Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book Two - Lawrence Miles [82]
But then wasn’t that true of her, too?
‘So, what do we do now?’ Compassion asked. She wasn’t expecting a decent answer, obviously; she just wanted to hear what Guest would say.
But Guest didn’t say anything.
So she turned away, and walked out of the room.
* * *
Lost Boy:
The sky was blue. That was the main thing. Lost Boy stood in the middle of the plaza, the walkways of Anathema crisscrossing the air above his head. Blue, pure blue. No clouds, no smoke. The buildings seemed to shine in the daylight, the grey domes and archways made bright and shiny by the new sky. The spires looked proud, almost optimistic, as if they couldn’t wait to reach the heavens. The buildings basked.
‘It’s actually quite pleasant,’ somebody said.
Lost Boy turned, with a grunt of agreement. The alien they called the Doctor was standing right behind him, the girl Sam by his side. They both looked a lot more healthy than they had yesterday, so perhaps the new sky worked on people, too, although Lost Boy noticed that one of the Doctor’s arms had been wrapped up in a piece of thick white cloth. Around them, the people of Anathema walked to and fro, doing nothing but staring up into the blue.
‘Clean air,’ Lost Boy said. But neither the Doctor nor Sam was wearing a receiver, so he knew the words probably just sounded like mindless rumbles to them. ‘Like home.’
Nonetheless, the Doctor nodded, and put his free arm around the girl’s shoulders. ‘And Guest wiped the ship’s navigational program, so it’s not going anywhere now.’
‘Not that old blue-eyes here is telling anybody where we are,’ said Sam, nudging the Doctor in the ribs.
The Doctor looked wounded, so Lost Boy wondered if the girl’s elbow might be stronger than it looked. ‘Now, what on Earth makes you think I know?’
‘Because you’re claiming not to. If you really don’t know something, you just bluff. Look, there’s air here, right? Real air.’
‘Yes. No need for the atmosphere field any more.’
‘But we can’t be inside another planet’s atmosphere. This ship’s the size of Pluto as it is. And there’s light, but there’s no sign of any sun. Explain that.’
‘No,’ said the Doctor.
Lost Boy nodded. ‘It’s good, that no one knows.’
‘Quite,’ the Doctor agreed. ‘Now, what about you, Lost Boy? We could take you back to your homeworld, if you like. Or Earth. I understand your brother’s still there.’
‘No,’ Lost Boy said. ‘My brother would be… hurt if I tried to help him.’
‘By the Saudis?’ asked Sam.
‘I think he means “hurt” as in “insulted”,’ mumbled the Doctor.
‘Don’t want to go home,’ Lost Boy went on. ‘Things are different there. Here, nobody cares how long my arms are.’
Both the Doctor and Sam looked at him in a funny way, so Lost Boy guessed that last bit hadn’t translated very well. It didn’t really matter. ‘So you’re staying here?’ Sam asked.
‘Yes. This is a better place, now.’
Sam and the Doctor exchanged glances. Then the Doctor looked… embarrassed? Was that the word humans used? ‘Well, yes,’ the Doctor said. ‘Actually, Sam and I have been talking about that.’
‘I think he should reprogram the transmitter,’ Sam explained. ‘Give the Remote a new agenda.’
‘We really don’t have that right, Sam. Compassion was telling the truth, in a way. This is a kind of utopia…’
‘They blow things up for no reason!’
‘It’s still safer than Earth. And at least they don’t torture people.’
‘So what are you saying? Blowing things up is a good idea?’
The Doctor rolled his eyes, which was something Lost Boy had never seen a non-Ogron do convincingly before. ‘Sam Sam Sam. I said it was a utopia. I didn’t say I liked it. We can’t go around the universe dividing people up into good societies and bad societies. There’s no good and bad. There’s just… politics.’
Sam raised her eyebrows. Lost Boy wondered whether he was missing the subtleties of this conversation, the aliens using their faces the way Ogrons