Doctor Who_ Interference_ Book One - Lawrence Miles [61]
Badar nodded, hoping it’d keep the man talking. It did.
‘If I change things on Earth, the ripples touch everything. Especially if I interfere in the twentieth century. The twentieth century was when the human species laid down the foundations of its empire. Any interference there could bring the whole thing crashing down around your ears.’
‘To interfere… would be wrong?’
‘Yes. Grossly irresponsible. I counterinterfere, sometimes. I stop other people’s interference. Even that’s got its problems, though.’
‘But to interfere on… on the colony worlds… that isn’t wrong?’
‘Well… no.’
Badar was starting to understand the truth, at last. ‘But… what’s the difference? You think one’s wrong, and the other’s right, but… but it’s not true. Interference is… interference. I think… the reason you don’t interfere on Earth… is because you can’t. Can’t get away with it.’
‘“Get away with it”?’ queried the man. He almost sounded hurt.
‘The Lords… the other Lords… your people. They’d notice. They’d see. You said… the reason you gave for doing what you do… “because I can”. You don’t think interfering on Earth is… is wrong. You know. You know you couldn’t do it. Without being caught.’
The other prisoner didn’t answer for a while. In the silence, Badar found the cell swimming in front of his eyes. He was ready to sleep again, he realised.
‘Maybe,’ the man said, after some time. ‘But it’s not just my people who’d take a dim view of it. There are other things in the universe. Bigger things. Things that wouldn’t take kindly to my causing large‐scale disruptions in space‐time. Things you really shouldn’t wake up.’
‘Then… you’re scared.’
‘What?’
‘The reason… you don’t try to change time… on Earth… is that you’re scared.’
Again, there was a long pause.
‘Oh dear,’ the man said. ‘I have the sneaking suspicion there isn’t any way out of this.’
Badar wasn’t sure whether he meant the argument or the cell. ‘We could interfere,’ he said. ‘Here. On this planet. We could change things. Stop the… the religious police. Move through time. Stop them. Stop them hurting. Stop them being.’
‘Tell me something,’ said the man, obviously doing his best to change the subject. ‘Why are you asking me all this? What difference does it make to you?’
That surprised Badar. Wasn’t it obvious?
‘The world we’ve made,’ he said. ‘It’s got to make sense. You say you can change time, but… you don’t. There are con… con…’
He had to take a deep breath then, his lungs still having trouble with the really long words.
‘Contradictions,’ he wheezed.
‘The ideas are all that matter,’ the prisoner mumbled. ‘It’s all an exercise in theory for you, isn’t it?’
Badar nodded. Then gasped, as one of the muscles tore in his neck.
‘Rest now,’ the man said. ‘We’ll talk more later.’
* * *
Noon
The guards came in that morning. They brought water this time, and food, which they left in front of Badar’s face. Badar tried to eat some of it, but it caught in his throat, and made him retch. He didn’t feel hungry, for some reason. Maybe his body knew he wouldn’t be able to swallow anything, and had shut his stomach off from his head. He’d starve soon, if that didn’t change.
He wondered what he’d have done about that if his body had been part of the TARDIS world. Surely, the Lords would have had some way of feeding him without making him sick. If they could walk through time, they were sure to have decent surgeons.
The guards also brought in the shock batons, which they used on the pale man again. As before, the man grunted a lot, but didn’t cry out. After the guards had finished running the batons up and down