Doctor Who_ The Taint - Michael Collier [68]
'I'm all right, dear,' said the old girl in that funny low voice of hers. It used to make her smile, but now it just made her shiver. She had to go.
Without another word, she did.
***
Azoth moved out of the control area and through to the back of his cavern.
The light was a little dimmer here, the holographic sky darkening to ochre with the onset of nightfall. Brittle crystal crunched beneath his feet. Tarr never went here - humans would cease to function in minutes with the cold.
There were bodies frozen here, twenty or so, packed into crystalline healing caskets and covered in fine filaments and electrodes. Azoth knew it was wrong to awaken them: it violated his long-forgotten purpose. He was the custodian of these sleeping bodies.
Benelisa program . The name had risen unbidden from his ancient brain when the black matter had been detected in Peter Taylor. Now it struggled for further recognition from deep in his damaged memory core.
Azoth wiped frost from the data displays above each casket and read. Only the one on the end was empty: TARR UNIT B, 1827.Tarr had been awakened in an effort to ascertain why he was nurturing any of the humans at all, but he had been unable to offer much by way of explanation: Azoth could deduce only that the people in the caskets were awaiting the signal that would mark the conclusion of the experiments they had been subjected to, over 130 years ago. Azoth moved on down the line. WATSON UNIT B, 1827.TAYLOR UNIT B, 1829.
Taylor. That was the name of the other human they had brought from the house, the one secured in the antechamber. Here was a significant link.
Surely now he bordered on understanding his true function.
He caught sight of the bronze, featureless globe of his face in the icy crystal of one of the caskets, and remembered it was once disguised with flesh. Flesh suffused with blood like that from Sam's wound to keep it fresh and clinging. Something had occurred. Something long ago. He was so old, now...
Tarr was calling to him, accusing him of ignoring him, of never telling him what was going on. Well, why should he? He looked at his frosted image once more, felt an image taken from Sam's mind engage with a thought of his own. Did a lab worker explain to his rats what was to happen to them?
He stalked back into the main control cavern. 'Release her,' he said.
Tarr looked blankly at him. 'Why?'
'She should not see them, but she does. Take her to the surface,' he droned. 'I must ascertain the extent of the infestation."
'I really don't know what you're talking about these days,' fussed Tarr.
'Do it.' Azoth stalked away. This human was tiresome. It shouldn't be here.
He needed to understand why things were as they were. The information was there, locked inside himself, he felt it. All he needed was the right key.
'Take her to the surface. Note what she sees and return.'
With that, Azoth returned to the far end of the cave. A few seconds later he heard the clanging of the exit doors closing.
He knew he was acting contrary to his programming, but his instincts, the only part of him still functioning even with partial clarity, compelled him to act regardless. He activated a sequence of buttons on the storage canister that held Taylor unit B.
***
Lucy rolled over and stretched luxuriously. Davydd was right. Things were just going to get better and better. Suddenly she found she couldn't stop giggling.
'Shh,' said Davydd.
'I can't!' she laughed, turning and wrapping her arms round him. 'I’ve never felt so happy. Not ever.'
He looked at her. His face seemed more gaunt than it had been, the greyness of his skin becoming more pronounced. But he was a fine man, a fine man...
He smiled, that same thin, cold smile as before. She giggled some more despite it. Maybe because of it, she couldn't tell.
'They do say laughter is contagious,' he said.
She laughed louder. Her stomach felt warm and full, as though it had a hundred hearty breakfasts in it.
'Concentrate,' he whispered. 'See if