Doctor Who_ Original Sin - Andy Lane [37]
Doc Dantalion. Something scratched away at the back of Powerless Friendless’s mind, something about his past. Somehow, Doc Dantalion was involved.
‘Gentlebeings,’ Olias said, ‘I ask you to call upon your deities, if you have any, to mark the passing in whatever way you choose of Waiting For Justice and Dreaming Of Home of the Hith race and Annie Thelma Falvoriss of the human race. They will be missed.’
As she spoke these words, some freak effect of the weather opened a channel through the clouds to the rose-tinted sky beyond. For the first time Powerless Friendless could remember, a shaft of sunlight shone down upon them like a benediction, filling the air with a golden haze. A rainbow glimmered in the distance, and the crowd of humans and aliens drew in their breath in wonder.
All except Powerless Friendless.
He was more concerned with the way the light glittered on the metal shell of a bot on the fringes of the crowd.
The same bot that had tried to grab him as he slithered out of the plaza in the Overcity.
64
Chapter 5
‘I’m Evan Claple, and this is The Empire Today Update , broadcast-ing from the heart of the Empire. Tonight’s special report: are the Overcities safe for humanity? As the latest figures show a disturbing five thousand per cent increase in violent crimes, we talk to Adjudicator Spiritual Nbomo of the Church of Adjudication and Vice-Admiral O’Gottif of the Imperial Landsknechte. All that and more, after this message . . . ’
‘Unknown.’
The word hung in mid-air, mocking them both.
Bernice leaned back in the chair and glanced around the cubicle. Nobody was watching. The muscles across the back of her neck were knotted with tension, and she dug her fingers into them, pressing until it hurt, trying to force them to relax. It was no good. Impersonating a Landsknecht on a planet run entirely by the Imperial Landsknechte was not a situation designed to induce comfort.
She gazed past the Doctor and out of the crystal window instead. At least the view was tranquil. A few minutes after take-off, the hovercar had crossed an invisible boundary between two of the hexagons she had spotted from orbit, passing with an almost imperceptible tremor from the bleak, mechanistic spaceport to a lush, landscaped area of trembling white lawns and low buildings: the central administration area for the planet and, presumably, the Landsknecht fleet.
The Imperial Landsknecht Archive was a large building of rose-tinted mar-ble set in the middle of an albino lawn. The next section of Purgatory was visible as a huge wall of water that rose up and vanished in the blue of the sky. With Bernice’s fingers firmly crossed behind her back, they had been escorted to a tiny cubicle with a desk and one chair. After a certain amount of
‘After you’, ‘No, after you’ which culminated with both she and the Doctor trying to sit down at the same time, Bernice entered into a meaningful dialogue with the computer. She told it what she wanted, it told her what it could do for her, and etched the word into the air in several languages just to make sure that she understood. She’d been doing fine, up to the point when she asked it about Homeless Forsaken Betrayed And Alone.
65
‘Fine,’ she said, looking away from the window, ‘let’s make the inquiry a little more general. Computer, search all public records for mentions of the Hith race.’
‘All records concerning individual members of the Hith race, the Hith race itself, the Hith Pacification and all subsidiary subjects are classified,’ the computer said primly.
‘Hmm,’ the Doctor said, leaning forward with interest. ‘The war’s been over for four years. You’d think that they could declassify something.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Let me try.