Probe hears a knocking on the outer door of his quarters inside the palace
of the Regent
of Ethiopia. When he answers it, even his superhuman
senses cannot tell this Doctor apart from the other two, so alike are
they, so "Dr
Which" identifies himself. Then he continues: "I have some bad news for
you," and
he describes what he has just seen. [8683]
"What are Inquirer's chances?" Probe asks worriedly. "Well, if she was
human, I would have to say non-existent.
Assuming she could hang on, if she didn't freeze, then she'd asphyxiate.
As an AI, she's
presumably much tougher than a human being, and I imagine the near vacuum
of space won't bother her,
but whether she can survive what could be several minutes at a temperature
close to Absolute Zero
you will know better than I." Probe shakes his head. "I
would have known once, when we were AIs pure and simple, but for
the magic-science
hybrid that we have now become, I have no idea. All I can do now is pray.
This might
sound strange to you, given that Inquirer and I are AIs and also that I
was her superior officer,
but we used to look on each other as father and daughter. I shall miss her
a lot, and
so will her many friends on Terra Prime. She saved my life once, in the
fight against
Zerm, [5400] and there are others too on this planet who owe their lives
to her. Alicia
2 for one. [2505] Indeed, you
could say that everyone on the planet does, since it was she that put the
tape recorder
in place for the shutting down of the Slipgates. [5401]"
"I'm afraid there's more nad news," says the Doctor. "Although Inquirer was still clutching the note as the TARDIS and herself dematerialised, she did show me what was in it first. Apparently Inquirer isn't the only one to have gone with my 'brother'. Sigin 2, Gilmuriel, E'eysha, B'Elenna and Elrondir have all done so too, albeit in more conventional fashion. They send their fond farewells to everyone, and hope people will understand, but they couldn't pass up the opportunity of seeing the universe."
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