• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

‘Eddie, listen to me,’ the Doctor said. ‘I can help you. If that’s what you really want.’

‘I don’t know.’ Eddie looked at Ace, then at Claire, seeking their opinion, unsure of his own.

Ace glanced at the Doctor and then back at Eddie. Then back to the Doctor. Did he really know what he was doing? Just a few hours ago, he’d been a gibbering wreck: when she’d dragged him from the sleeper chamber aboard the spaceship, he hadn’t even recognised her. And now here he was, offering to bring back the memory of an alien – an alien who had friends out there who were trying to kill them. Could they trust him to make such an important decision now?

‘It’s what I might remember that scares me,’ Eddie said.

‘What I might become.’

‘We all have our ghosts,’ said the Doctor. ‘Things we don’t want to remember. But sometimes we have no choice, Eddie –

not if we want to be honest to ourselves.’

Eddie nodded as if he understood. ‘What do I have to do?’

Khamrain paused at the vestry door, noted the warm sliver of yellow light that bled under it. She couldn’t hear anything.

Perhaps they’d escaped through the building, in which case there was nothing they could do – for now. Silently, she pressed her ear to the thick, wooden door.

Claire watched as the Doctor placed the tip of his finger between Eddie’s eyes – and jumped as Eddie threw back his head sharply, his mouth wide open.

‘What’s happening?’ she asked.

Ace shushed her, pulled her aside. ‘The Professor’s trying to get Eddie’s memory back. And no, I don’t know how he does it.’

The two of them watched as the Doctor whispered to Eddie, taking him back. They couldn’t hear what he was saying. Eddie just kept shaking his head gently, rocking in his seat. But three minutes later, the Doctor straightened up with a tired sigh and turned to them. ‘His memory’s blocked by something far more sophisticated than just trauma-induced amnesia. I was hoping that he was close enough to a breakthrough... I thought that maybe just one little push...’ His mouth tightened in annoyance.

Then he gave a shrug. ‘Maybe I’m not quite back to my old self.’

Eddie was coming round. Claire crouched down beside him.

‘You OK?’

He opened his eyes and stared at her muzzily, frowning.

‘What...? Who are... oh yes, yes.’ He looked around the small crowd of solicitious faces. ‘Didn’t work, did it?’

Claire squeezed his shoulder. She couldn’t think of anything to say.

‘Only one thing to do, then,’ he said, gripping the edge of the table. ‘I’ve got to go out there – to them. Maybe they can bring my memory back.’

‘You may not like what you remember,’ the Doctor warned.

Eddie nodded. ‘But like you said, sometimes we have no choice.’ His jaw was tight, his eyes harder and narrower than Claire had remembered them. For a second, he seemed like a different person, and Claire was almost glad that the Doctor hadn’t been able to bring his memory back.

Khamrain pulled away from the door as she heard the heavy bolt being drawn back. The others were gathered in the darkness at the side of the church and she quickly moved to join them.

‘Well?’ asked Jophan, impatiently.

Before she could answer, a block of yellow light slanted across the grass from vestry door and a long silhouette bled into it. As the shape, hair backlit and burning white, stepped onto the lawn, the door was closed and bolted behind it. For a moment, the figure stood there, clearly uncertain. It turned its head to and fro. Khamrain stepped forward so that she could be seen.

In silence, it moved towards her until they stood not three yards apart.

‘Eddie?’ she said, hesitantly.

The figure shook his head. ‘Matrin,’ he corrected her, his voice clipped and precise. ‘Onaaka Matrin, Commander of the Second Tulkan War Fleet. It’s good to be back, Khamrain.Very good indeed.’

Chapter Sixteen

‘Professor!’ hissed Ace as they stepped from the crackling ground of the wood onto the solid earth of the roadway. ‘Look!’

He followed her gesture. In the darkness, limned by moonlight, were two figures, motionless at the edge of the trees. Ace squinted