Doctor Who_ Peacemaker - James Swallow [22]
‘Yes, Doctor,’ she replied, and did as he directed. Martha’s eyes were drawn to Jenny’s face; her skin was drained of colour and thin lines of grey were creeping out from the place where she’d been hit. ‘What is that?’
‘Decay stream,’ he snapped. ‘Like the venom on a poisoned blade.
If the wound doesn’t kill you, the toxic aftershock will.’
Jenny groaned and Martha felt a flicker of life fading beneath her fingertips. ‘Her pulse is slowing. Oh no, I think we’re going to lose her.’
‘Not today.’ The Doctor snapped his fingers at her. ‘Give me the green squishy thing, it’s a medical nanogene pod!’ She handed him the slimy knot of jelly and he pulled an activating rip-tab, then pressed it into place against Jenny’s skin. The pod dissolved into her flesh in a glitter of light, but it didn’t seem to work. The woman’s back arched and she went slack.
‘We’re too late!’ snarled the Doctor. ‘She’s crashing!’
Martha shook her head. ‘Like you said, not today.’ She bent down over the prone woman and put her hands over Jenny’s chest, pumping a one-twa-three rhythm to keep the teacher’s heart beating. For long moments, nothing seemed to happen; and then a rattling gasp issued out of the woman’s mouth and the grey threads began to fade away.
The Doctor threw her a weary smile. ‘Martha Jones. Lifesaver.’
‘Team effort,’ she replied; but she found she couldn’t mile back.
‘Only this one, though. What about the others?’
‘Don’t keep score, you’ll only make yourself feel worse. We just help the ones we can.’ He gathered up Jenny and Martha helped him carry her to the wide, threadbare chair next to the central console.
Jenny dozed and Martha studied her, watching the nanogenes do their amazing work. ‘It’s like watching a fast-forward movie. I can actually see the tissue healing.’
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‘They’re tiny robots,’ the Doctor explained, ‘half-organic and half-machine, not much larger than a few atoms in size. Programmed to repair diseased tissue and dismantle germs. They’ll have a near-fatal injury healed up in a few weeks.’
‘Where did you get them?’ she asked. ‘It’s not Earth stuff.’
‘It’s New Earth stuff, actually,’ he said. ‘I borrowed the kit when I was there with Rose, a while back. That was the last of it, though.’
‘Oh. I thought the logo looked familiar.’ She glanced at the dis-carded jacket. ‘And I did wonder who that belonged to.’
The Doctor looked away. ‘Jenny will be OK. If we hadn’t got her into the TARDIS in time. . . ’ He trailed off, his thoughts turning inward.
‘Those nanogenes, do you think that guy Godlove got his hands on some of them? Is that what cured the smallpox?’
He shook his head. ‘Nanomachines die off once their job is done, but traces of them linger in your system for months. I didn’t detect anything like that in Nathan’s bloodstream. No, he was cured by something else, some sort of bio-energy engram. Totally different technology.’ The Doctor walked in a slow circle. ‘And those two men.
They had a similar energy trace about them.’
‘Godlove, the cure, those maniacs with those guns. You’re sure there’s a connection between all three?’
‘There’s no doubt in my mind. I just wish I knew what it was.’
‘But who were they?’
He sat heavily. ‘Kutter and Tangleleg, Blaine called them. Outlaws.
But I’ve never seen low-life cowboys using directed energy weapons instead of six-guns, have you?’
‘Advanced technology,’ Martha sounded it out. ‘Something from another planet or time period, then?’
The Doctor gave a slow, solemn nod. ‘At first I thought we’d stumbled on something local – weird and strange, but local – only now I’m not so sure.’ He pointed at the air with his finger. ‘We can’t let this go unchecked, Martha. There’s something alien running free out there in the wild West, and we have to find it. Find it and stop it.’
‘Then we have to track down this Alvin Godlove. He’s the key to it all. We need to learn his secret.’ She frowned. ‘But how do we find 57
him before those two psychos do? You saw what they did, they don’t care about who they hurt or what they destroy. Who knows how many other people they’ve