Doctor Who_ Christmas on a Rational Planet - Lawrence Miles [93]
‘Look, I did this off-world tour of duty when I was training with the Adjudicators, okay? There was this planet called Jallafillia. The whole place was run by a church, the Church of Saint Thoth or something. I saw what they did there. They used to kill kids, just because they had red hair. They said it was the mark of the Evil One.’
She kept looking at him. Chris turned away. ‘We couldn’t even arrest them for doing it, just because of a clause in the Colonies Cultural Identities Act. And they killed kids. Babies, even. That’s superstition. That’s what superstition does.’
– That’s religion, not superstition. It’s got more to do with politics than belief. You should see what’s happening down in Woodwicke. The town’s preacher is on the streets, siding with the rationalists. The local Renewal Society is busy turning itself into the Spanish Inquisition. Not my doing. They make their own madnesses, these little children of the Age of Reason. Unlike myself, they build their own Hells. This planet you mentioned... who owned it?
‘Er, not sure. One of the Spiral Corporations, I think.’
– I rest my case.
‘So, what are you saying? Order is bad? Reasons are bad?
You couldn’t have a civilization without reasons, could you?’
The Carnival Queen paused.
– It’s not my place to say, she admitted. – I do what I do, and I am what I am. I’m not going to take the universe apart out of some sense of cosmic balance. I’m going to do it because I can. Because that’s what I do.
There was a long silence.
‘What did you just say?’ said Chris.
– Oh, didn’t I mention that before? She shrugged, and it was like a waterfall of collapsing wave-forms. – I’m going to make an irrational universe. Change everything. Take apart the Watchmakers’ clockwork. It’s already starting in Woodwicke.
Now that Marielle has allowed me to, ah, interface...
‘But you can’t...’
– Yes I can, yes I can, yes I can. Could Chris hear her thinking? – All that time. All that time I’ve been trapped here, shut off from the universe outside. Ohh, I’ve managed to influence things a little. Pushing a few irrational ideas out into the Majestic Clockwork. Little spanners in the works. A sorceress here, an alchemaître there, a pocket universe somewhere else. I’ve whispered words into the occasional ear.
I’ve even managed to nurture a few, ah, special powers. Latent abilities, waiting to be triggered, wrapped in little genetic parcels marked ‘Do Not Open Till Xmas’...
– But I could never venture out into the rational universe.
Not without an invitation. That’s what I have to thank Marielle for, Christopher. Chris. I have my avatar. I have all I need.
There was a flash of black lightning on the horizon.
– Nothing in the world can stop me now, said the Carnival Queen.
– I’m sorry, I just had a sudden irrational urge to say that.
And she started to giggle.
He tried using the buttons and the switches, but they melted beneath his fingers. NOT RATIONAL. He tried willing the room to do what he wanted, but the room just laughed. NOT
REASONABLE.
The images dripped from the screen like melted wax, forming puddles full of pictures on the floor. There was Paris Street. There was Eastern Walk. There were the docks, and the woodlands, and the storefronts. Everywhere it was the same; the darkness blanketed the whole of Woodwicke, giving birth to monsters and bad dreams. Catcher stared into the dark. The Watchmakers were there, somewhere. WE ARE NOT
THERE. Hiding. Yes, hiding. Waiting for their moment. WE
ARE NOT THERE. All he had to do was find them.
He stared.
And stared.
And stared.
But there was only darkness, and the darkness had no Reason. Matheson Catcher screamed, his first scream since he was a child, since the CLEAN IT UP! tugging and CLEAN IT
UP! shredding and CLEAN IT ALL UP! tearing in the garden.
The scream rang out across the whole wide world.
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Obligatory