Doctor Who_ Sleepy - Kate Orman [26]
‘That’s the ironic thing. She brought them with her. Their religion’s from one of the Sidereal Baptist Reclamation groups.’
‘Strong family ties.’
‘They also believe that using psi powers is a sin.’
‘You’re joking.’
He shook his head. ‘They consider it a form of sorcery.
Dot wanted drugs to suppress her telepathy.’
‘What did Byerley say?’
‘He hasn’t got anything that specific. He could keep her tranquillized, but what would be the point?’
Benny shook her head. ‘If there’s one thing that’s true of religions throughout the universe,’ she said, ‘it’s that they can make people do funny things.’
‘Which brings us back to your Turtle.’
Benny folded her arms. ‘If I’d known I’d be tripping over an Ikkaban temple, I’d have read up a bit before we came here.’
‘How much do you know about them?’
‘Truth is, nobody really knows a damn thing about the Ikkaba. Nobody even knows what they looked like.’
The Doctor’s computer pinged. ‘Sorry, boss!’ squeaked a voice. ‘I can’t see anything in there that matches your search parameters.’
‘That’s all right, WATCH OUT!. Go back to Cinnabar.’
‘Over and out!’
Benny smiled at the screen as the icon did a backflip and vanished. ‘Who’s your little friend?’
‘Cinnabar has half a dozen artificial intelligences running her computer systems. WATCH OUT! is her handyprogram. I was hoping he could locate something in the computer left behind by... whoever put their memories into the virus.’
Benny frowned. ‘No luck?’
‘If we’re very lucky, I may never find out.’
She handed him her transcript. ‘Well, I found what looks like a repetitive poem scratched around the base of the temple. Dot’s going to set her interpreter drone loose on it.
We’re hoping it can extrapolate backwards from a D’nasian syllabary to make some sense of it.’
‘Scratched,’ said the Doctor. ‘That’s unusual. It wouldn’t have occurred to the Ikkaba to write in stone.’
Benny rolled her eyes. ‘Of course, you probably used to have afternoon tea with them.’
‘Not at all,’ said the Doctor seriously, peering at the writing. ‘I found them very... disturbing. They had some strange ideas about death.’
‘I can remember a furious debate between two of my lecturers on that very topic,’ said Benny. ‘No-one knows whether the temples were used for human sacrifice —. hell, that’s awkward. Ikkaban sacrifice? No-one knows whether Ikkaba killed Ikkaba as sacrifices to the Turtle.’
‘Of course not,’ said the Doctor. ‘That would be murder.’
‘You said they had some strange ideas about death.’
The Doctor picked up a writing stylus and started making tiny scribbles in the margins of the transcript. ‘Look here,’ he said. Benny squinted at his writing.
Never she them anything request
But they her roses-and-souls bring
‘It’s a good thing they never went into advertising,’ said Benny dryly.
‘Sorry,’ said the Doctor, ‘I’m just translating the symbols literally...’ He turned the pen around in his hands, and added two more lines.
She never asks them for anything
But they bring her roses and souls
Benny said, ‘What does it mean?’
‘We’ll need to translate the whole poem to find out who she and they are. But she’s probably the Turtle.’
‘The Turtle? I thought the Turtle was a symbol, not a person. Or a goddess.’
‘A symbol, yes. Life. Death. Resurrection.’ He looked up at her. ‘The Ikkaba used to kill themselves at her temple.
Never more than one at a time, never in front of an audience, but they went into the fire one after the other. I never did manage to find out why.’
Zaniwe was with Dot SmithSmith in her office when the Doctor came to visit. She moved automatically to face the archaeologist as the Doctor doffed his hat and said, ‘Good afternoon. I wanted to see if you had made any progress with the Ikkaban writing.’
Dot watched the dance of Zaniwe’s hands. Her drone said, «It’s a repetitive poem, a very traditional format. Please don’t ask me to go to sickbay.»
The Doctor sat down, unasked. He signed, «Have you contacted your family?»
Zaniwe moved out of