Doctor Who_ Set Piece - Kate Orman [81]
‘Is Ship a TARDIS?’
‘No. It’s from the very far future. An Earth colony at the edge of the galaxy.
Their planet was destroyed. They decided to leave before that happened.’
‘How was it destroyed?’
He hesitated, half turned. She saw the purple scar on his cheekbone, standing out sharply in the fierce light. ‘I’m not exactly clear on the details. We haven’t spoken often.’
‘Why is it doing this to people?’ whispered Ace.
‘The colonists created a computer into which they could upload their minds.
They wrapped a spacecraft around the computer, to take it away from the dead world. And then this Ship fell into one of the rifts Kadiatu created. It was badly damaged. It could have happened to anyone, really.’
‘Why didn’t they just leave in the spaceship?’
‘Their bodies were dying.’ He put down his scalpel. ‘Only their minds could be salvaged, stored in the gestalt of Ship’s computer. Many of them opted to stay behind.’
‘I’m not surprised.’
‘The group mind wouldn’t let them. The Ants were the colony’s workhorses.
Ship used them to drag the others on board and process them.’
‘Oh my God.’ Ace opened her eyes. ‘Ship is still trying to assimilate all the colonists.’
The Doctor nodded. ‘That’s all it does, that’s all it knows how to do. As far as it’s concerned, the rifts just give it better access to material which needs to be processed.’
‘What about the people, the slaves?’
‘More flexible and smarter than the Ants. Better machines.’
‘Why don’t they just stop? Oh. Because they’re scared. If they all stopped at the same time, Ship would be helpless.’
158
‘But it’s the prisoner’s dilemma. If just one of them goes on strike, that person gets processed. Their best option is to cooperate with Ship. But if they cooperated with one another . . . ’
‘Are you finished yet?’
The Doctor nodded. ‘Let’s get out of here.’ He snapped off his gloves and pushed them into a bucket.
Ace hesitated on the steps. ‘Listen –’
He shook his head. ‘There’s no way of knowing whether your Egyptian friend is still in cold storage, or whether he’s been processed.’
‘It’s my fault he was taken. I have to get him back! I want to go there! I want to kill Ship!’
‘I’m not ready yet,’ said the Doctor.
She grabbed his arm. ‘You’re not ready?! There are people dying up there –
out – wherever they are! Being tortured and dying! What are you going to do about it?’
‘I don’t know,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’ve forgotten.’
‘You what? Have you lost your marbles?’
For the first time, she saw a hint of panic in his face. ‘I did know, but I made myself forget. When the Ant came for me in Paris, it couldn’t work out what I was planning, because I don’t know myself.’
‘You’ve finally done it,’ Ace snorted. ‘You’ve even managed to bamboozle yourself. Well, can’t you figure it out?’
‘Not yet.’ His hands fidgeted. ‘It must be a good plan, or I wouldn’t have bothered to hide it. Kadiatu’s been trying hard, but she hasn’t managed to figure it out either.’
‘You make it sound like she’s the enemy.’
The Doctor raised thumb and forefinger. Just a tad.
‘If she’s on their side,’ said Ace, ‘I’ll kill her.’
‘I wouldn’t advise that.’
‘Hey?’ said Ace. ‘You don’t have any objections, any moral problems – you just wouldn’t advise it?’
‘Take a close look at her. Trust me, Ace.’
He pushed past her and up the stairs.
Ace reached into her pocket, felt the tiny bag, heard glass clinking on glass.
It couldn’t be that simple, could it? She started up the stairs after him.
She couldn’t help looking behind her.
The littleboy’s components were neatly stacked in pieces on the table.
She managed to get outside the house before she threw up.
∗ ∗ ∗
159
Kadiatu came loping around the back of the house, stopped at the edge of the yellowing lawn.
There were trees that had grown backwards into saplings, flowers that had blossomed out of season. There was a huge crater in the lawn, smooth-edged, as though something had nipped a bite out of the Earth. At its edges, Thierry’s orchard was a mess of apple blossoms and ripe apples and rotting apples.
There was