Doctor Who_ Longest Day - Michael Collier [102]
Science was worthless without solid, hard leadership to channel it into shaping an aggressive, prosperous future.
The Leader knew he had his place.
Abruptly, he lent his bulk to the shifting of the rubble, helping the blue-skirted Kusk struggle with a huge twist of blackened metal wedged between charred floor and ceiling.
***
'You can't succeed.' The Doctor sat on the scorched bonnet of his Volkswagen Beetle, looking over at the Kusk technician with pallid eyes, barely visible in the gloom of the emergency lighting that had finally kicked in. 'I'll rephrase that.' He got up, and walked slowly over. His voice sounded unnaturally loud in the chamber now so many systems had stopped their quiet, confident humming. 'You don't succeed. You won't succeed. You never did succeed.'
'Your words are meaningless,' grunted the technician, apparently uninterested in the Doctor's continued presence, its fingers delicately flicking over the controls it had wired into the datacore. 'The Kusk race must receive this knowledge."
'Why?'
To exploit. To grow strong.'
'To conquer.' The Doctor stood directly behind the huge creature kneeling in front of the central touchscreen. The dim light in the chamber made the huge eyes seem to glow green as it watched each new stream of information encode itself into the memory pod. He could see the dents and lumps in the creature's skull and back, half-formed cankers and growths covering the encrusted body.
The technician continued its work. The Kusk race will stabilise when a greater powerbase is established, whatever the Leader's own dreams of glory. Peace and prosperity can be achieved. This is the real prize,' came the warbling growl.
'No,' said the Doctor, quietly. 'Your race is strong, but it has taken on board a science that is too powerful to control.Your people are too naive, and the temptations you're giving them too great.'
'Through this knowledge gathered for us, they will learn. They will learn much from the other races they will reach out to. Understanding.'
The Doctor moved beside the huge creature. 'You're telling me there will be no invasions, no pillaging of time, no conquest?"
The massive head swung round to face him. The oily growl became more urgent, and the Doctor felt that the Kusk wanted him to understand, or to vindicate itself in some way. 'Eventually, of course. The progression will be natural. But with the knowledge they will glean they will help other races, and continue to learn -'
'Culture exchange at gunpoint? Your newly educated people waiting for the next disaster to befall a planet so they can trample in and subjugate the populace?"
To share with them our sciences, to create a clean, cultured empire that will
-'
'- last a thousand years? A hundred thousand? How many million more when you achieve time transference into the future?' The Doctor was shaking with quiet anger. 'Your culture is barren and so is your philosophy.'
The technician rose to its feet, towering above the Doctor, its voice pitched slightly higher. 'Our race is barren also. We cannot survive indefinitely, our science is not founded on miracles.'
'And successful empires cannot be founded on forbidden foreknowledge.'
The Doctor strode over to the matter-transmitter section of the room, reaching for the fallen cables and standing on a collapsed monitor to try to wire it into the fragile ceiling. 'I'm sorry, but, as I say, you won't succeed.
Can't.' He twisted in some wiring to a blackened socket. 'Didn't.' A flick of his sonic screwdriver melded two more connections. 'Won't.'
'What are you doing?" came the warning rumble of the technician.
'I'm restoring power to the matter transmitter. I owe it to a friend down there to try to