Doctor Who BBC872 - To the Slaughter

Chapter Six
Sook was waiting for Fitz outside the bathrooms. He waved to her with a
now-spotless hand.
‘Feeling better?’ she asked.
‘Surprisingly so,’ Fitz admitted. ‘Amazing what a bit of outrageous opulence
can do for the soul.’ The bathroom was more like a marble palace, porcelainwhite.
In place of a sink a fountain gushed gently fragranced water, and the
lotion Sook had given him made short, sudsy work of the Halcytone.
He wondered if he should go all the way and come clean to Sook. But he
bottled it.
‘What’s with that paint, anyway?’ Fitz asked.
‘Halcyon has every room remodelled on a weekly basis. A fresh atmosphere,
a fresh mind.’
‘No, I mean, what’s with that paint – the freaky glowing lightshows.’
She stared. ‘Excuse me? You’re here and you haven’t heard of Halcytone,
the intelligent paint that’s FUN to watch dry?’
‘Well, obviously I’ve heard of it,’ bluffed Fitz. ‘But how does it work?’
She started leading the way down the expansive corridor, tracing her fingers
idly along the simple, elegant symbols that scored the tasteful walls like über-
Braille. ‘The patterns are generated by nano-optic particles in the paint base.
They generate an infinitesimal current that changes the colour of the paint as
it dries.’
‘Creating the patterns!’
‘And untold riches for Halcyon, naturally.’
Fitz frowned. ‘Hey, wait a minute. I copped a handful of those nano-optic
things! Is that OK?’
‘Well, it’s not a good idea to bathe in the stuff. On contact with the skin
that current can start to influence your nerve-endings,’ Sook admitted. ‘Only
temporary, but you can get headaches, fatigue, nausea. . . ’
‘Explains why I was feeling so sick and tired.’
‘Hey,’ she said. ‘You can never get sick and tired of Halcytone. The randompattern
generator continues to function when the paint is dry – and since
the paint particles are constantly being revived and regenerated by the programmed
current, the colours can never fade.’ She seemed almost bitter.
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