Doctor Who_ Original Sin - Andy Lane [28]
‘That’s not true,’ he said mulishly.
‘It’s street-true,’ she snapped, ‘and that’s what counts.’
The walkway carried them back towards where they had left the TARDIS.
Bernice was quiet as she watched the towers slip past. What on Earth were they doing there?
‘Odd,’ the Doctor said from beside her, ‘I don’t usually have that effect on the people I talk to.’
‘Perhaps,’ Bernice said, ‘we should try another approach. Any ideas?’
‘The Imperial Landsknechte,’ the Doctor replied. ‘The champions of Earth, scourge of offworlders, defenders of the Empire.’
‘Landsknechte? What, like marines? How do you work that one out?’ she asked sceptically.
‘The number burned into that poor Hith’s tail. It’s an Imperial Landsknechte identification number. They use them for prisoners of war. I noticed back on Oolis that Homeless Forsaken had one as well.
‘And where are these records?’
‘Er . . . not on Earth.’
‘No,’ she sighed. ‘No, nothing’s that simple, is it?’
‘It’s the only lead we have,’ he replied, and scurried out to the centre of the walkway. ‘We’ll have to use the TARDIS to get to the planet Purgatory. That’s where the records are kept.’
A thought struck Bernice with some force. ‘Er, Doctor?’
‘Hmm?’ he said, glancing up at her.
‘Haven’t we gone past the tower where we left the TARDIS?’
He gazed around. ‘I don’t remember seeing it,’ he said with some foreboding.
48
Bernice felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. ‘Neither do I,’ she said.
‘Oh dear,’ he said. ‘Oh double dear. Oh double dear with whipped cream and a cherry on top.’
‘You can say that again.’
49
Chapter 4
‘I’m Evan Claple and this is The Empire Today , on the spot, on and off the Earth. Today’s headlines: in Spaceport Seventeen Overcity a woman crashes a flitter into an office block after seeing her lover with another man; in Spaceport Two Overcity twenty-five are killed when a restaurant owner laces meals with zeelan toxin; in Spaceport Nine Undertown riots result in over three hundred dead. In a special report tonight, we ask: what is happening to the heartland of the Empire?’
‘So where now?’ Bernice said.
They were standing by the walkway at the point where the TARDIS had been, and where it wasn’t any longer. For a while they had thought that they were in the wrong tower, but the square imprint of the TARDIS’s weight was evident in the plastic. All around them, people passed by without giving them a second glance, some of them waving their gloved hands in mid-air as they interacted with centcomp.
The Doctor had a haunted expression on his face.
‘I don’t know,’ he whispered. ‘I really don’t know. I can’t sense where she is.’
Bernice took a deep breath. She couldn’t remember seeing the Doctor quite this het up before, and for no reason. Galactic crises, near-death experiences, hair-raising risks, all of these things she had seen him shrug off with a smile and a merry quip. Take his TARDIS away, however, and he went to pieces. It was as if he couldn’t function properly without it.
‘Okay, let’s go through the alternatives,’ she said, trying to be practical.
‘What could have happened to it?’
The Doctor shrugged. ‘Well,’ he said hesitantly, ‘there’s the HADS.’
‘HADS?’
‘Hostile Action Displacement System,’ he explained. ‘It’s a defensive mode that the TARDIS slips into if threatened.’
‘I didn’t know the TARDIS had any defences.’
‘Not defences in the death ray sense.’ He seemed rather put out that she should even think of it. ‘Defences in the sense that the old girl vanishes if she’s attacked.’
Bernice nodded. ‘Sounds sensible. But who would attack a large blue box?’
50
‘Somebody who knew who it belonged to,’ he said darkly.
‘That’s a bit paranoid, isn’t it?’
‘Paranoia is just another word for a heightened appreciation of how badly the universe wants to get you.’
‘Yes, very deep. However, in your case, I wouldn’t be surprised. What else?’
‘Well, it could