case,’
Fitz murmured to Xernic. ‘Anji? Anji, can you hear me?’
She let out a shuddering breath. ‘Yes. . . ’
‘You’re not going to try to kill the Doctor again, are you?’
Her eyes flew open at that. ‘Fitz? What on Earth are you talking about?’
Then a pause and, ‘Ow! My cheek hurts. What’s going on?’
Fitz grinned, relieved. ‘It’s you again. Phew.’ And to Xernic: ‘You can let go of her now.’ Though Fitz did notice, as he turned back to the Doctor, that Xernic looked a bit reluctant to relinquish his hold.
The Doctor was still standing there, unmoving. Fitz went over to him, and waved a hand in front of the Doctor’s face. The Doctor didn’t respond. Fitz leaned his ear close to the Doctor’s face. The Doctor didn’t seem to be breathing. ‘He thinks he’s dead!’ Fitz yelled. ‘He really thinks he’s dead! Help!’
Anji scrambled up off the floor, looking confused but reasonably composed.
As she ran over to join Fitz, Xernic was still holding on to her arm.
She put her hand to the Doctor’s neck. ‘No pulse. Quick, help me lay him down.’
The Doctor was standing solidly upright. With the desperation of the situation, Fitz gestured Anji around behind the Doctor, and then pushed. The Doctor fell backwards, still rigid, like a cartoon character hit by a frying pan.
Anji caught him, and lowered him to the ground, and began doing efficient-looking things like tilting his head back and what appeared to be sticking her fingers down his throat. ‘Checking his airway’s clear,’ she said in response to Fitz’s worried sounds. She leaned in to the Doctor and breathed into his mouth a couple of times, pinching his nose closed as she did so. ‘Now, you start chest compressions.’
Fitz looked blank.
‘Fitz! Oh, no time, no time!’ Anji moved down to the Doctor’s side, and began to do what were presumably ‘chest compressions’. ‘You travel through the universe fighting monsters and don’t even know basic first aid?’ Anji cried.
‘No!’ Fitz yelled back, guilt making