Doctor Who_ Halflife - Mark Michalowski [21]
Roberto gave a sigh, and his gaze drifted around the courtyard, around the little paradise he’d created for himself here. The Doctor wondered whether many people used his church for worship any more, or whether this oasis was all that kept Roberto going. ‘It was hell. The colonists arrived in their new Eden to discover that the resources HomeWorld had promised were buried too deep for the minimal equipment that we’d brought. The climate was hotter than we’d expected, there were insects everywhere. Fresh water was hard to find. The first fifty years almost saw Espero wither and die.’
‘But didn’t you get help from other Earth colonies, or other alien civilisations out here?’
The Doctor caught the expression on Roberto’s face as he said the word
‘alien’.
‘It’s the word “alien”,’ explained Calamee. ‘It has a lot of bad connotations.
We use the word “offworlders”.’
Roberto continued. ‘The other colonies had their own problems – they were too wrapped up in setting themselves up, fighting for their own survival. Oh, we told ourselves that soon they’d be visiting us, trading with us. The Council promised us that we’d be at the centre of a revival of faith in this sector.
They opened visitor centres and embassies, expecting an influx of fascinated offworld cultures, eager to learn about us, eager to be embraced by Mother Church.’
He fell silent.
‘It never happened?’ said the Doctor gently. Roberto looked at him and shook his head. He dropped the butt of his cigarette on to the floor and ground it out with his toe.
‘We were fooling ourselves,’ he said sadly. ‘We had nothing that anyone wanted. Oh, we had offworld visitors during the first century – they came to say hello, to see what we had to offer. But when they saw how little we had, how utterly, utterly mundane we were, they left. And never came back. The embassies went unused, the visitor centres were closed down. And Espero retreated into itself.’
‘But what about your faith? Surely that must have kept you going?’
‘Oh it did. It was the only thing that did. For a while. But for many people, 38
faith exists to provide an explanation of those things that science hasn’t yet revealed to us. And as science explains more and more of the universe around us, so faith finds itself struggling. When the first offworld non-humans came, we made efforts to explain God to them, to introduce them to His glory. In our naivety, we hadn’t counted on them having their own gods, their own beliefs.
Beliefs as strong as ours. They smiled at us, thanked us – some of them even tried to convert us to their religions – and went away.
‘Espero started out with a strong Catholic ethic. The Ecumenical Council had faith that, unlike on Earth, we could restore the life and practice of the Holy Apostolic Church, and so reflect God’s glory. Within half a century, there were disputes; schismatic sects began to form, to set up their own states and cities. Some,’ he shook his head sadly, ‘lost their faith altogether. And then, maybe inevitably, there was the Almost War between three of Espero’s nations, halted at the last moment.’
Roberto gave another sigh, and the Doctor realised how very, very old he suddenly looked. He wondered how long it had been since the priest had talked about all this to anyone.
‘I can understand your wariness about me,’ he said.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, looking the Doctor in the eye. ‘“Judge not, lest ye be judged.” But it’s very hard. We feel we were let down and betrayed by offworlders, left to our own devices when we needed help the most.’ He looked the Doctor in the eye. ‘And the fact that you’re white – if you’ll excuse my bluntness – doesn’t help. We came here to escape the prejudice and the cultural dominance of the West,’ said Roberto. ‘To create a Paradise free from