Doctor Who_ Bunker Soldiers - Martin Day [6]
It has already happened, it has already been written.’ The Doctor tried to sound reasonable, like a teacher explaining to a difficult student that two plus two does indeed equal four, but I saw through this in an instant.
‘Yes, but –’
‘As you know,’ interrupted the Doctor, ‘we are in Kiev, in the year 1240. The Mongol army, led by Batu on behalf of Ogedei Khan, will soon attack. If you’ve read your history books, you will know what will happen next: in time, the Mongols will attack Hungary and Poland. It is the largest invasion Europe has ever seen.’
‘But these people will die.’
The Doctor sighed again. ‘From the perspective of history, you could say they are already dead.’
‘We must do something.’
‘We must do absolutely nothing!’ The Doctor was almost angry now – as if stung by the fact that I dared to question him.
He paused, watching a sparrow descend into an ornamental tree.
It flitted in the branches, seeming to stare at the servants bent over their rows of herbs, and then landed at the Doctor’s feet. It pecked at the dust looking for morsels.
The Doctor looked up. ‘Would you save this creature?’ he whispered, mesmerised. ‘Would you save it from a fox or a cat?
And, even if you did, could you save it for ever? Hmm? Like it or not, one day soon, this creature will become ill, and will die.’
‘But we’re talking about people – not animals!!’ The bird flew into the air with a flash of chestnut-brown wing, surprised by the anger in my voice. ‘People who, for all I know, will die in agony if we don’t help them!’
‘People die in agony all the time. Do we have the right to decide who shall live, and who shall be saved?’ the Doctor queried. He pushed the tip of his cane through the dust at his feet, watching the marks it left behind. ‘I once believed that history is carved in stone... resolute, unchangeable. But it seems that our friend the Monk disagrees with us. Perhaps you can change the past. But the ripples, the connections... We owe it to the future to leave things well alone.’
‘But surely to save lives –’
‘You save the life of a child here, and when you return to the future everything will be changed, and changed utterly. Hitler did not lose the Second World War, an atomic war has consumed most of Asia...’ The Doctor paused. ‘My boy, it is so complicated
– even I can’t meddle with the patterns of history. Time is no respecter of good intentions!’
I nodded, remembering our earlier argument after our escape from Paris. But the debate had never really ended, and I didn’t want the Doctor to think that the passing of time meant I now agreed with him.
‘But perhaps something positive will happen,’ I said, desperate to hear something constructive from the old man.
‘Perhaps there is someone here who will discover antibiotics or whose descendants will find a cure for cancer.’
‘Believe me, my boy,’ said the Doctor with a resigned weariness in his voice, ‘such changes are rarely for the better.
And I am afraid to say that human history is full of such massacres – but no one has the authority to prevent them.’
I got to my feet, indignant. ‘I can’t believe you’re taking such a casual attitude to the slaughter of innocent people.’
‘A glimpse of what the TARDIS can do will only fuel their hunger. They will want a piece of it, or of the technology that produced it. They will want to use that technology for their own ends – but they do not have the maturity to use it wisely.’
‘Then there’s nothing left to say? No way of repelling the attackers?’
The Doctor shook his head as he got slowly to his feet. ‘No.
In any case, even if you could interfere, would you? From your perspective, Steven, let alone mine, this is a petty local squabble.
That’s all.’
I held the Doctor’s gaze, but he turned away.
‘It sounds harsh, I know. But the history of Earth is too important