Doctor Who_ Halflife - Mark Michalowski [47]
The woman let go again and turned to face her. In the dark, it was hard to see much of her expression, but she acted strangely nervous – yet with a surprising arrogance, her chin jutting out as she looked Trix up and down.
‘Thanks,’ Trix said.
‘Although running out on that poor creature seemed a bit ungallant,’ added Fitz.
‘For what it’s worth,’ said Trix to him, ‘I didn’t like what they were doing to it either. But it could just as easily have been us in there.’
Fitz said nothing, and then suddenly seemed to remember that there was a third person with them.
‘I’m Fitz,’ he said with forced brightness. ‘And this is Trix. Trixie Trouble, we like to call her –’
‘We do not!’ said Trix indignantly.
‘Not to her face, anyway,’ finished Fitz in a low voice, as if she wasn’t there.
The woman just looked at them, her features hard and somewhat super-cilious, Trix thought, now that her eyes were getting used to the darkness.
Like almost everyone else she’d seen, the girl was black, although Trix felt she could see a hint of Maori ancestry in the shape of the eyes and the nose. No more than seventeen or eighteen, Trix thought.
85
‘I’m Farine,’ the woman said without preamble. ‘What do you know about those creatures, the night beasts?’
Straight to the point, at any rate, thought Trix.
‘Well they’re clearly intelligent,’ said Fitz.
‘Whoah, Sherlock,’ said Trix sharply. ‘There’s no “clearly” about it at all. It sniffed your hand. A dog can do that.’
‘Yes, but didn’t you see the look in its eyes when I spoke to it?’
‘Some of us had the sense to be too far away from it for that.’
‘So they’re clever?’ Farine said, concentrating on Fitz and ignoring Trix.
‘That’s a surprise?’ asked Fitz.
Farine just shrugged. ‘The others haven’t done anything clever that I know of,’ she said. ‘Can they be trained?’
‘What others?’ interjected Trix. ‘Trained? To do what? Sit up and beg?’
‘Trix, Trix,’ Fitz shushed her, and turned his attention back to Farine. Trix felt her teeth grating together. If Fitz thought she was going to let herself be put down, just so he could score Brownie points with this hard-faced little madam. . .
‘And what’s with everyone around here, anyway?’ she asked, ignoring him.
‘Since when were we the bad guys? I got the impression that the word “alien”
around here is on a level with motherf–’
‘What?’ Farine cut in suddenly, as if she wasn’t really listening but was annoyed at the fact that Trix was saying anything at all.
‘They were rather hostile,’ Fitz agreed. ‘Is it because we’re aliens?’
‘“Offworlders” is the proper term,’ said Farine, her face betraying her dis-taste as she continued: ‘“Aliens” is. . . well. . . not a nice word to use.’
‘So is that why they were so unpleasant? Because we’re “offworlders”?’ said Trix.
‘Partly,’ said Farine, clearly embarrassed by all of this. ‘And partly because you seemed to be talking to the creature. And. . . ’ She looked from one of them to the other, discomfort all over her face. ‘And partly because you’re white.’
‘Oh, excuse me,’ said Trix heavily. ‘I’m sure I’ve got some boot-polish in my bag here. I’ll just black-up, shall I?’
‘Trix!’
‘Well, it’s all so bloody daft!’ Trix felt tired and exasperated. ‘We’re somewhere in the future, and we’re having to face the kind of thing that we thought they were just growing out of back on Earth.’
‘You’re from Earth?’ asked Farine, her eyes widening. There was a childish-ness to Farine, thought Trix, that she didn’t care for – not the sweet innocence of youth, but a brusque charmlessness.
86
‘Originally,’ replied Fitz, twinkling an irritatingly disarming smile at the girl.
‘But we’ve been about a bit since then. Where are we, exactly?’
Farine looked from one to the other, clearly amazed that they didn’t even know what planet they were on.
‘The planet’s Espero and this state and city are Saiarossa.’
‘And how old is the colony?’
‘Espero was founded two hundred and seventy-seven years ago,’ answered Farine, her voice tired