Doctor Who (21 page)

‘These children are wards of the state of Carthedia.
They must be returned there,’ said the Litigator.

The Doctor made sure he spoke aloud now, for the sake of the crowd. Although they were set against him, they were his only tangible defence now. If the Daleks wanted so badly to maintain their illusion of civilised behaviour, for whatever secret reason, then the Doctor had to make sure the crowd stayed interested. If he was right, the Daleks wouldn’t dare to do anything to tarnish their image in front of the people of Sunlight 349.

‘These children are orphans!’ he shouted. ‘Orphaned by the Daleks. There’s nothing left for them on Carthedia except a life in some appalling institution, because
you
seized their family’s assets.’

‘Because you have committed hate crimes against the Dalek Foundation,’ countered the Litigator.

‘Hate crimes?’ mocked the Doctor. ‘Oh, do me a favour. You’re the experts when it comes to hate.’

He turned to the crowd and jumped up on the bench again.

‘They’re giving you what you want now, but you can’t trust them. I know you know that deep down. That feeling of unease. I know it’s there in you. Hang on to that. You don’t have to live under the rule of the Daleks. There’s a resistance movement, you know. People among you who are brave enough to fight against the Daleks. Who know the secrets of what the Daleks are really doing here. I have met these people. I saw some of them killed, but there will be others. You should seek them out.’

The Doctor scanned across the eyes of the crowd. They were almost completely quiet again now. And he
could sense that they were starting to listen.

‘Seek who out?’ asked the Dalek Litigator pointedly.

Then the Doctor heard the sound of shoes clicking on metal. He corkscrewed round immediately to look at the Dalek saucer. Five human figures were walking down the ramp from the hatchway. They were wearing dark coats with their hoods up. They had dark trousers and wore dark glasses. Three of them were women.

‘Doctor …?’ Lillian started to ask, sounding worried.

‘What is this?’ murmured the Doctor, uncertain.

As the figures reached the bottom of the ramp, they stopped a good few metres away from the Doctor. But they were close enough for him to see … To be sure that they were the resistance people he had seen murdered earlier today.

‘Are these the resistance you talk of?’ asked the Litigator.

‘But … they were … Daleks exterminated them!’ said the Doctor, making sure the crowd heard.

‘He’s right! They did!’ shouted Sabel.

‘Yeah, we were there!’ chimed in Ollus.

‘Evidence from the children is inadmissible,’ said the Litigator.

‘Inadmissible? What’s the matter with you?’ said the Doctor, jumping down to face the Litigator again. ‘This isn’t a court! I’m not on trial here!’

‘You are now,’ said the Litigator, swivelling to focus on the crowd. It continued to speak, now in loud, measured tones. ‘The people who have just left my ship are care workers. They help people with paranoid delusions. They seek them out and care for them.’

‘What, by lying to them?’ scoffed the Doctor.

‘By humouring them. By … 
sympathising
,’ the word sounded awkward for the Dalek to say.

‘Oh, now I’ve heard it all!’ said the Doctor, throwing his hands up in the air. ‘So, I
imagined
the fact that Daleks killed these … people, is that it?’

‘They are clearly alive,’ said the Litigator.

‘Except they’re not, are they? Hmm?’ said the Doctor. ‘They’re … What are they? Robomen? Duplicates? Reanimated dead filled with Dalek nanogenes? Take your pick!’ He turned to the crowd again. ‘The Daleks have an infinite number of tricks up their sleeves. They just love to control other people’s minds. Makes it easier to get them to carry out their orders.’

‘But …’ said Lillian, clearly more confused than ever now. ‘You said they were dead, Doctor.’

‘They were. Are. They were never alive.’ The Doctor could see that Lillian was wavering now.

‘Lillian was one such patient who needed treatment,’ said the Dalek Litigator. It slowly extended its suction arm to its full length, leaving the black cup at the end just a few centimetres short of Lillian.

The Doctor looked on in horror and disbelief.

‘They contacted you to help you, Lillian,’ said the Litigator in a soft, staccato tone.

‘I … But …’ she said, hesitating. A tear forming in one eye.

‘Do you still trust the Doctor?’ asked the Litigator. ‘Are you sure he is telling the truth?’

‘Lillian, you can’t believe what this Dalek—’ the Doctor started.

