Doctor Who_ Wetworld - Mark Michalowski [27]
Suddenly, as she looked down, the waters around her began to froth and seethe as something under the surface moved violently. She stared at the boiling white foam rising rapidly around her, unable to move, unable to cry out. Something strong and powerful grabbed her ankles and began to pull her under. Thrashing her arms about, trying to remain upright, Martha opened her mouth to scream as the water flooded in-
-and then she was sitting bolt upright in the bed, sobbing and shuddering.
‘Doctor!’ she heard a voice call out – a girl’s voice, close to hand.
Martha opened her eyes to see a young woman, probably in her late twenties, standing at the side of the bed. She was wearing dark-blue combat trousers with lots of pockets and a light-blue shirt. Her head was shaved, and an intricate ivy-leaf tattoo crept up the right-hand side of her neck and coiled around her ear.
She’d said ‘Doctor!’ Martha suddenly realised, and looked round, hoping to see. . .
But the man who came rushing over wasn’t the Doctor at all. Wasn’t her Doctor. He had a pale green coat on – at least Martha imagined that it was pale green: the orange light flooding in from the window made judging colours a bit tricky – with a name badge that read ‘Dr Sam Hashmi’.
‘It’s OK, it’s OK,’ Martha said as Dr Hashmi tried to make her lie back down. ‘Just a dream. I’m fine.’
But this doctor clearly didn’t think she was, and began checking her pupils. ‘I’m fine,’ Martha insisted after a few seconds. ‘Honestly. I could do with a drink of water, though.’
The doctor nodded and passed her the glass from beside the bed that she’d drunk from earlier, now refilled. She gulped it down gratefully, feeling it soothe the burning she felt inside.
‘You’re Martha, aren’t you?’ asked the girl. ‘I’m Carolina, the duty nurse – the Doctor rescued you from the otters.’
‘The what?’
‘He and Ty – Professor Benson – found you in one of the otter nests.’
Otter nests? What was she talking about? Martha screwed up her eyes and tried to remember. And suddenly it all came back to her again. – the chamber, the animals in there. And. . .
‘Something tried to kill me,’ she said steadily, trying not to let herself get worked up again. ‘Something –’
‘We know,’ interrupted Sam, refilling her water glass and passing it back to her. She glugged it down, not caring that it spilled down her chin and onto the hospital gown they’d dressed her in while she’d slept. ‘The Doctor told us. How are you feeling?’
Martha just shook her head.
‘Lousy,’ she said – and managed a laugh. ‘We were supposed to be going for a swanky breakfast. . . Should’ve known it’d go wrong somehow. Where is he?’
‘The Doctor?’ said Sam. ‘I think he’s gone with Ty – back to the settlement. The first one.’
Martha’s confusion clearly showed on her face.
‘The one that drowned in the flood.’ Carolina looked puzzled that Martha still wasn’t getting it. ‘Sunday City.’ After a second or two, she glanced at Sam, worried.
‘I think you need to rest,’ he said, obviously sharing Carolina’s concern. ‘A few more hours’ sleep and you’ll be fine.’
‘Sunday? Where’s Sunday? We were supposed to be going to New York.’
‘New York?’ said Carolina. ‘Well, you’re about a hundred light years off-course for New York, babes.’ Martha let her head flop back on the pillow with a sigh. ‘He’s done it again, hasn’t he?’
‘Who?’ asked Carolina. ‘Done what?’
‘The Doctor – he’s gone and got us lost again.’ She shook her head, smiling.
‘But I thought he was an adjudicator – sent here from Earth.’
‘A what?’ Martha struggled to sit up again. There was something about the word that sounded very official, very serious.
‘An adjudicator,’ repeated Carolina. ‘That’s what he told Pallister –
Chief Councillor Pallister.’
‘Ohhh,’ said Martha after a couple of seconds, realising that – as usual – events were starting to run out of control. ‘Right. Yeah. That’s right – he’s an adjudicator.’ She watched Carolina and Sam’s expres-sions to check she was getting it right. ‘From Earth. It’s just that. . . ’
Martha struggled for a moment. As if it wasn’t bad enough that