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Chapter Two And the zoo opens. SPACE ZOO! YOU ARE OFFICIALY INVITED TO THE OPENING OF THE SPACE ZOO, OF RARE OR PREVIOUSLY EXTINCT SPECIES. THRILL AT THE ANCIENT MONSTERS! BALK AT THE MODERN MEDUSAS! BE EXCITED BY SENSUOUS SIRENS! DO ALL THIS AND MORE AT THE EXCLUSIVE GRAND OPENING OF… THE SPACE ZOO! THIS INVITATION IS FOR A PARTY OF FOUR. PLEASE FIND A COMPLETE LIST OF EXHIBITS ATTACHED. DRESS CODE: COME AS YOUR FAVOURITE EXTINCT SPECIES. Nick was sitting in the medical bay. He had folded up his legs like a Buddha and he was meditating. The Collector had told him all about that sort of stuff. He’d thought it had sounded like a laugh, so he was giving it a try. In fact, he had been spending a lot of time with the Collector lately. He glanced up at the Doctor’s body in the middle of the room. It was hovering in the middle of the spherical chamber, and Nick was floating at the edge. The body was covered with a sort of blue glow, from the medical force field. The face was still black from the blood that had slicked over it. The flesh was creased with spasms of pain where his features had been etched into a mask of agony, held there like rigor mortis as blood had flowed through the channels. The Doctor’s body looked wasted, and thinner than usual. And then there was Alf to think about too. She had been avoiding him lately, spending all her time either jacked into some memory grid thing, or practising whatever she’d learned in the holographic training room. Every time she walked into the same room as him she’d go cold and awkward. To tell the truth this was worrying Nick more than he’d like. She obviously had some issues to work through, and Nick’s initial reaction had been to let her get on with it - but now he was worried he’d done the wrong thing. If something happens you have to prove to yourself that it will be okay again before you can leave it. Or something like that. It was all about falling off horses and climbing back on again. Oh shit… what the hell was he talking about? Horses? Bloody hell, he thought, you’re falling to pieces, man. Just like the Doctor. Just like their little group. With the big guy out of action and Alf avoiding him he had to try and hold things together by himself. Only he hadn’t - he’d been talking to the Collector all the time instead. And he missed Alf. He missed her a lot. A hole irised open in the wall of the medical chamber, and the yellow light of the corridor pierced the blue gloom of the medical chamber, falling like a spotlight on the Doctor’s body. A hulking shadowy shape behind it slipped out of the light - the Collector’s psychic surgeon. A shadow appeared on the Doctor’s body as someone climbed into the circular doorway. It was Alf. She didn’t look at him; she just spoke. ‘Another guest party is arriving - the Collector needs us in our “official ambassadorial capacity”.’ Nick was about to speak to her, to ask her about what was going on in her head at the moment, why she was being so distant. Instead he just nodded and stood up. He had left it too long himself. He didn’t think he could talk to her any more - not now. As he left he glanced back at the Doctor’s body. He felt a twinge of guilt when he saw the corpse-like figure. He never should’ve left the Doctor sulking in that corridor. If he’d forced the Doctor to come with him, perhaps they wouldn’t all be in the situation they were in. Right now the Doctor’s mind was actually being stored in the Collector’s brain. He should’ve insisted the Doctor come with him to meet the Dog Men. CANINES! Not Dog Men. Canines. After all, he didn’t want to start another diplomatic incident…
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