Fiction - Short and Sweet

Not the first piece of fiction published by the fanzine (that honour goes to my work of fiction Fetch in issue 1), yet a short and simple way to start posting older fiction from the fanzine. The illustration that accompanies it doesn't really marry up well with the fiction, but is a rare piece from Matt Kamstra.


"Short and Sweet"
by David Ronayne

Dorothee glared at the old Time Lord over the monitor, this current body must be nine hundred if it's a day. She had pleaded with him, she had argued with him, she had even put on her universal translator and tried speaking in English (slang: variation45: British Isles circa 1980s CE), just in case she had missed some subtle nuance of the consonant heavy sentances of the local language. She had tried all these things on the Pydronian Keeper of the Record, but she had been unable to extract the Doctor's biodata and personal history from him.
The Keeper had been watching and recording the lives and histories of all the graduates of Gallifrey's most prosidious colleges for over two thousand years now and was one of the most knowledgeable and respected beings on the planet, he was also very deaf and quite absentminded. She had been curious when she had first heard of him, wondering if this was finally the way to learn the secrets of her erstwhile mentor.

The elder looked up with a start.

'Are you still here? Hmmm? Go away, I'm busy. What do you want?'

'The Doctor, I want all your data on the Doctor!'

The old Time Lord's brow furrowed. 'No, never heard of him, go away!'

The white head delved back to the screen, muttering to himself. She leant forward, forching herself into his view.

'The Doctor - class of '758 - Double Gamma pass.'

The old being frowned. 'A rather unfortunate year, Capitol or Country?'

Dorothee shrugged. 'I don't understand.'

The Keeper scowled, finally giving her his full attention. 'His family house and membership to the Academy - What was it?'

She thought back to the long shadowy corridors and empty cloisters of the almost deserted household she had seen six months ago.

'He lived in a house. A really big house in the country. It was called 'Lungbarrow'.'

'Never heard of it,' he snapped. 'Was his membership from the Capitol or the Country?'

The woman who was Dorothee remembered the rolling hills of southern Gallifrey, the vast chasm the twisted house fell into, and the girl who was once Ace screamed, 'THE DOCTOR WAS A COUNTRY MEMBER!!'

She watched the old man's face twist from shock, to horror, to sudden recognition, before she realised her translator was still on.

'Oh yes,' he said. 'I ... remember ... the Doctor.'

END.