If Colonel Karim was surprised by, or even interested in, the contents of Sarah Jane’s attic, thought Rani, she hid it well. But then, maybe UNIT knew exactly what was up here. They seemed to know far too much about everything, and Rani knew that made Sarah Jane wary of them. Even though she used to help them out alongside the Doctor once.
The Doctor.
Sarah Jane’s old friend who took her away from planet Earth many years ago in his TARDIS, and who had inspired her to start up her defending-Earth plan. Rani, Luke and Clyde had met the Doctor about a year ago, when Sarah Jane had been about to marry a nice man called Peter. The Doctor had arrived and stopped the wedding, revealing that poor Peter had been duped by an old foe of theirs called the Trickster, a member of something called the Pantheon of Discord. The Trickster was always trying to destroy something Sarah Jane referred to as ‘the fabric of time’, usually helped by a tiny dwarfish alien slave called the Graske.
Perhaps this was some kind of plot by the Trickster, because surely the Doctor couldn’t be dead. He was so…so alive. The most alive person Rani had ever met, he just burst with energy and drive and –
‘The Doctor was found 10,000 light years away,’ Colonel Karim was saying, which brought Rani back into the moment.
Clyde was holding Sarah Jane’s arm, although she didn’t look like she needed his support or comfort. Indeed, Sarah Jane looked anything but upset. Angry, maybe, but she wasn’t crying or anything. She moved Clyde’s hand from her arm.
‘And?’
‘His body was found by a race we know to be the Shansheeth, which we recognise as a sort of intergalactic undertakers.’ Colonel Karim passed a small black stone to Sarah Jane. ‘They gave us this. They call it an Epitaph Stone, it’s a recording device. An alien death notice, really…’
Sarah Jane snatched the stone and stared at it. ‘Oh, come on, Colonel, this is ridiculous. Epitaph Stone? There’s no such thing…’
Mr Smith’s melodious voice rang out. ‘Sarah Jane, I can confirm that the Shansheeth are known throughout the universe as the carers of the dead. It is said they trawl the battlefields of outer space, looking for heroes to take to their original homes.’
Sarah Jane crossed the attic and placed the stone on one of his scanning trays, throwing him a look. ‘Just shut up and play this thing,’ she snapped.
Mr Smith lowered the attic’s lights and a pool of white light appeared in the centre of the attic.
And then a hologram flickered into existence before them. Rani walked around it, realising that wherever she stood, the flickering image stared at her. She reached for Sarah Jane’s hand, but like Clyde before, her gesture was pushed away, gently but firmly.
The creature in the hologram was about seven feet tall, and looked like a giant vulture, with its beaked head at the end of a long neck and three blue crystals embedded in its forehead. It was wearing long purple robes with ornate gold braiding and two clawed hands were in supplication around its chest, almost as if it was praying. When it spoke, the voice was solemn and low, and to Rani sounded like it was coming from something dead itself. There was no feeling or emotion as it spoke and she felt goosebumps rise on her skin in response.
‘I bring condolences from the Claw Shansheeth of the Fifteenth Funeral Fleet, upon this terrible day –’
Sarah Jane snorted. ‘Oh, well, Colonel, if you’re going to trust that thing. Just look at it.’
Rani coughed at Sarah Jane. ‘That’s not fair,’ she said quietly. ‘Since when do we judge by appearances?’
Sarah Jane wouldn’t look at Rani, but instead just stared at the huge bird-like creature, now frozen in the air before them, as Mr Smith had paused the recording. ‘Ever since this lot started lying to us. To me.’
Rani nodded. ‘Okay. Look, I hope it is a big mistake, I really do. But for the Doctor’s sake, we’ve got to find out the facts. Which means we stop. And listen. Just like you always taught us, yeah?’
Sarah Jane finally looked at Rani and took a deep breath. ‘Okay. Yeah. Mr Smith?’
And the computer continued to play the holographic message from the Shansheeth.
The melodious voice continued its spoken lament. ‘The Shansheeth did journey to the Wastelands of the Crimson Heart, whereupon we found the body of the last of the Time Lords. Witnesses say that he perished saving the lives of five hundred children from the Scarlet Monstrosity.’
‘Sounds like him,’ Clyde murmured to Sarah Jane, but she wasn’t listening. She was just staring at the giant hunched-up vulture flickering in the midst of the attic.
‘The famous Gallifrey, the Doctor’s homeworld, is long since lost. But legends talk of his love for planet Earth. Therefore the Claw Shansheeth will return the Doctor’s body to the human race.’ The blue-jewel-encrusted Shansheeth bowed its mighty head a bit lower. ‘O weep for him, peoples of Earth; mourn his loss. For the universe feels darker this night.’
