Doctor Who_ Halflife - Mark Michalowski [131]
Trix looked around, relieved that there had been no one home. She wasn’t quite sure what she’d have said to them anyway. Sorry for getting your boy killed? Sorry for screwing up your already-miserable lives? She shook her head. Shit happens. Especially around the Doctor. Get used to it, Trix. If 239
you’re gonna keep travelling with him, you’re gonna see a lot of death. Get over it.
She reached quickly into her bag and pulled out the things she’d stolen from the Palace: a couple of pieces of statuary, a miniature of the Imperator in a rather nice frame, and a gold pen from Sensimi’s room. Individually, not much, she knew. But they’d never be missed – not with everything that had happened. Joshua’s parents were poor, the harvest had been bad for the past couple of years. Maybe they could sell the trinkets, buy themselves a few comforts. Buy Trix a little redemption. The only kind of redemption she could afford.
She laid them on the doorstep.
She wasn’t going soft, she told herself. Yeah, OK – there had been Anji and the lottery ticket. But that had been more by way of a ‘See ya’ kind of gesture, a little something to underline the fact that Anji was gone and that she was taking over the TARDIS now. But this was different. She could almost hear her mother: don’t regret the things you do – only the things you don’t. And if you did bad stuff, you paid for it and moved on, or else you spent the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, waiting for the past to catch up with you.
Never, she thought, climbing back into the car. The past is never gonna catch up with me.
240
Acknowledgments
Thanks, as ever, to my faithful crew of trained proof-monkeys: Captain Simon A. Forward, First Officer Michael Robinson and Cabin Boy Ian Potter, all of whom helped steer this book out of port, through the doldrums, around the Cape of Good Plotting and into the Bay of Tortured Metaphor. And big hugs to Peter Anghelides for suggestions, Robert Evans for cleverness, Jonny Morris and Jac Rayner for niceness and Justin Richards for faith. And to Russell T
Davies for being lovely and for giving us all hope again.
241
About the author
MARK MICHALOWSKI still lives in Leeds and still dreams of giving up the day job. His previous Doctor Who novel, Relative Dementias, was published in 2002, and since then, he’s written several short stories. For more information than you really want to know, check out www.markmichalowski.com 243
Document Outline
Front Cover
Contents
1: Ìt's an alien, Joshua.'
2: `D'you think you could keep your monkey under control?'
3: `Sticks, Trix?'
4: Ì bet you even put knickers on her.'
5: `How can we know where we're going, when we don't know where we've come from?'
6: `What do you know about our mystery woman?'
7: `To lose one set of memories may be regarded as a misfortune.'
8: `With a zed.'
9: `Bugger its body language -- look at the size of it.'
10: `Should you be out on your own at this time of night?'
11: `You're not planning on killing me too, are you?'
12: `Space yacht? Intelligent rocks?'
13: `Not that you don't have a very nice bottom, but... you know.'
14: À spaceship powered by technobabble.'
15: `The foot-stomping Tantrum Fairy was back.'
16: `Not die exactly. Not really.'
17: Ì don't suppose you have access to a thermic lance, do you?'
18: `You wanted to see my toys, did you?'
19: `Think of a number.'
20: À simplè`Come in, have a cup of tea'' would have been more than adequate.'
21: Àre you thinking what I'm thinking?'
22: Ìmagine having your whole life to live over again.'
23: `Sorry I'm late.'
24: `There are always choices!'
25: `You can't just repair people, you know.'
26: `Memories.'
27: `Now you're just showing off.'
28: `We used to be happy with a walnut and a tangerine.'
29: `The past is never gonna catch up with me.'
Acknowledgments
About the author
Back Cover
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter