Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book Two - Lawrence Miles [33]
The guards were so busy trying to rupture his lungs, they didn’t even notice it.
* * *
18
Sacrifices, Episode Two
(could you then kill that child? Well, yes, actually.)
Scene 49. The Nursery
[The architecture is futuristic, twenty-sixth‐century Earth. The walls, doors and fixtures all have a kind of cheap plastic quality to them, and everything’s the same shade of blue, as if part of a colour-coded sequence of rooms. We’re evidently looking at a nursery, possibly part of a medical complex. The room is large, and incubators are arranged at regular intervals across the floor. The word ‘incubators’ is used loosely: they’re plastic-glass cabinets, mounted on pedestals, but each one’s attached to so many display screens and monitor systems that the machines’ exact function can only be guessed at.
[In each of the incubators is a human baby, none more than a few days old. All the babies are silent and still, but obviously breathing. Their eyes are closed, and there are face masks over their mouths and noses, hooked up to the incubator machinery.
[As we watch, one of the doors slides open. The DOCTOR enters, followed by SAM. The DOCTOR is holding something in one hand, and, though we don’t see exactly what it is, the way he’s holding it suggests that it must be quite delicate.]
DOCTOR: Here we are. I told you we just had to follow the blue line.
[The door slides shut behind SAM. SAM looks around the nursery, surprised and a little alarmed. The DOCTOR starts checking all the incubators, perhaps looking for name tags.]
SAM: These… machines…
DOCTOR: Incubators. Well, they’re a bit more than that. All the newborns spend a few days here. The systems check them for genetic defects before they’re allowed to leave the hospital.
SAM: And what happens if they find any?
DOCTOR: That depends on the parents. Genetic modification’s quite fashionable in this era.
SAM [looking a bit nervous, now]: Doctor?
DOCTOR: Yes?
SAM: Does this kind of thing make you feel… uncomfortable, at all?
DOCTOR [looks up]: I’m a Time Lord, Sam. I can’t afford to be too judgemental. Besides, it’s no worse than the way we do things back on Gallifrey.
[The DOCTOR finishes inspecting the incubators, and heads for an open doorway at the side of the room.]
DOCTOR: Through here, I think.
[The DOCTOR steps into the next chamber, SAM at his heels.]
* * *
Scene 50. The Nursery (Section 2)
[Much the same as the first section, but this time colour-coded violet. Again, the DOCTOR starts checking the incubators. SAM hangs around nearby, looking helpless.]
SAM: So where are we, anyway? I mean… when are we?
DOCTOR: Earth, 2569. Twenty-seven years before the alien attack on Ordifica.
SAM: Twenty-seven years before?
[The DOCTOR doesn’t reply. He keeps checking the incubators. Finally, he seems to find the one he’s after. He looks up at SAM.]
SAM: You’re trying to change the future, aren’t you?
DOCTOR: Sam Sam Sam. That would be grossly, unforgivably irresponsible.
SAM: But?
DOCTOR [sighs]: You saw what happened before we left. The aliens had complete control of the planet. Of the planet’s media. And they’ve managed to disable the Time Lord fleet, somehow. With the transmitter equipment on Ordifica, they can broadcast themselves to any communications network in the universe. They’ll move to Earth next. They’ll try to destroy the causal nexus there. They’ll turn the whole of future history into one big television show, with themselves in the producer’s chair.
SAM: You said there were some rules that couldn’t be broken…
DOCTOR: There are some rules that have to be broken.
SAM: So what are we going to do?
[The DOCTOR beckons her over. SAM joins him by the incubator.]
DOCTOR: Listen. If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you, and told you that child would grow up to be