Doctor Who_ Psi-Ence Fiction - Chris Boucher [25]
She had no idea what animals and plants might have been used in the preparation of the food she was devouring. The Doctor had said it was not poisonous and she trusted his judgement in these things, if not his taste.
The food was called fried breakfast and it was greasy but not unpleasant. It would sustain her for a while, she thought.
The Doctor had said he was not hungry and, taking only water with him, he had wandered off to look for the man who was doing the experiments in parapsychology. He was called Doctor Ghostbuster Bazzer Hitchins - what elaborate and ridiculous fighting names these people gave themselves -
and she wondered whether the 'doctor' part of it was the same as the name of the Doctor. Were the fighting names linked? Had the Doctor really been here before? Had he done the same on this world as he had done on her world? Was there a mad computer creature here too?
Perhaps the Doctor was not her friend after all. Perhaps he was ashamed to have her with him and was laughing at her ignorance behind her back. In fact, he was laughing at her ignorance to her face, now she thought about it. He sneered at her questions. He talked more to these students than he ever talked to her. He told them things they were not supposed to know, without them even having to ask a question. He told them things, they told him things, they all ignored her. Except when she was eating fried breakfast. She wiped the grease from her mouth with the palm of her hand and wiped her hand on her tunic.
Leela knew the way she was eating had made the Doctor uncomfortable and that this was why he had not waited for her to finish. She knew because he had said so. 'It always helps if you can try to fit in with the local custom and practice,' he had told her. 'It makes you less conspicuous and you can learn more from watching than from being watched.'
For some reason she could not quite understand, this had made her more determined to behave like a warrior of the tribe of Sevateem. She had earned the right. She was not a child to creep about and hide and watch.
Warriors were proud and fearless. You faced down an enemy with boldness so he knew that you had beaten him before you fought. Modesty is fear, fear is failure, failure is death. The warrior-trainers had taught her that. Who was the Doctor to try and tell her anything different?
Perhaps the Doctor did not want her to be ready to face her enemies.
Perhaps the Doctor wanted to get her killed. If he was working with the Tesh that would explain his behaviour towards her. Supposing a Tesh had come with them in the TARDIS or more than one. She had felt their presence all around her as soon as they had come to this place. Supposing all of them had come, hidden in the secret rooms in the TARDIS. This could be part of a counter-strike against her tribe by the eternal enemy. That would explain why the Doctor was so reluctant to let her travel with him.
That would explain why the Doctor had mocked her when she told him of her suspicions. That would explain where he had gone. He was meeting with the Tesh.
Leela's thoughts became more jumbled and her chaotic anger grew as she lost the thread of what she was trying to remember and understand. She finished eating, licked the plate and pushed it away. Somewhere behind her she heard someone laugh. She put her hand on the hilt of her knife.
Where was the Doctor? Why had he left her here among these people who hated her?
'Nice outfit. Whatever it is you're selling I'll take six, and two for Sundays.'
The young man was standing at the table looking down at her. 'My name,'
he went on in a suspiciously different voice and a completely changed way of speaking, 'is Michael Caine and I'll thank you to stop pointing that bloody spear at me!'
Leela leapt at him, drawing her knife as she vaulted over the table and crashed her shoulder into his chest.
The Doctor had found Hitchins' laboratory