by Nick Walters
Peri didn’t answer - she’d caught sight of the scanner screen. It showed a crowd of tall, tanned people in a bewildering variety of exotic gear moving around a courtyard, their manner languid and relaxed. Some of them had stopped to look at the TARDIS, and were clearly debating it, though they didn’t seem surprised at its sudden materialisation.
‘Who are they?’
‘Eknuri.’ He frowned. ‘Which is odd, as we’re nowhere near Eknur 4.’
Something about their build looked wrong - no, different.
They were like bodybuilders, or statues come to life. All were wearing elaborate head-dresses or had sculpted hair; their bodies were adorned with jewellery and clothed with strange clinging silks and intricate laces. It was hard to tell the two sexes apart - and that was assuming there were just two.
Travelling with the Doctor was forcing Peri to rethink almost everything she’d come to accept as the norm back on Earth.
Her gaze was drawn to one guy wearing way less than the others. His bronzed body was bare apart from a skimpy thong and a crescent-shaped tattoo on his chest, and his unadorned hair was a glossy golden-brown tangle. He was talking to a skinny woman in a black dress, who was staring at the TARDIS with unnerving intensity.
‘Are they aliens?’
‘Extremely advanced humans. They’ve pushed the arts and sciences to the very boundaries.’ There was a ring of admiration in the Doctor’s voice. ‘They’ve used genetics, physics, philosophy, literature, er, sport, all to enhance the basic human condition and elevate it to the highest level. Something much more than human.’
‘Sound like a bunch of big-heads to me.’ The tattooed guy was laughing at something and Peri found herself smiling at the screen. There was something natural and carefree about him that was attractive even if he was a big-head.
‘You’d think that, wouldn’t you?’ the Doctor tapped at the TARDIS console again and to Peri’s irritation the screen faded to white. ‘I’ve met countless races of super-beings with an overinflated sense of their own importance. The Eknuri aren’t like that, though. They possess the rare gift of humility. They know how microscopic they are in the universal scheme of things. It doesn’t exercise them as it does the more immature, militaristic races. Shall we go and meet them?’
Peri thought of the tall golden-skinned guy. She smiled at the Doctor. ‘Why not?’
Aline wasn’t surprised that the Eknuri were now more or less ignoring the strange blue box. Nothing seemed to faze them.
She idly wondered what you’d have to do to put one over on the Eknuri. Crack open their home planet with your bare hands, probably. She’d overheard a couple of them chatting and they seemed to think the box was some kind of party trick.
Athon had demurred, of course, but that only reinforced the view.
Now Aline felt even more isolated from the party. It was as if the arrival of the blue box was some sort of omen. For some reason it reminded her of her Encounter. Maybe her past was reaching forward to claim her. Aline went up to the box and touched it, swallowing her fear. It seemed to tingle beneath her trembling fingers, as though it were alive.
She looked round at the Eknuri, their babble of conversation and relaxed manner going some way towards calming her. She touched the blue box again, looking at it closely, opening herself up to wonder. Her initial flood of fear subsided and she found her old curiosity returning, the analytical areas of her mind beginning to creak into action.
The thing could have teleported in, which meant high technology, but its appearance gave the lie to this. The wording on the top was even in Old Earth English! Could it be that ancient? Perhaps it was a facsimile. Perhaps it was a party trick. She fell to watching it from a distance, sipping from a glass of wine, turning over the possibilities in her mind.
She was the only person watching when the door opened.
Her hand flew to her throat and she let out an involuntary gasp of surprise. In an instant she realised how complacent the Eknuri were. This could be the spearhead of an enemy invasion. Then she remembered that the Eknuri had no enemies. Then two humans - or at least, humanoids - stepped from the box and her fears subsided. A little.
They weren’t Eknuri, that was certain. The man was tallish, with fair hair and an inquisitive, pleasant face. The style of his clothes looked as antiquated as the blue box, but they were pristine, unsoiled. The girl was a real looker, with a bell of black hair, dark green eyes and sharply defined, wholesome features. She was wearing knee-length blue shorts and a white shirt tied up at the waist. The man had a protective arm on her shoulder, but the rest of his body leaned away from his companion. Curious.
