Doctor Who_ Return Of The Living Dad Part 19

14 Aliens R Us

'What's he like?' said Isaac.

Benny was sitting in the overstuffed chair in the middle of the upstairs guestroom. Myn Jareshth watched them both from the edge of the fold-down bed.

Benny said, 'He's like... he's like an uncle. An uncle who has a job you don't know much about.'

'How do you mean?'

'You know, something a bit nasty, which none of the grown-ups can tell you about because you're too little... so you little bits about it, just things you've overheard or things you've glimpsed.'

'As though he's in the army.'

'I suppose so.'

'Why an uncle?'

'Well, because he takes you on trips. He's kindly and a bit odd.' She smiled as she drifted back through years of memories. 'He likes jazz and the Beatles, and cats, and dipping croissants in coffee. He's a vegetarian who doesn't like pears.'

'But he's not an uncle if you're an alien monster.'

'He once said that he's what monsters have nightmares about,' said Benny. Her smile faded. 'But everybody's a monster sometimes. I've seen him be callous, and dangerous... sometimes he just fails to understand. And then you realise that the friendly uncle is -'

'A facade?'

'No, that's not it. It's more like a mode he can drop into so that he can relate to you.'

'Is he... a good man, Benny?'

'Yes.' She nodded firmly. 'Yes, he is.'

'Even if sometimes he does terrible things?'

Benny considered. 'He never does anything because he's lazy or greedy, or for revenge.'

'Does motive make a difference if it's your planet that gets blown up?'

'Maybe not,' said Benny. 'But he really does the best he can.'

Downstairs, ten minutes later.

The Doctor was surrounded by empty coffee cups, his face a grimace of concentration. He held up the device he had built, close to one blue eye, and twiddled with the components.

Isaac watched from behind the counter. He wondered if it looked as though he was hiding there. Determinedly he put down the gla.s.ses he was polis.h.i.+ng and walked up to the Time Lord.

The Doctor glanced up at him in mid-twiddle.

'I didn't take your TARDIS,' said Isaac.

'And I didn't take your Lacaillan,' said the Doctor wryly.

'We have a problem,' said Isaac.

'Yes. Sit down.'

Isaac sat down. 'What are you making?'

'It's a ghost-detector,' said the Time Lord.

Isaac nodded. 'The aliens who a.s.saulted you were taken by the military,' he said. 'So far as we can tell. I've made a few enquiries, but they've vanished into thin air.'

'They were after information about nuclear warfare,' said the Doctor, 'though I don't know exactly what information, or why they thought I'd have it. It can't be a coincidence, though, that your base of operations is a neutron's throw from a major nuclear facility.'

'We've been here a lot longer than the USAF,' said Isaac. 'We did consider moving when it was first announced they'd be storing Cruise down the road from us.'

'It must have been a bit of a shock.'

'You could put it that way,' said Isaac. 'But in the end we discovered the base drew attention away from us. And up until now, there haven't actually been any missiles.' He started gathering up the empty cups.

'Ah,' said the Doctor.

'Ah, what?' said Isaac, putting the used cups on the counter.

'That's why they were so interested.' He breathed out a sigh. 'They had very specific information about me. A government source, perhaps. I'm starting to wonder how much they're involved in all of this.'

'You're nothing like the way you're described,' said Isaac.

The Doctor snapped the last component into place on his ghost-detector. 'That's because I'm not your mortal enemy.'

The doorbell jingled. Joel and Tony both tried to get in through the door at once, got jammed, and shot into the shop like corks out of a bottle.

'Doctor!'

'Chris!'

'Admiral!'

'The car is a write-off!'

'They took Chris! We can't track him by his communicator, he tossed it -'

They both yelled as Benny slammed through the door behind them. 'Doctor,' she said, 'there's still no sign of Jason.

This has gone beyond sulk.'

'Chris is gone!' said Joel, waving his arms about.

'What!' said Benny. 'Is there a spatio-temporal anomaly around here that people are falling into?'

