Doctor Who_ Psi-Ence Fiction - Chris Boucher [55]
Leela moved on down the room, checking as she went. The boy and girl lying on the floor near the tank -were stirring so she ignored them and turned her attention to the standing containers. The first two and the last one were open and empty, but the third one in the line was closed. Inside it she found a student sitting slumped forward with his arms dangling at his sides and his forehead resting on a small table. She heaved him upright in his chair and he remained awkwardly propped up, head lolling at an angle, his eyes open but unfocused and apparently unseeing. She left him and moved on to the control room.
The boy who had been lying in front of the lean-to was already sitting up and groaning. As Leela approached he said groggily, 'Who are you?'
'I am Leela of the Sevateem,' she said, stepping past him. 'Who are you?'
'I'm Ralph Naylor,' he said. 'At least I think that's who I am. Who hit me?
Was it you?'
'No.' Leela entered the lean-to warily. In the wood she had balked at going into the hollow where the blank darkness had been. She had been afraid to go there. She had been afraid despite its complete disappearance and despite the return of the vanished TARDIS. This time she must not give in.
She must face this faceless fear. She stood in the centre of the control room and stared at the place in the corner where the horror had folded in on itself and swallowed the terrifying blankness. It was no different from the rest of the lean-to. The dark had left no sign. There was nothing to mark what she had seen. There was nothing to mark what she thought she had seen. Already she was uncertain about it. Already she was uncertain whether or not it had been real.
She looked at the screens. They seemed to show pictures from the inside of the boxes. She could see the girl called Chloe was finally managing to start climbing out of the tank. She was slow and clumsy. Her body clearly lacked strength and co-ordination. Its thinness must be lack of food, Leela thought. But it was the pictures of the boy in the standing container that caught her attention. He had not changed from the position she had put him in. She watched carefully and, except for his breathing, no part of him was making the slightest movement.
What did you say your name was again?' a voice said behind her.
Leela had seen Ralph reflected in the glass of the screens as he hauled himself unsteadily to his feet and propped himself up in the doorway. 'I am Leela,' she said without turning round.
"There was more,' Ralph said. He had started to shake his head but had stopped when he almost fell over. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he went on. 'Sounded foreign. Rovasevateem was it?
Eastern European maybe?'
Leela was still watching the boy on the screens. 'What is his name?' she asked.
Ralph staggered closer and peered at a screen. "That's Josh.' He put a hand against the glass to steady himself. 'He doesn't look too good does he? Perhaps we'd better raise the alarm. Call the emergency people.'
On the screens Josh moved for the first time. His hands and arms flexed jerkily, he lifted his head and his eyes focused.
'He is recovering; Leela said. 'Now you are all recovering.'
Ralph stopped leaning against the screen and straightened up. 'Whoa,' he breathed. 'That's better. I feel better suddenly'
Leela turned from the screens. In the main room the other three casualties were on their feet. They were massaging bruises but they seemed otherwise unhurt and fully awake. The girl Chloe was clear of the tank and already rubbing herself down with a sheet of drying material.
'Something went seriously awry there,' the older man said.
The boy pushed some slimy hair back from his forehead and said, 'Gosh, do you really think so?' He sounded to Leela as though he did not mean it as a question.
"The question is: just what did go wrong?' the man said.
Leela stepped out of the lean-to. 'I am sure the Doctor could tell you,' she said.
They all looked at her.
'Who are you and what are