Doctor Who_ Byzantium! - Keith Topping [10]
'I shall take care of the girl,' the Doctor said quickly. 'Her destiny was mapped for her thousands of years before she was ever born.' He stopped, as if feeling that he had said too much. `There will be grave danger during this stay,' he continued. ‘I sense it.'
With a caring hand on the old man's shoulder, Barbara tried to look concerned as if she really meant it, while all the time her mind was screaming at her to just leave the Doctor to his paranoia and get out there and experience the moment. 'I've never seen you like this,' she said. Which was true. 'It's normally you that's desperate for us to explore whatever is on offer. We have a chance to see the glory of the Roman Empire...’
`Gracious,' said the Doctor with a really sarcastic sneer. ‘I admire your intellect, Miss Wright, genuinely I do, but I never took you for a romantic fool.' The scorn in his voice was marbled with disbelief. `Do you really believe everything you read in those history books of yours, child? Do you think it was all that simple?'
'No,' replied Barbara, shocked that the Doctor was being so deliberately offensive to her on all sorts of levels. 'The history of ancient Rome is the tale of a community of nomadic shepherds in central Italy growing into one of the most powerful empires the world has ever known. And then collapsing. That, in itself, is one of the greatest stories ever told, But I'm a complete realist when it comes to history.'
'Are you indeed?' asked the Doctor with a fatalistic shake of the head. 'There are none so deaf as those who will not hear...’
Ànd there are none so dumb as those that will not speak,'
replied Barbara, angrily. 'What are you talking about? Please tell me what I've done wrong...'
The Doctor shook his head again. ‘Your excitement at seeing a glimpse of the Romans, my dear - it's infectious.
Chesterton and young Vicki are simply agog with all of your stories of the Caesars and the gladiators and the glorious battles. You expect to go out there and find bread and circuses and opulence in the streets, don't you?'
'Yes, frankly,' replied Barbara. 'I know it won't be Cecil B.
DeMille, or Spartacus exactly, but I've a pretty good idea of what it will be like. Are you telling me it won't be that way?
Because, historically...’
'I visited Rome with Susan,' the Doctor said quickly. 'And Antioch. And Jerusalem. All before we came to your time. I found them to be brutal and murderous places.' He stammered over the word 'murderous' and gave Barbara a grave look. 'Dear me, it was terrible. Slavery, crime in the streets, everybody stabbing everyone else in the back. You and Chesterton come from an era of political complexity, where saying the wrong thing does not automatically make you a target, or an outcast, my child. Things were much more black and white in these dark days.' The Doctor was aware that his voice was becoming raised and deliberately lowered his tone to a whisper. 'Added to which, the Roman Empire stands for all of the things that I left...' He stopped himself and sighed deeply. `When I left my people, it was because of their ambivalence to just these kind of issues.'
Again, Barbara found it necessary to hold the Doctor's hands. She gave him a little smile as she squeezed them together. 'I'll go and get the others. They're just outside. We can depart immediately if you're not comfortable with our staying here.'
With another sigh, the Doctor opened the TARDIS doors and indicated that they should go outside. 'I am a foolish and tired old man,' he said simply. ‘An adventure of some description awaits us'
But suddenly, Barbara didn't seem nearly as enthusiastic for what was to come.
Chapter Four
Naming All the Stars
For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Mark 10:45
High above Ian and Vicki, and also above the wispy, cotton-wool clouds, the stars of a milky twilight were beginning to settle into their familiar constellations. Reassuring patterns that spoke of being close to