Doctor Who - New Adventures - 48 - Sleepy by Kate Orman

Author:Kate Orman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: English Fiction, Science Fiction, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780426204657
Publisher: London Bridge
Published: 1996-04-14T07:00:00+00:00

12 Thin End of the Cwej

Benny was snoring in the bath when Wolsey came in, nosing the door open. The air was still steamy, the floor moist where water had sloshed over the sides of the bath.

Wolsey hopped up onto the side of the tub and dipped into the water, drinking tiny pawfuls of the warm stuff, luxuriating. His previous owner hadn’t let him do this, chasing him away indignantly with a soggy loofah. Benny even let him drink out of the tap.

The human’s arms were hooked over the sides of the bath, a massive, deep metal tub. She and the others had been away for days; Wolsey had had no-one but his food machine for company. The thing squeaked about on a pair of oversized wheels, moving at random around the white corridors. He had to find and catch it if he wanted something to eat. This did not amuse him.

Now Benny and Roz were back, which was halfway there. They weren’t paying him sufficient attention, however.

He inched around the tub and stuck his nose in Benny’s damp hair. She still smelt faintly of alien soil. He meowed in her ear.

Benny opened her eyes and made a face at the tabby.

‘Fancy a swim, Mr Wolsey?’ she said, in a mock threatening tone. She rubbed him between the ears with a damp thumb, making his fur stick up.

God, she was tired. Yemaya wasn’t going to explode, slime creatures from outer space weren’t going to invade, hideous forces from the dawn of time were not about to be unleashed. But there were kids, and people with guns, and she knew the Doctor would be trying to keep the colony balanced on that knife edge.

People with guns.

Roz was out there in the TARDIS somewhere, doing something. All Benny wanted was a bit of normality, a bit of familiarity before they plunged back into the unknown. Even so, she was regretting asking the Adjudicator to save the Doctor’s instructions until she felt human again.

She’d been on the business end of too many guns to feel wholly comfortable around people whose job it was to be on the other end. Oh, there was duty and necessity and self-defence and all of that, none of which mattered a damn when someone you knew got their head blown off. Or, she supposed, if your head was the one that got blown off.

The lad looked terrified.

She tried not to go into their rooms.

The bullet ripped through the boy’s stomach, and he fell to his knees, gasping, coughing up blood.

She knew they did target practice sometimes, down in the Doctor’s archery range, his straw targets pushed to one side.

Behind her there were cries for a doctor. It was too late, though.

If the Doctor’s plan meant she had to carry a gun, she was going to have a very serious problem.

Wolsey meowed and rubbed against her shoulder. He wanted feeding. ‘Warm milk all round, I’d say,’ said Benny, dragging herself out of the tub.

Roz just walked, letting the TARDIS and her tired feet take her where she needed to go.

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