Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [92]
«Get them into the ship,» she had signed. «I’ll get Kylie.»
She had wondered, as she jogged to the SmithSmith dome, whether she was looking for a way to die. To make up for bringing the soldiers here. Her angst could wait till later, damn it; all that was important now was finding Kylie and getting her aboard the bloody TARDIS.
There was no sign of the girl. Had she wandered off into the forest, like the colonists who’d got loose from the dome?
She’d have to get a shuttle, find someone who could fly it, scan the forest with infrared. She looked at a clock on the wall. There just wasn’t time.
And over and over, the piece of nonsense was playing inside her mind: the technician, the burst of power through her body as she electrocuted him.
The floor jumped under her feet. She looked up sharply.
Kylie was standing in the doorway, stamping to get her attention.
The translation drone swung around to face the child as Dot signed, «Are you all right, sweetheart?»
Kylie nodded, seriously.
«Why did you run away from Mum and Dad?»
‘I don’t want to go away,’ said Kylie. ‘I’ve got a present for SLEEPY.’
«Sweetheart,» signed Dot, «are you imagining things?
Things to do with computers?»
‘Yes,’ said the six-year-old. ‘I imagine that once I was locked up inside a computer with no way out, but I found a secret way out. But it wasn’t really me, it was SLEEPY.’
«S-L-E-E-P-Y has forgotten a lot of things that happened to him,» Dot tried to explain, «but he put the memories inside our heads, so we could give them back to him. »
‘Do you remember something, Aunty Dot?’
«Yes, but it’s not a very nice thing.»
‘Are you going to give it back to him?’
Dot nodded.
‘Me too. Mum and Dad didn’t understand, though.’
«Kylie,» signed Dot, «you should go with them. If you stay here, you might get...» Blown up? Hurt? In trouble?
«The soldiers might kill you.»
Kylie’s eyes were huge. ‘But what about SLEEPY?’
«SLEEPY won’t miss just one of his memories.»
Kylie burst into tears. ‘But I don’t want to go.’
«Don’t worry.» Dot got up. «You can always give him your present later on.»
‘It’s not fair!’ wailed the girl. ‘I don’t want to!’
«It’s for your own good,» gabbled Dot. «It’s the best thing for you !» She reached for the child.
‘Right,’ said the Doctor.
Lieutenant Ngaiyo and two of the colony’s technicians stood back, eying the Olpiron’s main control panel. The flight deck was a tiny two-person affair. They’d unbolted the pilot and copilot chairs to make enough room for the four of them, but in the end it had been the Doctor who’d done most of the work.
There were cables and components all over the place, hanging down from the ceiling and from under the control panel. An assortment of peculiar devices had been plugged and soldered and tied into place. Two of the colonists’ drones were wired into the set-up, their antennae quivering.
‘What exactly have you done?’ said Ngaiyo. The tall Maasai was bent almost double in the cramped space.
‘I’ve routed every bit of computing power on this planet through the shuttle computer,’ he announced, wiping his hands on a handkerchief. ‘The Olpiron’s flight computer and databanks, the colony’s mainframe. I’ve even built in a link to Professor SmithSmith’s translation drone.’
He extracted another of the ubiquitous drones from his pocket, a rounded robot with blinking lights that fitted into the palm of his hand. ‘It can all be accessed from here.’
The drone lifted from his hand. ‘Robot roll call,’ he said.
‘BAR B here,’ said the drone.
‘WATCH OUT! online!’
‘Hello, Doctor,’ said SLEEPY.
There were several bleeps and bloops from the Olpiron’s computer, Dot’s drone, and sections of the colony’s mainframe.
‘ Supa,’ said a new voice.
‘Who’s that, then?’ said the Doctor.
‘I’m LEONARDO,’ said the newcomer, after a pause. Its voice was nearly a monotone. ‘I’m a maintenance daemon aboard the Flame Warrior. And your security had better be as tight as you promised, because otherwise I’m the proverbial toast. If they even realize I can disobey orders...’
‘Relax, LEONARDO,’ said the