Genesis Of The Doctor - A Doctor Who Story

24 - Contact

As the pair of them sat in Clive's kitchen drinking endless cups of tea Smith made a decision; he would take Clive further into his confidence and let him know more about what he had planned.  Clive for his part was intrigued by this odd person but remained wary of him.

"So," started Clive, "do you have some sort of plan, like you say, or are we just going to laze around here getting fat and sozzled while the world implodes around us?"

"Well not a plan as such," Smith replied, "but I do have the beginnings of a strategy of sorts, more of a gizmo really, perhaps a MacGuffin."

He reached into the pocket of his jacket and retrieved a squat metal cylinder rather like a Thermos flask - it was the 'Thingamiser' he had been working on for the past few months.  He held the device out so that Clive could see that it was empty.  "This is a pocket replication device," he said, "think 3D printer with a little extra.  Until recently I could only really get it to produce various drinks..."

Clive interrupted, "So we poison them with drinks?"

Smith continued, "Now it can produce solid objects.  I just design what I want on my phone here," he held up his mobile phone while Clive nodded indicating that of course he knew what a phone was. "And I send the design to the device," he paused for effect, "et voila!"

There was a low hum, accompanied by a fizzing noise and then a violet light shone from the 'Thingamiser' for a few seconds while something materialised within it.  From his angle all Clive could see was the light.  Smith tilted the device and a small brown disk slid from it and dropped into the palm of his hand.

"I didn't realise you were part of the magic circle," said Clive sarcastically, unimpressed.

Smith ignored him, "The flashing eyes you have been seeing are caused by the Myriad, a sort of contagious alien mind parasite, erm or perhaps mind predator might be more accurate, transmitted by a combination of telepathic communication and direct eye contact..."

"Whoah!!" exclaimed Clive, interrupting again.  "Alien mind you what now?  What are you on about buddy?  Aliens?  Come on."

"Well how else do you explain what's been going on?  You must have expected something a bit out of the ordinary, surely?"

"I just thought it was the government or Google or something.  Not aliens; that's ridiculous!" Clive rolled his eyes theatrically to emphasise his point.

"Look," said Smith.  "If you want to help me do something about this you're going to have to trust me on some things.  There are aliens.  Lots of aliens.  Aliens milling around the stars, aliens visiting this planet occasionally, aliens within nine feet of you at all times.  Or is that rats?  Yes perhaps that's rats.  Anyway there are aliens and the Myriad are aliens.  Aliens living in humans and manipulating them to their own ends.  To what ends I haven't worked out for certain yet but they don't seem to mind hurting people to get what they want so I'm guessing bad ends."

Clive finally looked as if he was taking Smith seriously, "So just for a minute, say I believe what you're saying about aliens with flashy eyes and whatnot.  What do you propose to do to them with a Thermos flask and a chocolate drop?"

"Ah," said Smith. "Right.  So the Myriad spread through eye contact but it has to be direct person to person contact, not through a screen - otherwise they'd just need to infect Craig Revel-Halwood and they would have half the population with them by Saturday evening," He said, echoing Milly Jansky's warning.  "So, I figured what I need is a way to talk to them and not risk making eye contact directly.  While still making eye contact.  Are you following me?"

"Kinda."

"Good.  So anyway, I thought; if I can film them on a camera and then safely watch what the camera is seeing live on a television, then that means that I can make eye contact with them while not risking them infecting me."

"Hold, on.  Isn't that going to be a bit awkward and not to mention obvious - walking around with a camera and a telly strapped to your head?"

"No, because this little beauty," said Smith, moving the brown disk from his palm to sit on the table in front of them, "is a contact lens that combines both a camera and a screen while being compact and when placed on the front of the eye, also discrete."

At that moment the brown lens on the table in front of them started to vibrate violently and then proceeded to jump around on the table while emitting a high-pitched whine.  The lens came to rest and then burst into flames, burning itself away and leaving behind a round pile of ash.

"Bonzer!" Clive agreed sarcastically. "Most discrete.  Good luck with that one mate, you're not putting that anywhere near my eye, that's for sure!"