Doctor Who_ Wetworld - Mark Michalowski [46]
‘Keep back,’ Martha warned, knowing full well that they wouldn’t understand her words, but hoping that, like with wild animals, the tone of her voice would speak volumes.
One of the otters squeaked at her.
At least. . .
‘ What?’ exclaimed Martha.
‘Not,’ squeaked the otter again, ‘hurt.’
‘You can talk?’
The otters just stared up at her in the near-darkness.
‘Not hurt,’ the otter repeated, its voice so high-pitched and squeaky that Martha wondered whether she wasn’t just hearing something that wasn’t there. ‘Help us. Help you.’
That clinched it.
‘I’ve got to get back to the Doc–’
‘Come,’ said a different otter.
‘I need to –’
‘Come now!’
It was amazing how much urgency the little bear-faced creature could get into its voice. Three or four of the otters moved towards her, their mouths open. Martha could see their gleaming incisors, and suddenly wasn’t sure how much trust she could put in ‘Not hurt’.
Another couple moved in, bumping their noses against her legs, as if urging her on. She flinched, half-expecting to feel teeth sinking softly into her shins.
‘OK, OK,’ she said, raising her hands and taking a step backwards.
‘Point taken.’
With one last look back at Sunday city, Martha let herself be led out into the darkness of the forest.
Ty had stayed with the Doctor for a little while longer. Candy had fallen asleep in the room next door. Half of Ty wanted to play the organiser, the let’s-get-things-done-er, The other half just wanted out, away from this hateful planet. It all seemed so pointless now. One catastrophe – a catastrophe wrought from the heavens by unthinking nature – was bad enough. They’d managed. They’d coped. But this. . .
Checking the Doctor was sleeping comfortably, Ty wandered miserably across the square to the zoo lab and started to tidy up. After this, she didn’t think she’d really want to work with the otters, no matter how things turned out. As she put the cages back in place along the back wall, she wondered whether she ought to go back to nursing. She’d been quite a good nurse, back on Earth, until she’d decided that humans were more than capable of looking after themselves. It was the animal kingdom, suffering at mankind’s hands, that needed help more. How the tables had turned, out here amongst the stars. She’d become a vet just a couple of years prior to deciding to come to Sunday – two of the best years of her life. The hardest part about leaving Earth had been finding homes for the menagerie she’d surrounded herself with in those two years – a host of injured and difficult-to-home dogs and cats and guinea pigs, along with two goats, a chinchilla and a cockatoo.
As she rattled the last of the cages into place, there was a noise behind her and she turned sharply to see Candy, standing in the doorway.
‘The Doctor’s awake,’ Candy said simply. ‘He’s in the bio lab with Orlo – and he wants to see you.’
She saw his spectacled face through the porthole in the door before she entered the darkened bio lab, illuminated by the flickering screens of the video. His eyes made contact with hers as she pushed against the double doors – and something in them drained the fire out of her in an instant.
‘Professor Benson,’ he said as she entered. ‘I owe you an apology.’
Ty said nothing, letting the doors swing to and fro behind her. Orlo was standing at the end of the table, his arms folded, weight shifted onto one leg. He looked tired and worried.
‘What for?’
‘Orlo here told me what happened to your people last night. I should have been here to stop it instead of turning myself into a My First Little Chemistry Set.’
She glanced at Orlo who gave her a rueful half-smile.
‘Well. . . ’ began Ty.
She perched herself on the corner of the video table, hoping it was as strong as it looked.
‘How are you feeling?’ she asked.
‘Me? Oh, I’m fine – just fine.’ He tipped his head, pulled down one of his eyelids and leaned forwards for her to look. ‘That looks fine, doesn’t it?’ He didn’t wait for an answer. ‘Good! Only the word is that I turned into