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and crunched happily. It tasted far better than the
cockroaches in her cell.
She froze, suddenly aware of a figure pushing towards
her through the fronds of a large potted palm. It moved
cautiously and held out a handful of sparkling objects in
her direction.
 Take them, said Redvers, offering out the handful of
beaded necklaces and bracelets he had found in one of the
bedrooms.
Control stared warily at the beads and snatched them
away.
 You like them. You keep them, said Redvers.  Then we
trade words.
Control looked into Redvers face, but had no words to
say that she might trust him. She held the beads tight in
her hands and remembered what they might mean.
 Ladylike? she said hopefully.
He nodded.
As he led her away from the beaten tracks, hunter
leading the hunted, the Doctor and Ace rounded the far
corner of the passage. Given half a chance Ace would have
legged it by now, but there was no way she was letting the
Doctor out of her sight. Of course she was jumpy with so
many loonies about: what did he expect? It reminded her
more and more of what the house had been like the first
time she got in. Up here, the humid air was getting too
clammy to breath easily; it had the rich smell of damp
earth in a hothouse and the insects were really giving it
some stick. It felt alive. It was like the reptile house at the
zoo.
The altering state of the house reminded the Doctor of
the oppressive luxuriance of some tropical swamp, possibly
in Java. He wondered where Light was: it was almost
certainly checking its location using the data banks in the
spaceship. Through the chorus of insects, he fancied he
heard the scuttering of information across the ship s
screens. Nonsense, of course  they were much too high.
The important thing was to find Control before she fell
into the wrong clutches.
Light stood in the hall and stared up at the stained glass
window over the stairs. Data symbols flickered across its
surface, hierographics and hologlyphics like those the
Doctor had seen on the screens in the ship. No, this could
not be the Earth. If it was, the implications were too
momentious to contemplate, so let the idea be.
Repeatedly, the screen identified the location: Earth.
 Ecosphere data assessment completed. Amendments to
original subject fields required. Impossible! The Earth was
far from the ship s prescribed course. Either Control or the
Survey Agent had disturbed the ship s perceptions and
caused some minor error in its location relays. They would
be severely punished once this was rectified.
Light was Light. Who or what it was, it never stopped
to recall. Who knew where its work had started? It was not
to be found on its catalogue. Record all life  perhaps it
had thought of its directive itself. Species were what it
recorded, not what it was! Every species, every subspecies
and every variant was noted and neatly, logically recorded.
It must know every change, every variegated mutation.
The catalogue must be complete and up to date, but why
did it never stop? It needed just one hiatus, a few moments
to catch up; time to breathe, time to think. There was no
time to waste: there were corrections and amendments.
Never a moment to halt, to combat the weariness that
layered and dulled the play of energetics that was his mind,
was Light. The screen reiterated,  Location: Earth.
One of the dominant creatures of this planet was
approaching. Light regarded her, a tall and proud
specimen in black. The form that the Survey Agent would
have taken might not be dissimilar to this. Mrs Pritchard
bobbed and held out a silver platter upon which a card
rested.
Was this a challenge? Light had no need to examine the
card to understand its purport.
 From Mr Josiah, sir. An invitation to dinner, said the
housekeeper.
So the Survey Agent was well established. Had Light
not seen it already? It contemplated a response while Mrs
Pritchard waited, stoney-faced, lit by its lambent aura. It
watched a beetle drop from a curtain rail and lie on its
back, legs waving helplessly. It nodded in agreement.
 Dinner will be served at half past eight, sir. Mrs
Pritchard bobbed again and departed, leaving Light to its
facts and figures on the screen above.
 Location: Earth, the screen stated again. Light s
energy droned angrily.
A moment later a maid entered the hall carrying a tray
and large soup tureen. She stopped short as she caught
Light s eye. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]