Big Finish Short Trips 1 - Zodiac by Jacqueline Rayner

Author:Jacqueline Rayner [Rayner, Jacqueline]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

`So? I know you travel through time in ways different to most of us.

I sensed it with Ace, and I have met you before, Doctor.'

Huh? Thought Ace.What had LaMort sensed? But she didn't get a chance to question out loud because the Doctor was asking Benny another question: 'Bernice, what do you think of death?'

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Benny cleared her throat. Ace looked over at the noise and saw her friend had paled, sweat beading on her forehead. Not exactly the reaction she'd expected, and the Doctor just kept looking at LaMort.

Ah, death. Yes. Interesting topic. Much more interesting to talk about than tax...'

`Benny.' His voice was low, warning.

Had those two planned something?

'Sorry. It's just a little bit difficult focusing on a talking sink as though the life of every human being from this point in time on depends on it.'

She cleared her throat again.Òkay.According to where and when I come from, death gets interesting, if you could call it that'

`You mean there's a lot more of it,'Ace interjected.

Ace saw Benny look at the Doctor, then at her. She smiled back at Benny; the Doctor remained looking grim. They had planned this.

Ì do not have to be busy to be satisfied, Doctor. It's not enough'

`Barely two hundred years ago you visited Australia, then decided to stay and settle in Sydney. Why was that?'The Doctor's voice was startling in its gentleness.

Ìt was new,' LaMort said, simply.

`What about the indigenous population?' asked Benny, indignant. Ace fought the temptation to shush her.

Òh, I knew them. Just differently. I know every soul on this planet' Ace shivered as she realised what LaMort meant.

'That feeling of new,' the Doctor said. 'Think about the impending expansion from this world to many, many worlds. All new and clean, virginal, waiting for new souls. Waiting for you to see, to feel, to do what you do.'

'As new and clean as a virgin?' LaMort smiled again, then opened her hand and Ace saw a handful of pills drop through the bony outstretched fingers and heard them clatter and scatter on the floor. Ace saw every one of them as a question that would never be answered by the Doctor; and they changed before her eyes to images of souls she'd never met, melting into the cracks appearing in the floor. So, there was a place where they went.They didn't just disappear.

Twenty-five today; fifteen a month before; how many every second of her life?

She could never accept death, but Ace knew LaMort was not the monster she could use to absolve her race of its sins.

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