Doctor Who_ Hope - Mark Clapham [92]
Eventually they reached their destination. Silver paused at the doorway, asking if Anji was ready. She nodded nervously in reply.
Silver opened the door, letting Anji through. As she entered the lab, her attention instantly turned to the tank she had been examining the previous day. Then, Dave II had barely constituted a foetus.
Now, the tank contained a fullgrown man. Anji speechlessly stepped forward, the enormity of what she had done sinking in. Eyes closed, suspended in fluid, was the man she had loved and lost.
Fitz had never met anyone as clueless as Richard. The human scientist was so naive, so sheltered that his version of the Nuremberg defence the fact that he participated in the culling and testing of live subjects because that was what he was told to do and he knew no better became strangely convincing. Born as humanity was in retreat, confined to its fleet, then frozen for centuries only to be trapped in the Bunker once awoken perhaps it was no wonder that Richard seemed to lack common sense, to believe whatever he was told. Perhaps it was the only way he could function in a world that made no sense to him, an environment where one day he was performing experiments in an undersea laboratory, the next he was performing errands for a cyborg in a surface world he had never seen before. The orders and the people giving them changed, and the only way to cope was just to follow the most recent order.
For the purposes of Fitz, Miraso and the Doctor this naivety was perfect. Miraso gave Richard a phoney reason for why Fitz and the Doctor were accompanying them down to the Bunker, and Richard accepted it. Miraso gave Richard a reason for why they should go early, abandoning much of the equipment Silver had ordered to be transported, and Richard accepted that too. Fitz feared that when the poor boy finally got around to thinking for himself, the pressure would crack him open.
The Doctor had insisted they leave the surface quickly, find out what Silver was up to in the Bunker and stop it. Fitz had made a brief search for Anji, but had failed to find her before it was time to go. Fitz supposed there was little chance of her coming to harm wherever she was, and so left the sunkissed surface behind to take his first actual undersea journey in the submarines. Fitz had felt a pressure build in his head as the sub had descended further and further, his stomach feeling increasingly nauseous. The Doctor and Miraso did nothing to alleviate his discomfort, or even distract him from it. They sat on the hard benches in one of the subs cramped living areas, absorbed in their own thoughts. Cheery company, guys, thought Fitz. Thanks a lot for your support.
The airlock on their way into the Bunker was more advanced than most some form of scan occurred, and Fitz felt as if his skin was being picked at on an atomic level as a yellow light swept over him. The Doctor explained that this procedure protected the humans from any viruses or infections in the outside world, their long isolation having crippled their immune systems capabilities. All the same, the sensation was distinctly unpleasant.
Miraso, as the one member of their party with a legitimate reason to be in the Bunker, led the way as they left the airlock. Their caution was unwarranted; no one seemed to notice their presence, although one human did nip past them to get into the sub, eager to see what goodies Richard had brought from the surface.
What are we looking for? asked Fitz.
Anything unusual, replied the Doctor.
Fitz and Miraso glanced at each other. They both thought the same thing, but Fitz was the one to point it out to the Doctor.
But we havent been here