Doctor How and the Rings of Uranus Read Online Free PDF Page A

He jogged along it. “Trini?” he called. “Trini?”
    “Attention. All personnel. Thirty. Sidereal. Seconds. Remaining. Precisely.”
    He reached the door to the viewing area and pushed it open.
    “Trini!” he yelled, and ran towards the oversized muscular black cat, which was gazing groggily at the view through its glowing green eyes. “You think they look like fallen trees, don’t you darling?” he said. He bent down and picked her up. The sheer weight of her always surprised him. He held her to him.
    “I’ve got her! ” he shouted, knowing that the Doctor must now have left the ship. “Well, Trin. There are worse places to die. The view from a hospital bed could never match this, eh? And,” he started laughing, “they’d never let pets on the ward, eh?”
    He felt a pair of hands grab him. “Get in!” shouted the Doctor. “We might just make it!”
    “Attention. All personnel. Five. Sidereal. Seconds. Remaining. Precisely.”
    As Kevin turned he saw the Spectrel disappear.
    “Bugger!” said the Doctor. “Emergency. She has to save herself.”
    “You came back, Doctor,” said Kevin. “You shouldn’t have.”
    “You’re right.”
    “Attention. All personnel.”
    “Oh, Christ, here we go,” said Kevin. “Been nice knowing you.”
    “Attention. All personnel. Man hath no greater love than to lay down his own life for h is friend’s.”
    “ What ?” whispered the Doctor.
    “New Testament,” said Kevin. “John, chapter fifteen verse thirteen. Drummed into me at Sunday school.”
    “Attention. All personnel. Please leave this vessel. You have. Fifteen. Sidereal. Minutes. Destruction will result in an. Annular. Debris field. It will be. Red. In the. Visible. Spectrum. You are reminded that running in the corridors can be dangerous and is not permitted. I wish you a safe and pleasant onward journey.”
    “I think we’d better do as she says,” said the Doctor.
    “ She ?” asked Kevin, walking briskly to the exit.”
     
    “So I’ll tell you what you need,” said Kevin, munching his reheated Jamaican patty.
    “Go on,” said the Doctor.
    “I always thought you needed talking therapy, you know? Like, I think you need a crash course in female psychology.”
    “Really.”
    “Yeah, straight up. I figure she was well pissed-off, just being left there for eight millennia on her own, alone and unloved. She wanted to feel significant, you know? A bit of respect. A bit of dignity, man.”
    “Right.”
    The Doctor leaned back in the chair at his control panel. The twin projections of the Uranus system glowed in the dimmed cabin.
    “Spectrel,” said the Doctor. “Patch me through to the mining ship. Thanks.” He cleared his throat and addressed the mining ship’s computer. “On behalf of us all, thank you for your many millennia of valuable service,” he said, somewhat awkwardly.
    “Admiral. How. Thank you. I am now glad to have finished my useful service. I look forward to taking my place in the greater scheme of galactic history.”
    “And you will, computer. You will.”
    “Kevin. I am grateful,” said the computer.
    “What? Me?” Kevin put a hand over his mouth to stop flakes of pasty going onto the floor of the Spectrel. Even though the house-bots would clean them up, he knew their fleeting existence would annoy the Doctor.
    “I spent millennia of your time without true meaning to my existence. Today I was able to experience vicariously the depth of love that only unselfish sacrifice can show. Without your feelings for the creature called Trinity my existence would have had no meaning to me.”
    “Sure thing. I mean, thanks for sparing us from total oblivion… And don’t forget that the Doctor also showed some… I dunno… feelings.”
    “One last thing. Admiral. How.” The computer’s salutation hung in the air as the three occupants of the Spectrel waited for her final words. “Get some therapy.”
    Trinity’s head jerked up and down with mirth.
    The red dot in