Doctor Who_ Return of the Living Dad - Kate Orman [62]
‘I’m the exception,’ said Albinex dryly. ‘You’ve been to Navarro, then?’
‘A while ago,’ said the Doctor. ‘For some much needed R
and
R. It was all we could do to get Chris back into the TARDIS. I think Benny still had the hangover three weeks later.’
‘That’s what they do,’ said Albinex. ‘That’s all they do.
The only people who ever do anything constructive are the children, and all they do is fix the machines that run the planet and let the adults get on with partying.’
‘But what about your artists? And your writers? Navarino literature and art are all the rage in this sector.’
‘Adventure stories and comic books,’ said Albinex.
‘There’s no art on my world. You can’t have art without suffering. There’s no conflict. There’s no striving. The Navarinos are soft, fluffy, empty things.’ He set his jaw. ‘We weren’t meant to live like that.’
‘I seem to recall,’ said the Doctor, ‘that the Navarinos were the only nation who survived the war on your planet, precisely because they couldn’t be bothered to join in the fighting.’
‘And they let the other nations tear one another apart,’
said Albinex. He almost smiled, realizing. The Time Lord had got him talking, just as the stories said. ‘Will you fix my engine?’
‘Well,’ said the Doctor, ‘no.’
‘It’s not much to ask,’ said the Navarino. ‘Especially in exchange for your life.’
‘The Caxtarids were your agents, weren’t they?’
‘Yes, they were.’
‘You see,’ said the Doctor, ‘they asked me some very worrying questions.’ He took a step towards Albinex, who raised the gun. ‘Now, if you’re after the sort of information I think you’re after, it’s the sort of information I don’t want you to have, and that means that, whatever the rest of your plan is, it’s probably the sort of thing I’m not going to be too keen on either. If you see what I mean.’
Albinex blinked. ‘What?’
The Doctor came another step closer. His eyes were open, honest, vast and bluer than the sky. ‘If you ask me,’ he said, ‘you ought to just tell me what you have in mind. I want to help you. Why don’t you put down the gun, and we’ll see what we can work out?’
Albinex shot him.
Ms Randrianasolo found herself at a loose end.
Jacqui was gone, but presumably she was back at the peace camp, not spirited away like Chris or the Doctor.
She wondered if Zak was right to wait, if they’d be safer clearing out. It was very seldom that he misjudged a situation
— which was why they were still here, in Little Caldwell, after all these years. There had been a dozen times when they’d almost bugged out, and only his determination had saved them. And kept them here. Home.
If you couldn’t get home, you had to make a home. She’d been standing outside this door for fifteen minutes.
The Admiral and his daughter were deep in discussion in the bookshop — heated discussion, by the sound of it. Joel was down at the garage, ‘pumping gas’ and working over the exhausted van after its return appearance last night.
Forrester was still looking after Cwej, but by all accounts he’d pull through without difficulty.
And both the Doctor and Jason were still missing. Not to mention the Doctor’s time machine. They were under attack from some unknown direction.
Or was it unknown? The Doctor had seemed to know what he was doing when he let himself be captured by that spacecraft. And he’d known all about the house Woodworth and her agents had been using.
It was strange, given the stories, but the Doctor hadn’t struck her as a manipulative or cunning sort of person. More of an improviser — someone who came up with brilliant things when in a state of panic. Or perhaps that was just one aspect of his personality.
She put her hand on the doorknob, took it away again.
Her mother hadn’t wanted her to join Spacefleet. She had memories of her mother only as an old woman; it had taken her most of her adult life to get out of the Fleet.
She remembered her mother at work in the rainforest, Part of the Reclamation Project. Reaching out into the soil with her wiry mind, finding seedlings and landmines with equal ease, directing