Doctor Who_ Hope - Mark Clapham [86]
When Anji returns we need to discuss what to do next, said the Doctor, closing the door as he hurriedly backed into the corridor. We need to watch Silver, he said quietly, the door closing behind him, leaving Fitz in the dark once more.
Fitz realised he hadnt told the Doctor about the creatures in the tunnels. But before he could work up the will to get up and tell him, Fitz had already drifted off to sleep.
After spending some time in the cryogenic chambers, awestruck by the mass of humanity preserved there, Anji had asked Silver whether they could look in on the attempts to clone Dave. Silver had replied that on the surface it would be night by now, and that he should return her to the Silver Palace so that the Doctor and Fitz didnt worry. But Anji had insisted, and so they returned to the laboratory. Richard had gone for his sleep shift, leaving the laboratory in the care of another team headed by a woman with thin blonde hair and an unusually high forehead. The woman had shown Anji what there was of Dave II so far to her surprise she saw not a small cluster of cells that needed to be viewed through a microscope, but a tiny, tiny embryo floating in a canister of clear fluid. It wasnt at the stage where its human nature was visible, but the vertebrae and eyes of the mammal were clearly visible. Anji looked on in wonder, and could have stayed there all night, watching this small human grow. However, Silver insisted that the project would be threatened if the Doctor became suspicious of Anjis absences, and this was enough to encourage Anji to reluctantly return with him to the surface.
It was midnight when the sub sploshed to the surface by the Pier, and Anji and Silver emerged on to the deck. This was Hopes first full night since the atmospheric storms had subsided, the first night with no mist or fog to obscure their view of the night sky. It was like no sky Anji had ever seen swirls of many colours intermingled, with a constant pattern of glittering objects shifting and whirling around each other.
Are those stars? she asked, the spectacle causing her to stop in the middle of the submarines deck.
No, said Silver, looking up into the sky with her. He stood at her shoulder, his voice barely a whisper as he spoke. That is what remains of this star system debris, a constant field of fragments. In the day, the sun shines straight through this minefield of energy and artefacts. But at night, the sun reflects off every fragment. As he spoke he raised his metal hand, indicating the sky above them.
Its like a curtain, said Anji. A barrier, closed between you and the stars.
Exactly, said Silver. But imagine parting that curtain, to be able to see the stars, to touch the rest of the universe...
Silver trailed off. His hand had become a fist, as if he had reached out through that veil to grasp the stars themselves.
Chapter Fourteen
Chaingun Diplomacy
The endless sea rolled below them, great waves heaving up and crashing down. Fitz felt like doing some heaving of his own. Even though the sub wasnt actually sailing on the sea so much as gliding above it, the view over the edge of the railing was nauseatingly vertiginous. Fitz leaned over the railings, closed his eyes and breathed the sea air deeply.
It was far too early in the morning for this kind of thing. He had been woken up at dawn by Miraso, who had barged into his room and shouted at him until she was certain he wouldnt fall asleep again. Once he seemed conscious enough for her to talk to, Miraso told Fitz that they would be accompanying Silver on a diplomatic mission to Persistence, Endpoints second largest city. Fitz was there to represent the newly rediscovered humanity although he wasnt actually one of the humans from the bunker, there was no way for the good burghers of Persistence to know that. When they had arrived at the sub Silver had explained all of