Doctor Who: BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures [056] - The Book of the Still by Paul Ebbs

Author:Paul Ebbs
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780563538516
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 2002-04-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Bad Guys Wear Black Hats

The ship hung above the city, soot falling like black snow from its surface. Steam vented menacingly, scattering the clouds of bats that had come to investigate.

Lebensweltians and off-worlders were flocking from their homes and hotels to see the huge ship. The sky was darkening towards night and the lack of light pollution from the city allowed the population to pick out the encrusted detail on the burnt and blackened underside of the ship – it glistened in places as if it had been grown; in other sections the ship resembled the inside of an oven that had never been cleaned. The smell from the soot and the venting had the tang of overdone carbon about it.

The ship was of no recognisable design, not that they could check the design against any in the city databanks, seeing as the city databanks had shut down with everything else. The Mayor’s office wanted to send sentinels up to investigate the ship, but of course, none of those were working either.

As the Lebensweltians looked up at the ship that was fading into the darkness, many of them wondered if the responsibility for the power outages rested with the curious new visitor. Be a bit of a coincidence if it didn’t, many others answered.

The rest of the population, mostly off-world tourists it had to be said, had lost the plot somewhat, and, with no sentinels or armed police to keep them in order, had gone on a rampage.

The ship hung silently above the chaos, fires from burning buildings reflecting dully off the underside of its hull.

Night fell.

In the morning, the ship was still there, like a blood-black scab over a wound in the sky.

‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’ The Doctor looked up at the belly of the ship, squinting to make out more detail in the early morning light. ‘But that doesn’t say much; I haven’t really seen that many star ships in the last hundred years. If we could get into the TARDIS perhaps we could find a book to look it up in.’

Anji looked down at her broken and torn fingernails and let out a depressed sigh, thinking again about the fruitless hour they had spent again trying to roll the TARDIS over to expose the doors. ‘Haven’t you ever thought of putting a fire escape in this thing?’

‘Never really needed one,’ the Doctor said, leaning against the TARDIS and wiping the sweat from his forehead. ‘But I’ll seriously consider putting one in at a later date.’

The Doctor had recovered well after a night sleeping in the shadow of the TARDIS. He seemed to draw strength from just being near its comforting hum and familiar shape. Anji hadn’t slept at all. Every time she’d tried to sleep, all that she could think about was the ship that hung above them and the cloying aroma of burnt things that was emanating from it. The Doctor had been far too tired to consider the ship last night, but

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