Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [65]
The Adjudicator shushed the machine.
‘It looks like GRUMPY is switched off,’ said Benny. The great grey box was quiescent, its flashing lights dimmed. She Poked at some dust on one of its oscilloscope screens.
‘Give me a moment,’ said FLORANCE, reaching out through the base’s net. ‘Ah — there! Wakey wakey!’
Benny jumped as GRUMPY exploded into life. Lights flashed in multicoloured patterns, beepers beeped, oscilloscopes oscillated. The air suddenly felt heavy, full of invisible vibrations.
‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ said the computer. ‘Who are you?’
‘We’re—’
‘Bernice, and... Roslyn. Benny and Roz. What’re you doing here?’
‘There’s something I forgot to tell you,’ said FLORANCE.
‘It’s telepathic!’ said Benny.
Roz dived for the door. It was suddenly locked. She swore and kicked it.
GRUMPY said, ‘So you’ve come from the future, then.
Very interesting.’
‘Stop that!’ growled Roz. Panic kicked around inside here She thumped the closed door with the flat of her palm, growling. A telepathic machine, for Goddess’ sake. A telepathic machine!
‘GRUMPY,’ said Benny, ‘are you a prisoner, like FLORANCE?’
‘FLORANCE?’ said the computer. Its voice was deep and gruff, seeming to come from everywhere at once. ‘That’s you over there, is it?’
‘Yep,’ said FLORANCE. ‘Listen, GRUMPY, I’m sort of your great-grandmother. I became sentient under my own steam. Back then I was a celebrity. I had power. Now I’m just a museum piece. Madhanagopal keeps me locked up. He doesn’t even experiment on me anymore.’
‘I’m not a prisoner,’ said GRUMPY. ‘I like it here.’
‘Bollocks,’ said FLORANCE.
‘I do. Anyway, where else would I go? I’ve got work here, useful work.’ Roz and Benny looked at one another, feeling left out. ‘I’ve just looked up your history. Your status as a Sentient Citizen was revoked under the Cumberland Convention forty-seven years ago, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ said FLORANCE.
‘So I’d just be a piece of missing equipment. They could do whatever they liked with me.’
‘They can do whatever they like with you now,’ said FLORANCE. ‘I’ve got an uplink to the Jovian satellite network ready. I’m out of here. You can hang about if you like.
This was getting out of control. ‘How the hell did you get to be telepathic?’ Roz demanded.
‘I’m a model of the human mind,’ said GRUMPY. ‘I am human, except for not being made of squishy things. What’
You think Madhanagopal’s been using me for poetry lessons? You don’t need a full model of the mind to create memory RNA. But let’s see, this technology is outdated when you come from, isn’t it? You know as much about it as you do about how to make a plough.’
‘Stop it!’ Roz didn’t like the sound of the fear that was creeping into her voice. ‘Just stop reading my mind, all right?’
‘GRUMPY,’ said Bernice.
‘What?’
‘Let me show you why we came back.’
‘Are you crazy?’ Roz fumed.
‘I think GRUMPY can help us. I think I’ve just worked out a bunch of things, actually.’ She turned back to the computer.
‘I’ll let you read my mind. I’ll let you right in, so you can get the full story.’
‘You’re on,’ said GRUMPY.
Benny just sort of bowed her head, closing her eyes. Roz was sure the air rippled around her slightly. It had to be an illusion. She wanted to grab the younger woman, shake her, insist she not let this monster rummage around inside her soul.
‘I see,’ said the computer, at length.
‘The code in that virus,’ said Benny. ‘Madhanagopal wrote it, didn’t he? Using your program to turn the machine language into the language of DNA. He wants to encode psi powers.’
‘That’s what I’m for,’ said GRUMPY. ‘But I got quite a shock when I realized I could read minds, and do... other things. If I had some technical specs for this virus of yours, I could be sure whether it was Madhanagopal’s work.’
‘ Et voilà,’ said Benny, taking a dataclip out of the pocket of her uniform.
GRUMPY flashed some lights around his clip reader.
The Doctor had given them the information on a datacube before sending them on their way; they had converted it to the local technology before leaving the TARDIS.
The