Doctor Who_ Wetworld - Mark Michalowski [23]
‘Setting up a new colony costs money, Doctor. Have you any idea how much a fusion generator costs? We bought the One Small Step because it had a fission generator and a spare core. It’s the spare that we’re using to generate our electricity. We were lucky that we didn’t lose it in the flood, otherwise we’d be struggling by on wood-burning and nothing else. When Sunday’s established and the rest of the colonists arrive then we’ll trade the fission core in for a fusion unit.’
‘And until then, you’ll go on risking polluting this new Eden of yours, will you? Digging up uranium, creating waste that will still be around for your great-great-great-grandchildren to cope with. What’s wrong with solar? Planetothermal? Wind-power? Tidal power, for goodness’
sake!’
‘Not viable here – believe me, we looked into them. And the experimental tidal generators we set up were washed away in the flood.
Don’t judge someone ’til you’ve walked in their shoes, Doctor,’ Ty warned.
‘And what about the ship?’ the Doctor added after a pause. ‘What about the generator aboard that? Just abandoned out there in the swamp, up to its gills in water.’
‘These things are built for safety, you know. It’s not as if all the uranium is just going to wash out into the water.’
He just shook his head, sadly.
‘Anyway,’ he said with a sigh, ‘first things first. We need to take a look at the settlement, see if we can work out why it’s suddenly become visible. And then we can take a look at your ship, make sure you’re not doing to Sunday what you’ve already done to the Earth. If the power core of the One Small Step has been breached, I’d dread to think what it might be leaking into the water. Orlo – you up for taking us out there?’ Orlo rolled his eyes, but nodded.
‘Finish your coffee,’ the Doctor said, patting the lad on the shoulder.
‘I want to check on Martha first. Back in a mo.’ He glanced around the room as he left. ‘where’s Col, by the way?’
Candy looked around: the Doctor was right – without so much as a
‘See you’, Col had gone.
Martha was asleep, her eyes flickering and darting under her eyelids.
‘She’s having some very vivid dreams,’ the Doctor muttered, making Dr Hashmi jump. ‘How is she?’
Sam indicated the medical monitor, suspended above Martha’s bed.
‘She looks fine,’ he said. ‘Nothing that a few hours’ sleep won’t cure.’
‘And what about those marks?’ The Doctor indicated the pattern of dots on Martha’s temples, now faded to little more than a mild rash.
‘Make anything of them?’
‘Probably where that thing grabbed her. Hopefully nothing more than a graze.’
‘Hmm,’ said the Doctor. ‘D’you have the results of her bloodwork?
I’d like to be sure she’s not been infected with anything. Anything alien.’
‘I’ve given her some shots, although the pathogens around here are fairly benign. I wouldn’t worry that she’s picked anything too bad up.’
The Doctor fixed him with a stare.
‘I’d like to be sure,’ he said.
Sam checked his watch.
‘Well they should be back in an hour or so – sorry it’s taken so long, but our path lab is a bit makeshift. Doubles up for just about every bit of bioanalysis we need around here. And apparently they’ve brought back some skeletons – from the nests. Found quite a few of them.
They’re having a look at them to see if they can work out who they are, and how they died.’
The Doctor nodded silently, took Martha’s hand and gave it a squeeze.
‘Take good care of her,’ he said. He leaned in over Martha.
‘And you take good care of yourself, Martha Jones. We’ve got a date, remember? At Tiffany’s.’ He gave a little chuckle. ‘But before that, we’ll need to get you a new frock. Yellow, I think – that’s the colour of nobility on Arkon. Should suit you down to the ground. Or the knees, at least.’
And with that, he was gone.
Plucking a pen from the breast pocket of his coat, Sam picked up the clipboard from beside Martha’s bed, noticing that someone had doodled all over it. It took him a few moments to realise what the circular sketch was: a picture of a planet, with rough continents drawn in. And engulfing