Doctor Who - Short Trips (Big Finish) - 25 - Transmissions by Richard Salter

Author:Richard Salter [Salter, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781844352715
Google: B_7sMgEACAAJ
Amazon: 1844352714
Publisher: Big Finish
Published: 2008-10-15T07:00:00+00:00

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150

Some years later, the Doctor and Mel were standing by the Thames, in the middle of a crowd all standing and looking up at the Houses of Parliament The river itself was muddy and dark, and Mel

couldn’t help but wonder if Greenpeace had been right and

everything was polluted beyond salvation now. The rain clouds

were still omnipresent in the London sky, but were they full to

bursting with acid rain, or had life carried on much as it always had? She could ask the Doctor of course, but she had other things she needed to say.

‘She was just a little girl,’ she said to him. ‘I mean she was a computer as well, I know that, but she was a little girl too. She just wanted to do the right thing, and it killed her father. No wonder she didn’t want anybody to have the translator: she was afraid of who else might get hurt.’

‘But you convinced her,’ the Doctor said absently.

‘Yes, I did,’ Mel agreed. ‘But I still don’t know if I should have.

All the things we’ve done to the dolphins: perhaps Kawili’Kai was right.’

The Doctor merely nodded.

‘Perhaps,’ he said, softly. ‘But at least now the two races can

come together and talk to each other. They’ve a chance to put all that history behind them, and talk. You gave them that, Mel: you should be proud.’ As one, the crowd turned as they heard the

clanking commotion behind them. The dirty waters of the Thames

bubbled and parted, and something started to rise. At first, it looked like it was nothing more than a robot: large metal legs pacing up out of the river, carrying a makeshift metal frame into the air. But as soon as the shock passed, there was no mistaking the sleek grey

shape of a dolphin cradled inside.

It walked out of the water and onto the land.

‘My fellow humans,’ said the Leader of the United Zones from

her podium in front of the ancient seat of EZ power. ‘May I present to you the first Cetacean Ambassador to the Human Race.’

The crowd began to applaud.

‘After all,’ the Doctor whispered into Mel’s ear, ‘you’d be

amazed what can happen.’

And he smiled broadly.

As the sun started to come up on the beach, Emily stretched and

yawned and gradually opened her eyes. She wiped the sand from

her face, but it wasn’t real sand even though she had been sleeping on a beach; it was sleep sand because she’d been asleep. But the sun was rising now, and it was a brand new day. Time to wake up.

There was a man there with her, standing on the beach and

151

looking down at her. He wasn’t like most men: he was green and

scaly, and his eyes were hidden under coloured lenses. Probably to keep the sun out of his eyes, like her father had worn his silly seagull sunglasses. The man held out his hand to her and Emily saw that it was just a giant green pincer; she wondered if he wanted her to hold it.

‘ Schhlarr e-schalarr gren da,’ he said to her.

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