Doctor Who_ Halflife - Mark Michalowski [127]
‘And if I were you,’ countered Fitz, exhaling a cool, grey cloud, ‘I’d stock up at the next duty-free planet we come to.’
The Doctor gave him a friendly slap on the chest and wrapped his arm around his shoulder. Calamee reached down and lifted up Nessus in her arms.
Had Tain put him back to normal already? She felt her eyes start to mist up as Nessus frantically rubbed his head against her chin. She held him up in front of her.
‘Tain?’ she said. ‘Are you still in there?’ The thought of having a superin-telligent mokey creeped her out. But she needn’t have worried – Nessus just wrinkled his nose at her and sneezed. She hugged him till he sneezed again.
The Doctor and Fitz, their arms around each other, were walking back to where she presumed the Imperator and his daughter were waiting. Calamee followed them.
But there was no sign of the Imperials – just the hollow, full of things bright and beautiful – and the Palace Guard, standing around looking shifty. One of them rushed over and started apologising, and the Doctor had to shut him up with a hand over his mouth.
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‘Now start again,’ he said. ‘What’s happened? What couldn’t you stop?’
‘The Imperator and Princess Sensimi, sir.’ The guard gestured to the tree trunk. ‘They went in there. We tried to stop them, but he told us not to.’ The guard cast worried looks at the others.
‘No harm done, I’m sure,’ the Doctor comforted the man. He turned to Fitz.
‘Three guesses.’
‘He’s gone to ask Santa for a new body, hasn’t he?’ said Fitz, who sighed theatrically. ‘Kids nowadays, huh? We used to be happy with a walnut and a tangerine.’ He grinned at Calamee’s expression. ‘Memories, eh?’
‘Well,’ the Doctor said thoughtfully, ‘it’s the least Tain can do. A final act of contrition, I imagine. Three Hail Marys and a Hail Holy Queen before he leaves.’
‘He’s leaving?’ Fitz looked stunned.
‘Well, he can hardly stay here now, can he? I don’t imagine the Oon will come looking for him: if Trove was half the bounty hunter he thought he was, he won’t have been stupid enough to let the Oon in on Tain’s actual location.
But the Makers. . . ’ He wagged his finger. ‘They’re a different matter. They found him under their own steam. And when Reo doesn’t bring him back, they’re bound to send someone else after him.’
‘But where’s he going to go?’ Calamee asked.
The Doctor shrugged and looked up at the bright blue sky.
‘Wherever he wants, I imagine. A bit like us, eh, Fitz?’ He patted Fitz’s shoulder. ‘We should be off – let’s go and get the TARDIS back.’
‘Oh no,’ said Fitz firmly. ‘First we need to get Tain to sort me and you out.
Come on. Santa’s got a special surprise for two very good little boys.’
Tain’s chamber seemed calm, almost serene, as the duct gently plopped Fitz on to the floor. Trix hadn’t wanted to say goodbye to Tain – maybe because the Makers weren’t exactly her favourite species at the moment; maybe because she was just a moody mare.
Sensimi, who flinched as Fitz was squirted out of Tain’s sphincter, rushed over and grabbed his hand.
‘He will be all right, won’t he?’ She nodded her head in the direction of a man-shaped bump in the wall of the chamber. Fitz nodded knowledgeably, but in all honesty he didn’t have a clue. ‘But you’d be better asking. . . ’
The Doctor appeared on cue and sprang to his feet.
‘Ah,’ he said, prodding at Tannalis. ‘Almost done.’
‘Tannalis will be rejuvenated in about half an hour,’ Tain said.
‘And then?’
‘Ping!’ chimed in Fitz, with his best microwave oven impression. The Doctor scowled.
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‘And then I will go,’ said Tain gently.
The Doctor’s sigh of relief was audible – and, thought Fitz, perhaps a little tactless.
‘It’s for the best,’ the Doctor said.
‘Without the Trojan, neither the Makers nor the Oon will be able to find me.
I will be able to go anywhere, find a new home. Settle down.’
‘Good luck,’ the Doctor said, and patted the wall gently. ‘You deserve a fresh start.’
‘Thank you, Doctor.’
‘What’s going to happen to the people that your Gaian wave touched,