Doctor How and the Deadly Anemones by Mark Speed

Author:Mark Speed [Speed, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Humor, Science Fiction, Time Travel
Amazon: B00SDGFNEQ
Publisher: Terra Supra Limited
Published: 2015-03-09T04:00:00+00:00

“Is that taxi going to be moving soon?” asked Mrs Roseby as soon as they were on the short gravel driveway in front of How’s house. She was pretending to water her roses.

“My cousin is travelling,” said the Doctor.

“When’s he back? That thing’s an eyesore. And it’s not roadworthy with the bumper off like that.”

“I’m hoping he’ll be back very soon, Mrs Roseby.”

“I can get it towed, you know.”

“Not if it’s on private property, Mrs Roseby. Good day to you.”

Kevin and the Doctor went into the porch, set down their boxes and took their ultraviolet bath silently. The Doctor insisted that Kevin wash his hands in anti-bacterial soap for having been on public transport. Trinity tagged along behind them in her feline form as they went into the basement.

Kevin set down his box next to the Doctor’s on the table and began to tear at it.

“No!” said the Doctor.

“Why not?”

“Think, laddie! Light. There are dozens of them in there. You know how bad it felt for me with just a dozen of them. Imagine if the whole box of them was activated. And,” he gesticulated at Where’s quarter-sized Spectrel, “we know they interfere with Spectrel navigation. We can’t take any chances.”

“Sorry.”

“Let’s take one out of the bag.” The lights in the room dimmed and went red without the Doctor doing anything that Kevin could see.

Kevin offered the plastic bag to the Doctor, who reached in and slowly took out one of the flowers. He had its solar panels covered with his fingers as he set it down on the table. With his other hand he took out his Ultraknife and pointed it at the flower. Slowly he uncovered the panels and observed.

“The light’s below the threshold for generating a current. I assume you either weren’t told the physics behind these things, or you were asleep in class when they were being taught.”

“Fair assumption.”

“I won’t press you on which one. Now, in certain materials – namely the ones used to create solar cells – given a high enough frequency, electrons will receive enough energy from the photons in the light shining at them to be displaced, and to form an electrical current. The phenomenon is called Thomson scattering.” He met Kevin’s questioning eyes. “No relation of yours, sadly.”

“Huh.”

“But you need a certain frequency – a threshold frequency – for the little packets of energy in the light, the photons, to contain enough energy.”

“I think I got you.”

“So we’re starting with a dim red light. A bit like a safety light in a photographer’s darkroom.”

“You lost me.”

“They used to have to develop photographic film from negatives in things called darkrooms. Never mind. It’s a dying art, sadly. The upshot is that I can examine this in low-frequency light without the danger of setting it off. Clear?”

“Totally.”

The Doctor pointed his Ultraknife at the small flowerpot and made a tiny movement with his hand. A cut appeared in the plastic. He turned the pot through ninety degrees and made another incision, then two more to form a square incision.

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