For a moment the hologram froze and the caught-in-the-moment Shansheeth seemed to be staring right at Sarah Jane, almost daring her to react.
She didn’t, even after the hologram vanished and Mr Smith raised the lighting.
Rani wiped a tear from her cheek and even Clyde seemed a bit upset, clearing his throat suddenly.
And still Sarah Jane said nothing. Did nothing. Just gazed at the space where the giant bird had stood. Colonel Karim waited and when no one spoke, she finally let out a sigh. ‘UNIT is taking charge of the funeral, in conjunction with the Shansheeth. We’ll be using UNIT Base Five, situated inside Mount Snowdon.’
‘What do you think?’ Rani whispered to Sarah Jane.
‘Thank you,’ the older woman replied.
Colonel Karim smiled slightly, just for a moment. ‘Then you’ll come? All of you?’
‘Oh, yes,’ said Sarah Jane. ‘Nothing is going to make me miss this. I’ll be there.’ And she looked Colonel Karim straight in the eye. ‘And prove to you that this is all wrong. He’s not dead.’
If Colonel Karim was going to respond, she chose not to, but instead nodded and saluted before leaving the attic.
After she had gone, there was silence in the attic until they heard the front door below slam shut.
‘Sarah Jane –’ Mr Smith started, but she waved him into silence.
‘He’s the Doctor,’ she said. ‘He never gives up. And nor do I.’
Haresh was drying the dishes, while Gita was on the phone to a client, wandering around the back garden, gesticulating madly, despite the fact that whoever she was talking to couldn’t see her.
The front door slammed shut and he turned from the sink to see Rani walk in, sullen and looking at the floor, as if something really interesting was on the carpet that she had never seen before.
‘So,’ he said to his daughter, ‘what was that all about? All those soldiers and stuff? She’s weird, Sarah Jane. I mean, there’s always something happening at her house and –’
He was cut off as Rani all but launched herself at him from the living room, throwing her arms around him and giving him a huge, tight hug.
Pleased at the hug, Haresh was nevertheless aware this was unusual and something was upsetting her.
‘Hey,’ he said quietly into her ear. ‘What’s this for?’
‘Don’t you ever go anywhere, okay?’
‘What?’ laughed Haresh. ‘Not even to the shops?’
But Rani held him tighter. ‘Please. Not anywhere. Ever. Promise?’
‘Okay,’ Haresh said, hugging her back. ‘I promise.’
Finally Rani broke free and told him that the Doctor had been killed in an accident.
‘They knew each other via UNIT,’ Rani explained. ‘That’s why they came to tell her.’
‘Must have been a pretty important person for all that noise and kerfuffle,’ Haresh said.
‘He was,’ Rani said simply.
‘Did you ever meet him?’
Rani nodded. ‘Once.’ But that was all she said about him.
And Haresh knew that if his daughter was this upset, Sarah Jane had to be feeling a great deal worse.
‘Is there anything we can do for her?’
But Rani shook her head. ‘I think she just wants to be left alone.’ She smiled at her dad. ‘She’s asked Clyde and I to go to the funeral tomorrow, in Wales. Is that okay? They’re sending a car for us and putting us up and everything.’
‘Well, I’m not sure…’ Haresh started to say, but then saw Rani’s face. And he could never say no to either of the women in his family. ‘Of course you must go,’ he said. ‘You have to support Sarah Jane.’
And Rani hugged him again. Just a little bit tighter. ‘I love you, Dad,’ she said.
Later that night, in the attic of 13 Bannerman Road, Sarah Jane was talking to Luke, via webcam.
Tonight, Luke could sense that his Mum needed him to listen to her rather than talk fun nonsense, as they usually did.
‘I always thought…if ever the Doctor died, I’d just know,’ she explained, although she wasn’t looking at Luke’s image, but was walking around the room. ‘Wherever he was, if he was far away on some distant planet or lost in the depths of the Dark Ages…that I’d know. But I didn’t. I didn’t feel a thing.’
Luke had met the Doctor on a couple of occasions – once they’d even teamed up to save the world from the Daleks and on another, he’d saved Luke’s life when he’d carelessly walked in front of a speeding car, because he’d been distracted, talking to Clyde on his mobile.
The Doctor meant a lot to him, too, so he could more than sympathise with his mum. But Luke was pragmatic – practical and rational. ‘That doesn’t actually mean anything, though, Mum,’ he said quietly.
‘Maybe it does!’ she said rather loudly. ’Because I don’t think he is dead. He can’t be!’ And she came back to the computer and looked at Luke. ‘I’m going to that funeral, Luke, but only to find out what’s going on. Because I know the Doctor is still alive!’