Doctor Who_ Transit - Ben Aaronovitch [111]
There were many red roundels, fewer blue and only one black.
'Well, little sister,' said Kadiatu, 'shall we dance?'
Node Twenty - Twenty-One
The attack came from nowhere. The Doctor got the impression of animal fur, lithe speed and ferocity. Like a greyhound crossed with a yeti, thought the Doctor, and of course that's what it was. Ragged brown fur pulled tight over starvation ribs, lean elongated limbs tipped with three-fingered claws. Red eyes blazed over a sharpened dog's snout, a pink tongue lolled out between yellow teeth.
The Doctor made a mental note to keep his imagination under restraint. The mental note popped into the air between the greyhound yeti and him. An Alexandrian scroll fluttering down in the imaginary gravity, blue tie ribbons streaming behind. The greyhound yeti snapped at it and the Doctor used the distraction to leap through the closest roundel.
Once in the next node he imagined a huge vault door slamming shut on the pathway. He locked it tight with memories of Fort Knox, the Bank of England during the nineteenth century and the Great Seal of Rassilon in the Panopticon.
A random predator, decided the Doctor. That's why it appeared in my frame of reference as an animal.
He was going to need some kind of advanced guard to prevent another ambush, and something to guard his back. The Doctor thought long, hard and carefully about it.
The result was a group of yard-high figures in black bomber jackets and pony tails. They carried little silver deodorant cans and careened around the node with irritating exuberance. They also made a lot of noise, yelling nonsense in high pitched voices.
He wondered what he should call them in the multiple. A brace of Aces, a confusion? One hurtled past his head and ricocheted off the side of the node. An explosion, he decided, an explosion of Aces.
He decided to move on before things could get out of hand.
Node Twenty
She stretched, enjoying the rich luxury of the movement, the pull of her muscles against anchoring bone, the silk feeling of being wrapped in her own skin.
The silver cat had returned to its place on her shoulder and was now batting idly at a scrap of fur as it drifted past. Other pieces of the monster floated in the node, a severed limb twisted close by Kadiatu's face. She watched it rapidly decompose, the structure breaking down particle by particle, like a slow derez on a hologram.
The monster had been trying to break through a locked roundel when Kadiatu entered the node. She'd jumped on its back and torn it to bits with her bare hands and teeth.
She felt enormously better now.
The trail of the Doctor led through the locked roundel.
'What shall we do now, little sister?' she asked the cat.
If one pathway was blocked then she would just have to try another.
As she considered her options she licked her lips, running her tongue over sharp white canines.
The cat's purr was loud in her ears.
Node Thirty-Six - The Border
The Minister for Primary Colours was waiting for the Doctor at the boundary. The Minister appeared as an iridescent shimmer at the north end of the node. The Doctor's frame of reference should have translated the Minister into something more recognizable: compatibility problems deduced the Doctor. He made a brief attempt to resolve the Minister into a human figure but gave up when he encountered escalating resistance.
The Minister was flanked by a personal guard of fearsome Reds. The Doctor's explosion of Aces bounced about the node but generally behaved themselves by staying behind him. The Reds hung in the air as sheets of solid colour, dangerous in their stillness. When the Minister spoke it was with a sound like wind chimes.
'I am the Minister for Primary Colours,' said the Minister.
'I am the Doctor,' said the Doctor, 'and these are my Aces.'
'What is your function in coming here?' asked the Minister.
'I am searching for a utility