Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [78]
‘You have it in one, WATCH OUT!. What’s the situation back there?’
‘Oh, just peachy,’ growled CONNECTICUT. ‘Your girl Benny’s locked up with the Prof in sickbay. Meanwhile, those Peeping Tom techies are still screwing around with the mainframe. I tell you, it’s all we can do to keep ahead of ‘em.’
‘Well, be careful. Don’t take any unnecessary risks — but See what you can find out. We’re close,’ he breathed. ‘We’re so very close...’
Dot wanted to tell Benny.
The young archaeologist sat cross-legged on one of the gurneys, chewing on her thumbnail. From time to time she glanced at Dot, tried to give her a reassuring smile. Once or twice she checked the sleeping pyrokinetic. Dot wondered how much longer they could keep the woman sedated before she wouldn’t wake up at all.
Dot tried to make the image focus in her mind. A man in a uniform, green. Ah, there was a blue flash on the shoulder of his shirt; she hadn’t noticed that before. Blue circle around a blue dot.
It was like a half-remembered scene from some old hologram, an image that worried at her, urging her to uncover its context, remember where and when she had seen it.
He had a box with him. No, a suitcase? A tool kit — the uniform was a technician’s uniform, just like the DKC
technicians who’d come into the infirmary half an hour ago.
They’d had an excited discussion with White. The Colonel had gone with them.
If only there were something to write on.
The man was... in a room somewhere, a room with equipment in it. The cybernetics lab? No, it wasn’t on Yemaya. Was it... it was... a computer centre somewhere on Earth. But the man wasn’t from Earth — he had come all the way from Dione to... to do what?
It was no use. She didn’t have the whole picture.
She did remember how he had died, though.
She had forced a massive surge along one of the power lines he was examining. The shock had thrown him clear across the room, his hair smoking.
No. She hadn’t done it.
His hands had been charred where they’d been touching the line. He mustn’t find her.
No. Not her. Who? Whose memory was playing itself back in her mind?
She sighed and hugged herself. If only she could tell Benny about it. And what she’d learned from the minds of the technicians as they’d made their report to White. On the other hand, neither of them was in much of a. position to do anything about it.
But she couldn’t tell Benny. Oh, she’d tried. But her telepathic sense was collapsing into static, like a radio with its batteries running down. Perhaps it had never been meant to be permanent, a Flowers for Algernon peak and crash, a cruel and temporary joke.
If only Zaniwe were here. If only she had something to write on.
The telepaths had started moving their stuff to the clearing.
The Doctor hadn’t been sure it was a good idea to be so conspicuous — the burnt area was probably very visible from above — but the colonists were pulled to the place, like baby turtles irresistibly drawn to the sea.
He sat with his back to a tree, resting, thinking. There was something odd about the quality of the mind they had contacted. It had left a metallic aftertaste in his mouth, a ringing in his ears, like a telephone left off the hook.
‘Madhanagopal,’ Roz said.
‘Yes?’
Benny and I talked about it.’ She squatted down beside him. ‘We figure that Madhanagopal created GRUMPY so he could put himself into the machine. Like Vaughn did, right?
The memory RNA process in reverse. But a machine with the same powers.’
‘That’s an interesting possibility.’
‘So maybe it’s him down there. Calling out for help, because something malfunctioned. Maybe he was even on the run from the Company. Like, maybe they found out what he was up to.’
‘But that was thirty years ago,’ said the Doctor.
‘Well, sure,’ said Roz. ‘It’s hardly something he’d do to himself while he was still young, is it?’
‘There’s another possibility,’ said the Doctor. ‘A more obvious one.’
Roz sat back on her heels. ‘That’s too gross to even think about,’ she said.
She looked over to where Chris was leaning on the piece of charred hull, his eyes