Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book Two - Lawrence Miles [131]
‘Mohandas ate a couple of deer back in 1964. The DNA’s been part of me ever since. I added the data to this ecosystem, that’s all. Same way I added most of the trees. Over three hundred different varieties, since you’re asking.’
‘You used to eat trees?’
‘I was a geek,’ said I.M. Foreman, defensively.
‘But the deer are part of you,’ the Doctor pointed out. ‘Part of the planet.’
I.M. Foreman made a ‘tsch’ noise. ‘I’m not a planet. Calling me a planet is like calling a person a body.’
‘You can control the deer, though. Can’t you?’
I.M. Foreman thought back to the previous day, when they’d been sitting in the clearing with the deer gathering in the shadows. It was true: she’d felt the urge to slip out of her body while she’d been there. She’d felt the call of the wild, the desire to inhabit the bodies of the animals for a while, to see through their eyes and feel the soil under their hooves. But, when she’d taken on this human form, she’d made a conscious decision not to let go of it until it died of old age, and she wasn’t going to change her mind now.
‘I could control them if I wanted to,’ she admitted. ‘But they’ve got their own lives. Around here, it’s hard knowing where one life form ends and the next one starts.’
‘The people,’ the Doctor reminded her. ‘The humans on Dust. Did you swallow them? Like you swallowed the Remote?’
I.M. Foreman felt a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. ‘Not a chance. They all went their own ways, once the towns fell apart. They’re all over the place now. Living in little family groups around the planet. I think they’re happier that way.’
‘Except for Magdelana.’
I.M. Foreman looked down at herself, at the skinny old legs that were stretched out on the grass in front of her, at the wrinkled skin on her hands and the old leathers she’d wrapped herself up in. She could still feel the twinges in her thigh, where Magdelana had almost lost her leg and the surgeons had fitted bio-implants under the skin to keep the cells in check.
‘It was the way she wanted it,’ I.M. Foreman said.
‘You gave her a choice?’
‘Of course I gave her a choice. God, what kind of person do you think I am? Magdelana was lost, that’s all. It was harder for her to adapt than it was for the others. Well, you know what she was like.’
She thought she saw the Doctor scratch at his chest when she said that. ‘Yes,’ he mumbled. ‘I know.’
‘I was looking for a new body at the time,’ I.M. Foreman went on. ‘I thought I should see this planet the way everybody else saw it. From ground level, not just from the inside of the biosphere. I was going to build myself a body specially, but this seemed like a better way of doing things. Magdelana just wanted to keep her identity in one piece. She thought she’d lose herself for ever if she went out into the wilderness like everyone else.’
‘What happened to her mind?’ the Doctor asked. It sounded more like an accusation than a question.
I.M. Foreman tapped the side of her head. The Doctor’s back was turned to her, but she knew he’d get the point anyway. ‘Still here. Every little bit of her identity, kept safe for as long as this body stays alive. Magdelana comes to the surface sometimes, to tell me what she thinks. I think she’s happy here. I haven’t had any complaints, anyway.’
The Doctor didn’t reply to that. He kept staring out over the valley, letting his coat flap around his legs as the wind rolled up the hillside.
I.M. Foreman suddenly realised what he wanted her to say.
‘You can talk to her if you like,’ she said. ‘I could slip out of this body for a few minutes. Let Magdelana take over for a while. I was trying not to let go of her until she died on me, but I suppose this counts as a special occasion.’
The Doctor paused. Turned. And very nearly smiled.
‘I’d appreciate that,’ he said.
I.M. Foreman shrugged. ‘If you’re sure you want to do this. After what she did to you the last time.’
‘I’d like