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.The Doctor was reading.'This is a volume of Heavenite poetry.Written in Heavenite.With Gallifreyan translation by.my goodness! Castellan Lode! She was the greatest literary historian the Time Lords ever had.Before the laws of time were enforced, some of them must have visited here.''Poetry.' Ace sighed.'Not very useful, is it?''About as useful as the Rosetta Stone,' gasped Benny.'You know, that wasn't too important a document: Wednesday, did the washing, et cetera, but it was written in both hieroglyphics and Greek.The archaeologists back then knew Greek.This can be used –''To read anything else in Heavenite! I get it! But if you're going to write this, Professor, why didn't you add anything more useful?''Because I remembered that this was what I found.Tricky thing, temporal paradox.You can't do deals with time.''Only with Death,' Ace muttered.The Doctor frowned, and fumbled for a pencil.'How's the dig going?' he asked Benny.'Not long left.' She poured cups of coffee from a flask for herself and Ace, and motioned the Doctor to use her folding desk.'We haven't found anything new, but did you realize how thoroughly the observatory's covered in Heavenite writing? It's been written everywhere in a tiny hand, burnt into the walls, the telescope –''I know.' The Doctor placed his can of metal cleaner on the desk.Ace slurped her coffee and grinned at Benny's surprised expression.'Fancy a walk?' she asked.'Indeed I do,' the archaeologist said, getting to her feet.'I think.Should I ask him if I do?''You do,' said the Doctor, absorbed in the scroll.Ace hoped that he was joking.The two women wandered towards the arch, its slim shadow falling over them as they passed between it and the moon.They exchanged information about the events of the past few days.Bernice asked if Ace ever knew what the Doctor was doing.'He's playing,' Ace told her.'Playing chess against some alien thingy.Usually, it's a bit one-sided, but this time.' she hugged herself against the cold.'This time I think the other lot are as fast as he is.And he's losing his touch.He didn't half lay into me just now.''What about?' Benny stuffed her hands into her pockets.'Jan.The Doctor's getting very sad about that.''Are you two –?''Yeah.Very.''Can't help you there.Total failure, boy wise.' Benny leaned back and stared at the arch.'Why can't you ever meet a man like that thing? Beautiful, elegant.''Doesn't talk much.Yeah, I could get used to that.'Benny laughed.'When I was at the Academy, I went a bit wild.Didn't like the way they wanted to make us all into troopers.I certainly can shoot, but I prefer not to have to.Can't stand soldiers, guns, all that business.''I dunno.Guns are okay if I'm using them.So are soldiers.Prefer grenades, though.'Benny raised an eyebrow.'I think we'll agree to differ there.I went AWOL and hid in the woods by the Academy.They couldn't find me.Word got out, though, and after a while girls at the Academy started to visit me for advice.Boys, periods, anti-aircraft weapons.I was sort of a gymslip guru.Anyway, a boy started to visit with the girls.I taught him everything I knew.Simon, his name was.We rolled about in the bracken a bit, I fell in love, he betrayed me to the authorities.''Typical,' Ace nodded.'But me and Jan are gonna be okay.We're different.''That's what they all say.'Ace shook her head.She didn't want to hear that.'This Simon.Was he your first?''Oh yes.And, apart from a couple of times when my heart has overruled my head, the last.The Academy decided that I was obviously qualified for frontline service, made me the youngest private in the corps, and put me on a troopship bound for Capella.''You fought the Daleks?' Ace was impressed.'Ah, no.I jumped ship in an escape pod.Found myself on some strange colony halfway to nowhere –''You and me both.Pain, isn't it?''It is.I started to work with an archaeological unit.Now, this is the point in the story where I do something very bad.I, ah, I faked my qualifications.''You mean, you're not a real professor?''That's right.Do you know, I've never told anybody about that before?'Ace felt suitably honoured.Benny was looking at her a little nervously, as if she might rush down the diggings and yell the news to everyone.'It's okay,' she smiled.'Neither's the Professor.''How did you meet him?''Well.' Ace took a deep breath.'I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar.'Kale slid into the ventilation duct and dragged the access port closed behind him.From the ready room of the platform, he could hear the three troopers discussing how long it would be before the communications net was back on line.They were merry and lackadaisical, waiting out the week before their replacements arrived.In the darkness, Kale snapped open the catches of his false arm, and took it off, removing the bulky plaster.From his shoulder socket, grey filaments relaxed and swayed, no longer having to support the weight of the limb.Kale opened the shoulder end of the metal arm, and reached into the cool internal chamber with his fingers.One by one, he removed three thin white filaments.They twisted in his grasp and sang to him.Ace and Benny climbed down the ladder into the excavations, Benny nodding to Clive and several others of the team who were still carefully sifting material from various areas of the floor [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]