Their sudden appearance had recaptured the interest of the Eknuri. A babble of laughter and comment broke out.
Daeraval struck up an impromptu song about magic boxes on his vihuela, his voice rising like a kite into the salmon-hued sky. Athon strode up to the new arrivals, arms outstretched, welcoming them to the party. The girl’s eyes shone as she drank in Athon’s undeniable physical beauty.
Aline allowed herself a small, wry smile.
She knew she had to speak to these people, find out who they were, where they were from. A crowd of Eknuri had gathered around them, barring her way for now she’d have to pick her moment. She felt excited, and afraid, because her lifetime’s experience of alien cultures told her that despite his outward appearance, the man was alien, certainly more so than the Eknuri, maybe even as alien as...
She shuddered.
Nothing could be that alien, ever again.
Peri usually enjoyed being the centre of attention, but as the group of tall, imposing Eknuri pressed in around the Doctor and herself, she couldn’t help feeling a little intimidated. She stood her ground, though, putting on her most winning smile, squarely meeting the eyes of the giants crowding her, trying to form a sense of their surroundings. They seemed to be on a courtyard suspended on the side of a cliff. Behind the TARDIS, water fell in a graceful, impossible spiral. The air was full of strange, exotic scents. Music that sounded like something between a harp and a guitar came to a flourishing finish somewhere beyond the crowd, followed by clapping and cheering.
The Doctor introduced them, not at all bothered by the beings that towered almost a foot above him. ‘Hello, I’m the Doctor and this is Peri.’
As if that explained everything.
The tattooed Eknuri smiled, revealing a row of even white teeth. ‘Welcome! My name is Athon. I usually frown on gatecrashers, but you arrived in such incredible style.’ There was a general babble of agreement. ‘I hope you’ll stay for a while and enjoy my party.’
A party! Neat. Peri found herself grinning widely at Athon while her mind groped for something to say.
‘Of course we will,’ said the Doctor, raising his eyebrows at Peri.
‘For a while.’
Athon indicated the TARDIS with a sweep of his bronzed arm which showed off his muscles to great effect. ‘I have to say, great trick!’
‘The TARDIS is no trick-box, I can assure you.’ The Doctor sounded hurt.
‘Then what is it?’ asked a woman with green eyes and long, shining black hair.
‘It’s a time machine,’ Peri blurted out.
The Doctor shot her an admonishing glance, and then smiled at the Eknuri, who had been momentarily silenced by Peri’s revelation. ‘Well, it is.’
‘How quaint,’ said the green-eyed woman. ‘I’ve always thought of building one. But there are so many more interesting things to do.’
Peri could see what type this one was - the sort of woman who’d never admit to being impressed no matter what you did.
‘Such as what?’ the Doctor sounded genuinely concerned.
‘Come on, Seryn, admit it - this is real art!’ The speaker had a handsome, chiselled face and long silver-grey hair which strangely didn’t make him look old at all.
‘Just think, Daeraval,’ said a woman with braided yellow hair and pale blue eyes. ‘We could go back and meet the Ekn
uri founders, show them how well it’s all turned out.’
‘That would give them a shock!’ said Daeraval.
‘Quite,’ said the Doctor, raising his eyebrows at Peri.
Everyone - even Athon - was looking at the TARDIS and Peri was beginning to feel left out.
‘Oh, ignore Yuasa,’ said Seryn, green eyes glittering. ‘She’s our resident historian. Can you blame her for getting all excited?’
‘Not really,’ stammered Peri, looking for a way out of the crowd.
The woman called Yuasa collared the Doctor and began interrogating him about the TARDIS. She seemed amused rather than amazed by the prospect of time travel. Peri smiled. The Doctor was proud of his TARDIS, and often enjoyed being the centre of attention too.
Peri felt a strong yet gentle arm around her shoulders as Athon began to lead her away from the crowd, his hands a gentle pressure on her body. Despite his almost overpowering maleness there was a feminine grace in the languid way he moved.
‘A traveller in time,’ he said softly. ‘The things you must have seen...’ He sounded envious.
