Doctor Who_ Lungbarrow - Marc Platt [98]
The tall, pop-eyed version that Dorothée had seen occasional y, either in her head or photos or somewhere.
150
They both told him about the events leading up to their arrival at Lungbarrow. He shifted uneasily when he heard that Romana had sent them. He hardly seemed interested in the trouble at the Capitol or the dispatch that Dorothée delivered.
'Fred sent it,' she said.
The black globe dissolved in his hands as soon as he took it. Inside was an angular grey device. 'A data extractor with Loom attachment,' he said glumly and put it in a pocket.
'What's it for?' asked Dorothée.
'I'm not sure what Romana's implying. Now that she's President, she'll have agendas of her own. It just feels as if the Emperor has sent me a sword to fall on.'
There was an awkward silence. Dorothée wanted to hug him, but something warned her not to dare. Leela was busy, tending the cut on Chris's ear, so she tried a different tack. 'There's something I meant to ask you,' she said.
'What do you know about ballet?'
The Doctor suddenly showed signs of interest. 'I can just about tel a fouetté from a Fonteyn.'
'Only I've got this friend in London, 2000. She knows about the bike. And she's a dancer, right.'
'Ah.'
'And she keeps on about this ballet she's always wanted to see. But it's on in 1913.'
He cracked a smile. ' Le Sacre du Printemps at the Ballets Russes. Twenty-ninth of May. It's a grande scandale.
You'll love it. Get a stage box. You'l see the riot in the auditorium better from there.'
'Will you be there too?'
'It has been known. I could be in the wings with Nijinsky, beating time for the dancers. The poor things couldn't hear the music for the rumpus in the audience.'
They both laughed and hugged each other in relief.
'Oh, Doctor, you're such a control freak.'
'I know,' he said in her ear. 'But if I don't do it...'
She still clung on tight.
'What else?' he asked.
It took a moment before she was able to say anything, but he waited patiently. 'It's the other Ace I met. The mirror image.'
'Yes?'
'Wel ...' She fished for the words. 'She was a vicious bitch.'
'Go on.'
'And I'm scared that I'm really like that. I mean, I know I'm hard and selfish.'
'You can be,' he said. 'That's what Time did to you. But you're still Dorothy too.'
'Schizo, you mean. Psycho Dalek-killing biker in a crinoline.' She let go with a forced grin.
He dabbed her nose in a way she had missed desperately. 'Look what Time did to me.'
151
'Look what you did to Time.'
He pul ed a face. 'I had plans for you, you know.'
'Tell me.'
'Oh, yes. In my great scheme, I was going to have you enrolled at the Academy here on Gallifrey. You'd have soon given the Time Lords something to think about.'
Suddenly she understood. 'That's what it was al about. Al those trips sorting out my past. You sly old bugger.'
'It didn't work, of course. Events overtook us and you had ideas of your own.'
'Sorry,' she said. 'Now the boot's on the other foot. It's your past that's getting turned over.'
He squeezed her hand. Then he glanced towards Leela and Chris and smiled fondly. 'I'm glad you're all here,' he said and went to sit with her.
'He's asleep,' she said, nodding at Chris.
The Doctor took off his jacket and laid it over Chris's shoulders. 'This can't go on,' he said. 'I have to stop it. I must reach the TARDIS.'
Dorothée saw him catch Leela's mystified stare. 'It's all right. I may have changed a bit, but it is me,' he said, looking her directly in the eye.
'Do not do that,' she said as if she was scolding a child. 'I know it is you.'
'Good.'
'Romana warned me.'
Strange, thought Dorothée. Leela has a sort of wise innocence. Bit of a wild Earth Mother, real y.
'How do you think Chris is?' he asked.
Leela gave him a steady look. 'He said he thought he was turning into the Doctor.'
'That's silly, isn't it?'
'Yes,' she said.
The door admitted Innocet.
'But if you can do it,' Leela continued, 'why can't somebody else?'
The Doctor cleared his throat uncomfortably.
Innocet wore an ancient and overlarge, ful -skirted dress the colour of a rusty sunset.