Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [6]
The static sound of the ocean hissed in his ears.
The light was overhead, on the ceiling. Something was holding his head down, pushing down on his arms, trying to stop the violent movement of his body.
The thing in the mirror roared with fury. He screamed with its rage, thrashed with its terror, and then, at last, it slid back into the water and was gone.
‘Work!’ he gasped hoarsely. ‘Did it work?’
Benny relaxed her grip on his head. She looked over at Cinnabar, who nodded fiercely. ‘All the scans are clear.’
He relaxed, exhausted. Chris and Roz let go of their death-grip on his arms. Benny pulled the straps away from him with almost feverish urgency. But he was too tired to do much more than roll onto his side, stretching cramped muscles. His hand stung. He looked at it. Deep white lines crisscrossed the palm.
‘Are you all right?’ said Roz, peering at him. ‘Is that thing gone?’
‘Yes,’ he breathed. ‘We’ll talk in the morning.’
He blew out a long sigh and went to sleep.
2 ESP is Catching
The Doctor opened his eyes and shut them again, quickly.
Cinnabar and Byerley were having a quick kiss against a bench of medical equipment. He waited until he heard them part before he yawned and stretched.
‘Good morning,’ said Cinnabar Flynn.
‘Don’t you ever wear anything besides that jumper?’ he asked.
She patted at the baggy green garment. ‘It’s my favourite. It’s the only thing I brought from Earth. How do you feel?’
‘I’m fine. Now.’
Byerley came over to the bed. ‘Doctor.’
‘Doctor.’
The man waved a printout at him. ‘Your viral count has dropped to zero. I wanted to test you for antibodies too...’
‘You won’t be able to match my blood against the human samples. How many infections are we up to now?’
Cinnabar and Byerley exchanged glances. ‘Number forty-seven was reported this morning. That’s nearly ten per cent of the colonists.’
‘Then I don’t have time to be lying about here.’ He sat up, pushed the covers aside.
Sometime during the night, they’d moved him into the infirmary. Probably because the night shift in cybernetics couldn’t stand the snoring. There was an office area behind a desk, a door with a sign saying ‘The Other Room’ taped to it.
Sunlight was streaming in through a plastic window,
‘Breakfast,’ he said.
His companions were eating in the common area, a huge, circular room with a skylight at the very centre of the main habitat dome. They formed a haggard little triangle at the end of one of the long benches.
Two weeks ago, when they’d first come to Yemaya 4, this room was always full of people — eating, or making or mending things, or playing small instruments and singing.
Now there was hardly anyone here, just a family eating despondently in the corner and a group of kids throwing their modelling clay around while a tired-looking teacher watched.
His companions looked up as one, startled, like conspirators caught in the act. Bernice opened her mouth and closed it.
At last, Roz Forrester said, ‘Well?’
‘Yes, thanks.’ He beamed at them, saw Chris and Bernice relax as he sat down. But Roz was still peering at him, as if expecting the monster to surface again.
‘There’s no trace of the virus?’
‘It’s gone?’ said Benny. ‘Completely?’
The Doctor nodded. ‘There aren’t many microorganisms which my immune system can’t deal with, given time.’
‘You’re not infectious, then,’ said Roz.
‘Hey!’ Benny glared at the Adjudicator across the table, but the Doctor drummed his fingers to get their attention.
‘What I am,’ he said, ‘is ravenous.’
Roz pushed her untouched plate across to him. Ration cubes and slices of tomatoes grown in Yemaya’s own soil.
He stabbed at the stuff with a plastic fork.
Chris said, ‘So what do we do now?’
‘There’s more going on here than I thought,’ said the Doctor, around a mouthful of cheese-flavoured rations. ‘Much more.’
Bernice leaned back in her chair, watching something the Playgroup were doing. ‘The virus had a completely different effect on you,’ she said.
‘Well, you are... I mean...’ Chris looked at Roz and stumbled; . that is, your biology