Doctor Who_ Set Piece - Kate Orman [85]
‘Why don’t we stop it, then?’
He looked up at her. ‘What?’
‘We could stop it. We know exactly when and where the attack starts, right?’
The Doctor sat back. ‘You’re not serious.’
Ace shook her head. ‘You don’t understand. Why don’t we stop it?’
‘You tell me.’
‘Something else would happen to cause the war.’
The Doctor nodded. ‘This siege can’t go on forever.’
‘So no matter what we did, things would happen just the same.’
‘Not quite. We’re playing with different scales, different magnifications.’
‘Close up?’
‘We might save a life here and there, ease some suffering.’
‘A little further back?’
‘We can’t stop the actual war, not without tremendous effort, and not without endangering all of Earth’s future history. The Russian Revolution was partly inspired by the Commune, they learned a lot.’
‘Further away,’ Ace answered herself. ‘We’ve got a universe to save.’
Silence for a bit. The Doctor kept mucking about inside the Ant’s head, pulling out components. To Ace’s eye it seemed modular, the bits and pieces independent little lumps of technology.
‘What did you do in Ancient Egypt?’ asked the Doctor.
‘Kidnapped the king.’
‘Ah.’
Silence for a bit.
‘I didn’t kill him. I think I was going to. Actually, I think I was a little out of my skull.’
166
‘I know what’s it like. I was stranded once myself,’ said the Doctor.
‘Did you get that feeling like you were caught in a big trap?’
‘Oh, yes.’
‘Like when the electricity’s off in a storm, and you think, I can’t watch TV, so I’ll listen to a record, but you can’t do that either. You can’t do anything, really. Like that.’
‘So,’ said the Time Lord, ‘why didn’t you?’
‘Sorry? Oh – well, he talked me out of it. The people I was working for were just using me. I was just following orders, right?’
‘I’m listening.’
‘I must’ve been out of my head. I thought they were into anarchy, right? But they just wanted to get into the palace and I just wanted to do something.’
‘Something must be done, this is something, therefore we must do this?
‘Yeah. I didn’t tell you before cos – because I thought you’d be really pissed off, actually.’
‘What am I going to do, send you to bed without supper?’ He grinned up at her. ‘You’re old enough, you’re experienced enough to make your own decisions. I’m just glad you’re on my side.’
‘Ditto,’ she laughed. ‘What happened to Akhenaten, anyway?’
‘He died, and his revolution died with him.’
‘The Setites got him?’
‘No. He just died. His religion was suppressed, his monuments were destroyed, his name was chiselled out of the records, and his city was abandoned and fell into ruins. And he was forgotten about for a couple of millennia. No-one even knows where he is buried. If he was buried.’
‘Cruk.’
‘Indeed.’
‘Like the Commune. History repeats itself.’
‘Not precisely. History is quasi-self-similar. The same patterns happening over and over, never quite the same. You’re beginning to see them, aren’t you?’
Ace met his eyes. ‘Yes. It’s all patterns to you, isn’t it? Patterns that other people can’t see.’
‘Sometimes patterns which aren’t even there. That’s what faith is for. Faith in Time, faith that things will work out the way they’re supposed to.’
Ace messed up her hair. Old, yeah, yes, she was getting old; there was probably some grey in there now. ‘So even if I had killed Akhenaten . . . ’
The Doctor had picked up one of the components, was prodding it with a piece of wire. ‘Time heals all wounds. Particularly her own. Oh!’
167
Ace was on her feet before the little component hit the floor. The Doctor was clawing at his left shoulder, his hands clenching in spasms. He fell backwards, banged his head on the wall.
She was by his side. ‘What is it? What do I do?’
He tried to speak, but all he could do was gasp, breathless syllables of distress. His whole body was jerking. She wrenched him clear of the brickwork, got his hands away from his collar bone, unbuttoned his shirt as his fingernails scrabbled at her jacket.
There was nothing there. For a moment, in the dim light, she thought