Doctor Who_ The Twin Dilemma - Eric Saward [4]
ARCHIE SYLVEST!
'Goodnight, Father.' The tone was one of dismissal, not farewell.
Archie's racing mind jerked to a halt. 'Oh ...' he said, sounding awkward and embarrassed as though he'd been asked a question to which he should have known the answer. 'Right... Goodnight, boys.' There was no reply.
Archie closed the twins' bedroom door behind him. His demeanour was that of a reprimanded schoolboy leaving a headmaster's study.
He was angry with himself. They always made him feel like a fool, yet he was every inch their equal. Had he not been called the finest mathematician since Albert Einstein? When only twenty years old, had he not published his thesis, 'Pure Mathematics and its Relationship with the Square Root of Minus Three.' (Archie was the first person to calculate the square root of minus three, until then, a feat considered impossible.) Not only had it astounded the mathematical world, but his book had become a best seller. He had proven his ability. I am a legend in the world of mathematics. I dominate my subject like a colossus.' What have those hateful children done'.
' Nothing.'
Dejectedly Archie shuffled along the hall and down the stairs.
Although he was a champion, a genius. Emperor of the Parellelogram, he knew it was simply a matter of time before he was replaced on the winner's pedestal by the twins. The consumption of all the Voxnic in the world couldn't change that.
The twins were too gifted for it not to happen. The trouble was Archie was too proud for it not to hurt. His psychiatrist was right: he was jealous of his own children.
The front door of twenty-five Lydall Street swung open and the portly frame of the greatest mathematician since Albert Einstein stepped out. The evening air was cold and Archie gave an involuntary shudder as it embraced him. As he turned to close the door, a gruff, hairy voice said, 'Are you Professor Archie Sylvest?'
Smiling, Archie turned to face his questioner. The owner of the voice was even more Neanderthal than expected. Archie stared blankly at the man and wondered who he could be.
Suddenly something powerful and hairy settled on Archie's arm.
At first glance, it resembled an enormous tropical spider, but on closer examination it turned out
to be a muscular hand. The grip tightened on Archie's podgy limb, causing him to flinch. 'I'm Reginald Smith,' the voice grunted,
'Vestal Smith's husband!'
As ink travels on blotting paper, so did a look of horror slowly spread across the mathematician's face. At the same moment he seemed to lose control of his jaw and his mouth dropped open to reveal a set of excellent teeth. Unless Archie could immediately get his hand on a knuckle duster, a large club or the experience of a dozen karate lessons he would soon require the extensive service of an orthodontist. But such rescue only comes in fantasies and the grip, now hardening on his arm, reminded him of the impending reality.
From any point of view, it had not been Archie's day.
2
THE MALADJUSTED TIME LORD
Deep in space, aboard the Doctor's TARDIS, things weren't an awful lot better. Regeneration had taken place, the event that is both a blessing and a scourge of the Time Lords of Gallifrey.
When a Time Lord is in danger of dying, his body grown too old to go on working properly, or, as one reported case has it, for reasons of vanity, a Time Lord is able to change his physical shape. This is brought about by a massive release of a hormone called lindos, which, at lightening speed, is transported around the body causing it cells to reform and realign themselves. Although much work has been done by genetic engineers on Gallifrey, the process still remains a random and, in some cases, rather an erratic one.
Some Time Lords are able to proceed through their allotted twelve regenerations with enormous grace and dignity, growing older and more handsome with each change of shape. Others leap about to a startling degree, finishing one regeneration a wise and noble elder,