Doctor Who_ Original Sin - Andy Lane [134]
As a stray blaster bolt turned the air above her head to ozone, she scrunched up in the corner. Her hand passed across Krohg’s flat underside. Terrified by the noise, the light and her proximity to death, her mind retreated, finding solace in details. She became very aware of the way that Krogh’s underside wasn’t flat at all, but contained countless small pits, like a very fine sponge.
And something went click in her mind as two separate ideas collided.
Fascinated by the conclusion that her mind had accidentally sidled up to, it took her a few moments to realize that the firing had stopped.
‘Hi, Bernie!’ a voice said from the ruins of the doorway. She glanced up.
The bits of Cwej’s face that weren’t covered with soot looked as if they’d been badly sunburned.
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‘Unless you want that blaster inserted rectally,’ she said, ‘don’t call me Bernie. Benny, if anything. Bernice, at a pinch. Not Bernie.’
‘I thought you’d be pleased to see me,’ he said, hurt.
She climbed unsteadily to her feet, grabbed hold of the top of his chest plate, pulled him halfway through the doorway and kissed him, long and hard.
‘I’m pleased,’ she said finally, pushing him away. ‘All right?’
‘All right!’ he said. It was difficult to tell through the blaster burn, but she thought that he was blushing.
‘What’s the sitrep?’ Forrester said, approaching the door. Behind her, Bernice could see a number of Hith warriors and a number of half-melted or half-exploded bots. Provost-Major Beltempest was sifting through the robotic remains. A great knot of tension seemed to unwind in her chest. If Beltempest was there, the Doctor couldn’t be too far behind. Assuming, of course, that he was still alive.
‘The what?’ she asked, distracted.
‘The sitrep. Situation report.’
‘You mean, “What’s happening?”?’
Forrester frowned, and nodded. ‘That’s what I said,’ she growled. ‘Don’t waste my time.’
‘Well,’ Bernice said, glancing across to where Powerless Friendless was un-curling himself, ‘I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear that we’re all in one piece.
How about you?’
‘Fine for the moment,’ Forrester replied, ‘but I’m not counting on the condition remaining permanent.’ She glanced out into the corridor. ‘Whoever’s controlling those bots will know they’ve been destroyed. Reinforcements will be on the way.’
Cwej nodded. ‘We need to get this show on the walkway. Have you discovered how to turn the engines on yet?’
Bernice walked across to the puckered area of panel into which, according to Powerless Friendless, the nexus was supposed to fit. Without really thinking about what she was doing, she hefted Krohg in her hand for a moment, then placed the creature gently in the recess. It gazed up at her with its three stalked eyes, its lipless mouth seeming to her to stretch into a smile, and then it was gone, melted into the panel until it was just a knob of flesh with three small nub-like switches on top.
The walls of the control room began to throb and, all around, panels blossomed with fleshy controls. In the pit of her stomach Bernice could feel a slow, subsonic thump, like the beat of some gigantic heart. ‘Well,’ she said brightly,
‘Geniuses-R-Us strike again.’
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Powerless Friendless’s eyestalks dipped in acknowledgement. ‘I had forgotten so much,’ he said. ‘How did you know that Krohg was the nexus?’
She shrugged. ‘Little details and a massive amount of guesswork.’
He nodded. ‘Then you guess well.’
‘I had a good teacher.’ And that reminded her. ‘Beltempest!’ she called, ‘is the Doctor all right?’
Out in the corridor, Beltempest glanced up from his investigation of one of the bots and gave a thumbs-up.
‘He’s out looking for something called the TARDIS,’ he said. ‘But he asked me to pass on a message.’ It looked to Bernice as if he was frowning. ‘I think he said, “Ashtray the ipshay.” Does that mean anything to you?’
She thought for a moment. Ashtray the ipshay. Pig latin.