Doctor Who_ The Algebra of Ice - Lloyd Rose [19]
He gazed at the landscape. The day was bleak, but the soft undulation of the Kentish weald was as beautiful as ever. How had he come to this? He had started out as an explorer, sick of his stultifying home, anxious for new experiences. And of course when he encountered people in trouble, he had helped them. He was good. His acts were good. When had he started playing on a larger board? Overturning social orders centuries old. Descending to a planet and ‘fixing’ things. The stage got larger, his actions became larger. He guarded the universe. He guarded Time itself.
He destroyed worlds.
The Doctor bowed his head. Sin was an alien concept on his home world.
But he thought that now he understood what human beings meant when they spoke of it.
Never again, please never again, in all his future lives, let him exterminate an entire race.
CHAPTER FIVE
Ace was bored. Two nights of clubbing had been great, but she missed the Doctor. After being around him, other people seemed flat and dull – unless they were cute boys. She’d checked out a few of those, but nothing had clicked.
‘Where’ve you been?’ she’d asked the Doctor. ‘And why can’t I come?’ And he’d replied that of course she was welcome to come if she wanted to spend all day at UNIT. Right. So she sulked around the TARDIS. Not that it was dull. It was amazing. But she spent most of her time there; she wanted a change.
‘Oh God,’ said Ethan when he opened the door.
Well, all right, she’d made a mistake. What had she been thinking? Get out quickly, she told herself. ‘Just wanted to see how you were.’
‘I was fine.’
Ace’s temper flared. ‘Listen, geek, you ought to be grateful someone even bothered.’
‘Well I’m not.’
‘Then why’d you even answer the door?’
‘I have a headache. And you kept pounding and pounding.’
‘The bell didn’t work.’
‘Of course not. I disconnected it.’
‘You ought to live in one of those bubbles, mate. Or a sensory deprivation tank.’
‘I tried it. It only gave me bad dreams.’
‘I don’t believe you even have dreams. You don’t have any imagination. Only those stupid numbers.’
‘Why are you standing here at my door insulting me?’
‘Because you haven’t asked me in.’
‘What for?’
‘For a cuppa, anyway. I came all this way.’
He sighed and turned away. But he left the door open. Ace followed him in.
The mess looked exactly as it had on her first visit. Maybe it wasn’t real mess 42
The Algebra of Ice
but some kind of art instalment. Maybe he was a secret artist who pretended to be a maths nerd. Right. Why was she even here?
Because the Doctor said Ethan was the centre of it all. So maybe she’d find something out.
‘If you want tea you’ll have to make it,’ he said sullenly, returning to the computer.
‘You even have tea?’
‘Of course I have tea.’
‘Only I wondered. I thought you might not even know about tea.’ She went into the kitchen. He did have tea. Typhoo. And a teapot standing on the counter. With, of course, yesterday’s leaves and stale tea in it. Ace washed this and plugged in the kettle.
‘Any sugar?’ she called.
‘In the fridge.’
‘The fridge?’
‘To keep it away from the mice,’ he said impatiently. ‘I’m not completely barmy, you know.’
‘I’m suspending judgement there. At least you don’t think I’m a hallucination.’
‘I wish you were.’
‘No you don’t,’ she said, amazed at her patience. She went into the sitting room. ‘’Cos then you’d be bonkers again. Has to be worse than having me here.’
She sat in the armchair. ‘This isn’t your regular bed, is it? Guess not – it would smell.’
He put his head down on the keyboard. ‘Can you say anything that isn’t snide?’
‘I didn’t mean you don’t bathe. Only upholstery absorbs odours, you know.
Like sheets do. I don’t know how you’d use the bed. D’you just clear off the papers every night?’
‘I don’t sleep much,’ he said, his attention back on the computer.
There was a silence. Ace tried again. ‘The Doctor says this bloke you used to work with was trying to solve entropy and that was daft.’
‘It is.’
‘Why?’
‘Why?’ He turned and stared at her. ‘Do