Doctor Who_ Lungbarrow - Marc Platt [135]
'It's too dangerous!'
'What could be worse than facing my miserable Cousins! Filling in forms with Lethbridge-Stewart? Lunch with the terrible Zodin. . .?'
Ferain said, 'But it's true. The Matrix predicts a ninety-six percent chance of fatal injury.'
The Doctor closed his eyes and said quietly, 'Then that leaves me with a clear four per cent margin.'
'Don't be so Otheringly flippant!' snapped Romana.
The Doctor laughed. 'You should see yourselves. The President and the CIA locked in your eternal skirmishes.
One side always tilting at the other.'
'That's how the balance of order is maintained,' said Romana.
The Director of Allegiance smiled grimly. 'It has been that way on Gallifrey ever since the Intuitive Revelation.'
'But you must be so bored,' said the Doctor. 'Buried in a state of perpetual Harmony, no wonder you play these games.'
'And what will you teach us with your manifold wisdom?' said Ferain. 'Whoever you are or were?'
The Doctor met the old man's eye. The wind stil ed.
'What do you want, Ferain? What do you want me to be? Shal I reveal my blazing power? Might that not fry you to a crisp? Shal I sweep away evil and chaos? Reorder the stars in their courses? Banish burnt toast forever?'
He paused.
'Well, I won't. I wouldn't if I could. Who do you think I am?' He thumbed his chest. 'I'm me. The Doctor. What I have been, someone might have imagined. What I will be, how can I tell? I'm not immortal. I shal go to this Skaro, collect the Master's remains and bring them back to President Romanadvoratrelundar.'
'With such backing,' said Ferain, 'how can she fail?'
The Doctor's eyes flashed. 'Be quiet, my lord. And remember your place!'
The birds had stopped singing.
Ferain was silent.
Romana cleared her throat. 'Please be careful.'
The Doctor eyed her sternly. 'The Daleks. The Master. Romana, who have you been talking to?'
***
221
Innocet sniffed the books one after another. The musty smells of the pages and covers had their own stories to tell.
One faded volume contained a picture of a tubby creature floating under a dirigible surrounded by a cloud of beatitude flies.
The words were unintelligible to her. A telepath translator could do the job instantly, but that would deny her years of painstaking work. Something to savour while the new House was nurtured and grown. She and her House. She hoped the Doctor would come to their wedding.
She looked round for the Doctor, but he and his companions were nowhere to be seen.
***
They stood in a line beside the TARDIS.
'Please,' the Doctor said, 'I didn't ask to be seen off.'
'Tough,' said Dorothée. 'You'd better have these.' She fished her last battered box of teabags out of her pocket. He took them and hugged her tight.
He looked fondly at Leela for a long time, peering into her eyes as if he recognized something there.
'This love thing,' he mused. 'Interesting. A father from Gallifrey and a mother of Earth stock. That's an unusual pedigree.'
She pushed back her hair and said awkwardly, 'I don't have anything for you, Doctor.'
'Just call him after me.'
She looked startled and then nodded.
'Who exactly is the terrible Zodin?' butted in Chris. 'Some sort of Galactic megalomaniac emperor?'
The Doctor's eyes went misty. 'Zodin was a celebrated sword-swallower at the Grand Festival of Zymymys Midamor. She had an amazing trick with a scimitar.'
Chris grabbed the Doctor, lifting him off his feet in a monstrous bear hug.
'Roz bet me that I'd never dare do this,' he said. Eventually he put the Doctor down again and picked up his hat for him.
'Give my love to Bernice,' said the Doctor, squeezing Chris's hand.
'And ask her if she wants to lecture at the Academy here,' said Romana.
She turned to the Doctor.
'I know. I'll be careful,' he said.
'I want you to have this.' She slipped a metallic object into his hand. 'It's my sonic screwdriver.'
He smiled. 'Thank you, Madam President. I shall see you soon. Back at the Capitol.'
He walked to the TARDIS, a small figure clutching his presents. He turned