Doctor Who_ Original Sin - Andy Lane [12]
‘Interesting,’ he said, rising. ‘A single crystal exhibiting a high degree of thixotropic behaviour in a unilateral direction under the influence of an elec-tromagnetic current.’
‘What does that mean?’ she asked, watching as the people walked closer to the centre of the strip and immediately began to accelerate.
‘It means that this stuff that we’re standing on isn’t solid. It’s more like a very thick liquid.’
‘Fine. Thank you. That makes it all perfectly clear.’
The walkway was filling up slowly, and Bernice noticed a number of offworlders amid the throng – Arcturans, Alpha Centaurans, Thrillp and Foamasi.
20
Oddly, they were getting some dark looks from the humans, although there were a few races who were intermingling quite happily with the humans, including one with a blue warty skin, four blank orbs that might have been eyes and a ruff of coarse red hair around the neck.
‘What race is that?’ she said, nodding towards the alien.
The Doctor followed her gaze, and frowned. ‘I’m not sure,’ he admitted, squinting at the being as it passed them by. ‘I don’t recognize it at all.’ His face suddenly cleared, and he cried: ‘Of course! It’s not an alien at all. It’s human!’
‘Human?’ Bernice wasn’t sure that she had heard correctly. ‘What is it, Mardi Gras?’
‘No.’ The Doctor watched the alien’s receding form. ‘Genetic alteration. I think the trade name is “body-bepple”. Quite easy, if you know what you’re doing.’
‘But why would you want to?’
‘Why would you want to wear high heels?’
‘I don’t.’
‘No, but if you did.’
‘Haven’t got a clue. Fashion, I guess.’
The Doctor nodded. ‘Exactly. Fashion.’
‘So how does it work?’
‘Well,’ he mused, ‘on the basis that all cells in the human body except for brain cells are replaced every three months or so, if you can stick a specific mutagen onto a targeted virus, you can alter your body quite significantly.
Within the general design limitations of the human body, of course. Interesting: I hadn’t expected humanity to be quite this far advanced. Probably the Wars.’
‘The Wars?’ Bernice asked as the walkway took them out of the tower and into the open air.
‘Indeed. Earth is in an expanding Empire phase at the moment. The Wars of Acquisition only ended a few years ago, when the Sense-Sphere finally capitu-lated. After a few years of austerity, there was an economic and technological upsurge. The current era is characterized by an intense hatred of aliens in person exceeded in intensity only by a desire for anything actually alien –
food, artwork, fashion, et cetera. It’s a common pattern. Impose sanctions and restraints on a growing culture for a few years, then suddenly take them away and watch the culture expand rapidly. Bacteria do the same.’
Bernice looked around at the forest of elegant, needle-like buildings sprout-ing from a dark jumble of shadows and cloud. ‘Yes, but bacteria don’t build floating skyscrapers and moving walkways,’ she said.
‘Ah, well, the Minorith of Barrab Major –’
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‘Doctor?’
‘Yes, Bernice?’
‘Shut up.’
Adjudicator Secular Rashid’s office occupied the whole of one raft. Never one to ignore the opportunities offered by technology, she had perfected the twin arts of computerization and delegation to such a degree that her job involved no physical paperwork at all, freeing her to plan her office for comfort rather than efficiency. In her current form – one beppled to resemble a classical musician named Elvis Presley – she seemed to spend most of her time striking poses and waxing her quiff.
When Forrester and Cwej entered, she was standing beside the sofa, blowing up a small inflatable ring. With no noticeable embarrassment she sat down gingerly, shoving the cushion beneath her robes. She curled her lip with pleasure.
‘Justice .