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By Root 737 0

Two things that Roz thought she had little time for, and things that she felt she'd done far too much of since she'd arrived on the sphere. Maybe, she thought, this is what getting old is all about. Perhaps when the years behind outnumber the years ahead the balance of your life shifts; you begin to look backwards. Maybe you should check what's in the glass before drinking.

'Actually,' said feLixi, 'people like us shouldn't drink that stuff at all. It tends to stimulate the intense memories and that's rarely pleasant.'

Roz sat up and swung her legs off the blast chair. 'I feel better now.'

'ATraxi says most of the flashback residue has gone.'

'Who's aTraxi?'

FeLixi grimaced. 'My house,' he said. 'I gave it a name. Well, I thought since it was supposed to be a ship and ships have names –' He stopped talking and gave Roz an amused look. 'This doesn't mean anything to you, does it?'

Roz was puzzled. 'Why shouldn't you name your house?'

FeLixi sat on the edge of the acceleration chair. 'Only people are supposed to have names,' he said. 'Otherwise it gets confusing.'

'It's not –?'

He grinned. 'Definitely not. In fact I installed the dumbest machine available. I crewed on various ships for ten years and after spending that much time cooped up with a very smart machine like a VAS you want as much stupidity as you can get.'

'Did you know vi!Cari?' asked Roz.

'Are you investigating me?' He looked amused.

'No,' said Roz, 'I'm just curious.'

'I only knew it during the war, although I knew it had taken up residency here in iSanti Jeni. I doubt anybody really knew it. You get antisocial machines the same way you get antisocial organics.'

'It wasn't very popular,' said Roz. 'Do you know why?'

'It used to do things that annoyed people.'

'Such as?'

'It used to gatecrash parties it wasn't invited to,' said feLixi. 'Don't laugh, around here that's a stoning offence. I also heard a rumour that vi!Cari caused the micro-tsunami that washed away beRut's mural.'

'Why would it do that?'

'Have you seen that mural?' asked feLixi. 'Vi!Cari probably thought he was doing us all a favour by wiping it out. BeRut is another one who doesn't get invited to parties. Actually I'm surprised they weren't friends. They had a lot in common.'

'Except beRut's still walking around.'

'Yeah,' said feLixi, 'except that.'

A moment of stillness – then gravity takes you in her arms and pulls you down. The Doctor reached across his chest with his right hand for the handle marked PULL ME, caught hold and pulled. He heard the ripping sound of unfolding silk; at least he hoped that's what it was. If it was the unfolding sound of ripping silk, the trip to the ground was going to be much faster than he'd anticipated. The harness grabbed him under the armpits and shook him about – just to get his attention. And then he was floating under a rectangular canopy of silk. He glanced downwards.

ISanti Jeni was a jumble of white blocks a long way below. He'd asked Chris to climb to two thousand metres before bailing out. That way if the parachute had failed he would have had plenty of time to think of something on the way down. Last words probably.

The Doctor had just got his bearings sorted out when the parachute started talking to him. It was, he had to admit, a good voice, a rich and comforting voice. If a St Bernard could speak it would speak with a voice like that. 'Good afternoon,' said the parachute. 'Although I am generally classified as a class twenty technological device I'd like to take this opportunity to assure you that I incorporate a full range of modem safety features to make your descent to the ground as safe and as pleasant as possible.'

If only, thought the Doctor, Chris had chosen something a bit more practical than a biplane, something with VTOL capacity that could land directly on the esplanade.

'Our altitude is now fifteen hundred and sixty-one metres and our rate of descent is twelve kilometres an hour. Did you have a particular landing site in mind or would you rather just splash down any old place?'

'The esplanade if you don't mind.'