Doctor Who_ The Gallifrey Chronicles - Lance Parkin [87]
‘You are the Doctor-master.’
Something of a surprise. ‘Your master?’
‘You are the Doctor. The K9 unit was given to you by my creator, Professor Marius, on relative date one-one-one-five-zero-zero-zero. Professor Marius was unable to take the K9 unit with him back to Earth due to transportation costs and Y5K compliance issues.’
‘We had adventures together?’
The Doctor was rather cheered by the
thought.
‘Affirmative.’ Its tail wagged.
‘Then you ended up on Gallifrey?’
178
‘Affirmative. Subsequently, I was authorised for independent missions in situations classed as too dangerous for Time Lord intervention. My mission was to protect Gallifrey.’
‘Gallifrey’s gone, old chum.’
The dog’s head drooped. ‘This was my supposition, but there was insufficient data to come to a definitive conclusion.’
You can say that again, the Doctor thought.
‘I have failed in my mission. TARDIS architecture was reconfigured by your companion, trapping me.’
‘Remind me to buy Fitz a drink the next time I see him.’
‘As you wish, master. Is our conversation over?’
‘Yes,’ said the Doctor, patting K9’s head.
The robot dog wagged his tail, then looked up at him. ‘Now I must now carry out my instructions.’ The nose laser extended again. ‘Logically, this is the last opportunity I will have to issue the following reminder: buy Fitz a drink the next time you see him.’
‘Wait!’
K9 paused.
‘I need the answer to a question,’ the Doctor told him. ‘I think you might be able to help. When I was on the Edifice, all those a hundred and whatever years ago, I deleted my memories. But I gained something in return. Do you know what?’
‘Negative.’ The head lifted. ‘However, I am capable of detailed cerebral scans and have experience with Time Lord brain patterns.’
The sucker-like probe extended from K9’s head. After a moment, the Doctor angled himself so that it was pointing at his forehead. A minute later, just as the Doctor’s knees were beginning to hurt, the probe retracted and K9 slid back a couple of yards. His ears were grinding away. There were lights on a panel on his back, which were now flashing furiously. The gun had retracted, too.
‘Well?’ the Doctor asked, when that performance was over.
‘Initial analysis complete. There is sufficient data to make a report.’
‘Er. . . Do you still want to kill me?’
‘Negative.’
‘You liked what you saw in there?’
‘Affirmative.’ K9 paused for a moment. ‘The Doctor-master never loses,’ he added, before explaining what he’d found.
Rachel flushed the loo, glancing at the ceiling to see if it made any difference to the Vore outside. She couldn’t tell. The storm was worse. The swarm was due back over London any minute but the weather might divert it. . . no one 179
knew. It was dark in the middle of the day, and had been brighter under the full moons last night.
She made her way back to the library, but she could hear Marnal walking about upstairs. He didn’t seem all that worried that the monsters would get into the house. For their part, they seemed more interested in the empty garage than the house or its occupants, and that suited Rachel fine.
There was a flicker, a tiny thumping noise and the power came back on. It had been about four hours since it had gone off, and the house was cold.
Marnal emerged from the library ‘About time,’ he complained.
‘You could have rustled up another fusion reactor,’ she noted, before a surge of panic. ‘If you’re down here. . . they’re inside!’
The first Vore was plodding down the stairs, unsure of its footing, unable to stretch its wings. There were others behind it, almost pushing it over to get down themselves. Rachel turned to run out of the front door. The realisation that this wasn’t the best idea she’d had and seeing that, anyway, she and Marnal had blocked the door off with a wardrobe came at the same moment.
The first Vore was at the base of the stairs. There were five of them in all, so far as she could see. Their heads twitched spastically, disconcerting her, making it hard to work out what they were looking at,