Doctor Who_ The Adventures of Henrietta Street - Lawrence Miles [74]
That was when the Doctor stepped forward and began rearranging the map, ‘with some cleverness of mathematicks’. Looking at his notes it’s clear that the Doctor believed the horizon’s movement was quickening, that the ‘storm in time’ was worsening at an exponential rate. Calculating the movement of the contours based on this theory, he proceeded to move several dozen of the flags on the chart… forming a line which swept right through London, through Paris, through Hispaniola and all the way to Virginia, USA.
This was the first time in the relationship between Sabbath and the Doctor that Sabbath became disturbed. ‘Taking a grate breath,’ says the second-hand account, ‘he turned to his evil crew, and ordered the ship to set sail.’ Not, of course, that the warship had sails.
So much is made of Sabbath’s monstrous qualities, of his ruthless determination and his ability to dispose of his enemies as nothing more than an irritation, that his human aspect is often forgotten. His first priority was doubtless to protect Tula Lui. True, he’d adopted the girl with the purpose of turning her into a kind of right-hand‐woman, but for the most part she was the only real human company he must have had between 1780 and 1782. It’s fair to say that there was some deep level of communication between them, despite Tula Lui’s reluctance to use English. It’s fair to say that there was a great deal of affection between them, too. Perhaps most of all, Sabbath was driven, though it wasn’t until the following weeks that the Doctor would understand his agenda. To an extent she was Sabbath’s heir, a ward if not exactly a daughter.
At some point Sabbath led the Doctor up on to the deck of the ship, though what kind of view the Doctor would have had from there is open to question. The warship must have been something to behold. When in motion four of the uniformed apes would ‘man’ the deck, one of them acting as a lookout, screeching and cackling to those below even though Sabbath could hardly have cared what lay ahead. As the Doctor and Sabbath took positions at the bow, the Jonah was already approaching the dock. Sabbath is said to have stood with his big ham-fists clutching the railing, staring dead ahead, a grim look on his face. He must have felt some degree of guilt. It was he who’d shown Tula Lui how to use the ‘magic words’, and he who’d failed to assess the threat of the horizon. When he’d set her on her mission of vengeance, this hadn’t been what he’d expected. It’s the first recorded instance of Sabbath making a mistake, with the possible exception of his ‘attempt’ on Scarlette in 1780.
At this point events become vague again, probably because it once more deals with the dream-world of the realm of beasts. The legend holds that the ship found itself sailing on an ocean of grey, and that dead ahead lay the harbour, its crumbling buildings leaning against the larger ruins further inland. From the ship, those on deck could see the skyline of the city of apes, bleached landmarks in the style of London, Paris, Rome and Vienna, falling into decay and into each other. The sky still perfect blue overhead.
If it seems odd – or convenient – that the city should have had a harbour, then bear in mind the Doctor’s suggestion that ‘the traveller takes part of his own place of residence with him’. Sabbath had brought the ocean as well as the ship: getting into the realm was never as hard as surviving it. As the warship ploughed through the grey murk towards dock, the Doctor is said to have looked up, to see the blazing black ball of the sun swivel in his direction, ‘an eye made out of pupils’.
‘Don’t look at it,’ Sabbath told him, while keeping his eyes fixed on the harbour. ‘Don’t give it the satisfaction.’
Strange, how so many descriptions speak of the eye-sun as if it were some form of god. There’s certainly a suggestion that the apes feared it. This, the texts seem to imply, is the great dark power under whose gaze everything