‘I don’t know. I’m not sure,’ said Lillian. She was starting to break down. She clutched the children to her for support.

‘Wait a minute, wait a minute,’ said the Doctor, moving to Lillian, but the Litigator moved its suction arm to bar his way. The Doctor stumbled back, scanned across to the other Daleks, saw their gunsticks twitch in his direction.

‘Do not try to influence her,’ said the Litigator coolly. ‘As you influence … the children.’

A rumble of disapproval was growing in the crowd.

‘You told them their parents died because of the Daleks,’ continued the Litigator. ‘But what proof did you offer them? They only have your word for that.’

The Doctor could see that Sabel and Ollus were thinking about this. They were starting to look at the Doctor with uncertainty in their eyes … almost as if he were a stranger to them.

‘Bring these … these “care workers” forward,’ the Doctor said. ‘Come on, let’s see what they’re really made of. Let everyone here see their faces. There’s something not right about their faces.’

‘They wear disguises,’ said the Litigator.

‘You see,’ said the Doctor, pointing frantically, feeling he had won a point.

‘To protect their anonymity for the sake of their patients,’ continued the Litigator.

The Doctor could feel the crowd turn against him. In that moment, he knew he had lost them for good. What was worse, he could see Lillian no longer trusted him. A lifetime of unsettled feelings, of her true instincts
constantly telling her the whole Sunlight World set-up was a lie had taken its toll. He understood. With her mind filled with Dalek memory cells, how could she be sure of anything any more?

‘I’m sorry,’ he said to Lillian softly. ‘I understand.’

Lillian could not speak. She merely shook her head slowly, tears now flowing. She seemed unable to look the Doctor directly in the eye.

He looked down at the children. They stepped back from him, confused, starting to be afraid.

The Doctor let out a long sigh. He nodded slowly at the Litigator.

‘Gotta hand it to you,’ he said, almost friendly in his tone. ‘Never thought I’d see all this from a Dalek. Always got a surprise for me, haven’t you?’

He looked back at the children. He looked into their eyes.

‘You … you didn’t go back for Jenibeth,’ said Ollus accusingly, tears in his eyes.

‘Oh,’ said the Doctor. ‘Like that, is it?’ Then he crouched by them, looking at them on their level. They moved away from him again. He smiled. But they did not smile back. ‘You don’t want to go back to that orphanage, do you?’ he asked them.

‘It is the decision of this court …’ started the Litigator.

‘Oh … what are you up to now?’ interrupted the Doctor.

‘That these children should remain on Sunlight 349 in the custody of Lillian Belle,’ said the Litigator.

Lillian held on to the children protectively.

‘Oh, neat,’ said the Doctor quietly. ‘But what about
their sister, Jenibeth?’

There was a pause. The Litigator seemed to consider. For a moment, the Doctor thought he had gained some ground, that he had outwitted the Litigator. But he soon realised he was wrong.

‘If the girl has been taken into protective custody by the Daleks—’ it began.

‘Protective custody!’ the Doctor said mockingly. ‘You have got to be kidding.’

‘Then we will make all efforts to retrieve her and set her free,’ said the Litigator.

Someone in the crowd shouted out ‘Here, here!’, provoking other cries of support for the Dalek Litigator. Slowly, applause started to break out. An applause that grew and grew until it roared with cheers.

The Doctor faced the Dalek Litigator. Its blank, ice-cold blue stare met him, unflinchingly. The Doctor felt sure that if it could have given a self-satisfied smile, it would have done. It had completely outmanoeuvred him. Only one question remained.

As the applause slowly died down, the Doctor seated himself on the bench nearby, folded his arms, kicked out his feet and said, ‘So, what are you going to do with me?’

The crowd became hushed again.

‘You won’t hurt him, will you?’ Sabel suddenly blurted out.

There was no reply, until …

A tiny, whining noise from above. The Doctor heard it first and looked up. Something blue and square was descending towards him. As it got lower in the sky, he
could see he was staring at the bottom of the TARDIS, with the blue glow of Dalek thrusters at each corner. Four Daleks, their suckers firmly attached to the old police box shell, were carrying the TARDIS.

As they landed, the Daleks released their suction grip and the TARDIS thudded to the pavement.

‘You’re going to let me go?’ asked the Doctor, in total disbelief. ‘You’re really letting me go?’