'They must have been waiting for us! They took him!'

'Who took him?' said Benny. 'What's happened?'

'We'll have to bug out - this is completely out of control now!'

Isaac and the Doctor looked at each other. Together, they shouted, 'Quiet!'

Benny, Joel and Tony fell silent.

'We have a customer upstairs,' said Isaac.

'A helicopter drove me off the road,' said Joel in a stage whisper. 'Two soldiers had me pinned down in the woods, and Tony and Chris came to get me out. The soldiers took Chris.'

'RAF?' said Isaac.

'Army,' said Joel.

They all whirled as Roz came into the shop. She looked at them. 'Ms Randrianasolo and Jacqui decided to keep looking. I took a taxi back.'

'Right,' said Isaac. 'Joel and Roz, I want you to evacuate the resident aliens.'

'Myn Jareshth will be safest waiting for his own people tonight,' said the Doctor.

'Someone should stay with him at all times,' said Isaac.

'I will,' said Benny. 'But Jason -'

'What did you say about his father?' said the Doctor.

Benny took a deep breath. 'That he might kill the man.

To stop him from beating his children.'

'Jesus Christ,' said Joel.

'We can't let him do that,' said the Doctor, getting up.

'What's that?' said Joel.

'A ghost-detector,' said the Doctor.

'A ghost-detector?' said Benny.

'Hey cool,' said Joel. 'A PKE meter.'

'What?' said Benny.

'Quiet!' shouted the Doctor again. Everyone glanced at the ceiling. A board creaked as Woodworth stepped on it.

'Roz, Chris is missing.'

'What!' said Roz.

'The ghost!' said Benny. 'Oh my G.o.d! She must have followed us!'

'I wish I could contact UNIT,' said the Doctor. 'We might be able to get this cleared up.'

'We can't risk it,' said Isaac.

'I don't believe this!' Roz whispered, not very quietly.

'People are just vanis.h.i.+ng vanis.h.i.+ng around us, and we're just around us, and we're just sitting sitting here!' She glared at the Doctor. 'The holiday is over!' She rounded on Isaac. 'And so's the turf war! It's not coincidence that this has all happened since we arrived. Maybe Ia Jareshth did run off, but where is she now? Who took the TARDIS? Where the h.e.l.l are Jason and Chris? We have a here!' She glared at the Doctor. 'The holiday is over!' She rounded on Isaac. 'And so's the turf war! It's not coincidence that this has all happened since we arrived. Maybe Ia Jareshth did run off, but where is she now? Who took the TARDIS? Where the h.e.l.l are Jason and Chris? We have a situation situation here.' She planted her hands on her hips. 'What are you two going to do about it?' here.' She planted her hands on her hips. 'What are you two going to do about it?'

'Are we bugging out, sir?' said Tony, in the awkward silence that followed. 'I'll let you know,' said Isaac.

There was nothing in the storeroom but more books. No files, nothing obviously unusual.

Woodworth figured she had at least another few minutes before they stopped arguing about whatever it was. She pushed open the other door and found herself on a narrow, carpeted landing. Three other doors led off it.

She opened the nearest door. It was a bedroom - spick and span, no clutter at all. She slipped in, leaving the door open an inch.

When the odd radio signals had first been detected by the USAF, they'd pa.s.sed them on to the British Army for identification. But the signals had stopped after a day, and anyway no-one knew what they were, so the matter was forgotten.

One of Woodworth's contacts had brought her a copy of the signals, and, more importantly, the triangulation that had placed the source in Little Caldwell. She'd spent a s.h.i.+vering night with an army radio in the hope that whoever was sending the signals might transmit again.

It had been worth it, even though there'd been nothing more. That kind of transmission had been recorded only half a dozen times. Oh yes, indeed, it had been worth it.

There was a safe. She ignored it. She found what she was looking for in the sock drawer.

She picked up the black sphere, turned it around in her hand. It was light and heavy at once, as though there was some dense object inside the thin sh.e.l.l, slightly off-centre.