Vampire Science by Jonathan Blum

Author:Jonathan Blum [Blum, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Science Fiction, Media Tie-In, Doctor Who (Fictitious Character)
ISBN: 9780563405665
Publisher: BBC BOOKS
Published: 1997-07-14T07:00:00+00:00

'Can you find out from Joanna?'

'Perhaps.'

'Right, then. You can go do that...' Sam leaned against the wall, giving a tiny shrug to get his hand off. She wasn't feeling a thing any more. 'I think maybe I'll go and lie down.'

He took his hand away. He looked scared, as though he didn't know what to say or do for once. 'Sam. I want you here, really I do. I just don't want you to be hurt any more than you have been.'

'Fine.' She collapsed on to the sofa. 'Look, how do you want me to feel about this?'

He just looked at her, shaking his head sadly. 'I want you to feel alive.'

Harris awoke like a flashbulb.

Instinct and reflex kicked in first: tighten up, defensive position. Look around – no one attacking. Door – undisturbed.

No one sneaking in to kill her. Alone, therefore safe.

Slowly she sat up in the hammock, letting the fear poisons drain from her body. Her conscious mind, still quivering from the adrenaline blast, dragged itself into coherence.

Every evening she woke up like this. No one had tried to stake her in the day for about forty years now. Old habits died hard, she thought, and clambered out of the hammock.

Before anything else, she sat down at the computer and logged on. Instinct and reflex again, she thought fuzzily. When she was in no fit state to put up with dealing with the others, which seemed to be most of the time actually, logging on and switching off was the most comfortable thing to do.

And more than that, it gave her time to learn. To keep up. In the old days, it had just been her and a stack of books she'd borrowed from the library, centuries of afternoons shutting the others out and just reading. But now, thanks to the dedicated ISDN line Rusty had run into the basement of the theatre a few years back, the sky was the limit. Finally, after nine hundred odd years, they were producing information as fast as, or even faster than, she could learn it.

It was a blissful trancelike state to get into, just paging through all the bio and genetics groups her news server could find. She'd once spent thirty-six straight hours like this, sitting slack-jawed in front of the screen, only one finger moving to hit 'n' or 'q' or the space bar. Sucking information off the net without needing to stop for food or rest or any of the other tedious interruptions of the outside world. Geek heaven.

But pulling an all-dayer was the last thing on her mind right now. Everything was coming to a head at once. First the Doctor, who had turned up at just the right time. Now that the bloodfasting appeared fairly stable – all she could see from his mind at this point was a ghost image, clearer if she closed her eyes – she could get down to some serious work with him.

He could supply the breakthrough she'd been plodding towards for centuries – and before the coven became any more strained.

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