Doctor Who_ Halflife - Mark Michalowski [118]
On the other side of the chamber, Trix was clasping her hand to her chest, her eyes closed. Tain was silent.
Trix moved her hand, and the Doctor could see something dark, a stubby Y-shape on her chest. Gently, and as if in a trance, she began to peel it away from her skin. There was a soft, sucking noise, and then she was holding it between her fingers. She turned, cupped it in her hand, and applied it to the wall of the chamber.
Instantly, the pale yellow lighting dimmed before brightening again, and another spasm ran through the chamber. The Doctor heard Tain moan in a low, pitiful voice, before Trix swayed on her feet and collapsed. He scrabbled to his feet and rushed over, cradling her in his arms. He patted her face gently, before realising that she’d stopped breathing.
‘Tain!’ he called out. ‘Tain! Trix is dying! Help me, please!’
But there was no reply.
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Chapter 25
‘You can’t just repair people, you know.’
The Doctor felt Trix’s neck, the panic in him rising. There was nothing. He saw the gleaming, faintly wet mark of the thing that she’d peeled from her chest, the thing that was now stuck to the chamber wall.
‘Tain!’ he shouted, slapping his palm against the side of the chamber. ‘Answer me, damn you!’
A weak moan came from nowhere, like someone being rudely awakened from sleep.
‘Tain, please. Trix is dying – her heart has stopped.’
‘Inevitable,’ slurred Tain.
‘No, it’s not! Nothing’s inevitable, Tain. Help her. Do something.’ The Doctor felt an unexpected anger surfacing. He wanted to punch Tain, to pull the Y-shaped thing off the wall and stamp on it, but something told him that he was too late – that Reo had transferred itself into Tain now. Is this bow Fitz would feel? he wondered. Shouting and hitting. And how would he have responded?
The wall against which Trix slumped began to push out: two folds, like the wings of an old-fashioned armchair, extended on either side of her. They seemed sluggish and pained, moving much, much too slowly. The Doctor, hoping that he was guessing correctly, positioned Trix between them as they wrapped around to envelope her, holding her upright and smothering her torso and head.
‘I can. . . maintain her functions until. . . her body remembers,’ said Tain.
His voice was ragged, but becoming stronger. The Doctor sighed, and traced the blurred outline of Trix’s features through the thick membrane that covered her face.
‘Thank you, Tain.’
And then he remembered the Maker.
‘What’s happening to Reo?’
‘She is. . . purging the Trojan.’
‘Well, that’s something.’ He rose wearily to his feet and rubbed his hands.
‘ She? How odd – I’d been thinking of Reo as a he. So what can we be doing while she’s occupied?’
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‘Nothing, Doctor.’
‘Oh come on! Don’t be so defeatist! Reo gets rid of the Trojan, and then we get rid of Reo.’ He remembered Trove’s device and picked it up from where he’d dropped it. He caught the dim light as he turned it over in his fingers.
‘What is that?’ asked Tain.
‘This? Oh this is a little toy of Mr Trove’s. A weapon of some sort – I hope.’
‘Please hold it out so that I may see it,’ said Tain. There was a pause. ‘It’s a neural eraser,’ he said eventually.
‘A mind-rubber?’
‘An emergency measure,’ mused Tain. ‘In case the Trojan had failed. Perhaps he had other Trojans that he would have then implanted to take me back to the Oon.’
‘Can I use this on Reo?’ The Doctor gestured at the thing stuck to the wall.
‘I take it that that is the Makers’ true form?’
‘One of them. It is the most convenient for parasitising other species. And no – Reo is now fully integrated into my system.’ Tain paused as the Doctor’s eyes drifted down to Trix, wrapped in her fleshy blanket. He could see her chest slowly rising and falling.
‘So. . . ’ He didn’t want to say it. ‘If I were to use this on you now, it would wipe both you and Reo.’
‘It would. And it would mean that I would finally know peace, Doctor. By the time the Oon or other Makers arrived, my body would be dead