Doctor Who_ Original Sin - Andy Lane [3]
Cwej’s golden fur glowed in the rosy light. He ran a proud hand up and down his forearm, feeling the luxuriant growth bend and spring back beneath the pressure. The body-bepple had been worth every penny. Every single penny.
People were moving in the park, even this early in the day. Some were running, some were walking hand in hand, while others were standing by the edges of the buildings, gazing into the gaps. In every open space, groups of elderly people were practising some form of slow martial art akin to a solo dance. Cwej found it all fascinating. His family lived down in one of the lower levels, and it wasn’t often that he got the chance to see the top of the city, especially at sunrise. He wanted to make the most of it.
A couple were kissing over by an Arcturan sheckt bush. The sun backlit them with a golden glow, casting their shadows across the lush grass. Cwej felt a pang of envy, and looked away. Far below, the shadow of the flitter rushed between patches of darkness like an animal occasionally breaking cover.
6
The pilot glanced over at him. Cwej could see his own bearlike face reflected in the man’s eyes. The sight still brought him up with a slight shock of pleasure and surprise. He gave a thumbs-up.
‘Great view,’ he shouted.
The pilot’s expression didn’t change. Cwej smiled. Pilots belonging to the Order of Adjudicators were notoriously juvenile. Cwej had been one himself, not too long ago. He knew the tricks of the trade. The guy would probably dive the flitter towards one of the gaps at any moment, expecting him to scream or something. Like all hell he would.
As the sun crawled upwards, the shadows contracted. The pilot’s hand suddenly moved sideways. The flitter banked, and dropped towards a narrow gap between the green tops of two towers.
Cwej smiled. Knew it, he thought, as the shadow of the flitter rose up to meet them. The pilot’s gaze slid sideways. Cwej yawned ostentatiously.
The edge of the gap flashed past. A row of faces along the rim watched openmouthed as they plunged between the buildings. Darkness suddenly engulfed them . . .
. . . and then the flitter was descending on a spiral path, with the slab sides of the buildings looming like cliffs all around them. Cwej craned his neck, but all he could see of the sky above them was a rose-tinted slit. The buildings themselves were dark, unbroken cones, towers and inverted pyramids, dimly illuminated by the light from above, dripping with condensation.
Far below, Cwej could just about make out the dim glow of firelight glittering on water.
‘Welcome to Spaceport Five Undertown,’ said the pilot.
The walls of the TARDIS were closing in on her.
That’s what it felt like, at least. Bernice lay back upon her bed and put her clenched fists over her eyes, pressing her knuckles hard against the lids until fireworks began to explode on the inside of her head.
Damn it, she’d liked the stupid slug. Why did he have to die?
She threw herself off the bed and looked around her room. Piles of clothes and junk collected from half a hundred worlds littered the floor. On a whim she picked an object up: a spiky ball made of soft, red metal. What the hell was it? Where had she found it? She threw it to one side and picked up another memento: a translucent blue seashell with the image of her face etched into its surface. It triggered a vague flash of memory, but nothing more. She’d been to too many planets in too short a time. Living with the Doctor was like living in a huge restaurant full of the finest food and wine in the universe. For a while