Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [81]
‘Ohgodohgodohgodohgod,’ said WATCH OUT!. ‘There must be a backup, surely CONNECTICUT left a backup.’
‘We can check later,’ said BAR B. ‘We can’t do anything more for now.’
‘If there is a later,’ quavered WATCH OUT!.
‘What do you mean?’
‘You’re the sensor daemon. You saw what’s on its way here.’
‘We don’t know exactly what it is.’
‘I’ll give you 3 guesses,’ said WATCH OUT!. ‘I bet even the Doctor can’t get us out of this 1.’
‘Of course he can!’
‘He couldn’t save CONNECTICUT. We’re doomed.’
Benny and Chris and Roz all reached the common area at the same time. Their guards pushed them inside and closed the door.
Forrester glanced around the room, counting troopers.
There were just ten, half of White’s forces, standing to attention at strategic positions around the room. If the colonists decided to rush them, they could overwhelm them with casualties only in the scores. Luckily, the Yemayans hadn’t tried to do anything that stupid.
Benny was frowning. Last time they’d been here, the colonists had been bewildered, exhausted, scared. Now there were ripples of anger moving through the crowd. Knots of tension, resentful glances at the guards, longing looks at the exit.
Chris put his hands in his pockets and wandered over to Byerley and Cinnabar. He was sitting up on a table, cross-legged, Cinnabar leaning on him with an arm around his shoulders. ‘Memories coming up?’ said the Adjudicator.
Byerley nodded mutely. Cinnabar squeezed his shoulders.
‘Lots of the others, too,’ she said.
‘Right. We need to let everyone here know what’s going on.
‘Do we know what’s going on?’
‘Yeah. You see, once upon a time...’
‘You’ll be dining with us tonight,’ said White.
The Doctor raised his cuffed hands. ‘That might be a bit tricky.’
‘Shut up.’ White turned the laptop around on the infirmary desk. ‘If you hadn’t come here, my mission would have gone ahead without a hitch. Instead you’ve been organizing rebellions right under my nose. Well, it’s going to stop. Do you see this?’
The Doctor didn’t say anything. White snarled, ‘DO YOU
SEE IT?’
‘Sorry,’ said the Doctor. ‘I was shutting up. Yes, I see it.
It’s a tactical display from the probe you left in orbit. It shows a very large and nasty-looking DKC warship entering the system.’
The Time Lord glanced to one side. Dot was peering at him from the Other Room. «Are you all right?» he signed awkwardly.
«Yes,» she signed. «But I’m not telepathic any more, and I have these strange memories —»
‘STOP THAT!’ squealed White. ‘If you do that again,’ he yelled at the deaf woman, ‘I’ll shoot you. Do you understand?’
‘Why does she frighten you so much?’ said the Doctor.
‘Oh, don’t be stupid,’ said White, his unsteady gaze snapping back to the little man. ‘Who could be scared of that?’
‘Hypothetically?’ said the Doctor. ‘Someone who secretly sees himself as weak. Who’s always looking for ways to be in control, to overcome his own weaknesses. Someone who sees a deaf woman as weak and helpless, as a symbol of his own self-doubt and insecurity.’
‘I was right in the first place,’ whispered the Colonel. ‘I should have shot you.’
‘Listen to me,’ said the Doctor. ‘I know what’s happening here. In the forest there’s the crashed remains of a ship containing an artificial intelligence. The machine was created by the Company thirty years ago. It escaped, but it packaged its memories into the vaccine given to the colonists here, so that they brought those memories here with them. We have to take all of the colonists out to the crash site, where the AI will reincorporate the memories.’
White looked up at him from the chair. The Doctor could tell the soldier believed him.
‘No,’ said the Colonel. ‘That’s not for me to decide.’
‘Think for yourself for once!’ shouted the Doctor. ‘We’re all in the same boat here now; you know we are. Why do you have to keep this up?’
‘The truth is,’ said White, ‘I couldn’t care less about any of it. Come on. It’s dinnertime.’
Dinner with White
The Doctor sat at his place at the end of the dinner