Doctor Who_ The Gallifrey Chronicles - Lance Parkin [24]
‘We could be chasing our own tails?’
‘Yes.’ The Doctor at least had the decency to sound embarrassed.
‘Terrific,’ Fitz said. ‘Where are we?’
‘One of the London churchyards, I think,’ the Doctor said, making a show of sniffing the air. ‘2005 by the smell of it.’
Fitz and Trix glanced at each other.
The Doctor was checking the device in his hand. ‘There’s definitely something. It seems to be stronger facing north. I’ll head up this way and try to triangulate the signal.’
He strode off, oblivious to the rain.
‘England in the twenty-first century,’ Trix said quietly.
‘We didn’t, y’know, mean it,’ Fitz said. ‘What we said on Mars.’
‘It was a figure of speech,’ Trix agreed.
‘I mean, I do like you, but. . . ’
‘And I like you. But we don’t really even know each other.’
‘I mean, we’re kind of living together already, in the TARDIS. And that’s working. Don’t get me wrong, but if we go too fast, then –’
‘It’s OK, Fitz. I agree.’ Trix hesitated. ‘We’re living together. I hadn’t really thought of it like that.’
51
The rain pelted against the side of the TARDIS.
‘We should go and find the Doctor,’ Fitz said.
Trix agreed, and they headed off.
They found the Doctor propped up against a tree, adjusting the detector.
He angled it one way, then another. Finally, he walked off. Fitz and Trix followed. It had stopped raining, but it was still muddy. Fitz wasn’t enjoying himself.
‘Yes. Here we are,’ the Doctor announced.
There was a tiny plastic ball, faint blue light pulsing from inside it, nestled at the base of a gravestone. The Doctor knelt down and picked it up.
‘The signal is coming from this,’ he told them. He scrutinised it carefully. It was about the size of a marble.
‘Any idea what it is?’ Trix asked.
The Doctor shrugged. ‘Nor who put it here.’
Fitz was more interested in the gravestone itself. A recent one. Trix read the inscription.
SAMANTHA LYNN JONES
1980–2002
‘She was young,’ Trix said.
‘Younger when we knew her,’ Fitz said softly.
Trix looked over to the Doctor for confirmation. ‘You knew her?’
The Doctor looked impassive. ‘I don’t remember.’
Fitz looked up from the gravestone. ‘Drop the act.’
‘Pardon?’ The Doctor was taken aback.
‘It’s Sam.’
‘Fitz, I don’t –’
‘The three of us spent years together. You’d been travelling with her for years before you met me. She grew up travelling with you.’
‘You know I don’t –’
‘Oh, I know all right,’ Fitz spat. ‘You don’t remember anyone or anything, except when you do, of course. You can’t operate the TARDIS any more, except when you can. You don’t know what happens in the future, except when you do. Drop the act, it got old years ago.’
The Doctor was still smiling, but there was a flicker of uncertainty there.
The hint of a façade. ‘Fitz, whatever terrible thing happened, it happened to you. Your memories went too.’
Fitz gathered his thoughts before replying. ‘Not straight away. They faded.
We were going to talk, we were going to have a conversation, and when the time came, you said “No”.’
‘I wasn’t ready.’
52
It was a quiet night. The only sound was a lorry in the distance, reversing.
It had gone before Fitz spoke again.
‘If I woke up without my memories I’d be keen to get them back. Wouldn’t you, Trix?’
‘You leave me out of this.’
‘No. Wouldn’t you say the Doctor exhibited curiosity?’
‘Fitz. . . ’ the Doctor warned.
‘You’ve just chased a flashing plastic ball halfway across the solar system, but for years now you haven’t shown the slightest desire to find out who you are, where you’re from, if there are others like you and where they all are.
Isn’t that ever so slightly odd? Isn’t it remarkably like there’s something you have to face up to, but you daren’t do it? Two hearts and no balls, is that it?’
‘That isn’t it,’ the Doctor said.
‘No? What is it, then?’
Trix grabbed Fitz’s arm. ‘You’re upset.’
The Doctor had taken a step back. He still had the signalling device in his hand. He was finding it hard to look in Fitz’s direction.
‘The TARDIS laboratory has equipment