Doctor Who_ Wooden Heart - Martin Day [56]
The Doctor was running at breakneck speed down a bewildering succession of corridors. Jude wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep up with him. ‘Humans!’ he was exclaiming, still clearly irritated by what he had seen when the shadow creature had enveloped him. ‘They are amazing. Absolutely amazing! But, my god, they can be thick!’
‘What do you mean?’ said Jude, struggling to breathe, talk and run all at the same time.
‘Thinking they can do away with evil with the wave of a technological wand!’ he exclaimed, suddenly coming to a halt before a great, rounded door and waving what seemed, to Jude’s eyes at least, a technological magic wand in front of him. A panel set into the wall made a chirruping noise, and the door began to open. ‘Evil isn’t a disease you can eradicate just by messing with people’s minds,’ he continued, almost hopping from foot to foot like a child waiting to open an enormous wrapped gift. ‘And you can’t remove people’s bad memories and somehow think that’ll make everything hunky dory.’
He ducked through the doorway before it was fully open, and started running again. Jude noticed that there seemed to be fewer bodies in this part of the ‘ship’ – soon after the monster had attacked, they’d moved onto one of the ‘habitation levels’ and the signs of carnage had been all too apparent. The Doctor had tried to keep Jude from the worst of it, but even so both were much happier when they found their way into this section of the vessel, still gleaming and apparently new. ‘Better seals on the doors,’ the Doctor had explained absent-mindedly. ‘A door a day… keeps decay at bay,’ he’d added, nonsensically.
Nothing could disguise the fact that it was getting darker all the time – and, once or twice, Jude was sure there’d been something in her peripheral vision, lurking just out sight. The Doctor seemed attuned to the dwindling light, running faster and seeming to become yet more agitated with every passing moment. Jude kept trying to ask him questions, if only to slow him down a little. ‘But surely,’ she said, ‘whether you had a nice childhood, how your parents treat you… Doesn’t that change who you are?’
The Doctor beamed at Jude. He seemed pleased that she was able to follow what he was saying – and to engage with him. ‘Evil actions are the result of decisions,’ he was saying, forcefully. ‘Not environmental factors, not genetics. They have their place, of course, but… You can’t blame other people, other things, for what you do. Two children, brought up in similar circumstances, don’t end up as the same person! Your personality is the sum of everything that’s happened to you, yes – but also of every decision you’ve made.’
He stopped suddenly, the corridors forming a crossroads. ‘Talking of decisions… Which way?’
Jude shrugged.
‘Haven’t seen a map for a while,’ explained the Doctor. ‘I know it’s not far, but…’
‘That monster,’ said Jude, still turning everything over in her mind. ‘You said it’s made up of all the evil thoughts of all the prisoners who were here…’
The Doctor nodded. ‘Every thought, every instinct and desire…’
‘So what was left behind?’
‘Good question,’ said the Doctor. ‘After the treatment, were the prisoners truly human, were they capable of free will?’ He looked around, and for a moment Jude imagined herself back on the walkways that connected the cells, with their bodies and piles of grey ash. ‘Clearly not everything that’s happened here is a result of this shadow creature. Some of what we’ve seen… Well, let’s just say that the prisoners still had the capacity to choose to do wrong, to be selfish and violent when perhaps, had they joined together, sought refuge…’
‘The Dazai says to choose is to be human.’
The Doctor smiled. ‘Perhaps that’s it… Perhaps that’s what your entire world is.’
‘What?’ asked Jude.
‘A place where human beings – even specially created ones – can struggle with issues of choice, of morality, of free will… An arena, a theatre stage, a science lab, all rolled into one. But why? Who benefits?’