Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [29]
The Time Lord came to a halt in the centre of one of the engine burns, a black circle almost twenty feet across.
‘Doctor,’ Chris said hesitantly, ‘I—’
The Time Lord turned to look at him, and he dug his toe into the powdery rock, blushing angrily.
‘It’s all right, Chris.’ The Doctor knocked on his breastplate with a knuckle. ‘Why on earth didn’t you say something?’
‘There wasn’t... I mean, I didn’t want to bother you with it,’ he said sheepishly. ‘Everyone was catching the bug, and I figured you’d find a cure anyway, so there wasn’t any point in making a fuss over it, and anyhow it wasn’t very much, at least not at first, but I...’ He trailed off. ‘I’m sorry.’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘Well, it doesn’t matter now.
We’ve already found out that the virus can be transmitted by air.’
‘It’s not much. It really isn’t. It’s just... I kind of pick up stray thoughts, sometimes. Bits and pieces. Especially if people are thinking about me.’ He blushed again. ‘Doctor, are you going to tell Roz?’
‘It’s up to you who knows,’ said the Time Lord firmly. ‘I’ll talk to her, if you like.’
‘No. It’s okay. I’ll tell her myself.’ He twisted the tight strap in his fingers, agitatedly. ‘I’ve really messed this up, haven’t I?’
‘I don’t see why you should have to cope with it any better than anyone else,’ said the Doctor.
‘I’m an Adjudicator.’
‘And did your training include courses on coping with unexpected psychic abilities?’
‘I’ve faced much worse stuff than this,’ Chris mumbled.
‘I’ve been this’ — he held up thumb and forefinger — ‘this close to being dead, over and over. Why does this scare me so much?’
‘Chris,’ said the Doctor, ‘have any of the memories surfaced in your mind?’
Chris sat down cross-legged on the burned ground. ‘I don’t know,’ he wailed. ‘There’s something — I don’t know what it is!’ He threw his arms up as though to protect his face, leaning forwards, trying to disappear into the protection of his armour. ‘It keeps saying my name.’
The Doctor squatted down beside him. Chris rocked back and forth, arms wrapped around his head. The Time Lord put his hand on the boy’s arm, trying to steady him. ‘I’m burning. I’m always burning.’
He rolled over, suddenly, pulling into a foetal position, arms still over his head.
‘Oh, Chris,’ said the Doctor. ‘Why didn’t you say something before now?’
‘Make it stop,’ breathed the young man.
The Doctor gently took hold of the back of Chris’s neck, brought his other hand up to the Adjudicator’s forehead. He brushed back a lock of blond hair with his thumb.
Burning.
Couldn’t get the canopy open saw the wall coming up managed to get the emergency release to work and jumped free got caught in the blast
The Doctor shouted as the fireball jumped through him.
His fur was on fire for an excruciating instant, the flame washing over him in a wave, each individual hair burning to its base like a tiny candlewick.
Shrapnel from the crashed flitter was raining down everywhere. A great chunk of metal fell across him, and smaller pieces of wreckage, but he couldn’t feel it through the burning.
Impact. Shrapnel. Wreckage. Raining down all around.
The Doctor took his hands away from Chris, who was sobbing like a child. He leaned heavily on the Adjudicator’s bulk, getting his breath back.
‘It’s all right,’ he said, a little disappointed. ‘It’s all right, Chris. They’re just your own memories.’ Why not Benny? I know she has latent abilities. ‘This might be a side-effect of the virus, but you’re not being re-programmed the way I was.’
The bugs which affected me knew how to get past the nanites. Did they learn? Did I pass that strain of the virus on to Chris?
He patted Cwej on the head. ‘You’re going to be all right.’
Someone pressed the unmistakable shape of a blaster muzzle into the back of his neck.
He stood up, slowly, still a little unsteady, raising