Doctor Who_ The Devil Goblins From Neptune - Keith Topping [32]
'No, the pleasure was all mine, my dear chap. I'm privileged to have made your acquaintance.'
'So, what do you think?' asked Liz after the professor had said his goodbyes and left.
'I see now where you get your independent turn of mind from,' said the Doctor jokingly. 'You had a remarkable teacher.'
Mike Yates and Valerie removed themselves to one of the bedrooms. Mike was somewhat confused by the evening's events, his carefully rehearsed moves and speeches having been rendered redundant by Valerie's pre-emptive strike.
They sat on the bed for a while, saying little, then kissed, hurriedly. Both seemed coy and unsure how to proceed. It was not a situation that Mike was used to at all, but each attempt to get the show on the road was met by curious disinterest. Valerie, having gone this far, seemed to be having second thoughts.
They talked, fittingly, about trivialities. Mike got the impression that some of her hesitation was deliberate. He asked her if she felt uncomfortable.
'I am fine,' she said, standing and moving to the window.
'I. .. I am sorry. What must you think of me?'
Mike was trying to work out exactly that. 'I think you're frightened,' he said, trying to reassure her.
She was silent, staring out into the night with a glassy-eyed look of indifference that baffled Yates. She was pale and lovely in the naked moonlight, but with a quality of aloofness that Yates found puzzlingly attractive.
He turned away from her, bending down to pick up his discarded shoes. 'There's no pressure. If you don't want to -'
And then he felt the dull thud of the butt of his gun slamming into the base of his skull.
After Trainor had left them, the Doctor told Liz he was going outside for some fresh air. She watched him go, and then turned to find herself on the periphery of a conversation dominated by a rather overbearing professor of semiotics.
A few moments later Liz moved away to follow the Doctor through the patio doors. He stood, silhouetted in the light spilling out on to the lawn, staring up at the heavens. There was something noble and yet powerfully melancholic about his strong outline, bright against the cascading arc of stars.
He was alone and lonely, a stranger in a very strange land, as he had often told her.
She moved behind him and coughed lightly to let him know she was there.
Penny for them,' she said.
'You can keep the change,' said the Doctor sadly, not turning to look at her, his eyes still fixed on the myriad stars.
'When I was seven, I got a telescope for my birthday,'
said Liz. 'It was the greatest thrill of my life to find Venus at the first attempt.'
'A beautiful planet,' said the Doctor wistfully. 'I was there, long ago of course. These days it's most inhospitable'
'Are you thinking of home?' asked Liz.
The Doctor gave a short, cynical laugh. 'Home?' he asked. 'I may never see my home again.' He pointed towards the small cluster of stars that formed Sagittarius. 'She's somewhere out there. Gallifrey. In the constellation of Kasterborous.'
'You never told me the name of your planet before,' noted Liz, fascinated at this new information.
'You never asked,' replied the Doctor. It's close to the galactic core.'
'That's thousands of light years away,' Liz said, aware that she was dealing with staggering concepts of time and space.
'About thirty thousand, give or take a parsec,' confirmed the Doctor.
'You said the constellation was Kasterborous,' she asked.
'Is that another name for Sagittarius?'
Again the Doctor chuckled, and Liz thought for a moment that he was treating her like a child, sugar coating the more difficult concepts. But his answer surprised her.
'Constellation means something rather different where I come from - although the notion becomes somewhat redeemed by science in the far future of this planet. It's not a concept fixed by actual location, of course.'