The Litigator withdrew its suction arm, then indicated the TARDIS with it.

‘What are you up to?’ asked the Doctor, gripped with suspicion.

All right, he thought, he would test this offer. He walked boldly to the TARDIS doors, put his hand in his pocket to find his key. He found it, but his hand also brushed against something else. Something smooth, small and cube-shaped. It was the message cube he had received from himself. It was still in his pocket, and it had re-formed.

Only pausing for a moment to think about this, the Doctor produced the TARDIS key and unlocked the doors. They swung open, creaking reassuringly. From inside, he could see the warm, orange-ish glow of the control room, the familiar sounds of his beloved ship drifting to his ears.

He looked around at the Dalek Litigator and the other Daleks. None of them was making a move to stop him.

‘All right, then,’ he said, still not sure what might happen next. ‘Bye.’

He entered the TARDIS, then quickly stepped back
out. ‘Since you’re so touchy-feely and full of compassion for the children,’ he said to the Dalek, his words dripping with sarcasm, ‘Any objections to me saying goodbye to them?’ He flicked a look at the crowd, then looked back at the Litigator. ‘Since your faithful generation of Dalek citizens are watching?’

‘Proceed,’ said the Litigator in a low, flat tone.

The Doctor immediately marched up to the children. They looked up at him. Children who did not know what to think or feel now. The clever coercion of the Dalek Litigator had traumatised them even more, and the Doctor was certain of one thing. He would not make them feel worse. They had suffered enough. He would not plead for their understanding or try to change their minds. He would do just one thing. Something that he realised now was probably the most important thing of all.

He knelt down and took Ollus’s hand. The little boy tried to pull it away.

‘It’s OK,’ the Doctor said closely, in such a warm voice that Ollus relented for a moment. With the slightest sleight of hand, the Doctor had given the small white cube to Ollus. The little boy’s eyebrows raised questioningly. The Doctor slowly shook his head and winked.

‘If you ever think you need me,’ whispered the Doctor, ‘just hold this box and think of me. That’s all.’

‘Enough,’ said the Litigator. ‘You are upsetting the child.’

There were some boos from the crowd. But Sabel, Ollus and Lillian did not join in. They looked at the
Doctor, their faces showing they were confused. The Doctor simply smiled at them, rising to his feet, noticing that Ollus was slipping the cube into his pocket. With his other hand, the boy was holding his little spaceship.

‘Aha,’ the Doctor murmured to himself. He could feel ideas falling into place. He now knew what to do next.

The Doctor spun round, giving a big wave to everyone. He walked straight up to the Dalek Litigator and pointed directly into its blue eye lens.

‘You think you’re so clever, don’t you?’ said the Doctor. He dashed to the TARDIS and went inside, closing the door straight away. Then the door opened again. The Doctor poked his head out.

‘But what if I’m cleverer?’

The door banged shut and, seconds later, the TARDIS dematerialised.

Nearly nine decades after the departure of the Doctor from Sunlight 349 …

Ollus sat down in his favourite chair and looked out of the window of his comfy little room. The sun was shining as warmly as ever. He smiled as he saw his beloved little spaceship toy on the windowsill. It reminded him of his mother and father, though he barely remembered what they looked like now. Most of his memories had been kindly donated to him by his elder sister, Sabel, who lived in one of the other comfy rooms in the City Zone 004 Care Home for the Elderly.

He hadn’t seen Sabel for a few days now. She’d had a cold and the nurses had told him it was best for her to be left alone to recover. He was missing her, but he understood that it was for the best.

Just then, there was a gentle knock at the door. Gill, his care attendant entered, smiling.

‘Morning, Mr Blakely,’ she said, in a sing-song sort of way. ‘Did you enjoy your breakfast this morning?’

‘Oh, I expect so,’ Ollus said, smiling back at her. He spotted a tray with an empty plate, bowl and cup on it. Oh yes, he thought. He had enjoyed it. He remembered that now.

‘And what shall we do today?’ asked Gill. ‘A little walk?’

‘Oh yes, that would be nice,’ he said, gaining the faint impression that this was what he did most days. ‘How is Sabel?’

‘Still a bit poorly, but the doctors say shell be better in a day or two,’ said Gill, mopping up some spilt juice then picking up the tray and heading for the door.