‘Well, I haven’t been travelling long.’ Peri winced. Her own voice sounded so brittle, so banal.
‘How long?’ he asked. Peri couldn’t help noticing that he wasn’t wearing much, apart from sandals, thong and tattoo.
‘Hard to say - time travel’s a confusing business.’ It was something she’d heard the Doctor say and she bit her lip in embarrassment.
To her relief he laughed, a full sound like a tolling bell.
He led her up a flight of steps that led away from the courtyard to a balcony overlooking the bottle-green sea. The horizon curved so wildly that Peri staggered under a wave of giddiness. Athon fell quiet, allowing her time to drink in the view.
After a moment she turned to him. ‘So why the party?’
Athon shrugged, muscled globes of shoulders heaving. ‘No reason,’ he said. ‘We just like to get away every now and then.’ Below, a beach of pure white sand stretched into the misty distance. She could hear the slow crashing of the waves, smell the salt in the air. She took the Ray-Bans out of her pocket and slid them on. ‘Great place you have here.’
‘Yes it is, isn’t it?’ Athon said, as if it was the first time he’d realised. ‘I wanted to have it on the beach or in the sea but Seryn persuaded me to put it here, because of the view. Oh well, I could always move it later.’
Peri was dying to ask how he could move such a seemingly permanent-looking structure, but she didn’t want to appear naive - she was, after all, a fascinating time-travelling babe.
She leaned on the balustrade, her elbow coming up against a bump, which tingled against her skin. Alarmed, she looked down to see a small white cone, about the size of a quarter.
There were several of them, spaced evenly along the balcony.
‘Forcefield generators.’ Athon must have noticed her curious frown. ‘They’re for later.’
Suddenly the steeply curved horizon took on a threatening aspect. Peri stepped back from the balcony. ‘Why, are you expecting an attack?’
‘Attack? Here? The very idea.’ His eyes widened and he grimaced at his unconscious rhyme, reminding Peri so much of the Doctor she had to take a breath.
Athon went on. ‘We’ve seeded a real sky-bruiser of a storm.
And we’re going to be right on the edge of it.’
‘A storm...’ Peri remembered being terrified of hurricanes when she was a kid. Hiding in the basement of her uncle’s farm as a typhoon scoured the landscape. As if God’s great vacuum-cleaner was out for a final clean-up.
‘We’re hoping for particularly fine lightning effects, and serious precipitation. At least six inches.’ He smiled down at her. ‘Don’t worry, the forcefield will protect us. Not even a single drop will dampen our spirits.’
Peri couldn’t imagine it ever raining here. She could feel the heat rising from the flagstones in waves. Maybe she should nip Back to the TARDIS for her bikini, the lemon yellow one with black piping. But she didn’t feel like leaving Athon. He might get away.
They started walking again, up a narrow staircase which led up through the waterfall. As they reached it, the waters parted like a curtain to let them through.
From up here the view was incredible, the curvature of the horizon even more disorienting. The TARDIS stood almost directly below her, but there was no sign of the Doctor.
She remembered what the Doctor had said. ‘So this isn’t your home planet, then?’
‘This is my little retreat. Somewhere to come and let off steam.’ Athon frowned and looked away, as if remembering something unpleasant. He looked back at Peri, opening his mouth as if to speak, and then changed his mind and smiled.
‘And this is just a small bit of it!’
Peri found his hands on her shoulders, his arms stretching out, framing her vision like bronze balustrades, his chest-tattoo rippling like a tapestry of snakes. ‘There’s an arctic zone, with ice palaces, a whole mini-continent of rainforests - it’s beautiful!’ The soft, firm-but-light pressure of his palms on her shoulders through the fabric of her shirt was making Peri’s legs quake, her heart hammer in her chest. His eyes were so deep, so expressive, more full of life and emotion than any she’d ever seen. ‘You - you say there are forests?’
‘I can show you if you like.’ He grinned, and leaned towards her like a conspirator. ‘I’ve brought my favourite skyboat with me.’
Peri put her hand over her mouth, suppressing a laugh.
