Doctor Who: The Also People

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Book: Read Doctor Who: The Also People for Free Online
Authors: Ben Aaronovitch
Tags: Fiction, General, Science-Fiction
Cwej
    Morning.
    Although it's hard to tell when the sun is nailed to the ceiling.
    Bernice Summerfield hangs upside down in a perfectly spherical globe of warm water.
    Fortunately she has managed to push her head into the air and so is in no danger of drowning.
    She is thinking that there must be a trick to using a bath like this but it's something she's never learnt. She's been weightless many times but she's used to ablution facilities that minimize the problem, not simulate it.
    She refuses to thrash about. To thrash like a hooked fish would be to lose the essential core of dignity that is central to her personality. She will remain calm and think of something.
    The door to her bedroom is open, the pile of belongings she left on her bed clearly visible. As she watches an invisible force is folding her clothes one item at a time until they are piled neatly at the foot of the bed. There are no pixies, she realizes; instead, the machine that runs the villa merely uses a variety of forcefield projectors to do its daily chores.
    It certainly gives her something to think about.
    Just as soon as she can get herself the right way up.
    There was a note from the Doctor. It should have read GONE FISHING but the word 'fishing' had been crossed out with heavy-handed pen strokes and the word SAFARI scribbled in above it. Chris wanted to know what a safari was.
    'It means to travel,' said Roz, 'in Swahili.'
    'No, it doesn't,' said Bernice. 'It's when you watch wild animals.'
    'What wild animals?' asked Chris.
    'Benny, I speak some Swahili and it definitely means "to travel".'
    'I know what it means literally, Roz, but its accepted usage means to watch wild animals.'
    'Perhaps you watch the wild animals while you're travelling,' suggested Chris.
    'What?'
    'Just a thought.'
    'Anyway,' said Bernice, 'the Doctor says there's a town about an hour's walk down the coast. I thought I'd go and have a look. Do you want to come?'
    'Seems like a reasonable idea,' said Roz. 'I'll go and put my armour on.'
    'I don't think you'll need the armour,' said Bernice.
    'What if we run into those wild animals?' asked Roz. She turned to Chris. 'Cwej, you too.'
    Chris gave Bernice an if-it-makesher-happy look and followed Roz to put on his armour.
    'Really,' said Bernice. 'The Doctor said it was safe here.' She thought about that for a moment and went to find a knife that would fit into her boot.
     
    ***
    The base of the villa was completely surrounded by forest. There were three tracks leading away from the front door and Roz and Bernice let Chris choose which one to take, partly because he claimed to have charted its route from the roof of the villa the day before, but mostly because they could then blame him if they got lost. Bernice was pleased to see that both he and Roz had at least decided to leave their helmets and blasters at home.
    The track was little more than a sandy path that twisted and turned its way down through the conifers. Once they got amongst the trees the air was still and warm. Bernice could smell wet loam, leaf-mould and under it all the sharp tang of the sea.
    Chris went bounding down the track ahead of them and vanished around the first corner. Roz and Bernice followed on at a more dignified pace. Bernice asked the older woman what 'Inyathi'
    meant.
    'It's my clan name,' Roz told her.
    'Is it significant?'
    'It's isiXhosa for buffalo,' said Roz. 'According to my grandmother it meant we weren't supposed to eat buffaloes.'
    'What, never? No buffalo burgers?' asked Bernice. 'No buffalo fricassee or buffalo a l'orange ?
    I'm shocked. What is a buffalo?'
    'Big ugly hoofed quadruped,' said Roz, 'with horns. Last one died in captivity in 2193.'
    'I suppose they were notoriously stubborn and bad-tempered?'
    'How did you know?'
    'Just a wild guess,' said Bernice.
    The track angled steeply down the side of the hill. As it switched back and forth they caught occasional flashes of blue sea through gaps in the trees. Bernice found herself whistling

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