The Report (short story)

The Report was the fifteenth short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: Snapshots. It was written by Gary Russell. It featured the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex.

Summary
Lukas Ryan makes his report on events that recently happened, but for some reason his recollections are vague.


 * Lukas was called to the site of a bomb threat at a mall. His friend Pete Goran had already arrived on site, but Lukas was sent to the car park by a grey-eyed man. The grey-eyed man, called the Doctor, went into the building, while an old woman watched.


 * The mall exploded, with the Doctor still inside, and Lukas got a piece of shrapnel in his leg. The Doctor's friend Hex helped stop the bleeding. The old woman noticed the Doctor coming out of the mall, shielding several people with his umbrella. The Doctor confronted the old woman, and the next thing Lukas knew, she had gone. Another friend of the Doctor's, Ace, brought two men to Lukas. They were tied up, and she stated they were the bombers. She told Lukas that Pete and his partner died in the blast.


 * Lukas asked the Doctor what was going on and was told by the Doctor to seek out the old woman.


 * Lukas visited the old woman, who explained to him that she had gone to the same school as the Doctor and was inspired by the stories of what he had done. She made her way to the colony planet on which Lukas lived and took a job as a secretary to Kellaque. During the war years ago, she did her job, doing nothing to stop Kellaque from destroying half of the population. Now that history was repeating itself, she couldn't live with the guilt of not stopping Kellaque. Lukas then realised that she had drugged his tea, and then she killed herself.

When Lukas recovers, the Doctor and his friends are there. Lukas learns that the Doctor came to this planet to deal with guilt: not the old woman's, but his own. Because her hero worship for the Doctor had brought her here. The Doctor, before leaving with his friends, does "something" to Lukas to keep him from remembering these events.

Characters

 * Seventh Doctor
 * Ace
 * Hex
 * Lukas Ryan
 * Pete Goran
 * Smiley Guy
 * Old woman

Worldbuilding

 * Lukas drinks Earl Grey tea.

Continuity
to be added