She looked out over to sea. No sign of dark clouds yet, but Peri knew how quickly a storm could break, especially on the coast. ‘Won’t we get caught in the storm?’
Athon waved a hand. ‘Oh, we’ll be back long before that!
You won’t believe how fast my skyboat can go.’
Peri had to admit she was tempted. Rainforests, skyboats, hunky alien guys - and talking of alien guys... ‘OK - but I’d better check with the Doctor first.’
‘Check what with me first?’
There was a hissing swish from behind them. Feeling Athon’s hands slide from her shoulders, Peri turned to see the Doctor framed against the plunging wall of water. She felt guilty, then angry at herself for feeling guilty. ‘Nothing.’
The Doctor had a familiar enthusiastic gleam in his eyes.
‘I’ve been invited back to Eknur 4. A place I’ve always wanted to visit. One of the wonders of the universe!’ He could barely contain himself. ‘Yuasa wants me to give a series of lectures on temporal physics. How can I refuse such an offer?’
There was something about the way he was looking at her, something calculating in his gaze. Peri frowned. Had he been eavesdropping? She found the idea unpleasant. ‘Hey, great!
Well, you can go on your own, can’t you? We’ve only just got here.’
The Doctor looked put out. This was going to be a struggle.
‘Aren’t you interested in seeing one of the wonders of the universe, Peri? As a student I thought you’d have an insatiable thirst for knowledge.’
He was trying to manipulate her. She didn’t want to fall out with him, but she had to stand her ground. ‘I do have an insatiable thirst for knowledge.’ She looked for Athon, but he’d gone - tactfully absented himself, she supposed. ‘Athon’s going to show me the rainforest zone. Botany, my field.’
Touché.
The Doctor’s mouth twitched in an uncharacteristically humourless smile. ‘Well, off you go then. I’ll wait here for you, there’s no rush to get to Eknur 4 really.’ Despite the breeziness in his voice, he sounded piqued. And parental.
Something occurred to Peri. ‘Hey, you’re not jealous, are you?’
He turned to her, smiled, and then frowned. ‘Whatever makes you think that?’
Peri felt herself blush. ‘Well, that I want to spend time with other people.’ She bit her lip. Like she was married to the Doctor!
The Doctor’s expression remained set in his familiar puzzled frown, then he turned away. ‘Of
course not.’ There was a slight edge to his voice, something Peri couldn’t quite identify. Anger? Then Peri realised what it was. The Doctor was embarrassed. Hiding his true feelings - whatever they were. A silence developed between them, like an invisible eavesdropper.
Just then Athon appeared, fingers steepled before his chest-tattoo, every inch the solicitous host. ‘Everything all right?’
‘Yes,’ said the Doctor. ‘Everything’s fine.’
He looked upset and Peri felt a pang of conscience. Perhaps she should ask him to come with her and Athon. But she stuck by her decision. Why should the Doctor have her all to himself? Peri set her mouth in a resolute pout, a delicious feeling of rebellion swelling her heart.
Athon took her arm and led her away. Peri didn’t look back in case the Doctor tried to guilt-trip her.
Much to Aline’s annoyance it took her quite some time to corner the Doctor. She’d been at the back of the crowd of Eknuri as the visitors had held court. She’d laughed when the girl had announced that the blue box was a time machine, but then the Doctor had confirmed it, seemingly in all seriousness. If he was in earnest, then he must be one of only two or possibly three species. If he was what she thought he was, perhaps he’d seen some of the things she had seen.
Perhaps he could explain them to her.
She floated around pretending to enjoy the party for a while, drinking more wine and trying not to feel too giddy.
She felt as if site was in a waking dream of lecherous gods and time machines. At last she caught a glimpse of a fawn coat disappearing round the side of a pagoda. She darted after him, her small body moving with ease through the crowd of languid giants.
She found the Doctor on the outermost ribbon of the balcony, where she’d been standing when the blue box had materialised.
He was staring, not out to sea, but inland. There was no sign of the girl, Peri. Lovers’ tiff? No, the bond between them - as far as Aline could tell in the brief sight she’d had - had seemed platonic, like father and daughter. No, that was wrong. Teacher and pupil?