Doctor Who: BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures [060] - Time Zero by Justin Richards

Author:Justin Richards
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780563538660
Publisher: BBC Books
Published: 2002-09-01T22:00:00+00:00

21: Nothing to Declare

‘I hope you haven’t gone to all this trouble just for me.’

‘What do you mean?’ Curtis asked. He seemed preoccupied, worried. The Doctor’s attempt at light conversation as they sat in the plane did not seem to relax him.

‘This.’ The Doctor gestured in the air. ‘Such a large plane. A cargolifter, is that what they’re called?’ He looked round, like a child in a toy shop. ‘Absolutely fascinating.’

‘And why would we go to this trouble for you?’ Holiday asked laconically as he strapped himself in across the aisle.

‘Well, it hardly seems necessary for just the four of us. Six, if you include the pilot and co‐pilot, I suppose.’ He smiled warmly and rubbed his hands together. ‘I thought perhaps it was a generous accommodation for my blue box.’

Holiday’s eyes narrowed. The Grand Duchess settled herself into a seat further along and studiously ignored them.

Noticing this, the Doctor added loudly: ‘I mean the Duchess’s trunk is pretty substantial for a short break in Siberia, but even that and my box together hardly warrant the use of this sort of technology.’

Curtis turned, with apparent effort. There was an empty seat between him and the Doctor and he peered across it. His pupils were black pinpricks in his opaque eyes. The pores of his skin were dark dots. ‘Your blue box intrigues me, Doctor.’

The Doctor shrugged. ‘A little idiosyncratic I admit.’ He grinned. ‘Sometimes, you know, it intrigues me too.’

‘Not the box itself. I’m intrigued to know what is inside it.’

‘And I’m intrigued to know what’s inside the Grand Duchess’s trunk.’ He gave her a wave as she glanced across. She glared at him briefly and looked away again.

The Doctor was saved from answering further by the pilot’s voice over the intercom asking them to prepare for take‐off.

‘Perhaps it’s Schrödinger’s Cat?’ the Doctor mused as the plane powered down the runway. The engines strained, the noise building until it was almost deafening. Eventually the huge plane lifted ponderously off the tarmac and skimmed over the ground.

‘That trunk of yours must be even heavier than it looks,’ the Doctor shouted across at the Duchess as the plane struggled to gain altitude. ‘Maybe it’s Schrödinger’s weight‐lifting kit rather than his cat?’

‘I’m afraid I have no idea what you are talking about, you strange man,’ the Duchess rebuked him. Her voice was almost lost in the engine noise. But the Doctor beamed at her as if she had complimented him handsomely.

‘Well, since you ask,’ he said, settling back and adjusting the seat’s position so he could recline and steeple his fingers, ‘I’ll tell you.’

‘Oh good,’ Holiday said, just loud enough for the Doctor to hear. His tone was unenthusiastic.

‘Schrödinger suggested,’ the Doctor went on, undeterred, ‘that you could put a cat in a box.’

The Duchess seemed unimpressed at the idea. ‘There is no cat in my trunk,’ she announced loftily.

‘Ah,’ the Doctor said, with a wink and tap of the nose, ‘but there might be. We don’t know for certain until we open it.

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